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Indecision (2005)

por Benjamin Kunkel

MiembrosReseñasPopularidadValoración promediaMenciones
8562425,280 (3.05)10
Benjamin Kunkel's brilliantly comic debut novel concerns one of the central maladies of our time-a pathological indecision that turns abundance into an affliction and opportunity into a curse.Dwight B. Wilmerding is only twenty-eight, but he's having a midlife crisis. Of course, living a dissolute, dorm like existence in a tiny apartment and working in tech support at the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are not especially conducive to wisdom. And a few sessions of psychoanalysis conducted by his sister have distinctly failed to help with his biggest problem: a chronic inability to make up his mind. Encouraged by one of his roommates to try an experimental pharmaceutical meant to banish indecision, Dwight jumps at the chance (not without some meditation on the hazards of jumping) and swallows the first fateful pill. And when all at once he is "pfired" from Pfizer and invited to a rendezvous in exotic Ecuador with the girl of his long-ago prep-school dreams, he finds himself on the brink of a new life. The trouble-well, one of the troubles-is that Dwight can't decide if the pills are working. Deep in the jungles of the Amazon, in the foreign country of a changed outlook, his would-be romantic escape becomes a hilarious journey into unbidden responsibility and unwelcome knowledge.How to affirm happiness without living in constant denial of the ways of the world? How to commit, and to what? At once funny and poignant, gentle and outrageous, finely intelligent and proudly silly, Indecision rings with a voice of great energy and originality, while its deeper inquiries reflect the concerns and style of a generation."Here's what Indecision gives you: sustained social and intellectual comedy, possibly the last but certainly the funniest Superfluous Man in modern literature, drive-by satire, plus detailed set-piece send-ups of Young Adult colgrads at work and play. The mockery ishumane. The tale of Dwight Wilmerding is told with style and care. And there's a surprising ending. Benjamin Kunkel, welcome!"-Norman Rush, author of Mating… (más)
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» Ver también 10 menciones

Inglés (21)  Francés (1)  Holandés (1)  Noruego (1)  Todos los idiomas (24)
Mostrando 1-5 de 24 (siguiente | mostrar todos)
It's funny reading a book about the whiniest generation, particularly when you belong to it. I really liked this book because it reflected back at me a lot of my own worst qualities, which is why I read these kinds of books. To, you know, remind myself of what I'm constantly in danger of being like (or, to be honest, what I'm like a lot of the time).

In fairness, I read this book during the roughest part of the quarter--a time of year when I shouldn't even be reading novels because I have so much work to catch up on because I've spent too much of the early part of the quarter reading novels instead of doing work.

So what are these "worst qualities" I mentioned in the first paragraph? I don't want to use adjectives, so I'll just say it was kind of like what I was like during and post-Namibia. That's probably not helpful, so I'll use a phrase Nathan and Libby should remember from post-modern poetry: THINKY DEATH!

And here's the opposite of thinky death: LIVE TO LIVE!

P.S. This review is so long and stupid because I should be writing my final paper for the quarter right now. ( )
  LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |
> Indécision, de Benjamin KUNKEL (Belfond, 360 p.)
Se reporter au compte rendu de P. D.
In: (2007). Compte rendu de [Nouveautés]. Entre les lignes, 3 (2), p. 45… ; (en ligne),
URL : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/10578ac
Aboulie. Le dictionnaire nous informe qu’il s'agit d'un trouble mental caractérisé par une diminution de la volonté. C’est le mal dont souffre notre héros, Dwight Wilmerding, un adolescent attardé qui cherche désespérément son « terrain d'action ». Il croit bien y arriver quand il fait l'expérience d’un nouveau médicament, l'Abulinix (contre l'aboulie), qui l'envoie aussitôt en Équateur, sur l’invitation de Natasha, une ex-collègue de classe. Son apathie sera bientôt chose du passé quand, abandonné par celle-ci au lendemain de son arrivée, il découvrira les charmes de sa coloc, Brigid (qui n'est pas sans rappeler les charmes de la sœur de notre héros), avec laquelle il s’enfoncera dans la jungle amazonienne (où il y aura beaucoup à débroussailler). La véritable histoire (qui se résume à une quête d'identité, à la faveur de nombreux flash-back) débute alors... Jay Mclnerney (l’icône littéraire des années 80) a fait de Kunkel la nouvelle révélation du jour. Une chose est sûre : pour un premier roman, Indécision est une œuvre parfaitement maîtrisée (la prise d’ecstasy, la veille d’un certain 11 septembre, est une pièce d'anthologie), souvent drôle, et réellement à l’image de la génération des trente ans, davantage désabusée, cynique et un peu amorale qu’aboulique, et où les plaisirs faciles l'emportent sur les idées et les raisons d’agir. Belfond, 360 p.
—P. D. ( )
  Joop-le-philosophe | Jan 14, 2019 |
Odd thing happend: I have apparently read this book, and not that long ago (I know, because I have made notes in the back which is something I only started doing in the last couple of years) - but then I went and forgot I have read it - I have just completely ERASED the memory of it. This cannot be good, I thought, while re-reading it, and I was right. Somehow I could not muster enough interest for it. The three stars I give because of the quotes I have noted the first time around, which are quite clever, really, and which tell me a little aboutt Kunkel. Here is my favourite, it is from the closing of the book (pg. 270) and I probably really like it right now because I have just returned from a short, but very intensive road trip with a large itinerary:

Ever since I was a kid it had always impressed me how through the narrowing operations of travel, and from out of so many possible destinations, places of such incredible specificity will realize themselves right in front of you.

P. 45 Yet I felt xcused in this by our whole collective ownership of the thing, and simply by the nature if Sunday as that recurrent day whose tremendous potential seems much more enjoyable than any actual use of it could be. ( )
  flydodofly | Aug 23, 2014 |
I did laugh several times reading this, which is uncommon for me. I felt like I really got the joke Kunkel was making about the self-absorption we can participate in as North Americans, as well as his mockery of our "raised consciousness". And yet, I didn't think the author was unnecessarily cruel. ( )
  allison.sivak | Jun 29, 2011 |
Helemaal iets anders is dan weer Besluitloosheid (Benjamin Kunkel), ook een boek dat ik gewoon op de kaft meegenomen heb en omdat er stond dat de schrijver vergeleken kon worden met Jonathan Foer. Geen idee of dat waar is, maar het is gewoon een grappig en zeer onderhoudend boek. Het gaat over een jongeman in New York die helemaal niet weet wat met z'n leven te doen en geen enkel besluit kan nemen over niets of niemand en op die wijze maar wat aanmoddert. Hij is filosoof en dat maakt er zijn leven niet makkelijker op. Uiteindelijk stelt zijn vriend hem voor om een experimenteel medicament tegen die besluitloosheid te nemen, al weet niemand of het werkt en vanaf wanneer het werkt. Grappig en leest als een vaart ! ( )
  dewereldvankaat | Apr 5, 2010 |
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Benjamin Kunkel's brilliantly comic debut novel concerns one of the central maladies of our time-a pathological indecision that turns abundance into an affliction and opportunity into a curse.Dwight B. Wilmerding is only twenty-eight, but he's having a midlife crisis. Of course, living a dissolute, dorm like existence in a tiny apartment and working in tech support at the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer are not especially conducive to wisdom. And a few sessions of psychoanalysis conducted by his sister have distinctly failed to help with his biggest problem: a chronic inability to make up his mind. Encouraged by one of his roommates to try an experimental pharmaceutical meant to banish indecision, Dwight jumps at the chance (not without some meditation on the hazards of jumping) and swallows the first fateful pill. And when all at once he is "pfired" from Pfizer and invited to a rendezvous in exotic Ecuador with the girl of his long-ago prep-school dreams, he finds himself on the brink of a new life. The trouble-well, one of the troubles-is that Dwight can't decide if the pills are working. Deep in the jungles of the Amazon, in the foreign country of a changed outlook, his would-be romantic escape becomes a hilarious journey into unbidden responsibility and unwelcome knowledge.How to affirm happiness without living in constant denial of the ways of the world? How to commit, and to what? At once funny and poignant, gentle and outrageous, finely intelligent and proudly silly, Indecision rings with a voice of great energy and originality, while its deeper inquiries reflect the concerns and style of a generation."Here's what Indecision gives you: sustained social and intellectual comedy, possibly the last but certainly the funniest Superfluous Man in modern literature, drive-by satire, plus detailed set-piece send-ups of Young Adult colgrads at work and play. The mockery ishumane. The tale of Dwight Wilmerding is told with style and care. And there's a surprising ending. Benjamin Kunkel, welcome!"-Norman Rush, author of Mating

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