(25)Flatscreen by Adam Wilson

Flatscreen

by Adam Wilson

Publication Date: February 21, 2012

Pages: 336

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In Flatscreen, Eli Schwartz takes being a slacker to a whole new level.  He barely graduated high school and has been living in his mother's basement passing his day smoking pot and watching as much television as he can possibly stand.  His life is going nowhere fast.

And then he finds out that his mom is selling the house to former television star, Seymour Kahn and his days become just a little less boring.  Between the two of them , the depravity and debauchery is taken to a whole new level.  It takes a particularly raucous night involving a gunshot wound to shake the haze from Eli's drug addled brain. Maybe it is time he starts becoming more like his brother, Benjy.   Is it too little too late?

<./P>I have read other reviews of Flatscreen labeling it "hysterically funny", but I have to be honest and say that I did not laugh once.  I found Eli and his lack of motivation to be incredibly annoying.  I will say, slightly less so after the who getting shot thing, but still annoying.  I would say that both he and his mother are in a bit of a stupor after Eli's father left, but the extreme to which it goes, to which his parents let it go, is crazy.  If he were my kid I would have booted his ass out a long time ago. 

I really wanted to like Flatscreen. *sigh* Maybe I am just too old to really get the humor.  I was expecting it to be similar to Matthew Norman or Johnathon Tropper, but it was more along the lines of a mixture of  Jay and Silent Bob (major props to you if you know who they are) but not nearly as funny. There were a lot of movie references in the book and several times throughout the book I thought my younger brother (roughly Eli's age) would enjoy this book, but it was not my kind of book.  If anyone out there found it funny, please chime in and tell me why.  I really want to know what I missed.