For those of you who are interested, and have seen the movie (cuz it gives away the plot twist), check out this review by a guy who writes on Ebert's web page: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050304/EDITOR/50304001
He articulates my complaints exactly, in a more eloquent way than I could have put it.
And, I don't know if any of you have read this, but today on the black table website there is a little blurb review about this article that was in the most recent New Yorker that was insufferable, and this review bags on it:
"THE BEARDS" BY JONATHAN LETHAM: Did anyone else read this long, deep gaze into the very fibers of Jonathan Lethem's navel lint and wonder why on earth it was getting published in The New Yorker, much less in a forthcoming book? Dear Jonathan L: Next time you want to take a boring-ass meander down memory lane, giving shout-outs to your formative literary, musical and cinematic influences along the way (all the while affecting faux-shame at how pretentious you, um, used to be), just write about it on your blog like everyone else does. OK?? Jonathan Lethem's self-aggrandizing ways -- F. Jonathan Safran Foer's completely unrelated, yet similarly obnoxious self-aggrandizing ways -- F. Caring way too much about literary Jonathans' self-aggrandizing ways -- F squared -- Emily Gould
Did you notice the props Updike gave Lethem in this week's New Yorker (the one after "The Beards")? I say Updike is behind the publication of "The Beards".
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