03/08/2021
Serano (Whipping Girl) drenches readers in satire and absurdity in this “faux novel” written from the perspective of Kat Cataclysm, a wannabe author who decides to jumpstart her career by introducing more conflict into her life -- in the form of dating 99 men named Eric and novelizing the experience. With light chapters that recount Kat’s dates and failed relationships, the tone akin to conversational journal entries or letters to friends, Serano delves into issues of city life and contemporary romance, such as how money destroyed San Francisco or an analysis of Kat’s annoyance when straight men assume bi women will want a threesome
The fourth wall is not so much broken as dispensed with altogether, with the various vignettes presented as if the narrator has stepped outside the story to present to readers a slideshow on particular incidents, down to dialog presented in a script format and dry run downs of quirky dates: “He immediately started complaining about how the place was a bit too ‘divey’ for his tastes, even though there was no piss all over the bathroom floors.” This clinical approach, while comic, creates distance not only between Kat and the events she’s recounting, but between readers and the story’s emotional elements, as do Serrano’s leaps into metafictional comedy— Kat describes a room full of child actors stabbing her date to death to prove that she’s the all-powerful narrator.
The appeal, here, is in Kat’s noxious encounters with Erics and how she heroically mines them for witty considerations of the absurdities women face when dating -- and even occasional catharsis. Still, readers looking for more traditional emotional release, though, will face frustration. Even Kat’s breakup with her longtime non-monogamous partner, which she describes as causing “all the feelings,” is related in dispassionate and jokey tones. In the end, 99 Erics fully embraces the ludicrous and rides it into the sunset.
Takeaway: This meta-fictional satire in which a woman dates 99 Erics will please readers who favor pointed absurdity over emotion
Great for fans of: Daniel M. Lavery’s Something That May Shock And Discredit You, Spike Milligan’s Puckoon.
Production grades Cover: C Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: B Marketing copy: B
99 Erics is the winner of the Publishing Triangle's 2021 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and an Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) 2021 silver medalist in LGBT+ Fiction
"I've been a fan of Julia's forever, and this book has all of her warmth and humor and insight, but also tons of surreal silliness."
--Charlie Jane Anders, author of The City in the Middle of the Night and All the Birds in the Sky
"Whip-smart, drop-dead-funny metafiction by Oakland trans-bi activist writer Julia Serano."
--Jan Steckel, author of Like Flesh Covers Bone and The Horizontal Poet
"99 Erics by Julia Serano is fantastic and one of the most fun reading experiences I've had in recent memory!"
--J.E. Sumerau, author of Via Chicago and America through Transgender Eyes
"This meta-fictional satire in which a woman dates 99 Erics will please readers who favor pointed absurdity over emotion. Great for fans of: Daniel M. Lavery's Something That May Shock And Discredit You, Spike Milligan's Puckoon."
--BookLife
"The result is a lovable composite of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) and a less murder-y version of Marvel's Deadpool, using absurdism and humor to break down the fourth wall and the very idea of "normal," with all its silly little boxes and prejudices . . . Knocks down literary conventions, sexual stereotypes, the fourth wall, and more in enthusiastic defense of the weird."
--Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-02-12
Serano satirically tackles gender norms, linguistics, hipsters, and more as her fictional character writes a book about dating 99 different people—all named Eric.
Kat Cataclysm is an absurdist short story writer and self-identified “weirdo”—an out bisexual, nonmonogamous “ethical slut” with an interest in baseball, linguistics, and delicious India pale ales. She’s also fictional, a not quite nom de guerre (but still a warrior!) of author Serano, and has a long-held desire to be a novelist despite her self-confessed title of “queen of conflict avoidance,” an unfortunate trait when most novels thrive on conflict. So instead, she commits to a “faux novel” about her “her supposed experiences dating 99 different people named Eric” as she seeks to subvert other conventions of fiction as well, vowing to never overcome adversity or grow as a person along the way. Kat uses these Erics as opportunities to draw out poignant points about gentrification, internalized homophobia, bisexual stereotypes, and the disposability of the gig economy while also obsessing over penis-chewing banana slugs or dealing with the fallout of an internet listicle on the common cold she authored literally going viral. When she sics a roomful of zombified children on a tiresome screenwriter, it’s clear she’s aware of her role as omniscient narrator. Serano has written about gender identity and feminism in her nonfiction books Whipping Girl (2007) and Excluded (2013); she explores many of the same ideas in her debut work of fiction. The writing is conversational in style, and though Kat claims to be uninterested in banal descriptions, the scene-setting in various California locales works well. Kat recalls the Manic Pixie Dream Girls so often used in male-oriented stories, but she’s decidedly more warts and all in her presentation, almost too quirky to function, and enthusiastic about her role as ruler of all the Erics. The result is a lovable composite of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) and a less murder-y version of Marvel’s Deadpool, using absurdism and humor to break down the fourth wall and the very idea of “normal,” with all its silly little boxes and prejudices. If that makes the book sound serious, it isn’t—and that might be the most effective way it makes its readers think about identity.
Knocks down literary conventions, sexual stereotypes, the fourth wall, and more in enthusiastic defense of the weird.
