The Fun We’ve Had by Michael J. Seidlinger Lazy Fascist Press, 2014 168 pages / $11.95 buy from Amazon

 

1. I want the cover of this book framed and hung up in my room.

2. Recognized and accepted that this novel was going to end in tragedy from the beginning.

3. They either brought a really shitty oar on this terrifying adventure, or that guy doesn’t know how to paddle. (It breaks within the first few pages.)

4. Life lesson from this novel: coffins don’t make good boats. (No shit.)

5. Imagined this book as one of the little “skits” in the film Heavy Metal with “Fade to Black” by Metallic playing in the background.

6. After realizing that Seidlinger was using the five stages of grief as a plot device, I immediately thought of a Robot Chicken skit where a giraffe gets stuck in a sand pit.

7. The Fun We’ve Had is an extreme form of marital counseling.

8. How the hell did these people get into this situation? (This can be taken as both a literal and metaphorical question.)

9. I want to know what ocean these people are sailing through—and don’t tell me it’s the “sea of life” because that’s bullshit and you know it.

10. Seidlinger doesn’t believe in long paragraphs. He wants to jab you with short one-liners that make you question everything.

11. Things I didn’t expect to be in this novel: jellyfish, ghosts, magic words appearing on the horizon, acid rain, body swapping, love, sharks, boiling water, etc.

12. Seidlinger doesn’t believe in vast amounts of dialogue.

13. The journey these characters go on is the exact opposite of fun.

14. The Fun We’ve Had is a metaphor for life.

15. The amount of times I’ve misread Seidlinger as “Salinger”is embarrassing.

16. Probably the most entertaining part of this book was the “Anger” section because I actually cared about the characters for a split moment.

17. Don’t know what’s worse—being eaten by sharks or having your skin melt off from acid rain.

18. While going back and forth between “His Turn” and “Her Turn” I wondered, “when is it going to be my turn?”

19. Life lesson from this novel: don’t voyage out to sea.

20. Life lesson from this novel: don’t get married.

21. The apathetic, detached narrator is trendy. I wondered if he was having any fun while telling me this story.

22. Seidlinger doesn’t believe in showing me—he believes in telling me.

23. The Fun We’ve Had is an existential crisis.

24. Contemplated nihilism after finishing this book.

25. Dying is the only way to know truth, or to have fun—I guess.

Tags: 25 Points, Lazy Fascist Press, Michael J. Seidlinger, The Fun We've Had