This was one of my favorite reads of the year so far. Okay, I've only read 17 books this year (and most of them were music theory books), but still. This book is amazing.
It's a book about that quiet desperation Pink Floyd talks about, but here it's not just an English way, it's an Universal one. And I know Kirk is an American, but I can guarantee him that, at least here in Brazil, those feelings are very much real.
I'm not going over the plot of the book (thank you Christoph Paul for pointing out to me that people want to read opinions, not the back cover description, on reviews), I'm just going to say that the plot is very much an extension of the characters struggles with the eternal Void the protagonist feels about life in general. He's overweight, middle-aged, in a loveless marriage, with an useless job, and with superficial relationships with his friends. He is truly ready to die empty.
The great way is how the actual plot develops from the feelings and needs of the protagonist. It stretches out like tentacles from the mind of Lance, the sad sack whose words we are reading. When things start to move, we almost feel like every decision Lance makes is by flipping an invisible coin in his head and using it to make a move. This shows the complete removal of the character from any sort of meaningful existance, and it conveys his desperation perfectly.
Kirk Jones says that some people told him that they felt the ending was rushed. Weird, I thought the exact opposite, I thought it went on for longer than it could have. And the fact that it went longer than I expected to fits so perfectly with how I perceived the themes of this book. I think that, while reading this, I was also ready to die empty. More than that, I couldn't wait to.
Buy DIE EMPTY here
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