[alert variation=”alert-info”]Publisher: Philip Gaber
Formats: Paperback
Purchase: Powell’s | Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble | iBooks[/alert]
Epic Sloth: Tales of the Long Crawl by Philip Gaber is a combination of short stories and poems that tell the story of a young man searching for answers – answers about his own identity, about his relationships with others and about the deeper meaning of the “long crawl” that we all must take through life. With over 70 pieces to choose from, there is something for everyone. Gaber writes like the guy next door and his stories could easily be our stories. His conversational tone is approachable, wry, funny and honest. There are sad pieces too but this is just as much a part of life as the positive experiences. Gaber’s chapter titles are quite creative and clever. It sometimes takes a moment to figure out the connection between the title and the story but there is always a deeper meaning. Often the characters are unnamed and switch from story to story and this sometimes makes it difficult to figure out what is going on. But the narrator remains a constant and it is his “long crawl” that we come to better understand by the end of the book. Many readers will identify with Gaber’s story “i’ve seen it ruin many a man.” It basically features one dense, loaded paragraph that almost reads like spoken word poetry. Gaber artfully sums up the dilemma that plagues many twenty and thirty-somethings as they make the transition into adulthood, a life change that often elicits the question, “What now?”
How does a man find his way? It is different for us all, but we can all certainly gain insight from Gaber’s comments on life’s ironic and mundane moments, the aging process, the ins and outs of romantic relationships, fate, the ties that bind people together, the woes of the workplace and the ups and downs that define the “long crawl.”
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