Richard Yates
Tao Lin"Lin captures certain qualities of contemporary life better than many writers in part because he dispenses with so much that is expected of current fiction." - David Haglund, The London Review of Books
Richard Yates is named after real-life writer Richard Yates, but it has nothing to do with him. Instead, it tracks the rise and fall of an illicit affair between a very young writer and his even younger - in fact, under-aged - lover.
As the writer seeks to balance work and love, his young lover becomes ever more self-destructive in a play for his undivided attention. Lin's trademark minimalism takes on a new sharp-edged suspense here, zeroing in on a lacerating narrative.
"[Lin's] lean and often maniacal sentences propel the work forward with a slanted momentum. What first seems like a stock tale of romance gone sour evolves into a parable about the fickleness of human desire and the futility of detachment when it comes to love." - Time Out New York