Apathy and Other Small Victories

Apathy and Other Small Victories ($12) is the debut novel of Paul Neilan, an author that we'll be keeping on our watch list. We've been enjoying dark comedy pulp novels lately (such as Company) and Apathy fit right into the groove. We started laughing at page one and the fun didn't stop until about 6 hours later when it was over. The book's narrator gives you a brief look at his life, which includes being a temp at a large insurance company and stealing large numbers of salt shakers on a nightly basis. And it goes downhill from there. If you're offended by anything, you should probably suck down a few shots before digging in. We're not, but we also don't pass up any excuse to get wasted.