Where The Hell Is Bill?

That's a Camper van Beethoven song that isn't very good, but it's catchy. It mostly consists of the line: "Where, where the hell is Bill?"

My point is this:

"You Remind Me of Me" -- ended badly. Very badly.

Here's something odd: all throughout the book, someone had drawn underlines and made various demarcations, as though to indicate key plot/character elements, themes, etc. I kept wondering, is someone reading this for a class? If so, why? Does Dan Chaon make his students read his books? Does he have a friend at some SF college?

Usually, in books I read with somebody's notes in them, the notes peter out quickly. Not here. In fact, the first time I get a better sense of the mysterious, tortured student is at the very end, where she (I'm presuming she based on handwriting style -- I could be wrong) adds a coda:

"Characters with a trailer trash mentality, absolutely clueless, screwed up and insuring continuity by screwing up the lives of their hapless offspring. Life is a meaningless dead end, a hell on earth. Author Chaon should add an R to his surname and call himself Charon."

There are so many interesting things about that note.

The author seems literate -- how many people use the adjective 'hapless'? She also uses the phrase 'trailer trash,' which is degrading. Then there's the Charon thing.

I'll admit it, I had to look up Charon. Turns out the note-writer was more clever with her literary allusions than Chaon. That makes me smile.

But it also brings me to that Michelangelo picture of Charon. I know Big Mike is supposed to be a great artist, but aren't the proportions all off? Look at his head in relation to his arm. And what the hell is going on with his abdomen?!

The picture weirds me out.