The Average American Male (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
A lot of people seem to wholly miss the point of this book, both those (few as they may be here on Goodreads) who like and those who are either indifferent or find it offensive/misogynistic/obnoxious/pornographic/juvenile...etc.Now I'll admit that this book is highly up for interpretation, and perhaps I'm the one that's misinterpreting what the book is saying, but I don't think I am, at least not wholly. Here's why: this book speaks directly to me, and it doesn't to most people. Despite the title, the narrator is certainly not "average". He is quite specific and his story and its moral are targeted at someone quite specific. I may be ashamed of the fact that I identify with this character, but I do. The difference between he and I, however, is in the choices we make beyond the inherency.Now let me start off by saying that no, I am not an obnoxious jughead frat brother. In fact, I'm an ardent feminist, so when labels like "misogynistic" are hurled at this, I tread carefully in buying and reading it. However, I don't find this book misogynistic. Yes, it shows hatred towards individual women, but it doesn't level that hatred towards women as a whole. I understand how that criticism can be applied, and to an extent one could say it's valid, but to the same extent it can be said that claims of "a strikeback against militant feminism" are also valid. I wouldn't give much weight to either.*SPOILER ALERT*If you want to understand this novel the way it directly speaks to me, and people like myself, re-read the epic breakup scene on Page 116:"I want to fuck twice a day minimum or at least get my dick sucked. I want you to swallow. I want to butt-fuck you every once in a while and I want you to like it.... I want you to never want to get married or have children."Sounds like your typical obnoxious, 2-dimensional frat boy, right? I've cut out parts of his rant and only posted the relevant portions: Anal, children, marriage. This is me. I am childfree. I had a vasectomy earlier this year to ensure that I'll never have children I don't want. I'm a self-described marriage abolitionist. The institution of marriage I find to be corrupt, counter-romantic, theocratic, too government intrusive into private affairs of the heart, commercialized, and yes, sexist. That doesn't mean I don't want love and companionship and commitment - as the narrator demonstrated he wants when he actively seeks these things with Alyna - it just means I don't want the authoritarianism, sexism and bankrupcy of the institution. And anal sex. I am not satisfied by the vagina. It's foreplay. It's mundanity is overwhelming. It is not satisfactory. A very good friend of mine once said "I'm not a cheater, but I understand why men cheat; it's because they're not getting what they need at home." Not to sound cliche, but, I have needs.But the moral of this story isn't that all men are cheaters. The moral of this story is to put your foot down and demand your needs be satisfied lest you find someone else that will. Re-read the book; he never communicates anything with either Casey or Alyna. When Alyna says she doesn't want marriage or kids, he's so stunned he's silent and just kind of nods along like she'd commented on the weather. When she says how much she loved anal, he just plays it cool, not saying much. Indeed, when she asked him if he'd ever done anal before, he lied and said he hadn't. Communicate with your partner. Let her in, show her who you really are. She's not a mind reader, and she's not going to discern these things from your stoic silence. Quit trying to be average and acknowledge and express your uniqueness.Indeed, this character could have been me, to a tee, had I not realized this years ago. I had the most the ethereal of hopes that I'd find a woman like Alyna, who doesn't want kids or marriage, and I had argument after argument, skeezy scheme after skeezy scheme, to manipulate a woman into anal. I just have too much respect for women to manipulate them like that. I've learned in life and I've learned from this book just to communicate, and be prepared to cut your losses if she's not the right woman. I can't conspire to align her sexuality with mine, nor can I her plans for her destiny. It's most honest, and most effective, to simply state your needs up front and move on if need be.
This novel is a fascinating and clearly controversial broadside to political correctness and the cherished illusions so many people hold regarding the difference between the sexes. The book follows the life of a nameless protagonist as he has sex with several different women in a variety of ways, goes through relationship issues with girlfriends, and discusses the vagaries of sex with a number of friends, both gay and straight.The most interesting aspect of the book is the main character's remorseless obsession with sex. He apparently views women only in terms of their ability to give him the thing that he wants, the thing that he must have over and over again and will do almost anything to get. All other aspects of the relationships he has with women are simply stumbling blocks, hoops to jump through, in order to secure the final goal. And once this goal is complete, the chase begins again.This all may seem very simple, but a deeper look reveals that there is more complexity at the heart of the book than the descriptions of pornography, mental images, and sexual acts. There is a deliberate stripping down of a character taking place here, and it is done in a way that illustrates the subtle power of the best fiction. We know, for example, that the main character has a job that he must go to. It is never mentioned, except briefly in passing. We know that he had a childhood and parents who are still present in his life. Ditto for them. We know that he has a name. But it is never revealed.In short, by purposefully omitting these important factors that are a part of anyone's life, the book reveals itself to be a story of only one facet of a man's life, not of the man altogether. It is as if a story were to be written from the point of view of greed only, or of jealousy, or of anger, or of fear.By extricating this one important aspect of the typical male thought process, the author allows us to examine it in detail, like a bug beneath a magnifying glass. From the point of view of how men are supposed to feel these days, many people will view it as completely disgusting. However, leaving aside how we should feel and think about the behavior described, and just examining the behavior itself, a startling purity is revealed, as well as a kind of innocence. The main character seems to be willing to allow almost anything to happen to him, as long as sex comes out in the end. In this way he allows himself to be manipulated, and is somehow forever coming out unhappy. This is because other people, or at least the women in the book, are aware of that power, and they use it. He is almost like some kind of simplistic animal, neither good nor bad, but just desiring one thing which everyone is only willing to give to him in exchange for the semblance (not the real thing, mind you) of actually caring about them in some deep emotional way. When you compare the purity and simplicity of the main character's desire with the subterfuge employed by the other characters, it really makes you question who, exactly, is the "better" person. If there is such a thing.Anyone who wants to think about this book seriously would do well to read Tolstoy's "The Kreutzer Sonata." That short story (actually more of a philosophical treatise) describes what, in Tolstoy's view, lies at the heart of so much of the trouble in marriages. In short, Tolstoy describes us as living in a kind of triplicate deception carried out simultaneously by men, by women, and by society as a whole. Until we fully face the differences between men and women, and actually do something about them, Tolstoy seems to say, the two will perpetually be at war. Whether this war is obvious, or being waged beneath the surface, is a question that different ages must answer differently. But "The Average American Male" brings some parts of at least one side of the argument to the forefront, and for that reason it deserves to be read, and discussed, by anyone interested in this issue.
What do You think about The Average American Male (2007)?
Holy ass.This book doesn't even deserve the time I'm about to take to talk about how awful it is. Does this guy really think we've already forgotten about American Psycho after just sixteen years? Replace the violence with more sex, then rewrite the entire thing with no sense of character, voice, description, vocabulary, consistency, intellect, emotion, subtlety, etc., and you get this pathetic excuse for a novel. Christ, the titles are even similar. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Chad Kultgen is really Bret Easton Ellis, considering the fact that Ellis' last two books were horrible, and Kultgen's photo is mysteriously absent on the web. I smell some serious bullshit here. Though, maybe it's this sentence I smell:"When Casey has her period she refuses to suck my dick and she's very uncomfortable with fucking." I found this by turning to a page at random and typing the first thing I saw. Honestly. Any page, I guarantee, will yield similar results. Wait though, here's something awesome: The chapters (whose titles come basically straight out of American Psycho) are numbered, but sometimes Kultgen doesn't give the chapter an actual number, he just calls it "some chapter." Hilarious! So nihilistic! So existential! So twentysomething blasé! It's so funny, in fact, that the author drops this pitiful little punchline after just two chapters, then again three chapters later, then again three-ish chapters after that, and so on until the book finally comes to its pathetic conclusion. In which, by the way, the protagonist fails to change in any way or come to any sort of revelation about what an asshole he is, but instead remains absolutely static. Every character in here is horribly clichéd and boring and poorly formed and, yes, average. All this unnamed guy does is jerk off to everything, usually like three times a day, and think about/have sex. He plays video games for four hours at a time and doesn't appear to have any responsibility or gainful employment until he mentions 95% of the way through that he "decides to take a long lunch break at work." WTF? In the second to last chapter the tense switches to the past for two sentences, then goes back to present. WTF? The book is horrible horrible horrible. WTF? Seriously, WTF. Apparently the book wasn't selling well until the pub spent $2500 on these little YouTube shorts, which are appropriately shitty, and now the thing's selling like crazy. http://www.averageamericanmale.com. NB there's tons of sex in this book, though American Psycho is far more "offensive" in terms of subject matter, and what I'm objecting to here is the way the book's written, the half-assed characters and lazy throw-away phrases, not the subject matter. If I wanted to hear about a dude "shooting probably the biggest load of [his] entire life up [some girl's] ass" every six pages I'd, well, be an idiot.If I find out that you've read this book and liked it I'm going to come over and punch you. Then we'll discuss it like human beings, though, because seriously I'd be curious to hear what you had to say.
—Paul
The only reason I managed to finish this book it because I thought that there had to be some kind of turning point in the book. Something that makes you think, "Ah ha, that's why this book is this obscene for 250 or so pages." No. Nothing of this nature whatsoever. Just the "memoirs" of the typical American male. No lessons learned. No change of heart. Just a guy, being an asshole, which is all us guys are good at doing. Lessons from the book (ones that I have seen before in other books, albeit in less offensive manners):1.) Most men are assholes and think about sex 95% of the time;2.) Men are visually stimulated, whereas women are typically more stimulated by touch;3.) Relationships for men are typically all the same -- rooted firmly in the physical instead of the emotional -- and a lack of physicality leads to the end of a relationship in the eyes of men;4.) Men need to give up the ideas of a "perfect woman" and settle for what they have. The "perfect woman" who is a mirror image of himself is a rare find for any man.Ok, take 2 minutes to read this review and spare yourself the 3 hours it takes to read the book. On the bright side, it is a very easy read (it only took about an hour and a half to read the last 150 pgs) and some of the stuff in the book is so obscene/out there that, at times, I found myself rereading things just to double check that the author had actually written what I had just read.
—Zach
Average American Male sucks. It's okay to be shallow and stupid. God knows I am. But don't hold your shit out for other people to admire like a monkey at the zoo. It's not that my shit doesn't stink. Everybody's does. I don't want the smell of yours in addition to mine.AAM is such an spineless novel because the protagonist refuses to be ethical about his decisions. Any asshole who reads it and says "What a great novel! That's exactly how I feel!" Is a twat. Hate your girlfriend? Break up with her. Want variety in your sex life? Discuss it with your partners.If you're a fuckwit, don't roll in it. Act like you have thumbs. Try to figure out how to be better.
—Lawrence Kapture
