Shoplifting from American Apparel

Book 0: The Contemporary Art of the Novella

by Tao Lin

Genres: Coming of Age; Literary Fiction

Synopsis

“Tao's writing … has the force of the real."—Ben Lerner, author of The Topeka School
 
This autobiographical novella is described by the author as “a shoplifting book about vague relationships,” and “an ultimately life-affirming book about how the unidirectional nature of time renders everything beautiful and sad."

From VIP rooms in hip New York City clubs to central booking in Chinatown, from New York University’s Bobst Library to a bus in someone’s backyard in a Floridian college town, from Bret Easton Ellis to Lorrie Moore, and from Moby to Schumann, Shoplifting from American Apparel explores class, culture, and the arts in all their American forms through the funny, journalistic, and existentially-minded narrative of someone trying to both “not be a bad person” and “find some kind of happiness or something.”

Release date: December 29, 2010

Publisher: Melville House

Print pages: 112