Written by Steve Liddell (I think…)
“What do you want me to do?” I asked, knowing there was no real chance that I would be given a relaxing job.
“Go outside and sweep the parking lot. Just f-cking do something, instead of standing beside me with your head up your ass!”
That doesn’t even make sense.
When I am King you will be stoned and beheaded.
This is the work life of a young man named Lee – we never learn his last name (or anyone else’s for that matter) – who is just about reaching the end of his rope. His life seems to have become a dull, boring series of days that conform endlessly to each other. His life has transformed into routine: the kind of routine that kills the soul. But how does he escape it?
(DIGRESSION TO SELF #1: London…why can’t I live in London? Why do I have to stay here in the tundra that is Canada? Why does that gorgeous, beautiful city have to be so bloody expensive for human habitation? I could write a book like this if I lived in London…SIGH)
Honest lee is the story of how this happens, and it’s by far one of the most intelligent and witty books I’ve read in a long while. It could be compared to the ouvre of Douglas Coupland, with one extra bit of difference: the entire book is marketed as a first-time blog-cum-novel, complete with unprofessional switches in typeface…doodles and drawings…weird mental digressions…and ridiculous self-promotion that is cute because of its naivete. In fact, I’m not even sure the reviews on the back cover are real or imaginary…but they look and sound SO real…just like the book itself. It helps that the sudden switches to internal monologues, screenplay format and footnote-style extras only help to accentuate the discordant mental processes we all suffer through. Though we don’t usually get the comedy value in real life that is present in Honest lee. 
SO UTTERLY REAL is probably the best tribute one can offer this book. The entire story is full of painfully true conversations between people at restaurants, bars, the workplace…the kind of conversations all sorts of people have every day of their lives, sub-consciously or otherwise…and the kind of mental commentary we all participate in: how the hell did we get stuck in a life like this? How do we change it? How can I be different today? Why do we alwasy eat & drink at the same retarded places? Is there anything left in my life that is exciting? Is that girl checking me out, or picking her nose? Am I drooling…?
(DIGRESSION TO SELF #2: Reality is very over-rated. It’s like last night’s pathetic press-conference to replace the actual Golden Globe awards ceremony…take away the flash, the pizzazz, the eye-candy, the musical numbers…and the dull, prosaic process of announcing winners would put a frenzied cloud of killer bees to sleep. Who wants reality…)
It’s method-to-madness randomness that blazes off the page with honesty and humour…and immediately gains the sympathy of the reader. Lee is repressed, unsure of himself, craving ambition, but fearful of failure and condemnation to an eternity in the life he already has…how do you solve it?
Honest lee is about trying to be honest with yourself…your peer group…your employer…the girl you’re in love in…and how frightening, fascinating, and hilarious it can be. It will leave you shaking your head, because it’s astonishing just how well this book “gets” people…particularly the 25 to 35 years olds trapped in an endless cycle of dullness and repression. It’s a book that slowly forces people to crawl out of their shells and DO SOMETHING! Not a bad lesson…and hilariously told.
I hope that you tell someone to go and buy this book because you really enjoyed it. I hope that I have been able to make you laugh a little. I hope that you will find yourself saying things out loud that you would have normally kept to yourself. I hope that you remove all the bad people from your life and start building up a solid foundation of people to be around.
AND…
I would also love to team up with any adventurous unknown director who would love to make an interesting movie…providing they have money.
PLEASE NOTE: aside from finding some copies at Chapters, you can only buy the book online HERE…surprisingly. Trust me…it’s worth getting…in spite of its wierd availability…
