Why Are You So Sad? (Porter) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Porter is a gleefully odd stylist. It's hard to think of a young writer who captures disassociation so well.
John Freeman -Toronto Star


Porter's humorous insight into the human condition is a highbrow/lowbrow tightrope walk between philosophical quandary and human desire.
NPR


(Starred review.) The book toggles deftly between its narrator's bummer of a worldview and his riotous, biting snark, peppered throughout with dashes of surprisingly transcendent philosophies. Porter's is a smart, compact debut that, despite sometimes hitting a nerve when it's aiming for the funny bone, resonates on both tragic and comic levels.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) The only people who will be depressed are those who find themselves on the last page of Porter's novel and realize there's nothing more to read.
Shelf Awareness


An office drone uses absurdist surveys to measure the happiness of himself and his co-workers.... This exercise in satirizing the cookie-cutter lives of First-World suburbanites may prove taxing to many readers, especially those who crave a satisfying conclusion. The author pulls out a few tricks at the end,...[but] the finale falls flat, failing to lend our hero the sympathy he's intended to inspire.
Kirkus Reviews