You Are A Little Bit Happier Than I Am

you are a little bit happier than i am

ReviewI accidentally read Tao Lin's table of contents as a poem; it's a hilarious poem and it hooked me right away. This is also how his poems work--they are aggressively mundane. But behind that aggressive pose those poems are real and free. And really funny. There's a confidence in them that not only undercuts their surface pose, but makes that pose something meaningful. --Matthew Rohrer, author of A Green Lightyou are a little bit happier than i am has the energy and oddness of a thing that is rising very fast that is not supposed to be rising, or that is supposed to be rising but for a moment you forget that, and for a moment this ordinary thing looks very strange and exciting--sun, ball, airplane, tree. That is Tao Lin's poemish pieces. --Deb Olin Unferth, author of RevolutionPoetry. Asian American Studies. Winner of the 2005 December Prize. Reading Tao Lin is like looking the wrong way down Frank O'Hara's ear trumpet at a 21st century Mayakovski IM-ing Lili Brik. This book is fun, smart, manic and ecstatic; it puts on a clean shirt before it loads the gun. "YOU ARE A LITTLE BIT HAPPIER THAN I AM has the energy and oddness of a thing that is rising very fast that is not supposed to be rising, or that is supposed to be rising but for a moment you forget that, and for a moment this ordinary thing looks very strange and exciting"--Deb Olin Unferth. Tao Lin is 23 and lives in New York City. Visit his blog reader-of-depressing-books.blogspot.com.From the PublisherReading Tao Lin's poetry is like looking the wrong way down Frank O'Hara's ear trumpet at a 21st century Mayakovsky IM-ing Lili Brik. It's fun, smart, manic and ecstatic; it puts on a clean shirt before it loads the gun.About the AuthorTao Lin was born in 1983. This is his first book.