The Mezzanine is by far the most unusual book I’ve read. On one hand, the writing was impeccable. The Mezzanine is narrated by an office worker whom we learn very little about. The only time his name (Howie) even came up was when someone else greeted him in the washroom. This is because Baker writes the story in such a way that the reader is essentially listening to the stream of consciousness of the protagonist over the course of his lunch break. My reaction after reading the first few pages was to assume that either the character (or the actual author himself) is high on marijuana, since he was making such arbitrary observations about the most mundane things. But as I continued reading, I came across some much more interesting observations. For example, the protagonist points out that each time you come across a colleague/classmate that you know but never really introduced yourself to, the interaction becomes more awkward. The Mezzanine was littered with these “hidden gems” of observations that are fundamentally true that I gave no conscious thought to, or random intrusive thoughts that I would never say aloud for fear of being the only one with such an opinion.
On the other hand, what the fuck did I just read? It was just some very descriptive account of some random dude’s lunch hour, occasionally interrupted by one fleeting thought after another. Page after page, I read about the protagonist describe his opinion on different brands of shampoos, explain the pressures of trying to urinate when someone is next to you, and debate whether walking or tying one’s shoes is a larger wear on the shoelaces. If there was some hidden profound meaning, I definitely missed it.
I guess my overall takeaway from this book is that even though the world may be becoming increasingly polarized, humans are much more like each other than we give credit for. Realizing that everyone at one point has “[reached] a top step but [thought] there was another step there, and [stamped] down on the landing,” or was too impatient to fully dry their hands with a hand dryer and instead dried them by wiping them against their pants, serves as a nice reminder that there are 8 billion of us on this amazing ball of water and rocks, all deserving of our love, attention, and respect.
IRL Update (02/19/2023): I greatly overestimated the length of this publication (definitely could have finished it in 2 or 3 sittings), but skipped a few nights of reading in favour of studying for midterms, so I ended up finishing it when I initially hoped to. Currently, I’m back in Toronto for reading week and am looking forward to starting a new book tonight!