YOU might want to read this

Today I am going to do something slightly different.  Typically every week I will write something about videogames, however it should be known that I am not the only person who writes about videogames. There are a multitude of us would be writers putting out content because we believe in it. Or, in truth, many of us desperately want a job as well. But there are those lucky few who are professionally published. One of those lucky few is Austin Grossman; author of the new fiction YOU.  Having had the chance to read YOU in its entirety I will now give you my thoughts. Consider this a review of sorts.

YOU is a novel chiefly about videogames, but specifically about the unique and highly personal relationship that forms between the game’s maker (developer), the player character and the player. Sometimes those three elements conflict, sometimes they harmonize and sometimes the purpose of one so overrides the others as the render them near in inconsequential. Grossman’s book ends up a lot like a game itself, succeeding and suffering by the same three-prong divided focus that all games live by. YOU has the potential to be great, but proves itself to just be good.

It opens with a hook that is too strong for any videogame enthusiast to ignore: “What is the Ultimate Game?” From there Grossman introduces the reader to Russell, a 28 year old suffering from long held ennui of never fully giving up on childhood while at the same time reluctant to embrace adult life. He is a decent enough protagonist; a character bland enough to allow self insertion into the story, but given enough characterization as to connect him to the geeky-nerd type (like myself) who would read this book. The book is around 380-ish pages and a good portion of them are spent with either Russell feeling conflicted or just faffing about. At one point he goes on a date with the possibly hallucinatory female lead of the game. Grossman toys with Russell’s mental state, but never commits to either him or the reader what is actually going on. For all we know it may have very well been divine intervention by the God of Videogames, known in this fiction as Simon.

Narrative momentum is rather slow in YOU. However, when plot does present itself it falls into the previously mentioned three-pronged divided focus. Here is where the comparison of the book to a game is most apt. The book was written in 2013 focusing on characters and plots happening in 1997-98 with flashbacks to Russell’s childhood in the 80’s. Grossman becomes himself the game designer or developer as author of the book. 1990’s Russell is the player character and 1980’s Russell is the player. The player does not quite understand the world he is in while the player character keeps attempting to assert control. All the while the game developer is omnipotently watching and occasionally throws something around to see what happens. It is bad game design and even worse narrative writing. Grossman creates a story rich with potential, but fails to succeed in delivering on that promise. There are moments of brilliance within this book, notably the several chapters dedicated to telling the story of how Realms II was developed at KidBits Summer Camp 1989, but the total story lacks any single defining focus.

With the exception of Russell, Grossman’s characters are well developed and lively. It is easy to see them as real people working in the game industry during the birth of 3D. Not a single one is trite or stereotyped, offering an extensive and detailed look into the inner workings of a game studio. Some of it is humorous, some of it is serious and all of it seems real. Lisa stands out as a particularly well done character; anytime her presence was felt within the book’s second half made it all the much better. Furthermore Grossman has a knack for finding the human things locked away deep within the gamers’ heart and he uses that to his advantage creating circumstances that at first seem outlandish and then make perfect sense. Take for example this passage that really resonated with me about the near obsessive compulsion to not just play, but also create that burns deep within any game developer: 

“The world narrowed to the tiny realm where he was always pushing on to the next screen, the next castle, always in a private dream of concentration and hard reflex, like a stoner kid doing bar chords over and over until his fingers were cramped and the muscle memory was there even in his sleep, always on the verge of some conclusion on the next screen, the crucial revelation that never quite appeared, that he could spend his life chasing, unless he learned to make them, unless he got to set the rules himself, unless he could put what he wanted in that castle, lock it away and bury it in a dungeon for a thousand years.”

But now I must make a slight disclaimer. I have to acknowledge that I may not be of proper age to connect with YOU as Grossman may have wanted. My mother first got this book and tried to read it. She lost interest and said she was too old. By that same account, I may be too young. I have the prerequisite passion and knowledge for the book, but what Grossman wants of his readers is something I do not have: nostalgia for the early days of gaming. I have the upmost respect for all the games before my time and, as a hopeful game designer, I understand that this medium would be nothing without them. But that does not change the fact that I have no fondness for the 80’s or pixels or chip-tune. Grossman dedicates a large portion of YOU to nostalgia for those times, which in the end I am too young for. It was completely lost on me.

YOU by Austin Grossman could have been a great book. It is dripping with potential, but much like the “Ultimate Game” it is not all that revelatory or profound. YOU succumbs to a misguided three-pronged focus that, along with all the other games that are just good, should be played and returned or picked up cheep on sale.