Snarky, irreverent, and absurdist best describes this tale of an unwitting guru, Hark, who becomes known and admired for his meaningless message instructing people to "focus". However, the book really isn't about Hark, but rather about the acolytes that latch onto him and his mental archery methodology. The book's tension mostly comes from the various attempts to monetize and use Hark for profit. But oddly,I found the book to be neither plot driven nor truly character driven, but more of a comedic stand up set in book form. There are elements of plot (mostly in the latter third) and stabs at character development, but what stands out are Lipsyte's skewering of everything from foodies to marriage to therapy to yoga to social justice to technocrats to child rearing to religion; little in today's society goes unscathed. And the characters are weird, but all basically losers or money hungry villians.

There are some truly funny moments in this book, especially in the dialogue. Truth be told, I'm probably not the very best audience for satire (I really couldn't bear The Sellout and that won the Man Booker), but this book amused me in a Monty Pythonesque way. If you like black humor and a sarcastic edge to your entertainments, it is definitely worth giving a try. ( )

Hark is the name of a new age guru who preaches mental archery to corporate groups, a motivational speaker which a message about how focusing can change your life. He is charismatic enough but his popularity seems to be in spite of his own belief in himself. He has an entourage of friends/promoters who set up gigs and update his main website. The main one, Fraz, is your typical Lipsyte character, "underemployed, middle-aged New York Jewish protagonists with abandoned artistic dreams, cheating wives and snack-food obsessions."(NYT)
I enjoyed the writing and the ideas especially in the first half of the novel. The banter and irony remind me of Joseph Heller. This novel is like a Catch 22 of slightly distant future. However, I feel like the ending meandered into too many arteries: world at war, the president dead, -still funny but it's vision a bit frayed. But, like I said, sometimes a good observation about the inane direction of the world made the reading worth it. ( )

I have read a few books by Sam Lypsyte. He is a very talented satirical writer with funny and keen observations about our culture etc. Hark is about a guru and those that follow him. It is a good send off on all of the various issues that are going on in our world. The plot is all over the place but what makes this a worthwhile read is the high level of the writing. Lypsyte is very creative and funny. I can read him just for his hilarious and creative prose. If you have never read him before then I suggest you start with his novel "The Ask". If you enjoy that then you will like all of his stuff. ( )

‘He came to us and was golden-y.’

I really wanted to love this book, and for the opening pages I felt that I would. With a hint of Douglas Coupland, I felt we were in zeitgeist territory, a satire for our time, casting a super-critical eye on beliefs, religion, big business, the internet, and health-food cafes…. The story of Hark Morner, a stand-up comedian turned guru (or messiah) who may or may not actually believe in anything he says. However, he is surrounded by his disciples of Harkism, who espouse the idea of Mental Archery – part mysticism, part yoga, part mindfulness, part archery – mostly to fill the spaces in their empty, sad lives. In the background, incidental to the plot but saying everything about the inanity of modern America, a major war rages in Europe involving American forces.

But, I’m afraid to say the book got away from me. The characters didn’t really involve me, and the relentless negativity of the satire actually started to wear me down (OK, yes I know what satire is supposed to do, but this felt like overkill). The plot took a pretty obvious course, too, and the book seemed to veer more into a religious satire than anything else, challenging along the way any actual belief system that happened to wander past. Some of the writing was genuinely funny, but the book just seemed to run out of steam. I’ve tried to avoid spoilers so I won’t focus on particular moments, but what springs to mind is one of Hark’s own thoughts from the book: ‘there isn’t a message.’

A nice idea, and I can see why some might find it a searing satire on modern-day society. For me, not so much. A less scattergun approach may have worked better. Because some of the writing was actually very good, and for the moments of genuine comedy, I give it 3 stars. ( )