Book Review: The Shithead

Eric Bauer—son, husband, father, and small business owner—is slowly losing his grip on reality. Drowning in debt and a never-ending to-do list, he finally catches a break.

To trade the torment of barely scraping by for the riches of Nashville's elite Pinnacle Club, he only needs to keep doing what he's been doing since college. Lie.

Playing fast and loose with the truth is the easy part. What's hard for The Shithead is figuring out how to build a meaningful life in a meaningless world.

The Shithead: A Novel in Fifty Songs by Tim Grahl will be published on September 19, 2024. Story Grid Publishing provided an early copy for review.

For the past year or so, I've been following the videos that Grahl posts weekly on The Story Grid's YouTube channel. He has a very approachable manner when discussing the writing techniques and tips that have been practiced and taught for decades by Shawn Coyne (founder of the Story Grid). Grahl has been mentioning for a while now about his upcoming novel, so I was very interested in giving it a read - to see the Story Grid writing approach actually put into practice.

Right out of the gate, Grahl does something I always enjoy - he uses song titles for his chapter titles. That is something I've always gravitated towards myself (music being a huge thing for me as it can instantly take one back to certain times and places), and it can reveal a bit about the author by the song titles chosen. Grahl appears to have a wide range in his taste in music. For the fifty chapters here, some are very familiar to me while others I might need to go dig into deeper. I always appreciate a good song suggestion.

However, on more than one occasion I struggled to figure out how the song title chosen related to what happened in the chapter. I don't know why that is, but it definitely stood out to me too. Odd. When the songs did tie in, though, it worked very well.

The story narrative is structured with Eric telling his story to Faye, who we learn only a little about in the last chapter. I'm not sure it adds a lot overall. Mostly, we're treated to Eric's recollection of working his way through difficult encounters as he deals with the secrets of his debt, his struggle on whether to take on a project for someone who he morally opposes, and his trip into a very weird kind of therapy (which, honestly, seemed a bit hokey and unrealistic to this someone who has done a stint in therapy).

I'd be okay with all of the realistic conflicts if I found Eric likable. But, as the title implies, he has a lot of unlikable traits. That posed a barrier at times for me as a reader. His is not the kind of personality I ever want in my life; his actions are toxic and destructive (intentionally or unintentionally). I found the ending to be predictable as well as a bit "too convenient". It was not clearly explained "what" and "how" Eric achieved his "revelation"; it all was a lot for the reader to just accept. At that point, I did not need an uplifting ending; I think a tragic conclusion could have been a more powerful "life lesson".

Despite what I noted above, I was able to see how the Story Grid process achieved the finished result which I found to be very structured and well-written. The novel moved along at a solid pace and kept me engaged. It is a good book - just not so good for me. Each reader's mileage will vary.