Defying logic

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This article was published 04/05/2019 (2413 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bobby Hall, better known as the rapper Logic, is the man behind the Grammy-nominated hit 1-800-273-8255 (the song title is the number of the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). With the release of his debut novel Supermarket, which topped the New York Times paperback fiction bestseller list upon release, Hall also became the first rapper to author a bestselling novel. (Hall also released a “soundtrack album” of indie-pop songs alongside the book.)

The book is a mess. It claims to be a thriller but is completely predictable. It tries to be deep but is unwise (dangerously at times, as when it says people shouldn’t take antipsychotic pills). At the same time, Hall’s book is ambitious and enjoyable.

Supermarket tells the story of Flynn, whose girlfriend breaks up with him because he is a wannabe writer who cannot finish any of his ambitious projects.

In a miraculous manner, he secures a massive book deal for a novel, and in order to force himself to finish the book he takes a job at a supermarket, since his story is set in a supermarket.

Flynn reasons that he could base his characters on the characters he meets. One person, Frank, whose job at the store Flynn cannot ascertain, is a brash, talkative alpha bro with big ideas. Although distasteful, Frank fascinates Flynn, and he makes Frank the novel’s protagonist.

Supermarket’s flaws stem from the fact that Hall, by his own admission in interviews, is not much of a reader. If he read more, he would understand how novels work, and how readers receive the information in novels.

On the third page, the main character picks up a cigarette lighter and notices the words Vanilla Sky engraved on the lighter. Immediately, anyone familiar with that movie can predict the entire plot.

In case you don’t figure it out, Hall adds a reference to Memento and an allusion to Fight Club within the first few chapters. If you know those stories, then you know the rest of the novel’s plot in its broad strokes.

That said, the novel’s flaws hardly matter, because they make it fun. Hall seems self-consciously aware of the book’s fundamental ridiculousness and makes Flynn-as-narrator a hopelessly inept storyteller. This is a weirdly brilliant solution to the problem that Logic can’t write: presenting Supermarket as a memoir-novel written by a haphazardly successful but lousy writer.

The book’s worst moments are its best, given how media frenzy around Flynn’s book is what made him a successful author. This even seems like a knowing, metafictional joke about the fact that Hall’s own celebrity (as Logic) is what’s selling his book. Hall has a lot of fun with these moments.

“You don’t know what I’m talking about? I can’t tell if you don’t know what I’m talking about or if you’re just taken aback by me breaking the fourth wall on this page you’re reading. Well damn, hold on a second, maybe I shouldn’t bring up the fact that you’re reading a book. If you realize what you’re literally doing this moment, you won’t actually be living in the world I’m painting for you… I’ve distracted myself… Wait, what was I talking about? And why the hell am I writing my internal thoughts on this page? Doesn’t matter, this won’t make the final version of the book anyway.”

When all is said and done, Supermarket is a fun and engrossing book. Hall’s talent falls far short of his ambitions, but his boldness makes up for much.

Winnipeg English professor Jonathan Ball (@jonathanballcom) is an author of stranger fiction and advocate of writing the wrong way. Visit him online at jonathanball.com.