Howie's murderous intentions vs. me, the reader
First and foremost, The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker is a weird book. With its interesting way of describing mundane life in an office and excessively long footnotes, it takes a dive into the world of our main character, Howie. Howie is a sometimes relatable character, who we see delve into the most lengthy stories about the most boring things anyone could imagine. The first chapter with his shoelaces, no one would necessarily think about their shoelaces that much, heck I don't even know if I've ever had a pair of shoelaces break on my shoes in my lifetime. I would have said Howie is completely relatable if it weren't for the footnotes. On pages 108 and 128 we see Howie's darker side, where in the first footnote on page 108, we find out Howie stabbed his best friend at the time in the neck with a pair of scissors. Why did he stab him you ask? He stabbed him over the 64 pack of crayons his friend had gotten, and wouldn't show Howie how the p...