Paper Bullets opens with a disclaimer of sorts.  Fulbeck tells us much of the book we’re about to read is a lie.  Don’t be angry.  He did it for our benefit.

Fulbeck has written an audacious button-pusher of a book.  It’s a coming of age story filled with misogyny, violence, sex, and hybridity.  Fulbeck is a self-proclaimed “hapa” and his personal identity is at the forefront of this book.  We hear all his reasoning for dating white women and Asian women at different times in his life.  Without reflection, Fulbeck tells us the facts (sometimes damning) and we’re left to put them together.

It might serve the reader well to be familiar with Fulbeck’s film and and spoken word work for an insight into the style of his writing and voice.  The book is a true stream of conscious jumping between Kip’s current life, his childhood, his dreams, as well as references to hundreds of film and TV shows peppered in to both contradict and highlight his stories.  Kip emphasizes argument by comparing it to Lord of the Flies.  In another passage, Kip contrasts an argument with a girlfriend with dialogue from Kevin Smith’s, Chasing Amy, a film largely about the fragility of male masculinity and insecurities.  More than any of the texts we’ve encountered this quarter, Paper Bullets is up to its eyeballs in pop culture references.  At times, it feels like we’re flipping between TV channels trying to settle on what you really want to watch.

There’s numerous passages containing very frank and often crude descriptions of sex.  Fulbeck knows how to confront the reader with a level of honesty that will make some readers uncomfortable.  It can also be exhilarating.  It all depends on the reader and whether or not you truly believe what Fulbeck is writing.  The book is a self proclaimed “fictional autobiography” and I can’t help but feel that Fulbeck is acutely aware of his provocation.  Passages reminded me of my teenage years listening to shock jocks like Howard Stern or Tom Leykis.  It’s easy to dismiss some of their language and behavior as juvenile, but there’s a certain amount of artistry that goes into getting the reactions they do.

Paper Bullets is a dynamic and interesting read.  It’s full of profound self introspection, contradictions, and feels like a scream from the heart of the author.  You may not like Fulbeck by the end, but you’d be hard pressed not to appreciate his craft.