Awko🌮

Howie, our narrator from The Mezzanine, is a very interesting character with many deep intellectual thoughts. While reading this novel, I personally had multiple instances where I couldn’t relate to Howie, either because he was talking about something that I had never thought about (for example, the greatness of the Panasonic three-wheeled vacuum cleaner), or because I just thought he was straight-up absurd. The idea of imagining myself urinating on someone’s face to help relax while doing my business had never crossed my mind until he talked about it. Even so, I think Howie can still be a very relatable character. One aspect of Howie that I could relate to was his awkward interactions with other people, as Baker exaggerates these small moments of uncertainty and overthinking that can occur in our everyday lives.

One of the most relatable awkward moments Howie shares is his experience passing Bob Leary on the escalator. He describes the different things he does during their few seconds of passing each other on the escalator and how, even though the “ongoing status as stranger was really an embarrassment,” they could never move past it because they never cared to interact with each other and therefore move to “an even higher plane of awkwardness” each time they meet (Baker 60). When I first read this passage, the scene felt extremely relatable and familiar; I’ve definitely had this kind of experience walking through the hallways during a free period, seeing someone I know but don’t KNOW, and awkwardly walking past them while scrolling on my phone or looking at random things on the walls. Although I’ve never pulled the “oops, I forgot something” move to avoid an awkward walk past someone at school, Howie’s prior relatability in his awkward situation made it easier for me to picture myself pointing in the air with my index finger and walking away as if I actually forgot something.

Another awkward moment that instantly clicked with me was the part where Howie is at Tina’s office to sign the “Get better soon” card for Ray, and they end up trying to decide whose pen to use. I especially like how detailed the description of them is, and I could just picture the scene in slow motion as both of them are trying to be thoughtful for the other person. Baker writes, “she, seeing that I was now beginning to reach for her pen, canceled her retraction, but meanwhile I, processing her earlier corrective movement, had gone back to reaching for my own pen” (Baker 30). Reading this passage, I could think of multiple occasions where trying to be considerate of the other person and moving out of the way had caused us to exchange mutual bobbings or even crash into each other. Even without being a socially awkward person, readers can still relate to the awkwardness of this kind of moment.

In summary, Howie’s awkward moments are relatable because they can happen to anyone, even to those reading the book decades later. Although Baker exaggerates these small interactions and describes them in much greater detail than most people would think about, the exaggeration is what helps make the moments so recognizable. Howie’s experiences reflect a deeper insecurity many of us have about worrying about how others think of us and overthinking our actions. So, no matter how unrelatable he is at times, his human interactions remind readers that they are not the only ones who face awkward moments with others.

Baker, Nicholson. The Mezzanine. Grove Press, 2010.