The Automat

by Cristina Martin

"One man's obsession starts with two eyes."

The Automat is a story of a mild-mannered introvert named Horace Gray, who slowly descends into madness after he becomes obsessively enamored with a woman who stares at him from behind an automat wall.

The Automat is a fictional story exploring the dark side of human nature and the innate desire of being loved. It is a story of unexpected change in the routine of one's simple life, of obsession, guilt, and the consequences of betrayal. The Automat will appeal to readers of literary fiction with dark undertones.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Cristina Martin is a Cuban-American author born in Miami, Florida.

Shortly after 9/11/01, she moved to New York City and began to write The Automat.

She is currently based out of Los Angeles and completed her second book, I Still Love You, NY, which incorporates both Los Angeles and New York City. It is a modern comedic romance about two jaded characters who hold out all hope to reunite after eight years and 3000 miles apart.

Cristina's next book is a collection of comedic short stories.

Reviews

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Formas interesantes sobre argumentos comunes.-

Género. Novela corta.

Lo que nos cuenta. Horace Gray no es feliz. Vive una vida triste, apática y tensa. Unos ojos apenas entrevistos tras un dispensador de comida traen nuevas inquietudes y anhelos a la existencia de Horace.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this even more than I thought I would. One of the best in this genre I've read in quite a while.

I don't think there is anything I can add that hasn't been said in previous reviews. The typos and grammar weren't bad enough for me to notice but once or twice. They will probably be cleaned up in an update on the kindle version in the future.

I would certainly give other works by this author a try.

[Zoeytron · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something to be said about the familiarity of routine. Horace Gray is firmly ensconced in his monochromatic life, having accepted his boring job and his loveless marriage as his due. He feels worthless, almost invisible to everyone around him. This story details how a humdrum life can quickly change into a living nightmare.

For Horace, it begins with a pair of eyes that lock onto his from behind the wall, where he slides his daily piece of coffee cake from its slot in the automat. Horace is immediately smitten. Someone has finally noticed him! From this point forward, he can think of little else but those eyes. He dreams of them, draws them on paper, sees them everywhere. His obsession is rampant, and Horace slips into that downward spiral of insanity from which he may not be able to return.

Fantastic concept, right down my alley. There are some rather egregious errors in the book, unfortunately. Another turn with editing is definitely in order, but great idea!

This was my first Kindle book, thanks to a buddy of mine here on Goodreads who lent me her reader. Not sure how quickly I'm going to warm up to the electronic page versus a 'real' book, but am starting to see the proverbial handwriting on the wall (not behind it, thankfully!), so I'm willing to give it the occasional shot for now.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the description of this book when I saw it in a First Reads giveaway. Unfortunately, I didn't win. Luckily, it was available for free on the Amazon Kindle store, so I downloaded it immediately, and I'm glad I did.

This book tells the story of an ordinary, routine-driven man, working a dull job at an insurance company, coming home to a wife that hates him, and how his life changes forever with a minor, seemingly innocuous deviation of that routine: a pair of eyes staring at him from behind the automat wall. The writer does a good job chronicling the life of the man with the carefully pomaded hair and his descent into madness.

The only issue I had with this book was that it seemed stilted at times, as though the author couldn't quite figure out how to say what she wanted to say, so ended up using the same words repeatedly. As an example, the word "bus" was used 9 times in one paragraph. Yeah, I get it, you're on a bus... However, I didn't feel as if this distracted too much from the story, so it really wasn't a major problem.

Overall, I'm really glad I came across this book, and I'd definitely recommend it to others.

[Naomi Hyde · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my opinion, this book was not a very good read.

The book is written in homodiegetic narration, giving the reader a unique insight into the life of the protagonist (Horace). Horace lives a monotonous and routine life with no spontaneity or excitement. One day he see the eyes of a young girl peering at him through the wall of the automat and he swiftly becomes intrigued by her mysterious eyes. I thought Horace's life was depicted very effectively; one could clearly envisage the tedium that pervaded Horace's life and pathos was duly induced for him. However, as the novel continued, the plotline became just as dull as Horace's life. I did not think that the story was very interesting or stimulating. There was a lot of repetition, especially describing Horace's paranoia regarding the police. Although this was somewhat effective at portraying Horace's extreme nervousness and uneasiness, it did little to make the novel exciting. Nevertheless, there were a few moments of surprise and excitement that animated the story, such as when it is revealed that Horace's wife is having an affair.

Martin included some effective imagery and description within her novel that enhanced the story and plotline. For example, the following quotation describes the automat sign: 'This time though it was not the usual bright beacon that it had always been, but a dull lifeless sign with neon that could barely manage to stay alit. The faint neon sign light pulsed quickly like a heartbeat as if it were fighting to stay alive.' This metaphor is very proleptic of Millicent's death and forewarns the reader of the destructive ending to the novel. This extract reminded me of The Great Gatsby and the green light across the bay. Horace is Gatsby: a man who yearns for a better life and a girl he can never have. The symbolism of the green light to denote Daisy in The Great Gatsby is echoed here; the green, neon sign represents Millicent, and the fading of the light demonstrates the futility of their relationship and is extremely proleptic of the end of the novel.

The ending was unfulfilling - I still had many questions about Horace's life after the events within the novel. Furthermore, I noticed that throughout the story, simple daily activities were not considered. For example, Horace's life was depicted step by step throughout the story yet he never seemed to eat or bathe. Most of the time he was fretting about Millicent or sleeping. Normal human functions were amiss which made the story less believable and incomplete.

Overall, I did not enjoy this book. There were quite a few interesting and thought-provoking metaphors within the novel, yet the overall storyline was boring and unimaginative.

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every time I came across this book in my kindle library, I never wanted to read it, as I really do judge books by their cover. The cover that I have looks strange and I was like, "what?" and then, I was like, "uh, maybe later." But I finally got around to it and was very pleased.

***I also wanna note that as I read this I pictured Tobey Maguire as Horace and Selma Blair as Millicent*** <-- for visual =)

When I first began The Automat by Cristina Martin, I was confused and bored. Reading about this character's routine of a life was very boring and it had me wondering if Horace (the main character) felt as if his life was boring. Then, I started feeling sorry for him. Especially when we get to meet his wife. His wife was a b!**h and he was pathetic. But then, he meets a pair of big, brown eyes and his life changes forever. You can kinda tell immediately that this guy is a little coo-coo, put you really get to see how much after he meets these eyes.

WHAT I LIKED

The fact that Martin has created a character that is a bit unstable, yet you have some type of sympathy for him was a change for me. Usually characters I read about are typical and don't really have flaws that make you wanna dislike them. Horace made me feel sorry for him despite the fact that he killed his wife for a pair of eyes

I liked the love connection he was able to make, and I was glad that someone showed interest in him. Poor Horace....

As I read, I was reminded of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, the way Horace was hearing voices that weren't there, and I thought he was going to go bat-sh** crazy...er...

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

I'm not a fan of first person and this story takes place all in the MC's head - with a few dialogue thrown in here and there - but it worked for this particular story, as the MC was kinda 'not all there' and you were able to witness how these sudden changes effected him.

There were some grammatical, spelling, missing words, and other editing errors that were annoying to come across.

My eBook had bold as well as plain text, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to know the difference between what was going on or if this too were a mistake.

The ending wasn't satisfying. So much happened that I thought he would have handled them differently, so I was disappointed.

**So, 4 stars because the story just worked for me. It's exactly what I'd expect from a story about someone like Horace and the life he lives. It was definitely a page turner. If it weren't for the editing errors, I'd give it 5 stars.

[Sierra Ferrante · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts out following the routine, dull and ordinary life of Horace. A man who works at a boring job, who followss a boring routine, and who comes home to a belligerent alcoholic wife and two unhappy dogs. He follows the same routine -from the bus to the automat to work, then to the bus and back home again to walk the dogs, clean the house, do the laundry, serve dinner (his wife cooks, but he serves) and sit on the one chair he is allowed on to watch tv. All in all, a pretty miserable existance. He spends most of his time unnoticed and day dreams a more exciting life where he is the superstar.

His dull routine is changed one day when he goes into the automat to get his usual piece of cake and instead encounters two eyes staring at him from behind the wall. He quickly becomes obsessed with the girl with the eyes. He draws her eyes all day at work and stops by to talk to the manager to try to find out more about the girl with the eyes who finally noticed him.

When he catches a later bus after talking to the automat manager, his wife goes into a rampage which eventually leads to her death. What follows is a mystery of murder, obsession, stalking, and mysteries which mix up the drudgery of Horace's life. His emotional connection to Millicent is fragile and strange. The story twists and turns and leads the reader on a wild journey.

Disclosure: I won a copy of this book on goodreads, but the opinions are my own.

[Jonel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel gives a real look into everyday life with a twist, a really dark and rather twisted twist. Martin does this with her solid writing and off the wall descriptions. This is an extremely well written novel with a coherent and easy to follow storyline. That said, I spent a great deal of time just saying WTF, just WTF. The bulk of this stems from the fact that the writing style doesn’t really match the storyline. Martin has adopted a light and flowing writing style, well suited to a YA story, and told a very dark and twisted tale with it. The writing style draws you in very quickly and then clashes with the subject matter causing a bit of a vortex that I could neither get into or out of.

Being that this story is well written in the 1st person it is very easy to see the world from the main character’s perspective. You get to know him quite well through this. That said, at times there is almost too much detail in his day to day activities. You get caught in the mundane.

Overall Martin has an interesting manner of writing that keeps her work flowing forward. She is a phenomenally descriptive writer who tells you about each and every thing that is encountered in the story. Combined with the unique storyline this is definitely different from anything I’ve read in quite a while.

Please note that I received this novel free of charge from the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I entered the contest to win this book and did not win! I then went and found the kindle version was free on Amazon. I immediately liked and sympathized with the main character, enjoying the dark undertones and creepy storyline. The Automat held my interest and kept me wanting to see what happened next....until I got to the end....it just kind of dumped me, and left me there with all of these unanswered questions! I'm questioning myself, did I understand what the author was trying to say? Did it end the way I think it did? It threw me for a loop and I gave it three stars and it honestly deserves more. I think Cristina Martin wrote a good story, but, something is missing at the end.

[Tracy Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about finishing this book. I couldn't help but to be anxious to finish since I wanted to find out what happened, but on the other hand I was sad to finish because I enjoyed the read so much. It was mysterious and creepy without being too unrealistic. I learned a few new things about automats and taxi dancers, things I'd never heard of before finding this book. The plot was unpredictable but smoothly written. It lacked subplots, but that was a good thing in the case of this book. All I cared about was what happened to Horace next, and too many twists and side plots would only have distracted from that.

[Marie]

The description of The Automat intrigued me so I decided to enter the first-reads giveaway and to my surprise I am a winner! Looking forward to reading this book.

[Keith Nixon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horace Gray lives a mundane life. He hates his job and is bullied by his wife. Everything is routine. Until the day he sees a pair of beautiful eyes staring back at him through the slot of an automat…

This was an incredibly frustrating story. Horace Gray is a very dull man. He lives a very dull life. His wife hates him, there are shades of domestic abuse around their relationship. He has an awful job. Then one day a pair of eyes change his life and he obsesses about them. That’s about the sum of The Automat really. It’s tedious and I struggle to think of a single redeeming feature.

Unfortunately the author makes several fundamental and huge mistakes. In an effort to demonstrate how dull his life is the story is dull – we don’t need to see everything he does to understand this, but nevertheless this is precisely what happens. The same with Horace’s character, there is nothing likeable about him. He’s an utter wimp. Once he begins to obsess about the girl at the automat this becomes excessive too.

Then there are the other characters. The wife is brutal to the extreme, far too much. Another example, Detective Bones, a homicide detective who apologises for his surname and says how inappropriate it is – yes really. I very quickly had no affinity for the cast at all (it’s worth noting it took 13% into the book to learn he’s called Horace and 18% before his surname is revealed which doesn’t help either).

Also the author will tell you several times what the character is doing, e.g.:

I walked closer to the automat and its old neon sign grew larger as I drew nearer to it. It flickered as I walked closer and closer.

It happens over and over. Then there’s an incredibly high use of repeat words within sentences and paragraphs. Here are a couple of examples:

On this unusual day I went to the coffee station to get a cup of coffee and then to the window to get my coffee cake. I inserted the coins in the slot and watched as the window opened. I reached into the window to get my coffee cake as usual, but when I did the back door opened. What was unusual…

I went downstairs and turned on the television, but it was hard for me to watch the television with my wife mixing drinks in front of the television. She would stand there, obstructing my view to the television, mixing up a gin and tonic…

This happens many times.

The dialogue is also poor and stilted. It just sounds like nothing anyone would say. Finally, there’s no sense of place. I couldn’t tell it was in New York, I only learnt this from the author’s bio.

All in all a tiresome, frustrating novel that I struggled to see the point of or care what happened to anyone.

*Originally reviewed for Books & Pals blog. May have received free review copy.**

[ES Saw · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have received this book through First Reads.

An interesting premise - and well-written (although in need of some editing, especially towards the end of the book - lots of mistakes). I would probably prefer for it to be narrated in third person, as Horace's voice is a bit too whiny and self-deprecating. I found the dreamlike, sinister quality and descriptions of the city well-measured and quite thrilling. I like that we don't know much about the setting or the time - it's quite Kafkian, it's intriguing. However, I feel that the whole story could have been a bit more fleshed out - Horace's obsession with Millicent was rather instantaneous and some bits to the story could be more explained. Whereas I don't have a problem with open-ended novels, I really dislike when there are bits just introduced and unexplained. I mainly refer here to Bones' letters to Alice and his conversation with Horace. Why was their meeting account different in both instances by so many small seemingly insignificant details? it was there as if for a purpose and there never mentioned again. Neither did Horace seem to notice it either. Have I missed something?

But all in all a short, interesting study of a mundane human being in some extreme circumstances.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a wonderful, touching, sad, but generally pleasing to read. It's disappointing how short the story was but the protagonist's life was nicely elaborated. There's just something I can't get my hands on, something I know that doesn't fit in the story the way it was written... or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to make the story longer than it is. Either way, I recommend this book to anyone looking for a surprise. "The Automat" isn't as boring as it sounds, I assure you.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first half of the book was pretty good, in a tell-tale heart sort of way. But then the story falls apart. In the middle the story loses its momentum and the ending is predictable and unsatisfactory.