Tamara Shopsin

From the incomparable New York Times and New Yorker illustrator Tamara Shopsin, a debut novel about a NYC printer repair technician who comes of age alongside the Apple computer—featuring original artistic designs by the author. LaserWriter II is a coming-of-age tale set in the legendary 90s indie NYC Mac repair shop TekServe—a voyage back in time to when the internet was new, when New York City was gritty, and when Apple made quirky computers for weirdos. Our guide is Claire, a 19-year-old who barely speaks to her bohemian co-workers, but knows when it’s time to strap on an antistatic bracelet. Tamara Shopsin brings us a classically New York novel, an ode to the city that once was, that couldn’t feel more timely. Interweaving the history of digital technology with a tale both touchingly human and delightfully technical, Shopsin brings an idiosyncratic cast of characters to life with a light touch, a sharp eye, and an unmistakable voice. Filled with pixelated philosophy and lots of printers, LaserWriter II is, at its heart, a parable about an apple.

A Novel

LaserWriter II

Morgan Thomas

This was fine. I think the best parts were the anthropomorphic machines.

Jeannette Ordas

I love Tamara Shopsin. She just seems so fucking cool. This book about an apple repair shop is quirky, fun and easy to read. It's probably really not a book worth 5 full stars, but it made me delightfully happy reading it.

Jeff James

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Tamara Shopsin’s debut novel, LaserWriter II, is slim and largely plotless, and yet somehow manages to be charming and totally compelling.

It’s a very quick read, but it has stuck in my mind in the weeks since I finished it.

LaserWriter II is a coming-of-age story about Claire, a young woman who gets a job at Tekserve, a famous (now long-closed) Apple repair shop in New York City in the 90s. She starts in intake and then moves up the ranks into repair technician. Along the way, she discovers that she is really good at repairing obscure and discontinued printers.

She finds that she loves the fiddly work of opening up old printers and meticulously cleaning every surface. She dives in, vacuuming out dust and searching for the source of mysterious problems through arcane and sometimes incomplete documentation.

LaserWriter II is a history of Tekserve and its founders, their driving principles, the way they loved Apple hardware. Their guiding principle was making their customers happy, even if that meant providing some services for free as a courtesy.

Reading this book made me wonder how much was fact and how much was fiction; this book doesn’t read like a memoir, but it also doesn’t read like a definitive historical record. It’s more like an impressionistic sketch of a bygone era. It contains enough truthiness to feel real, but comes filtered through Shopsin’s quirky, minimalist style, poetic in its simplicity.

LaserWriter II is a series of vignettes about the diverse and varied people who worked at Tekserve. The story is full of weirdos who came to the repair shop from all backgrounds and found their niche.

The book takes detours in and out of the workers’ lives, their stories all presumably based on actual former employees. Each new oddball Shopsin introduces illuminates another strange corner of the Tekserve community.

LaserWriter II is also a series of sketches where anthropomorphic printer parts discuss their many troubles. This usually happens while Claire digs in their innards trying to find a solution.

These bizarre interludes are strange and funny. They also help emphasize the way those old pieces of hardware felt like they had souls and personalities.

LaserWriter II is all of those things mashed together, in an odd, funny little novel. It’s light on its feet but full of depth, somehow simultaneously both insubstantial and overstuffed. Reading it made me want to spend more time in that place with those people.

Vaibhav Yadaram

fun read, short & kinda cute

back up ur computers 

Trever

This is one of those cases where I knew I was going to like it before I read it—Macs (all Macs, old and new) and pre-gentrified New York are two things I have a passion for. It didn't disappoint. The style's pretty interesting, and has an attitude that fits the subject, a kind of cool that feels at home here.

Brian Jones

 read this odd little book over in less than the time it took to fly from Columbus to Denver via a stop in Chicago. I found it delightful. The recreation of a time when an attachment to personal computing—and the Macintosh, in particular—opened doors to a countercultural experience was such a salve for this moment when I find it increasingly difficult to find areas of computing and/or technology to explore with enthusiasm. The setting is evoked perfectly with loving specificity. The rhythm of the short vignettes was impressionistic in just the right way. Fittingly, the design and production of the hardcover was beautiful in its crisp black and white design and illustrations.

Darice de Cuba

This book is written for all Mac geeks. Set in Manhattan in the 90's, about a Mac repair shop named Tekserve. The "main" character is Claire, who becomes fascinated with the shop and manages to get a job there triaging computers. She finds her calling in repairing printers, laser printers.

The plot doesn't go deep. We get to know the basics of the people working at Tekserve, how Tekserve came to be and some cool 90's hardware and internet facts.  It's the kind of place I would have loved working at.  

The book also illustrates how Apple was always working towards making it hard/impossible for customers to repair their Apple products at independent repair shops. 

Tekserve motto was "Do the right thing".



LaserWriter II A Novel

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