"Shapiro’s vision of materialist America is brutally honest, complex, and self-contradictory. He takes back the knife of consumerism and makes of it something wild and strange, imperfect, terrible, disturbing, unpredictable, mutable, at once lovely and unbearable. That’s why “Supremacist” is a far more nuanced and more effective response to materialism than any soup-can painting could ever be...It’s a sharp, candid portrait of the artist as a young man in twenty-first-century New York, and of the sick but also magical world in which he lives." -The New Yorker
David and Camilla go on a trip to every Supreme store in the world. Supreme is a skateboarding-inspired men's clothing brand based in Manhattan. The trip is the subject of this book. David and Camilla are the protagonist and antagonist, respectively, of the book. Most of Supreme's stores are in Japan, so most of the book takes place in Japan.
David goes on the trip to understand the meaning of Supreme, although he is aware that Supreme may not have meaning other than as a vehicle through which to sell clothing, which is not the kind of meaning he is looking for. He has other motivations for going on the trip, some of which are detailed in the book. David is not preoccupied with how Supreme's clothing fits or how much it costs.
On page 117, David and Camilla ride the fastest train in the world, and on page 208, she brings him to the hospital in an ambulance. That happens right before the end of the book. The rest is less dramatic. For example, on page 109, Camilla gives David a haircut in the bathroom, which he likes. The characters don't fall in love with each other, but things happen.
The book is very brief and has 45 pictures in it. You might read it in one afternoon. It's fictional. It has nothing to do with white supremacy. If you aren't sure that you will like it, buy it anyway, but be careful not to crease the pages as you read it and then you can return it when you're done.
Follow David on twitter
