I’ve been looking forward to re-reading “American Gods” since the moment I finished it the first time around. And this first re-read is definitely not going to be the last. For me, this book is a joy and a delight. It’s imaginative. It’s forward-thinking. It’s honest about how we relate to one another and see-but-can’t-see each other. It works literally as well as as metaphor. It takes itself seriously enough to be perfectly constructed and pure in tone and style, but doesn’t take itself seriously at […]
More terrifying than reanimated dead people
Well, that was upsetting. I can’t remember the last Oates book I read, but this was a wonderful (and horrifying) way to jump back in. I really don’t want to meet anyone like Q__ P__, ever. We join him mid-narrative, following him just under a year after he is given probation by a judge for pleading guilty to “sexual misdemeanor committed against a minor,” (Q__ P__: “What happened with the black boy was Q__ P__’ s first offense, & a suspended sentence followed no actual […]
The plan, a memory of the future, tries on reality to see if it fits.
This short, deeply smart collection of essays is really important. Seriously, “Men Explain Things to Me” resonated with me on every level. It’s a perfect gut-check… when some (most) men imply that I’m not entitled to articulate my own experience… when some (most) men cut me off in conversation about a topic on which I’m an authority because they have a couple of thoughts about it… when colleges and universities respond to reports of rape by instituting curfews and behavioral guidelines for women… when my […]
Frantic Avoidance
As a piece of art, I have to give it to Dave Eggers. AHBWOSG is carefully composed, wonderfully constructed, funny, poignant, and moving. But it’s also a pile of emotional bullshit that took me ages to read, and I couldn’t get away from it fast enough once I had inhaled the last intentionally-breakneck run-on paragraph. I have now moved on, immediately and purposefully, to “Men Explain Things to Me.” But back to the “Staggering Genius,” which is a memoir, slightly fictionalized, as Eggers explains […]
Insert fart joke here
Only Mary Roach would start a book with a story about diarrhea. I absolutely loved “Stiff,” so I had high expectations for “Gulp.” Also, I read “Stiff” over 6 six years ago, so her tone and style were a nice surprise all over again. I absolutely love the way she writes. It makes me laugh, makes me comfortable with uncomfortable, “taboo” subjects, and draws me in on the joke, making me a co-conspirator. That said, “Gulp” is a slight misfire in kind of a fundamental […]
Arrested Development, No Bluths. No, strike that, I refuse to be flippant about this gorgeous novel.
When I read Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History” over a decade ago, it stuck with me for quite some time. I think “The Goldfinch” is going to haunt me even longer. I don’t know how she does it, but Tartt’s writing style is, for me at least, the literary version of an earworm that has no burn factor. I could not stop thinking about this book every time I put it down. I kept bringing it up with people at work. My dreams were screwed up. […]