Here, read these: https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/6230/five-stories-lydia-davis Now you’ve read a Lydia Davis story. But also, if you read my headline, you’ve already read a Lydia Davis story before. I am surprised that I liked this book. It is not a book designed for me to like, and maybe that’s because so many books like this, with very very short short stories are simply bad versions of what Lydia Davis does well. Because her background is not entirely in short fiction and because I really do respect her translation […]
Stealing a man’s wife, that’s nothing, but stealing his car, that’s larceny.
This is so very obviously a first novel. It is a strange and bizarre novel. It is an interesting novel. It is not, however, a good novel. For all the fame, the intrigue, the movies, and the way that this novel did in fact help shape the genre, it’s a mess. For a novel that covers only 120 pages, and one that has a lot of precision to it, there’s some really bizarre digressions and absurd plot devices at work. For example, this novel involves […]
I only had one life, and I’d be damned if I’d live it in a way that would make me unhappy and please somebody else. I had already lived that kind of life, too much of it already.
Larry Brown is an interesting figure with a way too short history in American literature. He was sort of discovered in the mid-80s, when he had a drawer full of unpublished stories. Some curating and careful editing got him a story collection (Facing the Music, which is very good) and a novel (Dirty Work, which is pretty good). He was a fire chief in Oxford, Mississippi (same town as William Faulkner), had no formal higher education, but obviously had an ear for language and dialogue […]
A marriage is more than your heart, it’s your life. And we are not sharing ours.
I’m claiming my “I’ve been reading Tayari Jones for years” privilege here! So take that Oprah! I think this is likely her best book in the combination of importance, story and execution, and audience concern. Leaving Atlanta is very good, but it’s kind of devastating in a way that leaves you pretty raw and cut open by the end. Silver Sparrow and The Unnaming are both very good, but less so than this one. There’s a very real and very relevant story here. It’s that combination that makes it […]
What We Talk About When We Talk About What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
I will never not make that joke. I will also always give Raymond Carver books 5/5 stars, by default. Here: http://glasshaffull.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/7/6/46767003/carvers_little_things__short_story_.pdf Also here: http://www.giuliotortello.it/ebook/cathedral.pdf Here too: http://christimccurry.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/2/7/18278557/viewfinderbyraymondcarver.pdf I wasn’t planning on rereading this collection, which I have read several times before, but I signed up for Scribd, which if you use Overdrive or Aubidle, you should definitely do. It’s a paid Overdrive with tons more options (likely) than your library has and nothing is ever checked out. Because I found the audiobook versions of these stories, I […]
Triptych of no real consequence
Philip Roth – The Breast 2/5 Cynthia Ozick – The Shawl 4/5 Vladimir Nabokov – The Eye 3/5 So these three short novels or novellas don’t really have much to do with one another ostensibly, but I read them one after the other on a Friday sick day and thought a little about their connections or rather what connections I might draw on them. To start, I will tell you what each one of them is about. The Shawl starts off in the […]
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