Thorn arrived in my mailbox for the Kid for her birthday from my friend who lives in Alaska. Her wife went to college with Intisar Khanani, and so they sent her a signed copy and a note that maybe I should read it first. And since I was in a slump, and she had a book report due on something else, I snagged it, not expecting a whole lot, which just goes to show you about expectations, because this book blew me away. Thorn is […]
Or Whatever
I normally paint myself as someone who will trade a decent plot for beautiful prose, but perhaps I have found my limit for that as being somewhere around 300 pages. I don’t think I’m treading new ground to say I thought The Goldfinch would never end. There is such a thing as too much perfection. Tartt has a magic about her writing – without any obvious brush strokes, you are in a scene – you can see and smell and feel everything. She is a […]
In which there are many words, but nothing happens
The story takes place in a single day. Adam Godley, a famous mathematician is dying, and his family and friends are gathered about his deathbed. We are mostly (always?) with our (mostly) omnipotent narrator, the god Hermes. Oh, yes, the Greek gods are real, and apparently bored, because they like to spend time fucking with mortals. (And also fucking them, but that’s not the main point here. Or is it?) Being omnipotent, Hermes can jump into other people’s minds and discover and relay what they […]
An Updated Pride and Prejudice (by a kid I used to babysit!)
I grew up in Cincinnati, as did author Curtis Sittenfeld. In fact, the Sittenfelds lived next door to us on Menlo Avenue when I was a teenager, and I babysat Curtis and her older sister when they were quite small. They were only there for a few years and Curtis was young enough that she probably wouldn’t remember me, but I have followed her career from afar over the past decade and have always been thrilled and impressed that a fellow Cincinnatian has become a […]
I Believe in the Power of Creation (which is female)
To be something abnormal meant you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you …and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them. Who Fears Death is the story of a young woman who, in the face of formidable obstacles, must change the world. Onyesonwu, whose name means “who fears death,” possesses mystical powers. While this makes her unusual in her town, it is not what sets her apart from others, at least not at first. The novel […]
Reality Bites
I picked up Domestic Violets in the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble and opened to the first page, where our hero Tom Violets was deep in the middle of a conversation with his penis, desperately trying to give it a pep talk, because his wife was waiting in the bedroom, dressed in Victoria’s best, and his little buddy was not cooperating. If my penis were a writer/director, it would be Woody Allen – small, neurotic, and, frankly, hit or miss. Just as things are […]
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