I’ve now read all of two Edith Wharton novels and she is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. With beautiful evocative prose, Wharton creates the socially circumscribed world of early 20th-century East Coast America, a bleak place where romantic tragedies occur. In The House of Mirth, the main character Lily Bart was a beautiful young woman whose family status gave her access to upper class New York society but whose sex and poverty severely limited her ability to function successfully there. In Ethan Frome, […]
Who knew that there was a market for gay airplane erotica?
I can’t believe this is how I am starting my very first Cannonball Read. I feel like my next review will have to be “War and Peace” for you guys to actually take me seriously. In Russian, obviously. But before I pretend to be all respectable and stuff, let’s dive into some gay plane sex! Shout out to Patty Smith for loaning me the book, and getting this whole mess started. Honestly, I was tempted to just post excerpts from the book with insightful comments […]
Depression Is a Dick
You know, I had a very lovely Tuesday planned that involved reading, possibly finishing, one of the four wonderful books I’m currently reading. And then the mail came with two books I pre-ordered, and those plans were shot to fuck. It seems that Jasmine Warga and her debut novel My Heart and Other Black Holes had vastly different ideas about how my day off would be spent. I can’t remember the last time I inhaled a book, cover to cover, within the span of an […]
Lots more Whacks
Lizzie Borden took an ax… Those of us familiar with Lizzie’s story (or just with the rhyme) believe we know what happened next. Cherie Priest, though, looked at the variety of facts available, asked herself the writer’s favorite question (“What if…?”), and came up with an almost entirely different story. Though father and (step-) mother still take their whacks.
In Which I Question My Sanity
I’m going to say the words that few book lovers ever utter. I completely understand if, from this moment on, no one ever trusts my judgement again. I can’t even trust my judgement anymore. But… *deep breath* The movie was better than the book. I know, I know! Blasphemy! But the fact still remains, the Wachowski siblings and Tykwer were able to pull it off where Mitchell mostly floundered. (Not that the movie was a cinematic masterpiece, but I feel like I “got” what they […]
It Was His Boat
Terry Southern predicted reality television. Guy Grand is (possibly) the wealthiest person alive. He amuses himself by pranking people. Sometimes they’re relatively harmless and the victim comes out of it slightly embarrassed but unharmed and (sometimes substantially) richer. Sometimes the pranks are vile or disturbing and Guy works to stir the crowds up, leading to riots or mass humiliation. A few are actually clever. “The Magic Christian” is his ultimate prank. He buys an ocean liner, has it redecorated, and installs a closed-circuit television system. […]
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