Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

a slight peek into the obscured past

Costalegre by Courtney Maum

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The concept of capital-A ART reigns lavishly above the characters within Costalegre. A woman and her daughter, stand-ins for Peggy and Pegeen Guggenheim, go to Mexico to wait out the steamroller of World War II. They are surrounded by the mother’s collection of artists and hangers-on. They wait for a steamship full of the mother’s collection of art which may still be creeping across the ocean towards their hideaway in the jungle. The mother’s collection is full of people and pieces deemed to be unworthy; Europe did […]

A beautiful murmur

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

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I bought this book, put it on my kindle, and then forgot about it.  I don’t know why I bought it–I’m sure it was someone’s recommendation, or a list of new books somewhere.  One day I found it again and started reading, having no idea what the book was about. This book was enchanting. Set in early 20th century Mexico, this is the meandering story of the Morales family and their adopted son Simonopio, who was found by old Nana Reja under a bridge, with […]

Viscerally Real

The Savage Detectives by Robert Bolaño

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The Savage Detectives is a lot. Being my second Bolaño doorstopper of the year, I assumed I knew what I was in for. I was way off. This was a far more challenging read than 2666. It had its rewards and I’m glad I stuck with it. But I needed to take a break halfway through, at the risk of putting it aside for good. I’m glad I did because the plot is not the most important thing going on here. This can possibly be considered a […]

Whew

2666 by Roberto Bolano

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This isn’t going to be a conventional review because I don’t know what to say about 2666 or really make of it. I know it’s an excellent novel; it felt like Bolaño was writing through me rather than to me. But to summarize it the way I normally do (plot, good points, bad points, summation) won’t do it justice. So this is going to be a grab bag of thoughts about a stirring, complex, difficult, beautiful, exhausting, breathtaking book. -The five story lines connected in a way […]

Constant Craving

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This novel was translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes and was the winner of an English Pen Translates award This is Women In Translation month #WIT Umami is a novel about loss, grief and craving told from 5 narrative points of view over 5 years. From the beginning we know certain facts: Ana is planting a milpa or garden instead of going to camp; it is the third anniversary of the drowning death of her little sister Luz; Pina’s mother, who had been absent for […]

What the fuck did I just read?

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Seriously though…what the fuck did I just read??? That’s not rhetorical, that’s not me being cute, and that’s not a set up to explain to you lovely readers what the fuck I did just read. It’s just the first thought that sprang into my head after closing Alvaro Enrigue’s gloriously weird Sudden Death. Reading this book reminded me of the first time I read Roberto Bolano’s masterpiece 2666 (and in fact the same translator worked on both books. That can’t be a coincidence). They’re both […]



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