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     |  My reading became frightfully promiscuous from then on and remains only slightly less so today. I was moved to write (or try to) by The World According to Garp and Under the Volcano. These two books should not be read by an earnest young writer in the same summer. I remember the searing experience of discovering Blood Meridian and wondering how I would ever learn to write with McCarthy’s thundering cadences. Continue reading When We Fell In Love – Derek Green  I was somewhere between being indefinitely alone, and finding someone, when a copy of Birds of America came along, actually two copies. I had just broken up with a girl I had no business breaking up with when I gave her my extra copy of Birds of America as a kind of bonus for letting me break up with her. I never read the book, and until last night, never read Lorrie Moore. There is no good reason why this gap in my reading history exists, but there it is. Continue reading “Willing” from Birds of America by Lorrie Moore  Maria is a badass. How many people would walk away from a lucrative television writing gig (for such shows as Arrested Development) for the opportunity to toil away in the dying business of novel writing? Maria did just that. How many people would buy you two strollers, a baby seat, buy you a splashy dinner every single time you saw her, and give you a thousand bucks when your royalty check was late? Or offer the use of her house for as long as you needed it? Maria has done all of these things for her writer friends. Continue reading This One Is Mine by Maria Semple  A couple of weeks ago, we posted Greg Olear’s essay for the When We Fell In Love series, in which he wrote about The Sun Also Rises. Around the same time, we posted D. R. Haney’s WWFIL about William Faulkner. Over at The Nervous Breakdown, we had quite a few comments preferring one author or the other for various reasons; I fell in behind Uncle Bill, but admittedly hadn’t read any Hemingway since high school, aside from the stray short story. Continue reading The Sun Also Rises  I agree with the author, large companies who have interests that don’t seem to fit the idea of democracy, are ruling the world, in a take no prisoners fashion, the rich get rich, and the poor, well, fuck you. Make money, and squash employee’s souls, or as the old whorehouse ideal goes, either lie down and get fucked, or get up and leave. Aidan, through his search for Paige, goes through his life, step by step, and finds that he’s unknowingly already involved, and the further he gets, the worse it gets, and to be honest, isn’t that how life is? Continue reading American Subversive by David Goodwillie  I read everything by Philip Roth, even if his obsession with young women is getting a bit shabby, and I wish he’d give us a glimmer of humor, a flicker of hope now and then but he’s already given me so much I shouldn’t complain, The Anatomy Lesson and The Professor of Desire, The Human Stain and The Dying Animal, all great, all beautiful, so I’ll keep reading him till I’m old (older) and possibly as incontinent as one of his recent characters. Continue reading When We Fell In Love – Jonathan Santlofer  JC: A few things to get the week rolling: First, be sure to check out two great posts over at jewcy.com. First is the Justin Taylor interview. You’ll remember JR’s enthusiastic review of Taylor’s new story collection Everything Here Is The Best Thing Ever from last week. While you’re there take a look at the Sam Lipsyte piece as well. Also, after the jump, a couple of video clips worth a look Continue reading A Few Notes  Justin Taylor channels a few old chestnuts, (I’ve only just gotten started with this book) but it immediately impressed this reader with a nicely chiseled style that’s refreshingly “no bullshit”. There’s a hurricane lashing the coast, and Taylor’s narrator tells us about Amber, and some other girls, kissing, screwing, maybe hopeful screwing, and invents a deserted suburban landscape that is immediately recognizable. Continue reading Too young to be this good  This is all to say that family lore uniquely prepared me for the novels of William Faulkner, with Grand View filling in for many of Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County settings. There was, for instance, a gray-wood shack next to the chicken yard, where I pictured Joanna Burden of Light in August living as a pariah. There was a smokehouse, sweetly smelling of sultry ham, in the back yard, where I pictured Ringo and Bayard of The Unvanquished playing war. Continue reading When We Fell In Love – D.R. Haney  A lot of people will point to the Hitchcock moments, which Ross doesn’t hide behind, he’s actually really up front about it, and it works for the story. If you set aside the detective aspect of this book (which would be a huge mistake, because it soars, and I’m not a fan of procedurals), you’re likely to find Mr. David Pepin, a normal and well adjusted hater of his own wife. You see…he wants her dead, and it takes the entire novel for you to want her dead too Continue reading Preview of Mr. Peanut  JC: For those of you looking for a way to spend a morning or afternoon in Manhattan this weekend, here’s a tip: visit the Indie and Small Press Book Fair, sponsored by The New York Center for Independent Publishing. The event will be held 3/6 and 3/7 from 10am to 5pm at the General Society Library, 20 W 44th St. Admission is free. According to Interim Director, Leah Schnelbach, about 50 small presses will be attending, including Pointed Leaf, International Publishers, Intima Press, Anvil Press, Olympia Press, the Center for Fiction, Mark Batty Publishers, South End Press, Strangers Gate, French International Publishers, Greenpoint Press, Black Lawrence, Red Dust, Fractious Press, and Seven Stories Press. Also featured will be Continue reading Indie & Small Press Book Fair  Claiming Ground, perfectly titled to express the beating heart of this memoir, is tripartite in construction. In the second part, we have moved on to the 80′s with Laura trying to re-establish connections beyond her wilderness world of sheep, dogs and socially misfit range hands. The results are quite rocky. Will her isolating, anti-social side win out? The third part of the story will show you if a humane resolution is possible, if Laura can find a way to be herself. Continue reading Claiming Ground by Laura Bell  I read Safe in Heaven Dead and I waited. That was a hell of a debut, there was a whiff of The Corrections to that book, but in a more focused world, plus the main character dies on the first page, so, I guess it’s not all Franzen. Then, as I’m doing my monthly Ligon check I come across him on Facebook, which, well, puts Drift and Swerve squarely on my desk. It’s funny to wait so long to read a writer and then realize that he’s continued to write the same searing and effective prose that you remembered. Continue reading Samuel Ligon returns  I did everything short of selling a kidney to get out of the “major author” prerequisite necessary to graduate from Georgetown with a bachelor’s in English literature, but after suffering through Shakespeare, I had no choice but to submit to a dourer DWEM. Lucky thing, because Milton turned out to be the best class I took in college, and Paradise Lost superior, in my view, to anything composed by the more-celebrated Stratford-upon-Avon Bard. Continue reading When We Fell In Love – Greg Olear |  | ||
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