Currently Reading: Chapter II

[faster]

Samuel R. Delaney, Times Square Red Times Square Blue

[mudd]

I thought I knew delaney pretty well but I've never heard of that book. What is it? Is it good?

m

[surfer]

Recently read:


Milan Kundera - Identity. Admittedly I bought this because I love the book design, but the book (novella) isnt bad either. A derivation of the Cyrano tale, the writing which shifts back and forth between the two main characters, is good through the first 3/4 of the book. After that, the ending gets bogged down in a "is it a dream or is it not a dream?" hazy mess that ends on a really flacid note. Not bad.


Cesar Aira - How I Became A Nun. Not my favorite Aira, but worthwhile nevertheless. In the first 4 pages, a young boy / girl (the pronoun keeps switching) eats an arsenic laced strawberry ice cream cone (his/her first taste of ice cream) and his/her father in a fit of rage, murders the ice cream vendor by shoving him face first into the ice cream bin. Typical Aira.


The Road - Cormac McCarthy. Too much stereotypical post-apocalyptic imagery for me. That's not to say it's completely unimaginative (McCarthy always has a few genuinely poetic phrases lying around to make it through), but long stretches felt like set design instructions for "The Devil's Rejects". Lots of repetitive imagery, everything is "ash-covered" or "the color of gunmetal". The ending is quite maudlin in a way that say "Children of Men" was not, though many fans will argue that it was well earned.


Tahoe Beneath The Surface - Scott Lankford. Much better than I thought. Not a collection of weird tales for tourists, Lankford is a serious historian and this is an expanded version of his Stanford doctoral thesis. Interesting revisiting of two of the "marginal" characters from the Donner Party episode (a needed shift of perspective), and of the life of Sarah Winnemucca, who wrote one of the first native-penned accounts (Life Among the Paiutes) of the early years of contact. Recommended.

[Gerardo A]

Cesar Aira - How I Became A Nun. Not my favorite Aira, but worthwhile nevertheless. In the first 4 pages, a young boy / girl (the pronoun keeps switching) eats an arsenic laced strawberry ice cream cone (his/her first taste of ice cream) and his/her father in a fit of rage, murders the ice cream vendor by shoving him face first into the ice cream bin. Typical Aira.

That was the first thing I read from him (bought it as soon as I got back to MX a year and a half ago) after you recommended him to me, and I immediately connected with it, the type of whimsy that I like.

[cheerios]

Pretty curious about this one, finished ghosts two weeks ago

[surfer]

Of the ones I've read (havent gotten to Seamstress and the Wind or Varamo, which was just released), I'd rank them thusly:

1. An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter
2. The Literary Conference
3. Ghosts
4. How I Became a Nun

But all are worth reading.

[Gerardo A]

Besides HIBAN, I've only read Ghosts (which I loved, too), and I have Seamstress in the Wind and The Literary Conference which I'll read soon I hope. Plus a bunch of other novels and novellas of his in PDF (about 15 or 20?) that I still need to convert to be able to read them in a kindle. I'm currently reading this (you and Mudd will probably like this one when it's translated into English, guy's one of my top 3 or 4 current young MX prosists):

[faster]

I thought I knew delaney pretty well but I've never heard of that book. What is it? Is it good?

m

Extended essays on the cleaning up of Times Square, the sex industry there, class, race, etc. So far very good.

[Gaendaal]

The Road - Cormac McCarthy. Too much stereotypical post-apocalyptic imagery for me. That's not to say it's completely unimaginative (McCarthy always has a few genuinely poetic phrases lying around to make it through), but long stretches felt like set design instructions for "The Devil's Rejects". Lots of repetitive imagery, everything is "ash-covered" or "the color of gunmetal". The ending is quite maudlin in a way that say "Children of Men" was not, though many fans will argue that it was well earned.

I was singularly unimpressed with this, I have to admit.

Now reading:

[Antoine]

Kurt Vonnegut - Bluebeard
I think Grisha mentioned it a few weeks/months ago; The fictional autobiography from ex-soldier, illustrator, abstract expressionist Rabo Karabekian. Very enjoyable - fun read.


A "trilogy" from Jean Echenoz, three "biographical novels" of Nikola Tesla ("Des éclairs" aka "Lightning"), Emil Zatopek ("Courir" aka "Running") and Maurice Ravel ("Ravel").
Three small books, all with brilliant simple/fluid style. I was more interested by Tesla / Zatopek (incredible, fun, tragic stories in those two), a bit less by Ravel.

[nicenick]

The Road - Cormac McCarthy. Too much stereotypical post-apocalyptic imagery for me. That's not to say it's completely unimaginative (McCarthy always has a few genuinely poetic phrases lying around to make it through), but long stretches felt like set design instructions for "The Devil's Rejects". Lots of repetitive imagery, everything is "ash-covered" or "the color of gunmetal". The ending is quite maudlin in a way that say "Children of Men" was not, though many fans will argue that it was well earned.

I was singularly unimpressed with this, I have to admit.

agreed and agreed. still have yet to see the light on cormac mccarthy: something about his style completely rubs me the wrong way. like delillo but veering even closer towards self-parody...

getting into this - so far, pretty incredible (great cover too):

[mudd]

oh but suttree is brilliant. i like blood meridian and child of god too, but my fondest memories are of suttree.

m

[Adrian]

Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson - quite good but not as mindblowing as I was led to believe...

[Charon]

seconding Blood Meridian. That one is really, really good. I haven't read Suttree yet but it's on my list now....

[billygomberg]

seconding Blood Meridian. That one is really, really good. I haven't read Suttree yet but it's on my list now....

by far the best I've read by Mr McCarthy (I haven't read Suttree either). I liked The Road quite a bit (the economy of his language was impressive, and quite the opposite of Blood Meridian), and had some great terror/suspense moments. points for being an accessible "difficult" novel but it isn't the kind of reading experience I got out of Blood Meridian.

[hnismokehash]

[faster]

Read Inherent Vice last week. Kinda lame, honestly.

[jon abbey]

Read Inherent Vice last week. Kinda lame, honestly.

thank you.

[faster]

Hey, it was just about the only English-language book I could find at Dieter and Billy's place.

[Adrian]

[The Restored] Finnegans Wake - James Joyce
'The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House' - catalogue of this London museum which I can't recommend highly enough.