Kraus, Chris. I Love Dick. Pasadena: Semiotext(e) Native Agents Series, 1998, 2006. Read: 12/22/20 (on the way to pick up Craiglist trash can) – 1/1/21, 6:04 PM. 1/1/21: I want a better word for it, but, there is a form of hyper-intellectual hyper-sexual woman (manic was the word) of which [] is one and Chris… Continue reading Chris Kraus – I Love Dick
Category: Fiction
Maxine Hong Kingston – The Woman Warrior
Maxine Hong Kingston. The Woman Warrior. Random House: New York: Random House, Inc.; Toronto: Random House of Canada Limited, 1976. 8/8/20 – 8/18/20. Transcribed 8/20/20 Imagining all the people her aunt could have been, a disappeared figure. Cut out. Told with a folklorish certainty. Matter-of-fact-ness. Interesting that the chapter literally about a woman warrior is… Continue reading Maxine Hong Kingston – The Woman Warrior
Ann Patchett – Bel Canto
Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto. Knew the sweetness had to end, all of the loves sustained within a single swell, like the vibrato of an opera singer’s note All helpless to systems How does she make all of these characters? Simon who fell in love with his wife in this country and sobs, in her blue… Continue reading Ann Patchett – Bel Canto
J. M. Coetzee – Disgrace
Coetzee, J. M. Disgrace. New York: Penguin Group, 1999. 4/8/20 – 4/10/20 Transcribed: Unknown; 4/24/20. Another book that is stunningly simple. Amazing “show don’t tell.” Has the markings of allegory but also brutally real. (Is this an observation I make too often in some form or another?) Very clean clear prose. The tone is of… Continue reading J. M. Coetzee – Disgrace
George Saunders – Pastoralia
Saunders, George. Pastoralia. New York: The Berkely Publishing Group, 2000. 4/6/20 (vast majority) – 4/7/20 Given to me by [] for my birthday. Cover subtly flashes with little stars and shooting stars. Immediately not what I thought it was, but so fitting that it is only the simulacrum of pastoralism. One of the books those… Continue reading George Saunders – Pastoralia
Salman Rushdie – Shame
Rushdie, Salman. Shame. New York: Random House, 1983. 3/22/20 – 4/1/20, 7:33 Transcribed (4/11/20): I’m continuously amazed at the ornamentation of his prose, things I would never have thought of in a thousand yeaers, a kind of inventiveness that I think I have been trying to prune out of my own writing… So fringed patterned… Continue reading Salman Rushdie – Shame
Saul Bellow – Herzog
Bellow, Saul. Herzog. New York: Penguin Books, 1964. Transcribed 1/30/20; 2/16/20. General Thoughts * reads like someone in the mindstate of: herzog, barrage, too much stimulus, overwhelming. i fell in love with and feared madeleine with him, sitting on the rim of the bathtub as she applied makeup like a dictator. * this book made… Continue reading Saul Bellow – Herzog
Jenny Zhang – Sour Heart
Zhang, Jenny. Sour Heart. New York: Lenny, and imprint of Random House. 2017 This one it makes sense that there are so few quotes, I noticed that reading it. It was a really beautiful book; it taught me that ugly prose can be beautiful when it’s strung together right. Structural, not elemental. I guess the… Continue reading Jenny Zhang – Sour Heart
Laura Sims – Looker
Sims, Laura. Looker. Scribner: New York. 2019. Transcribed 10/14/19. This book scared the shit out of me. And probably would any other super educated, pompous, self-styled intellectual person. I’m at a point right now where this could be me. I already see the edges of it forming. What happens when the things that make one… Continue reading Laura Sims – Looker
Vladimir Nabokov – Stories
Nabokov, Vladimir. Stories: The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov. Vintage Book: New York. 1995. Transcribed 10/14/19. Should note did not get in any way deep into this. Infatuated with the first story. A little bit put off by some of the others. Brought to Monhegan. Not quite a beach read. Red in the back of an… Continue reading Vladimir Nabokov – Stories