rip franz kafka you would have loved real estate brokers
some of these stories were really good and really captured the kafkaesque scary grueling monotrip franz kafka you would have loved real estate brokers
some of these stories were really good and really captured the kafkaesque scary grueling monotony of bureaucracy in modern life: undergoing MRIs you don't think you need, that elif batuman rendering of buying an apartment.
some of these were really good but not kafkaqesue: yiyun li's carrollian dialogue between punctuation, tommy orange's look at k-holes.
some stories were not good, but kafkaesque, which is kind of a compliment in and of itself really — rarely do you break from actual kafka to take the time to be like, wow, this is so lovely.
and some of course were neither good nor kafkaesque.
that's the trade you take, i guess.
bottom line: i mostly read this as an excuse to say kafkaesque, in case you couldn't tell.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
--------------------- tbr review
an all star lineup of authors writing like kafka? am i dreaming...more
i love blurbs. now i get to read a book because an author i like told me to!
anyway.
for most of this book, you're kind of like "i wonder what's happeni love blurbs. now i get to read a book because an author i like told me to!
anyway.
for most of this book, you're kind of like "i wonder what's happening here." it's sort of ambling along, following a small group of characters. you've been dropped right in the middle of someone's life, and the narrator is not doing any more to explain where you are or why than someone's internal monologue would happen to touch on. for the first 200 pages, you'll just be like, "this is kind of weird." not bad, not good, not memorable, just weird.
then for the last few dozen you will feel such a range of emotions you might catch yourself crying without noticing.
bottom line: a very strange reading experience. i recommend it.
horror retelling of snow white focusing on the impossible beauty standards of today as unwillingly passed down from the women that came before us...
thhorror retelling of snow white focusing on the impossible beauty standards of today as unwillingly passed down from the women that came before us...
this was brilliant before i even started reading it.
i wish i hadn't read all's well before this, because the two are sadly very similar (with nearly identical protagonists, writing styles, and meltdown arcs) and this one is much more interesting to me.
instead, i felt pretty irritated by the middle of this book, which was not only a bit repetitive in and of itself but far too reminiscent of that one.
do i feel like it was necessary to make tom cruise and a surfer bro window-washer and a cop character with a romance hero's name major characters? no. but who am i to question whatever was going on here?
mona awad's writing is so, so weird. and if the beauty industry was any less freakish, it wouldn't work. but thankfully we don't have that problem, and the two fit well!
bottom line: in a weird-off, mona wins every time.
if i five star a book by an author, i will read everything they write for the rest of forever.
including amazon-exclusive essays with old-timey standupif i five star a book by an author, i will read everything they write for the rest of forever.
including amazon-exclusive essays with old-timey standup titles.
this was so totally charming and lovely. i find greer's writing style funny as always, and his real cast of characters in his life i found so unforgettable i almost wish he would write full-on nonfiction instead of very lifey and very whimsical metafiction. my only complaint is that it's too short! the ending was abrupt and unwelcome.
lame.
bottom line: why can't things i like go on forever?
i love books about women having mental breakdowns.
and this was kind of that, but what it mostly was was very, very good.
it's a brilliant exploration oi love books about women having mental breakdowns.
and this was kind of that, but what it mostly was was very, very good.
it's a brilliant exploration of womanhood, of what it means to mother and to work and to try to do your moral best and look around at everyone else and be unconvinced they're doing any of it — and for that worry to extend so far you wonder if you're actually doing any of it yourself.
this encapsulation of a few days in one ordinary life totally riveted me. i loved the protagonist's children, and while i wish a few more things were fleshed out — the husband, the babysitter, the ending — all in all this felt like drinking a cool glass of water.
i expected to enjoy this book, because i love translated literature by women and i never tire of reading aboi wish that were my life in three stories.
i expected to enjoy this book, because i love translated literature by women and i never tire of reading about france.
i didn't expect to be so impressed by it!
the author's self awareness, the way she writes emotionally but cleanly and sparsely, her rendering of her life through such clear and simple prose...all of it blew me away. i was enraptured by the last novella in particular, gobbling up the pages, my heart hurting, hoping for a happily ever after.
so who cares about the weaker moments.
bottom line: i am so pleasantly surprised. by a book i expected to like! what a treat.
(review to come / thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)...more
i fall for the gimmick of mixed media every time, even if it doesn't seem strictly necessary to the story or even good. thaexperimental novel!!!!!!!!!
i fall for the gimmick of mixed media every time, even if it doesn't seem strictly necessary to the story or even good. that was not the case in this book, and i had a great time.
the blackout poems were strong and powerful, which made up for the fact that sometimes the more traditional novel parts felt alternately a bit saccharine or a bit full of itself.
bottom line: literary, unique award-winners get me to forgive a lot....more
now for all the tiktok girls engaging in stolen valor...THIS is peak delulu.
i found part one of this, about a woman who convinces herself and herha ha
now for all the tiktok girls engaging in stolen valor...THIS is peak delulu.
i found part one of this, about a woman who convinces herself and her husband that a man flirting with her means they basically had sex, and thereby she is in love with him and ultimately must leave her marriage, so bizarre and interesting.
chris and sylvere's descent into obsession is really fascinating, and its implications about monogamy and misogyny even more so.
part two, which kind of devolves into unrelated essays, not so much.
bottom line: women should be allowed to be insane, as a treat.
the rumors are true: this book is poorly researched, and wildly pretentious, and mostly full of opinions and feelings it is thinly veiling as fact.
i athe rumors are true: this book is poorly researched, and wildly pretentious, and mostly full of opinions and feelings it is thinly veiling as fact.
i also really enjoyed it.
and lauren oyler would probably not like me much at all. a lot of these essays are rants about things that are almost exactly behaviors that oyler engages in, but (for reasons that will not be disclosed) worse: spending time on social media, when that site is goodreads instead of oyler's favored twitter; writing reviews for goodreads instead of for pay, as oyler does; if you must spend time on goodreads, doing so for more than 5 minutes a day and unironically, rather than as a bit, the way her friend does.
anyway. none of this bothered me because i really liked her.
these essays are actually very amusing, and even though i was one of the dreaded goodreads plebeians who panned her first book on here, i found i was able to enjoy this book a lot when i turned my critic-brain off.
when it was on, oh boy, was there a lot to say: oyler loves the same 3 sentence structures and run ons. she got famous for criticizing jia tolentino for covering well-tread territory (disclaimer: in a moment of parallel thinking, so did i), and yet none of this rings particularly original. moments like gawker's downfall and ben mora's firing are to internet leftists what jia tolentino's girlboss t-shirts and reality tv are to mainstream feminists.
but i digress. i chose to turn my critic brain off because it was too exhausting, and the joke was on me, because i had a great time when i did.
awkward.
bottom line: this is not a good book, but i had a good time.
3.5
-------------------- currently reading update
of all the reasons people are mad at this book, i have seen nobody complaining about how factually inaccurate the goodreads chapter is.
as someone who has (mostly) accidentally become the best reviewer, i can tell you the only way you become the #1 best reviewer in azerbaijan is by...living in azerbaijan.
although it is very funny to imagine this guy who's trying to become a top poster frantically searching up azerbaijani users, thinking their voting power is inflated.
-------------------- tbr review
i love drama, and i'm one of the dumb goodreads plebs who didn't like lauren oyler's first book, so i wanted to read this even before bookforum published the meanest review i've ever read about it.
getting to read the inspiration behind "the renata adler of being on your phone a lot" only adds to that masochism.
every single word in this short story is well chosen, and these characters, who we only know for a few pages, are compthis is so short and so perfect.
every single word in this short story is well chosen, and these characters, who we only know for a few pages, are completely unforgettable.
no on-page exploration of race, or of integration, or of institutionalization, or of social causes exists within it, and yet, in spite of that and its brevity, fully formed thoughts about all of it hit you like a punch.
my only problem with it was wanting more and more.
bottom line: i could spend the rest of my life only reading toni morrison and be content.
is there a theme more bittersweet and stirring than the idea that you never can go home again?
this book conveys that and about a million other strikinis there a theme more bittersweet and stirring than the idea that you never can go home again?
this book conveys that and about a million other striking things and is surreal the whole time.
this reminded me of outline: filled with a lot of intelligent dialogue and interiority, expanding on themes deeply relevant to daily life and today's society.
and wow those themes!!! the way it surreally conveys the absurdity of colonization, of the thin line between each of us and abject poverty, of family and of death and of social status and of money and of race.
bottom line: this was one of a kind and remarkable....more
i love books and food and books about food, and i love laurie colwin.
anyone who can call a terrible dinner one of "the myriad surprises and challengei love books and food and books about food, and i love laurie colwin.
anyone who can call a terrible dinner one of "the myriad surprises and challenges in this this most interesting and amazing of all possible worlds" is someone i'll read everything by.
i enjoyed so much about this book, especially when i was able to look past the profusion of mayonnaise salads and beef teas and general english foods it foisted upon me.
in other words, good writing is timeless...but good recipes are not.
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