If I wrote here ‘I loved it from beginning to end’ that would be a true statement but also true would be the statements ‘for about half the time I hadIf I wrote here ‘I loved it from beginning to end’ that would be a true statement but also true would be the statements ‘for about half the time I had no idea what was going on’ and ‘I could have picked this book up and begun to read at any page or indeed could have read the whole thing back to front and it would have been at least as interesting, and maybe more.’
The big takeaway for me is that we writers are exactly ourselves and you might as well go with the brain you’ve got, all you writers out there, because you’re the only one who can tell your stories, and probably you’ll be better telling your own stories than trying to write the thing you think you should be writing instead.
(speaking to my Self here, as well, in case you had any doubt of that)
Antkind gave me exactly, precisely the same experience of reality, the same confusions, the same wonder, that watching a Charlie Kaufman film gives me. Reading Antkind was eerily and precisely like being dropped into a set from the film “Synecdoche, New York.”...more
I'm thrilled that this novel has won the Woman's Prize. I love that a woman can disappear for 15+ years and then come back with a new novel and charm I'm thrilled that this novel has won the Woman's Prize. I love that a woman can disappear for 15+ years and then come back with a new novel and charm the world with it. How wonderful, to live in a world where people love this book. It makes me want to burst into song that readers like you exist. That song by Louis Armstrong says it all.
All I could think for the first twelve pages was: ‘I can’t read this.'
After I pressed on intrepidly for a few more pages, I skipped to page 74, because I wanted to see if Susannah Clarke was still capitalizing like Donald Trump at that point in the novel, and I discovered that, yes, she still was.
And then I read the last page. AND then I tried again, from the beginning. And now I’m done....more
Reading Shuggie Bain felt something like hearing a lost Bach cantata for the first time. There are 200 extant Bach cantatas, which might be enough BacReading Shuggie Bain felt something like hearing a lost Bach cantata for the first time. There are 200 extant Bach cantatas, which might be enough Bach cantatas even for us avid lovers of Bach cantatas....more
This excellent novel wasn't excellent enough for me. It frankly feels too soon in my brain to have another oppressed-woman-does-weird-stuff novel comeThis excellent novel wasn't excellent enough for me. It frankly feels too soon in my brain to have another oppressed-woman-does-weird-stuff novel come along to compete with the startling revelation that was The Vegetarian. Also, outside of timing, I just think the former book is better on every level.
And here's another thing I kept thinking as I read: that I am MORE THAN READY for a Korean woman to come along and write a take-down triumph of a novel, about a woman overcoming cultural misogyny, instead of being gently obliterated by it in some weird and metaphorical way. I'm craving a Korean version of Out by Natsuo Kirino. A novel where men not only fail to dominate their women, but also end up in tiny, chopped pieces of their former selves. That kind of novel would do my soul good just now. That's very American of me, I guess, to want a good comeback story. I'm a little tired of 'women and their traumas' being so dominant in our cultural literary scene just now. Let's have some kick-ass novels already, ladies!...more
It stirred my mind and not my heart, and in this way it was different from any other book I've read this year, and also made it different from my expeIt stirred my mind and not my heart, and in this way it was different from any other book I've read this year, and also made it different from my experience of what most literary novels written in English today are trying to achieve. It's so unabashedly intellectual. It doesn't spell it out. It doesn't care if I don't understand everything, or if I draw the wrong conclusions about what the book is supposed to mean. It's the kind of novel that deserves a slow read, and after that a slower re-read.
On its surface it's delightfully entertaining. Even so I followed about half of it. Maybe. Kunzru provides translations for the non-English phrases that he tosses in like croutons, here and there. He doesn't expect me to keep up in three languages. But for the novel's meanings as a whole he has left me without a glossary. I must approve of the way he left me floundering, though, because this novel was without a doubt a 5-star read for me....more
The writing is quite interesting--there is a lot of effective use of sentence fragments, to evoke a jittery anxiety throughout, and the descriptive prThe writing is quite interesting--there is a lot of effective use of sentence fragments, to evoke a jittery anxiety throughout, and the descriptive prose is marvelous. After Booth's first novel, Sealed, I knew I'd be reading ever book Booth writes from then on. A master of mood. ...more
This little book is designed to mimic a book of gentle daily aphorisms. The look of this book is genteel and gifty, and the message inside is deliberaThis little book is designed to mimic a book of gentle daily aphorisms. The look of this book is genteel and gifty, and the message inside is deliberately dissonant with this look. Humor and outrage mix from page to page, in a way that reminds me, not surprisingly, of Smyer's novel Knucklehead.
It's a delicate thing to write a book that makes your intended audience laugh even as it mocks and ridicules your intended audience. Reading it is to perpetually experience a "ha-ha, oh wait, that's me he's talking about, ugh" feeling. This book is enlightening. But also, I'm glad it's short.
Odd and unsettling and definitely worth a read for those two reasons alone.
good info for when you find yourself living in the middle of a natural disaster where water service may not come back to your house for months to comegood info for when you find yourself living in the middle of a natural disaster where water service may not come back to your house for months to come. It does require you to indulge in the author's many eye-rolling punnish asides and be ok with him calling human excrement "Mr. Turdy" but I could deal with it....more
I love Ruby Hamad for this attempt to navigate the knotty nexus of gender, race, and feminism. I felt more like I was talking with a friend than I wasI love Ruby Hamad for this attempt to navigate the knotty nexus of gender, race, and feminism. I felt more like I was talking with a friend than I was reading a manifesto. That approach has pros and cons.
It reminded me of the reading experience I have with Richard Dawkins. With both of these authors I feel they are making assumptions about what’s obvious to them—that everyone already knows this thing they’re talking about—and in other cases they overexplain what really does feel obvious. I just didn’t fit well with Hamad’s assumptions about her general reader.
Another thing I found interesting here is that Hamad sometimes wrote as “we” in her sentences, and sometimes addresses “you” or “women,” and I wasn’t always sure who belonged to “we” or “you” or “women.”
On the whole it was enjoyable and enlightening....more
I took nearly eight weeks to read these stories, not because they were difficult to read, but because they were such a deceptive pleasure. These storiI took nearly eight weeks to read these stories, not because they were difficult to read, but because they were such a deceptive pleasure. These stories can be read and enjoyed for their own sake, but I was also fascinated by what I learned about these stories along the way, as well as about the author and his intentions, from the outstanding introduction written by translator Martha Ann Selby. I kept toggling from story to introduction and back again, and taking my time made the book all the more rewarding for me.
Dilip Kumar is a native speaker of Gujarati who chooses to write in Tamil. That's interesting to Selby (and me, too) and she gives much information in the introduction about Kumar's linguistic/literary choices, and how they reflect both his personal experiences as well as his literary intent. Almost everything I've read of contemporary Indian fiction has been written in English, and with the needs of an international, English-speaking audience in mind. English is a national language of India, of course, but it isn't a native language of India, and sometimes I feel that Indian authors writing in English are using their art to explain India to the outside world. Kumar's stories in contrast are written for insiders, for Tamil readers. As an English-speaking American I'm entering these stories as a trespasser, or at best an ignorant tourist. I want to emphasize that my alienation didn't make these stories harder to read. Instead, it made them richer to read.
My thanks to Martha Ann Selby for her work in translating and explaining Kumar's stories to me, and thanks to Northwestern University Press for publishing them and for providing me with a review copy....more
This novel was an exceptional reading experience. Every sentence sent me somewhere. Every sentence delighted or energized or moved me. Do you know howThis novel was an exceptional reading experience. Every sentence sent me somewhere. Every sentence delighted or energized or moved me. Do you know how hard that is to do with language? Kudos to Hjorth's translator, as well, for extending Hjorth's language to me. This is the kind of novel with a narrative drive that makes you want to know what happens on the next page, but that also invites you to linger on the sentences as they come along, because you've never read sentences that are quite like these sentences before. The narrative exuberance here reminds me of Saul Bellow. Thanks, Verso, for providing me an e-copy through NetGalley, and I'll surely be buying this novel when it's published for the pleasure of re-reading it with a book in hand....more
"Jubilee" is written in a way that made it hard for me to access the story because I was distracted by the word choices and sentence constructions.
Fo"Jubilee" is written in a way that made it hard for me to access the story because I was distracted by the word choices and sentence constructions.
For instance, when I read a sentence like this one:
"She pressed her ear against the cool, smooth metal and listened as he slid on a condom, then thrust into her."
I experience all kinds of distracting questions in my head, like: "What does it sound like when you 'listen' to someone slide a condom on?" and also: "Why is she 'listening' to him thrust into her, vs. some other verb?"
It's an example of the way word choice interrupted my fictional dream in this novel. It happened to me every few sentences. My attention to the literal meanings of language is higher than most readers, and some people will read the sentence above, and many others just like it, and not get what the heck my problem is.
I also wondered if my problem might be as small as a missing comma. I spent some time thinking that if the author had instead written:
"She pressed her ear against the cool, smooth metal and listened, as he slid on a condom, then thrust into her."
adding a comma after "listened."
So now the sentence tips, where she's listening to the "cool, smooth metal." This is actually plausible in context, because she's in a laundry room, and the "cool, smooth metal" that she's pressing her ear to is a clothes dryer. So then I wonder, is the dryer running? Is she listening to the dryer? ... which sends me back a few pages to see if there is any mention of the dryer running...but no, there is not...and then I realize if she's "listening" to the dryer, then it would be "warm, smooth metal" anyway, not "cool, smooth metal."
So there you go. If you are the kind of reader who can leap immediately to a plausible explanation of what the author meant to write, and ignore what's actually on the page, then you might enjoy this novel a good deal more than I did. ...more
Crooked Hallelujah is brave novel that sheds light on contemporary indigenous American life in deeply meaningful ways.
This novel is to be praised firCrooked Hallelujah is brave novel that sheds light on contemporary indigenous American life in deeply meaningful ways.
This novel is to be praised first and foremost for its complicated, heartbreaking examination of the limited choices women have when they live in poverty--especially when they are raising children in circumstances that offer very little hope. There are so few literary novels written from the perspective of poverty, when it's one of the existential crises of our age. The novel gives nuance and humanity to characters who are living on the bleeding edge.
The novel is also to be cheered because it's a serious literary work that tackles head-on the sometimes-redemptive, frequently-damaging nature of religious conviction in modern life. Not since Jamie Quatro's Fire Sermon have I seen the topic of religious faith dealt with so well in literary fiction (or at all, frankly). The outsized effect that religion has on American culture today is almost never given its proper weight in contemporary fiction, and I welcomed the insights Ford wrote into her story here.
The novel is also to be praised for the realistic way it portrays the present-day outcomes of colonialism and the deliberate erasure of Cherokee culture--not as a history lesson, or to fulfill the expectations of non-indigenous readers, but for the way real lives have been affected by the real loss of tradition and identity.
I know that "brave" is a word so overused in author blurbs that it might provoke cynicism in a review, but if you can remember the original meaning of "brave," that's what this novel is....more
A very unsettling and unpleasant read for me. Am I influenced by the knowledge of Kavan's biography, to feel uneasy about the unsettling ways her writA very unsettling and unpleasant read for me. Am I influenced by the knowledge of Kavan's biography, to feel uneasy about the unsettling ways her writing works on me? Am I thinking about her addiction when I read along and find myself thinking that she isn't completely in control of her own material?
A lot of writers/books I love are more disturbing than Kavan's novels, but with those others I frequently have the feeling, maybe because of my own ignorance of these writers, that they're in control of their material, and that they're deliberately creating literary effects of dread and disorientation, whereas with Kavan I feel like I'm having an encounter with mental illness as I read. ...more
Shruti Swamy writes with precision and clarity and simplicity, about complicated subjects. I really loved that combination. There is a mastery of the Shruti Swamy writes with precision and clarity and simplicity, about complicated subjects. I really loved that combination. There is a mastery of the short story form here, an almost classical approach to storytelling, that I also loved. My favorite story in the collection was "Didi," which begins with such an insightful back-and-forth scene between a husband and wife, where in spite of nothing much happening between them, an entire world of feeling and momentum has been established by the end of these opening pages:
"She lifted each item out of the grocery bag carefully, turning each orange over in her slim hands to inspect them or bless them. She took out a large wooden bowl and placed the oranges inside, and she was right to do so; they were beautiful in that bowl..."
I love this writing. It did keep me somewhat at arms' length because of its polish. It's a complicated criticism that I'm not sure I understand completely, myself, even though I'm the one making it, but I think what I mean is that the stories are a little tidy, written in a way where I was never surprised by an out-of-place shocker of a sentence, or a messy explosive scene...and sometimes I wanted to be surprised....more
Immergut's novel is a deeply meditative journey, on the nature of self, the obligations of motherhood, the effect of trauma on identity, and the naturImmergut's novel is a deeply meditative journey, on the nature of self, the obligations of motherhood, the effect of trauma on identity, and the nature of consciousness. I read it in a day, and I felt exhilarated at the end--a combination of "what did I just read?" and "wow."
The novel is full of strangeness and unexplained connections, but it's grounded in humanity. The central character is trying to understand herself, and to lead a good life, but what she's learning along the way is how little control she has over anything. It's a challenging book in some ways because the protagonist is never quite sure, herself, of what's going on, as she suffers from memory loss. The novel requires the reader to move forward through the story with more incomplete information than is typical when reading a novel. There is a bit of haze at the edges of each scene, where you can't quite be sure what to believe or what's going on. It reminded me of another novel I adored, Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin for the way the novel requires you to yield to what can almost be defined as a lack of coherence, and to allow yourself to feel as lost as the protagonist. It also reminded me of Golden State by Ben Winters and I think readers who were okay with the ambiguities and strangeness of that novel will also enjoy You Again.
This is a book that I'm likely to re-read very soon, just to understand how it's constructed and why it had such a strong effect on me....more
"I'm alive and in my underwear and my skin is yellow."
A magnificent, disturbing novel, about a family that can no longer take care of itself, and that"I'm alive and in my underwear and my skin is yellow."
A magnificent, disturbing novel, about a family that can no longer take care of itself, and that is trying to survive in a society that has left them with nothing to believe in. The inciting tragedy that the family must endure is the precipitous mental and physical decline of the matriarch, Mariana, whose story unfolds in these pages with heartbreaking detail. The narrative voice is staccato-perfect: a barrage of short declarative sentences gives the story a relentless forward motion, where from the first page I could feel the promise of tragedy and loss.
These characters are deeply human, even when they're at their worst, and this is great storytelling, about the most true things that fiction can reveal. A big yes....more
Laura van den Berg's collection didn't connect with me. It feels to me as I read that there is a deliberate flat tone at work here, where the narratorLaura van den Berg's collection didn't connect with me. It feels to me as I read that there is a deliberate flat tone at work here, where the narrators of each story are unreflectively reporting events in the voice of a clinically depressed person. I felt held at arms-length. I was never really let into the story. This is extremely artful, yet very careful writing, where the author is trying to recreate the mimetic impression of casual conversation. I kept wanting to say: hey, Laura! Let go a little! Let your narrative voice become ridiculously gothic for a change, or interior, or just, something other than this cool detached voice...this reader at least would love to see this talented writer reach for more and varied ways to tell her stories....more
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