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– August 16, 2008Posted in: Uncategorized
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
Every day i visit your site five, six, seven times.
I enjoy looking at the youtube clips and clicking your links.
Sometimes I leave comments under fake names. I would say that over the last two years i have left anywhere from 35 to 50 comments, and not one of those times have you responded to my comments, which makes me wonder whether you are a very busy man who doesn’t have the time to visit his own site, or, you’re an incredibly lonely man who loathes communicating with the very people he wants to talk to.
Maybe I remind you of how much you hate everyone, or maybe you don’t like the sound of my voice. Maybe it was your site I left the stoned comment at, about how some thing Tannenhaus said reminded me of how badly I wanted to have sex with my wife’s niece again. I don’t know if that was this place, or someplace else, but its true. I do. You should see my wife’s niece. Her name is Kelly. She’s 20 years old, 5’1, long blonde hair, bubble but with just the right amount of give. I had sex with her. It was incredible. The best sex I’ve ever had.
But that’s not the point. The point is that I want to get to know you, the real you. What frightens you. That kind of thing. But it’s fine if you don’t want to get to know me. It’s fine if the whole point of me coming here is for me to know who you are and not the other way around. All I’m saying is that you have to embrace this new form of communication and extend it past its perceived possibilities. That’s the beauty of development. Tearing down shit, melting the monumental. That’s the American way. That’s the way of the future. That’s what it means to be modern. Be the modern man that you are. That’s all I’m trying to say.
Well, if this comment is intended as a satire of my own tone, it partially works. If it is intended as sincere, email me. I respond to all emails. Comments are a more complicated matter. (See, there’s your response.)
And, by the way, thanks for the reminder on Kenneth Goldsmith.
Assuming that your comment is in some sense genuine: Yes, I’m a busy man who tries his best to participate on his own site, among other things. But aside from this blog, I’m running a podcast, writing essays, freelancing, trying to collect checks to pay the rent, trying now to save the goddam podcast, writing fiction, et al. But email works best for me when it comes to communicating with readers for reasons I won’t go into, and I do answer just about every one. I don’t loathe people, although I can also be introverted and not particularly social for days. And like anyone, I do choose how much time I devote to any particular area of my life.
A cameo appearance from The Outer Life…