Books I Read October 15th, 2024

Fight on, dear friend. Fight on.

Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson – Speculative fiction more in the Etgar Keret line than Fritz Leiber, impossible things happening outside of traditional genre norms. Interesting to me that this was so well regarded within the fantasy/sci-fi space at one point – alas, it falls pretty far outside of it these days. Anyway, clever and funny and sad. Good stuff.

My Death by Lisa Tuttle – A widow attempts to write the biography of a her favorite forgotten writer. Strange things ensue. More anti-genre genre fiction. Good stuff.

Special Envoy: A Spy Novel by Jean Echnoz – It isn't really. A spy novel, I mean, more a comedy with some light genre flourishes. There is a plot but it almost seems pointless describing it, thin cover for a lot of sexual politicking and funny asides. Light but enjoyable.

Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida – Speaking of genres, there really ought to be a short hand for that form of Japanese literature populated entirely by quirky Edoites visiting esoteric tea shops and all night diners, engaging in whistful, semi-mystical dialogues – that way I could stay the hell way from it. This is sub-Murakami shlock, without a recognizable human figure to be found.

Books I Read August 31st, 2024

Spent the last few weeks wandering around England, France, drinking tea and eating cheese, respectively. Came back to find my house was not burnt down, nothing to take for granted here in LA in 2024.

Grimus by Salman Rushdie – An immortal Indian seeks death, purpose in this surrealistic sci-fi. I admire Rushdie's willingness to straddle genres, but I can't say this did a heck ton for me other than that.

City of the Living by Nicola Lagioia – True crime overview of two Roman neer-do-wells committing a Leopold and Loeb. Overwrought, even (especially) given the seriousness of the subject matter.

Playing for Thrills by Shuo Wang – A hooligan tries to solve the mystery of whether he killed his friend in a drunken weekend a decade past. Reminded me of Bolano in its focus on the down and out and the constant, ominous presence of memory.

The Skating Rink by Roberto Bolano – A lovesick little person builds a castle for his dream woman. Also, a murder. One of Bolano's many minor masterpieces, at once compulsively readable and heavy with esoteric weight.

Red Pyramid by Vladamir Sorokin – Short fiction by Russia's most outre fantasist. I enjoyed Sorokin's novels but found this too vile even for my jaded tastes.

The Siege of Loyalty House: A Civil War Story by Jessie Childs – It is always an odd marvel to me how little even educated Englishfolk know about their own history. Their civil war is largely a lacunae for most of the anglos I speak to, and the Glorious Revolution fails to elicit more than an eye blink. I mean we're dumb as shit too, don't get me wrong. God knows I've got no delusions about the quality of my countrymen. Anyway, this was a perfectly readable few hundred pages, the kind of on the ground history that I find both enjoyable and enlightening.

Swords Against Wizardry by Fritz Leiber – Heroic analogs for Leiber and his goy best friend wander around a magical New York, drink heavily, make poor romantic decisions. Would it shock anyone to discover these were inspiration for City Dreaming?

Books I Read August 6th, 2024

It's hot here, but still nicer than where you are. Probably. If not I'm slightly jealous.

The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray by Jorge Amado – A cast of Salvadorean neer'do'wells play Weekend at Bernie's with the corpse of their beloved bourgeois turned drunkard king. Sort of a companion piece to last week's Tortilla Flats. I really like Jorge Amado, this is a joyful little novella.

The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner – The return of a madman/genius/hippie/prodigal son to a town in rural New York leads to chaos, lots of monologues. It's probably my fault for picking up a 700 page work of philosophical fiction written by a largely forgotten mid-century novelist, but this didn't do a lot for me. I think even if I'd been more inclined to towards its general genre I wouldn't have been a huge fan of this, which was rambly and didn't really come together.

The Discovery of America By the Turks by Jorge Amado – A significantly bawdier take on Taming of the Shrew, another slight and vulgar delight by the grand old man of Brazilian letters.

Books I Read July 29th, 20024

Books and books and books.

The Mongolian Conspiracy by Rafael Bernal – An aging killer for the Mexican government finds himself entangled in international intrigue above his pay grade in what I gather is a classic of Mexican noir. Violent and well-written, though it isn't anything you won't have read before.

The Flander's Road Claude Simon – There was a thing that he did (the writer, the one in the laundromat, the one doing his laundry) which was when he (the writer) was writing a review for a book that he (the writer, or I should say the reader) had read that week, and it (the book) was written in the peculiar, orotund, overflowing, exhausting style of say a Claude Simon (or of a William Faulkner, or of a Proust), he (the writer) would write the review in a similar style, which is to say, without using a proper period for a hundred or five hundred or perhaps even a thousand words (not that he counted them one by one (he being the writer), often eschewing entirely the details of the plot which, if we are to be honest, in this sort of book, generally are not the relevant point but oh well why not try it a cuckolded cavalry officer in WWII dies in a suicidal charge on a Panzer, has his history dissected by three of his soldiers over the course of the next several days, weeks, years, dissected in the same identical, interminable, inexhaustible style, which, let's be fair, he (the writer) knew what he was getting into when he picked this book up, he (the reader) had read Claude Simon before (not to mention Faulkner and Proust) and even enjoyed him (Claude Simon) on occasion but he (the reader) confesses to finding this particular book (Flander's Road) to be a little bit weak sauce, if we're going to be absolutely honest (and why not be?) even though it (the book) has a fascinating backstory in so far as the writer (Claude Simon) was a cavalryman during France's disastrous WWII retreat, and thus was drawing from personal experience in his depiction of the blood and mud and filth ridden eponymous road. Still, it ain't Absalom, Absalom.

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck – A crew of drunkards and ne'er do wells find adventure, immortal fame in this tragic and peculiar re-telling of the Arthur myth. A favorite of mine from when I was about fifteen, sweet and sad and wistful. Like if Sutree wasn't miserable.

Act of Passion by Simenon – Another of Simenon's desperate bourgeois discovers the true meaning of love in leaving his family, murder. Shades of Jim Thompson in the intersection of sex and savagery, another of Simenon's innumerable minor masterpieces.

Books I Read July 21st 2024

This week I made a pretty solid semifreddo. I did some other things as well but that's the only one I feel comfortable telling internet strangers. Oh, I also read the following books.

Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef by Ian Kelly – The title pretty much sums it up. It was quick and reasonably engaging.

Red Plenty by Francis Spufford – An ensemble cast scientists, technicians, politicians, and fixers tell the story of the Soviet Union's high point, an idyll in the early 60's where it seemed as if Marx's hopes for a post-capitalist society bereft of want or cruelty might come to fruition. I admired Spufford's ability to turn a theoretically obtuse economic issue into an engaging work of fiction.

The Madman of Bergerac by Simenon – One of Maigret's more antisemitic adventures.

Every Tongue Got to Confess by Zora Neal Hurston – A collection of postbellum African American stories, jokes and folklore. Abstractly fascinating for what it details about the post-reconstruction South, if not actually that interesting line by line.

The Rouge of the North by Eileen Chang – A beautiful, lower class woman is turned into a dragon lady by the stultifying atmosphere of pre-revolution upper class Shanghai. Another of Chang's sharp, insightful works of fiction. A real talent.

Books I Read July 15th

I got rhymes like dimes, except the rhymes are books that I read this week.

Marshlands and Prometheus Unbound by Andre Gide – Absurdist explorations of the pretensions of artists. I found the first of these charming and the second kind of impenetrable.

Jimmy the King: Murder, Vice, and the Reign of a Dirty Cop by Gus Garcia-Roberts – The decades long rise and rapid fall of Long Island's most corrupt police officer (although perhaps only by a slim margin.) A disturbing exploration of how easily justice is miscarried in our country.

Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett – Gamer turns pacifist in this distinctly odd work by genre's most beloved humorist. Prescient in its depiction of war as entertainment, sort of like if J.G. Ballard wrote a work of YA.

Rene Leys by Victor Segalen – A narcissistic writer in pre-revolution Peking is enchanted by the dubious claims of a youthful fixer. A charming and thoughtful rumination on the limitations of genuine cultural exchange, objective truth. I dug it.

Books I Read July 9th

Generally speaking, life is better the more I'm able to make myself read.

Written on Water by Eileen Chang – Youthful, scattershot contemplations by the doyen of mid-century Anglo-Chinese fictions. As a rule I tend to find writing about writing really boring, so some of the critical essays left me cold, but I enjoyed the surprisingly neutral recollections of Chang's nightmarish childhood, as well as all the stuff about fashion.

Of what one cannot speak, one ought remain silent.

Murder in Memoriam – Two murders twenty years apart set a police inspector to investigate the dark corners of France's history. Second-rate Manchette.

A Chance Meeting : Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, 1854-1967 by Rachel Cohen – The (actually, generally planned) encounters of major American figures used as a vehicle for examining the history of American letters. A clever premise executed with insight and clarity.

Broken April by Ismail Kadare – The loosely interlinked stoies of a doomed killer and an urban writer express the complexities of the rural Albanian blood feud, the relationship between an artist and their subject. Or, as Nietzsche said – “It is always as it was between Achilles and Homer: one person has the experience, the sensation, the other describes it.” I actually picked this up prior to the Nobel laureate's recent passing, and it did not disappoint.

True Stories: And Other Essays by Francis Spufford – Erudite idiosyncratic essays from a cultural observer of rare empathy and sincerity. I liked the ones on science fiction the best.

Books I Read June 30th

For the first time in what seems like years, I met my weekly book quota. Not last week—last week I was lazy. This week. Anyway.

Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre – A healer searches for love, a new snake in a ruined future earth. One of those books in which the post-apocalypse looks like a kind of idealized vision of 60s counterculture (see also: Dhalgren, Engine Summer). I wanted it to be weirder.

Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diope – A pre-revolutionary French academicist reflects o n a youthful sojourn in Senegal, the ills of slavery.

The Possessed by Witold Gombrowicz – A Polish pastich (?) of the Gothic novel. Beware the minor works of great writers.

The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659: The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries' Wars by Geoffrey Parker – Heralded as marking the birth of new military history, Parker's study reviews the history of the 80 Year War entirely in economic/material terms, eschewing tactics and personalities almost entirely. I have a weird thing about the Wars of Religion, but even if you didn't I think there's something fascinating about reading something which forces one to consider the infinite complexities of human existence, that behind the siege of Breda or the Battle of Rocroi were hundreds of sutlers waiting to turn carrion scavenge into specie.

Books I Read June 17th, 2024

Time passes—did you hear?

The Crooked Man by Philip Davison – A low ranking MI6 stringer gets embroiled in some nefarious deeds above his pay grade, is forced to consider the moral ramifications of doing evil things for the government.

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford – Five lives unlived. A marvelous meditation on the complexities of the human experience by a writer with a rare gift for prose and thought. One hesitates to use the word luminous given the title but it is appropriate. I really loved this. There are few things I find myself more grateful for than an optimistic work of art.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – Haven't touched this in going on two and a half decades, but picking it up again it remains a marvelous and insightful text. Past 40 and I'm still beating my way against the current, alas. Also, fascinating homosexual subplot that somehow most people miss even though it's obvious and indisputable. I remember seeing someone had labeled a recent book 'the queer Great Gatsby' and I remember thinking 'that's just called The Great Gatsby.'

The Gutter and the Grave by Ed McBain – The kind of classic men's noir in which every female character gets a paragraph long description of their breasts.

A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia and Other Stories by Victor Pelevin – Surrealist post-Soviet shorts. Weird and impossible and thoroughly enjoyable.

The Enormous Room by e.e. Cummings – Cummings's slightly fictionalized depiction of the time he spent in a French internment camp for writing scathing things about the allies in private letters. A lot of this is enjoyable and a lot of it is really elaborate descriptions of the physical properties of the people he met in prison and I was kind of lukewarm on the thing as a whole.

Greek Lessons by Han Kang – Gnomic East-Asian literature. Reminded me of Yuko Tsushima, and not in a way I entirely loved.

Books I Read May 27th, 2024

In the long interval since my last entry I went back to Baltimore to see my folks, which partly explains the sudden spate of history/anthropology readings, a peculiar obsession of mine in my mid 20s and a largely forgotten sedimentary layer to the rapidly moldering boxes of books in my basement (sorry, Mom.) I also celebrating turning 40 by baking 41 pizzas, and even managed to strong arm enough friends to come over and eat them.

Getting old you can't help but count the pieces of yourself you've left along the way. There are a lot of people in the world with a withered fistful of Dan Polansky. If that's you I hope there's still some sweetness to the remains, and also that you're well, and happy, and have traded your years wisely, and grown content with your mistakes.

A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma – A false spiritualist attempts to exorcise the ghosts of a vulture capitalist in this genre bending literary noir. Well-written, evocative in its depiction of lower class immigrant life in Miami, and there's a whole side plot about Potosi which made me recall my days spent wondering around Bolivia with fondness. The last will probably not relate to you but the first two might.

The Sundial by Shirley Jackson – A clan of abhorrent New England aristocrats await the end of days. Another of Jackson's minor masterpieces – funny, horrifying, and genuinely odd. There is an opaque simplicity to her writing, a sense that while every line is true the overall effect is to lead the reader into some great misdirection. Lots of fun.

Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga – A mocking parable about the spread of Christianity into the author's native Rwanda. Shrewd and funny.

The Fawn by Magda Szabo – Stream of conscience recollections of the miserable childhood and obsessive hatreds of a Hungarian actor. I don't really like Magda Szabo and I can't really say why. There's Miteleuropan obsession with guilt and subterranean instinct (see also: Marai, Sandor, Zweig, Stevie et al) that kind of misses me these days. Obviously that's a very subjective critique.

Wellington's Rifles by Mark Urban – A narrative history of the first rifled units in the English army and their various battles against Napoleon. In retrospect I recognize my erstwhile passion for military history as a late adolescent attempt to confirm a masculinity in which I so obviously lacked confidence (this was also why I liked Norman Mailer), and digging through boxes earlier this month I was kind of going 'another book about the Boer war, Danny? Really?' But this one is actually a lot of fun, engaging popular history which I cribbed from for my first trilogy.

The World of Odysseus by M.I. Finlay – This is remains an attempt to glean the world of pre-literate Greece from its most famous literary product. I can't say I found all of this persuasive on a re-read.

The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton – An attempt to reconstruct the mindset of the various classes of pre-Revolutionary France from a variety of historical sources. Worth the re-read just to be reminded that all of the modern interpretations of fairy tales are basically bogus.

Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas – A wide-spanning exploration of the societal function behind the human obsession with physical and spiritual impurity. I kind of feel towards anthropology the same way I do analysis, as being a serious of fascinating but largely unprovable hypotheses that shed light on the human condition without ever actually approaching the realm of scientific thought. Good thing I'm not an academic!

My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura – Existentialist Japanese psychological horror.

Songs of Kabir by Kabir – Ecstatic syncretic poetry from the Indian sub-continent. Alas that we are particles spinning in space, our existence devoid not only of a creator but of any meaning or purpose beyond what we manage to inflict on it through sheer, miserable effort.

Books I Read April 22nd, 2024

No comment.

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan – The personal history of an obsessive surfer. Finnegan is fascinating and a good writer though my more or less complete disinterest in surfing as an activity somewhat diminished my enjoyment of this . That one's pretty well on me, obviously.

The Scorpion's Head by Hilde Vandermeeren – Technically a novel.

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo – The son of the eponymous returns to his mother's village in pursuit of his patrimony to discover it is occupied by ghosts whose surreal misfortunes serve as commentary on Mexican history, though that's to simplify a fragmented and esoteric narrative. You can see how Rulfo served as an inspiration for Central/South American magical-realism, but there's a stark quality to the prose which keeps it fresh despite having waded through an awful lot of his epigones. Good stuff.

Parade by Hiromi Kawakami – Basically everything I have to say about this I say in the review to follow.

People From my Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami – Short stories squarely in the 'impossible things described in banal fashion' sub-genre. As a specimen, these are quick and weird and reminded me more of Etgar Keret then, say, Murakami. They're exceedingly light, but I enjoyed them.

Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz – A narrator interviews the survivors of the reign of the eponymous Pharaoh (yes, I know I used eponymous twice here, deal with it), whose failed attempt to convert the Egyptian Empire to monotheism remains one of the more fascinating religious manias in human history. It's a great topic and I've liked things I've read from Mahfouz in the past but this was a little blunt for my tastes.

Books I Read April 10th, 2024

Long winter. Spring looms. I hope you're getting by OK.

In the Drift by Michael Swanwick – Machiavellian politicking in a United States shattered by nuclear accident. A familiar premise elevated by deft but brief world-building, nuanced characters, and irregular, episodic plotting compressing decades of time into a few hundred pages. I liked it enough to read several more of his in rapid succession.

Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick – A shadowy government agent investigates a shadowy, magical figure on a planet soon to be flooded by the sea. Shades of Gene Wolfe (high praise, if you hadn't gleaned) in the world-building, which is rich and textured but offered in the sort of oblique asides which are likely to infuriate most genre readers. I liked this lots.

I Loved you for your Voice by Selim Nassib – The history of modern Egypt's most beloved musician as told by her lyricist/tame poet. A wistful meditation on music and the middle-east.

The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick – A bildingsroman for (of?) a changeling stolen to a modern fairyland, resembling ours in its injustice and cruelty. Erotic, disturbing, and thoughtful, utilizing genre tropes to discuss essential questions of theodicy.

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan – The story of an ad-hoc group of woman in pre-Roe Chicago who set themselves up as illegal abortion providers. Fascinating and disturbingly relevant.

Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford – In a surreal fantasy world where the eponymous pseudo-science has been elevated to divine law, a monstrous government agent investigates a mystery far from the capial. Actually, that's really only the first third but to get into all the specifics would be a waste of space, as this is the sort of literary-genre mash-up in which an incoherent narrative serves to illustrate an aesthetic/philosophical point, in this case a Pynchonesque dislike of technocracy/capitalism/imperialism.

Saving Room for Dessert by K.C. Constantine – Three patrolmen in a fading rust-belt town try and do right by themselves, their community, in the last of many works by the once widely beloved but now largely forgotten K.C. Constantine. Nuanced characters but limited plot.

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman – I've never really been the sort of person suffering from any great excess of optimism, but if you need a primer on stoicism you could probably do worse.

Bone China by Roma Tearne – Three generations of indigenous nobility suffer through the Sri Lankan civil war, emigration to England. I've probably read dozens of entries in this sub-genre, from various parts of the planet, and most of them were not nearly this good,. Tearne has a talent for plotting and pace which is rare outside of genre writing, and her characters are complex and sympathetic. I dug it.

Pirate Utopia by Bruce Sterling – An alternate history of D'Annunzio's failed attempts at turning Fiume into an Adriatic futurist state. Weird, fun, very brief.

Books I Read Feburary 28th, 2024

February was, by and large, another month best seen from a rear view. I had a book released, should that be of any strong interest to you. I also read...

1919 by John Dos Passos – America goes to war in the second of Dos Passos' epic, tragic U.S.A. trilogy. A scintillating tableau of selfish people making cruel or foolish decisions, along with some slightly less effective literary flourishes.

The Man Who Snapped his Fingers by Fariba Hachtroudi – An Iranian interrogator and his former captive reconstruct their relationship, history while exiled in Europe in this paean to the power of love, false and true.

Skeletons in the Closet by Jean-Paul Manchette – A PI investigates a drug conspiracy in one of Manchette's more traditional, less effective efforts.

Living Better by Alastair Campbell – Tony Blair's head of communications discusses his lifetime of depression.

The Hunters by Jamers Salter – The author's experiences as a fighter pilot in the Korean war are reworked into this fascinating study of the nature of masculinity and violence. Reminded me a bit of Norman Mailer's Naked and the Dead (AKA, the not-shitty Norman Mailer book) in its pitiless exposition of the cult of the warrior.

A Scarcity of Love by Anna Kavan – Anna Kavan's shitty mother is the subject/target of this slim but still slightly interminable novel about weak-willed people controlled by the menacing egos of minor monsters. Elegant but self-pitying.

The Burnt Ones by Patrick White – A series of shorts about the repressed lives of middle-class Australians, Greeks. White is very talented but I might have hit my quota for vividly limned drawing room ennui.

Ambient by Jack Womack – A corporate soldier fights to survive a post-Apocalyptic NYC that's as much de Sade.

Books I Read February 6th, 2024

January was a month best seen from the back end. Better hopes for February. Since last, I read...

Sudden Arrival of Violence by Malcolm Mackay – The concluding volume in Mackay's trilogy chronicling Glasgow's premier hitman is as well-written and downbeat as the first two installments. A clever serious take on a classic format.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons – A charming if slightly overlong parody of a particular brand of morbidly rural English literature.

Operation Massacre by Rodolfo Walsh – The events of an early massacre in post-Peronist Argentina as reconstructed by a crime writer turned journalist. Impactful in its depiction of the brutality and stupidity of fascist regimes.

Short Letter, Long Farewell by Peter Handke – A German pursues/is pursued by his ex-wife across America. Not for me.

The Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler – After a knock on the head, an English professor adopts the persona of a pulp hero, stops world war from breaking out in a small, Eastern European country. Ambler's first novel, more staight adventure novel than true satire, and less effective than his later work.

Books I Read January 10th, 2024

Happy New Year. It is actually kind of cold in LA at the moment, which has made me lazy and sleepy and low. Here are the books I've managed to push myself through so far this year.

House of a Thousand Floors by Jan Weiss – An amnesiac seeks to overthrow the tyrannical leader of a towering city-state in this very early work of Czech science fiction. Ahead of its time.

The Cook by Mayis de Kerangal – An engaging if not particularly innovative or insightful examination of the chef as as a young man.

Six Thousand Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History by Heinrich Eduard Jacob – The history of human civilization through the frame of wheat/farming generally. The sort of idiosyncratic work which had already become dated by the time our Austrian polymath wrote it in 1942 (having only recently escaped a concentration camp). There's lots of fun stuff in here but little of it really holds up to scrutiny.

The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop – The erotic ramblings of the eponymous pervert. Wittkop's capacity to create beauty out of the most disturbing imagery is impressive on its own merits but even at 100 pages I really had to push myself through this one. Not for the faint-stomached.

Books I Read December 30th, 2023

Happy near New Year. I spent the last few weeks baking and cooking and eating far too much and catching up with family and old friends and enjoying the silvery east coast light. I hope that you enjoyed some of the same. I also read...

Vernon Subutex 3 by Virginie Despentes – The final volume in the history of the Subutex, ex-record store owner, homeless wastrel and prophet, and his band of belligerent misfits/acolytes. These are a treasure, fun and weird and cool and sad and smart. I bought the first volume for a friend for Christmas, you could do a lot worse than picking one up for yourself.

Sleep Has His House by Anna Kavan – A re-imagining of the author's miserable childhood and lonely adolescence re-interpreted through a series of surrealistic shorts. Evocative if a little predictable.

In A Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner – Short horror.

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford – In a world where the great mound-building civilizations of North America survived smallpox, a jazz-age detective investigates a murder which threatens to throw the eponymous capital into chaos. A top notch thriller in an interesting and original setting, good stuff.

Books I Read December 14th, 2023

If you can avoid doing so, I would strongly recommend not severing the tip of your index finger. Nevertheless, last week I read the following.

The Sky Weeps For Me – A Sandinista revolutionary turned police investigator follows an abandoned yacht into an international drug conspiracy. A surprisingly classic procedural from one of Nicaragua's literary luminaries.

Ice by Anna Kavan – A nameless government agent follows a faceless woman into a rapidly arriving glacial apocalypse. Surrealistic existential sci-fi horror of the highest order, although a handful of descriptors really don't do justice to this striking, strange, beautiful novel. Very good.

Chaos, A Fable by Rodrigo Rey Rosa – A cabal of youthful geniuses plot to upend the world order. One of those rare books which I think would have worked better if it had been a few hundred pages longer.

Books I Read December 6th, 2023

The year winds towards its conclusion. Here in LA the palm trees are strung with fairy lights and there are Christmas markets on the boardwalk. Every day I make a list of things that make me smile and most days the mountains are on there, and the winter blossoms. Last week I read these books.

The Good Cripple by Rodrigo Rey Rosa – A kidnapping goes awry in Rey Rosa's tight, bleak novella. Reminiscent of Bolano in its interweaving of violence and literature, Paul Bowles and severed limbs. Good stuff.

The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos-- A kaleidoscopic portrait of the American century in its infancy, Dos Passos combines the bittersweet stories of his cast with vignettes of major labor leaders, snippets of newspaper headlines and pencil doodles into a rough, sad, beautiful tableau. Really enjoyed reading this one, to the point that I carried a hardback into the restaurant and read it at the counter during my break.

Watch Where the Wolf is Going by Antonio Skarmeta – Youth, fascism, colonialism, sex, love and literature are the topics of this slim but excellent selection of short stories from one of Chile's reigning masters. This was excellent – I've spent much of the last year working through the titles of the now sadly defunct publishing house Readers International, which was putting out a ton of foreign language literature in the 80s, and its been an enormously valuable exercise.

Aurelia, Aurelia: A Memoir by Kathryn Davis – Memories of her dead husband and effervescent youth collide in a meditation (not really a memoir) about the impossible but unalterable movement of time, the inability of literature to effect an indifferent universe.

Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri – An unhoused resident of the eponymous metropolitan park considers his tragic life, the injustice of postwar Japan. Unremarkable but brief.

Books I Read November 28th, 2023

Last week I ate far too much and read these books.

The Enchanted Wanderer by Nikolai Leskov – Satirical myths celebrating/condemning Russian society. I found it interesting and entertaining in bits but basically couldn't say that it spoke to me in any particularly way as a modern reader, though of course it's an enormously rare book that can claim to do this in another language centuries after it was written.

How a Gunmen Says Goodbye by Malcom Mackay – An aging hitman's error results in all sorts of trouble for his successor and the criminal organization for which he works in this fast-paced, brick-blunt Scottish crime novel. Engaging and effective.

Versailles by Kathryn Davis – The life of Mary Antoinette/a meditation on the miserable certainty of time's inevitable passing as told through Davis's distinct style. It's weird but not as weird as her weird stuff which I liked better.

The Vagabond by Colette – A divorced vaudevillian finds/abandons love. Incandescently self-indulgent.

Books I Read November 21st, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving if you're in the US. I'll be hosting for the first time, and currently I'm on the hook for two breads, two pies, a quick bread, potatoes, carrots, and a squash orzo thing I'm doing in lieu of meat because my oven is tiny and half the people I know are vegan. Wish me luck.

Last week I read...

The Silver Bough by Lisa Tuttle – The lives of several lonely Americans in a far-flung Scottish village are upended when a landslide cuts them off from the mainland/releases magic back into the world. An engaging if light-hearted adult romance in several senses of the word.

The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller by Carlo Ginzburg – The story of an Italian peasant whose penchant for intellectual disputations saw him killed by the Inquisition. A fascinating episode but the work itself is pedantic and conjecture-ridden.

The Country of Too by Rodrigo Rey Rosa – A gun-thug finds himself intertwined in the struggle of an indigenous central American community against a corrupt government and the forces of international capitalism.

Vernon Subutex #2 by Despentes – The definitive Gen X hipster turned homeless vagrant becomes the epicenter of a cultural movement/the spiritual heart of modern Europe in the second part of Despente's endearingly odd ensemble epic. Vibrant, engaging, lots of fun.