Books I Read February 7th, 2021

I climbed to the top of a mountain and saw snow last week. Apart from that I abide my a life of monastic self-discipline, interrupted by walks and occasional baking. I also read these books...

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The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr. – A kingdom of farm animals fights off the devil and his minions. I went into this with high expectations, and there were some cute aesthetic flourishes but essentially I found it so moralizingly tedious as to inspire C.S. Lewis toward petty theft.

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On the Yard by Malcolm Braly – A panoramic view of an American prison in I guess the 50's. Braly spent much of his life locked up for armed robbery but there is nothing of the prison noir here, rather a sincere and sympathetic attempt to depict the lives of the inmates and staff. Excellent stuff, Braly is an astute observer of the human condition and in particular of those commonalities which unify the species despite the manifest differences in our circumstance. It's also tightly plotted, cleverly structured, really an excellent book. NYRB killing it as always.

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Jack by Marilynne Robinson – The latest in Robinson's Gilead – epic? Saga? As you like – follows the eponymous prodigal son, a self-destructive melancholic wino who falls in love with a respectable black teacher in 1950's St. Louis. Although it doesn't rise to the profound brilliance of the first 2 books in the series, Robinson remains a lovely writer whose work seems infused with a genuine moral sense. Reading Marilynne Robinson, Christianity almost makes sense.

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The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg – A woman makes a compelling case for having shot her husband in the head in this swift, grim and affecting novella. Fucking men, dude.

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Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata – A vacant convenience store clerk struggles to conceptualize the complexities of human society, preferring the simplified order of her neon-lit workplace. At once a satire on societal conformity and a gentle depiction of a damaged soul. I dug it.