Books I Read September 4th, 2022

I should have read more, given how much time I spent on the beach the last few weeks. Alas.

Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka – Part satire, part noir, Nigeria’s favored son’s blistering rejoinder to the hopes of post-colonial African society, portrayed herein as having degenerated into an orgy of hyper-capitalist excess covered with a patina of national custom. Soyinka’s concerns are distinctly but not exclusively Nigerian, and while cannibalism and kola nuts may be foreign to a western audience, his essential thesis—that it has become impossible or perhaps only futile to live morally in modern society—will resonate with rational readers of any nation. (One recalls that in addition to being tormented by successive generations of Nigerian regimes, Soyinka destroyed his green card in 2016 after Trump’s election.)

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner – A precocious genius storms the 70’s NY art scene, meets some radical Roman revolutionaries. Of a type.

The Dunciad – Alexander Pope shitting on his rivals in rhymed verse. It was funny if unsurprising to be reminded of the universal pettiness of writers as a class, but in retrospect I’m not sure why I read this.