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.