Bookshops & Bonedust is a prequel to Legends and Lattes, following Viv as she partners with ratkin bookshop owner Fern, annoying gnome Gallina, beautiBookshops & Bonedust is a prequel to Legends and Lattes, following Viv as she partners with ratkin bookshop owner Fern, annoying gnome Gallina, beautiful dwarf Maylee, and a skeleton named Satchel to rebuild Fern’s bookstore – and possibly take out a necromancer named Varine.
It’s very charming, but to be quite honest I found this just slightly unnecessary. I felt like Legends and Lattes was so utterly perfect that I didn’t really need more from Viv, and to some degree I just kept wishing I was rereading the former.
Still, it’s not without its charms. I was completely delighted by Satchel – he’s a fabulous character. All of the literary interludes are great, and the epilogue is pitch-perfect. I almost wished this was just a sequel about a side character starting a bookstore, because I wanted more of that. Perhaps I’m just a prequel struggler and I haven’t known that until now.
And I still can’t recommend Legends and Lattes enough!
And what did I amount to, once the official version gained ground? An edifying legend. A stick used to beat other women with. Why couldn't they be
And what did I amount to, once the official version gained ground? An edifying legend. A stick used to beat other women with. Why couldn't they be as considerate, as trustworthy, as all-suffer-ing as I had been?
The Penelopeiad is a feminist Odyssey retelling told via both Penelope herself and a Greek chorus of the twelve Maids, who Odysseus slaughters for their crime of being assaulted by the Suitors who come to harass his wife.
To be quite frank, I felt the first 80% of this book was not all that great. I struggled to totally get Penelope’s inner motivations — as they’re often left purposefully ambiguous — and without that justification for the text, I struggled. (Frankly, the writing did not feel particularly strong to me either.) I did enjoy Penelope’s narrative and her characterization, when it shined through, was quite interesting. She has much more agency as a character than in the original myth and it’s strong.
The last 20%, by contrast to the first 80%, was much stronger. I particularly enjoyed getting more depth on the dynamic between Penelope and the Maids in the Underworld; Penelopeiad shined in its depiction of haunting. Another interesting section implies some complexity in Penelope's own narrative around herself, and I only wished to see this more. That is, the last 20% shined except for the academic essay reproduced into the text. It was an interesting academic essay, to be sure - arguing the maids and Penelope should be seen a thirteen-member feminist cult slaughtered by Odysseus. The presentation felt borderline preachy and extremely jarring.
I also hated the decision to characterize Helen as a mean slut in the feminist Odyssey retelling. Don't actually know what to say to this one, except how odd to allow not a single other dynamic woman.
Overall, very glad I read this – and a huge thank you to my friend Alice for the lovely birthday gift! – but not totally sure the entirety lands.
interesting and deeply disturbing book about a society in which people eat other people.
I was gifted this by a friend who knows I have an academic ininteresting and deeply disturbing book about a society in which people eat other people.
I was gifted this by a friend who knows I have an academic interest in cannibalism as a theme. Tender Is the Flesh depicts in horrifying detail the ways in which the human body can become an animal's. The body horror is intense and stomach-churningly brilliant, playing perfectly with the horror of dehumanization. I additionally struggled, in a good way, with the details of animal extermination – dogs slaughtered in backyards, cities eerily quiet without the chirping of birds.
Much of the novel revolves around lead character Marcos's relationship with a so-called Perfect Specimen he's been awarded as part of his job running a processing plant. This relationship is difficult to explain without spoiling the novel. I will say I found their ending quite haunting.
But I really struggled to believe in the worldbuilding. In the post-Covid era, it does not feel realistic that every world government could, or would, collaborate to eradicate all mammal life. Firstly and just as a note, logically – this would control the populace further, but would also eradicate high levels of trade and export, and it does not seem realistic that a majority of governments would make those choices. Perhaps significantly more relevantly – there is absolutely no way that (a) a majority of citizens of every country would believe a hoax virus when they can’t even believe a real one, and (b) that all world governments would collaborate on a conspiracy this large. Geopolitics just don’t work that smoothly.
I simultaneously hold more, and less, hope for the world than this book does. I liked elements of this and I’m glad to keep reading more translated work, but I’m not sure this translates that well in a post-COVID world.
This is… an interesting novel in that I think I may be compelled by it than I actually enjoy it. (This was my wonderful girlfriend’s thesis text and IThis is… an interesting novel in that I think I may be compelled by it than I actually enjoy it. (This was my wonderful girlfriend’s thesis text and I do think having her thesis as a supplemental text amplified the experience quite a bit.)
Beautiful World Where Are You follows two best friends—Alice, a bisexual communist writer living in a house on the Irish coast, and Eileen, an editor in Dublin—and their lovers, Felix and Simon, as they try to resolve a set of complex relationships.
My main observation about this book is that there are three key dynamics in this novel: Alice and Felix, Eileen and Simon, and Alice and Eileen. The two couples’ relationships, each beginning as complex and between-definition, resolve themselves into relationships with oddly gendered dynamics. [Eileen and Simon, particularly, are into roleplay bdsm.] This is framed, for each of them, as a return to love and connection in a world plagued by inequality and genocide.
Sally Rooney characters don’t give us any extra access to their minds. I like it. These characters are defined through their dialogue, and occasionally through scenes. This ends up defining them through their love for each other.
Which is why it was so disappointing that the friendship between Alice and Eileen, in contrast to the two romantic relationships in the book, left me less convinced. In a book so deeply convinced of the need for love in a cruel world, I found myself really frustrated by how little I believed in Alice and Eileen’s deep friendship with one another. Even when the book addresses this complex relationship, I wanted more. And I found it frustrating particularly to see two women both allegedly focused on embracing their friendships devalue their friendships for their relationship, with seemingly no true resolution near the end—or even real, permanent acknowledgment of this dynamic.
Perhaps it didn’t help that Alice’s behavior quite frankly just reminded me of friends I’ve moved on from. One of Alice's main character conflicts is that she really struggles to see others as equals, even when she somewhat-tries with Eileen, and I just didn't find myself convinced that the Alice of the ending would truly start seeing her best friend as an equal. Even when I wanted her to.
I read Sally Rooney for her complexity—her sharp characters who try to live one another, but just can’t do it right, and have to figure out how to truly see each other. As always, she delivers. I’m just not so sure I was convinced of these people.
A supernatural thriller set in 1800s colonial Ceylon, following Amara, a girl haunted by nightmares and whose ‘island-witch’ father has stopped invitiA supernatural thriller set in 1800s colonial Ceylon, following Amara, a girl haunted by nightmares and whose ‘island-witch’ father has stopped inviting her to train. Lots of good here; I’m very partial to Amanda Jayatissa’s sharp characters, compelling twists, and strong social commentary. Amara’s voice particularly grabbed me. There’s a nuance given to different reactions to colonialism, most notably within Neha, that works great. And her reveals, as always, are pitch-perfect – deftly foreshadowed, still shocking, and utterly horrifying. (One particular ending reveal will haunt me for a long, long time.)
I think this was somewhat underserved by the editor – also thought this was true of You’re Invited – and could have been paced significantly stronger. I also can’t quite decide how I feel about the ending.
With that being said, I think Amanda Jayatissa is comically underrated and absolutely worth reading from.
This is a book that translates extremely differently from movie or book.
Better in the book: —Clemensia’s defeat being less her fault; her being a charThis is a book that translates extremely differently from movie or book.
Better in the book: —Clemensia’s defeat being less her fault; her being a character we feel for. Related, Clemensia’s scene in the hospital. —Coryo getting the guitar from Pluribus Bell, who also gives him —The song being a betrayal is so INTERESTING. I think Movie Coryo is inherently more sympathetic just by virtue of missing his internal monologue, where he has a consistent entitlement to Lucy Gray.
Better in the film: —Songs translate better obviously; specifically, I think “Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird” live is one of the most haunting things I’ve ever heard —I like Lucy Gray’s unwillingness to sing —Lucky Flickerman being the main report —And Lucy Gray is a far more interesting character simply by not being filtered through Snow. Which is fascinating because… her dialogue is exactly the same, almost down to the word. Lucy Gray’s movie dialogue is extremely close to her book dialogue but her character feels vivid in a way her book character does not – particularly “Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird,” “The Old Therebefore,” and in her final scene.
And it’s here that I think comes both what is best about this story and worst about this book: Snow’s interpretations are almost universally unreliable. He reads Lucy Gray wrong, Sejanus wrong, the tributes wrong. He cannot see her courage in leaving him—only that she has left.
I adore Lucy Gray as a character. And while I’m not entirely sure I really *enjoyed* the reading experience, I think this is a really clever narrative. I’m glad I read it.
"Your Gracie is incredible. She gets it from her momma." "She gets it from who her mom had to become. Like those scars all over my body. I wouldn't
"Your Gracie is incredible. She gets it from her momma." "She gets it from who her mom had to become. Like those scars all over my body. I wouldn't heal them, even if I could. They are more me than my skin or hair or name. They have formed me. The scar tissue healed, but those discolored lines mean I am changed. That I will never be whole, but something else. Something stronger."
3 1/2 stars for this strong mystery novel with a grounding in Native history in Oklahoma.
As a Bureau of Indian Affairs archeologist, Syd Walker spends her time in Rhode Island with her spouse, Mal, trying to protect the land's indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own. But when she receives a call from her hometown - where her sister, Emma Lou, has just gone missing - she's brought back to a fifteen-year-old tragedy she's tried hard to forget.
There's a lot to enjoy about this book. The family content and dynamics are strong, and a cast of strong and complex side characters (particularly Emma Lou's boyfriend) keep the book engaging. Emma Lou is a wonderful character and the exploration of addiction's impact on a family is sympathetic and dimensional. Blood Sisters is extremely grounded in histories of indigenous oppression in Ohio and interweaves an array of strong characters who convey different parts of that history. There is a complex history and legacy even in the lead character's role in the BIA, an organization which saw fit to exploit Native land it claimed to protect.
I found some of the plotting a bit confusing. Specifically, the logistics of a few of the earlier fight scenes felt incredibly confusing to the point of being incomprehensible. More notably, I really wished for a bit more of Mal specifically. The arc between Syd and Mal is fantastic, but felt incomplete in actual text.
This is a complicated book about which I have extremely complicated thoughts. Following a pair of estranged sisters whose third sister was kidnapped 1This is a complicated book about which I have extremely complicated thoughts. Following a pair of estranged sisters whose third sister was kidnapped 18 years previously, Pretty Girls is a brutal, spine-chilling ride into the politics and impact of domestic violence.
Lydia and Claire could not be more opposite: Claire is a dressed-up wife to Atlanta millionaire Paul, while Lydia is a single mother to daughter Dee dating a fellow ex-con, Rick, and trying hard to make ends meet. They have not spoken for eighteen years. But when Claire's husband is murdered horribly before her eyes, they're brought to a surprise reunion.
This is an absolutely wild ride of a novel, with some fantastic twists that really keep attention. Despite some slow sections, the general strength of the novel comes in the depth of the horror; the villains scare deeply.
My one concern about this novel was a level of brutality that felt it dipped into torture porn. I think this is a matter of taste, but specifically, the use of rape is repeatedly and extensively horrifying. Additionally, Claire and Lydia each felt, at times, just slightly underdeveloped. I wished for more out of each of them.
Overall, while this was a worthy read, I'm not sure I'll be reading more Karin Slaughter. But I do get why people loved this so much.
Kate Mara’s pseudo open relationship with that guy from the handmaid’s tale was NOT tea that I expected from this book.
“But I would rather remember,
Kate Mara’s pseudo open relationship with that guy from the handmaid’s tale was NOT tea that I expected from this book.
“But I would rather remember, I’d rather the hurt than not—at least I got it love you, at least I felt your love for me.”
This both feels incredibly personal and yet incredibly removed. It's a very purposefully removed narrative voice, cold and crisp, as Elliot goes through details of past experiences, cruelty and otherwise. Some of these stories are incredibly personally, and there's something simultaneously painful and cathartic about reading them. As the book came towards its conclusion, I craved more of an intense emotional connection. It's a very inconclusive memoir, and I think that's on purpose. I wished for a conclusion, but understood this as an artistic choice.
Reviewers taking his experience as a guideline for all trans people should keep in mind that 'textbook' isn't what the 'memoir' genre is intended to be. There's no indication in the text that Elliot Page expects to be seen as a representation for every trans person, and those attempting to read the text as such are doing it a disservice. In other words, I think you should ignore any reviews of this text by cis people critiquing Elliot Page's lived experiences of transness. For example, the review down below on the page that informs us all that Normal trans people don't get top surgery before going on testosterone is misinformed; I've had multiple friends go either direction. There just really isn't a set timeline for transitioning.
I always really struggle to rate and review memoir; I think this is fairly well written considering I think this is his voice, and I think it's worth reading if celebrity memoirs resonate with you. While it didn't entirely resonate with me as a book, it did make me like Elliot Page even more.
I'm struggling a bit with figuring out exactly what to say about this book.
In reading feminist theory of this era, I am constantly struck by the degrI'm struggling a bit with figuring out exactly what to say about this book.
In reading feminist theory of this era, I am constantly struck by the degree to which porn becomes a focus, and I really enjoyed what Joanna Russ had to say. However, I do think there are degrees to which societal pressure on women to enjoy fantasies of submission, and societal pressure on men to enjoy dominance, influence our sexual desires. I think that in talking about porn as morally neutral, that's an important part of the puzzle - even in being morally neutral, our desires do not exist in a vacuum! They come from somewhere, because that's what desire is.
On the bright side, really enjoyed the entire section just dedicated to Kirk/Spock fanfiction. Great vibes.
QUOTES THAT RESONATED FOR ME ➽“When I hear women denounced for deviant sexual behavior, when male lust is seriously advanced as a primary cause of women's oppression and the cultivation of certain kinds of sexuality, I begin to wonder where I am. Is this feminism or feminine-ism? The feminism I know began as politics, not rules for living. To call X a feminist issue did not then mean that there was a good way to do X and a bad way, and that we were trying to replace the bad way with the good way.”
➽“What is demanded is that you ‘make something of yourself.’ Sometimes this means being artificially thin or girdled and sometimes it means being artificially fat and padded, but it always means being unnatural and uncomfortable.”
➽“...Two factors operating: who you want the other person to be and who you want to be yourself.”
➽“I was uneasy about wanting anybody else to ‘be the girl’ since I knew what a rotten deal that was; I couldn’t imagine anybody choosing it voluntarily.”
➽“A partner's hostility or boredom is ordinarily a real turn-off and yet this is exactly the situation under patriarchy, where so many women are not interested, not excited, not participants, and not happy. Yet men must penetrate and ejaculate if there are to be any babies - and so the problem for patriarchy (whether you think of this as a one-time invention or a constant process) is to construct a male sexuality which can function in the face of a woman's non-cooperation or outright fear and hostility. Of course such a sexuality is, in fact, common. It is also furtive, guilty, miserable, unspontaneous, forced, unfree, and minimally sensual.”
➽“If you’ve been forbidden the use of your own power for your own self, you can give up your power or you can give up your self. If you’re effective, you must be so for others but never for yourself.”
(Okay, my real lore about this book is that I read it in one sitting at the library while waiting to go to my first date with my now-partner of nine m(Okay, my real lore about this book is that I read it in one sitting at the library while waiting to go to my first date with my now-partner of nine months, and we discovered after the fact that we were in fact *both* killing time at the library before said date. #compatibility)
While I did not love this nearly as much as I adored Don't Call Us Deas, Danez Smith is an absolute talent. Homie is themed around the death of a cherished friend.
My favorite poems from the collection included: self portrait as 90s r&b video, I’m going back to minessota where sadness makes sense, say it with your whole black mouth, sometimes I wish I felt the side effects, and waiting on you to die so I can be myself. My favorite poem from the entire collection was actually the ending, Acknowledgments, a poem written about different friends across days. Brilliant, heartfelt, and loving.
Here are some of my favorite lines: ▷I call for god and out comes your name ▶o California, don’t you know the sun is only a god if you learn to starve for her? ▷Love and dust get caught up in us like wind and birds ▶Each hand laid upon my like a rude and starving prayer ▷Love knows where to hide the body ▶I wanted to be the boy who turned into the bird limp in the dog’s wet mouth, holding me towards his human saying, I made this for you. ▷It’s not the sex. the being filled. but the emptiness. void you didn’t know was. until someone stopped it up. ▶I’ll burn this whole shot down like left eye would, like any good wife, whatever survives will be my kingdom. I hope I make it. ▷Dear suicide… I know what happens when you ask for a kiss, it’s all tongue, you don’t unlatch, you suck face until the body is gone
The Marrow Thieves is what, to me, makes a perfect dystopian novel - it makes a horrific future out of a horrific past. Specifically, Dimaline plays wThe Marrow Thieves is what, to me, makes a perfect dystopian novel - it makes a horrific future out of a horrific past. Specifically, Dimaline plays with historical pasts of Native youth in Canada - specifically, the exploitative and genocidal Canadian Indian residential school program. With a death rate of between 3,000 and 30,000 children, the Canadian system of legally required boarding schools for First Nations Children aimed itself towards separation, alienation from culture, and forced enfranchisement. The last school closed in just 1997.
Here, the world is based around a lack of dreams. The white members of Canada and the United States exploit Native children through theft of bone marrow, believing it will bring back dreams. Native children can dream, and the dominant culture seeks to steal culture - as well as destroy Native connection. It's smart and well-done.
I think really my only issue here is just intended audience; this is gearing itself just slightly younger. (This would have been perfect for me at sixteen.) The characters are: lead character Frenchie, a sixteen-year-old Métis boy trying to figure himself out; Wab, eighteen and with perhaps the worst past of them all; Chi Boy, seventeen-year-old Cree; Tree and Zheegwon, a set of twelve-year-old twins; nine-year-old Slopper; RiRi, seven years old, Métis, and the sweetheart of the group. (Wab and RiRi are absolutely standout as characters.) While I found the romance a bit boring at times, there's a way Dimaline writes about love that I enjoyed - a love for connection, whether it come with words or not.
This review is spoiler-free with a few tagged minor spoilers.
You could jump so much higher when you had somewhere safe to fall.
Honestly? Just This review is spoiler-free with a few tagged minor spoilers.
You could jump so much higher when you had somewhere safe to fall.
Honestly? Just read Big Little Lies instead. That book just has more: more feminist themes, more interesting characters, more actual suspense, and way more enjoyability.
And the same fantastic audiobook. Let's get started.
♔ THE TENSION Let's get started with conflict. While the conflict itself is bad, it's not... actually that bad. It's a big issue between the parents, sure, but a lot of the conflict between parents here could've been solved through communication. Now, that's not inherently bad, but when a book is marketed all around suspense and that big dramatic thing that happened, it's hard not to feel disappointed by such a simple reveal.
And oh my god, the buildup to the reveal is so. fucking. boring. This is maybe the only time I will ever say this, but I wanted more drama in between the beginning and the reveal. Or even better, like in Big Little Lies (SORRY, I KNOW I KEEP COMPARING THE TWO.) - this book needed way more theme buildup in the first half. Maybe Moriarity is trying to be subtle, but it doesn't work.
♚ THE CHARACTERS Now on to the thing that made Moriarity's earlier Big Little Lies such a quintessential me book: the character work. Now, I think Moriarity definitely has a talent for subtle character building. And I think she’s VERY in-tune with human nature. But even the best authors can have trouble balancing so many points of view, especially in a single book. Something I disliked about this book was the fact that the marriages are characters more than the characters themselves are. Partially as a result, I didn't find myself caring that much about anyone. Big Little Lies introduces three of my favorite female characters of all time - yes, three. Truly Madly Guilty introduces... three decent female characters and three decent male characters.
➽Clementine: A really developed, complex character who definitely could've gotten even more time. Her chief conflict is around marriage and being annoyed with a friendship, which is honestly just... not that compelling? ➽Sam: Hm. I empathize with his central conflicts around (view spoiler)[men crying and ptsd (hide spoiler)], but I also don't really like him. Honestly, he's probably my least favorite character; he’s developed far less than the rest of these leads. ➽Erika: I empathized with her, I liked her character arc, and I loved the scenes between her and her mother - so well-written and true to life. I initially thought she would be my favorite, but... no. ➽Oliver: Actually maybe my favorite character. The discussion around (view spoiler)[his parents' past (hide spoiler)] was so lovely and respectful. This was also the couple I was most invested in. ➽Tiffany: I like the representation and feminism involved in crafting her character - for those unworried about spoilers, (view spoiler)[she's a former sex worker (hide spoiler)] - and I loved that she's so sex-positive. She's actually one of my favorite characters. But like Oliver, she didn't really have a character arc. ➽Vid: Definitely the funniest character, and great comic relief, especially with the accent on the audiobook. And an all-around decent guy, sure. But do I love him? No. ➽Dakota: She's not even the lead, but she might be my favorite? Dakota's arc as a teenage girl is so lovely and well-developed.
♔ THE THEMES AND POINT Something I do want to praise is the thematic work here. This book is so damn feminist. The themes about letting boys cry, mothers feeling more pressure than fathers to take care of business, and sex positivity are all so lovely. But all of them could also be more at the forefront. There's some awesome filler content
Basically, my thoughts are: lovely feminist themes, well-developed characters, terrible marketing, and too little drama. I have high hopes, though, that Moriarity will nail it with her next one.
You won’t eat me. No matter how much you enjoy the way I taste.
3 1/2 stars. This is a three-story collection, and yet the one I keep coming back t
You won’t eat me. No matter how much you enjoy the way I taste.
3 1/2 stars. This is a three-story collection, and yet the one I keep coming back to is the first and titular story, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, following Agnes and Zoe, two women meeting online and participating in over-the-internet BDSM. This one gets incredibly fucked up, and I found it genuinely fascinating.
Thematically, there is so much to unpack here with regards to consumption. SPOILER: The entire premise of 'my lover can't impregnate me so I will impregnate myself with something that will literally eat me alive, because that is the best representation of my lover' is so, so interesting. What is a bad relationship but a consumption of what you are, until you can manage to reproduce whatever has been eaten out of you?
I have one or two notes about this story. There are some sections where the voices of the writing just doesn't totally match - specifically, the IMs vs the incredibly poetic emails. Additionally, as Alexis Hall pointed out, Zoe's voice is really not very striking, which makes her much harder to believe. Also, as an extremely negative reviewer on this page pointed out, what she wants out of Agnes is, to start with, quite literally just 24/7 BDSM. A lot? Yeah. Horror movie, "you would be disgusted by me if you knew what I wanted" a lot? This is just what Christian Grey was into. (Tragically, Christian Grey wasn't into tapeworm reproduction.)
Second story The Enchantment follows James and Olive in the aftermath of the death of their son, and is essentially a slow descent into madness. It's solid horror and I really liked the ending, but found the pacing slightly off. Final story You'll Find Its Like That All Over is much shorter than the other two, and feels slightly out of place; I think this collection should have been shorter or longer to justify its inclusion. I was honestly somewhat underwhelmed by parts two and three, and think the first story - which is definitely a four on its own - could be edited more tightly.
Still absolutely love the first story, still glad I read this.
Torquato Tasso truly woke up in the morning, had a wet dream about converting an Arab Muslim woman who was also white for some reason to Christianity,Torquato Tasso truly woke up in the morning, had a wet dream about converting an Arab Muslim woman who was also white for some reason to Christianity, wrote some poetry about it, and then went to sleep. 98% of the plot points are around that level of deeply ridiculous. also, that guy who personally led a specific massacre of 2000 Jewish people is a voice of reason. one thing about the Renaissance rois they truly have a thing for that time they massacred 40,000 Muslim and Jewish people. beautiful poetry but. well, perhaps I am a heathen. ...more
This is the sort of self help that usually doesn't resonate with me much - very inspirational, and Abby Wambach is an absolute icon, but the content oThis is the sort of self help that usually doesn't resonate with me much - very inspirational, and Abby Wambach is an absolute icon, but the content of the book itself didn't feel like a revolution. Nonetheless, glad I gave her a gander! ...more
I think this is a book I would’ve found somewhat more helpful a few years ago. There are several suggestions it makes for coping with narcissism or imI think this is a book I would’ve found somewhat more helpful a few years ago. There are several suggestions it makes for coping with narcissism or improving yourself—specifically, with regards to setting your own boundaries—that I think I really needed to hear two few years ago. It was slightly more of a basic handbook. I think it works very well as what it is.
And some of it was soooo horrifically on the nose to people I’ve known. It was never the brutal parts that got me; I’d generally identified stuff like straight-up gaslighting already. But specific details like comparing you unfavorably to a bad ex, little jokes about how they knew you better than everyone else, flipping the “abuse” narrative onto you, ditching you and then accusing you of abandoning them… those got me.
I’m really not sure I buy that some people are just biologically narcissistic, and everyone else is just biologically different. “You are biologically different; you have been blessed with the ability to feel shame and guilt” strikes me as a take meant to exempt the reader from having to critically think about our *own* behavior [I don’t meant to those with narcissistic traits, I mean to loved ones]. The overall point he builds to, though, is a good one—that in order to overcome a history of relationships with those with narcissistic traits, you have to believe more in your own grandeur.
Overall a good book, and extremely entertaining to read with friends.
Vitalis's primary argument here is an interesting one: Oilcraft, or the mystical conceit that an oil crisis is just around the corner, bleeds into eveVitalis's primary argument here is an interesting one: Oilcraft, or the mystical conceit that an oil crisis is just around the corner, bleeds into every US foreign policy decision. Important stats: (A) These threats either are nonexistent or cannot be solved with intervention, and there is no actual fear that any great power will take the Gulf; (B) Oil prices covary with the price of all other primary commodities. Fear is a tool of imperialism. Yet this does not mean the US government is lying when they invoke fears of oil; they do genuinely fear it, they’re just wrong about it. This fear is backed up by the public sharing this exact fear.
It's an interesting article that he does a good job both explaining in detail and explaining simply. I think parts of the argument of this feel somewhat repetitive. Additionally, I found the writing of this book to be self-assured to an almost hilarious degree. I think this is a quirk of Vitalis's writing style, and I found it genuinely entertaining. I think I'd like to get a drink with this man.
I read the entirety of this 700-page monster after being assigned... oh, a hundred pages for a class? An intensely odd decision on my part, but one thI read the entirety of this 700-page monster after being assigned... oh, a hundred pages for a class? An intensely odd decision on my part, but one that's led to some important conclusions, and a page full of reviews of these stories. (Yes, I did write down my opinion on every one.)
The conclusion I have come to in general from this collection is that I really only enjoy short fiction in the sci-fi-fantasy-genre. My four favorite stories of this collection - Charles Yu's Standard Loneliness Package, Maureen McHugh's Special Economics, Lucy Corin's Madmen, and Kelly Link's Valley of the Girls - reflect this, and are absolutely each worth a read if you get the chance. My fifth favorite of the collection, Yiyun Li's A Man Like Him, is an exception, but a fantastic one very worth reading for its compelling unreliable narrator.
My observation from the authors whose bios I looked up is that a great deal of these stories, especially the ones that deal with racial politics in manners I found questionable, are written by white authors. This is something I find a bit odd.
Said Sayrafiezadeh, Paranoia - ★★★☆☆ Playing with imagery of the U.S. as greedy as the backdrop to this story about an undocumented teenager. Interesting, well-written, and depressing.
Rebecca Li, Slatland - ★★☆☆☆ Follows a narrator in love with a man from Romania who does not love her back. What is this.
Jesse Ball, The Early Deaths of... - ★★★★☆ Follows four men as they fight their guilt over a crime they have committed, as represented by a Judge. Interesting story, enjoyed this a lot.
Deborah Eisenberg, Some Other Better Otto - ★★★★☆ Follows Otto as he decides whether to go to thanksgiving with his siblings Corinne, Martin, and Sharon, bringing his partner William. Primarily a character study. I adored this story and loved the writing.
Antony Doerr, The Deep - ★★★★☆ A story of young love and Ruby and Tom and the Great Depression. Beautifully written and I absolutely loved the ending.
Yiyun Li, A Man Like Him - ★★★★☆ A story about false and true accusation. To Teacher Fei, the anger of women is not a consequence of the actions of men, but an irrational act. Whether or not Teacher Fei has done what he is accused of is immaterial to his view of the world; regardless, he sees any accusation made against him as existing “for the sake of those who feel the need to accuse.” Even as his head grows increasingly claustrophobic, Li's relatively clear-eyed look at Fei's backstory allows the audience to escape the oppressive feeling that they are being beaten into liking Fei. A very well-done story.
George Saunders, Home - ★★★☆☆ A story about coming home from the war. Very distinctive voice.
NoViolet Bulawayo, Shhhh - ★★★☆☆ A story about a father coming home from South Africa sick. Excellent writing, genuinely amazing. I felt this one didn't function extremely well as a short story, which I think in hindsight is because... it isn't. It's an excerpt from the author's novel. This did successfully interest me in the novel, so that's a win.
Maureen McHugh, Special Economics - ★★★★★ “What are you doing?” “I am divorced,” begins this story. And thus follows an instant favorite, about a company and pseudo-enslavement. This one is just really interesting and enjoyable to read, with twists and turns and a touch of existential dread.
Sam Lipsyte, This Appointment Occurs in the Past - ★★☆☆☆ A story about the years-long relationship between our narrator and his complicated friend, Davis. Fascinating writing, really interesting ending. Again just not sure I quite got it, and though I knew it was a function of the unreliable narrator and meant as critical, something about the attitude towards women quite turned me off.
Lydia Davis, Men - ★★★★☆ Very interesting one-page short story. The one-pagers are very hit or miss for me, but this worked somehow; I particularly enjoyed the first sentence.
Donald Antrim, Another Manhattan - ★★★★☆ An anxiety-inducing, panic-filled swap back and forth between phone calls of a husband and wife, Jim and Kate, each cheating on each other with separate halves of a couple, Elliot and Susan. Excellent characterization even when dislikable. The story’s energy collapses as the end nears; the manic exterior is gone, and we move out from the inner life. Really excellently done.
Zadie Smith, Meet the President! - ★★★★☆ So intrigued and compelled by this story, about narrator Bill Peek and his relationships with a capitalistic world tied to development. Instantly wanted to reread this and try to understand all the parts I’d missed.
Denis Johnson, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden - ★★★☆☆ A fascinating story in different movements about… boredom, or ennui, but that would be a reduction. I particularly loved “Silences” and “Widow”; the author has a great way of conveying the ways in which people talk to each other. Yet parts of this felt irrelevant or drawn out. [Also, the section about mentally handicapped people in “Adman” was really quite offensive.]
Joy Williams, The Country - ★★★☆☆ A story about a father son and an odd group called Come and See. I really don't know what to make of this, but the writing was decidedly compelling.
Christine Schutt, A Happy Rural Seat... - ★★★★☆ I couldn't quite explain to you why I found this story, about a couple named Nick and Pie and an event that changes them forever, so interesting, but I certainly did. Schutt has a fascinating writing style that I loved digging my teeth into.
Don Dello, Hammer and Sickle - ★★☆☆☆ A story about a man in prison and debts in Dubai. It was at this point that I began to realize many of these contemporary fiction short stories were getting a bit repetitive.
Matthias Svalina, Play - ★★★★☆ Reframing life as a game played by children. People are dehumanized and referred to as it in each game. Rather than having a plot, it serves as an itemized list. This one is very cool.
Lucy Corin, Madmen - ★★★★★ Really amazing story about a world wherein people adopt a mad person. I find both the premise and the writing of this fascinating.
Mary Gaitskill, The Arms and Legs of the Lake - ★★☆☆☆ Follows an array of narrators talking about their experiences with the Iraq war. A lot of interesting stuff in here. I found the racial politics of this questionable; the use of the N word was really deeply not needed and functioned almost entirely for shock value.
Wells Tower, Raw Water - ★☆☆☆☆ Hate that I'm one starring this because this man really can write. Wonderful descriptions, really generally well-written, fantastic concept, and I adore environmental horror. However, the comical degree to which the author of this story others women turned me off. From the beginning I was laughing a bit; “she was a pretty woman but close to sixty” was such a classic that it really made me chuckle. But the sexual assault by a grown man of a sixteen-year-old girl, complete with heavy sexualization of her, incestual subtext, and an array of imagery around her fertility as opposed to the 43-year-old oldster our protagonist calls his wife, was far too much. This was really upsetting, but not in the eerie way I'd hoped from earlier bits of the story; in a way that left me with an awful taste in my mouth that I don't see dispelling anytime soon.
Oh, and I wonder if Wells Tower was aware when he wrote about Cora, who is 43, having just finished menopause, a detail he adds as a literary indicator of her infertility, that menopause is typically a several-year period that starts between the ages of 45 and 55. Not worth a star rating; just wondered if he knew about that part.
Rachel B. Glaser, Pee on Water - ★★☆☆☆ No explanation, no definition, you just have to accept it. My short fiction professor compared this story to an epic in that it uses empirical evidence, or an establishment that these things happened, and is not big on narrative tension; it tells you what it will be giving. Themes of cleanliness are prominent. Interesting story to analyze, but really not fun to read in my humble opinion.
Tao Lin, Love Is a Thing On Sale... - ★★☆☆☆ I found this story... frankly rather myopic in its cynicism. There's a degree to which many of the stories in this novel connect cynicism about society to a cynicism about human nature and love, and I think it's a connection I disagree with.
Rebecca Curtis, The Toast - ★★★★☆ Follows a woman writing a literal toast for her sister’s wedding. This was SO compelling on a sheer writing and character level.
Robert Coover, Going for a Beer - ★★☆☆☆ Interesting few-page-long story. I also love misogyny.
Charles Yu, Standard Loneliness Package - ★★★★★ Instantly one of my favorite short stories of all time, following an unnamed narrator who lives the grief of others for a living as he falls for a woman named Kirthi. A literalization of emotional labor and capitalist critique, but also a gorgeous single story. When dipping too close to his emotional state, the narrator steps back, returning to a place of narrating events and emotions he experiences with "I am x" and "I am y". Even though these experiences are high on emotion, the lack of elaboration distances us from them, seeing them as just brief exercises in the day, just as the narrator is distanced from them. The ending made me cry; it both sees each character grow and still preserves the tragedy inherent in the story.
Deb Olin Unferth, Wait Till You See Me Dance - ★★★☆☆ A fascinating story about a teacher, an office assistant, a student ready to pass or fail, and a dance. What's most noticeable about the story is the experiments in style. There’s a high level of disjunction, with drastic time jumps and omission. Sentences are long, but not flowery, instead blunt/concise/declarative, a compression technique. The blocks themselves do aspire most of the time to a unitary purpose on the paragraph level. Thus, even when paragraphs feel disjuncted, you understand they are connected. Really well-done, not sure I actually loved it but I respect it a lot on a craft level.
Kyle Coma-Thompson, The Lucky Body - ★★★★☆ A four-page story about death. Fascinating descriptions and brilliantly written.
Rivka Galchen, The Lost Order - ★★★★☆ A fantastically written story about unemployment. Though I didn’t have much to make of this I do know I adored it.
Donald Ray Pollock, Fish Sticks - ★★☆☆☆ Why did this get written.
Kelly Link, Valley of the Girls - ★★★★★ An out of sequence story following a world wherein the wealthy try to recreate pyramids, and double in faces. My favorite type of scifi-fantasy story is when the author goes “hey, here’s this really messed up premise. Wouldn’t this be messed up? Anyway, here’s something about identity.” I love this. I think this is the ideal story actually.
Claire Vaye Watkins, The Diggings Follows siblings going out to California, one of them with a vision for the future. This is very compulsively readable. I'm not quite sure what to make of its racial politics. Overall I don't quite know what to make of it in general, though I did not dislike it.
I read this book for an English class as a parodic and satirical examination of whiteness, connecting the piece’s sharp disdain for the confectioner’sI read this book for an English class as a parodic and satirical examination of whiteness, connecting the piece’s sharp disdain for the confectioner’s profession with the Blood Sugar trope popular in antislavery circles at the time. George Elliot is really funny, specifically in the last chapter of this story. This is interesting and worth a read.
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