Tobias Carroll This week, I read Dana Spiotta’s Stone Arabia, on the recommendation of Alex Eben Meyer. (Who, you may recall, contributed to eMusic’s project of creating covers for the albums described in the novel.) Ed Champion’s five-part roundtable discussion of the book (which concludes with comments from Spiotta) is invaluable, and it’s left me curious to read her other two novels. At the novel’s heart is a reclusive musician who makes compelling music in isolation; it brought to mind […]
Indexing: Bookavore’s Recommendations, Dennis Cooper, Ann Beattie, Holocaust fiction, and more
Tobias Carroll Earlier this week, I finished reading Irmgaud Keun’s After Midnight (at the recommendation of Bookavore). What begins as a depiction of daily life in late-30s Germany from a narrator not particularly disposed towards fascism eventually (and subtly, and quietly) becomes something much more haunting, as the sublimated tendencies towards frustration and despair that have accumulated over the course of the book make themselves eminently tangible.
Indexing: Jet-lag literature, Nabokov, The Believer, Edith Wharton, and more
Tobias Carroll And lo: there was the literature of jet-lag. The second time around, the strengths of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition remained intact: haunted characters and a pinpoint command of culture. Its flaws — notably, a conclusion that effectively sidelines the novel’s protagonist — remained present. And still, Pattern Recognition may well be my favorite of Gibson’s books: a morally resonant, deeply contemporary thriller that hits nearly all of my sweet spots. (Mysterious films, subcultural intrigue, globetrotting.) Were I fond of […]
Indexing: A Visit to Minneapolis, A Novel of Trinidad, A Guide to Nowhere, Dion, Coco, and more
Tobias Carroll Last weekend, I was in Minneapolis visiting friends there for the first time in far too long. I took in the State Fair, watched an NSC Minnesota Stars game, and had my first encounter with the incredibly tasty craft beer made by Surly Brewing. I also saw (and heard) Steve Brezenoff read at Magers & Quinn; the occasion was the release party for his novel Brooklyn, Burning. In other words, I traveled halfway across the country and saw a […]
Indexing: Michael Kimball, Ben Marcus, Caryn Rose, Rimbaud, and more
Tobias Carroll A year and a half ago, I was reading Lev Grossman’s The Magicians in trade paperback. Looking at the very back page, I saw an ad teasing the sequel, The Magician King. Initially, I wasn’t sure what to think: The Magicians was as much a meditation on certain fantasy tropes as a satisfying work on its own. Could Grossman sustain that for a second book? As it turns out, that’s not at all what’s going on with the […]
Indexing: 2 Geoff Dyer Books, Cyril Connolly, Dan Melchior, and more
Tobias Carroll This week’s reading involved catching up with some writers I hadn’t checked in with in a while. First: Stephen Millhauser; specifically, the trio of novellas collected in The King in the Tree. “Revenge,” the first of these, reads a bit oddly — Millhauser’s roundabout style entering Patricia Highsmith territory. But “An Adventure of Don Juan” is fantastically structured, playing with some of his fondness for surreal and ornate structures and revisiting classic figures, with a resonant and brutal […]
Indexing: Brontë for kicks, Lipsyte update, James Salter, The Brothers Karamazov, and more
Spending money on Spotify, reading something for kicks, Lev Grossman, Law and Order, and so much more of what is interesting folks in Vol. 1 land.
Indexing: Palace Brothers, Jesse Ball, Lipsyte going short, Marquee Moon 33 1/3, and more
Our weekly roundup of what we’ve been reading, hearing, and paying attention to includes some Sam Lipsyte, Jesse Ball, earlier Will Oldham, and more.