Chapter 35
Joselyn told me to return to the East Estate and explain all that had just happened to Butler in great detail and to not spare anything. It seems he is the caretaker of the Arto family in every aspect, not just their living quarters and leisure.
In our morning reading: an excerpt from Eva Baltasar’s new book, checking in with Robert Caro, and more.
In our afternoon reading: Jami Attenberg on writing, new nonfiction from Ann Hood, and more.
Today, we’re pleased to present an excerpt from Eugen Bacon’s new collection A Place Between Waking and Forgetting, set to be published later this month. Its publisher, Raw Dog Screaming Press, describes it as “dark speculative fiction, an Afro-Irreal collection in which transformative stories of culture, diversity, climate change, unlimited futures, collisions of worlds, mythology, and more, inhabit.”
In our morning reading: thoughts on Meg Pokrass’s new collection, revisiting Dorothy Carter’s music, and more.
In our afternoon reading: a playlist from Christoph Dallach, fiction by Brian Evenson, and more.
The past looms large in Ian Maloney’s novel South Brooklyn Exterminating — both through the novel’s setting in the recent past and the ways in which it invokes the rich literary history of New York City. It follows several years in the life of its protagonist, from his childhood assisting his father in the field of pest control to his gradual awareness of unsettling truths about their family. I spoke with Maloney about the novel’s genesis, its evolution, and writing about a part of Brooklyn that isn’t always in the spotlight.
In our morning reading: revisiting 80s fiction, Will Hermes on The Pogues, and more.