In our afternoon reading: novella excerpts, free jazz, and so much more.
What You Can’t Outrun: Colleen Burner on “Sister Golden Calf” and the Joys and Challenges of Writing a Female Road Narrative
Colleen Burner’s Sister Golden Calf is a strange, gorgeous debut novel about two sisters, Gloria and Kit, who travel through the desert with their jars full of “invisible things for feeling and knowing.” It’s about grieving the death of a parent, about isolation and longing, and it features an eight-legged taxidermied calf, a ghost town, and a nude ranch. Reading Sister Golden Calf, I was moved by the propulsive, sometimes breathless sentences, and the quiet, meditative moments where Gloria and Kit find space to grieve—a space that is a car, a body, a sister willing to travel to the ends of the earth.
Morning Bites: Blake Butler Nonfiction, Craig Clevenger’s Latest, Revisiting Lou Reed, and More
In our morning reading: an excerpt from Blake Butler’s new novel, reviews of the latest from Kathleen Alcott and Craig Clevenger, and more.