#tobyreads: The Unreal is Here

Well, I tried. Given that the folks at Flavorwire are prompting the reading and re-reading of a number of Shirley Jackson novels, I figured I’d delve into a few myself, beginning with The Haunting of Hill House. Said novel fell into the category of books I’d been meaning to read for ages but hadn’t; after reading the first 50-odd pages of the used copy I’d bought earlier in the month, I could see why. Jackson’s command of mood and atmosphere was […]

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A Harrowing Monologue, With Sentiment: A Review of Rodrigo de Souza Leão’s “All Dogs Are Blue”

All Dogs Are Blue by Rodrigo de Souza Leão; translated by Zoë Perry and Stefan Tobler And Other Stories; 117 p. Consider: the novel as rant, lament, or aria. Think Bolano’s short novels and Thomas Bernhard’s The Loser; think of Lydia Millet’s My Happy Life and Norman Lock’s The King of Sweden and Robert Lopez’s Kamby Bolongo Mean River. All feature protagonists whose minds are somehow askew, whether through a long and embittered life, mental illness,  severe isolation, or some other condition that sets […]

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