This week, I had the pleasure of reading four novels — three recent, one older — in which styles and genres that one might not expect to collide are brought together. Sometimes this is ornately constructed; for others, the approach seems to have been to place disparate elements in close proximity and see what emerges.
And we’re back. Three collections this week: one memorable selection of essays on artists, one group of realistic stories of cultures intersecting, and one gripping dose of cosmic horror. Stating that I’m a fan of Janet Malcolm’s writing is not exactly a groundbreaking comment, I realize. I was eager to read her newly released nonfiction collection Forty-One False Starts in part because I’ve largely encountered her work at book length; reading more focused examples of her writing was definitely appealing.
We’re talking about comics this week. I read enough of them, and it seemed like this trifecta of books made sense — there’s a loose “pulp adventure” theme that works, even as their tones vary wildly, from gritty procedurals to polar adventure. Some of that makes each of these notable, however, is the way that their tones shift within the same work. Body horror sits beside a sense of wonder; comedic barfights give way to grief. That these works can […]
Last year, I read Percival Everett’s Assumption — the first of his books I’d encounter, after reading glowing recommendations from a number of smart readers. It’s still inside my head: it begins like a traditional procedural, and then grows stranger and stranger as Everett keeps revealing that certain things we might have taken for granted are, in fact, not present at all. The whole thing led to a strange, haunting ending (or series of endings) — tightly controlled, and ominous in […]
This week? This week, it looks like we’re talking nonfiction. Mostly. One work of artistic discussion and personal reflection; one sharp look at literature through the prism of dozens of talented novelists; and one look at a very particular music scene in a very particular city. And there’s also a gritty crime novel set in the 15th century, because: why not?
After reading an excellent interview with the author by Sarah McCarry, I ended up picking up Imogen Binnie’s novel Nevada. Which very much felt like the kind of novel I needed to read at a particular point in time: it’s the kind of seemingly effortless novel that, upon further examination, turns out to be very precisely crafted; it’s also heartfelt, cynical, and ambiguous in all the right ways. It’s the story of Maria, a trans woman living in New York City […]
A novel with the title Lives of the Monster Dogs isn’t something one soon forgets. I’m not sure when the first time I saw Kirsten Bakis’s novel on bookstore shelves was: I’m guessing it was a while ago, before I’d developed the compulsion to buy books that pique my interest at a moment’s notice. Something held me back, and I don’t quite know what that was: a fear that, for that I was intrigued by the novel’s premise, I’d be let […]
Yesterday was Halloween — and with that in mind, a lot of the reading I did in the week leading up to the holiday in question fell onto the supernaturally-charged side of things. Sometimes that led to ominous, terrifying work; at others, ghosts and hauntings took on a knowing, almost comic air. We’ll start with a trio of collections. I have no idea why Karen Russell’s Vampires in the Lemon Grove has been on my to-read shelf unread; the only reason I […]