Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 5:55 pm Posts: 11320 Location: Brooklyn Gender: Male
Owl_Farmer wrote:
durdencommatyler wrote:
Owl_Farmer wrote:
durdencommatyler wrote:
Blindness is devastating. Heartbreaking. Gripping. Fantastic.
Wow.
Glad you like it, man.
Have you read much by Saramago? Just wondering which of his I should try on next. I noticed there's a sequel to Blindness. But I'm not sure I want to visit this world again right away.
I think the only other Saramago I've read is Ensayo Sobre la Lucidez (I think the title in English is Seeing), which is good, but not as good as Blindness. But some people I trust when it comes to such things have said Cain is worth reading.
Thank you, friend. I'll check that one out when next I come back around to this guy.
It's a frightening tale about child about to go trick-or-treating, searching for her candy-carrying plastic pumpkin in a house filled with "smiling" bats and "friendly" ghosts. It's like American Horror Story for infants.
If you want really strange collections by great stylists, look at Gary Lutz's collection Stories in the Worst Way or Christine Schutt's Nightwork.
More well-known (and for good reason): Amy Hempel (collected works), Barry Hannah (Airships) or Denis Johnson (Jesus' Son). For some reason I think you recently read Hempel.
Two more things: The World Within the Word by William H. Gass. Gass might be the finest writer of the last 50 years, here is an excerpt from the first essay, "The Doomed in Their Sinking," which is on suicide.
Crane went sudden as a springboard. The Gulf gave nothing back. My mother, I remember, took her time. She held the house around her as she held her bathrobe, safely doorpinned down its floorlength, the metal threads glinting like those gay gold loops which close the coat of a grenadier, though there were gaps of course...unseemly as sometimes a door is on a chain...so that to urinate she had to hoist the whole thing like a skirt, collecting the cloth in fat pleats with her fingers, wads which soon out-oozed her fists and sprang slowly away...one consequence...so that she felt she had to hover above the hole, the seat (clouds don't care about their aim), unsteadily...necessarily...more and more so as the nighttime days drew on, so that the robe grew damp the way the sweater on a long drink grows, soggy from edge to center, until I found I cared with what success she peed when what she swallowed was herself and what streamed out of her in consequence seemed me.
Also, Mick a while ago recommended Joyelle McSweeney. Her most recent poetry collection Percussion Grenade is a little miracle.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:40 am Posts: 25451 Location: 111 Archer Ave.
It may be Libra. It may not be, though. I often try to read novels in the winter months. I like the idea of being right in the middle of something when I'm visiting family.
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2006 8:04 pm Posts: 5300 Location: upstate NY Gender: Male
I'm looking for more great books about people who are living "down and out," living on the margins, or barely making it paycheck to paycheck, be they hard-drinking or not.
along the lines of:
Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, Steinbeck Post Office, Bukowski The Rum Diary, Thompson even The Sun Also Rises or On The Road
I'm looking for more great books about people who are living "down and out," living on the margins, or barely making it paycheck to paycheck, be they hard-drinking or not.
along the lines of:
Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, Steinbeck Post Office, Bukowski The Rum Diary, Thompson even The Sun Also Rises or On The Road
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 6:41 am Posts: 5867 Location: Providence, RI Gender: Male
No offense, but if you're looking for literature of the "down and out" and people "living on the margins," you should look beyond white dudes. Try Nina Revoyr's "Southland," Karen Tei Yamashita's "Tropic of Orange," "Personal Days" by Ed Park (my favorite out of all of these listed here), or "The Guardians" by Ana Castillo.
_________________ "I wish that I believed in fate / I wish I didn't sleep so late"
"The real truth about it is: no one gets it right / The real truth about it is: we’re all supposed to try"
I'm looking for more great books about people who are living "down and out," living on the margins, or barely making it paycheck to paycheck, be they hard-drinking or not.
along the lines of:
Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, Steinbeck Post Office, Bukowski The Rum Diary, Thompson even The Sun Also Rises or On The Road
any ideas?
Suttree - Cormac McCarthy.
Are you trying to get on my good side, Len?
Suttree is my fav of his books.
"The Sun Also Rises" down and out? In what way? I didn't want to eat or drink anything for 24 hrs after reading that book. That's all they do!
I'm looking for more great books about people who are living "down and out," living on the margins, or barely making it paycheck to paycheck, be they hard-drinking or not.
along the lines of:
Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row, Steinbeck Post Office, Bukowski The Rum Diary, Thompson even The Sun Also Rises or On The Road
any ideas?
Suttree - Cormac McCarthy.
Are you trying to get on my good side, Len?
Suttree is my fav of his books.
"The Sun Also Rises" down and out? In what way? I didn't want to eat or drink anything for 24 hrs after reading that book. That's all they do!
Get on your good side? I'm one of your RM favorites.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 72 guests
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum