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.
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.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:41 pm Posts: 23014 Location: NOT FLO-RIDIN Gender: Male
washing machine wrote:
I did not recently read Hempel, but that Denis Johnson title might be what I'm after. Second time this week that his name has come up.
Or, I could just give Libra another chance.
For my money, Hannah is the best writer out of that bunch and Airships is a masterpiece. "It was then that I decided to stop fucking around and be a Christian" is the end to one of the stories, or some fucking shit like that. Denis Johnson is great too, haven't read Hempel, but don't overlook Hannah.
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given2trade wrote:
Oh, you think I'm being douchey? Well I shall have to re-examine everything then. Thanks brah.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:41 pm Posts: 23014 Location: NOT FLO-RIDIN Gender: Male
withoutrings wrote:
At some point you should finish Libra.
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.
Glad you liked it. I got your PM, I'll get back to you on poetry soon. Reading a lot right now, preparing an essay on Lear and poetics that cites McSweeney. But soon.
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given2trade wrote:
Oh, you think I'm being douchey? Well I shall have to re-examine everything then. Thanks brah.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:40 am Posts: 25451 Location: 111 Archer Ave.
Mickey wrote:
washing machine wrote:
I did not recently read Hempel, but that Denis Johnson title might be what I'm after. Second time this week that his name has come up.
Or, I could just give Libra another chance.
For my money, Hannah is the best writer out of that bunch and Airships is a masterpiece. "It was then that I decided to stop fucking around and be a Christian" is the end to one of the stories, or some fucking shit like that. Denis Johnson is great too, haven't read Hempel, but don't overlook Hannah.
It's worth noting that nine times out of ten, I settle for what can be found at Half Price Books based on a group of recommendations. Today, I almost picked up the only Johnson title I saw, which was Tree of Smoke (at $4 for a good looking hardcover, I don't really know what stopped me), but ultimately spent that money on Hempel's Tumble Home. It's exactly what I was looking for.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:41 pm Posts: 23014 Location: NOT FLO-RIDIN Gender: Male
washing machine wrote:
Mickey wrote:
washing machine wrote:
I did not recently read Hempel, but that Denis Johnson title might be what I'm after. Second time this week that his name has come up.
Or, I could just give Libra another chance.
For my money, Hannah is the best writer out of that bunch and Airships is a masterpiece. "It was then that I decided to stop fucking around and be a Christian" is the end to one of the stories, or some fucking shit like that. Denis Johnson is great too, haven't read Hempel, but don't overlook Hannah.
It's worth noting that nine times out of ten, I settle for what can be found at Half Price Books based on a group of recommendations. Today, I almost picked up the only Johnson title I saw, which was Tree of Smoke (at $4 for a good looking hardcover, I don't really know what stopped me), but ultimately spent that money on Hempel's Tumble Home. It's exactly what I was looking for.
Tree of Smoke is pretty daunting. I've never picked it up.
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given2trade wrote:
Oh, you think I'm being douchey? Well I shall have to re-examine everything then. Thanks brah.
I did not recently read Hempel, but that Denis Johnson title might be what I'm after. Second time this week that his name has come up.
Or, I could just give Libra another chance.
For my money, Hannah is the best writer out of that bunch and Airships is a masterpiece. "It was then that I decided to stop fucking around and be a Christian" is the end to one of the stories, or some fucking shit like that. Denis Johnson is great too, haven't read Hempel, but don't overlook Hannah.
It's worth noting that nine times out of ten, I settle for what can be found at Half Price Books based on a group of recommendations. Today, I almost picked up the only Johnson title I saw, which was Tree of Smoke (at $4 for a good looking hardcover, I don't really know what stopped me), but ultimately spent that money on Hempel's Tumble Home. It's exactly what I was looking for.
Hempel's strongest collections are Reasons to Live and At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom. Tumble Home might be my least favorite, but the novella that closes that book is something. I hope Half Price starts carrying more of her books.
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.
Glad you liked it. I got your PM, I'll get back to you on poetry soon. Reading a lot right now, preparing an essay on Lear and poetics that cites McSweeney. But soon.
I'd love to see it when you finish. Did you have some work come out recently? And essay I think? (Or maybe it was poetry?)
Half Price's inventory is in constant flux. I'll keep checking in. What don't you like about the stories in Tumble Home?
I should have qualified my statement by saying I like Tumble a lot, but not as much as the first two collections. The novella was the only major development in the book, in terms of form. Outside of that, there are those pithy pieces that the book has in spades, but the problem is the early collections have those too, and probably better ones.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:41 pm Posts: 23014 Location: NOT FLO-RIDIN Gender: Male
withoutrings wrote:
Mickey wrote:
withoutrings wrote:
At some point you should finish Libra.
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.
Glad you liked it. I got your PM, I'll get back to you on poetry soon. Reading a lot right now, preparing an essay on Lear and poetics that cites McSweeney. But soon.
I'd love to see it when you finish. Did you have some work come out recently? And essay I think? (Or maybe it was poetry?)
Not too much, a piece up at The Pinch and a few poems picked up that are pending publication, but it's been slow, mostly because I'm limiting myself to larger venues now. I did have a blog up at The Journal a while back, that might be what you mean. I applied to blog for Ploughshares so hopefully that comes through.
_________________
given2trade wrote:
Oh, you think I'm being douchey? Well I shall have to re-examine everything then. Thanks brah.
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.
Glad you liked it. I got your PM, I'll get back to you on poetry soon. Reading a lot right now, preparing an essay on Lear and poetics that cites McSweeney. But soon.
I'd love to see it when you finish. Did you have some work come out recently? And essay I think? (Or maybe it was poetry?)
Not too much, a piece up at The Pinch and a few poems picked up that are pending publication, but it's been slow, mostly because I'm limiting myself to larger venues now. I did have a blog up at The Journal a while back, that might be what you mean. I applied to blog for Ploughshares so hopefully that comes through.
Ploughshares would be very cool, I hope you get it. Keep us updated. Interested parties want to know
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:40 am Posts: 25451 Location: 111 Archer Ave.
withoutrings wrote:
7/10 Amy Hempel is still Amy Hempel
I can't help but compare her to Carver, because Carver is the only other "minimalist" writer that I'm really familiar with. His stories are more immediate than hers seem to be. I go through these moments in Tumble that cause me to dread what's coming next, but then she'll reward that thought with something innocent. It's all very paranoid, and I like it.
I can't help but compare her to Carver, because Carver is the only other "minimalist" writer that I'm really familiar with. His stories are more immediate than hers seem to be. I go through these moments in Tumble that cause me to dread what's coming next, but then she'll reward that thought with something innocent. It's all very paranoid, and I like it.
You are right to compare (and even find similarities among) them. Gordon Lish edited Carver, Hempel and Barry Hannah (along with others).
I totally agree about dread re Hempel. But the innocence, I often find (and here I'm thinking about the early stories) is always kind of a put on. And so I don't feel rewarded, but rather like I'm being spared some experience of suffering. Or the narrator doesn't want to fully divulge that. I find that her narrators have that cagey tendency to "spare" the reader.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:40 am Posts: 25451 Location: 111 Archer Ave.
This right here is what I think we're both getting at. I can't really put my finger on it, but it's all in these lines.
Quote:
Tony Peebles--handsome, hearty next-door neighbor--still had not arrived. "Heart attack," someone said. "Car wreck," someone else said. "Heart attack then car wreck," came a chorus, "Talking to someone at the store," said his wife. "He went there an hour ago. I was telling Judy, he goes to pick up steaks, there could be a stuffed effigy of the butcher behind the counter, Tony'd engage it in conversation." Only a couple of us knew what was taking so long. The children's dog had been killed a month before. The children felt it would be unfair to get another dog--unfair to their former dog. The children were in pain, and I felt I knew what to say. I said to their father, quoting a lovely poem, "Tell them this: 'The need for the new love is faithfulness to the old.'" He said, "That's what I used to tell myself when I cheated on my ex-wife." But he had agreed, and the men were picking up the children's new dog, a pup from a nearby camp.
my listing proclivities are more resilient than i thought. here are two. (i'm very partial to big other's, though flavorwire has people like cynthia ozick, sam lipsyte and anne carson.) combined, they are a really great source for contemporary(-ish) author recs
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