A review of John Berger’s Pig Earth
People exaggerate the changes in nature so as to make nature seem lighter. Nature resists change. If something changes, nature waits to see whether the change can continue, and it it can’t, it crushes...
View Article“Doña Faustina”— Paul Bowles
“Doña Faustina” by Paul Bowles NO ONE COULD UNDERSTAND why Doña Faustina had bought the inn. It stood on one of the hairpin curves in the old highway leading up from the river valley to the town, but...
View ArticleA note to readers new to Infinite Jest
A note to readers new to Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel Infinite Jest poses rhetorical, formal, and verbal challenges that will confound many readers new to the text. The abundance of...
View ArticleA review of Angels, Denis Johnson’s first novel
Angels, Denis Johnson’s 1983 début novel, begins as a small book about not very much and ends as a small book about pretty much everything. Johnson has a keen eye and keener ear for the kinds of...
View ArticleYuri Herrera’s Kingdom Cons condenses myth into vibrant narco noir
Yuri Herrera’s new novella Kingdom Cons condenses myth and archetype into concrete, brutal noir. Gritty and visceral, but also elegant and surreal, Herrera’s prose bristles with cinematic energy in a...
View ArticleThe main defect of this book is you, reader
From Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis’s 1881 novel The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. Tagged: Cult Novels, Fiction, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Literature, metafictino, The Posthumous Memoirs of...
View Article“The Wedding-Knell,” a short tale by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Wedding-Knell” by Nathaniel Hawthorne There is a certain church, in the city of New York which I have always regarded with peculiar interest on account of a marriage there solemnized under very...
View ArticleUnder the Volcano, Malcolm Lowry’s antipodal odyssey of despair
Most of Malcolm Lowry’s dense, depressing novel Under the Volcano takes place over the course of November 2nd, 1938, the Mexican Day of the Dead. Like a reticent, dour Virgil, Lowry guides the reader...
View ArticleThe nightmare has no escape (Antoine Volodine)
Several creatures wake up, semi-human and semi-animal, seated on a tribunal dais. Their memory doesn’t give them any self-knowledge, they knew nothing about the affair that they must judge, or even...
View ArticleBlog about Denis Johnson’s story “Strangler Bob”
Detail from Newgate Exercise Yard by Gustave Dore, 1872 Denis Johnson’s story “Strangler Bob” is the third selection in The Largesse of the Sea Maiden. At about 20 pages, it’s also the shortest piece...
View ArticleImpossible to write traditional fiction (Leslie Fiedler)
I’ve just lived through, for instance, the granting of the National Book Award in fiction. It turned out to be impossible for me to persuade my fellow judges to consider seriously any work of...
View ArticleThe Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (Second Riff: Stories of 1960)
PREVIOUSLY: Introductions + stories 1956-1959 IN THIS RIFF: Stories published in 1960: “The Sound-Sweep” “Zone of Terror” “Chronopolis” “The Voices of Time” “The Last World of Mr. Goddard” “The...
View ArticleA note to readers new to Infinite Jest
A note to readers new to Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace’s 1996 novel Infinite Jest poses rhetorical, formal, and verbal challenges that will confound many readers new to the text. The abundance of...
View Article“Municipal Noir,” a very short tale by Hob Broun
“Municipal Noir” by Hob Broun from Cardinal Numbers MADRID, IN NEBRASKA’S SOUTHWEST corner, in the wide terraced plain below the Platte, had a Hog & Hominy Fest annually until 1978. There are three...
View ArticleBest Books of 1973?
A conversation with a colleague in January of 2022 led to my blogging about the possible “Best Books of 1972.” The post was fun to research, so here’s a sequel of sorts: What were the best books from...
View ArticleHELP! A Stereophonic Narrative for Authorial Voice — John Barth
“HELP! A Stereophonic Narrative for Authorial Voice” by John Barth.
View ArticleWalton Ford’s illustration for Joy Williams’ story “The Last Generation”
Walton Ford’s illustration for Joy Williams’ story “The Last Generation.” The story appeared in the 1 April 1989 issue of Esquire.
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