I’ve been seeing references to Borges’ story Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote around a bit, for whatever reason (it is the one about Pierre Menard, through diligent scholarship, rewriting and recreating Don Quixote, line for line). And classic Borges...
Most books I read which strive to be about the Black experience living in America are ultimately about trauma, for obvious reasons. If Beale Street Could Talk also has its fair share of trauma and no happy ending - but...
There is I think probably a thread of brilliance that winds its way though this novel - but I was rarely quite able to grasp it. I am a bit suspicious of the translation; the writing has a kind of...
I’ve been keeping a little inventory of books that misuse and abuse the word palimpsest. It is, in my opinion, a bit of a trap of a word - arcane yet evocative, strange sounding with a compelling meaning that is...
The second book in The Gunslinger series is less engaging. It is more ambitious than the previous, with King filling out his patchwork universe with connections to times, places and trends from Our World, that are ultimately not particularly poorly...
Stephen King’s voice is smooth, straightforward, easily digested. Technically, aesthetically, he is quite good at that voice - but I don’t think when it comes down to it, that I care very much for it. It is maybe without flaws,...
I recently reread Rosshalde because I was curious about an alternative to Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - an author exploring what it means to live as and pursue art in a non-linguistic medium. I found what feels more authentic,...
Brilliant! Thought-provoking and insightful into the forces and structures of decolonialization, and a bit challenging. The prefaces by Sartre and particularly Homi K Bhabha (sesquipedalian though it is) do an excellent job of contextualizing the rest. It is a bit...
Virginia Woolf is pretty cool, and a great writer. This is a good book
You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand You see somebody naked and you say, “Who is that man?” You try so hard but you don’t understand Just what you will say when you get home Because...