Deborah A. Lott (Author of In Session)

Deborah A. made a comment on her review of [sic]

"The New York Times reviewer recently called this the "memoir of the year." That, and the reviewer's remark that it was full of wild sex, made me rush...more "

Deborah A. gave

to:

[sic]
by Joshua Cody

read in January, 2012

My rating:

Deborah A. is on page 150 of 266 of [sic]

[sic]
by Joshua Cody

progress:

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Deborah A. gave

to:

Blue Nights
by Joan Didion

read in November, 2011

My rating:

Well, it's probably blasphemy to say this, and I did give this book the highest possible rating, but some of Didion's stylistic methods: the lists, the questions, the coy mingling of abstract and concrete, were showing here. They felt like tricks rat...more Well, it's probably blasphemy to say this, and I did give this book the highest possible rating, but some of Didion's stylistic methods: the lists, the questions, the coy mingling of abstract and concrete, were showing here. They felt like tricks rather than fluid means of transcending the personal and reaching the universal. I actually got annoyed with the narrator when she couldn't seem to answer her own interminable questions when the answers seemed obvious to me. Of course, if your mother has chronic migraine, carries a presumptive diagnosis of MS, looks frail, writes about chaos and the meaninglessness of the universe, and your parents take you with them around the world to movie sets and agents' offices, you may well become precocious, feel as if it is your job to take care of them, and develop your own sense that the universe is meaningless and chaotic. Is this really mysterious? You may see the randomness lurking in the choice/adoption fable meant to reassure you that you were fated to be with your adoptive parents. How could you not ask "what if you weren't home when the doctor called to offer me to you," etc., when your mother asks these sorts of questions in her writing all the time? How can Didion not see how much Quintana probably wanted to be a writer like Mom and Dad?
Didion approaches and then darts away from deeper understanding of her daughter's and her own psychology. Some of the montage/collage -- the movement from contemplating her daughter's psychology to her own physical problems of aging felt narcissistic. Can she only think about her daughter empathetically for so long before she has to shift focus to herself? I understand that the larger themes are mortality and the unwillingness to acknowledge the passage of time, etc., etc., but there were still so many moments when I wanted to pin the narrator down to staying in the moment with her daughter before getting back to herself.

Didion also throws around psychiatric diagnoses applied at various times to Quintana as if they explain her but it feels cruel to apply a diagnosis so often used to discredit intense women, and so often lacking in scientific validity -- borderline personality disorder -- to describe her daughter. It doesn't explain at this point, it only discredits. I haven't yet quite gotten to the end of the book but it's still not clear to me what the connection is between these psychiatric diagnoses and her daughter's final physical illness. Maybe Didion is relying on the reader to connect some of these dots, but for some reason this book felt more coy and evasive than her other works. Are we being asked to forgive her? Tell her that whatever happened with her daughter isn't her fault? Or condemn and forgive her at the same time? Is the subject matter still too fraught, too painful, the relationship too unresolved? Am I projecting here my own feelings about my mother and her blindnesses to me? I feel as if I'm being too hard on Didion -- What could be more horrible than losing your husband and your daughter within a few months of one another, in the midst of losing your own physical and cognitive bearings? Didion is brave to even broach these subjects, and even when she's not at the top of her game, she's better than virtually everyone else writing memoir. I relished every word of this book even as I sometimes wanted to shake the narrator.(less)

Deborah A. gave

to:

The Marriage Plot
by Jeffrey Eugenides

My rating:

I think Eugenides is a master of prose. Each sentence seems beautifully and carefully crafted. I enjoyed the trip into many separate universes. In a way, this reads like an old fashioned novel, and the main plot -- who will the heroine wind up with?...more

Deborah A. gave

to:

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead by Jeffrey Eugenides

My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro
by Jeffrey Eugenides

read in October, 2011

My rating:

A pretty good collection of short stories from all eras on the subject of love and romance.

Deborah A. gave

to:

The Burning House
by Paul Lisicky (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

Deborah A. gave

to:

Famous Builder
by Paul Lisicky (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

Deborah A. gave

to:

Lawnboy
by Paul Lisicky (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

Deborah A. gave

to:

The Story and Its Writer by Ann Charters

The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction
by Ann Charters

read in March, 2011

My rating:

I reviewed a lot of short story anthologies to teach a short fiction class, and this one was wonderful. It includes a lot of the classics students hadn't read on their own -- Gogol, Chekhov, Kafka, and contemporary writers as well. Concise bios and a...more

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Deborah A. made a comment on her review of [sic] "The New York Times reviewer recently called this the "memoir of the year." That, and the reviewer's remark that it was full of wild sex, made me rush...more "
06. Januar, 12:59 Uhr · see review
Deborah A. gave to: [sic] by Joshua Cody read in January, 2012	My rating:
06. Januar, 12:30 Uhr
Deborah A. is on page 150 of 266 of [sic] [sic] by Joshua Cody progress:	My rating:
30. Dezember, 18:51 Uhr · like · see status
Deborah A. gave to: Blue Nights by Joan Didion read in November, 2011	My rating:
Well, it's probably blasphemy to say this, and I did give this book the highest possible rating, but some of Didion's stylistic methods: the lists, the questions, the coy mingling of abstract and concrete, were showing here. They felt like tricks rat...more
22. November, 21:30 Uhr · see review
Deborah A. gave to: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides	My rating:
I think Eugenides is a master of prose. Each sentence seems beautifully and carefully crafted. I enjoyed the trip into many separate universes. In a way, this reads like an old fashioned novel, and the main plot -- who will the heroine wind up with?...more
27. Oktober, 00:08 Uhr · see review
Deborah A. gave to: My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro by Jeffrey Eugenides read in October, 2011	My rating:
A pretty good collection of short stories from all eras on the subject of love and romance.
27. Oktober, 00:07 Uhr · see review
Deborah A. gave to: The Burning House by Paul Lisicky (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
02. Oktober, 13:42 Uhr
Deborah A. gave to: Famous Builder by Paul Lisicky (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
02. Oktober, 13:42 Uhr
Deborah A. gave to: Lawnboy by Paul Lisicky (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
02. Oktober, 13:42 Uhr
Deborah A. gave to: The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction by Ann Charters read in March, 2011	My rating:
I reviewed a lot of short story anthologies to teach a short fiction class, and this one was wonderful. It includes a lot of the classics students hadn't read on their own -- Gogol, Chekhov, Kafka, and contemporary writers as well. Concise bios and a...more
02. Oktober, 13:41 Uhr · see review

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