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Someday This Will Be Funny
by
Lynne Tillman (Goodreads Author)
The stories in Some Day This Will Be Funny marry memory to moment in a union of narrative form as immaculate and imperfect as the characters damned to act them out on page. Lynne Tillman, author of American Genius, presides over the ceremony; Clarence Thomas, Marvin Gaye, and Madame Realism mingle at the reception. Narrators � by turn infamous and nameless � shift within t...more
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
April 22nd 2011
by Red Lemonade/Cursor
(first published April 20th 2011)
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http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainme...
“Someday This Will Be Funny,” by Lynne Tillman, is being published by an imprint that plans to produce books simultaneously in paperback, as digital downloads and as “a limited edition artisanal object direct from the publisher.” Appropriately, the author here offers multiple definitions of what a “story” is.v
By JENNY SHANK
Special Contributor
The Dallas Morning News
SHORT STORIES
Someday This Will Be Funny
Lynne Tillman
(Red Lemonade, $14.95)
Books have existe...more
“Someday This Will Be Funny,” by Lynne Tillman, is being published by an imprint that plans to produce books simultaneously in paperback, as digital downloads and as “a limited edition artisanal object direct from the publisher.” Appropriately, the author here offers multiple definitions of what a “story” is.v
By JENNY SHANK
Special Contributor
The Dallas Morning News
SHORT STORIES
Someday This Will Be Funny
Lynne Tillman
(Red Lemonade, $14.95)
Books have existe...more
The first book I read by Lynne Tillman was The Madame Realism Complex, a collection of stories published by the small avante-garde press Semiotext(e). That was close to 20 years ago, and I still have not recovered from the excitement I felt on first reading it.
I read everything else I could find by her, and in the mid-1990s I wrote an article about her for Scotland on Sunday. In the article, I described her as being "simultaneously more complex and more accessible than Beckett." When I wrote tha...more
I read everything else I could find by her, and in the mid-1990s I wrote an article about her for Scotland on Sunday. In the article, I described her as being "simultaneously more complex and more accessible than Beckett." When I wrote tha...more
Lynne Tillman is a total fucking treasure. This is not nearly as good as AMERICAN GENIUS, but there are still stories in here that are wonderful, including the first, That's How Wrong My Love Is, about a pair of mourning doves.
"...While the airplane with the cinematographers flew beside the flock, the birds ignored it and singlemindedly moved forward, their wings beating rhythmically and constantly, though occasionally they glided, and they might have been exhausted; yet they kept going, determi...more
"...While the airplane with the cinematographers flew beside the flock, the birds ignored it and singlemindedly moved forward, their wings beating rhythmically and constantly, though occasionally they glided, and they might have been exhausted; yet they kept going, determi...more
My stepfather checked a copy of this out from our local library and sort of asked me to take a look at it before he did, because I apparently have a good taste in literature. I found the essays/short stories to be a little evocative, semi thought-provoking, and well written, if a little hard to follow.
I hated it.
I'm the type of person who never leaves a book unfinished (I saw Twilight through to the end, and that was some serious tripe) but I seriously could not get past the third piece. Perhap...more
I hated it.
I'm the type of person who never leaves a book unfinished (I saw Twilight through to the end, and that was some serious tripe) but I seriously could not get past the third piece. Perhap...more
2 likes · like · see review
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Like Ehmmaleigh, I'm never one to leave a book unfinished. Whether I've picked it up at the bookstore because of an interesting back cover, or it's on the bestseller's list, there's a reason I chose to read it in the first place.
A collection of short stories doesn't take an investment by the reader- neither thought or time. You can pick up a story here and there, before bed or on a weekend, when you have a bit of time but don't feel like diving into a novel. I managed to get to page 77 (midway...more
A collection of short stories doesn't take an investment by the reader- neither thought or time. You can pick up a story here and there, before bed or on a weekend, when you have a bit of time but don't feel like diving into a novel. I managed to get to page 77 (midway...more
This set of short stories or vignettes started sharply, reminiscent of Lydia Davis, but petered out mid-way through. Thought provoking and evocative, but lacking in tangible imagery or plot development to ground the reader.
red lemonade saves the day.
fantastic short stories, i guess collected from over the decades. i am hereby officially a fan of lynne tillman. i have a line of a book about Shore she is involved with, but i don't know in what capacity, intro perhaps?
and a novel of her's, about paranoia (that;s all i need, hey!..what are you looking at?!)
No Lease on Life
her stories are varied in tone and topic, and remind me of old fashioned styles Lawrence, Hardy, even Trollope, but also new old fashioned styles...more
fantastic short stories, i guess collected from over the decades. i am hereby officially a fan of lynne tillman. i have a line of a book about Shore she is involved with, but i don't know in what capacity, intro perhaps?
and a novel of her's, about paranoia (that;s all i need, hey!..what are you looking at?!)
No Lease on Life
her stories are varied in tone and topic, and remind me of old fashioned styles Lawrence, Hardy, even Trollope, but also new old fashioned styles...more
I had the pleasure of reviewing an earlier book of Tillman's stories, her collaborative with visual artists _This is Not It_ a while back, and so I feel like I know Tillman's work at least a little, and this is another book by her:)
In other words, this is a book made up of stories that have plots, but which are also interested in language, mostly set in NYC and amongst the kinds of people who shop at bodegas but are also concerned, post-Beckett, about the ability and the need to say things: how...more
In other words, this is a book made up of stories that have plots, but which are also interested in language, mostly set in NYC and amongst the kinds of people who shop at bodegas but are also concerned, post-Beckett, about the ability and the need to say things: how...more
Lynne Tillman places together a variety of stories about loss and heartache, grouping them under a title encouraging laughter in the face of sadness. The collection is a mixed bag of good, bad, and indifferent. One tale laments the disappearance of a dove's nest outside her window, another shares a final tale of freindship before it fall apart. Marvin Gaye attempts a collaboration with John Lennon, and the author herself offers a poignant letter to an old flame. Overall, not quite my cup of tea...more
Tillman's work initially struck me as dry, abstract, and lacking in emotion, particularly in the very short pieces or the ones which had famous people at their center, but there are three masterpieces in the middle of the collection that were pure genius and made me recognize that the dry style only amplified the sense of emotional disconnection felt by the characters. Tillman is an exceptionally gifted writer who is breaking new stylistic ground. The collection has uneven moments, but it is dee...more
This book was just awful. It was shockingly empty, and didn't have a point. The author is extremely talented, and the writing was top notch, but there was absolutely no creativity in this book. It read like a science journal not like fiction/creative writing.
This is a collection of short stories from Lynn Tillman. Some were great, other were not so great. Actually, far more were less-than-stellar, hence the two-star rating. Unfortunately, none of them were moving enough -- there was not a single story that I loved! Some that I really like and just liked, but not one did I love. I think it's because, at times, it feels like the author is trying too hard to write these surreal and weird stories. They're too strange and too out there, and they end up n...more
I don't think this will be funny someday. On the bright side I created a shelf just for it. This will go down in history as one of the very few books I did not finish and I am a sucker for finishing books I start reading. Oh well... maybe someday I might pick it up and finish it - or not.
Tillman is one of our present literary-... well "genius" falls flat, more precisely she is a literarian immersed in our moment in time, and serves us well as cultural beacon.
Someday it will be funny when they look back at how amused and content we were with late seventies and eighties sitcoms and soap operas, that were backlashed with reality tv shows.
Her writing is at times melancholy and/or hyper, it is paced or sporadic. Irony, wit, sarcasm, revealing. Exposed, naked, cloaked. Dryly or feve...more
Someday it will be funny when they look back at how amused and content we were with late seventies and eighties sitcoms and soap operas, that were backlashed with reality tv shows.
Her writing is at times melancholy and/or hyper, it is paced or sporadic. Irony, wit, sarcasm, revealing. Exposed, naked, cloaked. Dryly or feve...more
It's beautifully written, but I really just didn't get it. Kinda made me feel like a dork who just couldn't understand what it took to be in the cool kids club, a club filled with people who loved this book.
added after reading the Vanity Fair review in the June 2011 issue on my iPad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/boo...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/boo...
I started this book with great enthusiasm.
As I completed each story I cared less.
Then I quit.
I still plan on digging into American Genius.
As I completed each story I cared less.
Then I quit.
I still plan on digging into American Genius.
Really, I tried to like these stories. I found the shifts in style terribly grating. Some of the stories were so obtuse that I just am giving up.
Lynne Tillman's writing is like an abacus. A pair of scales moving up and down. The heart of this book is Love Sentence.
Some of these stories I loved- others I didn't care for at all. As a whole it is quite good.
Nov 03, 2011
Jessamine
added it
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blo...
I wrote about this book here (see above)
I wrote about this book here (see above)
One of the few short story collections where I didn't get ANY of the stories.
"More Sex" made me LOL, but as with almost any story collection there are a few misses.
It probably deserves more stars, but I really don't like books of short stories
Forgettable.
2011 Book 99/100
I really loved some of the stories but didn't care all that much for others.
Exceptional stories that traverse an impressive variety of landscapes: emotional, political, humourous, fantastical. Lynne Tillman is the writer that writers fall in love with, a master of supportive provocation. Her humility and honesty make her an ideal, the practitioner who inspires others to do, be, and write better.
Did not care for this collection of short stories AT ALL!
Not my cup of tea. Read two stories and then opted out.
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Here’s an Author’s Bio. It could be written differently. I’ve written many for myself and read lots of other people’s. None is right or sufficient, each slants one way or the other. So, a kind of fiction – selection of events and facts.. So let me just say: I wanted to be a writer since I was eight years old. That I actually do write stories and novels and essays, and that they get published, stil...more
More about Lynne Tillman...
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