Memoir with an impossible-to-describe but perfectly pitched voice, will remind everybody what it is like to be 18-years-old and lost.
Quote: "One morn...moreMemoir with an impossible-to-describe but perfectly pitched voice, will remind everybody what it is like to be 18-years-old and lost.
Quote: "One morning I looked out the window and a huge tank stood in front of our house. It took up the whole street. So the FMLN ran away and the army moved in. They put a missile launcher in the window and my mother dusted it every day. ‘Mom,’ I said, ‘stop dusting that thing. It doesn’t matter if it’s dusty.’ Still, she dusted. And she tidied. All day she went around the living room, putting the grenades into little rows and folding the soldiers’ clothing. They never lived anywhere so clean."(less)
Quote: "What are you, Sherlock Holmes? Kevin nearly says, mouthy as a New Yorker, but his midwestern reticence buttons his lip. A Michigander can be e...moreQuote: "What are you, Sherlock Holmes? Kevin nearly says, mouthy as a New Yorker, but his midwestern reticence buttons his lip. A Michigander can be every bit as prickly as a New Yorker, just not out loud. The midwesterner’s credo: keep it to yourself."
Austin-based tribute to Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway with an explosive, surreal, and sad ending.(less)
Fun & surreal look at the fictional life of an author very much like Philip K. Dick--will make you glad to be a writer or reader.
Quote: Dank’s del...moreFun & surreal look at the fictional life of an author very much like Philip K. Dick--will make you glad to be a writer or reader.
Quote: Dank’s delusion of being just another author’s creature was the kind of folly not susceptible to refutation (what would have counted as evidence against it?), but like most of his delusions it subsided of its own accord, after a month and two hundred pages of frenzied exegesis. The readiness with which he relinquished such delusions makes me think that Dank never really fully embraced them in the first place—even if he thought he did, even if he never understood the difference between owning a conviction and taking one for a joyride."(less)
Seriously unhinged storytelling, will take you places you never imagined a horror novel or a literary novel would take you.
QUOTE: "Solving the followi...moreSeriously unhinged storytelling, will take you places you never imagined a horror novel or a literary novel would take you.
QUOTE: "Solving the following riddle will reveal the awful secret behind the universe, assuming you do not go utterly mad in the attempt. If you already happen to know the awful secret behind the universe, feel free to skip ahead."(less)
Great science fiction universe (or universes, actually) bursting with crazy imagery and wild ideas.
Quote: "In this room right now are 1,022 recruits,"...moreGreat science fiction universe (or universes, actually) bursting with crazy imagery and wild ideas.
Quote: "In this room right now are 1,022 recruits," Lt. Colonel Higgee said. "Two years from today, 400 of you will be dead."(less)
Especially enjoyed his readings of movies and music, helped me think about the period in a whole new way--and watch some great films along the way.
QUO...moreEspecially enjoyed his readings of movies and music, helped me think about the period in a whole new way--and watch some great films along the way.
QUOTE: "The sheer complication of plot in detective stories like Dashiell Hammett’s first novel, Red Harvest (1929), is another element of hard-boiled writing that found its way into screwball comedy, where the stories are invariably full of baroque complications and zany reversals."(less)
Maybe Miller's best book, loaded with lovely meditations on becoming a writer, crazy dream sequences and a pulpy vision of Brooklyn in the 1920s.
QUOTE...moreMaybe Miller's best book, loaded with lovely meditations on becoming a writer, crazy dream sequences and a pulpy vision of Brooklyn in the 1920s.
QUOTE: "I glanced at one manuscript after another, reading only a few lines at a time. Finally I came to my notes. They were as fresh and inspiring as when I had jotted them down. Some of them, which I had already made use of, were so provocative that I wanted to write the stories all over again, write them from a fresh, new angle. The more I unearthed, the more feverish I became. It was as though a huge wheel inside me had begun to revolve. I pushed everything aside and lit a cigarette. I gave myself up to a delicious reverie. All that I had wanted to write these past fall months was now writing; itself out. It oozed out like milk from a cocoanut. I had nothing to do with it. Someone else was in charge. I was merely the receiving station transmitting it to the blue."(less)
Smart & spooky homage to the great HP Lovecraft, complete with a scary depiction of a writer swallowed by their research.
QUOTE: "I have spread my...moreSmart & spooky homage to the great HP Lovecraft, complete with a scary depiction of a writer swallowed by their research.
QUOTE: "I have spread my dreams beneath your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."(less)
Lovingly obsessive & hilarious exploration of a classic B-movie, made me want to write about all my favorite good bad films. Stay for the pun in t...moreLovingly obsessive & hilarious exploration of a classic B-movie, made me want to write about all my favorite good bad films. Stay for the pun in the last sentence.
QUOTE: "'People are strange when you’re a stranger.' (No one remembers your name, Nada.) Seeing too much means glimpsing the corruptions hidden from ordinary mortals: perhaps, in that case, you’re Sherlock Holmes, uniquely competent to perceive the signs of Moriarty’s evil. The answer, then, is to become a detective. Alternately, you may be, like Miss Lonelyhearts in Nathanael West’s novel of the same name, destroyed by your knowledge of suffering. The alternative to madness, in that case, is art." (less)
A work of acrobatic nonfiction, constantly pushing the boundaries of the form.
Quote: "when someone attempts to interpret something complex he is apt t...moreA work of acrobatic nonfiction, constantly pushing the boundaries of the form.
Quote: "when someone attempts to interpret something complex he is apt to tell as much about himself as he is about the matter he is trying to interpret. At such times, the subject is off his guard, since he believes that he is merely explaining objective occurrences. To a trained professional, however, he is exposing inner forces, wishes, fears, and traces of past traumas."(less)
The kind of book that makes you excited about nonfiction.
QUOTE: "But the fear of tissue culture truly found its way into American living rooms in an e...moreThe kind of book that makes you excited about nonfiction.
QUOTE: "But the fear of tissue culture truly found its way into American living rooms in an episode of Lights Out, a 1930s radio horror show that told the story of a fictional Dr. Alberts who’d created an immortal chicken heart in his lab. It grew out of control, filling the city streets like The Blob, consuming everyone and everything in its path."(less)
Effortless reading, like Franzen sits you down & says I'm going to tell you a story, you won't have to do any work. Just listen.
QUOTE: "The loony...moreEffortless reading, like Franzen sits you down & says I'm going to tell you a story, you won't have to do any work. Just listen.
QUOTE: "The loony rage of his readership was worrisome"(less)
One of the most gripping & befuddling reading experiences I had last year. And it is a great horror story too.
QUOTE: "'Ganzfeld,' Seri pronounces...moreOne of the most gripping & befuddling reading experiences I had last year. And it is a great horror story too.
QUOTE: "'Ganzfeld,' Seri pronounces finally, in defeat, as if in explanation. Then talks down to them: 'It’s a German term. G-A-N-Z-feld. A documented, psychological phenomenon. When you’re deprived of sensory input for too long—say, institutionalized?—you begin to hallucinate ... see connections where there are none ... come up with theories for your personal demons, which you want to be real, not imagined.'"(less)
Intricate--with a more satisfying rock star character than Franzen's Freedom.
QUOTE: "And it may be that a crowd at a particular moment of history crea...moreIntricate--with a more satisfying rock star character than Franzen's Freedom.
QUOTE: "And it may be that a crowd at a particular moment of history creates the object to justify its gathering, as it did at the first Human Be-In and Monterey Pop and Woodstock. Or it may be that two generations of war and surveillance had left people craving the embodiment of their own unease in the form of a lone, unsteady man on a slide guitar."(less)
From the crazy movie it's based on to the amazing space scenes, this book took me to all sorts of places I never knew I wanted to go but I loved every...moreFrom the crazy movie it's based on to the amazing space scenes, this book took me to all sorts of places I never knew I wanted to go but I loved every pulpy minute of the strange trip.
QUOTE: "Upon the advent of the digital age, as you know, writers who went on and on and on just didn't last. You couldn't read all that nonsense on a screen. Fragmentation became the one true way. Fragmentation offered a point-and-click interface. Additionally, this strategic reduction blurred the line between poetry and prose, which is where I, Montese Crandall, come into the story. I, Montese Crandall, rely heavily on such strategies as alliteration, condensation, the strange, ghostly echo of metrical feet, iambs and dactyls, spondees and amphibrachs. For example, here's a pair of amphibrachs (unstressed, stressed, unstressed) that might very well summarize my entire output: romantic objective . The phrase does have a fine euphony."(less)
I spent one wonderful month in Russia, and this book helped remember every lovely minute of the trip.
QUOTE: "When a wave rolls in on Baikal, and it cu...moreI spent one wonderful month in Russia, and this book helped remember every lovely minute of the trip.
QUOTE: "When a wave rolls in on Baikal, and it curls to break, you can see stones on the bottom refracted in the vertical face of the wave. This glimpse, offered for just a moment in the wave’s motion, is like seeing into the window of an apartment as you go by it on an elevated train. The moon happened to be full that night, and after it rose, the stones on the bottom of the lake lay spookily illuminated in the moonlight. The glitter of the moon on the surface of the lake—the 'moon road,' Sergei called it—fluctuated constantly in its individual points of sparkling, with a much higher definition than any murky water could achieve."(less)
Perfect recession-era reading, but it contains some of the sharpest imagery you will read in any era.
QUOTE: "He was smiling an innocent, amused smile...morePerfect recession-era reading, but it contains some of the sharpest imagery you will read in any era.
QUOTE: "He was smiling an innocent, amused smile, the smile of an anarchist sitting in the movies with a bomb in his pocket."(less)
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