Simon - Greenville, SC (134 books)

Simon marked as to-read:

Love Goes to Buildings on Fire by Will Hermes

Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever
by Will Hermes (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

Simon gave

to:

Lucking Out: My Life Getting Down And Semi Dirty In The Seventies
by James Wolcott

read in February, 2012

My rating:

3.5 stars ... James Wolcott arrived in New York with little more than a letter of introduction from Norman Mailer, and Lucking Out is the story of how he parlayed that into a job at the Village Voice and an eventual career as a freelance writer. Wolc...more3.5 stars ... James Wolcott arrived in New York with little more than a letter of introduction from Norman Mailer, and Lucking Out is the story of how he parlayed that into a job at the Village Voice and an eventual career as a freelance writer. Wolcott isn’t interested in reliving old editorial battles, wailing about how much better things used to be, or putting himself at the center of great events; indeed, Lucking Out is chiefly about what a good time he had writing about culture and knowing those who made it. Wolcott was a friend and frequent screening colleague of Pauline Kael, who gets a chapter to herself. The dynamism of Kael’s company is well-described, as are all the personality traits that made her a divisive figure. (Lucking Out is worth it just for the description of the seating hierarchy at 1970’s New York press screenings.) Yet Kael couldn’t be any other way, and in Wolcott’s telling she comes off as someone aware of what her sometimes scathing reviews cost her both personally and professionally. No doubt there are plenty of memoirs that could be written in which Kael would come off differently, but it’s heartening to learn that Wolcott’s friendship with and love for Kael endured and wasn’t tainted by ambition or office politics. The image of Kael leaving her friends and heading off alone at the end of a post-screening salon is a poignant one, and says much about the even-then tenuous place of the critic. Wolcott, lucky bastard, was also present for the best years of CBGB; the whirling spirit that is Patti Smith is a guiding light. Smith is kept at a remove, there’s little sense of the woman who told her own story in Just Kids, but Wolcott’s (perhaps too New York-centric view) take is that Smith was the antidote to the excesses of the classic rock era. The young Talking Heads also play a part; Wolcott gives Tina Weymouth her due as an early female rock instrumentalist and the scene where Wolcott and Weymouth see a Fassbender movie cries out to be treated as a play or short story. (Did Weymouth let slip any good David Byrne anecdotes? )

Lucking Out dawdles only in a chapter that begins as a discussion of the New York ‘70s porn scene, and it’s as if Wolcott (who seems a temperate fellow, certainly no punk) was asked to write this part of the book in the hopes that sex might gin up the sales. Fortunately Wolcott uses porn as a counterpoint to his emerging love of ballet, an art form he approaches as an outsider and comes to love. I’d enjoy a Wolcott book on the world of late Balanchine New York ballet culture; the way he describes audience members and young ballet students attempting to reenact the dancers’ moves made me want to catch the next train to Lincoln Center. If the moment that Wolcott chooses to label the “end of an era’ (the murder of John Lennon) isn’t a surprise then the joy and particularity with which he recounts his early New York years certainly is. The aptly titled Lucking Out is the story of a man who made the most of his ticket to the show.(less)

Simon gave

to:

Pearl Jam Twenty
by Pearl Jam

read in January, 2012

My rating:

I'll try not to overthink this. If you're a serious Pearl Jam fan this is a must-have, and if you're a casual fan (like me) with a fondness for '90s music and culture then you'll still enjoy it. Companion coffee-table books like this often end up bei...more

Simon gave

to:

The Girl Who Played with Fire
by Stieg Larsson

read in January, 2012

My rating:

2.5 stars...

Simon gave

to:

Rock 'n' Roll
by Tom Stoppard

read in January, 2012

My rating:

I don't know why it took me so long to read this work by a writer I admire, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. As usual there are a lot of ideas in play and I'd love to see those ideas illuminated in a good production; reading any play is always half a l...more

Simon gave

to:

The Visible Man
by Chuck Klosterman

My rating:

I was sure I had blogged a review of Chuck Klosterman's first novel Downtown Owl, but when I went back to look it up I couldn't find it. My decision not to render an opinion on Downtown Owl says something about the book itself, or at least about how ...moreI was sure I had blogged a review of Chuck Klosterman's first novel Downtown Owl, but when I went back to look it up I couldn't find it. My decision not to render an opinion on Downtown Owl says something about the book itself, or at least about how I remember it. The look at life in a small North Dakota town, told from multiple points of view, was a pleasant read that revealed a new side to Klosterman's talent. But nothing about Klosterman's fiction made me want him to give up the funny, clear-eyed reviews and essays that he writes for various magazines and websites. Who better to break down Lou Reed and Metallica or the pomposity of 1970's rock? Now here comes Klosterman's The Visible Man, a second novel of ambition that yields frustrating results. As a novelist Klosterman is a "writer to watch" in the sense that he's willing to cross genres and defy expectations, but this time out he isn't saying as much as he thinks he is.

Set up as a series of messages, notes, and transcripts, The Visible Man is told from the point of view of a rather ordinary therapist named Victoria. The book we're reading is a manuscript that Victoria is attempting to turn into a published book for reasons that will become clear. Most of Victoria's practice is ordinary, she sees herself as less interesting than the Lorraine Bracco character on The Sopranos. The book is the story of Victoria's patient Y., who after a series of phone sessions agrees to come in and meet Victoria in person. Y. is prickly, secretive, condescending, and controlling and at first seems easily diagnosed as delusional. Y. claims to have invented a method by which he can completely conceal his presence; or to use a term that's hotly disputed in the novel, he can become "invisible". The scene in which he proves his claims shifts the balance power in his relationship with Victoria. I don't know how much research Chuck Klosterman did into therapeutic practices, but the therapy scenes in The Visible Man after Y. reveals his abilities feel like works of performance art. Y. talks almost non-stop in an attempt to describe and rationalize the experiences he has had while invisibly dropping on people's lives. Y. watches a woman smoke pot and watch Lost. He spies on a group of bikers debating philosophy. Victoria observes several times that Y.'s statements feel scripted but she never challeges Y. on this point, and she offers almost no resistance as Y. dictates the subject matter and length of theirsessions. All of Y.'s visitations are in service of some great project to understand human behavior, yet Victoria (and we) can see that in fact she's dealing with a voyeur though she's too much in Y.'s thrall to call him on it.

The Visible Man avoids most of the expected rest stops that invisibility offers to a plot. Y. isn't much interested in sex with or in taking from those he observes, in fact he takes only what he needs to survive. Initially Y. seems to be a sort of messenger from the world, reminding us that even the lives of people we never think about have value. The message gets muddied as Y. becomes more eccentric and the novel edges towards violence almost out of necessity. Klosterman has created a fascinating situation but either lacks the skill or just isn't interested in taking Y. to a place he wasn't at when the novel starts. Y. gets to ramble as if he's the subject of the sort of celebrity interview that Klosterman would never do. Chuck Klosterman has a natural gift for finding the key moment of a song and the hidden truths of the lives of Midwestern heavy metal fans, but with The Visible Man he has spent too much time on structure and too little on content. May Klosterman's next novel do less and say more.(less)

Simon gave

to:

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
by Rachel Cohn

My rating:

I read this book because the authors wrote Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, a YA novel which became a film I liked. Lena Dunham is scheduled to turn Dash & Lily into a movie in 2013; but of course that's no judgment of the book's quality. In alterna...more

Simon gave

to:

The Complaints
by Ian Rankin

read in November, 2011

My rating:

3.5 stars ... The first book in Rankin's new series should please fans of his John Rebus novels (which are recommended if you don't know them). Malcolm Fox leads an Edinburgh squad known as "The Complaints", essentially an Internal Affairs team. The ...more

Simon gave

to:

The Overlook (Harry Bosch, #13)
by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

Harry Bosch and Rachel Walling race through LA looking for stolen radioactive material in an adaptation of a serial Connelly wrote for the New York Times magazine. At 225 pages this can be easily read in a night or two; it's not classic Connelly but ...more

Simon gave

to:

The Reversal
by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)

My rating:

A courtroom drama/murder mystery that gives ample room for both Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller to showcase their talents. The best of the recent Connellys I've been reading on this spurt. Highly recommended.

Simon's Profile

Simon's favorite books

Simon's Bookshelves

Simon is Currently Reading

rss
Simon's Recent Updates

recent posts
Simon's Groups

Simon's Friends (35)

People Simon is Following

Simon's Favorite Authors

Quizzes and Trivia

Simon marked as to-read: Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever by Will Hermes (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Feb 08, 2012 07:09pm
Simon gave to: Lucking Out: My Life Getting Down And Semi Dirty In The Seventies by James Wolcott read in February, 2012	My rating:
3.5 stars ... James Wolcott arrived in New York with little more than a letter of introduction from Norman Mailer, and Lucking Out is the story of how he parlayed that into a job at the Village Voice and an eventual career as a freelance writer. Wolc...more
Feb 08, 2012 07:08pm · see review
Simon gave to: Pearl Jam Twenty by Pearl Jam read in January, 2012	My rating:
I'll try not to overthink this. If you're a serious Pearl Jam fan this is a must-have, and if you're a casual fan (like me) with a fondness for '90s music and culture then you'll still enjoy it. Companion coffee-table books like this often end up bei...more
Jan 14, 2012 03:25pm · see review
Simon gave to: The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson read in January, 2012	My rating:
2.5 stars...
Jan 14, 2012 06:57am · see review
Simon gave to: Rock 'n' Roll by Tom Stoppard read in January, 2012	My rating:
I don't know why it took me so long to read this work by a writer I admire, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. As usual there are a lot of ideas in play and I'd love to see those ideas illuminated in a good production; reading any play is always half a l...more
Jan 08, 2012 07:23am · see review
Simon gave to: The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman	My rating:
I was sure I had blogged a review of Chuck Klosterman's first novel Downtown Owl, but when I went back to look it up I couldn't find it. My decision not to render an opinion on Downtown Owl says something about the book itself, or at least about how ...more
Nov 26, 2011 08:18pm · see review
Simon gave to: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn	My rating:
I read this book because the authors wrote Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, a YA novel which became a film I liked. Lena Dunham is scheduled to turn Dash & Lily into a movie in 2013; but of course that's no judgment of the book's quality. In alterna...more
Nov 25, 2011 05:44pm · see review
Simon gave to: The Complaints by Ian Rankin read in November, 2011	My rating:
3.5 stars ... The first book in Rankin's new series should please fans of his John Rebus novels (which are recommended if you don't know them). Malcolm Fox leads an Edinburgh squad known as "The Complaints", essentially an Internal Affairs team. The ...more
Nov 19, 2011 07:12am · see review
Simon gave to: The Overlook (Harry Bosch, #13) by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
Harry Bosch and Rachel Walling race through LA looking for stolen radioactive material in an adaptation of a serial Connelly wrote for the New York Times magazine. At 225 pages this can be easily read in a night or two; it's not classic Connelly but ...more
Oct 19, 2011 03:21pm · see review
Simon gave to: The Reversal by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)	My rating:
A courtroom drama/murder mystery that gives ample room for both Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller to showcase their talents. The best of the recent Connellys I've been reading on this spurt. Highly recommended.
Oct 19, 2011 03:17pm · see review

Simon's Profile

Simon's favorite books

Simon's Bookshelves

Simon is Currently Reading

rssSimon's Recent Updates

recent postsSimon's Groups

Simon's Friends (35)

People Simon is Following

Simon's Favorite Authors

Quizzes and Trivia

rss
Simon's Recent Updates

recent posts
Simon's Groups