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November 07
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Matt
gave
 
to:
White Teeth (Paperback)
by Zadie Smith
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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October 08
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Matt
gave
to:
The Road to Los Angeles (Paperback)
by John Fante
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in October, 2007
Matt said:
"Bandini is less sympathetic here than in Ask the Dust. We don't always have to fall in love with the narrators of stories, I hope. In my review of that book, I nominated it as a Catcher in the Rye for people in their 20s; this book woul...more
Bandini is less sympathetic here than in Ask the Dust. We don't always have to fall in love with the narrators of stories, I hope. In my review of that book, I nominated it as a Catcher in the Rye for people in their 20s; this book would probably resonate more with a typically teenage Catcher audience.
Two brilliant sections worth mentioning: the putting down of the crab insurrection (Chapter 4), and a description of the euphoria following a inspired moment of artistic creation (Chapter 19). "Come on! Who wants to fight me?" I was reading this in a hospital, in the emergency room, and I laughed out loud at that, something I'm relatively sure is forbidden in hospitals and especially emergency rooms.
It was taking a really long time in the emergency room, and I had someplace to be, so, inspired by the (imagined) bravado of Bandini, I planned to swipe my file from the nurse when she came by next, and run out (if you leave without having your file fully processed, the insurance rejects the claim and you have to eat it -- $600 in this case for five hours of wasted time and all that happened was a nurse tapped my knee with a hammer). I didn't do that, but neither did I sit around and wait forever and ever. I think I still have a few cracked ribs, or a chipped piece of spine floating around in my back somewhere. But fuck hospitals....less
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September 25
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Matt
gave
to:
Jesus' Son: Stories by Denis Johnson (Paperback)
by Denis Johnson
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2001
Matt said:
"Probably the best book I ever read.
I went to see Denis Johnson give a talk maybe a year after I'd read it. There was a Q&A, and someone asked if there was anything, other than lived experience, that he drew on for inspiration. And he said (pa...more
Probably the best book I ever read.
I went to see Denis Johnson give a talk maybe a year after I'd read it. There was a Q&A, and someone asked if there was anything, other than lived experience, that he drew on for inspiration. And he said (paraphrasing), "you know the guitar solo from Sympathy for the Devil?"
That's when I decided this was my favorite book ever. He then went on to say, "When I write, I try to reproduce that same energy, that biting tone, that wrecklessness..."
It's one of the worst guitar solos in the history of rock music, but at the same time, the best....less
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Matt
gave
to:
East, West: Stories (Paperback)
by Salman Rushdie
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in February, 2002
Matt said:
"I read this a while ago and truthfully don't remember much of it... This review pertains solely to the second story, The Free Radio. It's about a young man, a rickshaw-driver, who gets tricked into marrying this older, I guess good-looking but...more
I read this a while ago and truthfully don't remember much of it... This review pertains solely to the second story, The Free Radio. It's about a young man, a rickshaw-driver, who gets tricked into marrying this older, I guess good-looking but bitter and manipulative woman who already has a bunch of kids from a previous marriage. The rickshaw driver (a good career by the way, in the eyes of the narrator) is a dreamer and has no common sense. I made all my students at Garfield read this -- male and female -- as a warning to not fall into that (domestic) trap. I mean, it's important to have goals, but come on, not everyone is going to be a professional football player or a platinum-selling rapper. Come on, kids, THINK!...less
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Matt
gave
to:
Wrecking Crew: The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates (Hardcover)
by John Albert
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in April, 2006
Matt said:
"By John Albert, founding member of Christian Death and sometime drummer for Bad Religion.
Look, this isn't a piece of great literature. For example, the chapters (about 5 pages per chapter) have quirky titles like a book you might have read in 4th...more
By John Albert, founding member of Christian Death and sometime drummer for Bad Religion.
Look, this isn't a piece of great literature. For example, the chapters (about 5 pages per chapter) have quirky titles like a book you might have read in 4th grade. Before you read this book, ask yourself: do you like...
baseball?
punk rock?
LA/SFV?
If yes, then by all means, read this book! It's a quick read, and an interesting true story about a bunch of former junkies and punk rockers who start an amateur baseball team. You know, "lovable misfits band together to stand up to Aryan-nation badasses and learn something about themselves in the process."
Just after the release of the book, I went with a friend to see Albert give a reading. It was in a church basement in Los Feliz. They had brownies and punch, which was pretty alright. So he gets up and reads a few pages, about one of his friends on the team who relapsed after a long period of non-use and overdosed. They discovered him in a coma and rush him to the hospital, where he's finally resusitated although he loses the use of his legs. There's actually this really gnarly part where he talks about how they tried to amputate his leg, but it wouldn't stop bleeding, so they just say "fuck it" and leave it on. So after he finishes reading, he goes, "Well, I'm sort of new to this, so, uh, I'd like to call up one of my friends to talk about the process of writing the book and everything." And, no shit, it's this guy -- the overdose guy -- and he hobbles up there on his crutches, you can plainly see he still has legs, but they're atrophied. They talked about the book, about how it feels to have your darkest moment rolled out in writing for the world to see. And then they talked about baseball, how all the great pitching in the world can't do shit for you if you don't reliably knock in a few runs every game, fucking Dodgers......less
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Matt
gave
to:
Men Without Women (Paperback)
by Ernest Hemingway
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in January, 1999
Matt said:
"Style vs. Substance, that's the ongoing debate. In this collection I'd have to say that Style is the main event -- which isn't to say there aren't some good stories in there -- but in my opinion, the action takes a back seat to the rhythm of the writ...more
Style vs. Substance, that's the ongoing debate. In this collection I'd have to say that Style is the main event -- which isn't to say there aren't some good stories in there -- but in my opinion, the action takes a back seat to the rhythm of the writing itself.
Used to teach Hills Like White Elephants and Ten Indians, subsequently they're my favorite. Chosen for their thematic content and (admittedly) their brevity, these are a great way to introduce students to the idea of subtext: almost boringly spare on the surface, boiling over with drama just beneath.
Shout outz to Little Steven and the Disciples... keep the faith!
...less
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Matt
gave
to:
Dubliners (Penguin Modern Classics)
by James Joyce
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in August, 2004
Matt said:
"You don't have to be Irish to enjoy this collection of stories. Even if you're only one-sixteenth Irish, like this guy, or not Irish in the least, these stories are universal en...more
You don't have to be Irish to enjoy this collection of stories. Even if you're only one-sixteenth Irish, like this guy, or not Irish in the least, these stories are universal enough to be recognized anywhere. Universally despressing maybe, but, okay, universal nonetheless. Early Joyce, featuring his trademark "dash" to indicate dialogue, which is surprisingly easy to read, and doesn't break up the narration with a bunch of quotation marks everywhere. I always wondered why no one else picked up on this innovation. Best guess: they were afraid of being labeled an "imitator of Joyce."
The better known stories are probably Two Gallants -- for having inspired the band of the same name (biters) -- and The Dead, which is the longest and sometimes classified as a novella. The ones that stick out in my memory though, are Eveline, which had me literally screaming at the page, and A Little Cloud, where the stoic, domestic type meets with his worldly and succesful childhood friend. This story resonates strongly for me, I think, having been on both sides of that equation at one time or another.
Suggestion: keep a finger in the footnotes section -- the slang is half of what makes it, so to miss that would be kind of a shame.
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