Caleb J. Ross's Blog, page 53

Why I Couldn’t Finish Reading The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano (Video Blog ep 032)

Click the image above to view the video

It takes a lot for me to abandon a book once I’ve started reading it, and that struggle becomes more and more serious the further I progress through said book. So, perhaps this is why I was able to drop Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detective after reading just over 1/3 of the book (though, 1/3 is often too far for me to abandon a book; I suppose this speaks to what a true waste of time I felt The Savage Detectives to be).

First, to address any of the friends who suggested I read this book: my faith in your taste is not diminished in the least. I believe my grip is mostly a matter of personal disinterest in the subject matter. I mean, no matter how good a book about baseball is written, I wouldn’t be excited to read it. The Savage Detectives is about teenagers without responsibility who worship poetry, yet refuse to do anything to enhance its gospel. I can respect people who share their world-saving ideas. I can’t respect people who claim to have world-saving ideas but keep them for themselves. Okay, I’m getting convoluted here. So, these kids think poetry is amazing. They think it has the power to change the world for the better. But instead of acting on that belief, they sit around, get drunk, have sex, and…that’s all.

I’ve heard Bolano’s most famous novel, 2666, isn’t much different, in terms of what gripes I have with The Savage Detectives, so I’ll likely avoid it. But his short novel, By Night in Chile, seems different enough and might be worth my time.

Write Even When You Aren’t (Writing) (Video Blog ep 031)

Click the image above to view the video

No book review from me this time. Judging by my recent history, it’d be a wise guess to say I do little more than read and review books. But such a guess would also be wrong. I also lounge in hotel chairs and talk about the problem of not writing as I—get this—don’t write.

Are you a writer who sometimes has trouble…performing? Then this pill…uh, video… is for you. Don’t kick yourself for letting your partner down. Lack of writing happens to everyone. Really. It does. Even me.

I hope my courage can be your courage.

Also, did you know Jim Lehrer writes fiction? Yep. A lot of it.

Video Review of Quintessence of Dust by Craig Wallwork (Video Blog ep 030)

Click the image above to watch the video review

At times William Gay, at times Carlton Mellick III, but always, I’d say, he dodges what would traditionally be called Bizarro fiction by way of empathy for his characters. He’s Bizarro with heart…so, magical realist, I suppose. He’d fit in more with Amy Bender and Gabriel Garcia Marquez than with Carlton Mellick III or even Bradley Sands, but is strong enough in the world of any to be welcomed by them.

Wallwork isn’t afraid to take a strange, even repulsive concept, and build a touching story around it. A story of a man shitting out his own nerves? Sounds ridiculous, but Wallwork makes it work. A sexual sideshow couple famous for inserting increasingly large objects into the woman’s vagina? Yep, but it gets even weirder, yet Wallwork knows how approach these images with honesty and heart.

I Guess I’m Supposed to Want to Lick My Own Balls: Lessons from Dad

The fourth of my ?-many part column over at ManArchy Magazine, called This is My Father, The Internet is now live and ready for your sweet embrace. This most recent article is called “I Guess I’m Supposed to Want to Lick My Own Balls: Lessons from Dad.” Need I say more?

Read all of the This Is My Father, The Internet articles here at ManArchy Magazine

Look mom, I made the cover of Noir at the Bar 2

Back for another round of booze, blood and bad taste, Noir at the Bar continues its assault on the literate world.

Contributors include: Jedidiah Ayres, Frank Bill, Jane Bradley, Sonia L. Coney, Hilary Davidson, Les Edgerton, Nate Flexer, Matthew C. Funk, Jesus Angel Garcia, Glenn Gray, Kevin Lynn Helmick, Gordon Highland, John Hornor Jacobs, David James Keaton, Tim Lane, Erik Lundy, Jason Makansi, Matthew McBride, Jon McGoran, Cortright McMeel, Aaron Michael Morales, Scott Phillips, Robert J. Randisi & Christine Matthews, John Rector, Caleb J. Ross, Duane Swierczynski, Mark W. Tiedemann, Fred Venturini, Benjamin Whitmer and Nic Young

You will definitely need to order this collection. Available (exclusively, I think) via Subterranean Books (online and in person), based in St. Louis, Missouri. The store is amazing. Help the indie bookstores, order a copy now!

Click here to order Noir at the Bar 2

Ranking Chuck Palahniuk’s novels from Most Important to Least Important

Click the image above to view the video review

Chuck Palahniuk is an important writer. Love him or hate him, he’s done more to bring reading to uninterested demographics than almost any other author. But how do his books rank?

I decided to take some time to (as) objectively (as possible) rank all of Chuck Palahniuk’s novels from Most Important to Least Important as a way to help hew readers find the right Palahniuk book.

What makes for an important book? It’s not necessarily a good story or well-written prose. I believe it’s a mixture of both, along with contextual relevancy, or “impact. For purposes of this list, I will be weighing the social impact of the book above any other metric.

Here’s the list

Socially relevant

Fight Club (machismo and consumerism)
Survivor (cult of celebrity)
Invisible Monsters (cultural importance of and priority placed on beauty)

Maybe socially relevant

Haunted (the reality TV obsession and “Truman Show Syndrome”)
Pygmy (Xenophobia, terriorism)

Not socially relevant

Rant
Choke
Lullaby
Diary
Snuff
Tell-All
Damned

The video is long, averaging about 1 minute per book (totaling about 12 minutes), but it’s a good enough primer, I think.

In addition to this one 12 minute video, I recorded a series of mini-reviews of each book. Check out any of the videos in the playlist below. At the end of each video, you’ll see a series of links that you can click to continue watching other Palahniuk book reviews.

Ranking Chuck Palahniuk’s novels from Most Importa ..

12:56Http://www.calebjross.com

subscribe: http://www.ca ..

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:08A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel fight cl ..

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:11A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel survivor ..

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Revi ..

01:05A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel invisibl ..

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:20A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel choke. a ..

Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:05A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel lullaby. ..

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:22A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel diary. a ..

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:13A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel rant. at ..

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:32A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel haunted. ..

Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:01A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel snuff. a ..

Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

00:48A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel pygmy. a ..

Tell-All by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:10A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel tell-all ..

Damned by Chuck Palahniuk – Quick Review

01:00A quick review of chuck palahniuk’s novel damned. ..

 

The Conan Sometimes References Books Twice (in a Row)

(part of my ongoing Unexpected Literary References series)

The title from this September 25th, 2012 episode is a take on the James M. Cain novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice. This makes two book references in a row.

Not only is this not the first time Conan has referenced a literary work in his episode titles, it’s not even the first time he’s referenced The Postman Always Rings Twice. Someone at the Conan O’Brien show must have a bit of a Cain boner.

Conan in the Rye

(part of my ongoing Unexpected Literary References series)

The title from this September 24th, 2012 episode is obviously a take on Catcher in the Rye.

This isn’t the first time Conan has leveraged a book title for a show title.

The Internet Taught Me How to Fight (re: How to Run Away)

The third of my ?-many part column over at ManArchy Magazine, called This is My Father, The Internet is now live and ready for your sweat embrace. Click here to read my response-as-column to a recent response to my last article (that sentence seems convoluted, but I’m too lazy to correct it–but no to lazy to explain my laziness with this extended sentence, I know, I know). This most recent article is called “The Internet Taught Me How to Fight (re: How to Run Away)”. It involves old martial arts movies and amazingly titled books about ninjas.

Read all of the This Is My Father, The Internet articles here at ManArchy Magazine

Getting the Signed Book – Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson (Video Blog ep 028)

Click the image above to watch the story of getting Denis Johnson to sign my copy of Jesus’ Son.

A few years ago I attended a writing conference in Portland, Oregon called the Tin House Writer’s Workshop. During the event, I met a lot of great authors, one of which was Denis Johnson, author of, among many other books, Jesus’ Son.

This newest installment of Getting the Singed Book features my heroic story of how I got my copy of Jesus’ Son signed by the author. It involves, among other awkward situations, the author nearly, almost, kinda drinking my pee. Read all about this almost happening at Dark Sky Magazine, here: http://www.cjrlit.com/DrinkingPee

And don’t forget: subscribe to my YouTube channel, subscribe to my YouTube channel, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe!