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Watch the Doors As They Close
“This is the story of Anselm.” A woman plans to set down a faithful portrait of her ex-lover, just days after he’s fled their one-room romance. But as she looks back on the crash-and-burn affair, her writing quickly reveals her own contempt for and obsession with moody, unpredictable Anselm. The 35-year-old narrator is an unpublished writer and retail clerk who spends her working hours shelving in a downtown bookstore, her days off laying low in a Brooklyn luncheonette. Anselm is a charming but hapless recent New Yorker, composer of music, and an Ivy League drop-out who hails from a disastrous Appalachian childhood. His storyline is heartbreaking, yet the fallible narrator goes in and out of sympathy for him as she vacillates between telling his story and theirs. In a voice that evokes the melancholy of Jean Rhys and the frankness of Annie Ernaux, Watch the Doors As They Close recounts the intense affair as it disintegrates--all the while painting vivid scenes of American rural poverty and New York bohemia at the turn of the Millennium.
- GenresNovella
100 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
35 people want to read
About the author
Karen Lillis
15 books28 followersKaren Lillis is the author of four short novels, most recently, Watch the Doors as They Close (Spuyten Duyvil Novella Series). The Nervous Breakdown raved about the book: "One of the finest pieces of independent literature of 2012, Lillis has broken the mold of the classic New York City love story." With sharp insight and black humor, Lillis’ fiction and narrative nonfiction tell vivid tales of wage-slave bohemia, disaster romances, artistic ambitions, and characters who got left behind by the American dream. She has been a writer-in-residence at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore in Paris and is at work on a memoir of her years behind the register at St. Mark's Bookshop in New York. She blogs about the small press scene and indie bookstores at Karen the Small Press Librarian.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 23, 2012
Watch the Doors As They Close is a short novella of a 100 pages but one that made me smile, made me want to jump up and down my bed, singing and dancing, laughing and crying and shouting YES! YES! YES! to the whole world, or at least those who want to listen.
(Okay, it wasnt that bad, but you know...)
It tells the tale of a love affair that has just ended one week ago,
arranged as a series of journal entries over the course of three weeks. The narrator, a young woman, tries to find peace of mind, come to understanding what went wrong exactly. And even more so who Anselm, her ex-boyfriend, actually REALLY was and their common hopes and dreams.
The writing itself is pretty much straight forward even there are wild jumps in the remembering of their common past, little glimpses of a life lived together for a short while. But all this feels so natural, so totally real. One doesnt focus or even care on an exact timeline when one is still in an emotional turmoil and trying to make sense of the last months, like the narrator does in her journal entries.
I love the casuality in her tone, the musings, the little hesitations one can sense on the page, the in-between words and phrases (I dont know, I dont remember but..., I think, anyway, etc). It feels so totally real and normal, and indeed someone would really write that way in a diary which is not meant to be read by someone else. All those events, thoughts and their meanings which are meant to stay by oneself only, while releasing them from the innermost of oneself, of one´s soul.
Never, not once, did I have the feeling that I am actually reading a novel, written by an author, but at every page it totally felt like a real diary. Some unknown girls thoughts on a relationship that ended, what her ex-lover hated, his former girlfriends he doesnt seem to have ever stopped talking about, their being together. All those tiny little things that are so loveable, so fragile and can be so hurtful. She is recreating Anselm almost obsessively, passionate but with no regret. She is just trying to deal with him not-being-here anylonger.
Anselm isnt exactly the greatest guy ever. Manic-depressive, with an not-all-that-great upbringing and a rather *interesting* relationship to his mother as there might have been sexual abuse. The girl also speaks of corporal punishments and emotional neglect Anselm suffered during his years on his familys farm and later in school. So no surprise that he is pretty freaked.
Honestly his life in rural Pennsylvania didnt sound so great at all, especially not in comparison to New York even he suffered there too. Too overwhelming, too loud, too much of everything. Not being the mentally strongest his only chance to go on living is to flee again.
It has a strong voice, it´s sweet and funny and pure catharsis and who ever has mourned the end of a relationship like a little death of one´s beloved will or hopefully might find those same emotions in it.
If Goodreads would allow me to give half stars I would happily reward it with 4,5 stars instead of "only" 4****. I have loved it to bits and pieces and Karen Lillis did everything just right. It´s ... beautiful. *big sigh* (but smiling).
(Okay, it wasnt that bad, but you know...)
It tells the tale of a love affair that has just ended one week ago,
One has to sit very still and pay close attention to see where he´s going, where he´s gone.
arranged as a series of journal entries over the course of three weeks. The narrator, a young woman, tries to find peace of mind, come to understanding what went wrong exactly. And even more so who Anselm, her ex-boyfriend, actually REALLY was and their common hopes and dreams.
The writing itself is pretty much straight forward even there are wild jumps in the remembering of their common past, little glimpses of a life lived together for a short while. But all this feels so natural, so totally real. One doesnt focus or even care on an exact timeline when one is still in an emotional turmoil and trying to make sense of the last months, like the narrator does in her journal entries.
I love the casuality in her tone, the musings, the little hesitations one can sense on the page, the in-between words and phrases (I dont know, I dont remember but..., I think, anyway, etc). It feels so totally real and normal, and indeed someone would really write that way in a diary which is not meant to be read by someone else. All those events, thoughts and their meanings which are meant to stay by oneself only, while releasing them from the innermost of oneself, of one´s soul.
Our letters, our hopes, discovering all we shared - we build something so beautiful that neither of us could fully believe that it was here to stay.
Never, not once, did I have the feeling that I am actually reading a novel, written by an author, but at every page it totally felt like a real diary. Some unknown girls thoughts on a relationship that ended, what her ex-lover hated, his former girlfriends he doesnt seem to have ever stopped talking about, their being together. All those tiny little things that are so loveable, so fragile and can be so hurtful. She is recreating Anselm almost obsessively, passionate but with no regret. She is just trying to deal with him not-being-here anylonger.
What do I really know about Anselm? Only what he told me. I never met anyone who could give me a context for him, flesh out his existence. There were no coworkers to meet, we never ran into his friends, his mother never answered the phone.
Anselm isnt exactly the greatest guy ever. Manic-depressive, with an not-all-that-great upbringing and a rather *interesting* relationship to his mother as there might have been sexual abuse. The girl also speaks of corporal punishments and emotional neglect Anselm suffered during his years on his familys farm and later in school. So no surprise that he is pretty freaked.
I would wonder about his attraction to writers. Did he want to hand his life story to someone else who might want to make sense of it?
Honestly his life in rural Pennsylvania didnt sound so great at all, especially not in comparison to New York even he suffered there too. Too overwhelming, too loud, too much of everything. Not being the mentally strongest his only chance to go on living is to flee again.
It has a strong voice, it´s sweet and funny and pure catharsis and who ever has mourned the end of a relationship like a little death of one´s beloved will or hopefully might find those same emotions in it.
If Goodreads would allow me to give half stars I would happily reward it with 4,5 stars instead of "only" 4****. I have loved it to bits and pieces and Karen Lillis did everything just right. It´s ... beautiful. *big sigh* (but smiling).
April 5, 2012
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
(IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: About a year ago, the author of this book wrote a complimentary article about CCLaP for her personal blog, although in no way was this done in expectation of a good review in return. Nonetheless, it should be kept in mind when reading this write-up.)
Knowing what I do about author Karen Lillis, I had been sort of gritting my teeth in expectation of reviewing this latest novella by her; because to be frank, this academically-minded former bookstore employee has a habit at her popular blog of championing the kinds of abstract, highly experimental work that I have a low tolerance for, and I was afraid that this was going to be the case as well with this newest slim volume of hers. But the good news is that this is actually a highly readable, engaging and entertaining story, essentially a deep character study of one of those douchbaggy, intellectually bullying, constantly mooching "artist dudes" that otherwise smart women seem to constantly fall for, written entirely as a series of reminisces from one of these smart women and examining all the sneaky ways that such guys manage to burrow under such women's skin. As such, then, potential readers shouldn't expect anything even resembling a traditional three-act plot, but rather should be prepared to enjoyably wallow in Lillis' casual, unhurried prose style, the point not really to find out "what happens" but rather to get a complex inside-out understanding of just what makes such Proust-quoting underachievers tick, jumping randomly from location to location around the world but admittedly at its Romantic finest (with a capital R) when looking at the characters' time spent in a deliberately precious contemporary Paris, cliched days of staying on back cots at Shakespeare's Books and pretending that poor artists still hang out in the Left Bank, but effective and moving nonetheless. A perfect companion to Ann Beattie's Walks with Men (covering the exact same subject but set in early-'80s lower Manhattan), this will strongly appeal to fans of New Yorker stories and other intriguing blends of academic and mainstream work, and it comes recommended to that specific audience.
Out of 10: 8.8
(IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: About a year ago, the author of this book wrote a complimentary article about CCLaP for her personal blog, although in no way was this done in expectation of a good review in return. Nonetheless, it should be kept in mind when reading this write-up.)
Knowing what I do about author Karen Lillis, I had been sort of gritting my teeth in expectation of reviewing this latest novella by her; because to be frank, this academically-minded former bookstore employee has a habit at her popular blog of championing the kinds of abstract, highly experimental work that I have a low tolerance for, and I was afraid that this was going to be the case as well with this newest slim volume of hers. But the good news is that this is actually a highly readable, engaging and entertaining story, essentially a deep character study of one of those douchbaggy, intellectually bullying, constantly mooching "artist dudes" that otherwise smart women seem to constantly fall for, written entirely as a series of reminisces from one of these smart women and examining all the sneaky ways that such guys manage to burrow under such women's skin. As such, then, potential readers shouldn't expect anything even resembling a traditional three-act plot, but rather should be prepared to enjoyably wallow in Lillis' casual, unhurried prose style, the point not really to find out "what happens" but rather to get a complex inside-out understanding of just what makes such Proust-quoting underachievers tick, jumping randomly from location to location around the world but admittedly at its Romantic finest (with a capital R) when looking at the characters' time spent in a deliberately precious contemporary Paris, cliched days of staying on back cots at Shakespeare's Books and pretending that poor artists still hang out in the Left Bank, but effective and moving nonetheless. A perfect companion to Ann Beattie's Walks with Men (covering the exact same subject but set in early-'80s lower Manhattan), this will strongly appeal to fans of New Yorker stories and other intriguing blends of academic and mainstream work, and it comes recommended to that specific audience.
Out of 10: 8.8
May 17, 2018
Karen Lillis’s novella, written as diary entries from December 12th through the 30th of 2003, begins, “This is the story of Anselm as told to me,” and right away I worried for this poor young woman. Anselm, a bi-polar, world-travelling undergraduate from a poverty-stricken Appalachian town used to date the unnamed narrator, but they broke up one week prior to her journaling. We learn nearly nothing about her (although she does mention that Anselm read the book she wrote and was jealous of some passages).
The narrator feels she knows nothing about Anselm, yet the story is stacked with details about his family, of what he hates, and the neurosis of his many ex-girlfriends and lovers. On my first experience with the novella I got through 40 pages and had to put the book aside to complete other projects. Three days later, when I returned, I found myself zoning out, lost, maybe a bit bored, but I couldn’t figure out why (I had loved the first 40 pages). I read the novella a second time (two sittings in one day) and loved it. The many details of Anselm, it turns out, are vital to understanding the beauty of the situation between the two characters, and I had forgotten brief moments from those first 40 pages. For instance, on page 6 the narrator claims Anselm hates being tickled (who cares?), but it isn’t until page 61 that we learn “there was a not-really-told story about [Anselm’s mother] sadistically tickling him....as if her instinct to beat him started with tickling instead.” If you don’t pay attention to this narrator, she will have no effect on you, and you’ll be missing out on a great deal of excellent storytelling.
The anecdotes of cruel Anselm are sparse, as if she is protecting him from a reader’s scorn. What she reveals and hides says more about her personality than her own words. When the narrator does express herself, it is through claims, causing the novella to blur into lyricism. One of the woman’s claims: “One time I was dreaming that everywhere [Anselm’s and my body] touched each other turned to a blanket of green stamps, like fish scales on our skin. My challenge in the dream was to figure out if the green was the color of green of love and growth, or if they were merely food stamps.”
Lillis’s book reads like listening to a friend (another good reason to read it in one sitting). I wanted to shake this friend, but I gained insights into young adulthood from her. When Anselm shows trepidation upon arriving at a party of the narrator’s friend, he wants to stay outside and talk and drink, giving her much personal attention. Ultimately, the narrator realizes, “I also had the foreboding sense that Anselm and I were always going to be only an intangible, fleeting entity, if we never dared to enter real life together.” To her, real life is exposed and worth living, but Anselm’s world is hidden and confusing. Such a short beautiful read, especially for those caught in the crossfire of young adulthood and developing adult relationships that change a person’s identity.
The narrator feels she knows nothing about Anselm, yet the story is stacked with details about his family, of what he hates, and the neurosis of his many ex-girlfriends and lovers. On my first experience with the novella I got through 40 pages and had to put the book aside to complete other projects. Three days later, when I returned, I found myself zoning out, lost, maybe a bit bored, but I couldn’t figure out why (I had loved the first 40 pages). I read the novella a second time (two sittings in one day) and loved it. The many details of Anselm, it turns out, are vital to understanding the beauty of the situation between the two characters, and I had forgotten brief moments from those first 40 pages. For instance, on page 6 the narrator claims Anselm hates being tickled (who cares?), but it isn’t until page 61 that we learn “there was a not-really-told story about [Anselm’s mother] sadistically tickling him....as if her instinct to beat him started with tickling instead.” If you don’t pay attention to this narrator, she will have no effect on you, and you’ll be missing out on a great deal of excellent storytelling.
The anecdotes of cruel Anselm are sparse, as if she is protecting him from a reader’s scorn. What she reveals and hides says more about her personality than her own words. When the narrator does express herself, it is through claims, causing the novella to blur into lyricism. One of the woman’s claims: “One time I was dreaming that everywhere [Anselm’s and my body] touched each other turned to a blanket of green stamps, like fish scales on our skin. My challenge in the dream was to figure out if the green was the color of green of love and growth, or if they were merely food stamps.”
Lillis’s book reads like listening to a friend (another good reason to read it in one sitting). I wanted to shake this friend, but I gained insights into young adulthood from her. When Anselm shows trepidation upon arriving at a party of the narrator’s friend, he wants to stay outside and talk and drink, giving her much personal attention. Ultimately, the narrator realizes, “I also had the foreboding sense that Anselm and I were always going to be only an intangible, fleeting entity, if we never dared to enter real life together.” To her, real life is exposed and worth living, but Anselm’s world is hidden and confusing. Such a short beautiful read, especially for those caught in the crossfire of young adulthood and developing adult relationships that change a person’s identity.
February 12, 2015
Karen Lillis is a librarian and bookseller who runs the small press roulette. If you don't know what that it is, it's basically a little vendor store thing she sets up in Pennsylvania. You can also try this on Etsy where you pay a certain amount of money and she will give you a package filled with small press goodies. She also writes books of course. I bought this book off of Amazon over the summer and I read the first few pages, but never really stuck to it until now.
I regret not finishing it earlier, because it was really a lovely book. Lovely in the sense that it is bitter, yet with it's failed romance, it manages to be pretty sweet and refreshing. Jason Pettus from CCLaP wrote a wonderful essay of this on Goodreads, like he always does. So honestly my review of this is a bit useless. Watch the Doors As They Close is a depressing romance novel that reminded me of Norwegian Wood where the main character falls in love with a broken person. But unlike the love interest in Norwegian Wood, this love interest, Anselm, is an insufferable, selfish man. But yet at the same, he also has a lot of internal wars that are maybe the results of this. But at the same time though, I don't know, he deserves a punch and a kiss from the narrator. Anselm is exactly the type of guy that makes women swoon and want to set fire to their hearts. And I mean set fire as in destroy it, no passion.
This little novella is a character study of this dude, Anselm, written in journal entries by the narrator. She is trying to figure out where she went wrong, despite that she really do anything wrong, all she did was give herself to him, till she became dry. But the marks he left on her burn so much, she can't help it. I'm sort of lost for words for this novella. I thought it was such a beauty, yet so depressing. But apparently I love broken heart romance. I never like romances that are too sappy or erotic. Lillis' prose is sparse but delicate and romantic, feeling almost close to the classics, F. Scott Fitzgerald, with a modern feel to it. If he was a woman and really freaking sad, maybe he would write something close to this. There is no happy ending, it just ends like life itself, love and romance is short lived and usually gives nothing in return. This sounds weird coming from a 19 year old. But romance is pointless when it only comes in distant spurts and selfish individuals.
Rating: 4.5/5
Originally posted here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot....
I regret not finishing it earlier, because it was really a lovely book. Lovely in the sense that it is bitter, yet with it's failed romance, it manages to be pretty sweet and refreshing. Jason Pettus from CCLaP wrote a wonderful essay of this on Goodreads, like he always does. So honestly my review of this is a bit useless. Watch the Doors As They Close is a depressing romance novel that reminded me of Norwegian Wood where the main character falls in love with a broken person. But unlike the love interest in Norwegian Wood, this love interest, Anselm, is an insufferable, selfish man. But yet at the same, he also has a lot of internal wars that are maybe the results of this. But at the same time though, I don't know, he deserves a punch and a kiss from the narrator. Anselm is exactly the type of guy that makes women swoon and want to set fire to their hearts. And I mean set fire as in destroy it, no passion.
This little novella is a character study of this dude, Anselm, written in journal entries by the narrator. She is trying to figure out where she went wrong, despite that she really do anything wrong, all she did was give herself to him, till she became dry. But the marks he left on her burn so much, she can't help it. I'm sort of lost for words for this novella. I thought it was such a beauty, yet so depressing. But apparently I love broken heart romance. I never like romances that are too sappy or erotic. Lillis' prose is sparse but delicate and romantic, feeling almost close to the classics, F. Scott Fitzgerald, with a modern feel to it. If he was a woman and really freaking sad, maybe he would write something close to this. There is no happy ending, it just ends like life itself, love and romance is short lived and usually gives nothing in return. This sounds weird coming from a 19 year old. But romance is pointless when it only comes in distant spurts and selfish individuals.
Rating: 4.5/5
Originally posted here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot....
May 14, 2012
In her bittersweet novella about a strained and ultimately failed romantic connection between two young New Yorkers, Lillis successfully eludes the sappiness and excessive sentimentality that sometimes seeps out when writing about love. She accomplishes this with honesty—she takes a hard look at how insecurities can cripple a relationship—and with her smart, disarming prose. Obsessed with the life of a recent former lover, the nameless narrator recounts her time with Anselm, a humble composer with myriad emotional hang-ups that presumably stem from his troubled Appalachian upbringing. Relying on his personal journal and her flawed memories, the narrator grapples to find meaning and closure. It’s a rough road as the reader learns early on that both parties have tendencies to act as foils, drifting past each other too often. “Anselm was good at promises. I was good at hoping for the future, hoping and waiting for his promises to come true.” What’s left for these two stumbling lovers is a collection of moments, some truer than others. The narrator comes across as flawed yet earnest, and in the end it’s Anselm’s credibility and sincerity that are called into question. Whether or not he actually loves the narrator is something that’s constantly on her mind, and also his. At one point he asks: “Do you feel loved by me?” Here Anselm suspects what the reader—and perhaps the narrator—already knows: he exudes poorly. Lillis handles the subject matter gracefully, though readers who like their love stories, tragic or otherwise, brimming with purple romanticism won’t find that here. Watch the Doors as They Close is a sometimes somber, sometimes sweet, sometimes heartbreaking story about impermanence and uncertainty, how a person can really only know him or herself, and how lesser measures of faith in relationships can create shallows unfit for diving.
June 9, 2013
Watch the Doors as They Close is written in the form of a diary of a nameless female New Yorker, divulging the life story and relationship details of her ex-lover, Anselm. She reveals early on that their relationship was truly genuine, though strained. Both are emotionally distraught artists living in New York, and her writing is a loving tribute to who he was, what they had together, and why she will never be able to pinpoint why they did not work. Anselm grew up in the poverty of Western Pennsylvanian Appalachia, and he carries his past with him at all times. He is emotionally and physically anxiety-ridden, not to mention a total hipster (they met in a bar in Williamsburg, and she wrote incredibly long list of the things he hates including turkey, eggs, short hair, and the color pink, to name a few). Nonetheless, she explains in loving prose why he was special and why she fell so deeply for him. She writes her story of Anselm with a candid and longing nostalgia, but she also exudes a sense of peace and closure.
I loved this book. Lillis’ writing is refreshing. She successfully reveals the innards of a relationship without being whiny or sappy. Her descriptions of Anselm were realistic and sincere, and though from the first page the story surrounded a breakup, it was truly a portrait of, almost a tribute to, a person who deeply affected her.
I loved this book. Lillis’ writing is refreshing. She successfully reveals the innards of a relationship without being whiny or sappy. Her descriptions of Anselm were realistic and sincere, and though from the first page the story surrounded a breakup, it was truly a portrait of, almost a tribute to, a person who deeply affected her.
February 21, 2016
This work reminded me of the journalist who wrote for The New Yorker named Joseph Mitchell. Specifically, "Joe Gould's Secret" which is a non-fictional account of a New York bohemian with bipolar from the 1930s through the 50s. Regarding both subject matter and writing style, this author reminds me of the best of Joseph Mitchell and if you don't know who that is, look him up. It's a perfect comparison. Karen Lillis presents a story inside her novella that's simultaneously a portrait of an odd bipolar artistic man as well as the female narrator's obsession with him and their brief affair. The novella is only 100 pages and I read the book twice to digest and savor its writing and the deceptively simple but unusual way the author tells the story. Read it if for the pleasure of the prose that's easy, spare and to enjoy the complex, yet simple form of storytelling. The novells is a pleasure to consume. -Twice. And praise be to her publisher, Spuyten Duyvil Press for their novella series that is publishing the works of authors like Karen Lillis. The author and this press are inspiring me as a writer to start focusing on smaller works and novellas. Karen Lillis has written a great book, a complex, beautifully written story about obsession in a mere hundred pages. That's something all writers and publishers should aspire.
October 2, 2013
When I read the title, I really wanted to read this book.
So I entered a giveaway. Lucky me! I won, so I had not to order it at the next book store (I don't do amazon, so it is sometimes a little complicated for me to get foreign books...).
The book is written in a diary style.
We do not know the woman who is the narrator (We learn a little: p.e. she is in astro-stuff, she judges people by her zodiac sign.) but we learn much more about a person called Anselm: Anselm's past; Anselm's relation to the narrator or rather the narrator's relation to Anselm; things Anselm likes, much more things Anselm hates and after all we can see a complete painting of Anselm, the actual main character...
Although Anselm seems to be very fictional, I cannot believe that the diary's view is the same view that Anselm would paint of himself...
I read this book on a train ride and it made me feel a kind of positive sentimental
and in the end I felt something similar to desperation because I did not get the last sentence and I did not have a dictionary with me...
What a mess! I read a good book and on the last sentence I miss the two main vocabularies! In German it is called: Scheiße gelaufen!
So I entered a giveaway. Lucky me! I won, so I had not to order it at the next book store (I don't do amazon, so it is sometimes a little complicated for me to get foreign books...).
The book is written in a diary style.
We do not know the woman who is the narrator (We learn a little: p.e. she is in astro-stuff, she judges people by her zodiac sign.) but we learn much more about a person called Anselm: Anselm's past; Anselm's relation to the narrator or rather the narrator's relation to Anselm; things Anselm likes, much more things Anselm hates and after all we can see a complete painting of Anselm, the actual main character...
Although Anselm seems to be very fictional, I cannot believe that the diary's view is the same view that Anselm would paint of himself...
I read this book on a train ride and it made me feel a kind of positive sentimental
and in the end I felt something similar to desperation because I did not get the last sentence and I did not have a dictionary with me...
What a mess! I read a good book and on the last sentence I miss the two main vocabularies! In German it is called: Scheiße gelaufen!
August 11, 2016
Watch the doors as they close is, im sure, a good little novella on love and more so, love gone wrong. but it is not in my personal taste of story-telling.
The narrator tells her story of a man named Anselm, a man of many loves, and of quite a few former women too. the style in which the story is told is very conversational, and thus, sometimes isnt very coherent. the female narrators train of thought is formed in a very realistic way, but it just annoyed me when she mused over insignificant things and details, and question-marks at the end of sentences.
So, all in all, not my taste, but a good little read
The narrator tells her story of a man named Anselm, a man of many loves, and of quite a few former women too. the style in which the story is told is very conversational, and thus, sometimes isnt very coherent. the female narrators train of thought is formed in a very realistic way, but it just annoyed me when she mused over insignificant things and details, and question-marks at the end of sentences.
So, all in all, not my taste, but a good little read
April 4, 2012
If I were a writer, I would want to write something like this. It's about relationships. It's about potential. It's about having an understanding of things that we want and need from relationships, but just missing the mark because of who we are or where we've been or where we are now, or not knowing how to say. I think there is space for regret here. Like, oh, if I had only met this person after my manic phase. Or, oh, if I had only loved this person when I wasn't experiencing an emotional deficit.
Really relevant for my life. Thanks Karen.
Really relevant for my life. Thanks Karen.
Read
February 22, 2013Karen Lillis’s “Watch the Doors as They Close” Enters The Canon Of Love
Review by Joe Winkler
"...in a svelte 80 pages, Karen Lillis, in her new Watch the Doors as They Close, somehow insinuates herself into this canon of love, and love lost. Lillis accomplishes this because she chooses to focus less on the fluctuations of the relationship and more on the obsessive quality, the illogical search for answers that we think will calm our hearts after the maelstrom of love passes."
http://www.vol1brooklyn.com/2012/04/1...
Review by Joe Winkler
"...in a svelte 80 pages, Karen Lillis, in her new Watch the Doors as They Close, somehow insinuates herself into this canon of love, and love lost. Lillis accomplishes this because she chooses to focus less on the fluctuations of the relationship and more on the obsessive quality, the illogical search for answers that we think will calm our hearts after the maelstrom of love passes."
http://www.vol1brooklyn.com/2012/04/1...
June 15, 2012
Watch the Doors as They Close is the novella version of sitting up in the dark listening to someone talk about her past as you stare at a slant of streetlight on the wall and realize the new extent of your feelings for her. The mysterious thing though is that it winds up being a conversation. Somehow you find the book’s narrator listening to you, the reader. The book is more than it appears to be while also being beautifully what it is. Karen Lillis makes it look easy.
July 27, 2012
new bookstore novella.
not much of bookstores in here, just alluding to the drudge a bit. of note, author is supposed to be writing a nonfiction working-in-a-bookstore-book perhaps called "bagging the beats at midnight"
this novella here has protag recording her thoughts and what she knows about her lover who has left her, and who perhaps she didn't even like very much.
the publisher spuyten duyvil seems interesting http://www.washington-heights.us/hist...
not much of bookstores in here, just alluding to the drudge a bit. of note, author is supposed to be writing a nonfiction working-in-a-bookstore-book perhaps called "bagging the beats at midnight"
this novella here has protag recording her thoughts and what she knows about her lover who has left her, and who perhaps she didn't even like very much.
the publisher spuyten duyvil seems interesting http://www.washington-heights.us/hist...
October 9, 2013
I think the concept of the story is very good but I think the story got a bit confusing in some parts. I wanted to stop reading but the story was very exciting that I couldn't stop reading. I also like the style of writing of the authore. I think it's something new and very good to read. All in all well done its a good book .
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