Shel’s Comments (group member since Mar 05, 2009)

Shel’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

I love Toronto! I have a wedding July 12 and a funeral the first week of August. I can come up for at least a weekend.

Alan and Shelby, 75% sure in. Will confirm this week.

It's ok, Alice, I've been reading along, and reading the posts here for over a week and haven't thought of anything new to say. :)

Thoughtful way to approach the book.

IN.

We did paint Milwaukee. At least 2 full blocks of it. Hope we get to do it again soon. :))))))))))

I sold at least three more copies of your book for you this week. :)

I want to see pictures of Elizabeth's newly organized office, and I want to know - can she dance on top of her desk more easily after all that work?!

I've had some Plantation Rum while I try to fix a friend's laptop. Some good company (Alan) and some rum make that eternal green bar not so much like torture.

I think Ben nailed it like 10 comments ago.

She was probably relentlessly tormented in high school.

Sour women with no sense of humor about sex... why do they seem to be EVERYwhere?!

See you there, Gloria. :)

Jackson is such a great name. And I'm not saying that because I named my kid that.

Welcome!

We can. I'll adjust plans. :)

And thank you for considering me in drunk bingo. I'd HATE to miss it. :)

JE, you know, I'm pretty sure 18 people could probably help you out with your dogs.

Alan & Shelby: arrive morning of 24th, leave morning of 27th.

As for cooking, Alan and I will take one night, find local places to shop, and improvise a meal for everyone.

I have proven that I can even make mayhem in BELLEVUE, where mayhem is strictly untolerated. I was kicked off the Microsoft campus, denied service at a bar by a baby-faced restaurant manager, and chased by rent-a-cops in the space of a week.

Well, ok, the rent-a-cops followed a group of me and my coworkers down the sidewalk at 3:30 am and told us to "move along." To sweeten the pot, they were the security guards for the headquarters building of the company where we all work.

Now I know for sure that Alan and I can commit to staying 3 nights. I will figure it out per night and send patty some dinero.

So, Hugh and I were talking about this book offline the other day and I confessed to not being able to get any further than page 100 or so. In fact, the way I know I'm not going to finish a book because I do what my kids do: "Look, ma! I'm on page 75!" This means I am NOT getting lost in the story.

I'm going to lodge a complaint I've leveled before - this writing is just too tight and neat and no one's guts are on the table. Oh, she does a fine job detailing the grief, and what humidity feels like, and what it's like to have an affair with your boss and realize you're in love with him...

I have the same issue with Franzen, who is everyone's favorite whipping boy right now, but in a different way. His characters are messy people, but his writing is too neat and so fucking DEPRESSING because, you know, when are the characters going to put more than a toe over the line or in the water to move their lives?

This is why I love Faulkner, Kerouac, DFW, Hemingway... they write MESSY, they wrote as though it was ALL on the line. They wrote with their GUTS on the fucking table. They saw the line, and they jumped over it, and then they jumped over a few more. Fuck the neatness. Screw trying to tell us the precise movement of grief as though it were a second hand on a stopwatch. Give me something to pull into ME and understand the world, and people in a new way; give me something I can feel, and look at, and have evolving thoughts and feelings about over time.

So yeah. I think maybe someone else should lead the discussion...

Alan and I are sorting out the days we will be there. It won't be the full week, but I'll update when I/we know for sure.

I gotta agree with Victoria, here.

I read his piece and thought meh. Way too enmeshed in current ideas of psychology, too much navel gazing. But I think that of him in general and can't figure out why he's such a big deal. But then, Wharton is one of my favorite writers ever and House of Mirth is my favorite of hers. We did a group read of it a few years ago.

After more consideration, he does FAR too subjective a take on her. I find those interpretations of writer's lives (and really anyone) to be far more of a reflection on the person doing the interpreting than the person whose lives they see fit to interpret.

Maybe Franzen doesn't think HE'S pretty enough.