Dan’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2009)

Dan’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

Sounds like it was a blast, sorry I missed it. Anyone think it's too early to start planning for next year (especially if Ft. Worden is going to be in the mix)? I'm not gonna miss two dorks in a row.

I just found my copy and reread through the first 2 chapters, I am more enamored with it this time around. The scene above shows the Judge to be exactly what Bloom suggests he is violence incarnate, almost devil like in his attack on the holy man.

In chapter two, the scene on page 23 where the kid enters the bar and is trying to work for a few drinks is quite good too. The interactions and communications between characters is handled really well with the language barrier and all.

Then it get's violent.

Jonathan wrote: ". . . west of here is 2011, but you read it in 2010, danny boy . . .

. . .matt, two others that are on my TBR list that i've heard really good things about:

john sayles a moment in the sun, and ..."

It's funny, I think I read WOH in 2010 and again in 2011. Also, it goes w/o saying Ben's book but Matt said they've already been added.

I can second The Sisters Brothers as I quite liked it. I can't recall having read anything else released so far this year.

I've been making my way through Larry McMurtry's memoir on books called Books: A Memoir when I came across this line:

...the fact is many writers go on writing after it would have been better for them to stop.

And it got me wondering, what authors should have stopped writing at some point but continued to do so. I can't help but feel thatPhilip Roth, who I enjoy, should have stopped before publishing Everyman.

Does the inability to stop waterdown a once great writers work? It seems interesting to me that McMurtry brings up this point after having written 30 or so novels. Maybe it's something he's noticed about himself?

I see this phenomenon quite often in music and when a once good band continues to release album after album of crap I can't listen to their good albums in the same way.

What about the authors in this group? How do you see this sort of thing playing out for you?

So, I was thinking that If someone is bringing their laptop out to the dork we could try to do a "hang out" on google+ for those not attending. I know that a number of us unable to attend are on google+ and we could send out invites(if we still can) to anyone who wants to try it out. Just an idea.

Luckily, I had read that story on land, rather than at sea...umm in the pool.

I could imagine it being scary, especially if it were night, though that may have precluded me from reading the story in the first place.

@Brock, I really need to go out to the garage and search through my books so I can find Blood Meridian. I don't remember this scene but I love what you've quoted.

I also visited and lunched with Ben on monday and thanks to him picked up Butcher's Crossing, Warlock and Shane to go along with all the other McMurtry I recently picked up. Looks like the rest of my year is going to be heavily western which is apt having just returned to the wild west.

So here we are, Ben's book is out, a number of us are reading it or have read it so let's talk about it.

I found the book hard to put down so I didn't. I read it in three sessions over the course of the last 24 hours. Most of it I read sitting in a pool, which is a good way to read it if you have the chance.

There were a numer of stories I loved, so I am not sure I can pick a favorite. One that I was touched by was the Ferris Wheel. What about you, is there a clear standout in your mind?

I read Lonesome Dove earlier this year, now its one of my favorite novels. I managed to snag the rest of the books that make up the "Lonesome Dove series" when visiting Tucson last week. I can't wait to dig in but I've got a bit of a backlog right now.

There's a few others mentioned in this thread that I need to pickup soon.

Patty wrote: "There is really nothing better than coming home from a long day and discovering all kinds of new posts on the fiction files. You all have made my day!

And welcome, Sean!"

I know, this made my day too!

Wow, I'd have never guessed. For some reason (it's southern) I've always struggled to with O'Connor's short stories. I think I need to revisit them soon.

This book was pretty great, I'd seriously consider giving it a rereading if you guys go forth with it. That is, if I can find it in my boxes of recently moved books.

Pretty excellent article in the most recent issue of The Nation:

http://www.thenation.com/article/1614...

enjoy!

I came across this link by reading The New Yorker's Talk of the Town 2011 edition. I'd post the piece talking about it but it's locked on the New Yorker website.

http://www.artgarfunkel.com/library/l...

Art Garfunkel has been recording each book he has read for the last 40 some years and has posted it to his website. It's a remarkable list, and thought it would be interesting to share, and interesting to discuss.

In the article he says that he tries to avoid fluff and that he avoids post modern fiction like Pynchon and Barthelme.

So what do you think? Do your tastes align with his, do you keep track of your yearly reading? If so did you do it before Goodreads?

de nada!

R.A. you could type it up in your browser then highlight the text and copy it before hitting post.

If it disappears, just paste it into the box again. That's the easiest way I've found to deal with a situation like that.

Elizabeth wrote: "I am kind of assuming that everyone is busy. Hope my comments didn't sit on this thread like ice on toast."

I definitely don't think you've scared anyone off.

Has anyone read, or can think of one of Roth's female characters who were actually believable as females (not masculine)? Sure I guess Nikki is but she wasn't really a proper character, or maybe I should say a main character.

I got 5 out of ten. What's funny is that is tells me, "Sloppy thinking. You clearly need to read more books by men."

I often feel woefully under read when it comes to female authors.

Writers can often be boastful or flippant, so what's the craziest thing you've heard/read of a writer saying?

I am going to start this thread off with V.S. Naipaul saying that no woman could be his literary equal.

Full story: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2...