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

Maureen’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

i've always wanted to read the inheritors. i read the lord of the flies in school too but i felt very alienated when i read it, very angered by humanity, and i can't say i think golding would have been displeased by that. i've also read the double tongue which was a posthumously published work, and i can't really say that i thought it had the weight of the lord of the flies, but it wasn't awful.

well i read this after i finished reading the magic christian and i was convinced that somebody was conspiring against me because while this was a well-crafted story it totally igged me out, and i felt dirty after reading it. started off grossing me out from the first page so you can't even attribute it to my love of feline friends. i guess it was just a day of bodily fluids in literature: a day i'd rather not repeat in the near future.

i should say though, that this tom franklin writes really well, if of things and people i'd rather not know about. the story makes me think of lolita (which i know dan is reading right now) in that you're totally immersed in the revolting stew that the writer proffers.

Kris wrote: "Jonathan wrote: " . . .somebody oughta go recruit scott from myspace!"

no.
"

actually, i don't think this is a bad idea at all. we all have our favourite wankers around here. he's my friend on facebook. i might mention it to him.

death is a lonely business -- ray bradbury.

journey to the end of night - celine

you've lured me in with this one from my never-ending quest to find a good job. still no job, by the way. it's been a year.

anyhow, i really hope we can open up that pass pile martyn, because i also walk around the city reading. inevitably, some yuckster will say, "must be a great book" as they pass by. like neil, i have excellent peripheral and am very good at not inconveniencing others while i am hucking up the street with my book, and i've been doing it since i was a kid, so i don't foresee any changes there.

like kerry, i always have a book in my bag, if not two or three, for incidental reading. and in fact looking at all of your places, i have to say the only place i don't read that you've listed is on the can, and i'm less inclined to spend hours reading in the tub than i used to be. laundromats can have excellent acoustics so i used to give impromptu concerts in those during reading breaks, annoying suckers like jen who had the misfortune to live above or beside them. :P

those childhood reading nook stories are the ones that really got to me though: i lived in a really small house (a little over 800 square feet) with a lot of people (including me there were 8) so there wasn't very much privacy, or quiet. i read and played a lot under the dining room table, drawing and writing on the underside as i lay there. i also read in a pup tent in my yard, or under my favourite tree a lot, and when i became a teenager i used to pull the windows out in my bedroom (by then all my siblings had moved out), crawl out on the roof and read, and smoke.

i've read during concerts which might be the weirdest place, i guess. :)

Adrian wrote: "Maureen wrote: "hmmm. dante's inferno, boccaccio's decameron, something by muriel spark whom our adrian loves, or something by damon runyon. :)"

Some of Muriel Spark's novels can be enjoyed as an ..."

i bought one because you like her so much. i could have sworn you were trying to get us to try a dormouse recipe. magic hands. and i wish i was a descendent! i do love the book though. i love the structure and plague, and the stories themselves. most of them are believed to have been extant and this is just a compilation of popular tales told. it would actually be a great idea to read dante then boccaccio with an eye to his adaptation of dante's methods. :)

Martha wrote: Remember Ben's one-word review when I asked him about a title at the Dork? I'll give you the same review for Time Traveller's Wife - "No."


ooh! what was the title? (again, sorry dan ;)
(glad to see the love for the oresteia!)

Bonita wrote: "yeah... I just read some book reviews and it doesn't sound all that promising. But it's an interesting story idea."

well, i don't want to hijack this thread but i didn't like this book at all. in fact, i treated it like it had a disease and hustled it out of my house after i was done reading it because i disliked it so much. i thought the concept was great; i just hated the character of the time traveler's wife so much it didn't work for me. neil liked it though. apparently his girlfriend is gaga for it. maybe check in with him?

Jennifer wrote: "Adrian wrote: "

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Supposedly this is nonfiction, but I suspect the author is a lying old bitch. Not to be confused with th..."

jen, our adrian is a very scary man who consorts with crazed and demented kittens. :)

how about the oresteia in translation? i haven't read that in a while, and i know a bunch of these punks probably haven't read it.

p.s. thanks for kicking us in the butt. i haven't been around very much. my apologies.

hmmm. dante's inferno, boccaccio's decameron, something by muriel spark whom our adrian loves, or something by damon runyon. :)

Keith wrote: "has anyone else grown weary of this? opening up a book, flipping to the first page -- and encountering another gorgeous description of a cloud or a breeze coming over a mountain. it's as if they can't figure out what to write, how to engage the grand universal themes, so instead they get all hot and bothered over what's in front of them. i've gotten to the point that i just can't read these books anymore.
"

sometimes i love you keith. this is one of those times. the last time i experienced this, the clouds on the saskatchewan plains on the first page were the *only* things i liked about the book. once the author finished his authorly, hemingway-esque, "weather as emotional backdrop" first page i was bored to tears with the actual story. once the author veered away from the things he could be taught he was hopelessly lost because he was not a good writer.

i would agree with your distinction of writing, and style, but then there's also the authorial voice which for me, is the thing that makes or breaks a writer. jonathan's comment that he doesn't like this particular authors "florid style" gave me pause because i know he loves dickens, and to my mind, dickens can be a very florid writer. in this case, i thought maybe not so much the style but the voice. and of course, for me that is always the make or break.

p.s. other times i have loved you? when you say nice things about james cain, and when you get excited about heirloom tomatoes. :P

just wanted to let you guys know that i seem permanently stopped at page 125 on this book. the rhythm of the prose was crazy-making for me so i've set it aside for now. as i mentioned to patty, in some ways it reminded me a lot of the log of the ss mrs. unguentine, which a few of us read last year. interesting discussion though even reading it propels me closer to the freakiness of this book. :)

James wrote: "Great link. Never really got the Eggers haters. Hard to come up with a writer more committed to independent publishing and progressive social projects."

well jpo, i hate his writing. i don't hate all that good stuff he does but as for his books, and his mcsweeney's and away we go, i could do without it. just a personal taste thing. :)

it is perfect timing then! it's lovely to see a soul as kind and generous as yours get something back. all that good energy you put out is finally coming back to you. :)

p.s. feel free to tell your agent to start sending those boxes of food up here. it's been many a moon since mo made lasagna. :)

congratulations skipper! looks like 2009 is your year. :)

happy birthday lady. :)

Keith wrote: "hi, i'm keith -- i read a little, write a good amount, and brood a lot. i also cook like a maniac, but that's a story for another thread. had a baby girl about a year and a half ago and, as one wou..."

hey keith! lovely to see you again. although i will admit that i worry a bit about your posture. i have decided you are a sloucher because you are tall. am i right? cooking stories intrigue me -- and i'm crazy about james m. cain. have you read The Baby in the Icebox and Other Short Fiction? i was very happy to find it because i thought i'd run out of his books. :)

Brian wrote: "I had a weird teacher who encouraged us to be weird. "

those are the best teachers. i had one of those in high school. she told me to analyze the lyrics of a zappa tune as poetry. i chose 'Evelyn ..."

i'd read it. serve it up with some jordache jeans and i'm there tomorrow. :P

and i agree. weird teachers are the best. i had a couple too: one who decided to tell us that school policy had changed and girls would only be taking our version of home ec. and guys would have shop. then math was taken from us, and so on. everytime we tried to disagree he shut us down told us we didn't have a voice in this, and sent us out into the hallway.

eventually he called us back in and told us that was what it was like before woman had the vote. :)

i bet swanny is A BIG weirdo. :P