The Opposition…

Traveling Sprinkler (The Paul Chowder Chronicles #2)

Nicholson Baker

Discussion: 2013-Jul-Aug-Sep

Why we're reading this: September 18, 2013
[close] September 18, 2013

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2013-Jul-Aug-Sep

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* September 2013
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 32 views

last updated Oct 01, 2013 03:57PM

* August 2013
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 26 views

last updated Aug 20, 2013 06:06PM

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Apr 25, 2021 Chortle rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, political, short-reads, mental-states, writing, poetry

Nicholson Baker is a leftist whose politics I sometimes do not share. Some of his other novels were described as hypersexual in Wikipedia.
This is a book about a confused likeable, but needy, bit of a bumble, bit of a neurotic semi-successful poet, former classical musician, going through midlife transition, he fantasizes about getting back with his ex the radio talk show host. He plays with the idea of being a cigar smoker, a songwriter of dance tunes. The midlife issue is something that is rel Nicholson Baker is a leftist whose politics I sometimes do not share. Some of his other novels were described as hypersexual in Wikipedia.
This is a book about a confused likeable, but needy, bit of a bumble, bit of a neurotic semi-successful poet, former classical musician, going through midlife transition, he fantasizes about getting back with his ex the radio talk show host. He plays with the idea of being a cigar smoker, a songwriter of dance tunes. The midlife issue is something that is relatable, at that time it's the last you can have significant time in participating in different things.
There's lots of references you might want to write down and look at later . Poets, how poets felt about each other's work. Debussy is a frequent reference for him as they are around the same age, so he does go into detail about what Debussy's contemporaries thought of him. Trivia about different types of cigars, trivia about history, trivia about music and even a bit of a how-to as regards making new music with software, trivia about the Bassoon instrument, trivia about Quakers. It is quite heavy lady with trivia, and that makes, what would be a fast read, go a bit more slowly as you want to look at his trivia references on the internet. It's almost annoying. But the trivia is also fun and interesting.
I would recommend the book to musicians, lyricists, and poets, because of the many references he pushes into the work. This is because of the references and believe those may help someone in the field know the criticism of poets, and different ways, inside the brain of a poet, to include tactics to get to their creative side. How they make different connections with language. Even so, I would skip over some of the references because there are too many, and a bit disruptive to the flow of the story, with the neediness of the lead character Paul, who has to have trivia in their repertoire to be able to mask, or handle their emotions. It's a good ride, and I'm going to have to go over some of the references he mentions that I wrote down and check some of them out. ...more

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