October 2015 Monthly Read: The End of the End of Everything

[Latasha]

I ask in my other group if anyone has this & can lend it but I've heard no replies so far.

[Ronald]

I plan to start reading this book this Sunday. I'm finishing up reading a short story collection, and a chapbook.

[Tony]

Randolph wrote: "Is anyone else reading this or did I bum everyone out with my October Moderator's prerogative? I think The Bluehole is the best story so far and in my other reading I stumbled upon Bailey's "The Cu..."

I have it and will start reading it soon!

[Tony]

I finished it and it is a fine collection of stories, although it's very far from being a cheerful read. In addition to the obvious one, recurring themes are ennui, disconnection and loss. Bailey is a very unsentimental writer (which I like). My favourite stories were 'Troop 9' (for the novelty of it subject matter) and 'The End of the End of Everything'. On paper the latter sounds a bit pretentious but actually poignant.

[Canavan]

I started dipping into this collection yesterday, finishing off the first two stories. Way too soon, obviously, to characterize the book as a whole, but perhaps not too soon to make a few observations about Bailey’s writing.

Bailey is quite a good writer. There’s a moment in “The Bluehole”, for example, when the narrator likens his home town to a palimpsest where I thought to myself, “Ooh, that’s pretty slick.” What keeps me from giving Bailey a full-throated endorsement is that I always seem to want more from him in terms of where he takes his stories. I thought this when I read “The Crevasse” a few years back and came away thinking much the same thing with these two stories. I liked the matter-of-factness of the narrator’s delivery in “The End of the World as We Know It” (reminding me a bit of John Varley’s “The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)”), but the denouement was so deflating and pointless, I was left wondering whether the story needed to be as long as it was.

Again, in the case of “The Bluehole”, the writing is sometimes so evocative of growing up in the 80s that the reader is impelled to believe (whether true or not) that the writing must at least be semi-autobiographical. What bothered me here was that the foreshadowing was a bit too heavy-handed, leaving the conclusion a bit unsurprising to my way of thinking. (No spoilers for those who haven’t read it.)

“The End of the World as We Know It”
✭✭✭

“The Bluehole”
✭✭✭½

[Latasha]

is there going to be a November group read?

[Canavan]

Latasha asked:

is there going to be a November group read?

I think we dropped the ball on that one, Latasha. I see Randolph created a thread for November nominations back in September (see here), but it’s kinda languished since then. I’m going to go over there later today and nominate a novel, but Randolph may opt to just unilaterally pick something. Randolph?

[Latasha]

I found it. I nominated something too. thank you though.