Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

"A radial narrative could spring from a central hole--an incident, pain, absence, horror--around which it keeps circling or from which it keeps veering, but it scarcely moves forward in time. A fractal narrative could branch from a core or seed, repeating at different scales the shape or dynamic of that core, possibly branching on indefinitely." This is fascinating and thought-provoking already.

Loving all the intriguing developments and what we're learning about the characters!

This is a great story for right now: the story is fast-paced and engrossing, it's nothing like real life, and as an added calming benefit, all character interactions are taking place in virtual reality!

"All Her Names" is a story of old love, complicated emotions, and grafitti.

In "Ghost Sickness", a young woman takes an uninspiring, biased history class while worrying about her missing boyfriend.

Yay, a new book from one of my favorite authors! The virtual reality game setting and the many pop cultural references make it impossible not to think of READY PLAYER ONE, but the writing is already better and more thoughtful.

From "Any Further West": "Soon the world would yank her chain of sadness against every shore, every rock, every glass-filled beach, leaving nothing but the broken hull of a drowned woman." Yeah, it's a sad one.

The two stories I read today can be broadly grouped as both involving characters newly bonding. In "Cheesman Park", two women who have both suffered trauma form a friendship, until the story takes a disturbing turn. There's a more hopeful outcome to "Tomi", in which a woman just released from prison bonds with her nephew.

I am enjoying this, but it's odd enough that I'm surprised it found such widespread popularity!

The young sisters in "Julian Plaza" are united in a shared, terrible experience of their mother's terminal illness.

I liked the story of an elderly woman dealing with life changes in "Galapago", which has a hell of an opening sentence: "The day before Pearla Ortiz killed a man, she had lunch at home with her granddaughter Alana."

Bernadette's tragic backstory has been revealed, and it's such an interesting and unusual one.

"Chihulys are the pigeons of Seattle. They're everywhere, and even if they don't get in your way, you can't help but build up a kind of antipathy toward them."

Finally getting around to reading this book I've been hearing about for years. As tends to be the case with these things, it's different than I expected. Interesting story so far, with a lot about class, and a bunch of characters clueless about their immense privilege. Curious to see where it's all going.

Interesting to realize that some (possibly all) of these stories are loosely linked by the characters coming from the same large family. And family relationships are often central to the stories: "Sabrina & Corina", "Sisters", and "Remedies" could all be broadly described as following paired characters who end up on different paths in life.

"But by their very presence [the settlers of Everfair] poisoned what they sought to save. How could they not? Assuming they knew the best about so many things--not even realizing they had made such assumptions--they acted without considering other viewpoints and remained in ignorance in spite of the broadest hints."

While I wish there was space to really get to know some of the many characters, I'm impressed by how much story and time is packed into the book.

It took me a little while at the beginning to appreciate what this book was doing, but now I'm into it -- the many characters, short chapters, and gaps of months or years between scenes are all working together to tell an epic story very efficiently.

There are a lot of characters introducing a lot of setup, but it's progressing along at a fast clip, and the writing is excellent. Everyone's starting to converge already, and I'm excited to see where the story is going.

Really enjoying all the different stories and journeys in this book!

"...they drove... through streets flanked by old Hellenistic buildings, most of which were empty and dark, but a few of which were lit with red or pale yellow light bulbs on the front porch or lit dimly inside with candles behind half-parted window curtains, as if it were another century, the 16th or the 22nd century, a sclerotic century, burning at its edges, encased rib cage-like in disaster."

Interesting new information about this city -- I hope we'll get to learn more!

Loving this story and feeling such tenderness for all its characters!

So curious to see where all of this will go, and to find out how many of my questions about the world will be answered.

Oo, exciting developments!

What an intriguing, book-loving book: "While she couldn't be certain why she enjoyed these [horror and science fiction] writers, she thought it might have something to do with the sorts of people who came from empires--people who suffered from a sense of unreality.... they understood at least one important thing: that people could be other people, cities could be other cities, and worlds could be other worlds."

Enjoying all the different threads being set up and anticipating how they'll come together.

Intriguing story of politics and loyalties, set in an extremely well-developed world.

"...it feels so good. To have no idea what you are supposed to do or say and to be sitting across from this person who has just taken your hand and squeezed it then let go right away and then you're walking EXT. BOARDWALK-NIGHT, under the moonlight and she says, hey, how did we get here?"

"She'd come from a hard background in the old country, and he smiles in recognition, me too, me too, both of them laughing--Striving Immigrant was the only kind of work they could get. Still, they were appreciative. This was a plot that had a shape to it, something understandable. Tiny, anonymous parts for each of them, an undercurrent of social or political relevance." Enjoying the book's meta-ness.

Wonderfully odd and already moving. The text is doing all sorts of fun things with form, riffing on screenplay formats and playing with tropes. It's Interior Chinatown, but it's also Interior: Chinatown.

Oh, yikes! So much wonderful/horrible escalating conflict!