Brent Woo > Recent Status Updates

really enjoying this "meta-detective-fiction". crime fiction that's about anything but the crime. gives you lots to think about.

Crisp, magnetic writing. How could I not be drawn to this linguistic "slow crime" novel -- centered on a mysterious man deprived of normal language in childhood by his father with a bizarre fixation on the Tower of Babel, being tracked by an author posing as another author. My first Auster and loving it — although it does seem like it has some heavy prereqs, Don Quixote and Paradise Lost are discussed, a lot.

Really enjoying this so far. Something unnerving is happening to me: since this book is pretty long, the longer I stay in the "past" I keep forgetting that Jake is from the "present" and has a whole other real life to lead. I doubt King meant this to be a thriller in that sense, but the thought casts an eerie pall.

WHAAATT????

Holy crap, I keep forgetting this guy is The King.

The last 50 pages have gone from 0-100. and by 0, I mean it was intense to begin with. holy crap I did not expect this to be this dark

Friend told me this is the "Requiem for a Dream" of books - it is certainly delivering.

good ol' classic eww

aw yiss, need a break from the other heavy books and this fits the bill perfectly. dammit Moira you ruin everything

"When the servant came in to tell him that my parents had arrived, I had seen M. Vinteuil hurriedly place a sheet of music in a prominent position on the piano. But as soon as they entered the room he had snatched it away and put it in a corner. He was afraid, no doubt, of letting them suppose that he was glad to see them only because it gave him a chance of playing them some of his compositions." (157)

Dear God Norwegian food is depressing

Intrigue, reputations, icy polite conversations...!

The legends are true - this book is so FUN! I love that the narrator has some serious sass. "As you can see, this inspector was a man of the utmost humanity /s"

""You two should keep the X" I said. "Urutoraman is Japan's greatest superhero. His powers belong in Japanese hands." They were both surprised and humbled by my generosity. Especially Daito. "Thank you, Z-San," he said, bowing low. "You are a man of honor."" Holy shit. Is this for real. How did this get published.

But whyyyy why why :( :( :(!!!

So atmospheric, I have to shut off my ambient music when I'm reading

Maybe I'm just a chicken, but I'm scared to continue reading this at night, but I'm compelled to — the House has me!

This is striking in how there is little plot so far but it is immensely compelling and violent, and teaches us many things about class, education, and society.

Tearing through this. Fresh storytelling. I love the brouhaha about the cover - it is absolutely provocative and ironic, no question about that!

This book is pissing me off. It started out so, so good but the last hundred pages have just been preachy, contrived caricatures.

I can see why people talk so much about this book. the author is INHABITING these characters, at every point there is something to identify with or rail against. there's something to be said about the depictions when the events themselves aren't exactly unexpected, but when they come they're still shocking

this second part ends with optimistic words and a party, but it's just so sinister and unstable, you know Yanagihara is about to drop the hammer. dark clouds on the horizon doesn't even begin to describe it.

This is the heaviest, most momentous in-progress update I'll make in a long while. 16 (main) pages left!!

this book will be the end of me