A. > Recent Status Updates

End of The Darling breakdown and afterthought. The hot wheels metaphor, a clue that this entire book is an expansion of Saunders’s essay on Barthelme’s story. The great framework of a good story noticing its own patterns, being alive to itself. “And then something happened that changed everything forever”.

Glowing depiction of Cesare Borgia. Power via evil (Agathocles, Oliveretto de Fermo). Cruelty is best in one large dose, magnanimity via slow taper.

Done with The Singers and Saunders’s breakdown (not fully convinced). His Afterthought about his writing process is excellent though

Midway through Turgenev’s The Singers. Funny!

Dhort, punchy chapters. Republics are harder to rule because they remember freedom. Don’t depend on barons. There’s a reason armed prophets succeed and unarmed prophets come to ruin.

Finishing up In The Cart. One of Chekhov’s gifts is his instinctive ability to introduce variation into his characters.

Saunders talks a lot about how a great story doesn’t include elements just to include them. But IDK has he even read Bolaño

It’s on! Kind of dry.

In the Cart, Page 1

And we're off! Basically an MFA seminar on craft. First story -- In the Cart, Chekhov

A party scene that dragged on and on

Home stretch! It’s funny to me that this is a Leonard novelwhere I’m more invested in the characters than the dialogue. Is it because the dialogue’s not that good, or because it’s that good?

Larry Mendoza got his legs broken

Passage about Smiley not being noticed. A little long but deeply felt.

Another Smiley book, another attempt by Le Carre to try to convince me that George Smiley isn't sleek, elegant and weathered. The descriptions of him here are pretty great though. This murder mystery is basically just an excuse to flesh him out more.

Bobby Copas blows his shot with Frank Renda

Elmore Leonard autopilot continues. Lundy + Copas driving out

Actually started reading this last week. Something about it is off. It might just be how much effort Russell is pouring into the writing, the obvious strain of which makes it less believable somehow.

Gotten over the hump to the interesting part of the book, even if this is clearly Leonard on autopilot.

Majestyk arrested

Wrapped up The Prince and The Discourses. Machiavelli is fascinating. Time for the Prince.

First chapter! Larry Mendoza, Vince Majestyk, this “nice-looking” Chicano girl.

Finished!

Gotten through a lot, but highlights include:
—Obama sounding his angriest when he rails against the American addiction to cheap gas
—Callback to Corey, the disfigured veteran
—Obama’s helplessness in South America when the pilot is shot down over Libya.

I can barely follow what’s happening. Who is Mundt??

Take a shot everytime Obama imagines what it must be like from someone else's perspective.

This is a very foreign policy-heavy section of the book, and I can't help but get the feeling that he's maneuvering the narrative around to suit his own purposes. Like, he's making Iran's nuclear program seem like a HUGE deal now so that his own Iran Accord seems that much cooler in Book 2. Same for Medvedev vs. Putin.

Meeting with Putin

The book almost veered into cheap crime novel territory—the assault on Smiley—but won me back in the end.

Obama’s perplexity over the Nobel Prize. A pool of stars descending.

Smiley’s house has a stranger in it. Signature Le Carre passage about paranoia as a way of life.