Jonathan > Recent Status Updates

Finding myself being distracted and reading other things rather than this, which is not a reflection on its quality or the interest of its subject matter.

God these sentences are harder than I remember. It may be I am older, stupider and more tired but I find myself having to re-read them a few times on occasion before I actually understand what is being said....(for the avoidance of doubt this is something good/fun so not a criticism...)

Re reading this in the new Norton critical edition. First time I read it was during Trump Season 1 so makes sense I do it again during Season 2. This edition is fantastic and massively deepens my understanding of this extraordinary, and extraordinarily complex, text.

Reading this after having read so much of her later stuff, including Making of Americans, makes it so much easier to slot into her sentences. I love how my brain sounds when I step one by one over each carefully placed word. The simplest of building blocks making some of the most subtle and complex prose there is.

rereading this and immediately realised it was what I was looking for right now.

Excellent stuff so far

That first story was great. Glad I followed my gut and got hold of this after seeing a random review on here.

Great stuff and inspiring lots of re-listening to Ma Rainey from me

This is as much fun as I remembered

I keep having flashbacks to reading this for the first time at age 18 and having my mind blown…Not as earth shattering now after almost 30 more years of reading, but still great

Reread of this one for me - read it first about 20 years ago

Coming from just reading Gaddis, the drop off in quality here is so severe it is actually making me angry

I had forgotten some of these fabulous set-pieces (the Swede too long under the sun-lamp etc)

This book man, this book. Second time through even better than the first.

God, this is even better than I remembered. If there is a criticism, it would be the well known one that it is perhaps weighed down with both its own erudition and its sadness. If I prefer JR it is probably for that reason.

Starting my 2026 reread of this a day early as had a few hours of good reading time this morning. As extraordinary as I remember it from my first read almost 15 years ago.

All of you need to go and buy everything Boiler House press have put out.

Time for a reread of this

This might have to be moved up into my top 10 of all time. It really is an extraordinary work.

Rereading this for the first time. I read it once over 25 years ago, and still have some of my strongest reading memories from that time as a 19 or 20 year old. It definitely put me on the path of my love for this sort of literature. This new translation is astonishingly good so far. Feel like this and The Tunnel need rereading in light of the state of the world right now

I think why I enjoy her books when I am a bit tired and frazzled is she is part of the same genre as, say, Elizabeth Taylor (whom I adore), but a bit easier and more relaxed/lighter. Sometimes that fits where my head is at.

Not loving this, but not hating it either

Rereading this extraordinary book. This time I feel more of a Stein influence than I did before, though that may be because I have had Stein on my mind and am planning to read that recent bio of her…

Rereading this

What is frustrating here, I think, is that there is an interesting book buried within far too much performative, self-mythologising MFA writing by the author

Alcibiades is fascinating

Reading these ahead of a trip to Athens and enjoying them immensely.

Rereading the apology in particular feels appropriate in these shitty times

Huzzah! Back in TP land!