Forrest > Recent Status Updates

I understood about half the sentences I just read. Now to reread them again and again and again. My vocabulary is being extended with every page. This is slow going!

It is in the lengthy denouement of "Valerie" that some aspects of the tale come into clear focus, while others are blurred. The effect is like looking through binoculars at a hazy distant la landscape. The broad strokes may be beautiful, but on closer examination, there is rot beneath. But the rot holds it's own beauty. 5*

"Valerie" continues to impress me. What a darkly-beautiful, beautifully-dark story. I am reminded of Rikki Ducornet's The Jade Cabinet and The Fountains of Neptune, tonally speaking.

"Valerie," so far, shows a world of mystique, beautiful and terrifying, in the lanes and hedges, the interstices; magical portals. I am curious where this goes. So far, it is an exceptional story.

My month-long "fast" from social media begins today, meaning I'll have more time on Goodreads (Shhh! Don't tell anyone that it's actually the best social media, even though it's not . . .) and more time to read.

Curious. Another story about a subject I'm usually not interested in - that is, mermaids (or maybe mermaids) - hooked me and reeled me in. "The Sea Things" is a creepy one. A "B" creep factor for me, but still worthy of four stars, one for each mermaid and their hapless victim.

A marvelous introductory essay. I'm hoping the book holds up to its promise.

My favorite, so far, "Dreams from the Apple Orchard" is a story of beautiful decay, of fissures in social unity, the beautiful, frightful interstices between the sanguine constructs of friendship and fruitfulness. Set in Eastern Europe right before WW II, this is a solemn foreshadowing of things to come. Brilliant and brutal. Five stars. I loved this story.

"Salammbô and the Zaïmph of Tanit" is a masterful tale in the decadent strain of Huysmans. Beauty is a fair mistress, but jealousy is more adamant. Like all good decadent tales, sumptuousness ends in nightmarish squalor. Five stars

Ready to sink my brain into this. The introduction has definitely whetted my appetite. And I've only had to look up two words: "heuristic" and "theandric"!

Somewhere between "The Most Dangerous Game" and "The Great Escape," the titular story is well-crafted, borderline "literary," but shot through with pulp sci-fi elements. It mostly works, despite some of its intentional anachronism. Four stars.

The title "A Blue Dish of Figs" evokes the image of a carefully-crafted still-life painting that contains far more symbolic meaning than its banal subject matter. One can say the same of the protagonist and her life. It is crude and shapeless, awaiting the touch of an artist's hand to add color and give life. That artist is a child who teaches hidden wisdom to her Teacher. 5*

"Dance for a Winter Moon" is heartbreaking, even when you know exactly what's coming. Note to self: quote first full para of 102. It is amazing.

I am usually not a fan of alternate histories (probably because I am a historian by academic training) but knowing that "The Sound of His Horn" is alternate history hasn't encroached on my enjoyment of the story so far.

"The Slaves of Paradise" is a lush story of anguish told by an artist who accidentally, clumsily betrays his lover and the French resistance. The imagery in this story shall haunt me for some time. It is beautiful and tragic, in equal measure. Five stars.

I am rarely stunned by fables, and "The Binding" is no exception, though the writing is exceptionally good. I like the witchiness of it, but I am so over the tone of "fabulism" that I can't get too excited about it any more. I'm waiting for a fable that will prove the exception. Perhaps I was jaded by so many stories as a child. Nevertheless, I am not so jaded as to give this story less than four stars. So it is.

Leisure Lesson #1: Priotize demanding activity over passive consumption.

Irony Alert!!! I'm sitting here reading this on my lunch break . . .

Any book that quotes and references Gros' A Philosophy of Walking is nudging toward an extra star in my rating.

What shall be my "difficult read" this year?

Swann's Way
Finnegans Wake
Being and Time

Which one do I choose?

21 books sounds like a good number. One step ahead of '20!

I am falling in love with Lethem's characters here. This is great stuff. Just a fun ride!

A mystical experience leads to self-deceit and a multi-layered betrayal in the excellent story "The Hill of Cinders," which took several unexpected turns. Five red stars falling from the sky.

I am enjoying the heck out of this read, but I have no notion at all about how I'm going to review the book. But if you like noir thrillers and Philip K. Dick, this is most definitely the book for you.

Already trying some of the changes, but cautiously, very cautiously. Goodreads won't become minimalized!

An exploratory read . . .

Van Ostaijen might have to be quoted in full. It contains many aspects of the previous poems in this volume: exoticism, implied backstory, a hint of motive.

A bored-with-life man (an artist and poet) takes an unexpected turn from ennui to an ecstatic vision of Holborn. This feels like the turnabout moment in a story of decadence, but we can only imagine the rest for ourselves. Four stars.