Campbell Andrews > Recent Status Updates

omgoodness Denis Johnson on MFA programs is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life

damn he’s so good on frailty & infirmity. I wonder but that his eras among the afflicted (and his own sojourn as afflicted in himself) didn’t amount to a calling to chronicle the spent humanity of his peers.

“am I the only grown man who still longs to be friends with other boys?”

No, you’re not. Most definitely not. Though I often wonder the same.

second story, The Starlight on Idaho, is as good as any I’ve read

Nope- Daniel did not die that way. That is not as it was described. This is a cheat.

The sibling stuff is strongest, but there's not enough.

section 4 is 2006-2010 and mentions iPads, but iPads first appeared in April 2010

Second section promised so much more than the third proved to deliver. Also:

- Eddie O’Donoghue is to this point a literary device, not a character

- hmm, what do the sagest characters have in common?

ah, a sneaky structure this one has. maybe.

I appreciate the spiritual dimension which Ms. Benjamin has thought to include. too often neglected entirely in contemporary fiction

Who is telling this story? is the crucial question Ms. Benjamin seems to have no answer for. like most writers

reading out of Exodus right now (the Bible, not Leon Uris) seems instructive here: the Israelites had God right in front of them and still didn't trust him. Like all good people. not sure Ms. Benjamin understands this about the import of knowing the date of your own death, but I'll let it play out.

what is at stake

newsreels in 1965?? unlikely, if not impossible.

she has a way with the micro-sketch, the visual vignette

“The Lloyds were Catholic and so were made to have a lot of children by force.”

oh Ms. Spark is good on sex. so witty

oh Ms. Spark is good on sex. so witty

Opening of 3rd chapter, I could kiss you.

“In later years, sex was only one of the things in life. That year it was everything.”

and adolescence extended a century later...

I may buy a copy just so's I can mark up the myriad phrases & ideas that resonate with me

I love how un-polite this book is

“The groom is agnostic but it doesn’t bother her, when it comes to his actions he’s s better Christian than most Christians she knows”

There is here than found in many a novel

Haven't guessed the twist but it feels like it's spinning its wheels. A lot of back-and-forth that amounts to filler.

Let me get this straight.