On the Edge (Edward St. Aubyn)
Edward St. Aubyn’s 1998 novel rather recently got its U.S. release. I bought this book in Powell’s last year and just now got around to it. I have not read…
Why I’m keeping a Writing Log
I’ve started to keep a journal of my writing. More specifically, I’ve dedicated a paragraph-long section of my daily journal to writing about my writing, detailing the progress I’m making…
Best Of 2015
Best Novel: “Grendel”. Gardner’s seminal work is beautiful and semantically dense. Honorable mention: ”Infinite Jest” Best Short Story collection: “Jesus’ Son”. Denis Johnson’s best work, in my opinion. Honorable…
Relatability, Misery Porn, and Denis Johnson’s “The Laughing Monsters”
Denis Johnson’s latest novel is dark. This is not uncharted territory for the man, but the bleakness here is obliterating. There is a detached and passive depression in the…
Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano and Grading Debut Novels on a Curve
Debut novels are interesting. I’m a big Vonnegut fan. I’m planning to read all of his novels and then get a tattoo of the asshole he drew in Breakfast of…
Flashman at the Charge, The Flashman Papers, and my spotted history with historical fiction
I had never heard of George MacDonald Fraser’s “Flashman” books before picking a few up on a recommendation. I’ve got an innate suspicion of historical fiction borne out of an…
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” and -just read it already it’s a great goddamn novel, ok?
One of my favorite novels of the year, this book does very many things extremely well. It’s one of the best examples of free indirect narrations I’ve ever come across,…
Chandler’s “The Big Sleep”: Noir and Homophobia and Slapping Hysterical Women, Oh My…
Ah, the other major detective noir. After reading “The Maltese Falcon,” I rather quickly set my sights on reading Chandler’s pulpy-not-pulp Magnum Opus. I had fun. It’s not my normal…
“Naked Lunch”: In Defense of the Irredeemably Obscene and the Blatantly Pornographic
My friend told me that he read this book when he was 20, on the recommendation of a buddy who described it as his favorite book of all time. “I…
“Rabbit Redux”, Or, John Updike is The Man (and you are free to interpret my use of the phrase “The Man” however you like)
John Updike gets a lot of shit. Some of that is very deserved. His preoccupation with white male middle-class identity rubs many people the wrong way. The perspective in much…