Read Jean Frazier Kwong’s Pizza Girl, and couldn’t help but finish, although it’s my weakness to stop short of Chekhov’s gun. This is the type of book you write at the beginning of your MFA, but not the end. I mean this in the best possible way.
Continue readingThe Last of Us first came out in 2013 for the PlayStation 3. To me at the time, it was one of those rare videogames with an actual story to tell. It transcended the pulpy irreverence that is typical with the platform and instead, gave its characters and their narrative some weight.
I was most impressed with the game’s ending. I am sure the way I remembered it is flawed, but I’d rather pull from my lingering impressions than to be correct in my recollection: Ellie stares back at Joel after she wakes from unconsciousness. She’s no longer in the hospital they spent the entire game getting to. In fact, she’s nowhere near any of the people who were meant to help her (the Fireflies). Ellie asks Joel what happened, asks if they’ve produced a cure from her immunity. He lies and tells her that it turns out it was impossible—that there are actually many people like her in the world to no avail. Ellie looks at Joel with (what I saw as) suspicion. The game ends with that lingering shot—Ellie judging Joel.
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A word on Steinbeck: I love him (much more than Hemingway). I know the two aren’t to be had in conversation together, but I’m doing it anyway–all white male authors are in conversation, imo. There is something about Steinbeck that isn’t minimal, but perfect.
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I heard so much about this book through the grapevine, I even read a chapter of it when I was an MFA for class. First, let me say that Elizabeth Strout is insanely good at writing: best examples include Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, imo).
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In Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea, Sarah Pinsker proves her worth in salt as a human dictionary.
In this short story collection, published by Small Beer Press (who are also the lovely owners of my favorite local bookstore, Book Moon), Pinsker made me take a hard look in the mirror. I had to admit that my everyday snobbery at dismissing science fiction and fantasy as pulp were unfounded (aside: another book that whipped me into shape was Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life and Others, the titular story which inspired the movie Arrival).
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Ann Patchett does it again. Other Patchett books I’ve enjoyed: Bel Canto and the Dutch House. I always read Patchett in conversation with Elizabeth Strout, whose Burgess Boys was what attracted me to reading more books that were literary thrillers (if you can call this book that).
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On Lighthouses by Jazmina Barrera: A meditative exploration of using metaphor to describe a private interior self, by way of lighthouses.
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Quite possibly one of the best books I have ever read, and I don’t take that lightly. Geek Love, a masterpiece by Katherine Dunn, is dark, disturbing, perfectly dystopian. Dunn’s novel surrounds the dynamic of a fiercely competitive family who love each other so much it’s destined to come to a violent end.
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I read this book in Dublin, when I was terribly lonely and missing my son like crazy. I read it on the train. I read it on daily walks to the Muji store (actually, I found it at a bookshop next to it). Sally Rooney’s voice makes you feel implicit: what an incredible young writer. I’ve also read Conversations with Friends, and I think I prefer this book. Rooney created a claustrophobic atmosphere inhabited by seemingly “normal people.” This book felt dangerous, especially to those attached to longing and suffering in conversation with unconditional love. It was easy to romanticize Marianne and Connell because they were both beautiful. It made it harder to judge them.
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