May 2010
16 posts
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
I just read this book, and mostly when I think about it, I think “meh.”
maudnewtondotcom →
The New Yorker
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To get on this list.
“You can go to Yaddo anytime you want.”
Thoughts on Independent Publishing →
Not sure if the vitriol in this Awl post is necessary, BUT it does seem kind of sad that HarperStudio was shuttered so soon- especially if it was doing so well and embodying such and independent spirit. Choire is right though, 100k is NOT a small advance in my fledgling writer mind.
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“I get the same feeling when anyone talks about trees, any trees: the linden tree...”
– The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Burbery
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“Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty. When you speak, or...”
– The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Burbery
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The Elegance of the Hedgehog
I heard a lot of good things about The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Burbery. A friend bought it for me as a gift, and excitedly, I started reading it. What unfolded before my eyes was perfectly turned, intricate, exciting, and funny prose.
I read it, thinking in my head what was good about it, and I raved about it to a Frenchwoman I heard use the phrase “chichi” which...
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“I have withdrawn, to be sure, and refuse to fight. But within the safety of my...”
– The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
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Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A...
I finished Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself last night, right before I went to sleep. I had sad DFW dreams all night. I could barely read the beginning of this book, a lovely gift from a friend. The only way I could handle reading it at first was to think of it real critically, and I wrote all over the first one fourth of it. I had to stop a few times, I was tearing up. I love...
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Diary of a Bad Year
Just this morning I finished Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee. At first it was so disjointed I didn’t like it, and I couldn’t find a single passage that stood out for me, to quote, to say: “This is an example of what I liked in this book.” But Coetzee is a wonderful writer, a realist, a subscriber to the axiom “brevity is the soul of wit” which I had to...