Beloved, in Flames (sort of)
They’re banning books again. This time in Fairfax County, Virginia. The book is Beloved, by Toni Morrison. They’re not burning the book- not yet- but I’m still incensed. The full article from the Washington Post can be found here. The gist of the story is this: Laura Murphy, a concerned mother whose 17 year old...
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
“Blessed are the forgetful: for they get the better even of their blunders.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil So in the aftermath of the Hill I’ll Die On manifesto I just wrote, I decided to crawl up out of my uni-bomber bunker and watch a movie. I can only watch so much of...
A Storyless Story
I just finished Scarlett Thomas’ latest novel, Our Tragic Universe, which got me thinking about fiction, story, the afterlife, new age religion, relationships, and the writing life. In short, this fascinating novel got the juices flowing, which, in the end, is what you hope good fiction will do. Meg, Thomas’ protagonist, is a genre writer...
That Old Cape Magic
I love Cape Cod. I’ve been going there since I was sixteen, then with my parents, now with my children (and still my parents) to the house we have rented for the last fifteen years. So you can imagine the joy I felt when I purchased Richard Russo’s That Old Cape Magic for my mom...
42
As a birthday thought, these lines that close Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter: “…one natural effect of life is to cover you in a thin layer of…what? A film? A residue or skin of all the things you’ve done and been and said and erred at? I’m not sure. But you are under it, and for...
RIP JD Salinger
First Zinn, now Salinger. Arguably both old enough to have lived “full lives,” and both influential in their respective fields, it is, nonetheless, saddening to report their passings. And yet, two in two days. This report from “The Onion” is simply brilliant. Thought it’d be fun to reprint here: CORNISH, NH—In this big dramatic production...
RIP Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn, the influential historian and writer, died today at the age of 87. His controversial “A People’s History of the United States” was required reading in a course I co-taught called AP US History/English 11 Honors, and became a staple of status quo challenging rhetoric for the kids. Loved him or hated him, Zinn...
Finn and the Politics of Narrative License
Just finished Jon Clinch’s excellent debut novel, Finn. Wow…what a dark ride! Clinch takes the story of minor but memorable character Pap Finn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and fleshes out his back story in vivid and sometimes brutal style. Finn is a nasty, mean, racist, whiskey swilling, river man that happens to have...
RIP John Updike
Sad and sorry news today: John Updike has died at 76. I loved John Updike. He was one of those writers whose work was appealing because it was, on many levels, true. Even though it was older stuff, and his most famous works- the four novel “Rabbit” series- were written in the 60′s, 70′s and...
Labor Day
Here we are, the end of the summer, six Vonnegut novels down, a trip to New Hampshire looming ahead (hours away), and a mental breakdown on the horizon. Throw into the mix a trip with Don DeLillo’s White Noise, and you have the surreal experience of a lifetime. DeLillo really works the whole post-modern, radar...
See the cat? See the cradle?
I just finished Cat’s Cradle, my third Vonnegut this summer and a close favorite just ahead of Slaughterhouse-5. The images in Cat’s Cradle are just so preposterous and funny, but so unerringly true. The San Lorenzan puppet monarchy, the whole ice-nine apocalypse, and the dead on takes on sex and relationships all are true and...
So it goes…
RIP Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) Yet another life philosophy heard from, or silenced, as it were. It’s kind of funny, really. This idea seems to be front and center in my life right now, and damn it it sucks. The crushing inevitability of it all, the grinding hurt and ultimate sadness of it all…it really hurts....
