Summer: I Hate it.
But at last, it’s over. Please don’t tell me it actually extends into September because that’s not true. Summer is June-July-August, and everyone knows it.
First, the books, then a mini discussion of music and viewing pleasures. It’s odd to do a book round up with monthly parameters because I start and read so many books simultaneously, and often don’t finish one until months later. (This feels like a bad habit but I might be too old to break it though I’m making an effort anyway.) I have only one article to recommend at this time and that’s Candace Bushnell in NYMag, on dating as an older woman in the Hamptons.
June
The Lover’s Dictionary — wrote about it a tiny bit here.
The Song of Achilles — will write about it properly soon, I hope. I have an overabundance of thoughts.
How to Set a Fire and Why — Really enjoyed it, though not as much as Auotpotrait., which is a very different book albeit clearly governed by a similar sensibility. Go ahead and read both.
I am Brian Wilson — Love it. Have written about it (sort of) here and here. His ghostwriter did an exceptional job, in my opinion. One of the best Beach Boys books.
The Sunflower Casts a Spell to Save Us From the Void – I think I resisted this collection at first or was otherwise not fully vibing with it, but by the end, it pulled me in/under. I will revisit.
Back to the Beach — Fun but probably not a top five BB book for me. I consulted it while writing the n+1 In Memoriam for Brian, alongside a lot of other books, but this one I read for the first time in the process.
The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece — I like this one even less than Back to the Beach, but that might not really be its fault… It just feels entirely redundant given the other BB books I have. (At least 15; an appropriate but not a normal amount.)
The Malady of Death — I’m in a protracted Duras phase, and this was the capricious completionist in me responding to the title. It’s a play. Man, woman, sea, bed, room, the unsayable and the simply not said. Her usual concerns.
Objects of Desire — I wrote about this a little here. Just not by name :)
Alchemized — I loved Manacled, as you may already know. This adaptation did not compel me in the same way, but there was one twist/scene that I’ve thought about a lot since reading. There’s much more going on in this book than any literary snob would presume. My profile of Sen can be read here.
The Beauty of the Husband — I have the impression that Anne Carson is kind of repudiated or considered lame these days? Hopefully I’m wrong. This book is exceptional. Made for women who love men. I read it with some regularity, and intend to continue to do so.
Coeur de Lion — same here re: the regular rereading. Ariana Reines is a once in a generation genius, I believe. I’ve been thinking about her and her work a lot lately because Wave of Blood is one of the rare (American-written) works that meets the heinous challenge of the past two years. Coeur de Lion, when I read it for the first time many years ago, made me fall back in love with poetry. I remember exactly where I was: window seat on an airplane, flying to a cross-country work date. Shocked to think that poetry could come back into my life with such immediacy and force.
The Scandalous Message of James — Good if you want to read Biblical exegesis. Which you probably do… I mean, who doesn’t? It’s liberation theology <3
Brewster — Very affecting and exceptionally bleak. Wrote about it here.
Jesus Christ — Possibly one of my favorites from DB. Trenchant and beautiful moments as always. The layout really inspired him and though I don’t think the art can stand alone, it inarguably enhances the words.
July
Wuthering Heights — Needs no commentary so all I’ll say is that a lot of time had passed since my last read and I’d forgotten so much.
A Chill in the Air — A little interesting, but not very. I appreciate that it exists but hesitate to recommend it. An easy way to get a scant amount of history.
Street Zen — The anecdotes alone are worth it. (When he fucks the cops after getting arrested!!!) Would have been better as a pure oral history but I’m glad to have a better understanding of the SF’s sangha’s sex scandal, which Robert Aitken discusses/references in The Ground We Share.
Tampa — Timeless, demented. Unmatched descriptions of female arousal and desire. Not to sound like a crank but I have a hard time believing this would get published today. Thank goodness Alissa Nutting got it out in 2013 when the gettin’ was good.
Too Good to be True — Wish I knew who all the thinly anonymized players were/are. Not a book for me though I enjoyed reminiscing about TD Bank’s corrupt Penny Arcade.
The Ten Year Affair — Very funny. As refreshing and detoxifying (lazy word, but you get the idea) as a glass of hibiscus iced tea. Several of its moments have, given their initial soft landing, proven to be sneakily sticky. I loved the originating short story, which you can read here, and should.
Big Fan — I don’t care about boy bands, which I realize makes no sense given my whole deal, and I feel humiliated by celebrity romance. (I don’t want this!!! I’m not a child!!! Celebrities are boring and there’s good reason to believe they’re generally worse at sex than non-famous people. Give me a funny blue collar guy who doesn’t get any of my references if you really want me to be sexually stressed.) That said, this is cute and skillfully managed given the extreme length limitation.
The Iliad — Took me from Emily Wilson skeptic to superfan. Absorbing and a little mind altering. I hope to write about it properly soon.
America is Hard to Find — You know how I am with Father Berrigan. It’s a thumbs up, of course. Typical of him, i.e. better than pretty much everyone else. The problem with how uniformly worthwhile his books are is that it becomes difficult to name one that stands out, which I feel like I should be able to do in case anyone asks.
August
This whole month was pleasure reading overload. I devoured a bunch of contemporary fiction and happened to pick really fun classics.
Gulliver’s Travels — Hilarious and really holds up when it comes to the social commentary, although I was not prepared for the ardency of its misogyny. Don’t groan at me, it was very distracting. This is 100% authenticated, vintage woman hating, like, found in a Nazi’s basement and auctioned off at Soethby’s woman-hating. Oh well. Great book.
Fire From Heaven — Did you know Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great? Probably you did, but I didn’t, because I don’t know anything. There is a lot to enjoy and learn from in this book (as a writer, not just as someone ignorant about Greek history.) I think it’s both a great accomplishment and, at times, a slog. I struggled mightily with keeping names straight and understanding the battle strategy passages of which there are many.
Vexation Lullaby — I was worried I’d be annoyed by this novel because I am not a Bob Dylan fan. I know a few of his songs, the ones everyone does, but barely. And I think it’s almost always a disaster when writers invent a figure in their work who’s famous and lauded for their creative output, usually verbal—i.e. a poet, a musician/lyricist, a comedy writer—because then the author has to come up with something plausibly sensational…and if they’re actually capable of that, why aren’t they just writing the Pulitzer-winning poems, the Emmy-winning sketches, the Grammy-winning lyrics, etc.? Yet so many fiction writers cannot resist the lure of myth-making American culture. (See: Night Film, a book I despised so much that when I wrote a review for Bookforum, it was fully rejected with no attempt at revision. [This was an iteration of Bookforum with different editors than the one to which I eventually became a frequent contributor.]) I’m still not sold on this novel’s lyric excerpts. I can’t tell if they’re parody or sincere, supposed to be profound or tantalizing, or what. Maybe real Dylanheads would think they’re a great approximation.
But I read this book because I love the author’s first novel so much, and this one got me too. I adore it. Like, want to hug it, and I suppose nothing’s stopping me from doing so. I really hope he writes a third.
Worry — I’d been wanting to read this for ages since I love Alexandra Tanner’s short fiction. She is hilarious and actually writes dialogue, unlike many contemporary novelists. (One of my major gripes about today’s fiction.) This book reminded me of Zippermouth by Laurie Weeks, which I feel like distressingly few people have read.
Down Time — I freaked out about the cover, because it’s great, and also freaked about the book because I so adore Cool For America. I need more Cool For America! Andrew wrote a wonderful response to my early August inquiry about how it feels to be an author, which I have to mention because it will be at the forefront of my mind for the foreseeable future when I think of him/his writing. (He’s another author unafraid of dialogue, and making it believable… Brave!) There’s a character arc/reveal in this novel that got me right in whatever organ is responsible for fetishization. I can’t say more without spoiling it.
Sharing the Darkness — I get a lot out of Shelia Jackson’s ministry. She repeats herself, but so do all the non-fiction greats (see: Vivian Gornick.) Her Catholicism is a little strange to me, meaning unfamiliar, rooted in rituals and holy days, nothing like the freewheeling Anglicanism with which I am acquainted, and sometimes that gets my back up. But it’s just her milieu, she’s never didactic. Anyway, she’s great and I will give her proper laurels in a Meant For You sometime soon, I hope.
Long Distance — Probably the best short story collection I’ve read so far this year. Ideally sampled one or two at a time, I think, rather than read straight through, because the near-uniform New Yorker-y quality of them starts to feel airless if you go back to back. Very curious about her novels now, which I have not read.
The Age of Innocence — Had me whooping and gawping and losing my mind, especially the end. Absolute excellence though (I’m sorry) the interior design passages make my eyes glaze over. No, I had never read it before! Only The House of Mirth and Ethan Frome like 5 times for some reason.
The Rose — I love the way Ariana has spoken about this book, maybe as much as I like the book itself. The second half goes very hard. Another one for adulators of men.
Paradise Kiss — The height of storytelling. Basically twice as stimulating as The Age of Innocence which means I was laughing out loud, rolling around in the bed, dying to discuss it with someone, anyone, while also being in pain. Ai Yazawa is a genius. She’s already given us so much yet I still want more.
Listening:
No playlist this time as I sort of neglected music lately or at least didn’t have any individual song finds that really knocked my socks off. (I’m done with Spotify now, too.) I revisited a bunch of Brian and Beach Boys for the obvious reason. Also was in a Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins mood for the first half of June. But these are the new(ish) albums I’ve been spending time with:
Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones. Recommended by Antiart. It’s fantastic, as are his previous LP and EP. I’m obsessed.
Dijon - Baby. Another A+ Antiart recommendation. There’s a song on this album that hit me like a drug in an intense, embarrassing way. (It’s clearly about these two characters I made up for a short story.) I maybe have to write about them more because of this song and everything it opened up in me? I think this album is changing my life but only time will tell.
Wet Leg - moisturizer. A savvy Jamie recommendation.
Pink Pantheress — Fancy That. She’s a good time, what can I say. Well-handled samples from yesteryear with an endearing Gen Z gloss.
Central Cee - CAN’T RUSH GREATNESS. Until he reveals some heinous political position or unforgivable moral flaw, I will like Cench. He has good bone structure. This album is kind of a bummer because it’s mostly humorless. (Whither the boy who said “how can I be homophobic? My bitch is gay.”) But I enjoy it anyway. He can’t help being young and ruined by fame. I understand when he talks about having financial insecurity that’s not allayed by wealth and he’s right, it was messed up that he was involved in drug deals as a kid, I don’t mind him saying so. I think he would benefit from platonic friendship with me and vice versa.
Watching:
Hunter x Hunter. I’m in very deep with this. Like if I don’t get to watch an episode in the evening, I feel unsettled. I look forward to its viewing more than anything else. Frequently I think, “I wonder what Gon and Killua are up to right now.”
It took months but my TikTok algorithm finally caught up, which is of course only fanning the flames of my fanaticism. I need so many HxH tattoos… None of the normal ones, though. (Phantom Troupe spider, ew. No offense if you have one.) Gotta get creative so I don’t look like a total tool. Wish me luck.