Writer and software engineer in the US Midwest. I enjoy poetry, horror, some f/sf, some mystery, some literary fiction (but not the kind where the main character is a professor and nothing happens).
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In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders …
Queer stories of the surreal, the fantastic, the horrible, and the heartbreaking. The queerness isn’t a plot point in most of the stories, it’s just there, like gravity or the weather. However fantastic the plot or unconventional the structure, the people are always at center.
The story of John, a fourteen-year-old boy whose stepfather is a Pentecostal minister in Harlem …
Like the protagonist, John, I grew up in an ultra-religious Christian household. If you don’t have that background, this novel might not speak as directly and intimately to you as it does to me. I call John the protagonist, but there are multiple viewpoints, including John’s preacher stepfather, his reprobate aunt, and his mother. The story branches off from a church service into their various sins and sufferings, past and present. There are no easy answers here, only understanding. I cried more than once, sometimes while also laughing in recognition.
Like the protagonist, John, I grew up in an ultra-religious Christian household. If you don’t have that background, this novel might not speak as directly and intimately to you as it does to me. I call John the protagonist, but there are multiple viewpoints, including John’s preacher stepfather, his reprobate aunt, and his mother. The story branches off from a church service into their various sins and sufferings, past and present. There are no easy answers here, only understanding. I cried more than once, sometimes while also laughing in recognition.
Hugo Balls Tagebauchaufzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1914 bis 1921 sind nicht nur Zeugnis der Zürcher …
Pebbles of brilliance in a muckheap of piety. Not worth the time I gave it.
A masterful translation of one of the great novels of the 20th century
Nothing …
The Master and Margarita is horror, it’s comedy, it’s surrealism, it’s philosophy. And of course it’s satire—satire of Stalinist Russia, but also of any corrupt, fascist bureaucracy.
One scene that will stay with me takes place at Satan’s ball, where Margarita is introduced to a number of damned souls. Among them is a young woman who worked in a cafe, was made pregnant by the owner, and smothered the baby. Margarita asks, “And where is the owner of the cafe?” He’s not there, but obviously both Margarita and the author think he should be. (Later, when Satan owes Margarita a favor, she uses it to intercede for this woman.)
Hugo Balls Tagebauchaufzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1914 bis 1921 sind nicht nur Zeugnis der Zürcher …
There’s an awful lot about Catholicism and Protestantism and that’s tedious. I wasn’t expecting so much arid theology in this book.
Hugo Balls Tagebauchaufzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1914 bis 1921 sind nicht nur Zeugnis der Zürcher …
Ball writes of Dada, as he’s helping create the art movement, “There is a danger that only our mistakes are new.”
If I made one mistake that was new, I would consider that an advancement of art.
Hugo Balls Tagebauchaufzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1914 bis 1921 sind nicht nur Zeugnis der Zürcher …
Ball gives some time to building up Kandinsky as the artistic genius of the age, then says, “It was inevitable that we should meet each other.” In case you were worried about Ball’s self-confidence.
Hugo Balls Tagebauchaufzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1914 bis 1921 sind nicht nur Zeugnis der Zürcher …
Hugo Ball was daDa’s enemy before, while, and after he founded dAda. Nothing could be more DadA.
I don’t use stars or numeric ratings in my reviews. I disagree with the author’s interpretations of Blake on many, many points. Often this book made me indignant or provoked incredulous laughter. But sometimes it moved me to tears, sometimes it gave me chills. It never bored me.
In the latest from Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE DEVIL TAKES …
I don’t use stars or numeric ratings in my reviews. House of Bone and Rain is brilliant and brutal and moving, Stephen King meets H.P. Lovecraft meets Jacobean revenge tragedy by way of the Puerto Rican experience. The characters are complex and well drawn, as are the moral issues they face.
I don’t use stars or numeric ratings in my reviews. House of Bone and Rain is brilliant and brutal and moving, Stephen King meets H.P. Lovecraft meets Jacobean revenge tragedy by way of the Puerto Rican experience. The characters are complex and well drawn, as are the moral issues they face.
Formally and linguistically inventive, emotionally complex, socially engaged. I didn’t always understand the structure, but I always felt the author did: nothing here seems arbitrary. A poetry book I will reread.
An illuminating exploration of 31 incredible women—across art, architecture, dance, literature, and more—whose culture-defining contributions …
Fascinating content, badly written. Some factual errors.
Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two …
A novel from the early 17th century that's surprisingly modern (anti-romantic, in parts meta-fiction, less sexist than I’d expected) except where it’s not (still very damned sexist, as well as antisemitic and islamophobic and racist). Also very funny and occasionally moving. I feel like I have two new friends now in Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
A novel from the early 17th century that's surprisingly modern (anti-romantic, in parts meta-fiction, less sexist than I’d expected) except where it’s not (still very damned sexist, as well as antisemitic and islamophobic and racist). Also very funny and occasionally moving. I feel like I have two new friends now in Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two …
In the 2nd book, I don’t know how the author intends us to take the Duke and Duchess; but they’re rich and powerful and they play games with the lives, feelings, and honor of those who aren’t, and I hope they meet a grisly end (but I know they won’t).
This is a great anthology. I’ve photographed a couple of pages to read often when I need hope or motivation.
