Put...the book...down...
I've committed to another Lenten reading of Gravity's Rainbow, so what am I doing in the New Fiction section at the local biblioteca? I see a book I haven't seen before: Fiona Maazel's Last Last Chance. It doesn't help that Brother Barry Hannah, who doesn't blatherblurb much these daze, is blatherblurbing on the back, so I dip in. A taste:
Hannah is my half-sister, seventeen years between us. She probably thinks I'm unhip to the major consensus narrative of adolescent girls today, and if that's what she thinks, she's right. Hannah was born in the nineties. The nineties. I find this hard to accept no matter how long I've known about it. As a result, we have a routine, and in this routine we do not understand each other. And this is fine. On days I see it her way, it's only because she's tapped into something primal whose occasion cannot be good.
Sez the front inside flap: ...a rollicking novel about (in no particular order) plague, narcotics recovery, and reincarnation...
Put...the book...down...
Hannah is my half-sister, seventeen years between us. She probably thinks I'm unhip to the major consensus narrative of adolescent girls today, and if that's what she thinks, she's right. Hannah was born in the nineties. The nineties. I find this hard to accept no matter how long I've known about it. As a result, we have a routine, and in this routine we do not understand each other. And this is fine. On days I see it her way, it's only because she's tapped into something primal whose occasion cannot be good.
Sez the front inside flap: ...a rollicking novel about (in no particular order) plague, narcotics recovery, and reincarnation...
Put...the book...down...
Labels: fiona maazel
posted by murat11 at 2:51 PM
8 Comments:
plague, narcotics recovery, and reincarnation...
That is quite a grouping!
the question is... did he (you) put the book down?
Also, what does the '11' stand for in your name?
So many books... never enough time! (But this one does look awfully good...)
Tammie: He did not. He's hoping to finish the book quickly and get back on track with GR. The 11 stands for November, the month of his birth. He's beginning to sound like Dennis Rodman, speaking of himself in the third person. He will stop now.
Anno: This one is a first class rave, equal parts Hannah and Padgett and her own inimitable Fiona-self. Definitely one of those discoveries...
The author is touched. Thank you.
Author, you are most welcome. LLC rocks. Mr. P will just have to wait his turn.
well, thanks. someone had the tact to send me this a.m. a post that's all over goodreads about what a horror my novel is, so it's nice to have voices that perhaps think otherwise.
8th: Author, there is no accounting for the taste of Americans in the post-Vinland age: where is their spirit of adventure? I think you need a back story in which you are the real James Frey, with Kitty Carlisle asking the questions. And remember, eventually you'll get it right re: Tony Bennett. Give it time.
I am still reading (and loving) LLC, with no regrets for having stood up TP for our Lenten date. That sounds utterly blurbworthy, should Mr. Bennett decline your invitation for the Hungarian translation.
FYI: outside my gods, I do not read much contemporary fiction at all. Your derailment of my plans makes you instant pantheon. I am ticking down the daze to the sequel, just like I did with Padgett Powell's lovely serving of A Woman Named Drown, after his glorious Edisto. Re: taste of the local San Antonio post-Vinlanders, there is but one volume of his sublime fiction in the entire SA library system.
That's not about you: that's about us...
Nifty little degree of separation tremor when I read Vinland in LLC and immediately trilled to TP's Vineland. That's worth a full plate of cheese enchiladas...
oh, methinks we corresponded via email, i see. well, you are kind, you made me laugh! and so perhaps i now have the gumption to suit up and work on book two.
Post a Comment
<< Home