Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
3
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Book 2!
What up, post-modernism! Do I love you? Do I hate you? WHO KNOWS!*
There's nothing I enjoy quite like a good ol' mid-Western backdrop to any story, though. I feel like it's always the perfect setting; it's just boring enough that something has to happen and nondescript enough that that something really could be anything. It's like the green screen of North American lit.
Unfortunately, things I really dislike include**:
* banal academic banter
* absurd family situations
*quirky professors
*people who are obsessed with the notions of death and/or loneliness
*excessive paranoia***
SO, we are really only off to a so-so start here. But everyone (well, everyone who writes for the NY Times review section and anyone who wrote a book which hasn't garnered the acclaim Delillo has) is always raving about ol' Don, so it's time he and I got down, even if only for research purposes.
Thus far, he's managed to write a bunch of characters that only I seem to find unlikeable and still make me want to read more (even if only to figure out which child belongs to which character and exactly how many ex-wives our esteemed Professor has) and despite the various narcissistic indulgences, the dialogue is whip-smart. I can go on that alone, really. And so I do! Further updates when I get to this "Airborne Toxic Event" people keep ranting about.
*not me, that's for sure.
**but are not limited to
***get that enough on my own, thank you, drugs.
Book 1
Boss: C-squad...do you own a hairbrush?So, maybe Klosterman does not exactly foster instant-clever in his readers, but this book is still a solid way to pass a few evenings. Also, how good would Dinosaur BBQ be?** Brontosteaks for days.
...
Are you on speaking terms with it?
Me: Hahaha! Suck it!
*at all.
**dinosaur BBQ is in no way even implied in this book,
which, btdubs, is not a cookbook as it turns out