re-read i read this in college and declared it was my favorite novel ever, met David Mitchell at a conference and embarrassed over myself gushing aboutre-read i read this in college and declared it was my favorite novel ever, met David Mitchell at a conference and embarrassed over myself gushing about it and he was so kind, and then forgot everything that happens in it in the ten years in between. nice to pick it up again and remember why i loved it, and actually get most of the references this time. tries your patience less than Cloud Atlas, which - tangent - i also did reread recently, and saw the film properly start to finish, and i'm sorry Wachowskis i didn't see the vision then but i see it now ...more
i made a powerpoint of all the things i wanted to tell my husband reading this and then we watched oppenheimer and i got to pause at any point to presi made a powerpoint of all the things i wanted to tell my husband reading this and then we watched oppenheimer and i got to pause at any point to present the slides, in my powerpoint, and it took five hours. it was so wrong of them to act like einstein was just afraid of the implications of quantum physics...!!! anyways now i understand why men want to just show you movies and tell you things ...more
i don't really review craft books on goodreads, but i read this in preparation to teach an essay-writing seminar next spring and it is!! really good!!i don't really review craft books on goodreads, but i read this in preparation to teach an essay-writing seminar next spring and it is!! really good!! one of those glass shattering revelations for me! recommending this to every writer i know ...more
"i’m ready to proselytize about the book laura wouldn’t shut up about over apfest. it has something by for everyone. forewhat i sent to my groupchat:
"i’m ready to proselytize about the book laura wouldn’t shut up about over apfest. it has something by for everyone. forest ecology (julius) apple orchards (everyone) gothic ghost stories (tay) revolutionary war bloodshed (benny) depressed mountain women grad students (katie) western massachusetts romanticism (me)" ...more
i think one day i'll have an articulate explanation of certain logics of anorexia that have nothing to do with wanting to look a certain way, or even i think one day i'll have an articulate explanation of certain logics of anorexia that have nothing to do with wanting to look a certain way, or even perceiving your own body a certain way, but not today, at least not very well...just continuing to sit with this. strange pairing coming off a Sally Rooney bender, and the attendant exhausting conversations about her characters' thinness... but it's really not about beauty standards, it's rejecting animal embodiment, a kind of disgust or at least impatience with the material world, freedom from desire, whittling yourself down to an idea – not to romanticize or idealize it or whatever, and I don't think Han Kang or Sally Rooney do so, but i don't think i'm the only one who for whom this logic feels true, sometimes ...more
brilliant. scrolled past a few reviews and i simply don't understand these gripes about the style; it's smooth and rich and rewarding as clotted creambrilliant. scrolled past a few reviews and i simply don't understand these gripes about the style; it's smooth and rich and rewarding as clotted cream ...more
the first time I read this I was in high school, mesmerized by Holden - then my own age - and his screed against the world, sympathetic toh, Holden...
the first time I read this I was in high school, mesmerized by Holden - then my own age - and his screed against the world, sympathetic to his anger, tickled by his catchphrases, mostly confused, but I had fun
the second time I read this, that is, yesterday, what I see is Holden's pain, and Salinger's masterful diction that makes clear when Holden is trying to sound grown up, but failing; trying to sound cool, but failing; trying to pretend he doesn't care, when he does. read the part where Holden watched Phoebe on the swings and cried on a train
anyways when you're 15 you think Catcher was a book dashed off in a single emotional fit, and when you're older you see Catcher's meticulous, deliberate craft
"I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to d"I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that you knew or had seen or had heard someone say." ...more
