made myself laugh imagining adding an epigraph to this blog post
Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Karabata: bought this after enjoying The Lake. it's a short, strange domestic drama centering on traditional japanese tea ceremonies. felt like i wasn't able to understand most of the subtext or social cues for lack of knowing anything about traditional japanese tea ceremonies or the state of japan when it was written; the author is quoted as confirming that it's about some conflict between the contemporary world and the world represented by the traditional tea ceremonies. but i enjoyed the prolonged discussion/description of centuries-old tea bowls and other objects. felt curious about the intentional repetition of certain phrasing and images throughout. enjoyed the emphasis on sex, especially the guy having sex with this girl's mom. felt dumb/racist at feeling like there was a strong sense of 'haiku'-like imagery/description throughout.
Live my Lief by Steve Roggenbuck (self releases/boost house): never read any of his writing before, i think. this one seems to be a compilation/best-of(?) of previous books or something. felt surprised/turned off by how many poems are 'earnest'/romantic with emphasis on kissing and the moon. some of the humor feels dated, especially the section that's just image macros, but i felt like other jokes/poems held up well. most enjoyed a short poem that felt like an earnest love poem that ended with a brief advertisement for home gym equipment. feeling 65% convinced that roggenbuck has rebranded as the mysterious Dave, based on some notable similarities between their books.
Southeastern Nowhere by Bram Riddlebarger (gob pile press): i think this is a collection of (out of print?) chapbooks from 2000-2015. mix of themes/images presented in mostly very short poems, sort of haiku-like. noticed a large number of metaphors/similes describing things as being like dreams in a way that felt nonsensical, made me think about what people mean when they talk about dreams in poetry. mostly liked the poems about camping/the outdoors.
Everything Was Fine Until Whatever by Chelsea Martin (future tense): felt interested in reading this one following EE's (unused, comically unusable) blurb for my book: Reading Zac Smith’s Everything Is Totally Fine reminded me of reading “Alt Lit” books in 2009, particularly Chelsea Martin’s Everything Was Fine Until Whatever, which made me wonder if Chelsea Martin might write an essay abt Zac Smith the way Sam Pink wrote an essay abt Sean Thor Conroe, but mostly idc, because mostly idk what “Alt Lit” is, I never did, and I still don’t care. i have read and enjoyed other books by chelsea martin before, but hadn't read this one. it may be my least favorite so far. mostly short, self-deprecating vignettes about relationships, body image, pregnancy/birth, family, and food. some minor experimentation in form and includes some drawings (i like her art style a lot). sometimes felt repetitive and took me a while to finish, although i thought it had various good moments/images whenever i picked it up. i don't think our books are very similar aside from each emphasizing absurd humor within short pieces. thankful that chelsea did not write a 5k word essay talking shit about me.
Teenager by Bud Smith (Vintage): have read and enjoyed previous bud smith books/novels. felt interested in his 'major label debut' and how it would compare. enjoyed various specific scenes in this one but felt like some plot points were predictable (why they leave the ranch) or arbitrary/confusing (meeting neil at the grocery store and the subsequent events). enjoyed the theme of hapless and silly cop deaths throughout. laughed at one line (when they stole the dirt bike). felt confused at times by the narrative perspective -- mostly follows kody's internal monologue, but veers occasionally into tella's -- and seeming lack of conversation/character development between the two characters during a prolonged, intense, intimate road trip. noticed, grumpily, several copyediting/consistency issues (including the use of 'wretch' when he meant 'retch' and the continued emphasis on them only stealing shitty cars except for the one scene where the plot requires that they're driving a BMW), which only stood out to me because of the long-running publicity story that the book was rewritten and edited by several people over an ~8 year period. the long length and emphasis on plot/action/adventure often made it hard for me to want to pick it back up continue reading. felt like various minor plot/character points were needlessly inserted and repeated for dramatic, major-press-style drama. felt like the ending was good overall, cementing the book ultimately as a condemnation of America, which wasn't as in-your-face throughout. felt in the vein of earlier stories by bud, e.g. the one about eating american flags
Donald Goines by Calvin Westra (expat press): enjoyed his previous book and i enjoyed this book, but partially for different reasons. this is a quick, funny, heartfelt novel about poor teenagers getting addicted to drugs. enjoyed the emphasis here on the recurring comedic bits and several very comical scenes/dialogue. enjoyed the unique and internally-consistent effects of the drug, how people talked/felt about the effects of the high. enjoyed how the narrative slowly unveils aspects of the characters/background, revealing variously emotionally engaging layers below the at-first-absurd-seeming things, e.g. the puppets/birds motifs. thought the last third tended to drag/get repetitive, but overall i think calvin westra is a very talented writer and this is a good book, according to my personal preferences.
Guess What's Different by Susan Triemart (malarkey books): short stories with a surprisingly high number written in second person. felt like if it weren't for these it could have just been billed as a CNF collection about death in the family. felt generally uninterested in the mfa writing prompt-like nature of most of the stories -- lots of artifice in the form like lists and fragmented flashbacks, inventing/emphasizing parallelism in the events and wording, and an overall sense of self-importance/melodrama. graham described this kind of writing as 'precious'. most enjoyed a longer, early story about her grandpa running over a toddler. didn't finish.
Characters by Derek Maine (expat press): we published a ~6k word review/interview about this on the Last Estate. i liked the book more than i expected. thought it was engaging, ambitious, and clever, if at times overwrought and melodramatic -- lots of people dying and lots of people smoking cigarettes. unironically reminded my of infinite jest (it also references IJ on the last page). thought the non-postmodern parts of straightforward (auto)fiction were most engaging but respect that they were subsumed into the higher-dimensional ambition of the book. enjoyed thinking of it being structurally influenced by dubliners. enjoyed/noticed and empathized with his interest in writing fake autofiction about indie lit success stories, e.g. a scene where there's a well-attended reading at some bar in NYC that features "tyrant, house of vlad, and expat" as publishing entities. i think it's the first book afaik to mention cyberwriting (and currentivism -- i'm sure derek would appreciate me recognizing this book as 'being in conversation' with bibles' book)
The Light To Never Be Snuffed by Josh Dale (Alien Buddha): josh sent me this after i sent him a copy of my book. this is a novella about an overweight, awkward kid with a bad home life who really likes pokemon and hallucinates about ants. the underlying story seems compelling in its bleak realism re: the family life, specifically the parents' complex relationship, but i don't feel comfortable really reviewing it for style or execution because it seems very unedited, which i mostly blame on the editor/publisher of the press, who seems to just churn out books (this started out as a more inflammatory note about alien buddha press, but having done some research, and based on my experience reading alien buddha books and speaking with some of the authors who publish with them, i don't think they're necessarily a scam, but think they could make fewer, but better-looking and better-edited books).
bonus chapbook speedround
Cheat by Danielle Chelosky (self released/the waiting room): brief diary type thing about cheating on a boyfriend in high school and drinking too much/feeling rebellious and self-pitying. includes a large number of similes for feeling bad. feel like its strength is the 'honesty/intensity' and less the style/structure/voice. enjoyed feeling frustrated by the bouts of self pity during an expensive family vacation to a tropical island, as a dad.
The Leave Society Cookbook by Tao Lin (forever magazine): very little written content but looks very nice. includes some good jokes, including a recipe that he has never made, but still recommends. would have enjoyed more recipes; would enjoy a full-length hybrid cookbook/memoir that focuses just on food and family.
King Ludd's Rag #10 by Rebecca van Laer and Alan ten-Hoeve (malarkey): 2 longer stories. rebecca's is about a dysfunctional couple temporarily moving to new orleans so the painter can work on her art. alan's story is about a failed wood-worker with a mysterious penis infection trying to get answers from various anxiety-inducing doctors. enjoyed the ending of rebecca's, and the conceit of the protagonist being judgemental and dismissive of the other characters. enjoyed alan's story's conceit and laughed a few times throughout. alan reminded me that i had read a ~1k word earlier version of the story and rejected it for something, but i like the new, longer version. enjoyed the theme of the zine being that each story centers a self-centered, failing artist of some kind with a troubled marriage. seemed like a good editorial decision.
Spontaneity for its own sake by Shawn Michael Sullivan (self-released): shawn is responsible for me appearing on bookworm with tao, as i understand it. he later sent us links to/pdfs for his own books and was transparently angry with us for not promoting his writing in exchange for getting us on the show. i purchased two of his books to be nice. this one is a collection of self-referential short stories mostly about the act of writing vis a vis this and other books, although one of the pieces says it's all poetry. other themes include frustration, self-pity, and living in los angeles. many pieces feel like self-affirmations. the longest pieces read like an alt lit-style autofiction but with more affectation/drama/annoyance/frustration -- the style makes me think of someone telling a story at a fancy dinner party. enjoyed this line: "I use my imagination when I write of who I was and am, and I like thinking about the different ways I can use my imagination."
