Monday, Monday

 And we did. A great day for the country and we haven't had many lately.

Just finished DODGE CITY by Patrick DeWitt, so different from THE SISTER BROTHERS but both were great. Now I am listening to THE LIBRARIANIST, which also seems good. Have read all the stories in THE BEST DOG IN THE WORLD. Conclusion: DOGS ARE GREAT.

Saw A TALENT FOR MURDER. Helen Mirren was Patricia Highsmith-what a great actress. Also saw the Korean film POSSIBLE LOVE on Netflix. It was very long so I watched it over two nights. Watching THE LOWDOWN on Hulu and THE GILDED AGE on HBO. About to start BLACK DOVES on Netflix

Went to a lecture about the election results. 

What about you?

 

 

FFB: BLACK WATER, Joyce Carol Oates

Black Water is one of my favorite Joyce Carol Oates novels. My husband and Megan went to hear her speak at Borders Bookstore in Ann Arbor. I wonder if Megan dreamed at 21 that she would know Oates one day. 

It is a roman A clef, using the Kennedy Chappaquiddick incident as its inspiration, a bad word for it in this case.. It is a very spooky book with the water being very evocative. 

Short Story Wednesday

 Although I have never had a dog, I have always been interested in dog stories. After reading Paul Yoon's novel ETNA I wanted to read about his story in here. Oscar seemed like a special dog. Indeed, all the dog I have read about do. If there is a sameness to the stories in THE BEST DOG IN THE WORLD, its born out of all of these writers falling in love with their dog. Etna is written from a dog's point of view and you can either get with that or not. I had no trouble with it. My favorite novel about a dog is Sigrid Nunez's THE FRIEND but all of the dogs in this volume made their case. 

George Kelley 

Jerry House 

Monday, Monday

 Nice surprise in the mail today. I also read ETNA (Paul Yoon) (Fabulous about a bomb-sniffing dog trying to go home), and am reading DODGE CITY by Patrick Dewitt. 

Movie-wise I saw the enigmatic YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING, and WICKER, also surprising. 

Had a great time handing out candy at Josh's house to over 200 kids. Fabulous costumes. We ran out of candy an hour before it ended, 6-8. One kid was dressed as a pimp in a purple suit with a top hat and a sparking cane. Yikes. 

Finished THE DIPLOMAT, which I loved. The six main actors are so terrific in this. Watched the MATTHEW PERRY doc, which was so sad. Also a great doc on SCTV. I can't believe they made each show for $7000 with no writers. A third one on Norm McDonald and started one on Maria Bamford, who I have scarcely heard of. This is the era of the documentary.Getting ready for THE GILDED AGE, BLACK DOVES, and NOCTURNE.

Weather continues to be gorgeous.

What's new there?  

FFB

 I only kept a record of books I had read for a year or so in 1987-88. Phil gave me a journal and I wrote them all down. It is truly a list of forgotten writers-many of them were hot stuff at that time.

Whatever happened to Margaret Drabble, Alison Lurie, Lee Smith, Thomas Williams, Peter Taylor, Doris Grumbach, Jane Smiley, Charles Dickinson, Mary Gordon, Gail Godwin, Marge Piercy, A.S. Byatt. Pat Barker. Does anyone read these writers now. These are all so called "literary" writers. There many who are gone but not forgotten: Pat Conroy, Alison Lurie, Sue Grafton, Truman Capote, But do the genre writers survive any better? My list of 20 mysteries I read that year seem more familiar. And, of course, a lot of writers are still around Joyce Carol Oates,  Alice Hoffman etc.

Who doesn't deserve to be forgotten?  

Wall Cano, FROM THE NEW YORKER

 https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-writers-voice/souvankham-thammavongsa-reads-wall-cano

A family from Laos lives in a basement apartment where cardboard covers the windows. The mother leaves one day but life goes on and the kids attend school. The father doesn't read so he is more dependent on the 10 and 8 year old than you'd like.  A science project breaks his heart when he doesn't win it. The kids already understand their new world better than he does.

TracyK 

Jerry House 

Kevin Tipple 

George Kelley