Milo and the Calf

Tag: books

  • Review: Delany’s Straits of Messina

    Straits of Messina Samuel Delany A now out of print and dearly priced collection of Samuel Delany* writing about his own works, including detailed essays on Dhalgren, the controversial (and at the time of publication of this book, unpublished) Hogg, Nova, the Tales of Nevryon series, and more. If you’re a fan of Delany, (and…

  • Review: Weil and Bespaloff’s War and the Illiad

    I’m going to start by giving you a little hint: if you’re wandering through a used bookstore and you see a book published by the New York Review of Books, buy it. Don’t worry if it isn’t something you’ve heard of, or is about a subject matter you’re not particularly interested in. It doesn’t matter…

  • Review: Yanagihara’s The People in the Trees

    The People in the Trees Hanya Yanagihara If not the best novel I read this year, among them. Super-duper icky and disturbing, but deeply compelling story of a scientist who travels to a remote pacific island and finds a substance that can allows those who eat it to live forever. Basically (and intentionally), a b-movie plot…

  • Review: Enrique’s Sudden Death

    Sudden Death Alvaro Enrique As I’ve written elsewhere recently, my tolerance for difficult prose is at a bit of a low right now. But, if its coupled with a fascinating look at the politics of renaissance Italy, the life of the mysterious trouble painter Caravaggio, and the clever use of tennis as a narrative device,…

  • Review: Kang’s The Vegetarian

    The Vegetarian Han Kang Creepy. Super creepy. Disturbing. Interlocking stories revolving around an abused and disturbed women who turn to vegetarianism appears to instigate a series of events which destroy both her and her family. Of course, it isn’t actually her vegetarianism. It’s about the violence directed at her, the mental illness that violence (may?)…

  • Review: Bennett’s Pond

    Pond Claire-Louise Bennett Smarter minds than mine loved this book. A sort of stream of conscious narration of the life of a women in a small (Irish?) village. The book is often funny, and at times beautiful. The writing is excellent, with complex sentences that are perfectly structured, and the observances of the details of…

  • Review: Nelson’s Bluets

    Bluets Maggie Nelson A meditation on blue, sorta, but also a inquiry into love, life and theory. This is clearly a precursor to the Argonauts. There’s a similar style and tone, moving from the conversational to the theoretical and back. It isn’t as polished as the Argonauts, nor as emotionally compelling, but still an interesting,…

  • Review: Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

    Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair Pablo Neruda The collection that made Neruda famous at a young age. A short book comprised of short poems on love in its many forms. Sexual love, emotional love, love love love love love. A young man’s book.*Beautiful in parts but too sentimental for this middle aged…

  • Review: Nelson’s Shiner

    Shiner Maggie Nelson This year, I finally came to grips with something pretty fundamental about my reading interests – I don’t really care about prose. I care about ideas, and characters, and plots. I care about history, personal development, and inspiration. But I do not care about a formal experimentation. I don’t care about clever…

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    Review: Alacron’s Lost City Radio

    Lost City Radio Daniel Alacron She reads the names of missing and disappears people every night on the radio. Across the country, people tune it to hear the name of their loved ones, disappeared during the war years. She has a name of her own, which she does not read. Her husband, a borderline revolutionary…