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Ch 27: #wrathsnack #cottonpicking #happythanksgiving #shortjoadchaptertomorrow #hashtagbrigade

In August 1944, Frankie is 12 with no mother and a soldier brother who is about to marry before shipping out. McCullers perfectly captures that in between time when you‘re still a kid but starting to see parts of the world differently. I don‘t usually like child narrators, but I thought this was terrific.

I‘ve now read most of Pynchon besides V and Mason & Dixon. I‘d say this is his most accomplished work that I‘ve read so far. There is so much going on. It‘s a western, steam punk, historical fiction, sci-fi, phantasmagorical, with twinges of romance, cosmic horror and war. You can see how Pynchon has grown as a writer since Gravity‘s Rainbow. I‘ll never forget these characters, and there are so many. Highly recommend this brick of a book.

I‘m supposed to have strong feelings about this, right? But, I guess…sometimes I liked it a whole lot (eg, “I stood holding the note with that funny little abandoned feeling one gets a million times a day in a domestic setting. I could have cried, but why?”) and sometimes I felt like rolling my eyes — HARD (eg, “The future itself was another lover, reaching backward in time to cup my balls”). I bet Miranda July gets that a lot. 👇🏻

I reread this book after over 20 years in preparation for Queen Esther coming out. It is brilliant! It is even better the second time around. The characters are the quintessential John Irving type--endearingly strange. The message of the book is very pro choice. It still holds up.

Finally reading this 1960 novel, a classic of sorts. My 1st by Updike. He could write a sentence and drive a novel forward. 1950‘s social mores might give us quivers. But they‘re no match for Rabbit, an impulsive wrecking ball. There is a horror-fascination draw to this.

Ch 26: #peachpicking #strikebreakers #CASY #ripcasy #thatwasawful #tomfightsback #nowhesintrouble #roseloseshershit #strikeover #halfwages #timetogo #tomhastohide #cottonpickingnext #wrathsnacktomorrow #staytuned #hashtagbrigade

900 hundred pages of Faulkner is a lot. This is the 1951 National Book Award winner, but I didn‘t think it was good sample of Faulkner‘s stuff. It doesn‘t show, in my opinion, how could he can be. But it does occasionally show how frustrating he can be. Unfortunately I was beaten down by this. My favorite stories are at the end (some of which are his earliest stories), but i was kind of worn out by that point.

The title story,My Father's Tears,stands out in particular.In the scene at the beginning,you can feel the son's anticipation of college life freedom clashing with the father's sadness of separation. Updike doesn't need dramatic words to convey this. Sentences like “I was going somewhere, and he was seeing me go. I was growing in my own sense of myself, and to him I was getting smaller” are enough. Wonderful collection of short stories.