I’m excited to keep reading it! I (mostly) only read one story a day, and have been enjoying cycling through a few, mixing it up. The Schweblin, Lozada-Oliva, Bordas, and Curtis Dawkins ALL have their hooks in me pretty good right now!
The morning story ritual with fancy coffee sounds perfect. I keep trying something similar but emails derail it every time. That Updike story is great - the father trying to controll the narrative vs the daughter's moral clarity is so uncomfortble in the best way. Also lol at "retroscopes" getting red squiggles, I feel you on the backstory dump thing though. Sometimes works but often just feels like an info packet.
When I saw the list you of what you read before reading this I noticed the Updike—which I was surprised from you—so I grabbed my early stories to see if it was there. But the. My day rushed along and I missed my window to read. Looking forward to checking it out since you liked it. Updike looms large for me—maybe regionally—even though I struggle against him a lot of the time. But I always get pulled back in somehow like Michael in Godfather 3.
Keep going with Good and Evil. There is an absolute monster waiting for you.
I’m excited to keep reading it! I (mostly) only read one story a day, and have been enjoying cycling through a few, mixing it up. The Schweblin, Lozada-Oliva, Bordas, and Curtis Dawkins ALL have their hooks in me pretty good right now!
The morning story ritual with fancy coffee sounds perfect. I keep trying something similar but emails derail it every time. That Updike story is great - the father trying to controll the narrative vs the daughter's moral clarity is so uncomfortble in the best way. Also lol at "retroscopes" getting red squiggles, I feel you on the backstory dump thing though. Sometimes works but often just feels like an info packet.
When I saw the list you of what you read before reading this I noticed the Updike—which I was surprised from you—so I grabbed my early stories to see if it was there. But the. My day rushed along and I missed my window to read. Looking forward to checking it out since you liked it. Updike looms large for me—maybe regionally—even though I struggle against him a lot of the time. But I always get pulled back in somehow like Michael in Godfather 3.
I know a place that would love to publish an essay about the book. :)
I agree that "A Fabulous Animal" was not my favorite from Schweblin's collection. I thought "An Eye in the Throat" was the best.