I got a hold of this today at the library. It's probably not a scary book, but what's scary is 1) I am reading too many books simultaneously (and some are plays and some are poetry) and 2) I have to read
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss before November 5, and I have not got a hold of it yet, and it might be long. You know. The
history of
love. But it's a novel. So.
Another scary thing: I am speaking in lists and sentence fragments. This is probably due to reading too many books simultaneously.
I can tell I'm going to like
The Anthologist. It's about poetry, and it promises to be hilarious. The narrator is a poet who confesses, on page 2, "My life is a lie. My career is a joke. I'm a study in failure. Obviously, I'm up in the barn again..." I'm, you know, identifying.
If only we hadn't knocked down the barn.
And buried it.
True story. Recorded in a poem, "Gambrels of the Sky,"
Poetry East, Fall 2012. I think it can be said that everything that ever happened to me or was witnessed by me somehow makes its way into a poem. And I'm not even a "confessional poet."
It's definitely scary book month (and scary poem month) at
Escape Into Life. Today I posted
a review of Unexplained Fevers by Jeannine Hall Gailey. Unexplained fevers are pretty scary.
And
Seana Graham has reviewed Don't Look Now, a book of stories by Daphne du Maurier that includes that one, which was made into the scariest movie ever. I didn't realize that Hitchcock's
The Birds was also based on a du Maurier story. There's always so much I don't know. I love learning new things, even if they are old things to some people!
And now I want to read this book,
In the Image of Orpheus: Rilke, a Soul History, by Daniel Joseph Polikoff, which arrived in the mail today, a nice surprise. I think it is a gift from my aunt, but there was no return address! It's part biography, part literary criticism, and right up my alley, the kind of guy, poet, mythological figure, or angel I wouldn't mind meeting in a dark alley, however scary that might be. Have I mentioned
Wings of Desire lately? Anyhoo...! (I just remembered that I have eaten only a banana today. That might explain it.)
I heard an owl call "I wonder whoooo, whoooo".
ReplyDeleteJust don't pick up that 28-year-old winner's book. It's a doorstop and, according to the Post reviewer, who liked it very much, it takes a spreadsheet to keep the characters straight. I know I don't have the fortitude for that right now.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to know what you think of "The Anthologist", which I read with one of my online groups.
Fine review (which I read earlier) of Jeannine's collection.
Just don't pick up that 28-year-old winner's book. It's a doorstop and, according to the Post reviewer, who liked it very much, it takes a spreadsheet to keep the characters straight. I know I don't have the fortitude for that right now.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to know what you think of "The Anthologist", which I read with one of my online groups.
Fine review (which I read earlier) of Jeannine's collection.
So far, The Anthologist is making me laugh out loud.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention, Kathleen. I had tried to read your review on EIL earlier today but somehow my computer wasn't cooperating. Just read it now, and have to say this is just my kind of thing. I have always been intrigued by fairy tale/ modern life overlays.
ReplyDeleteOK, and on p. 7 there is a clothesline. Of course!
ReplyDeleteAnd then a whole eye-crossing passage about "tragic people like Don Rickles, Red Skelton" and probably other people I thought were hilarious when I was a kid. "Broken professional entertainers who maybe once had been funny. And now they were in Vegas, on cruise control, using their eye-crossing to allude to their early period of genuine funniness. Or they were dead."
And, yes, I tried to cross my eyes with my eyes closed, like this rambling narrator, but I COULD NOT DO IT. I would just like it to be known that I couldn't do that, so later I won't have to say, "I resemble that remark." Hahahhahaahaha!
Oh, and History of Love is supposed to be very good, and mediumish in length. I haven't gotten to it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Seana! And I do look forward to The History of Love. I've been wanting to read it, and my book group chose it when I wasn't even there!
ReplyDeleteNever too many books!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to check out The Anthologist. It helps that I used to have a friend who called you a "chowderhead" if you did something dumb.
Exactly. And naming his narrator Paul Chowder is one of the ways he celebrates and accepts all of humankind's adorable human foibles. In a big see food chowder.
ReplyDelete