The Best Book I Read This Year

If I'm asked to pick the best book I read this year, new or old, fiction or non-fiction, I have to give that title to Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone.

Part Cormac McCarthy, part W.S. Merwin, Woodrell's prose does everything I require from the lyrical, poetic descriptions to the detail-oriented background information without ever getting tripped up. The book does not even stumble. Even though the reader knows the likely outcome, or becomes convinced of it along side the protagonist, the story remains compelling.

One of the main reasons for the book's success is the power of its protagonist Ree Dolly. It is hard not to get behind this sort of bold character and encourage her along even as she makes horrible mistakes. While Ree is such a compelling character, a teenage girl forced to care for her mother and two younger brothers, this is no Catcher in the Rye or any other book carried on the back of an outrageous character. This book is propelled more by the quality of the storytelling than a unique character.

Winter's Bone accomplishes so much for a short novel, which is why it surpasses some of the larger books I read this year. It manages to be traditional without being stodgy. It's nearly a mystery (the section in which I found the book stocked at my local independent bookstore) without being simply plot based. And it has no gimmick.

If I'd have been thinking earlier this season I would have given a copy of the book to everyone on my list. Instead, you'll have to pick it up yourself.

The Xmas Haul

Another snowstorm and a work overload have kept me from posting a thing this week. I did want to take a moment to share the titles I received this Christmas.

I always ask for (and receive) these short story collections: 2007 Pushcart Prize XXXI: Best of the Small Presses, which includes everyone from W.S. Merwin to Kate Braverman; Best American Short Stories 2006, which includes Thomas McGuane and of course Alice Munro; The 2006 O. Henry Prize Stories (though this one I had to buy myself--with a gift card).

Then I received a couple books on craft: Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell and The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman, as well as the No Plot? No Problem Novel Writing Kit which is, if nothing else, novel.

Then under the tree was The View From Castle Rock by Alice Munro, and with the remaining amount on the gift card I bought from the bargain section at Tattered Cover Things You Should Know by A.M. Homes, and High Lonesome: Selected Stories 1966-2006 by Joyce Carol Oates.

Now, it's a lot of books, I know, but I will make the pledge this year that I will read everyone and not just pick and choose my way through these short story collections.

So, what books did you get or give this year?

"Let me ask you something..."

As the city shuttered itself in fear of serial killers this summer, Ron Horton found himself having an odd conversation with an old drinking buddy. "Let me ask you something," Horton remembers his friend, Samuel John Dieteman, sliding over to tell him between beers in June. "Do you know what it's like to kill a man?"
"How would I know?"
"Well," Horton recalls Dieteman saying, "neither did I until the last few months."

Serial killings informant breaks silence

Rejection Collection - The Journal

I got this rejection early this week from The Journal for my story "This Is What He Does." The best part of this one is if you read the second sentence as "We have read it with care and regret." Sounds about right.

Holiday Cheer

There's always been something creepy and heartening about Bing and Bowie.



And this Washington Post story tells us a little more about just how weird this all was. If only all holiday specials played "Heroes."

Digging Out

After a week of heavy snows and much too much snow (and high-centering my car and apparently doing serious damage to my catalytic converter), I've not been paying much attention to anything (except the presents I still need to buy). So, please excuse the light posting. I'll catch up with the world eventually.

My year in books

Twenty five books in year without classes and while finishing my MFA thesis doesn't sound too bad. I'm calling it at twenty five because you can see my current read is Richard Ford's The Lay of the Land and I don't anticipate finishing it in the next two weeks. There have been good books and there have been bad. Now, keep in mind that when we talk about merit in such terms we are looking at it through one reader's perspective.

Let's start with the bad books I read this year. Now I knew Bad Twin, written by a fictional character Gary Troupe, was going to be a bad book, but Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep came with a lot of praise and I was surprised to be so annoyed by it. The other surprisingly bad book was Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City.

Then there were the classics I was glad to get to, but didn't move me too much like Portnoy's Complaint, The Sound and the Fury, Herzog, A Farewell to Arms, and To the Lighthouse. And more recent books that didn't do too much for me, Slow Man, Never Let Me Go, The Feast of Love, The Bushwhacked Piano, and Everyman.

Now on to the good. The three bad books above were all read directly after Charles D'Ambrosio's short story collection The Dead Fish Museum. That book is so good that it could make many actually good books look bad. This was also the year I discovered Cormac McCarthy. Suttree knocked me out of my boots. I haven’t been as compelled to read as I was while reading those nearly 400 pages. I did get to The Road this year and I do think it deserves all the praise it's been getting, but it was so darn depressing. And it just wasn't as good as Suttree. Then Joyce Carol Oates's We Were The Mulvaneys also made a difference for me, as did Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping and, of course, To Kill a Mockingbird. While I learned this year that I may have set my standards too high, it's good to know that there are books out there, both old and new, that can reach them.

Of course one book I read has to be the best book I read this year, but I'll save that for another post.

Book Review: To the Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

It is easy to forget that Woolf is a modernist. I read and enjoyed Mrs. Dalloway, though it wasn't an easy read, and I understand the stream of consciousness, the way the thoughts and narration flit around. To the Lighthouse took this to an extreme. The first section was not unlike Mrs. Dalloway, with seemless shifts in perspective, dialogue that we get through the perspective, not direct quotes. It is not always easy to follow the concrete action, but it makes some sense. The second section of the novel drops all that came before and falls into an abstract and nearly poetic mode. We do not see things through any character's mind, except maybe that of the house itself. The language in this section is beautiful and, though we learn some things about the intervening years, nothing happens. Then the third section comes and we're given a meding of the two previous modes. We get different character's points of view, but the abstractions are so great that it's hard to really graso what they're thinking. I like the stream of consciousness and the beauty of it, but not enough of it registered with me to really take anything from it.

Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées

It's not everyday that I get to point to something about Baudelaire, but now the occasion is here.

Powell's Review-a-Day features a review from Rain Taxi for a new translation of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal by Keith Waldrop. And it's not your everyday translation: The form of Waldrop's translation is versets, "a form that hovers between poetry and prose," as the book's front flap advertises.

I have long been a fan of Baudelaire and for just as long I've wanted to write my own translations of his poetry (I've translated only around a dozen). Every translation I've read seems insufficient, relying on replicating the rhyme or rhythm The words, though, are the important part. It is what Baudelaire's saying that moves me.

I don't know if this translation will give me what I want in English. I'm afraid that Waldrop is after something stylistically that compromises Baudelaire's intent. I'm willing to give it a try, though.

The relevance of the NYTBR

Dan Green at the Reading Experience evaluates NYTBR editor Sam Tannenhaus's statement that "novelists and short-story writers have begun to rediscover the uses of narrative and to find new ways of making their imagined creations more relevant to our complicated moment."

Frankly, I find this critical tic of Tanenhaus's--American fiction has abandoned narrative--rather baffling. I defy him to look at the literary fiction shelves (even allowing him to walk past the genre aisles) at Borders and Barnes and Noble and point out what books do not in fact dispense narrative in fairly heavy doses.
[...]
Let's invite the same fools and charlatans who dominate the news and opinion sections over to the Book Review and make it into the same kind of intellectual sinkhole.

I should admit that I am a bit of a traditionalist myself, but I had a similar reaction to Tannenhaus's statement. But after looking at the selections and his track record, I think he was just looking for a way of explaining why they liked more fiction this year--without really knowing what he was saying.

We must remember that any review (or best-of list) is entirely subjective. To talk about "relevance" only means that he likes "relevant" books. It shouldn't slow anyone down from writing totally irrelevant books. We might all want a good review in the NYTBR, but that's not why we're writing.

Rejection Collection - Greensboro Review

This one came yesterday from Greensboro Review for my story "The Disguise," originally sent to them in July. For such a large slip of paper, the actual rejection note is quite short and bland. This one needs some rethinking.

In addition, yesterday I received a letter from Shenandoah acknowledging receipt of my submission and pimping a subscription, including a card reprint of the journal cover. Seems like a long way to go to try and sell me a subscription. And the special writers' rate is $20--I think they could do a little better. I shouldn't complain, though, while they're reviewing my submission.

Tony Scott takes on Alice Munro

NY Times film critic A.O. Scott looks at two new books by Alice Munro, a collection of older stories titled Carried Away and a new collection of semi-autobiographical stories called The View From Castle Rock. That last one's on my wish list (hint, hint).

At least someone will read it

It may have been written to help Bush find a way out of Iraq, but now it looks like the Iraq Study Group Report is set to become a best seller(Sales soar for Iraq study group's book). I should admit that the 9/11 Commission Report is on my shelf and I'm likely to buy this thing as well. I don't know if I'm just into the whole bipartisan thing, or if it's the historical significance of it.

Now I could wander off on a rant about The Way Forward or A New Approach, but it might not be advised tonight. At least it will give everyone the cover they need. Let's move forward now.

Best books of the year?

At this time of the year and these sorts of lists appear everywhere, it is worthwhile to consider what we've read this year. What was the best book you read this year? Or what was the best book you read that was actually published this year?

Things to consider. I'll let you know my picks soon.

And still more...

The Denver Post this time: Recommend: Fiction

And though this one also includes The Road, I wouldn't give this list much credit... it also includes Thirteen Moons.

More best of...

And the Washington Post: Book World's 10 Best of the Year

At least this one has The Road.

NYTBR Best Books

I feel obligated to pass this along: NYTBR The 10 Best Books of 2006.

And... I haven't read a one. Yet.

My Other Life

Sometimes the real world catches up with you. It's the day job. I'm working like mad and too busy at work to even try to catch up with the literary world. Unfortunately i tlooks like I'm missing a good debate on bloggers' book reviews, on which I will have to comment at some point.

It is unfortunate that my time limits me from giving a more thoughtful analysis of things (if that's even possible through this medium), especially after I've started sending out the weekly newsletter.

I hope you'll stick with me during this busy season. I usually get a little loopy when I'm tired, so things could get interesting.

Killer Bookcase

The fun/sadness is in the story itself: Bookcase 'trap' killed US woman

The body of a missing US woman has been found by her family, wedged upside down behind a bookcase in her room.
Mariesa Weber, 38, is believed to have fallen over and become trapped as she tried to reach behind the bookcase to adjust the plug for a TV set.
[...]
Her body was eventually discovered when her sister noticed a foot protruding behind the bookcase in her bedroom.
"I'm sleeping in the same house as her for 11 days, looking for her. And she's right in the bedroom," the woman's mother, Connie Weber, told the St Petersburg Times newspaper.
The family told the newspaper they had noticed a strange smell from her room but had blamed it on rats.

(via Bookninja)

NYT Notable Books of 2006

So, the NYT has picked it's notable books of the year and of course there are some good ones on the list:
ABSURDISTAN. By Gary Shteyngart.
AGAINST THE DAY. By Thomas Pynchon.
THE COLLECTED STORIES OF AMY HEMPEL.
THE DEAD FISH MUSEUM. By Charles D'Ambrosio.
THE ECHO MAKER. By Richard Powers.
EVERYMAN. By Philip Roth.
GALLATIN CANYON: Stories. By Thomas McGuane.
HIGH LONESOME: New & Selected Stories, 1966-2006. By Joyce Carol Oates.
THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS. By Kiran Desai.
THE LAY OF THE LAND. By Richard Ford.
ONLY REVOLUTIONS. By Mark Z. Danielewski.
THE ROAD. By Cormac McCarthy.
TERRORIST. By John Updike.
TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES. By Deborah Eisenberg.
READING LIKE A WRITER: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. By Francine Prose.

Of the list, fiction and non-fiction, I've only read four. That's probably more than I did last year.

My congressman, the jackass

Tancredo calls Miami "a third-world country" Denver Post

Rejection Collection - AGNI

Now, this has to be the quickest turn around I've ever seen out of a lit journal. I sent out my story "Resting" to them on the 14th of this month and on the 24th I received this kind rejection from AGNI. Now, what I appreciate about this one, besides the turnaround, is the enticement to purchase a subscription and discount rate for submitters. Good idea. What doesn't work is that they put the form on the back of the rejection. Don't they realize that I'm putting this in the fat file with all the others?

Vacation Filler: The Black Angels

I just love coming across new music. Today, it's Austin's The Black Keys. Enjoy.

What I'm Thankful For

When in doubt, just write.

It is funny that we occasionally need to be reminded of some of the basic tenets of writing.

I found myself over the weekend at a point in “the project” where I knew what was to take place in the present action, but I needed to inform the reader about things from the character’s past that has put him in the current position and made him who he is in the present action. The trouble was that I couldn’t think of one specific event I could use, something that he might remember that would really explain things. I thought I was blocked.

I had the first sentence of the scene written but was afraid to put anything else down until I knew where I was going, So, I put myself through a free-writing exercise, putting down on paper some of the things I had been keeping in my head about him. What I wound up with was only more generalities, no specifics. I had the concepts for what changed him, but still nothing concrete I could use.

I decided to go on with the present action. If I needed to come in and put in another scene later, I would. What I found, though, (and here’s where we get back to basics) was that the thing wrote itself. I didn’t need to say “okay, I need to throw in this specific scene where his father ignores him,” or some such thing. Instead, many little mini-scenes appeared, little bits of action or images along with the character’s opinions of the past. This told more about what he’d been through and where he was than any contrived scene would have.

And so I’m reminded of a couple things that even the silliest of writing books tell us. First, contrivance is what it is and will appear as much on the page, and it is right to be reluctant to do it. And of course, just write. Keep at it. Have faith that you’ll sort out what needs it, either through the course of writing or during the writing. A familiar pearl of wisdom, I understand, but sometimes we need to be reminded.

This week in politics for November 17

Everything seems pretty mundane after last week

• You know there’s not a lot happening when this is your headline: Ark. governor defends gift registries
• Recent Republican scandals make being a racist seem benign, so Lott bids for return to Senate leadership. And of course, Trent Lott Wins Back Senate Leadership Slot
• Dems elect the first female speaker of the house ever: House Democrats name Pelosi speaker
• Everyone is trying to make something out of the leadership fight between John Murtha and Steny Hoyer, but I don’t know why: Democrats Elect Hoyer As New Majority Leader
• Carville slams Dean (never mind that he orchestrated a huge win) and again I don’t know why: Democrats Revert to Finger-Pointing
• Seeing the writing on the wall for the new congress, White House resubmits 6 court nominees
• As further proof that Republicans learned nothing from the election, Boehner, Blunt Win House GOP Leader Jobs
• Nice: “The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women."” Bush Choice for Family-Planning Post Criticized

Almost like we could breathe easy for a moment.

Rejection Update

A little late, but I sent out more submissions this week in order to catch those lit journals with a limited reading period. So, the numbers: of the batch of 25 sent in August, 7 remain in circulation. The new batch, including a new, hopefully faster-paced story to Northwest Review, goes out to 18 different journals. As of today, there are 25 submissions floating around out there.

Cross your fingers.

On NaNoWriMo

It is easy to get protective over something we do, that we feel is special, requires a certain amount of talent, skill, and a shit-load of hard work. So, it may feel natural to react negatively to a bunch of amateurs giving it a go and patting themselves on the back the whole way. Such is the world of National Novel Writing Month, and the accompanying attitude of those with a bit more concern about the quality of work than about total word count. Yes, I admit that I can't help but resent someone who's never even written a short story banging out over 1500 words a day. I wish I could do that. But my resentment ends there.

I have to think that NaNoWriMo weeds out a lot of would-be writers. It's one month of make-it-or-break-it writing. Like a jaded writing teacher, I want them to learn that it's damn hard work and if they're not cut out for it, better they learn now. But the whole idea is about encouragement, a healthy challenge among writers. That sounds to me like a good thing.

For more on the NaNoWriMo discussion: The Millions, Shaken & Stirred, Counterbalance, Mark Leahy at MetaxuCafe.

'The Echo Maker' Wins National Book Award.

National Book Award: 'The Echo Maker'

Damnit! Behind the curve again.

Another one to add to my reading list.

Note: Ed Champion rounds-up the Richard Powers web/press chatter.

Book Review: Housekeeping

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

This book kept coming to me, referenced with other books I've been enjoying this year and might prove inspirational for my current project, including Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone. Woodrell and Robinson share the same agent, which also pushed the novel in my direction.

I did not immediately like the book. A family history is delivered in a very distracted, detached way. It takes some time before we ever feel the narrator's feelings, but still her descriptions, her narration amount to little else than a description of activities and observations of the actions of others. It isn't really until the second half of the novel and the arrival of Sylvie that the novel begins to take off. And it ascends from there.

The book takes on a style that is nearly fantastical, where the reader cannot always find the barrier between reality and imagination. All scenes come to us nearly like a mystical trance. And these pages make for all the earlier faults.

I'd read the excerpt of her second novel Gilead when it appeared in the New Yorker and I was actually annoyed by it, peeved by the necessary religiosity and epistolary style of it. Now, though, I may have to give it a try.

Rejection Collection - Northwest Review

Now, here's the kind I like to see. This one came in the mail today from Northwest Review for my story "Resting." The personal note says,"You're a good writer, but this story is too slow-moving. Les is a bit of a cipher as well. Thanks. Try again?" Now, I could be sensitive about the criticism here, but I have no doubt that it really was too slow-moving for them. Also, Les really is a bit of a cipher. The thing is that this is a rejection. The bad news is what it's all about. So, what I'm reading it for is the good news: acknowledgement of my ability and a bit of encouragement. If only all the rejections were this encouraging. I'll send them another story tomorrow.

This week in politics for November 10

Quite a week. The victories keep coming.

• On Monday, military publications’ editorials pronounce “Rumsfeld Must Go” (Military Times).
• After polling trouble across the country, the reports came in Tuesday night: Democrats Take Control of U.S. House for First Time in 12 Years
• Then after a thumping on Tuesday, Bush announces on Wednesday (never mind that he swore/lied last week that he would keep him,: Rumsfeld resigns as secretary of defense
• So, reaching back to one of his Daddy’s guys, Bush tabs Gates for defense secretary
• On Thursday, finally, after throwing the football around a little bit, Virginia Sen. Allen concedes defeat
• So, that means Democrats control both houses after Virginia win
• Proving accountability for errors exists, Mehlman to step down from RNC post
• No kidding? Elections may shift U.S. Iraq war policy
• Remember Bush’s recess appointment of the UN ambassador? Dems say that ain’t gonna work: Bolton unlikely to win Senate approval
• Couldn’t wait a week, could he? Iowa Gov. Vilsack running for president
• Elsewhere, Saddam is guilty and sentenced to hang, meanwhile the reaction is what you’d expect: In a Divided Iraq, Reaction to Saddam Death Sentence Conforms to Sectarian Lines
• A government website meant to bolster the excuses for invading Iraq by showcasing documents that proved they were prepared to build a nuclear weapon (never mind that these were from before the first Gulf War) actually gave the plans on how to build a bomb: U.S. shutters site with Saddam-era files

I think I need another week, just to recover.

Richard Ford Interviews and Reviews for 'Lay of the Land'

Denver Post - Back with Frank Bascombe at the Jersey Shore
Denver Post (interview) - Richard Ford on writing
NPR - Richard Ford's 'The Lay of the Land'
NPR (again) - Getting Ford's 'Lay of the Land'
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - 'The Lay of the Land' by Richard Ford
The Independent - The Lay of the Land, by Richard Ford BLOOMSBURY £17.99
Bloomberg - Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe Plunges Amiably Into Middle Age
Mediabistro.com - Richard Ford: still a Jersey Boy after all these years
Oregonlive.com - Facts about Richard Ford:
Wall Street Journal - Richard Ford on Fictional Realism
Slate - Richard Ford's third Bascombe novel.
Baltimore Sun - The details of daily life - maybe to excess
Washington Post - Third Quarter
Newsday - Living the SUV life on the Jersey shore
The Age - The fiction writer
NY Times - A New Jersey State of Mind
NY Observer - And Now It’s a Trilogy
Globe and Mail - Everyman in autumn
Seattle Post Intelligencer - Ford is frank about ending Bascombe series
USA Today - Ford's 'Land' is difficult to survey
NY Times (Kakutani) - Lay of the Land
NY Daily News - The author of 'The Sportswriter' returns to familiar interior ...
NY Times (Scott) - Intimations of Mortality
Toronto Star - Ford lets Frank drift

Like I’m really going to read all of these. I really only suggest the first two because their local and written by David Milofsky.

I will, though, be tackling this book next…I think.

A Thumpin'

Ah, victories abound.

Of course, I came into work yesterday and got a thumpin' as well, so no posts, no time for the good analysis this whole thing deserves. I'll get there.

In the meantime, celebration is necessary.

I voted...

...did you?

Publishers Weekly best of 2006

Not even December yet, but Publishers Weekly thinks they know the best books of the year already (via Bookslut).
The only fiction on the list that I've read: The Road.

Book Review: Reading Like a Writer

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

Writing books are usually about as useful as a writing workshop. Some information is helpful and other can be dismissed. Francine Prose, in Reading Like a Writer, spends less time on advising writers how to write than she does on telling them how to read.

I could certainly provide many clearly articulated words of wisdom from Prose here, but what you'd miss is how she takes extended excerpts of other texts and explicates them, looking at everything including the smallest word choice or gesture.

I've never read Prose's fiction, but if she puts as much care/work into writing as she does reading, then I'm sure it's worthy of all the praise it receives. I will tell you that I'm now planning to go back and read again everything by Chekhov.

Used vs. New

There's nothing in the world like a library book sale. I had the pleasure and luxury of going to one twice last weekend. Once when hardbacks were $2 and paperbacks were $1, then again on the last day when a bag stuffed full of books was only $4. I know, I know, I should be supporting publishers and authors by purchasing new books, but it also makes me a little sad to see a really good book out on the table along with twenty dusty copies of really bad popular books. I came home with over forty books and part of me wonders why I would ever go to a book store again.

As much as I love used books, I have never bought as many new, hardcover books as I have this year (D'ambrosio, Woodrell, McCarthy, Ford, and more). And not just as gifts. I'm more than pleased to help out their numbers and shell out the money for books I'm dying to read. When books get a little older, I wonder why I should being paying full price for a book that's been sitting there on the shelf for a couple of years or more when I can go to a book sale or used bookseller and pick up the same book at a considerable discount.

I have always loved used book stores. Dark aisles, shelves crammed with books. I'm always looking for the rarity, the special first edition or out of print book I can't find elsewhere. And then there are classics, public domain books or not, in mass-market size that I really should own and read. How can I rationalize paying full-price for these?

I don't really think I can take a side on this. I'm cheap and I love a good bargain, but I want to support authors and the industry. So, if I want To the Lighthouse, I'll look for it used, and if I want the next Litblog Co-op pick (I'm particularly interested in Sidney Thompson's collection Sideshow), I'll buy new.

Introducing the Satoriworks Blog Newsletter

If you're too busy to come 'round to the blog during the week, I thought I'd put together a weekly email newsletter that might catch you up with what has caught my attention or what I thought was worth mentioning. It's scheduled to go out every Friday afternoon. There's a sign-up field over on the right for those interested. I've gone ahead and plumbed my ages-old address book to compose the mailing list for the newsletter, so if you get it and you're not interested there is a little "unsubscribe" link down at the bottom of the email. I do encourage you to come by, leave a comment or two, argue or contradict me, tell me I'm full of it.

Release the spiders

On the self-promotion kick:
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This week in politics for November 3

• Not important, but interesting anyway: N.Y. Post Endorses Sen. Clinton
• Some will take this as good news, but it would require dropping the cowboy posturing: Pyongyang to Return to Nuclear Talks
• Despite a joint release over the weekend, the disconnect with the new Iraq government continues: Iraq Checkpoint Showdown
• Cranking up the rhetoric, Bush Says 'America Loses' Under Democrats. Next it’ll be ‘Dems must die.’
• The Republican Sound Machine was fired up this week about pretty innocuous comments by Kerry, "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." He meant to insult Bush’s lack of smarts, but they’re spinning it as an attack on the troops: White House Spokesman Slams Kerry Remark. Dems in tight races would be smart to agree with the White House angle and diffuse the fight. On Wednesday, Kerry finally got around to apologizing, but don’t look for it to change the discussion.
• Senator Allen’s troubles continue as the liberal blogger at Calling All Wingnuts was physically subdued (re: chokehold, wrestled to the ground) by Allen staffers after asking the Senator, “Why did you spit at your first wife, George?" : Heckler subdued at Sen. Allen event
• No surprise: Scientists say White House muzzled them
• Just to ensure that you’ve lost your faith in the process, HBO presents Hacking Democracy.
• I don’t know that this will have any effect on elections, but at least here it has quieted the “botched joke” talk: Evangelist steps down amid gay sex claim
• Back to legitimate scandals, Republican Don Sherwood running for reelection is being not only accused of choking his mistress, but then paying her off as well: Rep. paying ex-mistress about $500K
• As if we really expected them to come back with anything before the election, the ethics panel investigating the handling of the Foley mess will not report until after the election: No ethics panel report before election
• And watch for everyone to try to make political hay out of the expected verdict this weekend in the Saddam Hussein trial: Iraq on alert ahead of Saddam verdict

Sylvia Plath's Ennui

I'm a little late in getting around to this, but Blackbird has posted a previously undiscovered Sylvia Plath poem titled "Ennui." I'll leave it to someone else to analyse it, but the website provides quite a bit of perifery information.

R.I.P. William Styron

Novelist William Styron dies at 81
William Styron, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Confessions of Nat Turner" and other novels whose explorations of the darkest corners of the human mind and experience were charged by his own near-suicidal demons, died Wednesday. He was 81.

I haven't had the chance to read Styron, though Nat Turner has had a place on my to read list for some time. After the description above, I'm much more inclined to give it a read.

Rejection Collection - Black Warrior Review

"...Best of luck," said Black Warrior Review on this rejection for my story "The Auction." Not much to say about this one--except I'm a little suspect about the honest use of word "regret."

Husbandly/Workly Duties

Usually Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. Leaves skittering. Haunted houses. Scary election ads. A combination of work and home duties have kept my well occupied and somewhat disabled my ability to enjoy these last few days. And have certainly lowered blogging as a priority.

Well, it's November and NaNoWriMo. Anybody participating? What I would give to do it. Seeing as I'm about 35k words into my current "project" I'm not about to set it aside to start something new. I hope to use some of the NaNoWriMo mojo to up my weekly word count and help set a routine that I can keep up. Sometimes the last thing I want to do is think.

Book Review: Everyman

Everyman by Philip Roth

Maybe I’m being too analytical, or maybe I’m revisiting my graduate school classes, but I read Philip Roth’s Everyman as some sort of companion piece to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. They couldn’t be farther apart in style or subject matter, but still, somehow, the themes are the same. They both concern the oncoming, unavoidable death. The men of both novels know that it is coming, that it is only a matter of time, but they both want desperately to stave off the event. The nameless man of The Road wants both to save his son and take him with him when he goes. In Everyman, the protagonist wants the security of his daughter’s company while also wants to spare her from witnessing the ravages of old age.

Everyman is a short book that skips all the details and exemplifying that could have made it a full-length and maybe more fulfilling novel. We are simply given his feelings, his thoughts. In this way, it is a very superficial book. Our theme overall may be dark, but Roth doesn’t delve into it in any way that illuminates the idea. It seems to me it is a book about old age written by a man who feels himself growing older but has yet not discovered the way to express the wealth of fear and the rapid changes aging brings.

This week in politics for October 27

Coming elections require that all rhetoric is heated and not to be trusted and all news is "timely."

• Sometimes I think they float these things just for the fun of it: Rising star Obama weighs White House run
• As if things are good now, GOP losses could spark partisan warfare
• I wonder how much they had to pay a 69-year-old priest living in Malta to confess to “only fondling” Rep. Mark Foley: Fla. church probes priest tied to Foley
• Be prepared for the losers in these elections to claim voter fraud because of Electronic Voting Machines—some of them will be right: Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections
• Because there are so few, President Bush Meets with Organizations that Support the United States Military in Iraq and Afghanistan
• After taking months of abuse for this, Bush Abandons Phrase 'Stay the Course' on Iraq
• Because the press is really to blame for everything that’s going wrong in Iraq, Lawmaker faults CNN for sniper video
• Rush, as per usual, gets to the heart of the matter by accusing Michael J. Fox of exaggerating Parkinson’s symptoms in ads supporting stem cell research: Limbaugh on the Offensive
• Some back and forth over Iraq reveals fundamental trouble. First, US Generals announced “benchmarks,” better known as timetables, for the Iraqi government to control violence (General May Call for Increase in U.S. Troop Levels in Baghdad ). Then the Iraqi prime minister said, no, no—we’re a sovereign nation and no one’s making us do anything (Iraqi Leader Disavows U.S. Timetable). Then the President had to come out in a surprise press conference to find the middle ground, but really just wound up depressing everyone (Bush Offers Sobering Assessment on Iraq ).
• The hot button issue for the week involves a ruling by the NJ Supreme Court on the issue of gay marriage: New Jersey takes step toward same-sex marriages. And the NY Times puts some perspective on it: G.O.P. Moves Fast to Reignite Issue of Gay Marriage
• Oh, and to those writers who might consider running for political office someday, what you write WILL be used against you. Just ask Jim Webb: Webb on sex passage recital: 'It's smear after smear'

Richard Ford Reading

Why does one go to an author reading? Is it to brush fame, even if it is only an author, Pulitzer-prize winning or not, who would likely not even be recognized on the street by you or anyone else? Is it because we seek inspiration, as if the audience was full of writers seeking something, anything that might aid their craft or make the artistic process any bit easier? Or is because, as lovers of literature, we seek information and understanding of the creator of works we cherish? Oh, that sounds mightily grand, that last one, and it might be true for some, but I'm pretty sure it's a combination of the three that took me to the Tattered Cover last night to see Richard Ford. He is probably one of the most important living writers and it would foolish of me not to go to his appearance. It is almost as if I owe him my presence, another filled seat, because his writing has been so important to me--never mind those things I said about Independence Day. After all of this there is little wonder that I couldn't muster the excitement to go see Bret Easton Ellis last month.

Ford's reading was inspirational. It was enjoyable to hear him read, particularly because he read a section of his new novel The Lay of The Land that had been excerpted in the New Yorker. Ford is funny. Or should I say, his character Frank Bascombe is funny. To hear Ford read it really brought out the humor, along with the exasperated cynicism. What was more inspirational was his ability to answer audience questions with thorough and honest answers. He said that young authors should not be afraid to fill their novels with everything they can do. The writer's whole wealth of knowledge should be allowed into the book. This is important, but it leads, I think, to a problem that I think Ford has of putting everything into a novel and walking away quite empty. It probably leads to some of the problems that Michiko Kakutani sees with the novel.

And, of course, it was good to brush fame, to shake the man's hand and share a few words.

Ford's new novel gets the Michiko treatment

Today's NYTimes features a review of Richard Ford's Lay of the Land by the grumpy Michiko Kakutani. Does this woman actually like anything?

This novel showcases many of Mr. Ford’s gifts: his ability to capture the nubby, variegated texture of ordinary life; his unerring ear for how ordinary people talk; his talent for conjuring up subsidiary characters with a handful of brilliant brushstrokes. But it is a padded, static production, far more overstuffed with unnecessary asides and digressions than its predecessors. Nearly every minute of these three days in Frank’s life is chronicled in this nearly 500-page volume, which means that the reader has to hear about every time he needs to visit the men’s room, every time he gets in his car, every time he has a phone conversation.

I'm going to buy the book just to spite her.

"Pull over and ask for directions"

What would we do without Keith Olbermann? When this guy made the move from sports, I gave him no credit, but now he is the only loud and still reasonable voice in the morass of media talking heads. And last night he gets it right again. Referring to the "threat" to blow up football stadiums last weekend:

Mr. Bush, this is the—what? – 100th plot your people have revealed, that turned out to be some nonsensical misunderstanding, or the fabrications of somebody hoping to talk his way off a water board in Eastern Europe?
If, Mr. President, this is the kind of crack work that your new ad implies that only you and not the Democrats can do, you, sir, need to pull over and ask for directions.

Good work, Keith. Keep it up.

Book Review: The Road

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

By now we all know that Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a disturbing post-apocalyptic novel centered around an unnamed man and his son and their struggle for survival. As was expected, many things in the novel are horrific yet described with McCarthy’s ability to see beauty in the grotesque (it is this fact, by the way, that makes me see him as more of Southern writer than a Western one). Most of these things are known about the novel by reading the first paragraph of the many, many reviews, but none of these things have anything to do with what makes the novel good or bad to me.

I recently read A Farewell to Arms and in many ways I was reminded of the war sections of that book while reading The Road. Not only are we looking at, in both, the ability of man to persevere even when all hope is gone, but one scene in The Road of the man considering hiding out in a barn seemed so reminiscent of a similar scene in A Farewell to Arms that I had to read it as some sort of tribute. Also we could look at the one image of hope in McCarthy’s novel as also taken from Hemingway, as Jennifer Egan notes in her essay “Men at Work” from Slate.com.

The comparisons to Hemingway end there. The language of The Road may be verbose, more descriptive, but this is much bleaker than anything I’ve read by Hemingway. McCarthy, through repetitive struggles, similar scenes and the perpetual ash, pushes the reader into feeling some of the hopelessness felt by his characters. The lack of chapter breaks in the novel also helps to force us along. I made the mistake of often reading the book before bed and I fell asleep then with the images of burn and barren, ash-covered landscapes and the feeling that someone was always behind me, following, just out of sight.

If we measure a book by its staying power, the way it continues to haunt and linger, The Road surpasses many other books. If I’m asked, though, whether I “like” the book, I might not be able to answer convincingly in the affirmative.

Rejection Collection - Santa Monica Review

Despite its hand-cut, standard paper format, this rejection received last week from Santa Monica Review for my story "The Disguise" is one of the best worded rejections I've seen. It may be a form-letter, but they are really trying not to make me feel bad. In case the picture resolutions is bad, here's the full text:

Dear Writer,

We don't know of anyone who hasn't had work returned at one time or another, but that certainly doesn't make it any easier. We hope you will find some consolation in the individuality of editorial tastes and in the assurance that, with persistence, good work will be recognized as such.

Thank you for trying us.

Ah, so nice, but what really says is that there's no accounting for taste, and if your story's good someone, somewhere will like it. Thanks.

This (shortened) week in politics for October 18

A long weekend means a shortened week, so the items of note this week:

• Election season is scandal and probe season: Weldon faces probe on daughter's deals
• How does an elected official plead guilty of crimes directly related to his elected position and not resign that same day? Ney pleads guilty, says he'll resign
• How does the White House spokesman get away with campaigning for Republicans? Bush’s Press Secretary Is Raising Money, and Some Eyebrows
• This may be the headline, but let’s remember that the Republican opponent is also the Ohio Secretary of State (the one who guaranteed Ohio for Bush and delivered in 2004) and governs elections: Democrat leads in Ohio governor's race
• I can’t even begin to go into all that is wrong with this: Bush Signs New Rules to Prosecute Terror Suspects
• Former staffer for the White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives (don’t get me started on what’s wrong with that in general) has come out with a book claiming that the White House was only looking to take advantage of Christian voters: Kuo: White House 'Seduces Christians'
• The undersell continues with a slew of pundits claiming a potential GOP loss in one or both houses, but beware—this is how they do it. Just ask Bush and Rove: White House Upbeat About GOP: Self-Assurance of Bush, Rove and Others Is Not Shared by Many in the Party

My Congressman Is Number Six

Rolling Stone has published a list of the 10 Worst Congressmen (link via Political Wire) and Tom Tancredo is number six on the list. Also from Colorado is Marilyn Musgrave. But it could be worse; I have a friend who works for number three.

The list:

1. Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
2. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI)
3. Don Young (R-AK)
4. William Jefferson (D-LA)
5. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
6. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)
7. Dick Pombo (R-CA)
8. Curt Weldon (R-PA)
9. Hal Rogers (R-KY)
10. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)

Rejection Collection - Crazyhorse

I don't know why I couldn't get the image bigger here, but this has to be one of my favorites. This one, on a 8 1/2" card, from Crazyhorse, rejecting my story "The Auction," came Monday. The best part is this phrase, "we would like to reassure you that your work was read by the individual editor in your genre," followed by an apology for the delay. I think this is incredible generous. You can sense their earnestness. And of course they smartly get in a plug for a contest as well.
NOTE: The current issue has a story by Steven Schwartz that I'll have to buy the issue to read.

It wasn't me, I swear

I know it's a few days old, but every time I see it I giggle:

Man allegedly climbs White House fence
Around 6:30 p.m. EDT, Alexis Janicki, 24, jumped the fence, said Secret Service spokeswoman Kim Bruce. He was immediately apprehended by the Secret Service uniformed division and taken into custody.

Let me tell you, late at night, that fence doesn't look too high.

Rejection Collection - North Dakota Quarterly

Another rejection slip, this one from North Dakota Quarterly for my story "This Is What He Does," claiming that they are not accepting new fiction. I always wonder if this is a cover. I assume they didn't read it all, but maybe this is just a way of rejecting and trying not to make me feel bad. Either way, the slip is not too impressive, especially with the cockeyed sticker covering up the original address.

New Yorker fiction: Joyce Carol Oates’s “Landfill”

Every week, the New Yorker publishes a high-profile piece of short fiction, and I would like to say I read them all. I don’t. Not yet. But I am always curious about the stories that get published. So what follows here is my first attempt to look critically at one of the stories published in the last few weeks.

New Yorker fiction: Joyce Carol Oates’s “Landfill”

I could put aside the ripped-from-the-headlines aspect of this story except that it is told (at least the first half or so) in a reportage style. We have facts, laid upon fact, laid upon speculation. We are given no scenes and no real dialogue until late in the story. At the halfway point I was still waiting for the story to start.

Oates is a very talented writer and I have no reason to think that she slapped this one together and the New Yorker printed it on her name alone (although we could spend much more time on how the New Yorker does choose its stories). We get some impressions from the dead son, more memorable ones from his college roommates, but the story really belongs to his mother, Mrs. Campos. During the three weeks before they find her son’s body, she is doing her best to hold onto hope, despite the look on her husband’s face and despite the fact that she knows better. The story begins to move here and we understand her struggle, though Oates dues burden the reader with the all the hopes and fears she had for her son.

What makes the story work, really click, and sustain in memory is the image, the desire and hope in the last paragraph:

Unconsciously caressing her left breast, holding her left breast in her right hand—how like a sac of warm water it is, or warm milk—and, on the brink of a dream of surpassing beauty and tenderness, Mrs. Campos shuts her eyes. Why does Mr. Campos never caress her breasts anymore? Why does Mr. Campos never suck her nipples anymore? Mrs. Campos runs her thumb over the large soft nipple, stirring it to hardness, like a little berry. She is driving back from the city, driving back from ugly Detroit to Whispering Woods Estates, such joy, such pride, turning into the brick-gated subdivision off Southfield Road, making her way floating along Pheasant Pass, Larkspur Drive, Bluebell Lane, and, at last, to Quail Circle, where, in the gleaming-white Colonial at No. 23, the Campos family lives.

Her loss makes her aware of her own desire, her need for love. Then Oates follows up, with contrast, by “floating” back into the fact-laden reporting.

I have much too much respect for Oates to be let down by a story, to say that it’s not a very good story, but I didn’t really appreciate it as much as I would have liked. Leave it to that ending though to explain why I am still thinking about it.

This week in politics for October 13

• The North Korean nuke test is the big news at the beginning of the week. Everyone is pointing fingers in every which direction for who is to blame for letting the crazies get the bomb. Meanwhile Bush has to try and walk the thin diplomatic line (while still failing to pronounce “nuclear” correctly): Bush comments on N. Korea nuclear test
• A press conference on Wednesday proved nobody bother to correct the President’s pronunciation: Press Conference by the President
• Polls continue to show Republican hopes of maintaining control of the house and senate fading: Democrats' Momentum Mounts
• Last Friday, this one slid under the door: The top aide to Karl Rove, Susan Ralston, who is also former top assistant to convicted criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff. She is supposedly leaving under questions of exceeding personal gift limits, but she was also the one who was hiding the number of contacts Abramoff and his associates had with the White House. I think there’s more there as well, but we’ll likely not learn about it until after the election: White House aide to Rove resigns
• Remember the thing about Sandy Berger stuffing classified documents down his pants? Well, the GOP wants to be sure that they’re not the only one subject to scandals and probes: GOP leaders seek probe of Berger papers
• Aide to Arlen Specter (R-PA) is being investigated for earmarking legislation for her lobbyist husband. How this doesn’t implicate Specter I don’t know: Specter: FBI investigating senate aide
• Dirty Harry Reid (D-NV) is tied up in a questionable land deal; my defense for Reid: it’s how things are done in Nevada: AP: Reid got $1 million in land sale
• Another Abramoff related item, Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) is expected to plead guilty to taking bribes: Abramoff figure Rep. Ney to plead guilty
• And in what will be depressing news for many Democrats, former Virginia Governor Mark Warner has decided not to run in the 2008 presidential election. If he’s opted out this early, I think there’s more than likely a good (scandalous) reason: Warner Decides Not to Run for President
• Finally, just so you don’t think we’ve forgotten about a good scandal, the House Ethics Committee continues to interview pages (Ex-Aide to Foley Testifies of Warning Speaker’s Office) and the President has come to the aid of embattled Speaker Hastert (Bush Joins Hastert at Rally, and Lavishes the Praise).

'Only Revolutions' up for National Book Award

And the litblog community cheered.

I did pause to look at the book while in DC at Politics and Prose, and it is a beautiful book with different colors in the text, the bits upside down, and the different colors of the eyes on the front and back covers. And the website is equally stunning. And then after hearing Danielewski interviewed on Bookworm, the guy is much too smart.

And, damnit, I'll add this one to the reading list as well.

Author of 'Snow,' Orhan Pamuk wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Those activist judges:

Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk wins Nobel
The selection of Pamuk, whose recent trial for "insulting Turkishness" raised concerns about free speech in Turkey, continues a trend among Nobel judges of picking writers in conflict with their own governments.

Damn, another book to add to my reading list.

Joyce Carol Oates's New Yorker story upsets some

This one sits waiting to be read on my reading table.

Criticism for Joyce Carol Oates
A New Jersey college has called Joyce Carol Oates insensitive, saying that her latest short story, published in the Oct. 9 issue of The New Yorker, resembles the true story of John A. Fiocco Jr., a 19-year-old freshman at the College of New Jersey whose body was found in a landfill in April. Her story, "Landfill," is the tale of a Michigan State University student, Hector Campos Jr., who is forced down a trash chute in a fraternity house and later found dead in a landfill.

"Insensitive?" Using real-world stories for fiction is far from unusual, and I suppose I understand how it might upset some to read a story about a death that resembles a real-life incident, but it is fiction and what requirement is there for a writer to be "sensitive?"

Desai's 'Inheritance of Loss' Wins Man Booker Prize

As if you didn't have enough reason to read this book:

Kiran Desai wins Man Booker Prize
Kiran Desai won the Man Booker Prize for "The Inheritance of Loss", her book
about the difficulties of life in post-colonial India and as an illegal
immigrant, the prize committee announced.

I guess I better finally add this one to my reading list.

Book Review: A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Setting off on these classics sets me up for a let down. How is a book likely to live up to all that's been said about it? And then I wonder if I'm likely to not like it simply because so many others have. The book read almost like a caricature of Hemingway, as if a certain style was expected of him, so he fulfilled it. Oh, all this ability was there was well. Most of the story was told with what wasn't said. And what is said beyond the dry simple sentence, simple descriptions, events, even emotions, stands out dramatically. When there is a flurry of emotion and confession we understand tat what is being felt is ten times greater than what is on the page. We are set up for tragedy when their love comes off so strong and practically unhealthy. I thought for sure they were bound for some Raymond Carver-style tragedy, instead we are given a nearly classical tragedy. I can't help but wonder when a story ends like this one about the lessons learned. If he is only to grow more cynical and hateful after this, is that enough? Great heights bring corresponding lows; we must expect that. And what else was he likely to take away? Did I expect him to go back to the bar, order another dozen demi-blondes and sort things out for us on the page? Could we really see him finding hope in all of this? He wasn't a really hopeful sort to begin with. It's not that I disliked the book, but I wonder that because we were set up with the extremes of love, the subsequent violence of war, then the ending is sort of the simplest one possible. Would we accept such an ending these days? Do we not want more from what we read now than we might have then? Maybe a book with such a simple and tragic ending was so stunning in comparison with what was being published at the time. I just do not thin would laud the book in the same way if it was published today.

This week in politics

I just can’t give it up—I’m addicted to politics. The truth is that it gets so damn ugly that we try and ignore it. And the media itself can be so repulsive that we don’t want to pay attention. So, here’s my attempt to distill the week’s events into what’s really important (from my point of view):

• The Mark Foley Scandal is front and center this week and managing to creep everybody out. The congressman resigned last Friday after being confronted by ABC News’s Brian Ross about (let’s say) inappropriate behavior with teenage Capitol Hill pages: Foley Resigns Over Sexually Explicit Messages to Minors
• And do we really think alcohol was to blame? Foley Lawyer Cites Alcohol, Childhood Abuse
• While Speaker Denny Hastert knew early and did nothing and now the conservative Washington Times is asking for his resignation: Resign, Mr. Speaker
• And Denny wants to blame it all on the Dems and Big Media: Hastert defiant in page scandal
• And who thinks this has to do with him being gay? The Wall Street Journal: Paging Mr. Hastert: Could a gay Congressman be quarantined?
• On Wednesday, an ex-aide to Foley, and current aide to another top Republican, resigned and pointed fingers back and Denny, saying he told: Ex-page says he got messages from Foley
• Woodward’s book continues to stir them up while the book soars up the charts. And one of the strongest charges, that CIA chief Tenet met with Condeleeza Rice to let her know of the immediate threat from Al Qaida two months before the 9/11 attacks, turns out to be true: State Department confirms Rice met with Tenet; disputes terrorist threat information
• And the domestic spying program gets a court pass for now: Court temporarily OKs domestic spying
• Bush signed a bill that gave $1.2 billion to build a border fence: Bush signs homeland security bill
• And according to Bush we will all burn in hell-fire unless we vote Republican: Bush ties campaign to national security

Okay, you can wipe the slime off now.

Rejection Collection - North American Review

Simple and to the point, this rejection from North American Review for my story "The Auction" serves its function without much other noise. What I really appreciated was that they sent a card to acknowledge receipt of the submission. At least I knew it was on somebody's desk and hopefully being read.

Stephen King on the 'Lost' bookclub

Stephen King has commented frequently on ABC's 'Lost' and the show's creators have cited him as an influence on the show, but on last night's season premier King makes an appearance--of sorts. In a bookclub meeting of the infamous 'others', they are debating the literary merit of Stephen King's Carrie. I can't find a transcript online yet, but the idea alone of a bookclub on an island...

Rejection Collection - Harpur Palate

This one from Harpur Palate rejecting my story "Deeann" came in the mail yesterday. Simple cut paper, no fancy card here. The best part is the sentence, "Because we know how much effort went into your submission, we regret the use of this form." Always nice to see a little understanding.

Oblomovshchina

Gary Shteyngart (Absurdistan) writes the back page essay in this weekend's NYTBR about Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov. I've been interested in this book ever since it was mentioned in Anna Kavan's story from Julia and The Bazooka "Out and Away" (the autobiographical narrator calls her husband by that name).

While Shteyngart's essay does little to encourage me to read the new translation, it does encourage me to read Gary Shteyngart, through bits like this:

Oblomov shrugs, but looks at me good-naturedly. “Take me as I am and love what is good in me!” he says, per the book.
“Don’t you see, good sir!” I say. “We are blessed to live in fascinating places in momentous times. You in 19th-century St. Petersburg, and I in early-21st-century New York. We should bestir from our beds and take heed of what surrounds us. In your day there are great thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Fyodor Dostoyevsky; in my day William Bennett and Condoleezza Rice.”

Rejection Collection - Minnesota Review

I favor the little stiff cards and a little color over the dry, full-sheet form letter, but this one from The Minnesota Review for my story "The Disguise" manages not only a kindly worded rejection but also a strong subscription push. I don't give this one much for aesthetic merit , though.

On Bob Woodward's 'State of Denial'

It is certainly something when a journalist who has championed President Bush and his administration puts out a book that reveals the President is lying to himself about the state of the war in Iraq and likely lying to the American people about it as well. Am I surprised? No. Do I think this book is aliable to tell us anything we didn't already know or believe? No. What, then, makes the release of this book significant? It is the largest sign of a changing tide that we've seen to date.

While I'd love to think a book could really turn national thinkiing about the war and the President, I don't hold out (much) hope for such a thing. Even if we were to say that one of the two journalist responsible for bringing down President Nixon is only cashing in on the turning sentiment towards the war, that is significant enough. That Woodward, or his publisher, would know that the public and the book-buying audience is likely to be extremely receptive to such a book tells me something.

It may be a sign and nothing more, but it is one that gives those of us who oppose this President and his foolish war some hope.

Book Review: The Bushwacked Piano

The Bushwacked Piano by Thomas McGuane

Sure, there was a lot of fire in the writing, but it didn't move me that much. It didn't really work well as a novel. Payne was a model character. There is something about these sort of flamboyant screw-ups. I just don't see the appeal. I like them okay as side characters. I can see that this might have been outstanding when it first came out. I can also see how I might have liked this when I was younger, but I expect more from novels now. But maybe I'm still reeling from Suttree.

Rejection Collection - Michigan Quarterly Review

Another personal note on this one from Michigan Quarterly Review for my story "This Is What He Does." I appreciate the personal touch, Laurence, but what does "Sorry!" mean? Does it mean that you liked the story? Or does it mean that you're sorry I wasted my time? Should I try sending another story?

New-old poem by Bob Frost

From the NY Times:

A previously unknown poem by Robert Frost (1874-1963) is to be published on Monday in The Virginia Quarterly Review. Found by a graduate student, Robert Stilling, in a collection of books and manuscripts bought by the University of Virginia, the 35-line poem, "War Thoughts at Home," was written in 1918, not long after Frost's friend and fellow poet Edward Thomas was killed in World War I. It deals with a woman who learns that her husband has died in combat. In the Virginia review it is accompanied by critical essays by Glyn Maxwell, poetry editor of The New Republic, and by Mr. Stilling.

Sounds like a another cheery one from our friend Bob.

Book Review: Suttree

Suttree by Cormac McCarthy

I've never read a novel so beautiful and so ugly at the same time. The conditions and events we experience are of a truly pitiful sort, by McCarthy relates them in a way that makes it wonderful read. Like frost on a dog turd. Sure, I probably should have read the thing with a dictionary at the ready because the language is at times beyond reach. At times it is so lyric so poetic and abstract that I wasn't really sure what was taking place. It probably would have been better to read at a slower pace, but it was still completely immersive. I've been haunted by this book for weeks, afraid to read anything else because I'm not sure that any other book will live up to this one.

Rejection Collection - Boston Review

Another nice, stock rejection, this one from Boston Review. Nothing handwritten this time. This was received 8/29/06 for a story called "Resting."

Reviews of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"

As we come close to the release of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the reviews are coming and getting me excited. Here's a round-up:

The Road Through Hell, Paved With Desperation by Janet Maslin in the New York Times:

“The Road” offers nothing in the way of escape or comfort. But its fearless wisdom is more indelible than reassurance could ever be.

On the Lost Highway: Cormac McCarthy sends a father and son on the scariest road trip he can imagine. Seat belts fastened? by Malcolm Jones in Newsweek:

One measure of a good writer is the ability to surprise. Terse, unsentimental, bleak—McCarthy’s readers have been down that road before. But who would ever have thought you’d call him touching?

The parable lacks a point: Cormac McCarthy leads readers through a 'godless' landscape by Earl L. Dachslager in the Houston Chronicle:

But if McCarthy's verbal eccentricities can sometimes cross over into self-indulgent blather, he nevertheless remains one of our great storytellers, a master of suspense and narrative power. ... But for a parable to succeed, it needs to have some clear point or message. The Road has neither, other than to say that after an earth-destroying event, things will go hard for the survivors.

Delving into post-apocalypse: A bleak novel by Cormac McCarthy has a father and son fighting to live in a world turned to ash by Allen Barra in the Philadelphia Enquirer:

The Road is about the bleakest book he has ever written, and that's saying something...The Road leaves you wondering why a writer capable of using discalced was drawn to material like this in the first place.

Unhappily ever after: In “The Road,” Cormac McCarthy imagines a savage end of the world by Steve Erickson in the LA Times:

One of McCarthy's best novels, probably his most moving and perhaps his most personal, "The Road" would be the ideal coda to a body of work that now spans 10 books over 40 years. But that would mean no more McCarthys, and no one could want that. Rather, we may hope he'll find more inspiration where "The Road" came from — it's dedicated to his son — even as the book wrenches our nightmares into a gray light where they don't vanish but become more vivid.

Barbarism rages in a Southwest seized by nuclear winter in Cormac McCarthy's fierce futuristic tale by Jerome Weeks in the Dallas Morning News:

In fact, Mr. McCarthy is perhaps our only writer to master William Faulkner's Southern Gothic, then Hemingway's wounded heroism, and now he has reached the bone-stark lyricism of Samuel Beckett....Along with any natural beauty, any salvation, what's gone in The Road is any humor (even Beckett laughs). What's left, besides the barest flicker of human community, is Mr. McCarthy's astonishing, pared-away language, the poetry of stones and cold sunsets.

This is the End by Chris Barsanti for popmatters.com:

Strangely, given the at-times unbearable harshness of the world he creates in The Road, McCarthy shows more of a heart in this book than he has for some time.

What comes after by David Hinckley in the NY Daily News:

If "The Road" is McCarthy's message of hope, you don't even want to think about what he'd write if he wanted to send a message of despair.

I'm on board.