I picked this up to see if I could make better sense of it in trade than in issues, which I’d read for a bit but given up on. I love the style of the I picked this up to see if I could make better sense of it in trade than in issues, which I’d read for a bit but given up on. I love the style of the art overall and the weird matriarchal apocalyptic Lovecraftian world here, but I have a hard time parsing the sequencing of some of the panels and at a certain point the story started to feel a bit convoluted. In the end, I just didn’t feel engaged enough emotionally to seek the next volume out, although if it fell in my lap I might read it.
Merged review:
I picked this up to see if I could make better sense of it in trade than in issues, which I’d read for a bit but given up on. I love the style of the art overall and the weird matriarchal apocalyptic Lovecraftian world here, but I have a hard time parsing the sequencing of some of the panels and at a certain point the story started to feel a bit convoluted. In the end, I just didn’t feel engaged enough emotionally to seek the next volume out, although if it fell in my lap I might read it....more
**spoiler alert** Edie Middlestein is a big, big woman. In her sixties, she’s eating herself past ill health and into serious territory, the territory**spoiler alert** Edie Middlestein is a big, big woman. In her sixties, she’s eating herself past ill health and into serious territory, the territory of diabetes, surgery, and even death. Her husband Richard has reached the end of his abilities, and he leaves her. Their adult children are horrified—with Edie’s inability to change course, with Richard’s apparent callousness and faithlessness. Of course, it’s all a little more complicated than that.
This is a book about imperfect people in an imperfect family, set against the backdrop of Jewish suburban Chicago. It’s of course got some funny moments—the b’nai mitzvah of the Middlestein twin grandchildren as observed by the friends of their grandparents is pretty great—and it’s got some surprises. I would have liked to go deeper into Edie and Richard’s crumbling marriage, to understand more about why he says it was killing him and why Edie was so hard to live with, exactly. But I thought the book did a pretty good job of seeing someone who struggled mortally with food and her weight as a complete person, who was loved and celebrated as well as misunderstood and despaired of. And this was definitely a book about a woman, a family, and only secondarily (tertiarily?) about men, which was refreshing and welcome. ...more
Space opera about AI that I think I would enjoy more in non-graphic-novel form. The art is great, but the genre condensed the interesting stuff—questiSpace opera about AI that I think I would enjoy more in non-graphic-novel form. The art is great, but the genre condensed the interesting stuff—questions of morality and ethics—in favor of gun fights and space ship battles. Which I don’t really care about. ...more
A wonderful and odd narrative about riding and winning the Mongol Derby, a multi-day 1,000-kilometer horse race in Mongolia. Prior-Palmer does a wondeA wonderful and odd narrative about riding and winning the Mongol Derby, a multi-day 1,000-kilometer horse race in Mongolia. Prior-Palmer does a wonderful job of bringing to life both the immediacy of the race and the strange dislocations of self and mind that such an isolated endurance event creates—alternating between clear depictions of bucking ponies and remote Mongolians encounters, and the almost cosmic wanderings of thought that come up when you do something like this. She is a particularly voice-y, self-describedly loose-minded person, who sees many things a quarter turn to the left from most people, and the Derby’s endless steppes seem the perfect backdrop for her to ponder life, movement, animals, and her own motivations for...everything. A fun and also at times weighty book. ...more
I’ve never read Rendell before, and I think this might have been her last book, which was maybe a dubious place to start. But it was absorbing, in a fI’ve never read Rendell before, and I think this might have been her last book, which was maybe a dubious place to start. But it was absorbing, in a fast-paced way. Less of a mystery and more of a thriller, interested in how guilt and anxiety about wrongdoing are their own punishment. There are some tangential storylines here that don’t really fully tie together, but it all feels forgivable in the big picture. Landlords, beware. This is a bit of a nightmare tale. ...more
Horrifying and also wonderful, intensely readable and also super-disturbing. Short stories set in Enriquez’s native Argentina, all of them scary and uHorrifying and also wonderful, intensely readable and also super-disturbing. Short stories set in Enriquez’s native Argentina, all of them scary and upsetting in some way but also so interesting. The translator also did Samanta Schweblin’s two books in English, FEVER DREAM and MOUTHFUL OF BIRDS, and she does an amazing job and provides a brief note at the end, commenting on the political context among other things. Argentine Gothic is a thing. ...more
Heinerth is an amazing person, a modern-day explorer of some of the most dangerous environments in the planet. From remote Mexican jungles to the insiHeinerth is an amazing person, a modern-day explorer of some of the most dangerous environments in the planet. From remote Mexican jungles to the insides of icebergs in the Antarctic, she has dived through some truly terrifying and amazing conditions—and lived to tell the tale. I really enjoyed her humility, her good cheer, her grit, and her low-key frankness about the toxic masculinity culture that endangers lives and robs joy from doing this dangerous, demanding work. She’s great company and she tells great stories. ...more
A wonderful, wrenching book. Beautifully written, and an incredible feat of imagination and love for a deeply compromised and troubled country. I’m diA wonderful, wrenching book. Beautifully written, and an incredible feat of imagination and love for a deeply compromised and troubled country. I’m disappointed that this book never received a major award. Alvarez created a world that spans decades and that offers both the personal and familial—the details that make life real—and the sweeping political history of life under a military regime. ...more
Jared is a first-class woobie. I didn’t understand a lot of the moves this book made—big swerve at the 2/3 point, some parts that felt kind of rambly—Jared is a first-class woobie. I didn’t understand a lot of the moves this book made—big swerve at the 2/3 point, some parts that felt kind of rambly—but I liked it and I’ll be interested to read the next one. ...more
I liked this overall, but it suffered from the stylistic tic of Sarcastic Capitalization, which pulled me Out Of The Book and sometimes felt InapproprI liked this overall, but it suffered from the stylistic tic of Sarcastic Capitalization, which pulled me Out Of The Book and sometimes felt Inappropriate For A Teenaged American Narrator. It also did not benefit from the device of keeping its wartime circumstances vague—so vague that at some points it strained my credulity. Would a teenaged girl living through a war really not know who was at war with her country? Or care? On the other hand, I enjoyed the story once it got rolling, and the horribleness and chaos and trauma of war was fairly well imagined and conveyed, it seemed to me....more
Beautiful and wrenching, and very very sad. Dementia, confusion, and memory loss are awful enough, but here Chariandy coaxes them into a metaphor for Beautiful and wrenching, and very very sad. Dementia, confusion, and memory loss are awful enough, but here Chariandy coaxes them into a metaphor for the disruption, fragmentation, and loss of colonial and wartime occupation of Trinidad, and all the very real violence, anguish, displacement, and loss that issue from that—all the way to Scarborough, Ontario. ...more
I don’t read much poetry, because it’s hard to find what I like. I really liked this. It’s right in my sweet spot between what’s historical, meaningfuI don’t read much poetry, because it’s hard to find what I like. I really liked this. It’s right in my sweet spot between what’s historical, meaningful, local, and universal or philosophical. Ugh, I don’t know how to talk about poetry. This reminded me a bit of Ondaatje‘s book about Billy the Kid, which told a historical story through imaginative verse. And which I also liked. I was also interested to see how a white poet would write about colonialism and racism, and in that regard I learned a lot. ...more
A quick, charming commute read. A short play by a Canadian-Iranian university student, which made it big in NYC and LA. Funny and horrifying by turns.A quick, charming commute read. A short play by a Canadian-Iranian university student, which made it big in NYC and LA. Funny and horrifying by turns. It’s always interesting to see how playwrights do their magic on the page, and imagine it in the round. ...more
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