My Struggle Book 1 by Karl One Knausgaard
I am rereading the Hades section of Ulysses where Bloom and the others attend Paddy Dignam’s funeral while also reading Knausgaard’s first volume that focuses so much on him and his father. Both books dive deep into the lonely, scary, lively and disgusting nature of…
Fernando Pessoa and Co. : Selected Poems by Fernando Pessoa
I read a profile of Pessoa in the New Yorker a number of years ago that intrigued me. The story of Pessoa is less about the compelling nature of his poems than his creations of heteronyms; fictional poets complete with backstories with unique voices, preoccupations…
Underworld by Don DeLillo
Don Delillo had established his reputation when Underworld came out. Partly because it was so long, Underworld got treated as his attempt at the great American novel. I read it eagerly when it came out and felt let down. The characters were flat, the incidences…
The Best American Poetry 2021 edited by Tracy K. Smith
Poetry is so many things; a whiff of ancient dust, a perfectly crafted stanza, the hum of the collective consciousness. These annual collections are time capsules that reflect the feel and grit of a moment, the cry and shout of a Greek chorus. This collection…
Marcel Duchamp and the Art of Life by Jacquelynn Baas
Recently an art critic for the Washington Post wrote glowingly of Duchamp’s ‘Nude Descending’ that he painted in 1912. However, this critic then said it was the last thing Duchamp painted and implied that this served as the end of his career as an artist…
The Soil by F.M. Courtney and S. T. Trudgill
This is the second technical treatise I’ve read about soil. I can’t say I get more than 40% of the material but I still find the subject and what I learn fascinating. From a spiritual sense, it re-enforces the notion that all that exists in…
Exilee Temps Morts by Theresa Has Kyung Cha
I found this volume of collected works by Cha at the Berkeley Art Museum which is appropriate as the University of California Press published Dictee Cha’s final work and she spent many productive years studying and working on the Berkeley campus. Born in Korea she…
Archives
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021