Member: RSHabroptilus

I did hear something about an American judge stopping American publication of the sequel, written by a Swedish somebody or other, because it was too much of a ripoff. Too bad 'ol Salinger himself (hard to believe he's still around at 90, when he was writing back in the day of Hemingway & Faulkner & Steinbeck) didn't write his own followup.

Ulysses isn't worth remembering. I'm curious to check out those sites you mention. Definitely read the original Stand - there's a good reason writers have hard ass editors - the two versions of the Stand are living proof of that.

Hey, whatever you're doing to write so freely, just keep doing that and bring anything to the table like those links you're comfortable with - definitely makes for a more interesting and funny read.

I've been searching for Ben Marcus' The Age of Wire & String forever. I'm not familiar with his other work. I do like a lot the one book of Markson I've read, Wittgenstein's Mistress and from what I've gathered just about everything he's written is exceptional. First ed. Federman...I'm sending the posse to Texas to steal your book you bas%$#^!

Solaris has always intrigued me. I'll definitely grab it based on your recommendation if I ever see it somewheres. I liked the movie alot - a bit slow - but sometimes slow & introspective is really good as this movie was; very moody and philosophical & filled w/surreal images. I'm just finishing Erickson's The Sea Came In At Midnight and am blathering to everyone I know how good it is, and how overlooked this Erickson cat seems to be. His highest owned book here in LT doesn't even have 200 owners. Weird.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 8:14 pm (EST) on Jul 5, 2009

did you notice your PS review is Hot to trot on the front page? Suh-weet, brah!

Happy 4th!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 3:40 pm (EST) on Jul 4, 2009

Hey QT.

posted by LifeInthePond at 5:08 am (EST) on Jul 4, 2009

What do I say?! I already gave it my thumbs up Dude!...this afternoon.

Stephen King, for all his repetitive faults, knows how to get people to buy his books more than any other writer over the past 40 years. I agree with everything you wrote. I too once rushed out back in the day and owned every King hc the day it was released. Until The Tommyknockers - a horrible piece of shit. Salem's Lot, The Shining and the original version of The Stand, not the self indulgent behemoth he re-released 12 years later with an extra 500 pages of fat tacked on, are by far his most solid works. I'd go so far as to say that The Shining will stand the test of time as great literature period. Pet Sematary, I thought, while not at the same level as his mid to late 70s books, was nevertheless superior to anything else he put out in the 80s except for maybe Misery, which I read in one sitting way back when. I'd probably give it at least 3 stars, though I can live with your 2 1/2.

Keep writing, Todd. I'm enjoying your work.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 2:09 am (EST) on Jul 4, 2009

Well.. I mean when you look up Miranda July's books on Amazon they suggest you look at Tao Lin. I haven't read anything by Tao Lin but, I'm not sure if I'd like to. I didn't really like Miranda July's book the more I think about it, I don't even think I enjoyed her movie that much. I watched some of her performance art during the school year, and it was incredibly awkward. I feel like this comment is getting too random, so I'll just stop, and talk to you later.

posted by iwasinfinite at 1:09 pm (EST) on Jun 30, 2009

Candide is at least 4 stars and I think you know that!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 3:31 am (EST) on Jun 28, 2009

Thank you for only giving Sasquatch one star.

Sasquatch are pussies!

posted by EnriqueResurrected at 3:18 am (EST) on Jun 28, 2009

So how exactly do you get beautiful women into bed, Todd?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 3:14 am (EST) on Jun 28, 2009

You only gave "No One Belongs Here More Than You" three and a half stars?!
I'm actually not that upset, I was actually expecting a lower rating from you...
(I give it 2 and a half...but I have my reasons.)

posted by iwasinfinite at 12:49 am (EST) on Jun 28, 2009

oh and I forgot...I don't really know offhand any of the oceanography stuff you mention. Though back when I was an Arthur C. Clarke geek I do remember he wrote a ton of non-fiction adventures on the Great Barrier Reef, etc., that might be worth checking into...

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 8:08 pm (EST) on Jun 23, 2009

You need to tell me asap how that Twofold Vibration by Federman. I can't believe you got that before me! And you bit on Erickson. Is Sukenick really that expensive to order? Here's another rare oddity I've been hunting for forever: Creamy & Delicious by Steve Katz. I have excerpts of it in his 43 Fictions but C&D complete is supposed to be a pomo masterpiece, at least according to that top 100 list pomo "expert" - and it goes for a chunk of change, although I think I have seen some editions as low as twelve to fifteen bucks.

I still haven't read Eggers. Want to. Mean to....

So you'll be up in British Colombia/Alberta thereabouts, eh? Haven't been there since just after Mt. St. Helens blew way back when. All I remember was riding the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria and then to Port Angeles.

And thanks for the feedback. Yes, the first sort of pretentious bit describing 395 was written with lots of big words and commas on purpose - to demonstrate the over eagerness of Greg-ee who wants to show off and prove to the chaplain that he's a writer. The rest of what Greg writes gets toned down, style-wise, drastically, while the content then goes a bit over the top - but remains believable, hopefully.

And wow, man, below - you've got the female population creating accounts just for you! Suh-weet.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 8:03 pm (EST) on Jun 23, 2009

Hahaha, yeah. I did this just for you :]

posted by iwasinfinite at 12:25 pm (EST) on Jun 19, 2009

I also passed on Blown Away a couple times, and then it was gone. My philosophy - if it's a writer you want to read, and he's incredibly hard to find, buy the damn book! So yeah, if I were you, I'd go back tomorrow and get me some Sukenick. While I haven't (obviously) read that one, I'm sure it's good, as Raymond Federman has spoken highly of it. Hey, maybe you could buy it, read it, and then I could trade you either 98.6 or Up. What do you think?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 1:00 am (EST) on Jun 19, 2009

The Jacobson books is more of a guide than actual travellogue. Small world, eh. You know that girl in the link may have been at least as old as you because special ed. students can stay in HS (at least here in CA) until they turn 23. And don't worry about how to respond - I just mentioned it 'cos I didn't want you thinking I was poking fun at her or at the basketball boy phenom. My daughter's doing great.

Have you read Barker's Books of Blood - some of those stories are pretty creepy. Haven't read any of his novels, but I'll take your word for it. How about Steve Erickson? Have we ever discussed his pomo work? You read him?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 5:36 pm (EST) on Jun 18, 2009

oh and if you were interested in Roaming Krygyzstan, let me know; I got it free through early reviewers; be happy to pass it along...

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 11:03 pm (EST) on Jun 17, 2009

I could give you a ton of California travel narrative-type books to check out, covering the Sierra Nevadas, Mojave Desert, and mountaineering type narratives. I'm trying to think of something else more like Jacobson's books...let me go look at me shelves right now...okay, I'm back....

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiesson (Himalayas)
Alaska by Michener (so, okay, he's old school, but still a great look inside Alaska. Or even what about Into The Wild by Krakauer - a travel narrative of sorts leading to a school bus out in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness.

Something really old: The Narrow Road to the Deep North & other Travel Sketches by Basho Matsuo (meditative, aphoristic)

Haven't read this one, but it's supposed to be decent: Natural Opium by Diane Johnson. Let me know if you're interested in the Sierra Nevadas as I have a slew of titles I could suggest.

Oh, and your first post: How cool that you went to that girl with Down syndrome's HS. My daughter has Down syndrome and autism which is why I posted the links - inspires me to keep fighting forward against all odds especially in light of those who have less and yet somehow achieve so much more....

I want to read The Raw Shark Texts soon. See you gave it 4 1/2. How does it compare, you'd say, to House of Leaves?

And do give me your honest reader's opinion of the gr link - I'd much appreciate hearing your take(s).

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 11:02 pm (EST) on Jun 17, 2009

Thanks so much for the add :) Have a wonderful upcoming week.

posted by DarylERobidoux at 4:10 am (EST) on Jun 15, 2009

Thank you so much for being my friend..

posted by OliviaBrooks123 at 2:07 am (EST) on Jun 13, 2009

Dude, I don't know the Japanese original language source right off the top of my head. You might ask my friend tomcatMurr, who lives in Taiwan, though, he might be able to help you.

Tell you what, set up an account on freechess.org, tell me when you have, and then I'll follow suit pronto.

I am pissed that you've got that 1st ed of Pricksongs & Descants - that had my name on it, not yours. Nah, I'm happy for you. I'll keep looking, or maybe just break down and order it some day. Yeah, I try and pop out rougly a review a week, just as a way to keep the mind and writing fresh and moving forward.

Yeah that slickdpdx totally dissed your name, Man. Are you going to stand for that? He's a real cretin. "RSHblahblahblah" - what an insult! What kind of a person disrespects handles like that? If I were you, I'd send him a public (not a private) post challenging him to a verbal altercation. Diss him back, RSH! Do it, do it!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 3:15 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2009

I'm still laughing my ass off at your speceffingtacular piece on Goldfinger! Whew-wee, Todd. Give 'em hell (and then some!)

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 11:58 am (EST) on Jun 5, 2009

Was your last post I missed the I hate Iowa post? Found it!

Never watched Twin Peaks. Though I do enjoy Lynch a lot, especially Eraserhead and Blue Velvet.

Maybe since you read Twilight you should read some Danielle Steele next. Her new book just came out; or read her Vietnam War classic, Message From Nam.

Speaking of Nam (or thereabouts) found a new writer you might like if you like Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers. Robert Bingham is (was) his name (died at 32 of an heroin overdose just before his first novel was released): http://www.librarything.com/work/376519/...

Same kind of drug trafficking underworld sleaze but written in the first person which gives it an immediacy and emotional rawness even more intense, IMO, than Dog Soldiers. I think he would've been a great one were it not for the drugs.

Out

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 6:49 pm (EST) on May 6, 2009

Damn me for missing your last post! But you listen here college boy, in the future you remind Freeque, that motherfucker, if he hasn't responded in a week or so to your post, cuz he ain't looking to dis nobody no time ever.

Sorry 'bout that bro.

So what stupid book did you have to pop out in three hours yesterday?

I can't believe you actually read Twilight! No one I respect has ever said a good word about it. Were you just curious? If you read it to impress a girl I completely understand. Now I'm off to go find that post I missed, or you could link it to me in case I've inadvertently deleted it along with all those "rejection" notices from ablachly telling me I didn't win this book or that book.

Hey, are you catching any of That Metal Show on VH1. Old school metal interviews and talk mostly, but still very cool.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 6:20 pm (EST) on May 5, 2009

Todd!

Glad to see you liked The Universal Baseball Association, Inc....As a former fantasy sports addict (I replaced that "addiction" with pretty much LibraryThing) I'm still amazed thinking how Coover wrote that over 40 years ago before pc's were available. Very prescient writer, that early Coover.

I just picked up a Stephen Wright novel myself: M31 (A Family Romance). Hope it's as good as Going Native, which I thought was good, but maybe not as great and necessarily worthy of being on Larry McAfferey's top 100 list.

So what the fuck have you been up to this month! C'mon now. Update Enrique.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 1:23 am (EST) on May 1, 2009

Yo Todd,

You've been active again I see with all these Gon acquisitions (and Buffy too). There's been some Buffy discussion over in the Ulysses group lately. You should drop by there sometime (I'd personally love to see you there, so getcher ass over there bro) and hear your what I'm positive would be brilliant takes.

Hey, I found another postmodern writer I'm sure you already know about but whose work is practically impossible to obtain unless you order it online: Raymond Federman! I'm almost through his slim 5th novel, "Smiles on Washington Square," and loving it. I'm on the hunt (have been on the hunt for several years now) for his two best novels (best at least according to that Larry MaCaffery and his 20th Centuries 100 greatest hits, "Double or Nothing" and "Take It Or Leave It"). If you were to stumble upon them used somewheres I'd be so pissed. I'd be so pissed I'd pay you 20 bucks per plus shipping/handling to get them out of your hands were you to locate them.

How's school man; how's life on your own? Hope you're kicking serious ass in all your endeavors.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:41 am (EST) on Mar 30, 2009

Underworld is fabulous. Those first 75 pages of his on "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" -- what happened to that very baseball hit by Bobby Thompson -- is easily, easily the best writing on baseball bar none, and that's including Coover's fantasy baseball book. I would've enjoyed Underworld even more had the entire (what is it, 800 or so pages?) book centered on that baseball. Fascinating stuff (not sure how it would read if you're not "in" to the history of MLB) though. I do too get the sense that Egger's is considered somehow "less than", probably East Coast bias. I know that New Yorker, Keith Gessen ("All the Sad Young Literary Men") and founder of the lit. journal N+1, has absolutely nothing positive to say about McSweeney's. I honestly haven't read enough of either Gessen or Eggers to intelligibly comment, but once I do, I will, and my heart is hoping (though I've gotta try and remain unbiased) that I'll hate Gessen and love Eggers, but you never know.

The Ulysses group officially departs into its read beginning this Sunday, March 1st, so I've yet to begin (though I have scouted out the intro Telemachus chapter and am amazed over how much I missed w/out the annotations and guides, that I'm now using, the first time around when I lasted a whopping 31 pages. Just finished "The Portrait..." and that helps a lot understanding the intro and what Dedalus is all about.

I'll get that email over to you shortly -- you've gotta read this one. Even if you only read the first page that talks about that dinner...great stuff.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 7:50 pm (EST) on Feb 25, 2009

Which Delillo are you finishing? I'm still searching for a copy of Ratner's Star; used stores rarely seem to stock anything of his prior to White Noise. It's your independence day, Todd, hooray! I will need your email again; seem to have misplaced it and I don't see it on your page. I finally got myself some Eggers recently, first ed. of the "Heartbreaking" one. I sampled the lengthy mega-metaficitonalized intro/preface and was like, whoa!, why have I been waiting so long to check this guy out. I'd say just based on that brief reading he'd be the heir apparent to DFW. So was that Mel speech his drunken one where he diatribes about Jews? And yes to the Proust, oh you Doubting Todd you, over 18 months in my mid 30s. No finer reading experience have I ever experienced nor will likely ever experience again -- he's really not that far removed, stylistically, with his internal rants and ramblings and convoluted sentence structures, from the style or substance of your favorite postmodernists. I'd say William H. Gass or Gaddis are his closest pomo inheritors stylewise. I will say that after I finish Ulysses probably in a couple months, may have to reevaluate if Proust is still my #1.

Peace,
Brent

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:26 pm (EST) on Feb 22, 2009

Hi Todd,

Hope life this week's been treating you a bit better than last week.

Hey I just got the latest New Yorker yesterday and you simply must get yer hands on a copy as there is a killer -- KILLER -- obscenely long article, "Donald Barthelme reconsidered" that I suspect you just might find fascinating. The article opens with this illuminating description of a dinner that Barthelme threw at a SoHo restaurant for just a few of his writer pals in the spring of 1983, among them (mostly nobodies) included Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, William Gaddis, Robert Coover, John Hawkes, William H. Gass, Kurt Vonnegut, Walter Abish, Susan Sontag, etc. What a yawner of a dinner, eh? If you can't grab a copy, I can scan it and email it to you. Just let me know.

All the best,
Brent

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:22 am (EST) on Feb 21, 2009

You've got Breece Pancake as a favorite, but none from W.V.'s latest (and greatest?), Pinckney Benedict. He has a fantastic novel, Dogs of God, and two decent short story collections. I think he has another novel coming out this year. I apologize for leaving this unsolicited advice. See you on Mt. Ulysses!

posted by slickdpdx at 5:53 pm (EST) on Feb 17, 2009

I'm truly terribly sorry about your grandmother....as if your family life weren't already trying and grief-stricken enough as it is, and now this. My most heartfelt condolences to you and your family. Wish I lived closer to somehow be of assistance besides mere words on a screen.

All the best to you & yours during this sad time,
Brent

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:30 pm (EST) on Feb 15, 2009

Okay, better late than never. That problem you're describing with being the only person with a copy of a text that you absolutley know can't possibly be true is easily solved: If you click on the author link, you should see if very small text toward the right of the page a "combine works" link, and once you click on that it becomes pretty self explanatory as to how you can get your lone volume combined with all the rest. A different publisher or different edition is still considered the same text and should be combined; I don't know why LT has this issue, but it does, though it is readily solved. In fact, I enjoy going through my favorite authors and combining their works so that when you click on an author you don't see like a hundred different works all owned by only one or two people. Let me know if my directions for combining weren't clear enough and I'll be happy to go step by step through that.

The Raw Shark Texts does indeed look awesome. I also got it recently but have yet to dig into it. I think its one of those indescribale "House of Leaves" type of genre-unto-itself books.

First novel at the age of 90! That gives me hope! And I love Californication. (good song by the Chili Peppers too). We don't get HBO but sometimes we get free weekends and we always make a point of checking that out; yes, the sumptuous sights of breasts bouncing all over the place is splendid and makes for a fine entertaining experience. Did not know that the Duchovny character was Bukowski inspired, but since Duchovny is such a constant emotional & relational wreck on the show, drunk or doped up half the time, sounds quite plausible.

Well, perhaps you can't write like that now, Todd, but the only solution is both to keep reading excellent passages (and you obviously have no problem doing that, and I agree, what a fantastic bit of writing!) and then to keep writing and keep conceptualizing like you're doing. Journal. Write those great ideas down before that mystical Muse says, sorry Son, time to move on. Write the Reaper, Write your Will; Write like Murder with Words that Kill!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 11:03 am (EST) on Feb 14, 2009

Sorry 'bout that first message. Mea culpa, RSH, mea culpa! Promise to respond this weekend (I've got me a 4-Dayer (Fri-Mon off work, yeah!) See below for "how much I spend on books". Sent the paragraph below to another book bud this past weekend. Besides what I spent below, I get a lot of free books (ARCs) to review through shelfawareness.com. Overrall, depending on the month, I range from $50 - $100/month.

Don't mean to brag (yes I do) but I just returned from the Chino PL -- stalwart of culture, arts, & lit in S.Ca -- with 16 mostly 1st ed hc's by mostly a bunch of unknown first time novelists I've never even heard of before (but who cares, they're practically free) all public-library-cello-wrapped-never-been-... pristine condition, for $4.00 (25 cents per). And then...then...another 10 volumes from the local thrift store, including "Testimony: the Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich" (fascinated by him ever since I finished Vollmann's "Europe Central" a few years back) for a, granted, much pricier, $7.98 total. Grand total for this weekend haul: 26 books for $11.98 (46 cents per!) Yes, I'm a cheap bastard, my wife likes to remind me, but how cool is that! Just had to share my good fortune with a bookish cyberbud...

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:22 am (EST) on Feb 12, 2009

Sukenick's totally right up your alley, late 60s, 70s experimentalist, counter culture. He's in the same ballpark, dare I blaspheme, as, yes it's true, Brautigan, only better! Nah, kidding, I've never read Brautigan, shame upon shame, so I wouldn't know if Suke's better or not, but having flipped through a lot of Brautigan at used shops, Suke's "98.6" with its abundant short, chopped up chapters, is reminiscent of how Brautigan often structures his works.

Though I think "Up" is better than "98.6," denser, more difficult, but funnier and metafictional to boot. Sukenick, like Bret Ellis in "Lunar Park," is the main character of the book, weaving in and out of his past, present, & future, so that his protagonist, himself, actually develops the feel of different characters which when you think about it, is brilliant because I know I was a completely different character at 20 than I was at 30 and definitely different now as I rapidly near 40. "Up" was listed in that top 100 postmodern novels of all time, which was how I happened upon it. It's shocking to me, how good it is, that only 5 or so? last time I checked, owned it here in librarything. Criminally neglected writer; though he's so criminally underappreciated he makes Joseph McElroy (criminally neglected in his own right) seem like Pynchon appreciation-wise in comparison. Literally took me four or five years of hunting used shops in S.Ca. before I happened upon him.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 10:28 pm (EST) on Feb 7, 2009

Which Coover had you read? I love the Universal Baseball Assoc...it's one of my all time faves for probably personal reasons rather than true literary merit (not that it's not great lit, but I'm biased). I'm biased because I'm both a baseball fan and a baseball statistics freak. I love stats. I was once an avid baseball card collector and without even trying somehow went Rain Man and inadvertently memorized all the player stats on the backs of the cards without even trying. Combine that with my experiences in the fantasy football craze and I'm blown away by how far ahead of its time Coover's Baseball book was. I remember, in fact, playing a version of his fantasy baseball game called "Statis-Pro Baseball" back in the early 80s replete with dice, real life playing cards of current MLBers which matched the previous years MLB stats so that you could effectively recreate the entire MLB season, every game of every team with every freaking player. The way some people spend all day on computer games was how I'd spend all day with "Statis-Pro Baseball".
Fun times. So, of course, Coover's UBA Henry Waugh book is a perennial fave of mine. I haven't gotten around to what the critics typically call his masterpiece, "The Public Burning" but hope to do so perhaps once I get through the Ulysses beast the new couple months.

Great idea going alphabetical so as to broaden you lit horizons and not merely stick to your pet writers. Forgot what was in your other post at the moment, I'll reread and get back to you...

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 3:48 pm (EST) on Feb 7, 2009

Happy to be a bad influence re. the metal jams again! Man, once you start talkin' trash, er, thrash, it is difficult to stop. You sound pretty knowledgeable of the roots of thrash. Now, I want you to pretend it's Jan./Feb. 1980, there's no Metallicas, Megadeths, Slayers around -- not yet. There's not much of anything metal wise that's not slow & bloated: Sabbath (the closest thing to thrash the 70s ever produced) is dead and Dio has yet to rejuvenate them (not to the level of thrash per se but back to respectability nonetheless); there's an odd assortment of metal bands on the wane -- your UFOs and Rainbows and Angels and slowed down such -- as well as bands on the rise -- Judas Priest, Saxon, Scorpions, Ozzy/Randy Rhoads, Alcatrazz, Y&T, among many others too numerous to mention unless your name is RSHabroptilus and you can list them all, but everybody is mostly playing Sabbathesque early 70's half speed crunchcrunch & riff, crunchcrunch & riff, but then ... then ... are you ready? The coolest looking album cover appears in the racks of Licorice Pizza and Music Plus ... It's this icky (for the time, remember it's barely 1980!) but still cool dead looking zombie-like creature without any skin, just muscle sinews, black holes for eyes & long spikyish hair ... and above the creature's hair all it says in this menacing red font: IRON MAIDEN. Maiden was the thrash of my youth, before I knew any better (how could I? it was 1980!) and man, for the time, despite the shitty production, that was the blazing fastest thrashiest sounding metal around. They were a mini-revolution in the advancement of metal. I'm sure you're familiar with their more famous, mainstream stuff, but have you ever heard their debut album and pretended it's 1980 (just 10 years since the Beatles broke up) because if you haven't, in the least to gain an historical thrash metal perspective on what you appreciate now, do yourself a favor and check out the songs "Prowler" and "The Phantom of the Opera." They fused punk with metal and in my opinion, their debut record is where the roots of thrash were born.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:32 am (EST) on Jan 27, 2009

Whoa. I'm not quite the thrash fan you are! Though back in the day (when I wunt so old) I was all over Anthrax (A.I.R., eh?), Megadeth, Metal Church, Slayer, and I saw Testament live in '95 (I shit you not) at the Galaxy Theatre. I remember Celtic Frost, Exciter, Exodus, Helloween (KNAC, a late 80s, early 90s hardcore metal station in LA was all over their debut album--see how old I am, calling compiled music "albums"), and Overkill, but I didn't have anything by them. What about Deicide or Venom? Harbingers of black satanic thrash? Go download, I think if I remember right it's either called "Fight Fire With Fire" or "Fire With Fire" off of the Ride The Lightning album and still tell me, dog, that Metallica suck! That song be some thrashin' dope!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 8:26 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009

So what thrash are/were you into?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 5:17 pm (EST) on Jan 25, 2009

Why do I add cds, LPs, dvds, vhs, periodicals? ... I input them for the same reason us geezers use Cialis -- so that my library gets bigger faster, you dig? Have you seen benwaugh's LP collection? Dude's got over 2,000 titles. My credo: If it's okay for Ben, it's okay for Brent. And consider, this is a library site, not a book site per se, libraries contain periodicals and usually cd's and sometimes dvd's as part of a multimedia offering. I'd LOVE to see you input your metal collection. Do it do it (peer pressure peer pressure) everybody is doing it. You like the latest Metallica, their return to classic 80s thrash? Don't you dare tell me it sucks you bass turd!

Nice Flann acquisition. Was the edition you got published by The Dalkey Archive? That's, ironically, who's presently publishing The Dalkey Archive. Confusing. And to think that I still don't even own At Swim Two Birds! What's wrong with me?! And I haven't even finished The Third Policeman! I better get out of here before you kick my illiterate ass!

Always a pleasure,
'Frique at'cha

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 7:40 pm (EST) on Jan 23, 2009

Its a painfully honest reviewer gives the Brautigans 3 1/2 and Dr. No 4!

posted by slickdpdx at 10:53 pm (EST) on Dec 30, 2008

Hey stranger,

Just checking in. Curious if you did in fact receive the Gary Snyder article? I had a little trouble fitting the scans in the email, so just want to make sure you got it; otherwise, I'll resend.

Take care,
EF

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 11:00 pm (EST) on Nov 29, 2008

oh and meant to mention I have not forgot about that Snyder article...am recovering at home having foot surgery so will get to it hopefully very soon

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 2:21 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2008

Good question, not an easy one to answer. I think books can be an escape from reality sometimes to the degree of video games, depending on what you're reading, though I think books lack the potential for becoming so addictive, so all-consuming as video games can. I know people who can spend 12 hours stretches at a time playing video games, and do this weekend after weekend (if not daily) and yet I've rarely known anyone (not that such people don't exist) who've done the same with books. I might get sucked into a really really good read when the wife and kids happen to be away for half a day, and go non-stop for hours, but that's rare, and I think most people are more like me in that regard than the person who spends entire days engaged with video games. If reading is an escape, it's more of an escape like nicotine or perhaps Vicodin (maybe a couple cocktails before dinner), whereas, while video games can equally be nothing more than so many cigarettes, for so many they might as well be heroin in that they become so all out life consuming. I've read that video games among hardcore gamers stimulate the same portions of the brain and act upon it as if the person had ingested cocaine or amphetamines -- it's that powerful a stimulant. Books, while stimulating our intellect and imagination and other cognitive components, cannot possibly elicit that kind of powerful interface because they lack the immediacy of video stimulus and also do not require the same hyper level of hand-eye coordination. Video games are far more exciting to the bodies autonomic processes -- they're more immediately gratifying -- releasing endorphins and adrenalin into the bloodstream in a way that books, even the best most compelling reads, simply cannot elicit. Books require far more intellectual work -- like finding your way through a maze -- as opposed to the more inherently passive sit-back-and-enjoy-the-rollercoaster-rid... of video games. Does that make sense?

I too am concerned for Obama's safety. One of the books I'm reading right now is Vincent Bugliosi's "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President Kennedy" and it's easily the best non-fiction read I've stumbled across in years. Sold for $49.99 upon it's initial release; Borders now has it on sale in hc for $9.99. It's 1,600 pages debunking every JFK conspiracy theory out there. It posits that Oswald acted alone and sets out to prove it. So far, I believe it. But reading it, has made me very concerned for Obama, to say the least, because JFK and Obama are so similarly well beloved and well spoken and possess such (to me at least) a strikingly similar charisma it's almost eerie. I hope to God Obama doesn't make the same mistakes JFK made in not allowing the secret service do everything to protect him (i.e. Kennedy would not allow the ss to stand on the rear or side running boards of the limo because he wanted the people (and unfortunately that bastard Oswald) to have an unobstructed view of him. Cost him his life. Hopefully the higher-ups have learned history's lessons and won't let a president override the decisions of the men paid to fully protect him.

Always good talking to you. Allow me to offer some unsolicited advice: Whatever you decide to do, keep writing. Write, Dude. And remember that your talent alone won't make you ultimately successful, but persistence in overcoming rejections ultimately will, the daily discipline of overcoming distractions and confronting the horror of the blank page ultimately will. So do as I say and not necessarily as I always do, and keep writing whatever you decide to do. And thanks for the recommendations. And let me know if you agree/disagree with my gaming v. reading mini-thesis.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 2:18 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2008

Dude,

Was wondering if you were aware that the Oct. 20 issue of the New Yorker has a great 10 page profile on Gary Snyder. Lots of mention of his writer pals, Kenneth Rexroth, Ginsberg, Kerouac. I was not aware that Kerouac partly based The Dharma Bums on his friendship with Snyder, fascinating stuff and I'm only marginally aware of Snyder's writings. Since he's one of your faves I suspect you might be glued to the pages. Assuming you're interested and can't get yer paws on a copy or don't want to spend the dough, I'd be happy to Xerox it and send it over to you. Lemme know...later.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 10:49 pm (EST) on Oct 22, 2008

Thank you for your support of TFC!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 1:18 am (EST) on Oct 18, 2008

hello
i wasn't aware that rainbows had a sex-life. no matter. but when you rank infinite(masterbating)jest,7, over semi-colon licking, Ulysses,26, well, i'm going to have to ask you to step outside.

good(bleeding)bye
pgt

posted by poor-ious at 3:13 am (EST) on Oct 13, 2008

What a loon, your alleged "professor". There is absolutely no empirical evidence extant to the validity of the mythology & superstitions she teaches as (are you kidding me?!) science? She's a hack quack wacko.

Don't worry about our tome posts. You're busy with school, studying important topics like feng shui and numerology. We'll get more in depth during mid term hopefully. Besides, I've just begun inputting my two decades-plus worth of National Geographics, so I'm busy too with my own important work. Hey, I've got my own top 100+ list on my profile page now. Do comment/criticize when you have a chance. Is GR rated lower than IJ?....you'll just have to check out and see...

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 10:54 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2008

Hey Dude,

I can't believe DFW killed himself this weekend. Thought I'd just send a note of commiseration over to you. Pretty devastating news.

Are you doing okay with the hurricane. I've thought of you frequently this weekend watching the news & all the devastation in Texas. Hope you're all right.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 7:44 pm (EST) on Sep 14, 2008

First I noticed we shared 54 books, then I read your review of "Goodbye to a River." I look forward to seeing more of your reviews.

posted by Esta1923 at 6:03 pm (EST) on Aug 25, 2008

I see it I see it...gee willickers.

You know, I had never made that conncection of Hal having possibly seen the video during that early section when his uncle is trying to get him into (was it Univ. of Arizona, Tucson?); I had always assumed that he had fried his brain with so much pot smoking that he was undergoing some type of late adolescent psychotic breakdown, but having seen the video is certainly a plausible interpretation especially if someone was able to pull him away from it before he was a complete zombie or dead, like so many others.

Yes, once the timeline is understood, the novel makes so much more sense. My fondest recollection of the novel right now I'd have to say is the idea of "Wheelchair Assassins"...heehawsterical!

Glad you had a nice time in AZ. I hope you weren't one of those unlucky tourists plucked out of Supai Village recently with the flash flooding. Say, speaking of TX, have you ever had the opportunity to check out Larry McMurtry's bookstore (not sure where in TX it is), but it sounds a lot like my favorite, Acres of Books in Long Beach (soon to be closed forever).

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 9:03 pm (EST) on Aug 21, 2008

Excuse me Young Man, but I know for a fact you have now finished IJ and yet I do not see it listed anywhere in your top 50 even though you gave it 5 stars. Do explain this apparent paradox promptly!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 1:21 pm (EST) on Aug 17, 2008

Well done lad! Congratulations! Yes, those descriptions of Hal's father's avant garde films do remind one of Anger's work don't they...in fact, I believe DFW may have been paying some roundabout homage to Anger's work...I'm not familiar with the other filmmaker you've mentioned. Will imdb him definitely.

Well, now that you've completed IJ & I've completed GR, it's all downhill from here. What else can possibly top those two works? Certainly nothing else either of them has written (or so I've heard, not speaking from experience).

Glad to see you picked up some Grace Paley recently...economy of words, profundity of emotional impact. I've had my eye forever on that terrible infants book by Cocteau, but have yet to find a copy whose spine isn't inordinately creased. I can't buy a used book with multiple creases so that the words on the crease aren't exactly legible (a minor nearly imperceptible crease I can handle), & no matter how bad I want it, I still won't buy it if it's too damn creased. Call me anal. Yes, I know, a book is meant to be read so who gives a shit how it looks, right?....Wrong. See, I stare at my collection almost as much as I read/catalogue it, so, for me to bear witness of a book's deformity -- a creased spine, partially torn cover, water damage, etc. -- would only cause me undue anxiety & alarm, & make me go out immediately & purchase an expensive new copy (assuming it wasn't out of print!) just so I wouldn't have to gaze upon that crappy copy...know what I mean?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 7:58 pm (EST) on Aug 8, 2008

Sorry, as tedious as I often find Brautigan to be, he has a fair amount of historical interest to me. Although, I was tempted to pass them on to you, because I think you must be the only 20-year old Brautigan fan in the western hemisphere (and how in the wide world of sports did that interest come about anyway?)

posted by burnit99 at 6:41 pm (EST) on Jul 25, 2008

Hey i forgot to mention...have you read the review by tanstaafl of "The Book of Mormon"? 41 freaking people as of tonight have clicked on it as a review they've liked (incredible!)...it is, an incredible review...HYSTERICAL!!! Highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 1:42 am (EST) on Jul 19, 2008

Am well over 400 pgs. into GR. One day behind, but can make that up this weekend. Loving it! You lucky dog, off to vacation & check out NASU (rep. as a party school, just like San Diego State) hope you can focus if you choose to matriculate. Enjoy your travels!

Oh, wait, what about Ronald Sukenick? Have you read him? He's half beat/half pomo. His novel, 98.6, is right up your alley I believe. Btw, the last 2/3 of IJ is superior to the first third. Once you understand the year scheme, what year = 2002, 03, 04, etc., the book makes a whole lot more sense. I think around page 210 or so DFW delineates what year = what. The beginning of the novel is really the end (or at least tells you how two of the preeminent characters turned out. Pretty sad, actually.

Saw the remake of Casino Royale recently...awesome cinematic experience! Saw recently at B&N that all of Ian Flemings novels have been re-released...very cool covers...may have to purchase eventually. Enjoy the Painted Desert, my friend, Sedona, Jerome, GC, Havasupai, Flagstaff...I love Arizona!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 1:26 am (EST) on Jul 19, 2008

Hey! RE: Jeter. If you like Cyberpunk then you definitely should give him a go. Personally, I would start with Farewell Horizontal. James Patrick Kelly is also fabulous. I would highly recommend Think Like a Dinosaur and Wildlife.
Have a great day!

posted by VictoriaPL at 8:15 am (EST) on Jul 12, 2008

Greetings from Chino,

Tell me you're at least 250 pages into IJ...I'm 250 into GR (one day ahead of schedule) and the going has been surprisingly smooth; no readers guides, no online notes, no nothing but my eyes & what's left of my brain. I almost puked though when one of the characters literally ate his lover's (I think it was his dominatrix's actually, tough to tell) logs (3 of 'em) of defecation. Something about him "mashing the shit" through his teeth was tough to visualize (my wife & I, if you'll pardon the overly personal tmi, do not, thank God, possess that peculiar type of sexual proclivity, so I could not relate), and it reminded me of the voluminous scatological gross outs replete in Vollmann's, The Royal Family, which, admittedly, were not as shocking as Pynchon's shit incident. But other than that, I'm loving GR! I think I might actually finish it by July 31st as vowed. It's reputation is well deserved.

Oh, and speaking of shit, I had to cancel my second profile, "shitlit" since it was overlapping with my main page, in case you had responded to it & weren't getting a response back.

You mentioned Antrim last time and I failed to comment...I've read his most recent novel, The Verificationist, and liked it. A group of college professor shrinks sit around philosophizing at a pancake house while the narrator seated there with them (forget if he's a shrink or grad student) undergoes some type of dissociation or out of body experience, and the novel digresses and weaves in and out of the pancake house from there. There's one great line I remember from it w/out going and grabbing it: "everybody needs someone to fuck". So true.

I have obtained a copy of RAW & Shea's Illuminatus Trilogy, so relax okay, it's all right now.

Have you read/heard of Kathy Acker? I'm looking for something by her, anything really. She's notorious in avant-garde/experimentalist circles for such titles as Blood & Guts in High School; Pussy, The Pirate King; Hannibal Lecter, my Father; My Mother: Demonology. She, uh, probably had some issues as a kid. I'm curious. If you were say to happen upon her during one of your binges, I would gladly pay you a little extra beyond the associated costs for buying & shipping for your time & trouble.

Enjoy your travels, you lucky sumbitch, galavantin' across this great American nation like some boozed up itinerant poet/beatnik, like some kooky Kerouac character, some desolation angel, dharma bum, Gonzo lush, philandering Slothrop. (Hey I mean that as a compliment.)

Adios

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 8:22 pm (EST) on Jul 10, 2008

Dropped by after reading your intelligent comments at the Freeque's. Wasn't disappointed!

posted by slickdpdx at 11:01 pm (EST) on Jul 8, 2008

Yo, I've verbalized my new commitment to GR (see profile page).

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 7:29 pm (EST) on Jun 25, 2008

*waves* Hey! I finally found someone else who has a 'top 50' tag! None of my top 50 books match yours, but that's okay, to each his own. Have a wonderful day.

posted by VictoriaPL at 3:59 pm (EST) on Jun 25, 2008

You've inspired me to retackle GR. I'm going to do it, and I'm going to finish it. I enjoyed what I read, I just got bogged down and sort of lost. There's an online reader's guide I'm going to print out this time to get me through the confusing spots, though maybe now as I've aged and read other "difficult" stuff, it won't seem as hard. You're the second person I've heard who says that GR, once the characters & stage has been set in the first third of the novel, really picks up after that. So I already know I can read the first third...

Just after I had told you I couldn't locate any Barthelme, lo and behold out of nowhere I've landed me three of his works: DF (which I've just read/reviewed), Come Back, Dr. Caligari, and a posthumous collection of his uncollected stories & tidbits of stuff with a cool intro by Pynchon called The Teachings of Don B. Appreciate the offer of finding & sending to me...I may take you up on that someday.

If you seriously read Ulysses in high school and liked it, then maybe you are a genious and are just to humble to admit it! If you are smarter than everybody else, it's okay to say so. I quit Ulysses pretty early on, though I would like to retackle it with the help of a good reader's guide. Forget about Finnegan's Wake, though, that's what I've come to term ShitLit. In fact, I'm formulating an idea of beginning a reader's group here called ShitLit101 (or something satiricly syllabi-ish like that), where we can rag on all the so called high brow "works of art" that are truly shit, as well the Danielle Steele's of this world, or even something like "Toilet Training in Less Than A Day" could be construed as ShitLit...at least in my humble estimation. I would include Danielewski's "Only Revolutions" & J.G. Ballard's "Crash" in that fetid mix as well. What do you think? Would you be interested in joining a group like that? I think the tangents and possibilities we could go off on are endless...might be fun...

Speaking of which, have a blast on your train ride. AZ is awesome. I've hiked large segments of the Grand Canyon, spent a lot of time in Prescott, Jerome, Sedona. Have a bud who lives in Prescott Valley. Beautiful area. Enjoy your travels...

Oh, and like your new top 50. Which one will you replace with IJ once you read it? I'm going to post my progression with GR on my profile page...

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 2:06 pm (EST) on Jun 25, 2008

Dude, you're awesome. I love your library.

Just wanted to pass that on.

posted by bardsfingertips at 5:26 pm (EST) on Jun 19, 2008

OMG, you've found me out! I'm a hippo-critter, a veritable bass turd for having only "partially read" so many wonderful works. I admit it (please don't hate me) I have never completed a single Pynchon. Not one. Not even his second skinny one which, in my defense, I don't own yet. Let me explain with a simple cliche'd refrain...so many books, so little time. Just as I get started on a book, about a week later I'll think of another book, and begin reading it, and then a week later, start a third, and so on, to where I'll have a pile on my night stand and since I'm a neat freak I must do something about the pile eventually or I'll go stark raving mad so I'll put all but one back in the bookshelf and then start the whole neurotic/psychotic pile on the night stand process all over again. I will finish a Pynchon someday. There's a review of GR in which the reviewer says it took him 30 years to complete GR. What I've read, though, the first 200 or so pages, I greatly admire: the language, word play, absurdities & character quirks & dialogue, but you must admit, Pynchon is a damn challenging read any book you choose. And hey now hey now (as you like to say) at least I was honest and actually admitted to having only partially read a lot of texts. I could've lied and gone the super-pretentious route (which, admittedly, is a lot of fun too!) and pretended to be a Pynchon expert...and I must admit also, I not only like Pynchon, but I also like the idea of liking Pynchon, so I guess I am pretentious in that regard.

You must know, though, I have completed every single sentence of Infinite Jest, while you...you...oh you...how dare you!...continue putting it off till tomorrow...so sad...

You, my friend, are way ahead of me in this pomo world. I didn't enter it until reading IJ in 2002, at the old age of 34. DWF opened my eyes to a deeper, more complex, richer and rewarding reading experience. Until then, I was obsessed with Frank Herbert (not just the Dune books but his vast amount of obsure stuff too) as well as Asimov and Clarke.

After DWFs IJ, I began researching and compiling DWFs influences, which naturally led me to the Pynchon's, Gaddis', Barth's, Coover's, & Delillo's, as well as many of his contemporaries like Franzen, Eugenides, Vollmann, A.M. Homes, and Antrim. Deeper research of course led me Sorrentino, Alexander Theroux, Hawkes, McElroy, Markson, Gass, and host of others, most of which I'd say I've sampled but not fully read. I enjoy the hunt of finding an obscure text -- take Paul Metcalf's "Genoa" for example -- but don't enjoy eating what I've caught as much, unless it tastes really, really good, and isn't too damn difficult to swallow, which would = my tag "read".

What I've sampled of Hawkes is excellent. I believe I've "partially read" Second Skin and enjoyed the experience. See, for me, since my time is so limited, "partially reading" allows me to become familiar with a lot more works than I would otherwise if I took the time to finish them, which, eventually, I hope to do someday. I rarely put a book down half way because I don't like it but because I'm anxious to get on to the next discovery.

I loved, for instance, the first 60 pages of Farina's debut, but then immediately thereafter obtained a copy of Vasily Grossman's Russian epic, "Life & Fate," and was equally engrossed. So many books, so little time! It's a cliche but it's also true! I'm afraid I'll die before sampling all of them (I know I'll never be able to complete them all) but maybe, just maybe, I can get a bite out of each one, like oeur'dvres (spelling?) and so satiate my literary/language appetite that way.

You know, dude, I've been looking for Barthelme like forever, in particular, 60 Stories...but alas, believe it or not, with all my searching in used bookstores for literally years, never encountered it. I could buy The Dead Father over at Barnes & Noble, but prefer to wait until I find it the way I wish to find it -- used, cheap -- on MY terms.

Definitely heard of RAW, and based on your recommendation and your recommendation alone, I just may go use my $40 gift card I got from Borders this morning for Father's Day and go get me some RAW, yeah, or maybe Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" eh, or Mann's first novel and the last victorian novel, "Buddenbrooks," or perhaps the second installment of Robert Musil's "A Man Without Qualities," or maybe to rid myself of that stinking filthy rotted partially read albatross weighing down my neck, go purchase "The Crying of Lot 49" and actually read all 100 or so pages in one sitting, just to prove to you and the entire world out there that yes, yes it's true, EnriqueFreeque is smart to enough to finish a Pynchon. Hey, that could be a poem or something: "Finishing Pynchon".

Now, my friend, since you've so challenged me, may I challenge you....Mix in reading a women writer from time to time. I believe I saw you'd obtained some Flannery O'Connor recently?? (one of DWFs influences, btw). Read her. I've actually read 90% of her published short stories and her first novel, "Wise Blood". WB was okay, but her short stories are par excellance. Impactful, powerful, oftentimes shockingly violent stuff. Great talking so freely to ya. Adios.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 2:03 pm (EST) on Jun 15, 2008

You just reply whenever you damn well please (no justification necessary for not replying) and you do so whether you've read your assigned reading or not ya hear? You'd still show up to class even if you hadn't read what you darn well knew that professor was going to be discussing when you strutted on in to class right. I don't care if you've read the Brunists or IJ...Robert Coover and DWF should never stand like a Berlin Wall between our bibliophilish communicating over obscure tomes and rare discoveries unearthed beneath the dust of secondhand aisles & shelves. Here's another writer I'm looking for but ain't been able to find: Terry Southern. He wrote a book back I think in the 60s called the The Magic Christian about a billionaire who hires inappropriate, unqualified people to run to businesses as practical jokes. If you get yer paws on him before I do I'll scream and send you a nasty response. The Lakers blew a 24 pt lead against Satan's Celtics and I'm bit perturbed at the moment...pardon me.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:23 pm (EST) on Jun 13, 2008

nice new photo...GR, Poe, Proust...yeaahhhh! Enjoy your Ian Fleming reviews, though I've never read the Bond novels...I recently found a copy of Farina's debut novel (noticed he is one of your favorites) and am enthralled. Did not know that Pynchon and he were college classmates. Fascinating intro by Pynchon. What if Farina had lived, huh?

So what are you doing with yourself this summer? Don't be a stranger and keep writing your reviews!

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 8:28 pm (EST) on Jun 12, 2008

Good morning to ya. You know I dabbled myself in poetry in my teens/twenties. I went through a beats period myself, though have since moved away from that genre, though I did just finish "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" --loved it-- which I think was kind of on the outskirts or aftermath of the Beat Generation. You mention Timothy Leary...have you checked out "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe? I haven't myself, but hear its the best chronicle (non-fiction-wise) of that whole acid/Haight Asbury/DeadHead/tune in turn on drop out generation. My favorite poem from that era was Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California" where, as you probably know, the narrator speaks to Walt Whitman.

What I recall of the Brunists I remember liking. That cult it reminded me of was that LDS cult out in the boonies of Texas recently in the news where the Texas Rangers came in and took away all the children. The way those women looked, dressed and hairdo'd all old fashioned, Little House on the Prairieish, reminded me a lot of the cult -- "the Brunists" -- depicted in Coover's novel. It was a compelling read, involving a mining disaster and the resulting founding of a weird cult...lots of religious social commentary and such.

It looks like your top 25 has changed. No more "Lost in the Funhouse" there. Why you gotta be like that professor you mentioned and ignore such a seminal work? Hey, why not do a top 50 or a top 100? Once you get around to IJ you're gonna have to kick another book out anyway. You've inspired me, I think I'll do my own top...however many...on my profile.

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 11:47 am (EST) on May 10, 2008

No worries re. delay. I thought maybe my wordiness scared you off but I think we both like pretentious wordiness, so here's some more!....

Ferlinghetti does indeed spend time at City Lights. Two years ago the National Book Award nominees were announced at City Lights, hosted by Ferlinghetti. You very well could run into him if you stopped by. Have you seen "The Last Waltz"? Ferlinghetti has a cameo in it where he reads his subversive, satiric take of the Lord's Prayer. Pretty cool stuff. Though I think my own parody, "The Drug Lord's Prayer," is actually better if I immodestly say so myself.

Are you an aspiring poet yourself? Very few non-poets read poetry these days, unfortunately. I don't read it as much as I once did in school. Back in the day my faves were Rimbaud, Mark Strand, Plath, and Langston Hughes. I had a professor, Terri Brint Joseph, herself a well-known poet among the poetry crowd, who was a preeminent scholar on Ezra Pound. I'd like to tackle The Cantos someday. Seems like the Ulysses of poetry. I've never read Dickey's poetry, but based on the imagery/language in Deliverance imagine it must be excellent.

You'll have to educate me as to what a "pantoum" is. I'm curious.

I am a published writer, but if I revealed how little I've published and how little moulah I've actually made, you'd laugh your head off at me for referring to myself as a "published writer", so forgive me if I don't elaborate. I'm more of a dabbler/hobbyist when it comes to writing, rather than a bonafide, confront-the-blank-page-everyday-no-matt... full time kind of committed writer.

Going Native is probably worth a look. I gave it 3 1/2 stars here at LT. It's hard to know if the character who "goes native" at the beginning, is really the same character you're reading about all the way through. It reads disjointedly. Which might make sense if it's more a collection of mildly related short stories, as a reviewer here at LT has suggested. The writing, though, is top tier and worth checking out. It's definitely enjoyably dark and disturbing.

Korea sounds great! Get out there and experience the world, although don't be like the protagonist (forget his name) in Richard Powers' "Plowing The Dark" who teachesEnglish to kids in the middle east and makes a joke which isn't understood to be a joke but is taken literally and so he soon finds himself held prisoner by terrorists.

I've read Coover's 1st novel, the one about the Brunists, which kind of reminds me a lot of that wacky looking cult ya'll got going out there in Texas. Coover is good. I haven't gotten to The Public Burning which DWF mentions in interviews as being an important link in pomo-ism.

You are right, so many books, so little time. Now is there something out there that I'm missing (I'm sure there is)? What would you recommend? Until next time...

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 6:38 pm (EST) on May 2, 2008

Dude (I am a SoCal native so please pardon the stereotypical lingo), you are an interesting person, and we got lots in common beside books. Check this out: I proposed to my wife at sunset ON a fire lookout atop the summit of Vetter Mountain in the San Gabriel Mountains, elev. 5,908, to be exact. It's still a working fire lookout, staffed now by forest volunteers during daylight hours. On weekends it's staffed overnight. There's a lot of operating fire lookouts here in S. Cal. what with all the constant fire danger. I did a 16 mile round trip solo hike last Sept. to Tahquitz Peak Fire Lookout (elev. 8,800+) out of Palm Springs in the San Jacinto Mtns (took the famous aerial tram). At some of the fire lookouts, the public can rent them for the weekend--just hike in with your gear and camp. Head for Appalachia...no, scratch that; head out west for the Rocky's or Sierras (I'd hate to think of you running into some of them backwards "Deliverance" wantin'-you-to-oink-like-a-pig fellers ((great great book btw!--as good if not better than the film)), I'm sure you could grab a position somewhere).

Yes, I think a career in English is obviously your calling, so go for it! Get those "On The Road" free-spirited life experiences while you can, just don't do it as extreme as in "Going Native" or you might get in some trouble. But some trouble is good, I suppose.

Gaddis is god (I mean good!) Gaddis is good, repeat after me, Gaddis is good. Like GR, the Recognitions is worth the effort involved. Yes, there's allusions up the yingyang, but it's a highly satisfying experience sifting your way through. There's even an online page by page guide to help--wouldn't have enjoyed or understood it as much without that aid. JR, while "only" 700+ pages, because it has zilch chapter breaks, reads a lot like a 1000 pager. It's difficulty lies mainly in that Gaddis never specifies who's speaking. He forces you to know the characters so well that you can intuitively infer who's speaking. It's a lot funnier than Recog., but lacks the spiritual depth. Recommend both.

Now, you want ME??? to suggest some titles for YOU??? Huh? Dude, I'm like so salivating as I've perused your shelves. You've got stuff by Coover I've never even seen no matter how many years of searching dusty used bookshelves: "Pricksongs & Descants," to name but one, which is arguably, I've read, more influential than Barth's Funhouse or Barthelme's, 60 Stories. But even so, as long as we understand that your lit. library is more complete than mine, I think there are some writers you'd be interested in reading, based on what you already own. They are as follows...

William T. Vollmann: Get yer paws on a copy of "The Royal Family" and be divinely disturbed as he dives his brave readers into the bleak, rancid, fetid inferno's of SFs Tenderloin District's malaise of pimps & prostitutes & miscellany of society's dregs. The book is a visceral assault on mores & taboos, yet also deeply humane in it's all too real depictions of street life. Vollmann, in an interview, admitted to smoking crack with a prostitute so he could develop street-cred in their underworld while doing "research" for the book.

Paul Metcalf: "Genoa." I wrote a review as best I could for it. Very complex work, by the great-great grandson of Melville. Hard to find but worth the effort.

Grace Paley. Phillip Roth blurb on the back of "The Little Disturbances of Man" says it all: "At last a woman writer who isn't bitchy or precious or honey-and-roses, or all recollections of a gay fetching girlhood...she displays an understanding of loneliness, lust, selfishness, and fatigue that is splendidly comic & unladylike."

Russell Hoban: "Riddley Walker". Critics call it LOR meets A Clockwork Orange. Best read aloud with its invented language. It's the best example, I've encountered, of sci-fi/fantasy meeting pomo.

Georges Perec: "Life: A User's Manual," the most structured experimental work in history (pardon the hyperbole) out there. Each chapter corresponds to the present or past resident of a particular room in a single apartment house composed of 29 residences, office, boiler room, cellars, stairs; complete with map showing who lived where and when. A singular work. Calvino called it the last great expansion of the novel back in '78 when it came out. Calvino knows a thing or two.

Joseph McElroy: an under-appreciated, poor man's Pynchon? Perhaps. Try "Lookout Cartridge" if you're into indie-70s-film/pomo mystery, or "Women & Men", another apartment-like novel similar to Perec's above, though twice as long and leaning more toward philosophy than history/anecdotes.

Forgive my wordiness. Hard to stop once you start. What are you reading now?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 4:02 pm (EST) on Apr 19, 2008

Oh no, no punkishness inflicted. If anyone's been a punk, it's probably me. I'm not sure how to tell you this, but, biologically speaking, I'm a...I'm a MAN -- gasp! -- (and not a woman). Far be it from me to go on deceiving a fellow postmodern/metafictionist family memberlike that, when our family is so relatively diminutive to begin with. I'm going to try and trick instead some Danielle Steele fans! I'm 39, married (wife says I'm weird, rightly so) with four kids (one of which does indeed have Down's). I like mixing a little truth in with my fantasy -- helps me cope! -- which is probably why the pomo writers we read appeal to me so much: the way they brilliantly blur the lines between reality/fantasy in order to comment on and/or satirize the absurdities & injustices so often ruling reality.

Have enjoyed our recent conversations. I fully understand the Broom issue. How could it not be a anticlimactic read after reading IJ? It would be like reading Gravity's Rainbow and then expecting V to be as satisfying & rich -- just setting yourself up for a letdown. What are you studying?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 12:32 pm (EST) on Apr 17, 2008

I'm flattered! Thanks for the compliment. I'm sure you'll be pleased to know I'm presently reading Giles Goat Boy. Love it so far. I'm surprised you would list DFWs first novel on your top 25 over Infinite Jest. Granted, I've yet to read the Broom...but am curious that you'd rank it so highly nonetheless. Enjoy your library. Hope you'll soon input the balance (even if you haven't read them all). We obviously have similar highbrow literary tastes. Are you a weightlifter?

posted by EnriqueFreeque at 8:10 pm (EST) on Apr 16, 2008

"Metal jams" is a term I find very suspect.

posted by Awqakuq at 11:08 am (EST) on Apr 9, 2008

Why do you hate metal? :'(

posted by Awqakuq at 7:32 pm (EST) on Apr 2, 2008

indeed, metal will be the law in the new world. get with it or get wasted by it

posted by esdargan at 12:01 am (EST) on Mar 31, 2008

I'm still laughing at your review of "Goodbye to a River". Good stuff, funny point-of-view. Cheers.

posted by dchaikin at 11:47 pm (EST) on Aug 29, 2007

You have some fine taste there yourself, my friend!

posted by squeakjones at 2:36 pm (EST) on Mar 12, 2007