sunflowerskins's reviews from LibraryThing

Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:28:10 -0400

sunflowerskins's review: "Take a moment to mark down some thoughts on Genet's work. He writes beautifully. Every sentence, though filled with vomit, shit, pricks, and murder, brings tears to my eyes. What I am remarking on exactly is his--timing? Appropriateness? When describing the events of his loves, he cuts off at the most tender parts, not abandoning the "orgasm" of the piece, but somehow retaining its purity and starkness sans a certain sentiment that would otherwise drag on too long. His structure and seeming restraint are evident as the heart is fit to burst, then he changes the subject. There is never anything written in an anti-climactic fashion, only leaving the reader to imagine what one will. It's absolutely perfect."
Grove Press (1963), Hardcover

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:27:13 -0400

sunflowerskins's review: "Remember this: "Seymour: an Introduction" has stopped you cold in its grace, digressions, pain, and pride. Reading it had me spellbound, if not for its eloquence and insight, then for its difficulty that, at first, the text appears as nothing else Salinger has written, yet at the very heart is exactly how he has been striving to write in all of his other works. It reads like a diary entry on how to read and write, and I feel that all English students should study this carefully; its excessiveness is not excess at all, and for all its verbosity, it is simple, but not as Buddy detests the word. The message is clear, though I cannot quite write it out here, only that I understand it."
Back Bay Books (2001), Paperback, 256 pages