Recent content by Bartleby

Love the Vonnegut and the Faulkner, both of which I've read kind of a long time ago... Zambra is a writer I keep thinking of coming back to - I've only read Bonsai and Private Life of Trees. Really liked them. I've been meaning to read more Vargas Llosa, so that could be an incentive to finally...

I kinda started this one (ok, I've only read the first half a dozen pages), and it was a sequence of informational bits one after the other about the main character and those around her, without much characterisation, imagery, or plot, so the result, for me, was numbing, and I gave up, for the...

I was looking for recommendations of books in which there are constant, abrupt jumps forwards in time; it can be a family saga, or something else, as long as it keeps its attention focused on some character(s) while, from chapter to chapter, a long amount of time has passed. I'm thinking of...

Such sad news. The consolation is to know she has lived a long, productive, and, I hope, happy life. Her stories speak to many people, myself included. I had first read her at university early in the year she got the Nobel prize. It was a story from her first collection. I liked it but...

In the copyright section of the book's English language edition it is stated: There is no translator credited. Taking a quick look at the two editions, tho, they look fairly similar... I Guess the author either really wrote the English one first, but got to publish the Spanish version first...

https://www.theguardian.com/news/article/2024/may/07/cesar-airas-unreal-magic-how-the-eccentric-author-took-over-latin-american-literature

I was listening to this podcast yesterday about the Brooklyn sequel, and there Toibin mentioned not particularly liking sequels but in this case he kept seeing images from the new book's opening scene, and he knew it involved Eilis and the people around her, and gradually a story formed in his...

I just saw a post recommendation on my phone's browser, nothing related to his death (only the heading was visible), but I was suspicious of it, and was sad (and shocked) to discover the news when I googled his name. Here's the article I initially came across...

An interesting text written by the author, and adapted from an upcoming book of essays, dealing with the issue of writing in (and about) China today. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/04/19/on-the-distinctiveness-of-writing-in-china/

New interview with Anne Carson: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/04/17/throwing-yourself-into-the-dark-a-conversation-with-anne-carson/

The teaser for the Netflix adaptation of the beloved García Márquez novel has been released. I was worried they were going to mess the source material up really badly, but now I'm more hopeful about it. I particularly liked the different actors looking so much alike across the ages...

I've now realised the synopses I've found don't necessarily cover the main topics of the books. In The Argonauts, for instance, Harry Dodge is a trans person; In In the Dream House the said, toxic, relationship is a lesbian one.

Some possible choices that could suit your request; they are all critically acclaimed contemporary books that should also be intriguing and easy to read: Zadie Smith's Intimations. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. Constructing a Nervous System by...

thanks for the review! I finally got my hands on this book, on my kindle. Not sure if I'm gonna read it soon, tho, it seems too dauting an affair. But the last paragraph (especially the highlighted part) reassured me that when I do read it it's gonna be something to my liking:

I'm hoping now the Hwang book takes the prize. It would be an incentive for me to finally pick one of his books up. Plus the synopsis caught my attention. Also this: I feel for the guy.