torpor
The evening books differ from the morning books in that they are rarely part of a ‘project’ of any kind, except that of sufficiently distracting me from the state of the world so that I can go to sleep. A few half-awake reflections:
- Interior Chinatown. Started as an audiobook on the bus to the beach, because the paperback is set in courier, of all things, which might get points for verisimilitude (really?), but not for legibility. Unfortunately, the dappled flashing of the sun along the highway and the recirculated air led to a migraine, which then lashed on to the sound of the audiobook. The novel is good enough to finish despite these difficulties.
- The Book of Magic. Reads more like an annotated commonplace book than an anthology. One feels that Copenhaver has made his selection of what will illuminate the subject guided by what he finds interesting rather than what anyone else would think of as ‘essential’. Enjoyable, but slow going.
- Letters from Iceland. Perhaps the most peculiar travel book I have ever read. A mishmash of poetry, anthology, and different forms of prose; it says little about Iceland, as such, save in what it does not say. Straining the meaning of the word ‘letter’ to accommodate the oddest verbal contortions. Fun stuff.
- The Book Against Death. Canetti really does seem to be against death qua death – not just his own or those nearest to him. A rarity. Perhaps the most purely moral book I have read recently.
- Donne’s poems. A poem a day keeps the demons at bay.
- Brother in Ice. Started off strong and is particularly good when talking about very cold places. Less interesting when the narrator succumbs to hot-girl syndrome, which is the peculiar state of believing (common in books published by & Other Stories) that being conventionally attractive and emotionally awkward near a two-wheeled vehicle makes one interesting.
- Devotion. The narrator figure in Patti Smith’s essay is what the narrator in Brother in Ice is trying to be. Beautifully straddles the liminality between insider (author) and outsider (reader).