Focus, Ladies
My reading stamina ebbs and flows like an unruly tide. Sometimes we’re flooding the streets under a full moon. Lately it's felt a little like molasses, meaning that my brain has been taking its sweet, slow time with the books in front of me. I am Someone Who Finishes Books, but I’m wondering if it’s time to shed that identity. I know some reader friends of mine who have a numbered page limit, and if they’re not grabbed by, say, a page 80, the book is violently chucked in the dumpster never to be thought of again. Life is too short, they say.
And while I have no problem stipulating to the general brevity that life affords, I am unfortunately someone with boundless optimism (Sagittarius Sun) and deep wells of empathy and curiosity (Gemini Moon), even though I appear to have none of those qualities (Capricorn Rising.) I ultimately feel too bad to stop. I’d love someone to give me permission to quit occasionally, as my ever-lengthening TBR list haunts me. I stepped into a bookstore this week and my heart beat double-time.
The great thing about my variably waning levels of focus, however, is that they always return to hit me upside the head like a boomerang. And since I only write about books I like here, I needn’t have worried about setting these books aside and giving myself a pep talk. These ladies kept the pages turning for me, and I hope they will for you too.
THE LIBRARY IS OPEN
Cult Classic
by Sloane Crosley (2022)
Like a lot of homosexuals my age, I suspect, I was introduced to Sloane Crosley’s work about a decade or so ago when she would routinely appear on lists of comedic essayists who wrote in the style of David Sedaris. These lists were often drawn up in the same way that all books that occur for even a moment on a college campus are classified as books like The Secret History. (Most books wish!) I read a bunch of her essay collections, which were fun, erudite glimpses into the life of a very funny, borderline Gen X/Millennial gal who was navigating life and love. Weren’t we all. it wasn’t Sedaris, but close enough to relatable and good for a chuckle. It’s been exciting to follow her into fiction where she now lives full time, I think.
Cult Classic presents a dream or nightmare scenario, depending on who you are*. Our protagonist, a New York writer in her late 30s engaged to be married to a solid but maybe not so thrilling suitor, begins running into her exes with such frequency that it surely cannot be a coincidence. She’s got a history of being a serial monogamist, so the many hits keep on coming. These run-ins may or may not be connected to a shady former boss who’s now a billionaire with his sights set on the Next Big Thing at the intersection of technology and human interaction. Can’t give away too much because some of the reveals are truly surprising, but the novel sings most beautifully in the moment where the lead explores closure that she was never granted with exes when they broke up. Really makes you think about what you’d say if you ever got the chance.
*For the record, I think this is a dream scenario. I thrive in very awkward situations and would love a crack at catching up with the ones that let me get away. (Again, Sagittarius Sun.)
Read it if you like: Light sci-fi, Bravo TV, sassy heroines with one-liners, Katharine Hepburn movies before 1960, do-overs
Sirens & Muses
by Antonia Angress (2022)
We’re always warned not to judge a book by it’s cover, but reader, here I urge you to judge away. Isn’t it gorgeous? We’re also allowed to judge the cover of a book like this because it touches on themes like class, money, art, youth, and beauty!
This book is a delicate creature that begins on the campus of a New England art school. (Let me stop here and tell you that this book is nothing like The Secret History!) As the school year begins, we’re taken back to a simpler, sweeter time when Occupy Wall Street was just setting up tents and recession was bearing down. A transfer student from Louisiana named Louisa has been assigned to room with a rich girl named Karina whose life is already entrenched in the art world because of her wealthy, art trader parents. In the girls’ orbit, and sometimes in one of their beds, is enfant terrible and wunderkind Banksy-lite Preston. When a once-controversial artistic firebrand arrives on campus as a guest professor, a prank is played on him that alters the lives of all of our characters for years to come. Ripple effects occur, we all end up in New York, and there are many instances when girls do kiss one another.
This book is a debut and really packs a lot of ideas into it- art, capitalism, sexuality, family, power, abuse, indiscernible value of objects, privilege. The miraculous thing is that it never feels didactic or pretentious, as so many books about capital-A art do. It was delightful to follow the lives of extremely talented but quite flawed youth try to figure out what art meant to them and what the personal and professional costs associated with that were. It’s a character study worth observing.
Read it if you like: People who say recession times create great art, So Much Blue by Percival Everett, sexual fluidity, NYC novels, fish out of water.
The Last Samurai
by Helen DeWitt (2002)
No, not that Last Samurai with Tom Cruise.
Funny story! The New York Times Books Section has a weekly feature called By the Book where they ask a (usually literary) celebrity a series of questions about their readings habits and history. I always try to play along and answer the questions as I would, as if anyone would be curious. One of the best questions that shows up almost weekly is: What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of? I could never figure out what my answer to this would be. How is there such a great book that no one in my circles would have heard of?
A couple years ago I decided that my answer would be The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. Shortly after that in 2018, and kind of embarrassingly for me, New York Magazine gathered a number of superstar literati to decide what the best books of the century were so far, and wouldn’t you know that they named The Last Samurai the Book of the Century. So, LOL, I guess some people have heard of this book.
This is all to say: This book rules, and you don’t need to take my word for it. Based very loosely on The Seven Samurai, a single mother in London is raising a child prodigy who’s reading the classics in Greek and Latin by 4 or 5 years old. Struggling to make ends meet, they sometimes ride the London Underground in loops, staying there for somewhere to keep warm and to stave off boredom. As the boy, Ludo, ages he gets curious about finding his father, and he goes off into the world armed with clues that limit his search to 7 men to find his absent parent. This book is weird, funny, heartwarming, and formally inventive in a way that makes it hard to describe. There are pages in other languages and sometimes you’re confronted with math. It’s a book that feels elitist, but once you dig in you realize it’s a an anti-elitism manifesto with heart that longs to find a place to belong. Also, this book is from 2002 and was a production of Miramax (!!!) Books. Their trail of great art by awfully behaved producers is truly unmatched!
Read it if you like: A best book of the century, weird lit, London books, kids that aren’t annoying, books that make you feel smart.
THE LIGHTNING ROUND
If you’re in the mood for Get Out but in an office setting, this one might do the trick.
Celebrate 25 years of the Butterfly album with a celebrity memoir that’s actually juicy and insightful! Her season is just around the corner.
If you’re on the fence about going vegetarian or vegan, perhaps this dystopian parable with some light cannibalism will force your hand.
Until next time…happy reading!