![]() That’s the case for Beatrice, whose self-image is wrapped up in the feedback of her friend Bonnie. You can go anywhere, unimpeded by the microaggressions of strangers, the obligatory, waterlogged civilities of friends and acquaintances.” But disembodiment can also be confusing for those whose identities are shaped by the views of others. ![]() It lifts the tiny anvil of self-consciousness. ![]() “No one looks at you, no one assesses you. “Do you know how easily the world yields to you when you move through it in an invisibility cocoon?” Ma writes. In one, “Los Angeles,” a woman lives with her 100 ex-boyfriends, including a man who abused her in another, “G,” a pill makes people invisible, allowing them to experience life without the constraints of a body. ![]() Ma’s new short story collection, “ Bliss Montage,” shares some of the themes she explored in her debut, including identity and the immigrant experience, but most of these stories are uncanny and haunting. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Vanity Fair has an excellent interview with Foer talking about his creative process on this project and contemporary art at large. The result is a beautiful blend of sculpture and storytelling, adding a layer of physicality to the reading experience in a way that completely reshapes your relationship with text and the printed page. The die-cut narrative hangs in an aura of negative space, adding the necessary touch of designerliness to what’s already a hipster-ready concept. But author Jonathan Safran Foer (of Everything Is Illuminated fame) reminds us of its analog quintessence in his brilliant Tree of Codes ( public library) project - a book created by cutting out chunks of text from Foer’s favorite novel, The Street of Crocodiles by Polish author Bruno Schulz, rearranging the text to form an entirely different story. In our present culture, we’ve come to see the art of remix as a product of digital media. ![]() ![]() An echo of this persists in America’s current strain of prohibition. ![]() The Ku Klux Klan said that “nigger gin” was the main reason that oppressed black people were prone to rebellion, and if you banned alcohol, they would become quiescent. Of course, there were more obviously sinister proponents of Prohibition too, pressing progressives into weird alliances. Within 10 days, only four of the original 13 remained, and the rebellion was spreading across the country. This prayer-athon then moved around to every alcohol-seller in the town. They worked in six-hour prayer shifts on the streets until the saloonkeeper finally appeared, head bowed, and agreed to shut it down. They marched as one to the nearest bar, where they all sank to their knees and prayed for the soul of its owner. A huge crowd of women cheered: They believed their husbands were squandering their wages at the saloon. One Sunday in 1874, Eliza Thompson-a mother to eight children, who had never spoken out on any public issue before-stood before the crowds at her church and announced that America would never be free or godly until the last whiskey bottle was emptied onto the dry earth. ![]() ![]() It’s not hard to see how this fug of liquor caused problems, as well as pleasure-and the backlash was launched by a furious housewife from a small town in Ohio. ![]() ![]() ![]() Na's modest freedom at vocational college ends when Bao-bao dies and she returns to live with her parents. Even her younger brother, Bao-bao, became a stranger after joining their parents in the city to study for the National Higher Education Entrance Exam. Nineteen-year-old Na barely knows her parents, who work year-round in the city of Taiyuan. Na's life at her vocational college in China ends when she has to go home and support her family. ![]() Please purchase the book online via the link below and add your personalization request in the comments section during checkout. Jennie Liu will sign and personalize books ordered prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email on the day of the event with the URL and password required to attend on Zoom. This live stream event is free but registration is required. ![]() ![]() In certain ways, Henry James was like the Seinfeld of his time. The narration is mostly clear, but the pacing is stilted, the female voices are weak, and editing left in several mistakes/repeats. I found this interesting and was glad I read it, but would not read it again, nor recommend it to most readers. It felt as if this book were written for the author, as self-therapy, without much consideration of other readers. Post-Me-Generation readers may have trouble bonding with the protagonist's challenge of finding himself in Paris. The characters' dialog is a bit abstracted, as if in (a very long) play. Yet, it was quite difficult for me to immerse myself in the characters or story. ![]() The writing is narrated from the protagonists point-of-view, and we see him slowly change. The main character is an American small town fellow sent to Paris to retrieve a wayward younger man, and instead discovers the limits of his own experience and comes to question his conventional wisdom. I don't find that this has aged very well. The writing and subject were interesting, modern, and unusual. I can understand this in a kind of abstract way. This was listed 27th on the Modern Library 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. ![]() |