what I’ve been reading lately:
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The Details
(by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson) Each of the four sections of this novel is a memory piece, the story of the narrator’s relationship with someone who was once in her life but isn’t anymore (two lovers, a friend, her now-dead mother). Based on the story’s timeline, it’s clear that the virus the narrator…
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the art and craft of approaching your head of department to submit a request for a raise
(by Georges Perec, translated by David Bellos) As David Bellos explains in his introduction, “Around 1968, a French computer company set itself the challenge of finding artists willing to have a go at using the machines that it made.” In this case, Perec “accepted the challenge to write as a computer functions,” and this delightful…
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Rose/House
(by Arkady Martine) I picked this one up randomly at the library and am glad I did: this turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable read for me. One of the epigraphs is a quote from this New Yorker article by Alice Gregory about the architect Luis Barragán, and I’d recommend reading the article as…
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Among the Thugs
(by Bill Buford) I definitely groaned when I saw that this book was my non-fiction book club’s choice for June—I wasn’t sure I wanted to read about English football hooligans in the 1980s. But as it turned out, I actually liked this one. Buford’s writing is very good, and I like how the structure and…
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Summer Solstice
(by Nina MacLaughlin) There are, for sure, things I like about summer: evening walks, swimming in the ocean, stepping out the door without having to think about whether I’m wearing enough clothing. But also, this is not really my season. I’m a pale redhead who requires lots of sunscreen; heat and humidity are challenging for…
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Gliff
(by Ali Smith) I will read anything by Ali Smith but dystopias are generally not my thing, and reading about a near-future dystopia feels especially rough right now. But there’s a horse in it (the horse is the title character, in fact) and in the end I think there were more things I liked about…
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Gotham
(by Nick Earls) Having recently read the second book (Venice) in this series of five linked novellas, I wanted to go back and read this one, which is the first. While Venice was set in Australia, this one features an Australian abroad: our narrator, Jeff, is in New York partly for work and partly for…
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Pure Invention
(by Matt Alt) In the introduction to this book, Alt explains that it’s about how certain Japanese exports had an outsize global impact— or, as he puts it, how these exports “transformed our tastes, our dreams, and eventually our realities as we incorporated them into our lives.” Each chapter is about a different item or…
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Venice
(by Nick Earls) I can’t remember where/when/why I bought this novella but my best guess is that it was when I was on vacation in New Zealand in 2017 (Earls is Australian). This is actually the second in a series of five linked novellas, but it works as a standalone (though I do want to…
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Roman Year
(by André Aciman) I read Alibis a few years ago and really liked it; though that was a series of linked essays and this is more of a straight-up memoir, the vibes are similar: Proustian, readerly, writerly. I love Aciman’s prose: there are sentences in this book that I felt I had to stop and…