Weekend Reads
It's been awhile since we've done one of these
Welcome to another Weekend Reads of books and links and things that made me feel something.
I finally picked up Emma Cline’s The Guest, one of last summer’s hits. I thought it was going to be about a grifter nomad taking advantage of rich Hamptons people – you know, an eat-the-rich book – but it’s actually about an escort who’s stolen a bunch of drugs, escaped the city and all responsibility, and is surviving by the skin of her teeth. It’s a bit sad in macro, and a bit stressful in micro. And it is compulsively readable. I couldn’t stop. It’s also the POV of a character in a specific kind of thriller, the one who keeps disappearing and complicating things for everyone. The traditional main characters – the drug dealer, the wronged parties – are basically offscreen the entire novel, other than a few words here and there. I enjoyed how it made me feel for this vortex of a person who brings absolute chaos in her wake, but I also found it deeply unsettling to identify with a character who relies on the generosity of others via subterfuge.
Ooooooh, lordy. Did Lauren Oyler shoot Ann Manov’s dog or something? This scathing review of Oyler’s new book of essays is like watching a trainwreck. It goes so deep on the criticism that you can’t help but feel it deeply in your soul. As a writer, though, I’m also weirdly attracted to the prospect of someone doing this for me and my writing someday? Like, is this the final form of the attention I seek as a youngest child? My therapist of long ago informed me that no, I would not enjoy a barrage of online hate, and yes, it would make me feel like a bad person … and yet. The level of detail in this takedown is so minute, the carefully plotted not-ad hominem attacks still feeling so very ad hominem, that I can’t help wondering what it would look like if I happened to cross Manov someday.
I was absolutely about to pitch an article about Shōgun’s Fool, just to Google it and discover out Nicholas Quah beat me to it. If you’ve already watched the first three episodes of FX’s Shōgun, a TV show about the politics of historical Japan as affected by an (unintentionally? intentionally?) hilarious white dude, have a read. If you haven’t, get thee to Hulu!! The whole season is out now!!! I want to watch the scene of Blackthorne protecting the convoy on repeat!!!
Huzzah, the dry streak is over! The good people of Monkeybicycle have published a short story of mine, my first since 2021. While I’m writing my novel, which is trying to be cheery and fun and adventurey, my short fiction has become darker. But it’s nice to see my name up in lights again.
Have a Good Shabbos, and may the coming weeks bring peace for us all.