On the razzle again

[muckefuck]

MF: Guess what I did tonight!
MS: I have no idea.
MF: You have some idea.
MS: [sound of pebbles tumbling] You went to a gallery opening.
MF: Then what?
MS: You went out drinking.
MF: No, I haven't had a single drink. More irresponsible than that.
MS: You went out dancing.
MF: More irresponsible than that!
MS: I give up.
MF: I went to a bookstore!

How could I resist when Bookworks is mere blocks from the Center on Halsted? (Go there! See my friend Joey's paintings in the second floor gallery!) For the record:

1. MAHFOUZ, Naguib. Morning and evening talk. Don't really know anything about it, but I've become something of a Mahfouz completist. Similar conceit to Bolaño's Nazi Literature in the Americas, but with more narrative coherence.
2. PROULX, Annie. Close range: Wyoming stories. Yeah, the one with "Brokeback Mountain" in it. Read a couple on the bus ride home and it should be a pretty easy read.
3. KEMAL, Yaşar. Memed, my hawk. Okay, so this wasn't one of the Turkish authors recommended by the guy I talked to last week. The NYRB Classics edition is so pretty that it fell into my hand anyway.
4. MANTEL, Hilary. Wolf Hall. Been looking for this for the better part of a year, ever since one of my most respected colleagues recommended it. Why did it take so damn long to wind up in a used bookstore>

Comments

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

The story I really remember from Close Range is ‘People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water’, which really gave me a shock at the time. I've slightly gone off her writing style since then, but I still think she does the gothic western thing better than Cormac McCarthy does.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

After reading Myers' takedown, I was relieved to see that it only becomes nigh-unreadable in some of the stories. Still pretty choppy throughout. Jesus on a tent pole does she love her dangling modifiers.