Does He Bite?
July 30, 2009
Rhinocéros : pièce en trois actes et quatre tableaux by Eugène Ionesco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Yes I read this in French and I think it’s loosely based on the Maytag commercials with the lonely repairman………..
Loaded With Laughs
July 30, 2009
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Kerouac’s only junkie fiction tells the story of a stay in Mexico City where he falls for an opiated lady with a hen. Reminds me of a much later project — a film by Perry Farrell called GIFT.
Not for the weak of heart and not for the fan who expects Kerouac to provide hope….
The Rogue
July 30, 2009
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Any book that reveals that George Washington had womanly hips is fine by me.
A GRENDEL type look at the FI war and the Revolution we begin to understand why Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton and tried to annex Mexico as his own country to escape his rival Thomas Jefferson.
Great for a history book report!!!!
We The Subsistent
July 30, 2009
We the Living: 60th Anniversary Edition by Ayn Rand
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The only Ayn Rand book I can stomach as it was written before her pseudo-philosophies raped trees all over the world…….
Dos Passos Was Human
July 30, 2009
Most Likely To Succeed by John Dos Passos
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
a saddening and maddening look at the degeneration of the finest american author of the early 20th century.
instead of exploring the hardened issues that turned his early work into poetry here we find the depth of a “Friends” episode…..
Whine And Roses
July 15, 2009
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
FROM A RECENT RE-READ
I’ll never understand the pain and irony less than when I plopped this thing on the tread mill and had to ask serious questions about life. Like did I tivo lifetime’s thirtysomething marathon?
in fact salinger annoys me with this one plodding conceit. The gloom of kissing unhappy adolescence goodbye in a sociopentameter that well isn’t necessarily the Rosetta stone.
Which sucks. Because I always prided myself on having some sort of compassion with poor Holden and all his confusion. But as even as there is a fuck you to ruin every little sanctuary i’m beginning to feel some more sympathy for the guy who grafitto’d.
4 Books I Could Have Avoided
July 15, 2009
During recent rants I have managed to secretly re-read some books that I thought were lifelong necessities to have read but now feel like kicking my ass for doing such.
Book 1.
ATLAS SHRUGGED
Rush fan or not, it was totally unnecessary to spend 4 months of my junior high life reading this crap not worthy of the WASHINGTON TIME’S funny pages. What a piece of shit. Read THE FOUNTAINHEAD….it’s a good way to learn how not to write.
Book 2.
WINESBURG, OHIO
Not rehashing this debacle again but let’s just say I found myself bored by the mundane. Who woulda figured?
Book 3.
THE SUBTERRANEANS
Hold the phone…I love Kerouac like yoplait but this pulpy milk carton is missing Kerouac big time.
Book 4.
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
I’ll never understand the pain and irony less than when I plopped this thing on the tread mill and had to ask serious questions about life. Like did I tivo lifetime’s thirtysomething marathon?
in fact salinger annoys me with this one plodding conceit. The gloom of kissing unhappy adolescence goodbye in a sociopentameter that well isn’t necessarily the Rosetta stone.
Which sucks. Because I always prided myself on having some sort of compassion with poor Holden and all his confusion. But as even as there is a fuck you to ruin every little sanctuary i’m beginning to feel some more sympathy for the guy who grafiito’d.
Generation Wrecks
June 30, 2009
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
I like any book that starts chapters with declarative sentences like “The Saab won’t start”……
GENERATION X fulfilled it’s promise as a book detailing the torn culture that was abashed and honored by mass media and fast food.
Douglas Coupland wrote this at the same time that SLACKER was released in theaters. No denying that double punch felt good at the time….
Avoid Ayn Rand
June 27, 2009
Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged, the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
My review
rating: 1 of 5 stars
Bought this dual copy of ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD so I could finally kiss this amazon girl I know.
Honestly the best part of keeping these two turds bound together is to save butane at your next Ayn burning.
Honestly I loved old Ayn until I suddenly realized how mean she was after seeing ftg of her on tv where she declared Mickey Spillane as her favorite contemporary. So many young writers start here….so many good writers flush her down…….
USA -John Dos Passos
June 20, 2009
U.S.A.: The 42nd Parallel/1919/The Big Money by John Dos Passos
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazing what a book can do for the tool of storytelling. USA engineered a new novel, a new need to make memories contemporary….or about detailing the past in future perfect when 200 pages before it all happened before.
Tarantino rips off a lot of folks and you have to include Joyce and John Dos Passos. His weaving of timespace is in sync with the many interesting ways the individual stories are displayed.
I love the non-linear. From Godard to THE WEST WING it has certainly become my cup of tea.
p.s.I was 15 when I read this after I threw out ATLAS SHRUGGED. It was like hearing the Beatles after hearing Herman’s Hermits…I could have saved myself so much time.
