Recent Reading

I finished Chronic City, and I take back what I said a few posts below about it reminding me of Auster. It is a fun read with interesting characters & fantastic elements, from the tiger that is terrorizing the city, to the astronaut fiance who is stuck in space, to the apartment complex just for dogs, to the artist who constructs giant chasms in the city. Perhaps it is because I recently finished reading Inherent Vice, but the names here could fit into a Pynchon novel--Chase Insteadman being one for example. Chase becomes student to Perkus Tooth, who attempts to educate Chase on movies, music, and the finer points of Gnuppets, but Chase has a hard time keeping up with Tooth's obsessions. Eventually, what Chase comes to learn about the role he plays and what he comes to learn about those in power re-defines everything for the former child actor. Now if only I could find a copy of Obstinate Dust...

Keeping with my recent streak of reading books from 2009, I also read Tao Lin's Shoplifting From American Apparel. I wish I had read this before I read Richard Yates, but really it doesn't matter. I've only read two of Lin's books now, but the themes are persistent. Shoplifting captures a young author who is lonely and largely communicates with people through gmail chat. Like in Richard Yates, there are autobiographical elements at work here. The protagonist, Sam, is a vegan who occasionally shoplifts and largely spends his time on his computer, whether it be at NYU's library or on the macbook he seems to carry everywhere with him. After an opening online exchange between Sam and Luis, the narrative jumps ahead four months, and we find out that Sam is no longer with the Sheila who is mentioned in the opening exchange. Sam becomes briefly involved with a series of women, but largely remains disconnected. The writing style is flat & direct, the descriptions vague but somehow engaging: "They kissed some more then stared at each other with neutral facial expressions. Sam thought that her facial expression was as neutral as Sheila's when Sheila was in similar situations. Sam felt his own neutral facial expression." This novella comes in at under 100 pages and makes for a very quick read.

I haven't committed to a new book yet, but I think it might be Tony Tost's 33 1/3 book American Recordings. I've also been flipping around in Ron Padgett's How Long. And for a freelance job, I am reading a lot about the history of Bay City, MI.