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It’s a book about writing a book about separating the art from the artist. A book about monstrous people who do great things but also an account of the author trying to come to terms and find a way to handle the conflict. 

I probably wouldn’t have read this book if I knew the format, but luckily I read one of the chapters published in some magazine (Paris Review?). But I’m glad I read it.  “Monsters” gives no clear answers or framework for where to draw the line. Instead, it provides a framework for thinking about these issues. It addresses the thorny issues of “back then they didn’t know better,” redemption, and monstrousness coming from abuse in childhood or from the entertainment issue. Mostly it deals with the idea that great art and bad behavior may be intrinsically linked (and how, historically, this tends to skew masculine). 

A main focus of this book is the author trying to reconcile her love of Roman Polanski’s films with her disgust over his actions and the admitted tragedies of his life (mother died in the Holocaust and wife in the Manson murders). Much of the conversation revolves around what the films mean to the author personally and takes into account the dramatic shift in biographical detail that is only recently accessible to everyone. There are no easy ways out (i.e. don’t financially support them if they’re alive) and no panacea for all bad behavior. There is a reasonably good take on cancel culture. 

After some 200 pages of careful discussions about the complications of trying to reconcile behavior and art there is a bit of an unsatisfying conclusion that feels a bit rushed or even unnecessary given the rest of the book. A bit unsatisfying, but there is still a lot to take from this book and it’s wonderfully stand-alone-worthy chapters. 

Ostensibly very similar novels. Both are semi-autobiographical stories from the early adulthood of poets (turn novelists) struggling with addiction and their American/foreign identity. They both follow depressed young men lacking a sense of purpose and trying to start writing but caught up in the tedium of work and relationships. 

Vuong’s novel follows Hai who is living with Grazina, an old lady helping her through the throes of dementia while working at a fast food restaurant with an interesting cast of characters. The story largely follows the relationship between Hai and Grazina and his cousin/coworker Sony’s attempts to make bail for his mother and afford a trip to visit his father. 

Emperor of Gladness examines the struggles and expectations of immigrants along with the struggles of work in the service industry. Nearly every character has a sad backstory and often some dream deferred from illness, medical bills, or general financial instability. There can be no expectations of happy ending from Vuong (hardly a spoiler) but there’s a wonderful sense of beauty in the mundane moments and shared burdens. 

This is certainly a more stylistically mature novel than “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” but also feels less urgent and personal. Still very enjoyable. 

Akbar’s novel follows Cyrus, a young man in recovery attempting to write a novel about martyrdom. He is first occupied by the famous religious martyrs along with his experience of growing up as an Iranian-American in the 2000s. These feelings are enhanced by the death of his mother on Iran Flight 655 and his day job as a medical actor. He is largely preoccupied with death and generally unable to cope with both death and general uncertainty. 

His feelings about martyrdom change upon meeting with an artist whose last exhibit is to put herself on display as she dies of cancer. Throughout this section, more information about his mother and uncle unfold in the context of the Iranian revolution. The unfolding of these two storylines make up the last third of the book and are fairly propulsive. 

It didn’t quite work for me. All of the characters seemed to try to hard to liked and to explain their grand struggle and bad behaviors. They ended up feeling a bit flat and overwrought. Many of the ideas presented felt underdeveloped and presented as over profound. It’s not an entirely unsuccessful first novel, but it really felt like a first novel. 

Finished some whole wheat flour and ended up at 30% instead of the usual 50. Whether from the different flour or a longer fermentation this was pretty bubble and light.

This short novel is a play of extremes. The plot is parodicly overdone yet the writing is quite casual (no quotation marks here). 

It’s a detective novel about a middle-aged man fired from his job as a flight attendant without any real skills or prospects. He decides to become a private investigator and ends up getting tied up in a series of events with a minor political party. 

This novel fixates on class and the role of financial difficulties in consuming a person’s thinking. In particular, when satellite debris crashes into a grocery store, Gerard notes that it’s inconvenient to go to a more expensive grocery store in his neighborhood because he can barely afford it and feels great shame being reminded of this regularly. In fact, his precarious financial state is exacerbated by his decision to become a private investigator (while barely being able to afford Bic pens for his office) but the thought of making money without having to deal with his blemished record is appealing. This desperation leads him into certain difficult circumstances that become nearly inescapable. 

“Command Performance” is a great short novel that moves quickly but feels like it could be a full-length work. It’s a “genre” type work that’s both serious and playful. 

My standard loaf with a touch extra hydration which caused things to get a little slack.

An Egyptian-American woman moves to Cairo to explore her cultural identity. While there, she becomes involved with a man from the village of Shobrakheit, a couple of wealthy locals, and a British man. Between her eyes and those of “the boy from Shobrakheit” (unnamed, as is the narrator), we get an account of her struggles to fit into a place that is considered important to her identity.

This novel explores the feeling of otherness that the narrator experienced growing up as an Arab-America and particularly focuses on her early adulthood during the “great a-wokening.” This fairly academic understanding of culture, class, and gender clashes with her experiences in Cairo.

The third section (much maligned) is written as a writing workshop dialogue about the first two sections largely focusing on boilerplate responses to how the story portrays the people of Cairo and whether it is appropriate to “platform” certain characters/beliefs.

This novel feels like a confrontation between the American academic approach to talking about non-western cultures and the experience of living through them in a way that feels unique and perhaps uncomfortable and too complex (which is the third section).

This short novel gives a lot to chew on even with the main discussion already being played out at the end of the book. It felt a bit extreme at times but was still a well-done, important novel.

Back to the standard 50% whole wheat loaf. It was a cool week and got a little chilly inside which led to a fairly slow fermentation but it turned out pretty well all things considered.

I’ve been putting this off because I read it slowly and sporadically so it doesn’t feel quite as cohesive as it really should be (my fault). 

Before reading this I had read “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” and “Play it as it Lays” (fiction). This is a more solidified style than “Slouching” although I almost miss some of those particularly personal and inconclusive parts. There is really a clear “Didion style” here in her use of repetition, dramatic scene changes mid-paragraph, and air of neutrality until dropping an important detail to provide a sharp clarity to the issue. 

Sections 1-3 were certainly my favorite . In particular, “The White Album, “Holy Water,” “Many Mansions,” and “Notes Toward a Dreampolitik,” “Bureaucrats,” “Doris Lessing,” and “In the Islands” are among the best short-form writing I’ve read. These are particularly masterpieces of scaling minor details (Linda Kasabian’s dress) into comprehensive anecdotes and major events (Manson murders at large) into minor parts of the cultural milieu. There are also many hints of an almost giddy wonder at how the world works (especially in “Holy Water,” “Bureaucrats”) to contrast her usual cynicism at most cultural shifts (“The Women’s Movement,” “Bureaucrats” again). 

While some pieces were better than others, Didion’s writing continues to feel fresh and exciting. Glad that I got the brick of collected works from Everyman’s (and will get the second half when it’s available). 

A 1973 Booker Prize finalist reprinted by McNally following a bookseller–Hero Kinoull–who falls in love (romaticly) with her lover’s wife and then (platonically) his mother. But really the only main plot point is that there is a seminar to be held on Rococo art and an outbreak of Typhus. 

This is really a novel following Hero’s departure from the seemingly serious masculine world of literature and preservation (she moonlights in book binding/restoration) and into the feminine worlds of volunteerism and gardening. All of these stages take place through the conduit of one of the other characters who she becomes obsessed with. Really it’s a novel about finding a sense of identity in a time that feels unmoored (written in the 70’s but set at the dawn of WWI). Hero fights from backward-looking cynicism towards some degree of hope.   

This is a witty book of English style and French character. It may no longer be as transgressive or shocking as the early reviews seem to indicate but the core is still good. While the plot description seems like this may be a fun drama, it’s really a quite serious book (although still funny) with good writing (although it feels very “film-like” through fast scene changes and sharp transitions between reflection/poetic descriptions/dialogue). 

A little departure from the usual with some oatmeal sourdough (recipe). There is cooked oatmeal inside as well as oats on top (which taste good but causes a mess). Gluten development is always challenging with oats mixed in which can lead to a flatter loaf but has a very moist crumb.