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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
Felt like getting schooled by someone cooler and smarter than me at a party, mostly in the thrall but zoning out once or twice when they got onto a subject I cared less about. I think what I mean is this book has charisma? I was willing to follow wherever it went.
I love Marguerite Duras and Denis Johnson and so much of what these essays are about but this just left me cold. Except for the excellent, final titular, essay I found her writing lacking any poetry and emotion.
slow-paced
I listened to this and it was so good I wished I had just read it. It's essays, so not all are 5 stars for me, but the ones that stood out were really special. My favourites were on prison abolition, and then the last one "The Hard Crowd" which reminded me of nothing as much as a Nan Goldin photograph with a completely unmistakable Gen X timestamp on it. So satisfying! The structure has her watching a youtube video of driving in 1970s San Francisco, and using the video to guide her reminiscences from the 80s and 90s. She manages to get from the Beats to Raymond Pettibon and a million places in between, and it was really touching and captured the ephemeral quality of early adulthood for a curious person.
The abolition essay was excellent, tracking the work of Ruth Wilson Gilmore (it's reprinted from the NYT --https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html)--the essay gave me a lot to think about, including the refrain "Where life is precious, life *is* precious." Among other things Gilmore challenges the idea that prisons are disproportionately black, and talks about the complexity of race in prisons that goes beyond the new Jim Crow analysis that got more mainstreamed by Ava DuVernay's film 13th.
There are many more standouts in this collection of essays, and I really enjoyed her writing style.
The abolition essay was excellent, tracking the work of Ruth Wilson Gilmore (it's reprinted from the NYT --https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html)--the essay gave me a lot to think about, including the refrain "Where life is precious, life *is* precious." Among other things Gilmore challenges the idea that prisons are disproportionately black, and talks about the complexity of race in prisons that goes beyond the new Jim Crow analysis that got more mainstreamed by Ava DuVernay's film 13th.
There are many more standouts in this collection of essays, and I really enjoyed her writing style.
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
A nice mixture of essays on topics ranging from motorcycle racing, Palestinians in a camp in Jerusalem, the rock and roll scene in SF, and literary criticism. It took me a while to get into the essays in that the first one about a dangerous motorcycle race in Mexico just wasn't my cup of tea, though I'm glad that I stuck with the book as I found the series of essays, across disparate topics, to gather weight.
I listened to the audiobook, read by author in a measured and reserved voice, a real pleasure.
I listened to the audiobook, read by author in a measured and reserved voice, a real pleasure.
funny
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
The Hard Crowd essay at the end is five stars for sure.
Keep your own tally. Mind your dead, and your living, and you can bore me (on witnessing and recounting your life as a writer). Learned about Italian Left and labor revolts of 1970s, Marguerite Duras and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and writing essays as a form of tribute and mindfulness practice.