A reader

For the Independent Thinker

Revisado: 01-06-24

Meghan Daum's The Unspeakeasable podcast is an anchor of sanity in a polarized world. Great guests, emotionally intelligent hosting. A gem.

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Devastating

Revisado: 01-13-23

Like most people, I associate Fitzgerald with The Great Gatsby first, and look to Tender Is the Night for the autobiographical frisson. Let me tell you, The Beautiful and Damned out does both in emotional impact. A much more interesting take on the wife character, Gloria Gilbert in this book, the mentally ill and often passive Nicole Diver in Tender. This veiled portrait of Zelda Fitzgerald is much more interesting, she is strong, often narcissistic and never holds her tongue in dealing with the weakling alcoholic husband, Anthony Patch. The two of them are a timeless portrait of entitlement, I can't help but compare them to other famous couples in the news, completely unaware of their wasted privilege. Also, the elite East Coast Ivy League snobbery, male AND female egotism laid bare. Very honest. Later in life, the author told his daughter he should have done a more sympathetic take on her mother, but I am glad he got the truth of how they lived and thought in their youth is more valuable. And forgivable.

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Always Surprising

Revisado: 01-01-21

I loved this book, both the writing and the reader. It was more like an off beat, funny tragic indie film than your typical coming of age novel slog.

I like that the narrator, a millennial, is such an individual, and doesn't care if people like her or not.

She is resentful about being a Korean adoptee, placed in a middle American west home, to parents who appear to have done nothing wrong but fail to educate their two adopted Korean kids about Asian culture.

Yet Helen is deeply altruistic, working with troubled young people and living like a pauper. Although, as she lives in New York, she is partly funded by an inheritance from her adoptive, racist grandfather.

Both Helen and her younger brother, whose suicide opens the book, appear to be on some kind of spectrum of asexuality and autism. Her quest through this book is to help her parents get through the funeral and find out why her brother chose to end his life.

Darkly funny, real, and in the end touching. Can't wait for more from this author.

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Great Sixties Proto Feminist Lit

Revisado: 11-06-20

I am so glad to expand my enjoyment of this wonderful author by this audible of her first novel. The reader is wonderful, with a northern, working class inflection that's not laid on too thick, but a welcome change from the overly crisp (to this Yank's ears) readings of so many of my favorite British novels.

I also highly recommend Mantel Pieces, the author's own reading of a selection of her essays for The London Review of Books.

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Fantastic

Revisado: 12-29-19

Debbie Harry is honest, funny, philosophical, insightful. I have never had the privilege of seeing her perform, but I did see her a few years back at the 92nd Street Y speaking with Chris Stein about his photography. She is extremely funny, and her persona shines clear in her reading.

It's also a love letter to New York, the music scene, and the creative process.

I was so sorry it ended, this book. Debby, how about a podcast? Thanks, you're the best.

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Fantastic

Revisado: 06-29-19

Wonderful reading by the author. Stands up over time. One of the great voices of the generation.

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Wonderful, healing and philosophical.

Revisado: 05-11-19

Sigrid Nunez is my favorite writer. This book, and the National Book Award it won, is a crowning achievement. I look forward to seeing the film that's in the works.

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