1.) American Genius, a Comedy / Lynne Tillman
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| b.1947 - still alive [photo by Nan Goldin] |
"Actually, I want to be surrounded by many cats, hundreds, if I didn't have to take care of them and be responsible for cleaning their litter boxes, because when looking at them, at their sleek coats, their serene indifference, their implacable calm, unless they've gone mad like my cat who stalked and attacked me, the world's horror leaves temporarily."
I like Lynne Tillman's book because she doesn't call people by their real names, instead she uses made-up nicknames based on their personality. Like the 'demanding man' or the 'birdman.' She is naturally weird where other writers try to be weird. This book is s l o w, which is why I liked it so much. Fast paced novels are okay, too, but I like to go back to something like this, it cuts deeper, because its pressure builds up and stays with you for days & days. It's definitely a book you have to focus on and have attention to spare for this style of prose. I would say you have to be completely alone, but I have a short attention span now, which I blame on the internet. The sentences are long and demanding, you have to have a lot of free space in your head to keep the thread of just one sentence sometimes. This woman builds sentences that are as digressionary, pointless, and exciting as one's own thoughts. They raised my blood pressure. There are certain things (occurrences, episodes) that resurface many times throughout the book. If you don't like repetition, I can assure you that you will hate this book, but I liked it, because I think Tillman wanted to remind you of things, how things really are inside your head. People have the same thoughts repeatedly, things they obsess about. They use their memory and their memory gets them further and further away from what 'actually' happened.
You never really know where the woman of the story is staying, I think it's some sort of quiet resort in Massachusetts, where the food is gross. She records her observations, memories, and knowledge. She is the female W.G. Sebald or Marcel Proust. This book is very much focused on the body, mostly the skin, its physical presence and problems are found everywhere. If I had to say what this book is about I would have to say skin and cats. It made me miss my childhood cats so much I had to run and find my current cat to wake up and hold til he bit my arms.
[Year published: 2006. Pages: 292. Soft Skull Press]
2.) Blood and Guts in High School / Kathy Acker
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| b.1947 - d.1997 breast cancer |
Two people stared at the cover of this book for an inexcusably rude amount of time, in awe of Kathy Acker's unsanctified head. I won't tell you who they were, since you don't know them. I can only be thankful because, as far as I know, they didn't open the covers and look inside at all the drawings of naked people.
This book has an inordinate amount of wildness in it. You'll encounter some crazy bullshit in this book, which will, depending on your personality, make you either laugh or feel uncomfortable. Parts of it are drawings, poems, plays, paragraphs - all of which come together into a story of a girl named Janey. A lot of crap happens to Janey and then she gets cancer and dies. It's a novel of oppression. I don't know why you would read this book if you weren't interested in feminism, maybe you want to make fun of it, in which case I don't like you and please leave now. Reading Kathy Acker is a stepping stone, now you can never unread her. People who read Kathy Acker seem like the kind of people that will bring it up a number of times in their life when discussing any subject at all - this will seem annoying, but it's really just the effect.
I can't say I liked every bit of this book, [who likes translating Persian poetry?] but I liked that it was different and non-boring. It will make you want to re-read The Scarlett Letter with freshened eyes and subvert the patriarchy.
Year originally published: 1978. Pages: 165.
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| - from Who is Afraid of Kathy Acker? |
