the end as a set of snapshots, step out into a new world, felt poignant to me w/e. old person on a bench how did they get there. self-observation so much different than eileen but also the same. a person observing themselves 200+ pages but stillcompelling?like alfred says, squalor, lotta pages of itnothing compares to the short stories for me, havent read mcgluedont ever read interviews of anyone ever obv why u torturing urselves
― alomar lines, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 05:44 (five years ago) link
i finished & liked the book...i think maybe less than i liked eileen? i dont have any issue w the end, fully understood & knew 9/11 was gonna be implicated here
― johnny crunch, Monday, July 23, 2018 9:54 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
m/l my thoughts, though reiterating that certain characters work in the world trade center pretty much robs the rest of the book of suspense. i suppose the ending could be read as a final indictment of the vacuity and banal selfishness of the narrator.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 06:15 (five years ago) link
Great interview with OM on the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast today. Behind a paywall but worth it: https://www.patreon.com/posts/b-e-e-podcast-10-21822014
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 3 October 2018 18:06 (five years ago) link
the novel she's working on now 1) stars a Chinese cross dresser 2) the first chapter is narrated by a ghost
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 3 October 2018 18:49 (five years ago) link
reading this while depressed and in a fog of over-sleeping + barely leaving my apartment has been quite the trip
― flopson, Sunday, 7 October 2018 20:35 (five years ago) link
Omg, I had the same experience. Sent me in to a total tailspin. I gave it to my wife and she got depressed, too. Not recommended (or highly recommended) for delicate readers feeling anxious or hopeless about current events.
― Yelploaf, Sunday, 7 October 2018 20:43 (five years ago) link
the psychiatrist is just the best though
― flappy bird, Sunday, 7 October 2018 20:48 (five years ago) link
Yeah, Dr. Tuttle the best drawn character imo.
― Yelploaf, Sunday, 7 October 2018 20:51 (five years ago) link
despite the descriptions of her having red hair I always picture her as Fran Lebowitz
― flappy bird, Sunday, 7 October 2018 20:53 (five years ago) link
Reading her short stories. She’s good with conception, setup, and details, but shit on endings
― calstars, Sunday, 20 January 2019 19:17 (five years ago) link
Who is good at endings, though?
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 22 January 2019 16:08 (five years ago) link
'my year' is the worst thing i have read since 'ready player one'
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 24 January 2019 06:06 (five years ago) link
the sort of sub-lanchesterian satire-adjacent archness of it
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 24 January 2019 06:53 (five years ago) link
the (tongue-in-cheek? or genuinely fucking stupid?) september 11th 2001 millenarianism
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 24 January 2019 06:54 (five years ago) link
this is otm:
It read like an attenuated short story, extended beyond its scope.
though i think alfred is actually referring to her other book there
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 24 January 2019 06:57 (five years ago) link
tin ear approaching lanchesterian proportions also. i just got to the bit where the narrator orders “a case of sexual lubricant” which is good enough for the man himself almost
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 24 January 2019 15:42 (five years ago) link
that tic of novels trying to prove a point about their new yorkiness by playing mad libs with ETHNICITY + SERVICE INDUSTRY
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 24 January 2019 15:48 (five years ago) link
the laotian lady at the korean beauticians messed up when she was threading my eyebrows so i bought a cannoli from the iraqis at the jewish delicatessen and ordered a sicilian pizza from the sephardic jews at the Italian restaurant and hoped they’d send me the cute eritrean delivery driver
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 24 January 2019 15:51 (five years ago) link
have you read anything else by her
― flappy bird, Thursday, 24 January 2019 16:31 (five years ago) link
hough i think alfred is actually referring to her other book there
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp),
yeah -- Eileen
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 January 2019 16:32 (five years ago) link
no one knows who lanchester is thom
― flopson, Thursday, 24 January 2019 17:48 (five years ago) link
she nailed the ending in Eileen imo, and the stories are impeccably constructed. I didn't like MYORAR at all though.
― flappy bird, Thursday, 24 January 2019 17:50 (five years ago) link
it made me laugh a few times but a bit of a letdown tho i had high expectations
― flopson, Thursday, 24 January 2019 17:53 (five years ago) link
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, January 24, 2019 10:48 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, January 24, 2019 10:51 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lmao
― flopson, Thursday, 24 January 2019 17:54 (five years ago) link
If you haven’t read the John Lanchester thread you should leave ILB and not come back until you are ready to learn
― gray say nah to me (wins), Thursday, 24 January 2019 17:59 (five years ago) link
ay ay captain
― flappy bird, Thursday, 24 January 2019 18:36 (five years ago) link
it’s a good thread but i categorically object to american writers being called lanchesteresque. also otessa has a great ear imo
― flopson, Thursday, 24 January 2019 18:37 (five years ago) link
Who the fuck is John Lanchester?
― calstars, Thursday, 24 January 2019 20:10 (five years ago) link
― gray say nah to me (wins), Thursday, 24 January 2019 20:13 (five years ago) link
― flappy bird, Thursday, 24 January 2019 21:02 (five years ago) link
And what does he have to do with OM?
― calstars, Thursday, 24 January 2019 21:24 (five years ago) link
― gray say nah to me (wins), Thursday, 24 January 2019 21:32 (five years ago) link
Take it to the JL thread
― calstars, Thursday, 24 January 2019 23:02 (five years ago) link
Read “A Dark and Winding Road” from the short stories and hated it, but "sub-Lanchester" is a bit of a low blow.
Maybe I picked the wrong story? It felt very I WILL SHOCK YOU, like the annoying over-talkative person at a party
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 25 January 2019 00:29 (five years ago) link
I don’t mean to sound down on her, she’s brought me a good deal of pleasure. Still reading the short stories but will definitely go on to Eileen and Year. It’s just the endings...dark and winding is a good example of how she tries to up-end / shock the reader. Or “the beach boy” which isn’t very interesting to start with and just kind of putters to a stall. I know short stories are hard to end well - it takes a good measure of poetry. Maybe I’m being too hard on her.
― calstars, Friday, 25 January 2019 00:38 (five years ago) link
Stories okay but at least we had Nirvana
― FernandoHierro, Friday, 25 January 2019 00:39 (five years ago) link
(if the end of the short story is shit then it is a fail, I liked her collection a lot but also feel many great writers finish stories well)
― FernandoHierro, Friday, 25 January 2019 00:42 (five years ago) link
What's considered a good ending though, especially when it's not particularly plot oriented?
― Philip Nunez, Friday, 25 January 2019 01:03 (five years ago) link
I'm rereading Flannery O'Connoor, and, boy, she could end'em, sometimes at the risk of being reductive.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 25 January 2019 01:04 (five years ago) link
she sold her hair to buy him a watch chain - but he sold his watch to buy her a set of combs
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Friday, 25 January 2019 01:11 (five years ago) link
I'm only answering this because I just read it, but Robert Aickman's short story "The Inner Room" has a *great* ending
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 25 January 2019 01:19 (five years ago) link
the extent of the american annoyance at comparing a bad book of yours to one of ours is half amusing and half dispiriting
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Friday, 25 January 2019 02:33 (five years ago) link
and i haven’t read the others. mcglue sounds .. more amenable? .. and certainly it is possible for writers of talent to produce bad books so i might give her another go. but this one just seems a spectacular series of own goals and self-owns
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Friday, 25 January 2019 02:39 (five years ago) link
McGlue is her worst one imo, Homesick & Eileen are the gems
― flappy bird, Friday, 25 January 2019 04:22 (five years ago) link
Eileen is at best OK, but why read it when you have the complete works of Patricia Highsmith doing it all so, so much better
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 25 January 2019 04:24 (five years ago) link
I think the really great short stories are so much about character that maybe they've gone deep enough along the way to earn a fairly simple ending. tbf I don't remember thinking the Mosfegh stories ended badly, though I'd have to reread. I did think one or two, particularly the final story in the collection, were really poor. But I think that's common with short story collections, it is rare for every story in a collection to be brilliant and they do tend to frontload them. I've read collections where the last two or three were so bad it almost ruined a brilliant beginning.
I think it's Flannery O'Connor's Good Country People about which she said something to the effect of not knowing the end until the second she wrote it, and then realising it couldn't end any other way. Even that feels a bit too focussed on the importance of plot to me but I still like the quote, and all her writing about writing.
― FernandoHierro, Friday, 25 January 2019 08:02 (five years ago) link
saying she’s a bad writer is crazy to me
― flopson, Friday, 25 January 2019 22:10 (five years ago) link
O'Connor's remarks about endings have been myblodesrsrs foryears
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 25 January 2019 22:17 (five years ago) link
Uh lodestars
this book makes me want to reread tao lin and a.m. homes and bits of lydia davis
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Saturday, 26 January 2019 04:00 (five years ago) link