I didn't know he had died.
I certainly didn't get the point that you got about their relationship.
That might be because you have read the rest of the book.
― the pinefox, Friday, 27 May 2011 22:58 (twelve years ago) link
assuming that what you say is correct, Fizzles - it is still preposterous that someone (she) would concoct that detective story and conduct a relationship on that basis.
But again, I'm still reading the book. It seems that I have much to discover.
― the pinefox, Friday, 27 May 2011 23:00 (twelve years ago) link
Oh. I wouldn't be sure I'm correct. I just vaguely remember a bunch of people doing stuff. That would be my synopsis of an awful lot of books if you asked me, which you'd be sensible not to.
― Fizzles the Chimp (GamalielRatsey), Friday, 27 May 2011 23:08 (twelve years ago) link
The paragraph about sports on pp.208-9 is possibly my favourite in the book thus far. The exclamation marks ('not a sport!' - this genuinely gently amuses even this Goon Squad sceptic) point up the fact that this (chapter or start of chapter) is the closest the book's trail of modes has come to Lorrie Moore.
― the pinefox, Saturday, 28 May 2011 15:31 (twelve years ago) link
I don't remember any of those bits either.
It's like I haven't read the book at all.
― PJ Miller, Saturday, 28 May 2011 16:49 (twelve years ago) link
You may have been too busy reading ROCKABILLY.
― the pinefox, Saturday, 28 May 2011 16:51 (twelve years ago) link
Postage-free ordering with 22% discount (currently) from here: http://www.bookdepository.com/Open-City-Teju-Cole/9781400068098
― You're fucking fired and you know jack shit about horses (James Morrison), Monday, 30 May 2011 03:28 (twelve years ago) link
Fucks, sorry, wrong thread AND it looks like spam. That's for the US edition of the next selection, Open City by Teju Cole.
I just finished this.
More of a collection of short stories than a novel, but I enjoyed almost all of them. The final, SF chapter was the only one I didn't like. (It's set in around 2030 and they're already changing the earth's orbit! I balk at this.)
― nuclear power, jet propulsion, radar, laser beams, cordless phone (abanana), Saturday, 4 June 2011 01:47 (twelve years ago) link
Seemingly misjudged sentence on p.218:
'thronged with what had to be college students (strange how they looked the same everywhere)': now, this initially struck me as a somewhat tired, lame truism, a would-be-interesting observation that might be written off as Ted's.
The odd thing, though, is that the sentence immediately specifies'boys and girls in black leather jackets riding on Vespas, lounging on Vespas, perching and even standing on Vespas'.
This (certainly the Vespas, probably the jackets, not to mention the fact that they're all Italian) surely belies exactly what the sentence has already gone out of its way to say in that ill-fated parenthesis.
In the end, having said positive things about it previously, I couldn't make much sense of that chapter (11): the characters' feelings, motivations relations stayed opaque to me.
Now on p.261.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 17:21 (twelve years ago) link
Not a great paranthesis admittedly, but surely the point is that despite the local details they look the same. The paranthesis is lazy I guess because it doesn't explain why despite the local details they look the same. For some reason Martin Amis' description of his 'thin, breakfastless face' as a student, springs to mind.
― Fizzles the Chimp (GamalielRatsey), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 17:28 (twelve years ago) link
This is like watching a brave marathon runner stagger to the finish line btw.
― Fizzles the Chimp (GamalielRatsey), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 17:29 (twelve years ago) link
You people still reading this?
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 17:48 (twelve years ago) link
No, I'm watching the pinefox read it. I can't read anything else until he finishes it. The suspense is killing me.
― Fizzles the Chimp (GamalielRatsey), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 18:00 (twelve years ago) link
Ha.
― Onimosapien (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 18:02 (twelve years ago) link
>>> surely the point is that despite the local details they look the same
I don't think this is quite the sense that I get from it, Fizzles ... it first says they all look the same, then goes on to make them sound outlandishly specific. I think the thought of the sentence is less coherent than you're giving it credit for. I suppose I think Egan had one thought, then another, and didn't notice that they don't really go together.
Amis's phrase jars for me because being a student certainly didn't put me off eating. And it's kind of meaningless really as a description (I think we agree?).
I like the idea of being watched, as a reader, by a chimp.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 18:17 (twelve years ago) link
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2281/5799661836_383400c935.jpg
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 18:18 (twelve years ago) link
I have been on the bottle a bit recently, admittedly. Very good picture of me last Thursday morning iirc.
(Oh and the Amis thing was about himself rather than being a general application, that was me who did that - I can still remember only a total of three or four things I ate at university.)
― Fizzles the Chimp (GamalielRatsey), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 18:40 (twelve years ago) link
I sometimes wonder what on earth I ate at university.
Students don't look the same everywhere, at least not from country to country. Apart from perhaps they all look like idle perishers.
― PJ Miller, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:10 (twelve years ago) link
If that chimp were to be given pencil and paper he would draw the bars chicken wire of his own cage.
― Onimosapien (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:13 (twelve years ago) link
If that chimp were given pen and paper, he would write a better version of A Visit from the Goon Squad.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:13 (twelve years ago) link
>:[ i thought you liked it, alfred!
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
Search: Bob Newhart, "An Infinite Number of Monkeys."
― Onimosapien (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
I thought I said I didn't!
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
i guess it was wishful ilxing on my part
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
You seemed to like it whilst reading it and then afterward said that it left no lasting impression and was 'vaporous.'
― Onimosapien (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
You got it.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
I didn't eat very well at university. Like PJM I feel distant now from whatever I ate then. I was very ignorant and could not cook well. But I was young enough not to be damaged by it, then.
That is a good bunch of comments about the chimp.
I went up the road to my local pub and reached p.320 or so. The powerpoint chapter is indeed good for motoring through lots of pages. I thought that the technique worked quite well, but I didn't understand, or have much sympathy with, the mother's account of why pauses in rock songs are fascinating. Maybe she was just being indulgent towards her child. But, the theme of rock pauses seemed quite Freaky Trigger. I started to picture Peter Baran writing an article about them.
Oddly, the current chapter which is quite SF is quite interesting. At this rate, I might finish the book, in the future.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 7 June 2011 19:48 (twelve years ago) link
The pauses in rock thing gives the whole enterprise a sheen of Geezaesthetics. Every time I hear a Pause in Rock now I think of that book. I think this may be its only lasting effect.
In retrospect, the PowerPoint chapter seems sadder than the rest.
― PJ Miller, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 09:28 (twelve years ago) link
In retrospect I think she should have done each chapter in the style of a programme from the Microsoft Office "Suite". With the final chapter from the perspective of Clippy the Microsoft Office Assistant.
― Stevie T, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 09:37 (twelve years ago) link
'It looks like you're trying to write a book'.
― Fizzles the Chimp (GamalielRatsey), Wednesday, 8 June 2011 09:50 (twelve years ago) link
"Like"
and also
"LOL"
"lightbulb on"
― PJ Miller, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 10:46 (twelve years ago) link
I get that except for the lightbulb.
(Also I think the only Office Suite thing I am familiar with is Word - or is Power Point part of it also?)
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 11:25 (twelve years ago) link
I'm looking forward to the Excel spreadsheet chapter.
― Matt DC, Wednesday, 8 June 2011 11:26 (twelve years ago) link
Gantt charts people!
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 9 June 2011 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
The Evening Standard today reviews this book.
Says it should have won the Orange Prize, is the best new novel of the year and everyone is recommending it to everyone else.
It describes the plot, or the sequence of chapters.
I recognized the description but I could not feel much in sympathy with the favourable things that the review said about the book.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 9 June 2011 18:22 (twelve years ago) link
i just finished reading this book yesterday night! and i'm not even in yr book club! i guess i just wanted to say hi and wow this book is awesome and made me feel like writing more things that i really enjoy writing.it had a DFW kind of charm but with a more heartrending, optimistic sense of humour about lyfe
― obliquity of the ecliptic (rrrobyn), Thursday, 9 June 2011 23:54 (twelve years ago) link
pinefox, I'm glad that your indifferent reaction to this uberpopular book has not seemed to make you feel like you have been outcast from life's feast.
― Another Muzak from a Diffident Lichen (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 June 2011 00:07 (twelve years ago) link
welcome, rrrobyn!
― I knew that the Russian people mercilessly ograblyali ograblyay (James Morrison), Friday, 10 June 2011 02:21 (twelve years ago) link
nice to see rrrobyns positivity!
― just sayin, Friday, 10 June 2011 07:54 (twelve years ago) link
after reading this book my gf has gone on an egan reading spree
― just sayin, Friday, 10 June 2011 07:55 (twelve years ago) link
'this (pulitzer-winning) book should have won the orange fiction prize' is such a peculiar statement
― thomp, Friday, 10 June 2011 09:16 (twelve years ago) link
that marathon runner should have won the egg and spoon race at my nephew's creche (woman's division)
― thomp, Friday, 10 June 2011 09:18 (twelve years ago) link
But Orange is much more money & a far bigger deal in British medialand - I thought Pulitzer was just a journalism prize till a few years ago. It is a weird thing to say, but it feels more like 'this emmy-winning sitcom should have got a bafta'
― portrait of velleity (woof), Friday, 10 June 2011 09:35 (twelve years ago) link
you'd never read or seen a book with a PULITZER WINNING thing on the jacket?? tbh it never occurred to me there were people who took the orange prize seriously, though i suppose there must be
fun fact: in 2007 it was renamed 'the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.' in 2009 it was renamed again, back to its original name.
― thomp, Friday, 10 June 2011 10:02 (twelve years ago) link
Not that I can think of, but I've never really followed contemporary american fiction. If I have seen it, I would have blanked it, I guess. I don't take prizes as a helpful indicator of anything, though I notice when the British prizes are handed out - I enjoy the broadsheets/PRs attempts to wring a story out of them.
I think publishing/books-pages world takes the Orange Prize relatively seriously. It's solidly part of the machine, makes the main section of most papers.
― portrait of velleity (woof), Friday, 10 June 2011 10:13 (twelve years ago) link
All this talk of egg-and-spoon races and oranges makes me want to read some P.G. Wodehouse. And hum a little song about oranges, something something oranges, can't remember how it goes.
― She Got The Goldwax (I Got The Son Of Shaft) (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 June 2011 10:14 (twelve years ago) link
The Orange Prize is a big deal because of the exposure it gives to female authors who might otherwise be overlooked, but the Pulitzer has existed since the 40s and some wonderful books have won it so it's hardly a flash in the pan.
― Matt DC, Friday, 10 June 2011 10:14 (twelve years ago) link
the pulitzer for fiction/novel has existed since 1918 but i do not respect them much -- so many mediocre books have won.
― nuclear power, jet propulsion, radar, laser beams, cordless phone (abanana), Friday, 10 June 2011 13:48 (twelve years ago) link
The "pause in rock" thing was really good--I had forgotten about that.
I'm tempted to read this book again, this time with the benefit of the collective wisdom here.
Are you guys going to do "Open City" next?
― Virginia Plain, Friday, 10 June 2011 17:02 (twelve years ago) link