After the Tall Timber - Renata Adler (NYRB Books)
A decent collection of Adler’s nonfiction - although it curiously doesn’t contain any of her movie reviews - that covers the bases. Major pieces include a long read about G Gordon Liddy (before he became a Fox News talking head), a look at the Selma march in 1965, a devastating piece on Pauline Kael and her fighting back at a New York Times series of hit pieces.
Where Adler is in her element is when she writes about law - her pieces on the Supreme Court, Bush v Gore and the real crimes of the Nixon administration are worth the price of entry. Adler went to law school and when she delves into these murky waters, she’s able to write about them in a clear, concise way.
There is a little filler here: a few pieces of reportage from Cuba don’t add much, and it republishes the introductions from a couple of her books. Curiously, as noted above, it includes the intro to her collection of movie criticism but doesn’t include any of her reviews. Maybe she doesn’t want people comparing them to Kael, especially after she takes that critic down a peg or two…
Overall people who dig the reportage in magazines like Harpers, the New Yorker or the like will find a few good long reads here. People coming from Adler’s fiction might be a little surprised - there her writing is more fluid and disjointed, here it’s more ornate and concrete. But I did enjoy this collection, and I think it shows her as one of the best essayists of her generation.
Goethe: A Very Short Introduction - Richie Robertson (Oxford)
Interesting in places, a little pedantic in others. I was hoping for something more biographical and linear than this, but it also does a good job of explaining Goethe’s thought and works in different aspects - love, nature, politics - in mostly clear language.
Not a bad read, but also not exactly what I was looking for either. I feel I’d have gotten more out of this if I was more familiar with Goethe - not something I’d expect from a “very short introduction” to the writer and poet. Compared to other entries in the ‘Very Short Introduction” series I’ve read - ones on Keynes, postmodern theory, literary theory and others - this one was a bit lacking and kind of missed the forest for the trees. I’m thinking next time I feel like reading about Goethe, I’ll pick up Rudiger Safranski’s Life as a Work of Art which I’ve heard is good.
Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays - George Orwell (Mariner Books)
A good collection of Orwell’s more narrative essays, and a good introduction to his non-fiction. Highlights include his look back at the Spanish civil war, “Shooting an Elephant,” a look back at his school days, and how to make the perfect cup of tea.
A large part of this book is taken up by his war diaries and wartime essays, and while they have historical value, I guess, they kind of drag: it’s not really all that interesting to hear him nag about other writers or critics he’s friends with and make predictions about the war. On the other hand, it’s neat to see ideas, phrases and concepts from his fiction (a boot stomping on a face forever, for example) emerge out of his thoughts.
All in all, a good collection from a guy who’s writing seems effortless yet disguises a keen intellect and sharp sense for observation.
Future Feeling - Joss Lake (Soft Skull Press)
A great, fun and deeply imaginative read set approximately 15 minutes into the future, Joss Lake's Future Feeling follows Pen, a dog-walker living in NYC, who tries to curse a Gram influencer named, but misses and sends an innocent guy named Blithe into the Shadowlands. Did I mention they're all trans? And that there's a quasi-cult called the Rhiz that overlooks every trans person and who pull the strings behind this novel's actions? Or that high-tech and witchcraft mix and mingle, often with the aid of psychedelic drugs? There's a lot going on here.
The book moves swiftly as Pen has to team up with Aiden to pull Blithe out of the Shadowlands, a place of existential despair, and back to reality. They criss-cross the country and across layers of class and privilege, exploring gender roles, what it means to be trans in the age of social media and slowly bring Blithe back.
The book is sharply funny, a good futurist satire and reads briskly. I picked it up here and there for a week, knowing it'd suck me in and I'd get lost in it's world of bio-readers, subway cars that change colours and manicured lawns that ticket dogs for pooping on them. Recommended.
On Boxing - Joyce Carol Oates (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
A good book about boxing, Oates shows herself as an astute observer and a knowledgeable historian of the sport. The main book itself is good, although the pictures lose their impact when they’re shrunk down and resized for a paperback.
The extra material is nice, although sometimes repeats itself (i swear, ferdie Pacheco’s line about Ali learning he could take a punch is repeated like four times), and it’s a little dated - Mike Tyson isn’t exactly as likeable as Oates clearly seems to think he was in the early 90s. But throughout, Oates shows her knowledge and provides insight into what makes fighters tick (money, mostly, but pride, too) and never looks down on them or their sport. She does, however, kick AJ Liebling to the curb, which is fair.
Overall, boxing fans will prob find a bit to chew on here, and as writer, Oates is a consummate prose stylist. But expanding this makes it too much of a good thing. Maybe the original is the one to track down?