Reading Recommendations
This morning on the train I finished the Vinyl Café book I mentioned a few days ago. I could have torn that thing apart in about an hour, but I was pacing myself, because the stories made perfect transit reading, and I didn’t really want them to end. At lunch I’ll probably march over to the bookstore and buy the next two in the series.
The best thing about Stewart McLean’s writing is that it’s not fussy. It’s conversational and relaxing. He gives a marginal and hilarious insight into the neuroses of his characters without tripping off into Woody Allen territory. Sometimes they’re purposefully uncomfortable, but thanks to his chosen genre - the short story - it’s just a pinprick of awkwardness and then you’re on to the next character, the next tale.
After completing a McLean story, my brain has this buoyant, minty-fresh feeling. It’s a lot like the sensation I get when I’ve read a book by Garrison Keillor or Stephen Leacock, or a poem by Ogden Nash or Heinrich Heine. No fuss, no muss, just a nice clean finish. Not like that sticky, gummy, tongue-fur-from-a-month-long-bourbon-binge sensation I get after taking another shot at Joyce’s ‘Finnegan's Wake’.
So I guess what I’m saying is that, if he hasn’t already, cranly_pants should probably go read some Vinyl Café.
The best thing about Stewart McLean’s writing is that it’s not fussy. It’s conversational and relaxing. He gives a marginal and hilarious insight into the neuroses of his characters without tripping off into Woody Allen territory. Sometimes they’re purposefully uncomfortable, but thanks to his chosen genre - the short story - it’s just a pinprick of awkwardness and then you’re on to the next character, the next tale.
After completing a McLean story, my brain has this buoyant, minty-fresh feeling. It’s a lot like the sensation I get when I’ve read a book by Garrison Keillor or Stephen Leacock, or a poem by Ogden Nash or Heinrich Heine. No fuss, no muss, just a nice clean finish. Not like that sticky, gummy, tongue-fur-from-a-month-long-bourbon-binge sensation I get after taking another shot at Joyce’s ‘Finnegan's Wake’.
So I guess what I’m saying is that, if he hasn’t already, cranly_pants should probably go read some Vinyl Café.