aimee bender
i actually had a friend change my facebook password about a week ago, because i wanted to have an enforced two weeks or so of a holiday from facebook. i was getting tired of composing status-update aphorisms in my head. and tired of myself doing it. anyway, i haven't been on lj, in like, a year, and--guess what-- now i'm on here and somehow it's coinciding with my fb holiday.
i'm on here to report on an author i'm into right now-- aimee bender.
her work has been called magical realism. she combines realism and surreal stuff together in a seamless, funny, heart-wrenching way, with equal parts humor and compassion, and beautiful turns of phrase. i first read her latest novel (lemon cake in the title), for a book club i then didn't attend. i liked how she used the metaphor of food. that's all i'll say. i was blown away by some of the language, so i checked out two short story collections from my awesome public library.
if the lemon cake novel is like cocaine, the stories are like crack. they're often brief and pack a punch, and they send you into an alternate reality.
here are two short stories that work with language well and are surprising-- but i'm not quoting the best bits here....
a story from _willfull creatures_ that blew my mind (but annoyingly formatted here):.... "End of the Line":
http://luvina.com.mx/foros/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=486&Itemid=46
The man went to the pet store to buy himself a little man to keep him company. The pet store was full of dogs with splotches and shy cats coy and the friendly people got dogs and the independent people got cats and this man looked around until in the back he found a cage inside of which was a miniature sofa and tiny TV and one small attractive brown-haired man, wearing a tweed suit. He looked at the price tag. The little man was expensive but the big man had a reliable job, and thought this a worthy purchase.
He brought the cage up to the front, paid with his credit card and got some free airline points.
this one is worth a read too -- "quiet please" (if you've had any librarian fantasies, read it):
http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0798/bender/sstory1.html
The woman is a librarian and today her father has died. She got a phone call from her weeping mother in the morning, threw up and then dressed for work. Sitting at her desk with her back very straight, she asks the young man very politely, the one who always comes into the library to check out bestsellers, asks him when it was he last got laid. He lets out a weird sound and she says shhh, this is a library. She has her hair back and the glasses on but everyone has a librarian fantasy, and she is truly a babe beneath.
her web site:
http://www.flammableskirt.com/home.html
reading entire short story "fruit and words" and taking Qs--including on her work processes:
Aimee Bender: The Kingdom Where Everybody Lived Forever (i think this is a start to one of her other novels i haven't read yet):
this is good--short recent interview--i like how she says the word(s) "motherfucker":
-30-
i'm on here to report on an author i'm into right now-- aimee bender.
her work has been called magical realism. she combines realism and surreal stuff together in a seamless, funny, heart-wrenching way, with equal parts humor and compassion, and beautiful turns of phrase. i first read her latest novel (lemon cake in the title), for a book club i then didn't attend. i liked how she used the metaphor of food. that's all i'll say. i was blown away by some of the language, so i checked out two short story collections from my awesome public library.
if the lemon cake novel is like cocaine, the stories are like crack. they're often brief and pack a punch, and they send you into an alternate reality.
here are two short stories that work with language well and are surprising-- but i'm not quoting the best bits here....
a story from _willfull creatures_ that blew my mind (but annoyingly formatted here):.... "End of the Line":
http://luvina.com.mx/foros/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=486&Itemid=46
The man went to the pet store to buy himself a little man to keep him company. The pet store was full of dogs with splotches and shy cats coy and the friendly people got dogs and the independent people got cats and this man looked around until in the back he found a cage inside of which was a miniature sofa and tiny TV and one small attractive brown-haired man, wearing a tweed suit. He looked at the price tag. The little man was expensive but the big man had a reliable job, and thought this a worthy purchase.
He brought the cage up to the front, paid with his credit card and got some free airline points.
this one is worth a read too -- "quiet please" (if you've had any librarian fantasies, read it):
http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0798/bender/sstory1.html
The woman is a librarian and today her father has died. She got a phone call from her weeping mother in the morning, threw up and then dressed for work. Sitting at her desk with her back very straight, she asks the young man very politely, the one who always comes into the library to check out bestsellers, asks him when it was he last got laid. He lets out a weird sound and she says shhh, this is a library. She has her hair back and the glasses on but everyone has a librarian fantasy, and she is truly a babe beneath.
her web site:
http://www.flammableskirt.com/home.html
reading entire short story "fruit and words" and taking Qs--including on her work processes:
Click to viewAimee Bender: The Kingdom Where Everybody Lived Forever (i think this is a start to one of her other novels i haven't read yet):
this is good--short recent interview--i like how she says the word(s) "motherfucker":
-30-