Wednesday Wrecking Ball

[evelyn_b]

The Horse's Mouth is another book I don't know if I'd have bothered with if it hadn't been on a list, but which I ended up being really glad I read. Gulley Jimson is a great narrator, despite being a trainwreck of a human being, somehow simultaneously a bullshit artist and a man without filter. The scenes between Gully and Sara, his ex-wife and ex-

Comments

[wordsofastory]

Thank you for the short story links! A lot of your summaries sound excellent, and I'm saving them to read later. If you need any more stories, I read this one recently:
The Eighth-Grade History Class Visits the Hebrew Home for the Aging by Harry Turtledove. It's hard to explain what it's about without spoiling the best part of it, but it's an alternative history based on a very small change.

You know, I've never had any particular interest in Emily Dickinson, but you are making this biography sound fascinating!

Edited because clearly I'm having trouble with HTML today!

[evelyn_b]

OH. . . when I realized what was happening in that story, I just collapsed all of a sudden like a pile of bricks. Thanks for the link! I'd be interested in your thoughts on any stories that you read.

Emily Dickinson is very different from Jane Austen in a lot of ways, but I think she suffers similarly from a similarly deserved fame. It's really easy to absorb a lot of cultural osmosis stuff and think you've got the general idea. I'm enjoying the biography a lot!

[wordsofastory]

I was spoiled for the twist, which is too bad, because I think it loses a lot of its effectiveness that way. But I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I read 'Ixtab Takes a Day Off", which was very cute but a bit... small, you know? Which is fine, considering how short it is. "Kia and Gio" was good too, but I was a bit confused by some of what happened; it felt more like the first chapter of a novel than a stand-alone story. But I suppose "I want more" isn't really a criticism!

"Procosin" was AMAZING and I really want to read more by the author. I looked her up and she seems to have a few collections of short stories, but no novels. I generally like novels better, but I might pick up some of her stuff anyway. This story was just so good!

[osprey_archer]

I have always vaguely meant to read something by W. Somerset Maugham. Perhaps this should be the one.

I've also always meant to read Pat of Silver Bush, though, and as it's an L. M. Montgomery book, I think it will have to take precedence over Maugham.

[evelyn_b]

Pat can be. . . difficult. She's terrified of change from a very young age, to the point where the rest of the family spends a lot of time tiptoeing around her and hiding things from her until the last minute. A lot of people find her impossible -- a dissatisfied and nostalgic fifty-year-old woman in disguise as a child -- but I found a lot to identify with when I was an actual child. She's ordinary in a way that LMM's heroines are usually not, and the ways in which she's extraordinary are not necessarily appealing.

I think the Pat books are arguably where LMM's struggle with depression is most visible -- I might be wrong; I'm reading them again partly to find out. Emily's Quest has an excellent depiction of depression, while iirc Pat and Mistress Pat don't exactly depict it but are waterlogged with it anyway. And Emily has internal resources that Pat doesn't have.

I'd definitely be interested in what you think, if you do read Pat!

[osprey_archer]

The part where Dean Priest tells Emily her book sucks and she burns it and then falls down the stairs and accidentally stabs herself with the scissors and almost dies and spends the next however-long collapsed in a state of existential ennui, because her writing is terrible and therefore all is grim and drear? I am still so angry at Dean Priest for lying about her book.

Actually I have such mixed feelings about Dean Priest, because I think he's much more interesting than Teddy, and if he wasn't quite so very much himself I feel like he and Emily could have been good for each other. But he is every inch himself and is ultimately rather awful for her.

[evelyn_b]

Dean's so goddamned complicated. He's one of the very few LMM love interests I find at all convincing as a potential adult partner, rather than a boyish crush, but his behavior toward 13-year-old Emily -- saying "I think I'll wait for you" OUT LOUD, not-quite-joking about what Emily owes him -- is so creepy and off-putting. And not just the Seller of Dreams incident, but the way he subtly downplays and undermines her writing for years beforehand.

The worst part is, they are good for each other. Dean is an exciting, intelligent friend who doesn't talk down to Emily (except about her writing) and helps her see herself as part of a much wider world than the world of New Moon and its aunts. And Emily gives Dean the chance to shrug off his misanthropy for a while and be interested in things again. From Emily's perspective, Dean was a good friend; that's both what makes his betrayal so unforgivable and what made it possible for him to betray her as badly as he did. So much of what Emily grows into -- her tastes, her aspirations, her ways