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Celine Nguyen's avatar

I loved reading this!! and selfishly very happy that you opined on some books I’ve been meaning to read—Emma Copley Eisenberg’s Housemates (she’s so insightful in interviews), Anna Kornbluh’s Immediacy, Monbiot and Hutchinson’s Invisible Doctrine. Thank you for this post.

Also been very curious about Lauren Elkin’s Scaffolding (though haven’t read it yet) and surprised there hasn’t been more discussion!

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Andrew Boryga's avatar

Honored to be in this company. Taking notes because a lot of these sound like books I need to read, too.

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The Coxie's avatar

I just added yours to my list! It sounds great.

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Andrew Boryga's avatar

Appreciate that! I hope you enjoy it

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meghna rao's avatar

I just finished Denis Johnson's Name of the World and was searching to see what other people had written about it when yours popped up. Agree that it wasn't at all the novel I expected! Did not like the ending, and the last few scenes felt rushed and forced (rare for Johnson?). But Flower Cannon was a very memorable character to me and I think he did such a good job with place...

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Patrick Nathan's avatar

Yes! It's a book that sort of walks away from itself in the end, when normally his final paragraphs love to turn the blade. And you're right about the characters and the place – it ~felt~ like such a town.

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meghna rao's avatar

Well put!!!

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Mike C's avatar

Throwing in a re-read of Nostromo -- leaves me in the dust.

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The Coxie's avatar

Thanks for helping me update my TBR list! I am very excited about at least 10 of these you highlight. I also read two of your books this year - Image Control, and The Future Was Color, both of which I enjoyed very much!

The Future of Color was part of my mid-year "reading of a bunch of new queer novels," which was a fun, but sort of unintentional, project. I bought Image Control after that and it sat on the shelf until after the election, actually. In 2016 all I wanted to do was retreat into fiction (I read Joyce Carol Oates's Blonde after the 2016 election, and somehow it was the perfect fictional accompaniment to that moment), but this year I kind of did the opposite. I read Image Control and Naomi Klein's Doppelganger back-to-back and they both helped me to make a little more sense of this horrifying cultural and political stage.

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Patrick Nathan's avatar

This is wonderful to hear! Thank you so much!

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Sarah Moeding's avatar

It wasn't a door!

I also told you I'd find you this link: https://www.newyorker.com/news/american-chronicles/the-terrifying-car-crash-that-inspired-a-masterpiece

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Patrick Nathan's avatar

hell yeah

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Celine Nguyen's avatar

I loved reading this!! and selfishly very happy that you opined on some books I’ve been meaning to read—Emma Copley Eisenberg’s Housemates (she’s so insightful in interviews), Anna Kornbluh’s Immediacy, Monbiot and Hutchinson’s Invisible Doctrine. Thank you for this post.

Also been very curious about Lauren Elkin’s Scaffolding (though haven’t read it yet) and surprised there hasn’t been more discussion!

Expand full comment