I have no idea how much content I will have time or desire to post this month, but I am sure I will think of something. I may even take bits of my thesis and alter them into blog posts. Anything to procrastinate. Anyway, in the month of September I read 9 books and 8 graphic novels, and this is what they were:
- Open Secrets by Dayton Ward
- Rose by Jeff Smith & Charles Vess
- Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails by Smith, et al.
- Enough About Me by David Shields
- Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon
- Our Cancer Year by Harvey Pekar, et al.
- Nobility of Spirit by Rob Riemen
- Half in Love by Maile Meloy
- The Soul Key by Olivia Woods
- Powers: The 25 Coolest Dead Superheroes of All Time by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming
- Swamp Thing: Earth to Earth by Alan Moore, et al.
- The Nobody by Jeff Lemire
- The Walking Dead: Miles Behind Us by Robert Kirkman & Charlie Adlard
- The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
- Ron Carlson Writes a Story by Ron Carlson
- The Dead Fish Museum by Charles D'Ambrosio
- The Impostor's Daughter by Laurie Sandell
Please ask questions and/or offer opinions about anything here.
2 comments:
I just read Await Your Reply myself. Excellent prose and believable characters, though I was hoping for a more dazzling plot, and I was very conscious of Chaon's attempt to make identity theft, a mundane crime (though devastating to its victims) into a phenomenon with literary meaning.
I found the skill with which Chaon was able to take three narratives that we first think are happening simultaneously and slowly reveal their true order w/o an explanation or orientation sequence was masterfully done.
As to identity theft, it seemed to me that Chaon was using it as a device to explore the ways in which we construct our own identity, how malleable it can be and is. It also seems to be a theme running throughout his work; remember the existential problems of how Jonah saw himself w/r/t his brother Troy in You Remind Me of Me.
Post a Comment