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I Am Not Jackson Pollock: Stories
A bewitching collection of short fiction--haunting and hypnotic meditations on art, movies, literature, and life. In "Dream of a Clean Slate," Jackson Pollock the man struggles with the separation he feels from Jackson Pollock the artist; "The Judgement of Psycho," probes the sexual dynamic of Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins in Psycho, and then delves into the relationship between Hector and Paris in the Iliad; and Orson Welles presides over "Crimes at Midnight," a tense evocation of desire and its consequences. A series of myths for modern times, this is an astonishing debut.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 16, 2003
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About the author
John Haskell
4 books10 followershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ha...
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Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
July 16, 2013
Very individuated and often funny essayistic fiction (often about movies) in the tradition of Kafka and Barthleme's essayistic fiction. If you dislike this book and this sort of writing, please continue your three-star-filled life of reading cookie-cutter prose, predictable design, intermittent poignancy, and subtly observed yet obvious epiphany about the nature of relationships. In this book, there are monkeys in space, hysterical elephants, Jackson Pollock, and others, all accompanied with illustrations! A perfect beach read for those who never go to the beach. Huzzah!
December 26, 2012
(All quotes are from stories in this book unless otherwise noted.)
“If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and
the same time, then I’m neurotic as hell.” Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
In John Haskell’s first book, I Am Not Jackson Pollock, he presents various characters from movies, the actors thereof, and other actual people and their attempt at mitigating the opposing forces upon their lives.
It is called a collection of stories, but the book can be read as one long essay with nine parts, each part having interwoven facets. So the whole can be seen as a weaving of lives, an attempt to synthesize the fractured psyches of people tearing themselves apart.
Of Jackson Pollock, Haskell writes: “Two opposing impulses dominated his life: the desire to reach out into the world and touch some thing, and the desire to keep that thing away.” (“Dream of a Clean Slate”)
“The greatest enemy of art and of suicide is the world’s indifference, though, in another sense, this is precisely what drives a person towards both.” (“Suicide Watch” by Quentin S. Crisp) Jackson Pollock didn’t commit suicide in the traditional sense, but he did kill himself. He drove himself into a tree. He wanted both art and death and he achieved both.
“The heaviness comes when she thinks of doing something, of acting on the world, because having an effect on the world is impossible, or seems impossible.” (“Capucine”)
Capucine ended up jumping out of her window to her death. She wanted to change something about the world’s indifference, but she couldn’t.
So instead of trying to affect the world, to risk rubbing up against what Glenn Gould might call the “contaminating world,” a world that he both hides from and wants, what does one do? “He keeps his own desires in, or down, or away from the world, preferring to want what someone else wants him to want.” (“Crimes at Midnight”)
But what is it that John Haskell wants?
“[Joseph Cotton in The Third Man] would like to be as strong and vital and passionate as Harry Lime,” (“Crimes at Midnight”) but his imitation of Harry Lime can not distinguish his positive traits from his negative ones.
John Haskell wants to be as vital and passionate as Jackson Pollock, but he is not. He wants the positive attributes of Jackson Pollock, but not all of his rage and neuroses. He wants to be able to affect change upon the outside world without the world contaminating him.
Winona Ryder is given the definition of two different words in two different movies. The first word is from Girl, Interrupted. “Ambivalence” is the coexistence of two opposing feelings. And the second word is from Reality Bites. “Irony” is basically a kind of ambivalence because the external expression is opposed to the internal intention.
And so when John Haskell says that he is not Jackson Pollock, he is being ironic. Not because he is Jackson Pollock, but because he wants to be.
Haskell confuses the actors with the roles they play because it symbolizes the confusion of outward expression and inward intention. There is a dichotomy of who the person is versus who the person wants to be or the role they are playing.
“It’s not that he wants to be himself, he wants to lose himself.” (“Narrow Road”) John Haskell wants to lose his self, much like he will do again in Out of My Skin where he will become Steve Martin. He wants his intention and expression to fuse.
“His plan was to empty himself, to radiate out into the world and then let the world flow into the vacuum… He sent his attention out to the world, but nothing came back except an echo, nothing but himself.” (“Narrow Road”)
“He can now let go of that effort and pressure and striving, and be, finally, who he was afraid of being.” (“Crimes at Midnight”)
If you read the nine stories as one story, you see Haskell’s progression from his very first line of opposition: “I am not Jackson Pollock” to his acceptance of the fact that he is not Jackson Pollock. He has had to tear himself apart and let many people tear themselves apart in order to have a thesis and an antithesis from which to create some new, other thing.
“After a while he creates this thing, and it’s not Harry Lime, and it’s not exactly Joseph Cotton either.” (“Crimes at Midnight”) By the end of the book, John Haskell is neither John Haskell nor Jackson Pollock but some synthesis of the two.
“Presume not that I am the thing I was,” John Haskell writes, quoting Chimes at Midnight quoting Henry IV. He once was John Haskell, not Jackson Pollock. And now he is no longer himself, or at least not the self he thought he was.
In an interview with Poets and Writers, Haskell talks about his influences and he mentions Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata and this quote: “Resist what resists in you. Become yourself.” Which is to say that the you who you think you are is not your self.
By saying “I am not Jackson Pollock,” John Haskell identifies the ambivalence of his desires. He is not whom he wishes to be. And in order to resolve this dilemma he creates a labyrinth of personhood in which he loses not himself but the self that wanted to be something other.
“If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and
the same time, then I’m neurotic as hell.” Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
In John Haskell’s first book, I Am Not Jackson Pollock, he presents various characters from movies, the actors thereof, and other actual people and their attempt at mitigating the opposing forces upon their lives.
It is called a collection of stories, but the book can be read as one long essay with nine parts, each part having interwoven facets. So the whole can be seen as a weaving of lives, an attempt to synthesize the fractured psyches of people tearing themselves apart.
Of Jackson Pollock, Haskell writes: “Two opposing impulses dominated his life: the desire to reach out into the world and touch some thing, and the desire to keep that thing away.” (“Dream of a Clean Slate”)
“The greatest enemy of art and of suicide is the world’s indifference, though, in another sense, this is precisely what drives a person towards both.” (“Suicide Watch” by Quentin S. Crisp) Jackson Pollock didn’t commit suicide in the traditional sense, but he did kill himself. He drove himself into a tree. He wanted both art and death and he achieved both.
“The heaviness comes when she thinks of doing something, of acting on the world, because having an effect on the world is impossible, or seems impossible.” (“Capucine”)
Capucine ended up jumping out of her window to her death. She wanted to change something about the world’s indifference, but she couldn’t.
So instead of trying to affect the world, to risk rubbing up against what Glenn Gould might call the “contaminating world,” a world that he both hides from and wants, what does one do? “He keeps his own desires in, or down, or away from the world, preferring to want what someone else wants him to want.” (“Crimes at Midnight”)
But what is it that John Haskell wants?
“[Joseph Cotton in The Third Man] would like to be as strong and vital and passionate as Harry Lime,” (“Crimes at Midnight”) but his imitation of Harry Lime can not distinguish his positive traits from his negative ones.
John Haskell wants to be as vital and passionate as Jackson Pollock, but he is not. He wants the positive attributes of Jackson Pollock, but not all of his rage and neuroses. He wants to be able to affect change upon the outside world without the world contaminating him.
Winona Ryder is given the definition of two different words in two different movies. The first word is from Girl, Interrupted. “Ambivalence” is the coexistence of two opposing feelings. And the second word is from Reality Bites. “Irony” is basically a kind of ambivalence because the external expression is opposed to the internal intention.
And so when John Haskell says that he is not Jackson Pollock, he is being ironic. Not because he is Jackson Pollock, but because he wants to be.
Haskell confuses the actors with the roles they play because it symbolizes the confusion of outward expression and inward intention. There is a dichotomy of who the person is versus who the person wants to be or the role they are playing.
“It’s not that he wants to be himself, he wants to lose himself.” (“Narrow Road”) John Haskell wants to lose his self, much like he will do again in Out of My Skin where he will become Steve Martin. He wants his intention and expression to fuse.
“His plan was to empty himself, to radiate out into the world and then let the world flow into the vacuum… He sent his attention out to the world, but nothing came back except an echo, nothing but himself.” (“Narrow Road”)
“He can now let go of that effort and pressure and striving, and be, finally, who he was afraid of being.” (“Crimes at Midnight”)
If you read the nine stories as one story, you see Haskell’s progression from his very first line of opposition: “I am not Jackson Pollock” to his acceptance of the fact that he is not Jackson Pollock. He has had to tear himself apart and let many people tear themselves apart in order to have a thesis and an antithesis from which to create some new, other thing.
“After a while he creates this thing, and it’s not Harry Lime, and it’s not exactly Joseph Cotton either.” (“Crimes at Midnight”) By the end of the book, John Haskell is neither John Haskell nor Jackson Pollock but some synthesis of the two.
“Presume not that I am the thing I was,” John Haskell writes, quoting Chimes at Midnight quoting Henry IV. He once was John Haskell, not Jackson Pollock. And now he is no longer himself, or at least not the self he thought he was.
In an interview with Poets and Writers, Haskell talks about his influences and he mentions Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata and this quote: “Resist what resists in you. Become yourself.” Which is to say that the you who you think you are is not your self.
By saying “I am not Jackson Pollock,” John Haskell identifies the ambivalence of his desires. He is not whom he wishes to be. And in order to resolve this dilemma he creates a labyrinth of personhood in which he loses not himself but the self that wanted to be something other.
September 21, 2015
Almost impossible to rate, at times magical and then incredibly tedious/frustrating. Short, locally intertwined vignettes derived from some magical interpolation of fictional and real characters into a common sphere. Janet Leigh, a circus elephant, film characters, and the eponymous painter all feature, engaged in a search for authenticity that seems to lead to loss and death. A little unfocused, but highly original.
September 24, 2012
My CurledUp review: Once in a great while, there is an exciting piece of literature that succeeds in being enjoyable, thought-provoking, and ground-breaking. John Haskell has created such a work with I Am Not Jackson Pollock. Haskell has written himself a collection of “creative meditations” that blur the line between actor and character, between artist and art, between who we are and who we desire to be. His comparisons of unlikely companions reflect the synchronicity of life and art and create the basis for the reader’s understanding that Haskell’s answer to the question “what is the meaning of life” and to the artist’s cliché “what is your motivation” are both “desire”.
Curled Up With a Good BookIn “Dream of a Clean Slate,” Jackson Pollock struggles with his personal and public selves. His trajectory toward failure leads him into a spiraling third persona who is determined not to fail as others desire him to but to find a path towards failure that will buck the stereotype and fulfill his own personal desire:
“And Jackson, in an effort to find something real and solid, shook his head. Which was what they wanted him to do, and the problem was, he didn’t want to do what they wanted him to do, he wanted to do what he wanted to do, but because they wanted him to do what he wanted to do, what he wanted...”
Thus Haskell sets the reader up for a psychological catch-22. If we desire to be different but others expect us to be different, how do we define our differences and our desires as our own and not as the desire to fulfill other’s desires? (Pause here and think about that one – it’s just the beginning…)
Desire takes the form of love and communication in “Elephant Feelings,” where an elephant cannot speak to its trainer, a sideshow freak is unable to communicate in the language of her lover, and Ganesha, the Hindi God, is unable to get a man to acknowledge or speak to him despite his repeated efforts to do so. All three characters desire the ability to communicate their love and to have it communicated back to them and all are thwarted in their attempts to fulfill the need.
In “The Judgment of Psycho,” perhaps the most enjoyable of all of the stories (although it is hard to qualify a “best” story out of this collection), Haskell retells the general plot of the movie Psycho and first blurs the lines between actor and character. Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh are given the motivations of their characters (Norman Bates and Marion Crane). Haskell gives us insights by using asides that involve the mythology of Paris and Helen to explain Perkins’ desires and an under-painted Vermeer painting to project to us Leigh’s fear.
“The Faces of Joan of Arc” continues the crossing of art and artist when we meet Renee Falconetti, whose desire to identify with her character’s pain causes her to lay on a bed of spikes; Mercedes McCambridge, who is the voice of the devil in The Exorcist, whose desire to stop drinking causes her to hate the part of herself that she begins to know as the devil; and Heddy Lamar, whose diminishing beauty and desire for authority cause her to shoplift.
While characters in the first stories struggle with the consequences of their own desires, in “Capucine” we see the first inkling of another way to fall victim to desire. Haskell briefly takes us inside the mind of Norman Morrison, who lit himself on fire outside of the Pentagon in 1965, in a startling comparison to the sense of hopelessness Capucine must have felt in her struggle to suppress all personal desires in order to fit the molds appropriate to other’s expectations.
“Glen Gould in Six Parts,” the only story besides “Clean Slate” that does not bother to plunge us into the seemingly unrelated asides that seem to be a hallmark of these stories, gives Gould the sensations and inner monologue befitting an autism sufferer. Haskell shows us his best technical moment with a clever, insightful, and functional description involving parentheses.
The “pure potential” of a young girl and her desire to please others is paired with the first dog in space, Laika, who has been anthropomorphized to share the same desire to please in “Good World." While the young girl disappears below the earth after falling in a well, Laika disappears above the earth, and neither of them are able to fulfill their desires. This pairing is additionally highlighted with a mention of Aristotle’s thinking behind virtue versus desire and the addition of an aside involving Shakespeare’s characters, Richard and Ann, who, trapped within the play, are destined to repeat the same scene and behaviors over and over as a consequence of habit and out of a desire to try and change.
“Crimes at Midnight”, the longest work, appears to be the centerpiece of the work as a whole. In this story, Haskell uses Touch of Evil and its players to again, blur the lines of actor and character as in “Psycho”, to recall the difficulty of communication as in “Elephant”, the desire to identify as in “Joan of Arc”, the catch-22 from "Clean Slate,” and the suppression of desire from “Capucine". This encapsulation of the previous desires into one story is further highlighted with asides including Lev Kuleshov, who created films that showed how perception can be skewed to the desired results, and John Falstaff (blurred again by bringing Orson Welles in as the character of Falstaff) and his desires to control and to maintain illusions.
The last story in the collection, “Narrow Road,” features the poet Basho and his pursuit for uninterrupted concentration and oneness with nature despite constant distractions from his assistant, Sora, and his bodily functions. Basho and Sora are paired with Fanny Brawne and John Keats, young lovers whose expectations for love are vastly different and yet, somehow, focus on the same result, and photographer Lisa Fossagrives, whose desire to be loved but not be in love returns us to Basho’s singular intent to remain focused on his own world.
There is not a story in Haskell’s threaded collection that does not bear re-reading. Each story has an uncanny epic-like ability to trap the reader within itself. It is nearly impossible to move on to the next without a serious contemplation of what we have been shown in these unpredictable pairings that only serve to cement our singular fate as emotional beings to pursue our desires regardless of the fear, anxiety, and unhappiness the pursuit will cause.
Curled Up With a Good BookIn “Dream of a Clean Slate,” Jackson Pollock struggles with his personal and public selves. His trajectory toward failure leads him into a spiraling third persona who is determined not to fail as others desire him to but to find a path towards failure that will buck the stereotype and fulfill his own personal desire:
“And Jackson, in an effort to find something real and solid, shook his head. Which was what they wanted him to do, and the problem was, he didn’t want to do what they wanted him to do, he wanted to do what he wanted to do, but because they wanted him to do what he wanted to do, what he wanted...”
Thus Haskell sets the reader up for a psychological catch-22. If we desire to be different but others expect us to be different, how do we define our differences and our desires as our own and not as the desire to fulfill other’s desires? (Pause here and think about that one – it’s just the beginning…)
Desire takes the form of love and communication in “Elephant Feelings,” where an elephant cannot speak to its trainer, a sideshow freak is unable to communicate in the language of her lover, and Ganesha, the Hindi God, is unable to get a man to acknowledge or speak to him despite his repeated efforts to do so. All three characters desire the ability to communicate their love and to have it communicated back to them and all are thwarted in their attempts to fulfill the need.
In “The Judgment of Psycho,” perhaps the most enjoyable of all of the stories (although it is hard to qualify a “best” story out of this collection), Haskell retells the general plot of the movie Psycho and first blurs the lines between actor and character. Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh are given the motivations of their characters (Norman Bates and Marion Crane). Haskell gives us insights by using asides that involve the mythology of Paris and Helen to explain Perkins’ desires and an under-painted Vermeer painting to project to us Leigh’s fear.
“The Faces of Joan of Arc” continues the crossing of art and artist when we meet Renee Falconetti, whose desire to identify with her character’s pain causes her to lay on a bed of spikes; Mercedes McCambridge, who is the voice of the devil in The Exorcist, whose desire to stop drinking causes her to hate the part of herself that she begins to know as the devil; and Heddy Lamar, whose diminishing beauty and desire for authority cause her to shoplift.
While characters in the first stories struggle with the consequences of their own desires, in “Capucine” we see the first inkling of another way to fall victim to desire. Haskell briefly takes us inside the mind of Norman Morrison, who lit himself on fire outside of the Pentagon in 1965, in a startling comparison to the sense of hopelessness Capucine must have felt in her struggle to suppress all personal desires in order to fit the molds appropriate to other’s expectations.
“Glen Gould in Six Parts,” the only story besides “Clean Slate” that does not bother to plunge us into the seemingly unrelated asides that seem to be a hallmark of these stories, gives Gould the sensations and inner monologue befitting an autism sufferer. Haskell shows us his best technical moment with a clever, insightful, and functional description involving parentheses.
The “pure potential” of a young girl and her desire to please others is paired with the first dog in space, Laika, who has been anthropomorphized to share the same desire to please in “Good World." While the young girl disappears below the earth after falling in a well, Laika disappears above the earth, and neither of them are able to fulfill their desires. This pairing is additionally highlighted with a mention of Aristotle’s thinking behind virtue versus desire and the addition of an aside involving Shakespeare’s characters, Richard and Ann, who, trapped within the play, are destined to repeat the same scene and behaviors over and over as a consequence of habit and out of a desire to try and change.
“Crimes at Midnight”, the longest work, appears to be the centerpiece of the work as a whole. In this story, Haskell uses Touch of Evil and its players to again, blur the lines of actor and character as in “Psycho”, to recall the difficulty of communication as in “Elephant”, the desire to identify as in “Joan of Arc”, the catch-22 from "Clean Slate,” and the suppression of desire from “Capucine". This encapsulation of the previous desires into one story is further highlighted with asides including Lev Kuleshov, who created films that showed how perception can be skewed to the desired results, and John Falstaff (blurred again by bringing Orson Welles in as the character of Falstaff) and his desires to control and to maintain illusions.
The last story in the collection, “Narrow Road,” features the poet Basho and his pursuit for uninterrupted concentration and oneness with nature despite constant distractions from his assistant, Sora, and his bodily functions. Basho and Sora are paired with Fanny Brawne and John Keats, young lovers whose expectations for love are vastly different and yet, somehow, focus on the same result, and photographer Lisa Fossagrives, whose desire to be loved but not be in love returns us to Basho’s singular intent to remain focused on his own world.
There is not a story in Haskell’s threaded collection that does not bear re-reading. Each story has an uncanny epic-like ability to trap the reader within itself. It is nearly impossible to move on to the next without a serious contemplation of what we have been shown in these unpredictable pairings that only serve to cement our singular fate as emotional beings to pursue our desires regardless of the fear, anxiety, and unhappiness the pursuit will cause.
October 4, 2022
This book was done in a weird format but I liked it, I wasn't often very engrossed in it but I did find it interesting. Certain stories were better than others.
December 19, 2008
sorry, this is just too sad, too creepy for me. i can see where his accolades came from though. John Haskell is a great writer, a great author. but you must be emotionally and psychically tough to read this book. im not at this time :(
January 23, 2022
First Reaction: Well-Crafted.
Haskell tells a story like it hasn't been told before. It is a narrative that is unique to him. Haskell will tell you what the color blue feels like when it is turquoise or cyan.
On second read, I am more confident in modern writing.
Haskell simply deceived us with short essays packed into a novel. It was enjoyable to read and you can finish it in no time,a nd for a reviewer like me, it is classic gold. Because Haskell simply wrote reviews of his favourite shoes and turned them into short stories with a deeply and masterful personal touch. He wrote about the personalities with the characters of works that have shaped the culture of his time. That said...
Good writing. The flow was impeccable. However, it felt like this was written for content. It scores quite low on literary merit (I have to share a quick guide for determining literary merit on this line). I have almost forgotten most of the stories here. Well, except the first one which was John's strongest offering in the bunch, I Am Not Jackson Pollock. Another thing is that the writing moves in the post-modern style of writing that I witnessed in Nigerian Literature in the 2010s (a particularly dark time in our country's literary history but we thank God). It often feels fake and allows to writer to make choices that do not make sense. I find it lazy. But if an audience likes it, I guess it is okay.
Key Takeaway: Your first novel is going to feel like a mistake down the line. This means you are a great writer.
Haskell tells a story like it hasn't been told before. It is a narrative that is unique to him. Haskell will tell you what the color blue feels like when it is turquoise or cyan.
On second read, I am more confident in modern writing.
Haskell simply deceived us with short essays packed into a novel. It was enjoyable to read and you can finish it in no time,a nd for a reviewer like me, it is classic gold. Because Haskell simply wrote reviews of his favourite shoes and turned them into short stories with a deeply and masterful personal touch. He wrote about the personalities with the characters of works that have shaped the culture of his time. That said...
Good writing. The flow was impeccable. However, it felt like this was written for content. It scores quite low on literary merit (I have to share a quick guide for determining literary merit on this line). I have almost forgotten most of the stories here. Well, except the first one which was John's strongest offering in the bunch, I Am Not Jackson Pollock. Another thing is that the writing moves in the post-modern style of writing that I witnessed in Nigerian Literature in the 2010s (a particularly dark time in our country's literary history but we thank God). It often feels fake and allows to writer to make choices that do not make sense. I find it lazy. But if an audience likes it, I guess it is okay.
Key Takeaway: Your first novel is going to feel like a mistake down the line. This means you are a great writer.
February 18, 2009
This is one of my favorite books ever. In part it appeals to my preference for tightly-written narratives (also known as short stories) over long-winded, Dave Eggers excess. (although I'll admit his crafting of the bandname Scott Beowulf in "Heartbreaking Work. . ." is genius) Haskell's ability to inhabit these completely unconnectetd yet tragic characters struck me as pretty friggin' crafty--I'm talking about women, elephants, artists, fictional characters that feel like we know them. Very impressive. I was so underwhelmed by his second book that I won't even GO THERE and speak of it other than to say, bleah.
July 17, 2012
I'm reading this again for the second time. I changed my rating from 4 to 5 stars. It fits really well into my purse and has lots of good sentences . . . like the kind of sentences that change everything for a few seconds . . . the way good sentences should.
August 8, 2020
That was a weird and dark bunch of stories. I almost gave this book a four just because of the last story, Narrow Road, but decided not. It was the only story I felt anything about or cared about. Basho, the Japanese poet, Keats and Fanny Brawne, and Lisa Fonssagrives (a model). All of them are wanting something that seems to just barely elude them. They are waiting for a perfect (?) set of circumstances to obtain what it is they want. The wants are not all physical, it is the ability to concentrate or the ability to block out other people or ideas to attain an awareness. I have similar struggles.
July 13, 2017
I dont know. maybe im not artsy enough for this shit.
June 20, 2024
A refreshing literary voice. Haskell’s grasp of human emotion is astonishing!
August 29, 2007
this is has a couple of worthwhile moments actually, there's a heartfelt story about the time they electrified that elephant to give AC current a bad name in that edison/westinghouse rivalry. and who doesn't deeply love an elephant? and hate electricity, for that matter?
but some of this book is not very good, even just dull. i don't know why i own this book. i'd never buy it for myself, though after i read it, i did buy it for my friend diana b/c she is a teacher and it had some stories crafted around stuff she teaches that i thought might be interesting to her or the kids.
i just remembered that i THINK cary gave me this book. it was either this book or another, much worse one with a hammer on the cover that i don't even remember the title. actually it might be the latter but i want to continue the story anyway b/c i'm bored. i met cary b/c i was on a date in the west village with cameron and it wasn't going well b/c cameron is essentially a nasty, selfish person and cary was at the next table, reading and eating alone and when i looked at him when cameron went to the bathroom, he looked back tenderly and suggested that i meet him at the bar after my date was through. i thought that was very sweet and it made the rest of my bad date exciting so i did it. he was in publishing and showed me his office, where i got a book and a guy was playing with a mangy dog and a handball. we met up two more times and the last time was at a starbucks near my job. i don't know why we never spoke again. i'm going to call him. ohhh, the number is no longer in service. bummer. ACK i just googled him and he's the director of publicity and aquiring editor of a publishing company now and there are many flattering pictures of him... huh. good for him. good for electricity.
but some of this book is not very good, even just dull. i don't know why i own this book. i'd never buy it for myself, though after i read it, i did buy it for my friend diana b/c she is a teacher and it had some stories crafted around stuff she teaches that i thought might be interesting to her or the kids.
i just remembered that i THINK cary gave me this book. it was either this book or another, much worse one with a hammer on the cover that i don't even remember the title. actually it might be the latter but i want to continue the story anyway b/c i'm bored. i met cary b/c i was on a date in the west village with cameron and it wasn't going well b/c cameron is essentially a nasty, selfish person and cary was at the next table, reading and eating alone and when i looked at him when cameron went to the bathroom, he looked back tenderly and suggested that i meet him at the bar after my date was through. i thought that was very sweet and it made the rest of my bad date exciting so i did it. he was in publishing and showed me his office, where i got a book and a guy was playing with a mangy dog and a handball. we met up two more times and the last time was at a starbucks near my job. i don't know why we never spoke again. i'm going to call him. ohhh, the number is no longer in service. bummer. ACK i just googled him and he's the director of publicity and aquiring editor of a publishing company now and there are many flattering pictures of him... huh. good for him. good for electricity.
December 8, 2009
Haskell was another of those names that popped up on my list, alongside F Gander and a couple others I'm sure I'll cycle through in another month or so, and this was the first book of his I could find.... I was interested in what I anticipated to be the cross-genre elements of this, and in that regard, I wasn't disappointed, or at least not much.... This book is a series of "narratives" that to me are a lot like essays, really-- usually two or more well-known figures have their biographies rehearsed (and I'm only speculating here, but I'll speculate) and augmented by Haskell to develop some idea outside of their particular lives: so Joan of Arc and the woman who played Joan of Arc in a movie and Mercedes McCambridge all serve to develop an idea about authority and submission to authority.
Like I said, there's not too much narrative here, and what there is serves the purpose of developing this idea: authority, desire, identity.
Most of the stories concern actors, and there's a regular slippage in the way Haskell writes between actor and character, so it's Janet Leigh who is traveling on the highway and killed in the motel in Psycho, by Tony Hopkins, not Norman Bates. I'm sure this is intentional, and maybe it's this part of the rhetorical approach of the book that makes it fiction at all? But it's odd, and I'm still not sure I fully get it.
Part of my idiosyncratic response to this book is that I've read Martone's stories about celebrities years ago and a couple times since, so I feel like, for me, this is slightly familiar territory thematically, even if Haskell's approach is new. I think I might have been more wowed if I hadn't first read Martone.
I want to read _American Purgatorio_, to see what Haskell does with a broader palette.
Like I said, there's not too much narrative here, and what there is serves the purpose of developing this idea: authority, desire, identity.
Most of the stories concern actors, and there's a regular slippage in the way Haskell writes between actor and character, so it's Janet Leigh who is traveling on the highway and killed in the motel in Psycho, by Tony Hopkins, not Norman Bates. I'm sure this is intentional, and maybe it's this part of the rhetorical approach of the book that makes it fiction at all? But it's odd, and I'm still not sure I fully get it.
Part of my idiosyncratic response to this book is that I've read Martone's stories about celebrities years ago and a couple times since, so I feel like, for me, this is slightly familiar territory thematically, even if Haskell's approach is new. I think I might have been more wowed if I hadn't first read Martone.
I want to read _American Purgatorio_, to see what Haskell does with a broader palette.
November 16, 2008
What a cool, interesting book. These stories are more like studies of films or celebrities/artists written to vaguely resemble fiction. The first sentence of the first story, about Jackson Pollock but titled "Dream of a Clean Slate," is "I am not Jackson Pollock." Haskell then, though, spends the rest of the book breaking down the distinction between actors and the characters they portray, between artist as famous artist and artist as person, thereby breaking down the distinction between himself as writer and the artists/characters/etc. he's writing about. There's a lot to do with image and appearance vs. one's inner desires, and I found it interesting that the book includes a page of photographs of the celebrities discussed, as if it were essential to, what, prove that these are actual people or something.
I'm curious to read Haskell's novels, as over the course of the collection you start to feel like he's got a great voice that's being slightly constricted by this critical-study-as-fiction motif. It's interesting to consider whether a collection of stories is meant to be read all at once (I read this book in essentially one sitting) or not. This book is certainly not multifaceted, but it achieves what it sets out to achieve, and what it achieves is unique and fresh. Recommended!
I'm curious to read Haskell's novels, as over the course of the collection you start to feel like he's got a great voice that's being slightly constricted by this critical-study-as-fiction motif. It's interesting to consider whether a collection of stories is meant to be read all at once (I read this book in essentially one sitting) or not. This book is certainly not multifaceted, but it achieves what it sets out to achieve, and what it achieves is unique and fresh. Recommended!
Read
February 27, 2009Read the STOP SMILING interview with Out of My Skin author John Haskell:
In John Haskell’s first novel, American Purgatorio, the main character Jack, who is strikingly similar to the author, drives from New York to California searching for his wife, Anne. As with all great stories, the journey is about more than the search for one person, place or thing — it’s about remembering why finding someone, someplace or something is important to begin with.
You can tell by looking at Haskell in conversation that he not only knows people and how to read them, but also the motivations for the things we do in life. Like some being looking down on us from space, Haskell (with whom I share no relation) traces our behavior in his novels like we trace the movements of the night sky on charts.
Read the complete STOP SMILING interview with John Haskell...
In John Haskell’s first novel, American Purgatorio, the main character Jack, who is strikingly similar to the author, drives from New York to California searching for his wife, Anne. As with all great stories, the journey is about more than the search for one person, place or thing — it’s about remembering why finding someone, someplace or something is important to begin with.
You can tell by looking at Haskell in conversation that he not only knows people and how to read them, but also the motivations for the things we do in life. Like some being looking down on us from space, Haskell (with whom I share no relation) traces our behavior in his novels like we trace the movements of the night sky on charts.
Read the complete STOP SMILING interview with John Haskell...
July 10, 2009
I love short fiction and was eager to read this collection, despite being less than enthused by Haskell's OUT OF MY SKIN. But what I read was a collection of stories that all seemed the same to me. Each story associating two dis-similar entities. Each story about what something is NOT (hmmm...a pattern here? "NOT Jackson Pollack" and his OUT OF MY SKIN could have been titled "I Am Not Steve Martin"). And sadly, his writing style struck me as dull.
As some of the other reviewers here mention, you do need to be in the right frame of mind for this style of book, but I'm not sure what that frame of mind is. Lost? Confused? And then you can nod appreciably at recognizing another lost soul?
I love looking for and finding an author that I can enjoy and who isn't someone that you will find on the NYT Bestsellers list. (For instance, my discovery of Paul Watkins still strikes me as an enjoyable 'find'.) But Haskell is not someone that I will continue to read.
As some of the other reviewers here mention, you do need to be in the right frame of mind for this style of book, but I'm not sure what that frame of mind is. Lost? Confused? And then you can nod appreciably at recognizing another lost soul?
I love looking for and finding an author that I can enjoy and who isn't someone that you will find on the NYT Bestsellers list. (For instance, my discovery of Paul Watkins still strikes me as an enjoyable 'find'.) But Haskell is not someone that I will continue to read.
May 29, 2014
i read only few of the short stories that make this book but quickly deserted it. approach seems to be muddled: writing about and thru popular culture figures the writer misses his chance to crack and bristle our understanding of them (the myths). instead he reiterates the myths we know and spins his thin surface of a story upon that.
i don't like haskell's use of a sentence, or how he ties them together. there is an enigmatic feel of some deep wisdom being juggled all along but never delivered. and wisdom is hardly something i'm looking for from a writer, so i think it's not just my expectations.
haskell's way of using very little description seems to take the breath away from his writing. stories come stuffy, no punctuation that would give it hold or grip me. short stories i read - about pollock and glenn gould - lie in the end only upon the received truths we have of these strange figures (superstars). myth can't save writing and there doesn't seem to be much else.
i don't like haskell's use of a sentence, or how he ties them together. there is an enigmatic feel of some deep wisdom being juggled all along but never delivered. and wisdom is hardly something i'm looking for from a writer, so i think it's not just my expectations.
haskell's way of using very little description seems to take the breath away from his writing. stories come stuffy, no punctuation that would give it hold or grip me. short stories i read - about pollock and glenn gould - lie in the end only upon the received truths we have of these strange figures (superstars). myth can't save writing and there doesn't seem to be much else.
April 30, 2009
I became interested in reading this book after hearing an interview with Haskell about his newest novel. During the interview, he was asked about the relationship between his last three books (the newest one, the title of which I can't recall at the moment, the prior one, American Purgatorio, and this one) and acknowledged that they were related and formed a kind of American Divine Comedy, with this one being the Inferno. So of course I had to read them (the fact that I liked the bit of the new one read on the program also contributed).
Having read the stories, the Inferno theme fits. I'm not quite sure how to describe these -- they are a cross between essays and stories and quite interesting. Since I do plan to read the other books, I'll use that as an excuse to wait until I have to comment more.
Having read the stories, the Inferno theme fits. I'm not quite sure how to describe these -- they are a cross between essays and stories and quite interesting. Since I do plan to read the other books, I'll use that as an excuse to wait until I have to comment more.
April 25, 2013
An excellent essayistic story collection. Some of the pieces weave together various film scenes, which he relates in interesting ways (rarely outright stating the relations). One is about Jackson Pollock, another about Glenn Gould, another about the first dog in orbit. All have the Shafferian (Jeffrey) flat prose I love, and all are thoughtful even when narrative. Or better, they are thoughtful reconstructions of narratives – his own narratives work on a completely different level than the film and life narratives that constitute the pieces. Brilliant. I can’t wait to see what he does with the novel form.
May 15, 2009
This series of short stories imagines incidents in the lives of notable celebrities, like artist Jackson Pollock and actress Hedy Lamarr.
I think it's an interesting experiment in structure-- the way the stories weave in and out of each other thematically is intriguing. And I enjoyed Haskell's straightforward writing style. However, I had trouble engaging emotionally with any of the characters because their stories are so fragmented, and in most cases so fictionalized. I just couldn't connect to the narrative.
I think it's an interesting experiment in structure-- the way the stories weave in and out of each other thematically is intriguing. And I enjoyed Haskell's straightforward writing style. However, I had trouble engaging emotionally with any of the characters because their stories are so fragmented, and in most cases so fictionalized. I just couldn't connect to the narrative.
October 11, 2011
each of these evocative short stories is inspired by a public figure in cultural history-- the painter Jackson Pollock, Nathan Bates from Psycho, Orson Wells in the Third Man, pianist Glenn Gould, zen poet Rishi. Haskell imagines the interior lives of these semi-public figures. In each story the protagonist struggles against the shape of his or her individual life or pushes against the boundaries of his or her experience. Is this creative non-fiction?
September 26, 2007
i had heard a portion of "elephant feelings" on npr and so i ordered the book. i enjoyed how each short story, while separate from one anohter, managed to segue into each other. while it wasn't a book that i couldn't put down, i certainly enjoyed reading the stories over a few weekends during my saturday morning visits to the laundry mat.
August 14, 2008
Didn't love all the stories in this collection, but the few I did, were amazing. Very different style. Unique and interesting without being crazy ass. Elephant Feelings is so good that I'm still thinking about it days later and will read again and again. Worth the read for anyone who wishes to blend fact with fiction.
June 6, 2015
A series of narrative essays that allow the reader to inhabit a diversity of motivations- animal, actor, poet or historical figure - the collection moves through its studies with each of its figures in search of connections - with people, with ideals and with that odd conjunction that art occasionally supplies of the two.
July 11, 2008
This book was bizarre in that I didn't really feel anything about it one way or the other. I didn't like it, I didn't dislike it, it didn't particularly move me to feel happy or sad or angry or . . . really much of anything. So I am not quite sure what to say about it or how to rate it.
August 10, 2009
Hmm, let’s see, a myth-like essay on Janet Leigh and “Tony” Perkins, connecting in the same breath to Achilles, Athena, and Helen of Troy? (The sole reason I snatched up this book, but far from the sole reason I liked it.) Oh yes, please.
June 1, 2012
The elephant story lingers in my mind. On the whole, I found it jarring the way Haskell referred to a character by the actor's name and vice versa. I know it was intentional blurring but it annoyed me at times.
August 18, 2007
I should re-read the book as whole, as I recall being indifferent to some of the stories, but I frequently come back to "Good World", & it is always just as amazing as it was the first time.
August 24, 2007
After the first few stories I was thinking 5 stars, but it gets a little monotonous. Still worth reading though.
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