Jesse > Recent Status Updates

Insane jump in quality from #264 to #266. The former is undoubtedly the worst issue of the entire series to this point, but the latter is one of the best. All hail Peter David! Craig Anderson, well… you tried!

Just reached a brilliant convergence of the book’s interlocking chapters. With titles oscillating between Oswald’s location and the dates of 11/22/63 conspirators’ meetings, here they align in the present, fulfilling the epigraph to Part 1, Oswald’s letter to his brother: “Happiness is taking part in the struggle, where there is no borderline between one’s own personal world, and the world in general.”

It’s almost unbelievable how effectively Mailer hides his presence from these pages. A man who is usually front and center in his books is hidden behind a simple, ghostly, journalistic chorus of a narrator. Lots of authors get praised for their “style jumps,” but this is the first time I’ve ever been impressed by one.

Fantastic so far!

Somehow this is even better than I thought it would be, but I am getting accustomed to reading McCarthy more like how I’d read Céline or Pound (i.e., “how could such a monster be this talented?”)

As usual, I’m more intrigued by Butler’s ideas than her writing.