Terry Taft > Recent Status Updates

Could I be harsh… I think Douglas Stuart THINKS he’s writing like this.

Waiting for all the Booker prize books to get to me….

She’s trying to hurt me yall. She’s really trying to hurt me.

MB this is one of the greatest books ever written. Just don’t think I was prepped for Kafka levels of depressing but maybe I could’ve gathered that from the title.

Praying she lands this bc right now it’s just feelin risky

I can’t imagine speaking ill of Steinbeck but I am severely disinterested w this one

Dude idk it’s been a dense couple of books I need a Hail Mary 😭 NOBODY LOOK OVER HERE

Are we all reading the same book??????

Could I be so bold to say that there is nothing new or remotely interesting here? I need someone who cares for me to sit down and talk me through this, I know I’m wrong!!!!!!

There’s something about Stuart that just doesn’t work for me. And it’s clearly JUST me. His books feel like they sit right at surface level with brief dips down into absurd sexual behavior or sudden and wild violence that fly right back up to the surface level. There’s something so NOT vulnerable about this written vulnerability, I cannot put a finger on it.

Treading water between nuanced characters and a stuffy (and purposeful) self-Insert I’m really not sure is working for me. Only 400 more pages, I’m sure they’ll be normal!

The only correct place to start with Chu is reading “on liking women” and I strongly encourage you to find it online and read it immediately. After my 3rd read, I feel that I still have yet to find another piece of writing which so aptly dissects the TERF and the desire to express gender. It precedes her book females which feels like a failed attempt to expound upon what was right in “on liking women.”

I’ve spent some time recently reading New York magazine. I’m gay, so I start with the criticism section. I must say, people can be so dull, even in the face of writing for such a prestigious magazine. That is never a crime I’d accuse Chu of. In fact, she might be one of the most interesting living writers.

The international booker short list this year is so damn good every one a hit

Lena Dunham writers the most absurdly consumable content. Regardless of the sorta strange (often cringe) voice she has, it is abundantly clear that she’s a genius.

Bored 100 pages only to read 20 of the most profound pages of the entire year.
“Where does this personal obsession with the past come from? Why does it pull me in, like a well I have leaned over? Why does it seduce me with faces that I know no longer exist? What is left there, that I don’t manage to take? Could I beg for just one trip back, even though I do not have Orpheus’s talent, just his desire?

This is making me feel dumb as rocks

Theres something about this that reminds me a lot of open water and all the reasons that didn’t work for me. Every touch is lighting, crisp english is a frozen pond, everyone is shaking fresh rain water off their new wings. When every moment of a book is poetic, it’s really hard for me to stay interested in a plot. Idk.

God this is dull

I’m off a gummy feeling like the wax child

“These are strange times my dear, they smell your breath to see if you've spoken of love.”

Ulysses is easy for me to understand. I am having no troubles and grasp the plot with ease. Nothing is standing in my way.

I was extremely put off by Taylor’s first novel because of his obsession with the seemingly straight man hooking up with the gay friend trope (or should I say fetish? Since it certainly is fetishization of and obsession with the straight male). It is MIND BOGGLING to me that he would begin this short story collection with the exact same fetish. I want to like Taylor so bad but I don’t think I do.

This is seriously 1 long intense rumination on mice

If you have a special interest in mouse infestation I urge you to pick this up! You could pick it up from me even! I do not want it

This is boring as rocks

I don’t know why this lady has dreads but she might be a genius

Reading this dystopian which didn’t win the booker thinking about Prophet Song which did win the booker grinding my teeth

This dialogue is a dumpster fire

O this might be really good…