Tim Null > Recent Status Updates

So far my enthusiasm for this story is high!

UGH!

Quote: ... race is not real, but racism is. Unquote p. 82

I read Celeste Ng's review twice. Once before I purchased this collection of short stories and again just before I read the story titled Note To Sixth Grade Self; which was an impressive story. Now I'm gonna go back and read this collection cover to cover.

I carry on, even though I now realize that Peter De Vries had never ever been to Kalamazoo. But, I suppose, Glenn Miller never had either. And don't even ask me about Harry Warren or Mark Gordon. (However, if you know Gordon Perkins, John Brewer, Glen Stine, or Pauline Sattler, give me a howdy-do.)

I've only just started Peter De Vries' novel titled Slouching Towards Kalamazoo and it's already too cute by nine halves. (I mean Run from the Room Screaming while Pulling your Hair Out cute!) Should I toss this one in the trash?

Wow!

I've been in search of a book that captures the spirit of the times when I grew up. This may be it.

I read the Afterword by Ann Joslin Williams, then the Foreword by Andre Dubus III, and now it's time to proceed into the heart of the matter.

I got exactly 200 pages to go! :)
In his story titled Builders Yates was critical of writers who write about writers. But what about drunk writers who write about drunk writers? (I'll probably take a little break for a while, and read about something other than writers and/or drunks.)

So far all the stories are good, but Five Rooms is wonderful beyond belief. Sort of like a modern day Huck Finn that's a girl in a VW. No raft.

Reliving my past.

Quote: If everyone behaved like Donald Trump,   ...   Without a shared sense of responsibility to the common good, we would have to assume that everybody   ...   was acting selfishly, making and enforcing laws for their own benefit. Unquote

My current focus is on memoirs and autobiographies with emphasis given to people advancing either literature or liberal causes such as individual liberty, equality, and social justice. In the case of literature, my primary focus will be on authors with extensive short story collections.

Quote
England would have no slaves. And America would have no king.
Unquote

Quote [Our founders and ancestors] believed that truth is to be found in ideas about morality but also the study of history. Unquote p. xv of the Introduction

I've finished the first 18 days. Five star stuff so far!

I was first drawn to this book because Grover Cleveland is a second cousin many times removed. That is, according to my recollection, my paternal grandmother's father, William Dodge Cory (1840-1910), was a second cousin to Grover Cleveland (1837-1908). In other words, I share an ancestor with Grover Cleveland, Moses Cleveland. Obviously, Grover's connection to Moses is a tad more direct than mine.

Part 1: The Rail Split
"Allan Pinkerton ... is on the case." p. 149
Birth through presidential election of Lincoln. Causes of Civil War. Origin of the Secret Service.

I've been reading them in the order they were written: Linden Hills, Bailey's Cafe, and now onto Mama Day. From Bailey's Cafe: "When you have to face [life] with more questions than answers, it can be a crying shame." I liked Bailey's Cafe. Linden Hills, not much.