John Oakley > Recent Status Updates

Almost forgot my mission to reread one book a year. But I didn’t forget

So basically I tried to record all the amazing names in this book one by one, and I noted like 20 of them and then realized that only 2 went through. So first of all don’t judge me for my nonsensical status updates. And second of all now there’s a guy whose literal actual name is first name: Dick, last name: Head. Essentially proving I was right to note the names. Tater Crouch. Freda Beautyrooms. Dick Head

That’s Archie Frass

Gardaman Purt

Lou Ann Bemis runs the Java Jive Cafe

This characters name is Rope Butt. You have Mr. Butt to thank for the inspiration of this thread

Dixie Goodloe

Now here’s Froggy Dibden

Tater Crouch

Chapter on Martin Merton Fronk

Here’s Francis Scott Keister

49 Sheriff Hugh Dough introduced

Ruby Voltaire mentioned

Bromo Redpoll appears

Character named Ribeye Cluke

First annual Pick One Book to Reread is underway

This man loves bells

Lady and the Fox was very nice, very touching. The final story, Skinder’s Veil, was straight up Kelly link showing off. Exactly my type of story. Stories within stories, mysterious but not meant to just be broken down into neat answers, and dark in a way that is still fun

Smash/recovery was a little confusing! I feel like it just got to a point where I needed everything to be explained, but then it became ONLY explaining so I didn’t get much else out of it. Cool n creepy tho

Third story was amazing, mixing up death and longing that gave me Mammother vibes (which if you are reading this, please note Mammother is still a must read) and felt the most like a horror movie. The end was a little cringe with the whole “so I guess that’s the story this is” type stuff. Fourth story was enchanting, truly mesmerizing and had such an unexpected yet natural progression. Slow and fast

God damn second story perfect as well. A journey down into absurdism running alongside a dark journey of questioning how well you can know someone. The fantastical, outrageous components subvert your expectations, and thereby exceed them. Believable unbelievability

First story perfect. Plays with symbols and allusion and allegory but each piece resists fitting too neatly in as just something that “means” something else, mostly through absurdism and perfectly timed humor

Actually I’m gonna pass for now! Too dense for my vibe rn

Don’t read the preface

Middle of the book and we just had a chapter about really inaccurate pictures of whales, then a chapter about slightly less inaccurate pictures of whales, and then a chapter about pictures of whales made with wacky mediums bro this book is the longest joke ever written (compliment)!!!!

On pg 82 we see Christine driving down the road, then we meander through decades of her memories and her history with the family, and 8 pages later on pg 90 we make our way back to the current time to see her get in the car for that ride. We have made NEGATIVE chronological progress but the amount that we have learned in character development, emotions, and motivations is MASSIVE. This is why Morrison is the best

Lol I’m one chapter in and Annie proulx really one of the best to ever do it