cooper > Recent Status Updates

this book is SO SO SO SO GOOD


“He waned to convey something warmer than development. Dare he borrow a gesture from the past?”

Just finished the first short story. It was quite dense hard to read at times, but some of the imagery was really beautiful and powerful. It touched on motherhood, growing old, being in a relationship fighting with that relationship disillusion within that relationship, etc.. the first short story gets a seven out of 10

There’s a depiction of a mother and her relationship with her son that I find so intriguing. The writing also makes me pause and think for a while.


“I blew on the fire of the furious resentment that was burning me up. It was like one of those illnesses in which you manufacture your own suffering — every breath tears your lungs to pieces, and yet you are forced to breathe.”

CONTAINS SPOILERS:

“I thought it would be easy, watching lying in the tub and seeing the redness flower from my wrists[…]
But when it came right down to it, the skin of my wrists looked so white and defenseless that i couldn’t do it. It was as if what i wanted to kill wasn’t in that skin […], but somewhere else, deeper, more secret, and a whole lot harder to get to.

Really good so far! Esther is funny asf. I’ve heard the book is depressing but so far it hasn’t been.

“For the first time in a long while, i looked deep within my own eyes in the mirror. Those eyes told me nothing of who I was. I laid both hands on the sink and sighed deeply. “

I was bored, truth be told, but now it’s getting good!

First short story fucking SUCKED! Dull, played out, toxic, etc. made me feel
Better about my self a LITTLE but overall bad. I’ll read one more then see how I feel

Inshore and farther out the mirror of water, whitened, spurned by lightshod hurrying feet.
White breast of the dim sea. The twinning stresses, two by two. A hand plucking the harp strings merging their twinning chords. Wave white wedded words shimmering on the dim tide

I can see I was too used to being strong, and never tried to understand those who were weak. I was too used to being fortunate, and didn't try to understand those less fortunate. Too used to being healthy, and didn't try to understand the pain of those who weren't.

The plot is unfolding nicely. Im liking the writing style, the relationships, the thoughts, and the struggles.

Sosososo good

i glanced at the full length mirror as i passed by, at my face reflected in it. a strange expression was on my face. that was my face, all right, but where did that look come from? i didn’t feel like retracing my steps and investigating further.

“Mind if I give my two cents?”
“OK”
“Any explanation or logic that explains everything has a hidden trap in it. Im speaking from experience. If it’s something a single book can explain, it’s not worth having explained”

She said okay and hung up quite abruptly. I couldn’t fall back asleep. I brewed a pot of coffee and read until dawn

This book employs an interesting chronology technique.

1. The books describes sumire at a dinner
end of chapter
2. narrator tells a story about an unrelated event that occurred to him
end of chapter
3. story is told about the guy telling that story to Sumire
4. “at dinner, i thought of your story” - sumire

it’s really subtle but easy to follow and kind of brilliant

Im warming up to this book. The writing style is more modern than the other murakami I read and the jokes seem very “American”. But the imagery is nice and the plot is interesting thus far.


“Like the sound of a velvet curtain being drawn aside on a peaceful morning to let in the sunlight to wake someone very special to you”

He’s so verbose in all the small details of his life. It reminds me of house on the bay and house on the ocean in that regard. I don’t think I have the bandwidth to read another book, by another old gay, going into immense detail about the smallest events in their past. This one is centered around childhood and set in the past which is unique but I feel that I will end up unfulfilled if I continue