Jean > Recent Status Updates

Hate this book. Or rather, I hate the Gauguin parts. After putting it down, a random person I met said I should at least read the sections about Gauguin’s grandmother-aka-labor organizer, so I’m putting it on the back burner until I can get the yucky taste out of my mouth & can start afresh.

I'm finding this book to be overwritten and a bit tedious. Wondering if people not familiar with these Baltimore neighborhoods will understand the nuanced commentary, but also wondering if my own familiarity with these neighborhoods is why I'm bored.

I read in a review somewhere that you did not need to be familiar with the comics Apatow interviews to appreciate the book. I did not find this to be an accurate assessment. Without knowing anything about most of the people featured, I found the interviews got pretty repetitive and were generally unrevealing. So ... I have moved on to something else.

Charming stories. Awful formatting of poetry— it is unreadable.

Amusing, but it does go on.

Maybe this is a good plan, but focusing on preserving uninhabited areas rather than industry seems like a cop-out to me. Certainly it can’t be the only basket into which one puts eggs, which is definitely an impression one can come away with.

Bored

I am loving this book! The stories are touching, horrifying, beautifully written.

It just never grabbed me.

Good! Super-interesting .... now I know where Jello Biafra’s name came from

Just interesting enough to keep a fun de siecle enthusiast reading.

I love it.

Reviewed on my blog Rankine uses second-person to portray the paradoxical position of blacks in America--both never-not-visible, and almost-always-invisible. In second person, you end up inhabiting the persona of the speaker, seeing through her eyes, feeling what she feels. A big surprise-- a whole essay on racism in tennis!