Jeremy > Recent Status Updates

I was really enjoying this book right up until this specific moment, where the MC makes a choice that seems so f***ing stupid and contrary that it completely drove me out of the story. I've LOVED this series, and I'm hoping I'll get over my discomfort and finish, but... daaaaaaaaaaaamn.

End of Part 1 / Beginning of Part 2

I can't tell if I'm enjoying this book or not.

Stalling out at 21%. *sigh*

I've now finished the first three stories, and each new one is somehow able to one-up the previous. "Ahegao" in particular is... amazing - the ending of which is somehow even more excruciatingly perfect than I could have expected. (And I've now also devoured several of his interviews for this book, and the DFW-ishness is definitely not accidental.)

DFW-ish levels of self-aware self-loathing; very funny, very dark, very sad. I hate that I recognize myself in some of these passages, which may or may not be the point.

"Lalami’s social critique has a righteous vigor, but as fiction The Dream Hotel often feels inert: Once the novel has set out its nightmarish stall, not much happens beyond an insistent delineation of the boredom and sadness and absurdity of Sara’s situation." from the NYT review. This is kinda where I am.

Starting Part 2. This book..... so good.....

This is so good, it's almost made me forget about the election

Still working through but I can already say with confidence that if you were ever scared of the dark when you were a kid, this collection will fuck you up

Ready for this to get going, at some point. There's some beautiful and evocative writing, to be sure, but... whatever I'd thought this was going to be, it isn't.

Florida, man.

if there was ever a time to re-re-read, it's now.

(I've decided to start reading this in the Baroness version. Curious to see how it works out. Makes the Kindle percentage useless, though...)

Glad I never got around to making my "Best Books of 2023" list, because this would've blown the whole thing up.

"So.... living fnords?" If this reference means anything to you, you will love this book. I LOVE this book.

I had been planning to get this anyway, and then I saw that Nana Kwame Adjeu-Brenyah has an essay here about Disco Elysium, and so I downloaded it immediately.

way too early to make any definitive pronouncements, of course, but i gotta say: dude can write.

I feel bad I can't finish this one, but... I can't.

Genuinely intrigued by what's going on here, though I'm a little worried it's going to head in an unfortunate direction.

a very slow burn, but the burning is starting.