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I don’t even like Hemingway, but if you’re gonna fire shots at Hemingway, your own writing had better be a lot more clever than this. That’s my 2/3rds takeaway in nutshell. This book is fun but continues to demonstrate that it thinks it’s more clever and more profound than it is. It’ll probably still get 3 stars for the fun, but my patience with the author’s ego is wearing thin.

The theme this summer seems to be “books that start off fun and weird but never quite escape the gravitational pull of their own self-referential quirk.” It could be building to something meaningful, or I might just keep meeting goofy characters and talking animals. At least it’s fun.
“But trauma! But Queer Rep!”
Bish I AM queer rep.

Might take me a year and a half to read this Lawd He Comin’ so I better finally start it.

Not bad. Like with Saunders, I think I just prefer Aguda in short form, where she can play with a lot of setups in a row. There’s a third of this left to change my mind, though.

Interesting premise, need it to pick up on a page-to-page level though. Also there’s a character named “Beloved” which, ah, so that’s pretty on the nose for a book about Black motherhood.

Starts strong, author has a very unique, highly readable voice. Completely separate of this book, I might be a little too fatigued by the “narcissist with trauma” narrator trope to enjoy it as much as I would’ve before I accidentally read five other books in the genre this year, but that’s hardly her fault.

Book 2 of "Scott Re-reads a book he didn't like by an author he does to see if he likes it now. Does he Learn Things? What Things does he Learn? Let's Find Out"

2/3rds into my revisit, post-year-or-so-of-becoming-a-Saunders-Fanboy. Do I “like” this book now? I definitely appreciate the dreamlike artistry more than I did the first time, though the question of “why Abraham Lincoln, specifically, as the centerpiece of a meandering Godot-style look at grief and denial” remains (I have never particularly cared about Abraham Lincoln the man.) I guess some do?

I’m glad this book was free

From the top make it drop for these Weird Ass Pages, bring a bucket and a mop for these Weird Ass Pages

Damn

Still a very good book despite the side quests into mom-aganda. She’s objectively terrible, but you must understand, she didn’t get the life she waaaaaants you guys, so enjoy spending half the book in her angry, self-pitying POV. Probably an intentional critique and I’m just pre-weary of mom-aganda because of my own mommy issues. Cuz buddy, I got ‘em.