David Sheward > Recent Status Updates

This is very dense.

I put this collection of short stories (bought at a second-hand store somewhere upstate) down for a few years and then picked it up again. I know I had read it many years before, but hardly remember most of the stories. I recalled The Cinderella Waltz and its subtle portrayal of a divorced woman still in love with her gay ex-husband and her relationship with their daughter and the husband's new lover.

It's horrifying reading this and realizing the man his own Secretary or State called a moron could be re-elected. What is wrong with you, America?

Enjoying it very much. I really hate Brenda. What a terrible person.

My mother read this for her book club and enjoyed it. Then I saw it in the bookcase of our building's basement where fellow tenants leave their old books. So I grabbed it and have started.

Still dipping into this in between other reads. The entries have little context. One minute we're in London, then a few days later in Paris, then off on a cross-country tour of the USA where David offers his observations of press agents, drivers, and fans who offer jokes.

Started this because I needed something light to avoid our current politics and to recover from being in an auto accident. Snackery is right. Sedaris' entries are short tidbits, many one paragraph, none more than a few pages. Mildly amusing, but over 500 pages of literary hors d-oeuvres? I'll probably nibble it at it now and then in between meatier offerings.

Started this because I needed something light to avoid our current politics and to recover from being in an auto accident. Snackery is right. Sedaris' entries are short tidbits, many one paragraph, none more than a few pages. Mildly amusing, but over 500 pages of literary hors d-oeuvres? I'll probably nibble it at it now and then in between meatier offerings.

Started this because I needed something light to avoid our current politics and to recover from being in an auto accident. Snackery is right. Sedaris' entires are short tidbits, many one paragraph, some a few pages. Mildly amusing, but over 500 pages of literary hors d-oeuvres? I'll probably nibble it at it now and then in between meatier offerings.

I couldn't stand reading anymore about Trump, so I went back in history. I bought this book for my mother on Mother's Day 2004. She gave it back to me recently and I finally got around to it in 2021.

I found an old paperback copy of this collection in the basement of my condo building. My fellow tenants put books down there that they are finished with and no longer want to keep. I read this a long time ago. I couldn't remember any of the stories except The Cinderella Waltz which I enjoyed reading again. Details the not uncommon phenomenon of a repressed gay man leaving his wife and daughter for another man.

I got so bored with Jean and her dull life, I started and finished another book--Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I went back to My Life because Ann Beattie is a major author something inside me feels I will have failed if I don't finish what I start. I will probably finish this novel, but Jean is so colorless and drab. Yes, Beattie is good a t providing life-like details and dialogue, but the characters are dull

I'm starting to lose interest in these people. I don't care who has the engagement ring or if Dara is advancing her career or manipulating the narrator Jean. I might drop this and pick up something else.

I got bored with Anne Beattie's My Life Starring Dara Falcon and started this novel when a neighbor mentioned she had just finished it and would lend it to me. It's very much like Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and I suspect like McEwan's new book Machines Like Us.

I got bored with Anne Beattie's My Life Starring Dara Falcon and started this novel when a neighbor mentioned she had just finished it and would lend it to me. It's very much like Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and I suspect like McEwan's new book Machines Like Me.

I'm starting to lose interest in these people. I don't care who has the engagement ring or if Dara is advancing her career or manipulating the narrator Jean. I might drop this and pick up something else.

Interesting that Sarah Ruhl the only female playwirght profiled is the only one to have a relatively happy childhood. Also interesting that David Mamet and Neil LaBute, angry white male playwrights, seem to have run out of steam.

Interesting that Sarah Ruhl the only female playwirght profiled is the only one to have a relatively happy childhood. Also interesting that David Mamey and Neil LaBute, angry white male playwrights, seem to have run out of steam.

More weird characters are introduced. We take a side turn with yet another mysterious woman encountering the hero and she spends a chapter recounting her childhood blighted by the war with Russia.

The book is taking a weird turn now where the hero is forced to reflect inwardly for long stretches. I watched Antonioni's La Notte on DVD just before reading a chapter and the parallels helped me appreciate the novel. The Italian couple in the film are alienated from each other and lacking a center, much like Murakami's protagonist.

The book is taking a weird turn now where the hero is forced to reflect inwardly for long stretches. I watched Antonioni's La Notte on DVD just before reading a chapter and the parallels helped me appreciate the novel. The Italian couple in the film are alienated from each other and lacking a center, much like Murakami's protagonist.