Jonathan > Recent Status Updates

Excellent stuff so far

That first story was great. Glad I followed my gut and got hold of this after seeing a random review on here.

Great stuff and inspiring lots of re-listening to Ma Rainey from me

This is as much fun as I remembered

I keep having flashbacks to reading this for the first time at age 18 and having my mind blown…Not as earth shattering now after almost 30 more years of reading, but still great

Reread of this one for me - read it first about 20 years ago

Coming from just reading Gaddis, the drop off in quality here is so severe it is actually making me angry

I had forgotten some of these fabulous set-pieces (the Swede too long under the sun-lamp etc)

This book man, this book. Second time through even better than the first.

God, this is even better than I remembered. If there is a criticism, it would be the well known one that it is perhaps weighed down with both its own erudition and its sadness. If I prefer JR it is probably for that reason.

Starting my 2026 reread of this a day early as had a few hours of good reading time this morning. As extraordinary as I remember it from my first read almost 15 years ago.

All of you need to go and buy everything Boiler House press have put out.

Time for a reread of this

This might have to be moved up into my top 10 of all time. It really is an extraordinary work.

Rereading this for the first time. I read it once over 25 years ago, and still have some of my strongest reading memories from that time as a 19 or 20 year old. It definitely put me on the path of my love for this sort of literature. This new translation is astonishingly good so far. Feel like this and The Tunnel need rereading in light of the state of the world right now

I think why I enjoy her books when I am a bit tired and frazzled is she is part of the same genre as, say, Elizabeth Taylor (whom I adore), but a bit easier and more relaxed/lighter. Sometimes that fits where my head is at.

Not loving this, but not hating it either

Rereading this extraordinary book. This time I feel more of a Stein influence than I did before, though that may be because I have had Stein on my mind and am planning to read that recent bio of her…

Rereading this

What is frustrating here, I think, is that there is an interesting book buried within far too much performative, self-mythologising MFA writing by the author

Alcibiades is fascinating

Reading these ahead of a trip to Athens and enjoying them immensely.

Rereading the apology in particular feels appropriate in these shitty times

Huzzah! Back in TP land!

The funny thing is both this and the last of hers I read take place where I live in London. It is always an odd sensation when one is reading a novel and the character turns down one’s street, or to the pub at the end of the road. A character was just waiting at the traffic lights I had waited at 20min earlier on my way home this evening. Makes it all feel more “mine” somehow.

This is just excellent.

The topic is an important and fascinating one, sadly I am finding this a bit of a mess. It just feels like there is too much for him to get a proper handle on, and too much to cover (unsurprisingly), so it doesnt really hang together.

well this is rather enjoyable

ticking another one off the "can't remember if I read this or not" list