Emily > Recent Status Updates

Note: I am reading the English translation which seems not to have hit goodreads yet. But yes, you need to read this book. First, because you need the perspective of more garbage men in your life. Second, because not enough of those garbage men quote Bataille, but this one does.

“I’ve long resisted the urge of so many nonfiction writers to fill in all the gaps you can with facts. To do so feels like a betrayal.”

Welp, that sums up a lot of this book.

A very good book to read when you are sick

People often compared one of my MSS to this, and I wanted to wait until I finished said MS to start reading so I could be sure my ideas were my own (and so I wouldn’t get discouraged knowing someone else had already written them so expertly).

Now that I’m reading, what an honor those comparisons are! I guess I’d like to think Butler and I noticed a lot of the same problems and imagined similar consequences.

This is some of the most phenomenal poetry I’ve ever read. Burton captures Houston in all of its complexity (and if you know me, you know there is no higher compliment I can give.)

Only slightly farther in and we’ve got some of the best characterization of living with chronic illness I’ve ever seen.

Ok, this book has one of the most hilarious openings I’ve ever read, but even as you go on, there are a ton of great quips, like “as a double-major in creative writing and advanced melancholia.” Loving it so far.

The prose and imagery in this is devastatingly good