Ken > Recent Status Updates

Here I am, 65 pages into the second amoeba after saying the first was enough. For this I blame the many GR readers I respect. ;-)

For a setting that's an island in the sea, lots of unexpected description of train rides and the people in them.

Surprisingly good.

Although it doesn't dwell on college scenes as much as one would hope, the book IS part of the academia genre I often enjoy.

The star's the star already, making this more like Vol. 1 (much enjoyed) than Vol. 2 (less enjoyed). Knausgård's so good at burrowing into ordinary lives (as he proved in his huge autofic series). In this case, it's just other people instead of himself and his family--ordinary Norwegians, in any case.

So. Slow. Need to set aside an hour or two and race for the finish, moor or less.

I finished Part I and, for the life of me, don't understand how any reader could care for Heathcliff whether he be hero or anti-hero. In fact, he anticipates Kristi Noem by hanging a dog (and how's THAT for overplaying your characterization hand as an author?).

Rather hilarious, so far, they way melo is having its drama and everyone's so goddamned impetuous.

Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, I guess.

Been on my TBR this side of forever (which is west of Eden) and it's having a moment thanks to a new movie everyone seems to be hating. Not that I'll watch it anyway. Not much on movies, as a rule.

The opening surliness is appealing, I'll say that. What a bunch of killjoys!

Some good lines, many of them gruesome war images. Intriguing novelty: a downed angel (vs. plane) in wartime. But it's not exactly a joyful read for the season.

I put together some random Christmas-themed observations, for better or for worse, here: https://updatesonafreeverselife.subst...

Feel free to comment because all I want for Christmas are my two first comments.

For those who followed my blog "Updates on a Free-Verse Life," some news! I've migrated to Substack, where I can post for free vs. for an annual fee. Substacks are a little different. They're newsletters readers subscribe to and receive in their inboxes. Anyway, if you're interested, head over to updatesonafreeverselife.substack.com. It's the same new, same new: riffs on reading, writing, publishing, and teaching.

I've run across this before, maybe not with as much success. Sci-fi meets who-dunnit mystery like chocolate meets peanut butter. And dead people who talk, Marley-like, but about as far from Marley as you can get.

Dying can be difficult stuff but being dead is easy. Philip K. Dick introduces a nifty compromise, being half-dead, which leans more toward the dying than the deading.

As for the title product, it is