Bonnie G.’s Reviews > The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories > Status Update
Bonnie G.
is 46% done
People Shouldn't Have to be the Ones Who Tell You by Gary Lutz
I really hated this. The exemplar, the dictionary definition, of pretentious writing. "The arc of his piss was at least the suggestion of a path that thoughts could later take." "The two of them came by together one night, alike in the sherbety tint to their lips and the violescent quickening to their eyelids." 1-star
— Oct 18, 2024 10:09AM
I really hated this. The exemplar, the dictionary definition, of pretentious writing. "The arc of his piss was at least the suggestion of a path that thoughts could later take." "The two of them came by together one night, alike in the sherbety tint to their lips and the violescent quickening to their eyelids." 1-star
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Bonnie G.’s Previous Updates
Bonnie G.
is 89% done
Letters to Wendy's by Joe Wenderoth - This is exactly the kind of clever that I hate. Pithy comment cards. I had no idea what it was and was just confused and unamused until I Googled, not I am annoyed and unamused. 1 star
— Nov 05, 2024 09:02AM
Bonnie G.
is 89% done
Scarlotti and the Sinkhole by Padget Powell - Funny, absurd, sad, really gross. An entertaining slice of drunken, horny, injured Florida redneck life. 4-stars
— Nov 04, 2024 12:55PM
Bonnie G.
is 86% done
Up the Old Goat Road by Dawn Raffel
I rarely like microfiction, and I don't like it here. I don't know why I read this, and am not nearly invested enough to care. 1.5 stars.
— Nov 04, 2024 12:20PM
I rarely like microfiction, and I don't like it here. I don't know why I read this, and am not nearly invested enough to care. 1.5 stars.
Bonnie G.
is 86% done
Short Talks by Anne Carson. Brilliant glorious prose poems. 5-stars
"On Hedonism: Beauty makes me hopeless. I don’t care why anymore I just want to get away. When I look at the city of Paris I long to wrap my legs around it. When I watch you dancing there is a heartless immensity like a sailor in a dead-calm sea. Desires as round as peaches bloom in me all night, I no longer gather what falls."
— Nov 04, 2024 10:40AM
"On Hedonism: Beauty makes me hopeless. I don’t care why anymore I just want to get away. When I look at the city of Paris I long to wrap my legs around it. When I watch you dancing there is a heartless immensity like a sailor in a dead-calm sea. Desires as round as peaches bloom in me all night, I no longer gather what falls."
Bonnie G.
is 84% done
The Sound Gun by Matthew Darby. I try to judge a book at least partly on whether I think the author achieved what he set out to do. I think Darby did that. I hated the pretentious heavy-handed approach and can name a dozen other pieces, stories and novels, that I think told essentially the same story to the same end and did it much better, and which I definitely got more from. He ain't no Vonnegut. 2-stars
— Nov 04, 2024 07:53AM
Bonnie G.
is 81% done
Where I work by Ann Cummins. It was a strong character sketch I guess, but a few pages of reaching across education and class divide to experience a poor uneducated (possibly developmentally delayed) young woman's failure and oddness is not really enough for me. 2-stars.
— Nov 04, 2024 07:37AM
Bonnie G.
is 79% done
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace
This was not my first time reading this story, and every time I do I am gobsmacked. DFW would have been so much happier if his mind ever stopped. Simultaneously the most uproariously funny and guttingly sad story about sexual release and its difficulty in a world filled with paradox that has ever been written. 5 stars.
— Nov 03, 2024 10:34AM
This was not my first time reading this story, and every time I do I am gobsmacked. DFW would have been so much happier if his mind ever stopped. Simultaneously the most uproariously funny and guttingly sad story about sexual release and its difficulty in a world filled with paradox that has ever been written. 5 stars.
Bonnie G.
is 75% done
Down the Road by Stephen Dixon. I just realized I never put in a comment or star rating for this which I read several days ago. I thought it was an interesting exercise, We sort of tunnel inside the head of this man who is having a moment where he has to choose his own survival over that of another. I didn't love it but it was well done. 3/5 stars.
— Oct 27, 2024 07:08PM
Bonnie G.
is 75% done
Someone to Talk To by Deborah Eisenberg: Art and commerce and love and ethics cannot mix. The secret to a happy life is to get a bit lucky and stay where luck placed you and to not feel things. The secret to art is to experience the world fully and feel everything. Impossible. 5-stars.
— Oct 27, 2024 12:43PM
Bonnie G.
is 68% done
Tiny Smiling Daddy by Mary Gaitskill - I love Mary Gaitskill's work and this was no exception. We see an old Midwestern man so contained by his anger and relentless need for control that he shuts out the world, including his daughter whose lesbianism he treats as a personal attack. When she writes an article about their relationship he has to fight to compartmentalize and redirect fault. Heartbreaking. 5-stars
— Oct 26, 2024 08:45AM
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Left Coast Justin wrote: "I gotta say, Bonita, the blurb for this one was a giant red flag. If you blow right past those "Bridge Out Ahead" signs, bad things ensue.Which reminds me of the highly unpretentious song "Red Li..."
A lot of these stories have been really good, and a couple great. We are averaging 3.68 at near the halfway point. Given the editor I expected there would be some ridiculousness, but to be fair greater minds than my own positively revere Gary (now Gari) Lutz so this could be user error.
I don't know many Georgia Satellites songs, but I saw them about 10 years ago performing with Atlanta Rythym Section at a Festival in Atlnata and they were a blast (and definitely not prenetious.) Will check out the song!
Which reminds me of the highly unpretentious song "Red Light" by the Georgia Satellites.