Books On The Table

I just discovered a few authors that I should have known about for years but didn't - so shoot me. Given the gritty depressing reading list, I feel like Virgil has me by the nuts and is pulling me down the dark narrow steps to the Inferno with chicken legs Alighieri trying to peek over my shoulder.

George Saunders. I've got The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil and In Persuassion Nation, Stories I started Stories and have read "I Can Speak" and "My Flamboyant Grandson" and "Jon" and "My Amendment". It's humorous liberal social satire. The "New York Observer" claims he is "often compared to Kurt Vonnegut . . . ". Well that's probably a little more than George Saunders would want to bear, but I do look forward to reading more of him. He's got four or five books under his publishing belt.

Denis Johnson. I guess I've been living in another land, but I just heard of Jesus Son and I devoured it. Then bought The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly book of collected and new poems as well as Seek, Reports for the Edges of America and Beyond. I think I read one or two poems a few weeks ago when the book came in, but I've really not started these yet. To be contnued!

Donald Ray Pollock. Holy Shit, don't miss the grit. This is an equal to Jesus Son. Get it now. This one, like JS, knocked around with me in car, workspace, bedside, waiting for the eye doctor until I ate the last morsel. Yummo. http://www.donaldraypollock.com/



Larry Brown. Father and Son. Reading this by the pool today with a few beers, I'm only on page 67 of 347. That's only 19.3 % but I can feel I'm going to be left in a large dark hole at the end of this ride. Can't wait. I also have Joe by Brown to start.

Barry Hanna Geronimo Rex (1970). Shame on me for not having read any of Hanna before. I am changing my ways. Not sure why I chose this one.

Mark Richard The Ice at the Bottom of the World (stories) (1986 - 1989). I don't remember how I came to buying this. Not started this one, yet.

Current Reads

I just finished "Home Before Dark", Susan Cheever's 1984 bio of her Dad, John Cheever. It appears pretty non-sentimental and non-nostalgic. She doesn't dismiss or minimize his alcoholism or sexual struggles but does, in an afterword interview admit to eliminating a few anecdotes so as to spare some family members or friends some embarrassment or discomfort. S Cheever's got experience in the journalism world and she does a decent job of apparent objectivism. I guess its less a biography and more of a family memoir. It brought me a little closer to the author and that's the reason I picked it up. Recommend if you like Cheever.

Deborah Henson-Connant at the Theater

When the harp starts the mind is transported. Deborah Henson-Conant begins a tour of her freshly written one woman, story telling, high octane, finger lickin’ good musical, “What The Hell Are You Doing In The Waiting Room For Heaven?”. I saw her at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge. Often funny, sometimes pensive. Sometimes its about the harp, sometimes about the song. Deborah commands the minimalist stage with her voice, her charm, and her white angel gown cum wedding cum first communion short skirted, fishneted, gold booted costume. Two white veils flow from her back up and up like cloudy wings suspended from on high. They are in sinc with the playful mood of the show, a mood that surfaces Deborah’s message – we don’t need to impress nobody but ourselves – no need to wait for an audition to get into heaven. Go Debby Go! Catch her anywhere you can at www.hipharp.com.

-Andy

madison new hampshire. where it all begins.