“Hard to get a new perspective in a small room. The trick is making the room bigger.” Reverend America A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip […]
Category Archives: Book Reviews
The Quorum by Joshua Cohen – Playing at being human, away from the grunt and take.
posted by lisathatcher
Because we shouldn’t believe in nations, because we have forsaken our traditions or our traditions have forsaken us, because only individuals matter to those who happen to be one… because everyone has their own voice and we’re all speaking at once, connected through a disconnect and yet still insisting on our fundamental differences, that we’re […]
Amulet – Roberto Bolaño scatters the personalities of Mexican poetry.
posted by lisathatcher
This is going to be a horror story. A story of murder, detection and horror. But it won’t appear to be, for the simple reason that I am the teller. Told by me, it won’t seem like that. Although, in fact, it’s the story of a terrible crime. I am a friend to all Mexicans. […]
The Corrections: Jonathan Franzen – Post Modern Characterization as promised.
posted by lisathatcher
The Madness of an autumn prairie cold front coming through. You could feel it: something terrible was going to happen. The sun low in the sky, a minor light, a cooling star. Gust after gust of disorder. Trees restless, temperatures falling, the whole northern religion of things coming to an end. NO children in the […]
Quartet for the End of Time: Mark Wilson sings his paint in verse.
posted by lisathatcher
”Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.” Ezra Pound The poet bruises so easily for he knows the secrets of Deconstruction Whilst erecting linguistic basilicas he simultaneously deregulates his muse with a bottle of shiraz or whiskey He envisions the body’s true incorruptibility […]
1Q84: Murakami and the great disappointment.
posted by lisathatcher
I’ve just completed reading most of the Amazon reviews for 1Q84, and the recurring advice those who have completed the novel give to those about to take it on, is – Don’t think too hard. That is excellent advice. To be fair, they all say don’t start reading Haruki Murakami with this novel either […]
The Malady of Death; Intricate lace by Marguerite Duras
posted by lisathatcher
I have spent one of the most pleasant hours of my life today in a pub with a decent chardonnay and Marguerite Duras’ Malady of Death. Marguerite Duras is considered to be an ‘experimental’ writer. She came of writing age during the neauveu roman era of French literature. She differs from Robbes-Grillet and others of the […]
The Black Herald #2: Carbon based passion – Part 2
posted by lisathatcher
In a recent essay, Paul Stubbs wrote: “The poet of the 21st century will, like any animal, be subject only to the continuing process of adapting to his own biological environment, to create a poetry that must strive in its imagination to actually affect the planetary balance (…) The pen in the hand today need […]
The Black Herald #2: Freedom from the necessity of success – Part One.
posted by lisathatcher
It is the ambitious hopes of editor poets Blandine Longre and Paul Stubbs that The Black Herald only publish works that are: “… vital and original, and above all else, might well incubate itself to the exterior world of publicity – though this is the hope of the editors, not necessarily the writers themselves.” They […]
Jane Austen: At the top of the Kindle pile.
posted by lisathatcher
Spare me just a moment to bend my knee and worship at the Jane Austen altar. Trawling around the net today in search of Fodder for my best books of 2011 list (groan I know but you know you want it) and realising in horror I have to read IQ84 books one and two before […]
Lisa Thatcher 