What are you currently reading?

[Mickey]

I find I can only read so many Aira novels before I get tired of his schtick and need a (long) break, but it's been a while for me. The ones I still think about the most are Varamo and Ghosts.

I've read Ghosts twice, it's probably my favorite. I've also read Landscape Painter twice, and it didn't really bit me until the 2nd time.

It seems like Landscape Painter and Ema, La Cautiva are the ones that get the most critical attention, but they're less interesting to me.

[washing machine]

Genuinely excited for the Charles Koch book. Apparently he issues a meaningful mea culpa? I'm not about to become a big fan or anything, but I'm interested to see his attempt at legacy solidification that is reportedly imbued with some genuine humility.

[Mickey]

Not a book!

[washing machine]

You're right. It's a video.

[Mickey]

I suppose you could read the closed captions

[dad]

[Simple Torture]

The tyrant of Horacio Castellanos Moya’s ambitious new novel is the actual pro-Nazi mystic Maximiliano Hernández Martínez – known as the Warlock – who came to power in El Salvador in 1932. An attempted coup in April, 1944, failed, but a general strike in May finally forced him out of office. Tyrant Memory takes place during the month between the coup and the strike. Its protagonist, Haydée Aragon, is a well-off woman, whose husband is a political prisoner and whose son, Clemente, after prematurely announcing the dictator’s death over national radio during the failed coup, is forced to flee when the very much alive Warlock starts to ruthlessly hunt down his enemies. The novel moves between Haydée’s political awakening in diary entries and Clemente’s frantic and often hysterically comic efforts to escape capture. Tyrant Memory – sharp, grotesque, moving, and often hilariously funny – is an unforgettable incarnation of a country’s history in the destiny of one family.

[Orpheus]

That looks really cool.

[Simple Torture]

That looks really cool.

So far it's great! Last Moya that's been translated to English that I haven't read, I think.

[Mickey]

That looks really cool.

So far it's great! Last Moya that's been translated to English that I haven't read, I think.

Hasn't been a new once since 2016, though I also don't know if he's published a novel since 2013.

[Simple Torture]

That looks really cool.

So far it's great! Last Moya that's been translated to English that I haven't read, I think.

Hasn't been a new once since 2016, though I also don't know if he's published a novel since 2013.

That looks like it's the case. Sad.

[epilogue]

Rounding things out. These have been a nice distraction from the exam reading I've also been doing but, mercifully, not posting here.

Hey Mickey, if someone read the first book in this series and thought it was the most okay book they've ever read, would you advise them to continue with the series? Like, does it get better or is it more of the same?

[Mickey]

Rounding things out. These have been a nice distraction from the exam reading I've also been doing but, mercifully, not posting here.

Hey Mickey, if someone read the first book in this series and thought it was the most okay book they've ever read, would you advise them to continue with the series? Like, does it get better or is it more of the same?

Hmm. On one hand I put the first one down around page 130 the first time I tried to read it and it took a global pandemic for me to go back, upon which I read all four in like a month while also reading for my comprehensive exams, so it definitely gets better. I think book one is the least interesting, by far, though I also appreciated it more as the series went on. On the other hand, the narrative style doesn't really change much, so if it's not your bag now, it never will be. I will say that Elena becomes a much more active and interesting character-narrator in the later books.

[Mickey]

The second and the third books also start to really intertwine the Lenu-Lila story with Italian history--terrorist attacks, Communist agitation and resurgent neo-fascism, all that, which really creates a more full and dynamic world.

[epilogue]

Thank you.

I'll check out book two for sure then.

[epilogue]

The Hours.

Really digging it, though I'm only 40 pages in. I've seen the movie (it's been YEARS). The writing is really lovely.

[epilogue]

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

[Simple Torture]

Is he Colson's brother?

[epilogue]

Is he Colson's brother?

Yes

[Simple Torture]

Nice!