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Mickey · **Posted:** Sat January 01, 2022 8:37 pm

I've never read Absalom so I'm not sure. It's not overly long, is it?

2666 is a great book if you're worried about that because each of the first three sections are like 150 pages, so you can think of it as three novellas and then suddenly you're over halfway done. The fourth section is brutal, I took a few months off after that one, but I don't think of Bolaño as discouragingly opaque as Faulkner can be. I had a really clear sense of what was happening in each scene, even if the ideas the characters are discussing or how the larger world works was unclear.

Mickey · **Posted:** Sat January 01, 2022 8:37 pm

Just turned in a dissertation chapter so I'm toying with the idea of diving into Gravity's Rainbow before I start the next one.

lennytheweedwhacker · **Joined:** Wed January 02, 2013 3:21 pm **Posts:** 42179

Mickey wrote:

I've never read Absalom so I'm not sure. It's not overly long, is it?

2666 is a great book if you're worried about that because each of the first three sections are like 150 pages, so you can think of it as three novellas and then suddenly you're over halfway done. The fourth section is brutal, I took a few months off after that one, but I don't think of Bolaño as discouragingly opaque as Faulkner can be. I had a really clear sense of what was happening in each scene, even if the ideas the characters are discussing or how the larger world works was unclear.

Nah, 350 or something.

I've heard that about 2666 so that probably is the best way to approach it. If I'm really enjoying it I'll just go buy it so I don't feel rushed. I have a B&N gift card I need to use anyway.

B · **Posted:** Sun January 02, 2022 1:54 pm

I just updated the GoodReads group with Jeff's suggestions, but I can't figure out what that book is on the far left.

Malloy · **Joined:** Wed January 02, 2013 4:57 am **Posts:** 2819

washing machine wrote:

What's new in fiction over the last ten years, everyone?

lerner or kushner or javier mauro cardenas?

two novels just over ten years old that i love: Rose Alley and Remainder

Malloy · **Joined:** Wed January 02, 2013 4:57 am **Posts:** 2819

thumbing through this again

washing machine · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 2:34 am

Lot of fat to chew on here. Are any of these men the next Carver? That's what I'm after.

lennytheweedwhacker · **Joined:** Wed January 02, 2013 3:21 pm **Posts:** 42179

washing machine wrote:

Lot of fat to chew on here. Are any of these men the next Carver? That's what I'm after.

Trans or natural born?

washing machine · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 2:40 am

lennytheweedwhacker wrote:

washing machine wrote:

Lot of fat to chew on here. Are any of these men the next Carver? That's what I'm after.

Trans or natural born?

I don't know

The Argonaut · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 2:42 am

washing machine wrote:

Lot of fat to chew on here. Are any of these men the next Carver? That's what I'm after.

Oh, I thought you were talking about Raymond Chandler. nvm my suggestion

washing machine · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 4:30 am

Leaving the Atocha Station looks interesting. Thank you kindly, Malloy.

Mickey · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 4:47 am

I really liked that book in 2014 (25). Not sure how it's aged.

washing machine · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 4:49 am

sick burn

Mickey · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 4:50 am

That wasn't a burn. I just wonder how it has aged, given that I'm not 25 anymore (and it's kind of a bildungsroman about an insufferable young poet)

Mickey · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 4:51 am

I guess in that way it's a burn on myself.

washing machine · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 4:56 am

I remember you at 25, your Atocha Station an obscure website located at theskyiscrape.com, a head full of alex posts in lieu of ashbery poems.

Mickey · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 5:00 am

Yeah but I don't really like hashish.

washing machine · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 5:05 am

Allagash as a spliff stand-in

washing machine · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 5:30 pm

Making my way through the sample of this Lerner novel on Google Books. It's the best way I can check books out right now, since I still owe Houston Public Library upwards of $75 from over a decade ago and they haven't forgotten (I checked.)

In a lot of ways, the days I spent racking up those library fees looked a lot like the first few pages of Atocha Station. All the way down to the morning routine of hanging out in a museum in front of the same painting every day (Rothko for me.) Not sure I will connect with this protagonist the same way now as I would have then. I can certainly see what you were saying a few posts ago, Mick.

Mickey · **Posted:** Mon January 03, 2022 6:05 pm

washing machine wrote:

Making my way through the sample of this Lerner novel on Google Books. It's the best way I can check books out right now, since I still owe Houston Public Library upwards of $75 from over a decade ago and they haven't forgotten (I checked.)

In a lot of ways, the days I spent racking up those library fees looked a lot like the first few pages of Atocha Station. All the way down to the morning routine of hanging out in a museum in front of the same painting every day (Rothko for me.) Not sure I will connect with this protagonist the same way now as I would have then. I can certainly see what you were saying a few posts ago, Mick.

Yeah I truly wasn't trying to be a dick--it's a book I have fond feelings for, but it's SO coded as male meandering twenties.

I liked 10:04 okay, wasn't blown away by it--but in some ways it's more mature. Still haven't read the Topeka School.

What are you currently reading?

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