Pete Lit: So it goes.

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So it goes.

"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

April 12, 2007 in Books | Permalink

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I put an audio excerpt from Slaughterhouse 5 up online in memorial.

Posted by: SR at Apr 12, 2007 3:03:22 PM

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Recent Reads

Richard Grayson: Highly Irregular Stories
Another fine story collection from Grayson - four chapbooks from early in his career.

Michael Chabon: Maps and Legends
Nice collection of essays which celebrates genre writing in its many forms.

Ben Tanzer: Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine
Another winner - boy meets girl, pop culture is dissected, sadness fades to hope.

William Maxwell: So Long, See You Tomorrow
Lovely novel of three families in small town Illinois during the 1920s.

James Agee and Walker Evans: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Frustrating and exhilirating - a thorny classic.

Erskine Caldwell: Tobacco Road
Grim but invigorating novel of destitute sharecroppers in 1930s Georgia.

Raymond Chandler: The Long Goodbye
Truly great noir of murder, passion and absolution.

Herman Melville: Billy Budd, Sailor
Fair, but hardly a classic.

Nikolai Gogol: The Overcoat
Funny, sad and strange tale of a lonely clerk and his quest for dignity and respect.

Joseph Conrad: Lord Jim
Overwritten, ponderous, poorly structured - sad, for what should have been a masterpiece.

Mark Sarvas: Harry, Revised
Good debut novel about grief, starting over and Dumas.

Kent Haruf: Plainsong
Lovely, warm novel of small-town life.

Paul Fattaruso: Bicycle
Charming little collection of micro-fictions about, yes, bicycles.

Aleksandar Hemon: The Lazarus Project
Magnificent novel of the past and present, longing and belonging.

Mark Russell: The Superman Stories
Funny and clever stories about the everyday life of the Man of Steel.

Hjalmar Söderberg: Doctor Glas
Masterful novel of longing, fateful decisions and death.

Nelson Algren: Never Come Morning
Gripping early novel from the master.

Billy Lombardo: The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories
Good collection of coming-of-age stories from Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood.

Flann O'Brien: The Third Policeman
Less than satisfying comic tale of life, death and bicycles.

John McGahern: The Barracks
Sensitive, emotionally gripping Irish novel of a distant husband and wife.

Al Burian:Burn Collector: issues one through nine
Solid collection of the first nine issues of the great zine.

Jim Thompson: The Kill-Off
A uniquely told twist on the conventions of crime fiction by one of the giants of the art.

Chris Abani: Song For Night
Powerful and often harrowing novella of war and remembrance.

E.M. Forster: Howards End
Great novel about the English social classes, how they interact and what responsibilities they have to each other.

Jon Krakauer: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
Gripping, thoroughly researched account of murder and the dark side of religious faith.

Calvin Trillin: Travels With Alice
Warm collection of anecdotes of Trillin's family travels in the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

Verlyn Klinkenborg: The Last Fine Time
Uneven account of a working-class bar in Buffalo, just after WWII. Has its moments, just not enough of them.

Rick Kogan: A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream
Lovely memoir of Chicago's legendary Billy Goat Tavern, by one of its loyal denizens.

George W.S. Trow: Within the Context of No Context
Rambling, muddled, murky essay that's likely not worth your time.

Kurt Vonnegut: A Man Without a Country
Charming collection of essays from the late great novelist.

Richard Warch and Jonathan Fanton (editors): John Brown: Great Lives Observed
Balanced, non-partisan collection of writings on the legendary abolitionist.

Ted McClelland: Horseplayers: Life at the Track
Lively account of a year spent wagering - and mostly losing - at Chicago's thoroughbred racetracks.

J. Matthew Smith: Jailed by My Father
Warmly-told collection of autobiographical essays.

Nathanael West: The Day of the Locust
Dark, bitter, sometimes bitingly funny tale of Hollywood's woeful underclass.

Ben Tanzer: Lucky Man
Daring, innovative and emotionally moving debut novel about four troubled friends.

William Trevor: The Hilll Bachelors
Yet another excellent collection of Irish short stories from the master.

Charles D'Ambrosio: The Point
Solid story collection from the renowned writer, with the tighter pieces being the best of the lot.

Steven J. McDermott: Winter of Different Directions
Smart collection of short stories about lost souls and uncertain futures.

James M. Cain: The Postman Always Rings Twice
Sharp, riveting piece of classic noir. The main characters are doomed, just as they should be.

Edgar Lee Masters: Spoon River Anthology
Fascinating poetic exploration of small-town America - but much too long and often repetitive.

Sinclair Lewis: Babbitt
Brilliantly insightful satire of an upstanding citizen and the unsettling discontents stirring within him.

Knut Hamsun: Hunger
Simply put, one of the greatest novels ever written, and the finest I've ever had the pleasure to read.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
Well written but (sorry) less than classic novel of Jazz Age New York.

Herman Melville: Bartleby the Scrivener
Wonderful story of a stubborn employee and an excessively patient boss in mid-19th Century Manhattan.

Sherwood Anderson: Winesburg, Ohio
Marvelous, wide-ranging, emotionally moving cycle of stories about the lonely and seeking inhabitants of a small Midwestern town.

Joe Pernice: Meat Is Murder
Slow-starting but good-finishing tale of a Smiths record on one youngster's life.

Cormac McCarthy: The Road
Powerful novel of father and son wandering through a post-apocalypse wasteland.

Ian McEwan: Atonement
Magnificent, gripping and emotionally moving saga of small actions and their enormous repercussions.

READINGS 2001-08

Pete Lit

Literary pretendings, off-the-cuff insights and the occasional rant.

So it goes.

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