2 posts tagged “fiction”
The New York Times has been running a Summer in the City blog in its NY Times Select section (we get the paper delivered on weekends so this is free for us). I read a few early in the summer, but they did not take. I went back into day to read a 13 year olds view of Paris (I know not New York), but then stumbled on Pursuits by Thomas Beller. Beller frames a vignette in the Meat Packing District of a conflict between a young woman and a guy. The piece completely captured me, it was vivid depiections and smart metaphors.
Not only was this a fantastic piece, but it made me miss well crafted fiction and in particular short stories.
When I lived in San Francisco I read a lot of fiction. I had a subscription to Granta that I deeply enjoyed, when they stayed to fiction. There were rare pieces in the New Yorker that captured me, but normally it was the non-fiction that I enjoyed there. I picked up the short story annuals and devoured them, usually finding two or three authors to follow. I found Ethan Canin's work this way, who's shorts stories always seemed much better than the longer pieces. My favorite collection is the Modern British Short Stories, which I am now on my third copy of (when I loan books the sometimes don't come back).
I now have my eye on Thomas Beller, whose story really opened up a scene and awoke an enjoyment I have forgotten to feed.
I finished JPod in a handful of sittings. The writing kept me moving through the book, but the story did not funny captivate me. I kept thinking it was going to turn into something, well different. I had really enjoyed Coupland's Microserfs, which this was a rough relative.
The book is from Ethan's view, a developer in a gaming company that is really on a wrong path. He sits with other's whose last names begin with the letter "J" in a cube farm pod. The book is rather amoral with killings, kidnappings, Ethan's mom (as well as his girlfriend's mom) has a huge pot farm in the basement, etc. The detachment is quite similar to that of playing a first-shooter game. The human maladies are well just there and we move from stealing a HumVee and running over a biker to the next banal thing. The crimes do not build tension and there is no retribution, it is just there.
It was good to throw a little fiction in my reading diet, but I really could have gone for something I really was interested in.
