The main character has no name. It's why you can't remember it. You are a bell end.

Very enjoyable tour of your latest, and as usual one of the casually mentioned titles is my main takeaway, since I've only recently joined the party. Lispector's The Passion According to G.H. is one I haven't heard of but will definitely pick up. (am currently savoring When We Cease to Understand the World, which I think you discussed once, with dips into Danez Smith). Onward, for those of us octogenarians who have time left only for 5-star reads!

I picked up a copy of This Little Art over the Summer which I plan to read at some point this year. I've never read Kate Briggs before but the premise really appealed to me.

Great books with effective explanations. Thank you so much ❤

Glad you are back. I'm keen to get your take on Solenoid as I've read it along with his other works.

I always love how when we talk about things done by the mind (in this case reading and writing) we use language that calls to mind electricity - spark, crackles, connection. Of course these words existed and had meanings separate from our understanding of electricity but I like it since we now know that our brains are electric. I also enjoyed the creepy timing of the ice cream truck song coinciding with you talking about a character that was headless (body less?)

Yay - so good to see you back, talking books! Just started Kate Briggs The Long Form.

Beyond pleased the holidays came and went so quickly

The part about the Iranian vampire movie is just saying they went to see "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night"

In your great debt for Danez Smith, Marc. I don't read much poetry, let alone re-reading, but Bluff is a must after sampling on other sites. What great gifts he has. Also Riots I Have Known may be my priority in the novels.

Glad you had some fantastic read after the last, less stellar recent reads Marc. It’s interesting how your least favorite reads in both videos were both about rich, entitled people, it’s hard to care isn’t it. I love the sound of The Tyranny of Flies, Before the Feast and Snow, Dog, Foot so thank you for the recommendations.

Apparently Nicolai Lilin is now a fugitive

Stumbled upon this channel very recently when looking for some Ben Marcus reviews online. So glad to have discovered it, as this channel is a goldmine for literary, experimental recommendations. Funnily enough, I studied The Mersault Investigation with The Stranger as part of my last year of high school English (it's one of the options on the curriculum of NSW, Australia). Definitely made me think more critically about texts and representation in art (even though I love The Stranger). I always wondered if Daoud deliberately appropriated the novel's interlocutor structure from Camus' The Fall as well (I have to imagine that he did, as even the setting of a bar is the same).

Thank you for the excellent reviews. You are very right - Sasa Stanisic has never disappointed me either.

Before the Feast sounds really cool, I love reading about community and villages and it also sounds a little dark. I love things heavily influenced by fairy tales and folklore. If you give it 5 stars too I think I'm sold. I'm adding to cart Marc.

Food for thought. Thanks for the reviews.

Haven’t heard of any of these, but so many of them sound very interesting

so happy to see 5 poetry collections....and yes, Danez Bluff is the most bold and brave and important american poet...im so happy you've shared...since finishing bluff a week ago, havent been able to read another poet...fucked my skull......shared w/X......thank you. marc

I am from St Paul, MN. Danez Smith is a local hero. He really gets it. 5 stars. Plus. Thank you for highlighting him, Marc.

Glad you liked snow, dog, foot. It’s a book that just doesn’t let you go after you’ve read it.

I absolutely loved Austerlitz and one of the things I love most about the book is how London-especially East London-feels like one of the main characters.

Great cover but I’ve never heard of her

Btw, reading BS Johnson's Home Mother Normal at the moment (Bloodaxe edition). Very much enjoying it.

Just finished Mammoth and thought, “I’ll open my review of Mammoth by talking about the writing and just pick a page at random to read from.”

fabulous....i too love Baltasar--ive read Boulder and Permafrost...she is a poet (i mean she also writes poetry)--thus her prose :)...nice to hear of Butor...i read it, as you know, when i was like 23 or 24 (30+ years ago)...at the time, i was obsessed with Nouveau Romain, and i adore the book--maybve because then form and ideas meant the most to me, now as a published writer, not as much=---meaning, i need ideas and prose/form...so, i may not like it as much as i did when young...3 stars seems fair--still think you should read Simon, especially Grass...btw, SCREW the booker, its becoming meaningless (to me as a writer ): Hernan Diaz Trust (2022) short list, brilliant, Patricia Lockwood No one is talking about this (2021), brilliant, Mantel, Mirror & Light (2020) lovely...b out the last winner i found interesting was Anna burns ike 6 or 7 years ago and saunders, james, beatty before...anyway....great to hear you mention Lara's book, still one of my fave prose books of 2024, MORE SHOULD READ SPENT LIGHT....excited to hear about Before the Feast, cause i loved The Soldier repairs the Gramaphone....ok, well done...stay safe....bb

Good to hear you cover that Butor, brings up some nice memories. I couldn’t get along with Degrees, stuck in that one. Have you tried some Marie NDiaye? (Rosie Carpe, My Heart Hemmed In, Self Portrait in Green) very nicely disorienting

Hi Marc 👋The best books I’ve read so far this month The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes The Coast Road by Alan Murrin My Friends by Hisham Matar Wild Houses by Colin Barrett ☘️👋🍀📕📖📚☕️

Crikey, that Wild Houses comes over as unreadable.

Sold me on Baltasar with that passage, Marc.

Passing Time sounds interesting, too bad it wasn't very satisfying. I came away interested in Mammoth and Samarkand. Great reviews!

I just started Mammoth today so I skipped ahead. I agree with you in part about Wild Houses but thought the girlfriend and Dev were good characters.

Not as stellar as some of your reading weeks Marc but at least you had the Maso. Rachel Cusk has never appealed to me and apparently I’m not alone.

i just got minor detail it’s my next read i’m so excited to read it

👍👍👍👍

great video! :D also, you have a really soothing voice, i like it!

The best apocalyptic novel I’ve read is Deluge by Stephen Markley

great vid Marc...as I mentioned, i can't sweep out the thoughts of Solenoid since finishing...extraordinary impactful and endless and excited to see what you'll do with its beauty and complexity in your next vid....and fantastic to hear about Maso, have AVA on my nightstand and is part of sept reading...btw, i can't remember if i've told you before, you should do audio book voiceover for extra book $$, you're a fabulous reader...not all writers can read aloud to understand others' voice & cadence....as for Cusk, i did "enjoy" (respect?) her book on motherhood and Outline, and the trilogy, but with diminishing returns....definitely will now avoid Parade...it feels like she is riffing on Kundera, whos magnificent masterpieces (The book of laughter and forgetting & unbearable lightness of being) work similar long parts of 'essay/analysis/discourse unattached to the 'life of the characters'...yet, they seem themselves another disembodied character....and speaking of dinner party scenes (loathe them too), there is ONE masterful one: watch Buñuel 's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie...but i love when you riff on what is wrong with a book hahaha, lovely....too bad about Napalm book...ok, off my list....off to montreal and finalizing a manuscript.!!!...looking forward to the Solenoidvid !....bb

I've been curious to try Cusk but so many people have raved about her and it has made me skeptical rather than more excited, so I was interested to hear your thoughts on her. I think I'd still like to check her out but I feel better going in with some opposing views to consider. The American Lady in a Chinese Hat and The Longcut sound interesting to me. Especially the latter since I'm always debating with myself about art and art-making.

I read one Rachel Cusk Second Place I hated it so much I’ve never read another of her books. I don’t respond well to privileged people acting terribly without consequences.

That Cusk sounds really poor. Thanks for the tip-off.

Thanks for once again convincing me that it’s ok to skip the latest Rachel Cusk novel.

Can mute people have character? I guess "inner voice" in those cases?

lovely....ok, THIS topic is supremely important to me, as a poet especially....for some idiotic reason, people assume when they write or read poetry, that a poem (or collection) must be based on 'real life'---especially the ubiquitous 'I' OR "YOU"....which is nonsensical...maybe because we live in a world, or I live in a world, surrounded by writers and poets who write about their life and experiences endlessly...their suffering...instead of also writing poems that are 'imaginative' or 'works of fiction'...often the 'characters' in my poems are NOT me or people I now, but personae and characters i have created or imagined....or often i will write a poem about an idea, or idea of form, or word, and try to focus on the 'voice' of the character...and i do love playing with the 'voice' and ideas and metaphor and moments of a 'person' im creating...now, of course, my life enters a poem or story, in otherwords, my life in full: what i have see/experienced AND IMAGINED, what i've dreamed up...the books i ve read and films ive seen: all lead to characters and ideas...and when i do right about 'real-life people' (me, my partner, my family, people i know, or people i see around me who i dod not know personally), i try to re-imagine then...to metamorphize them...like Ovid, to sound pretentious...which is why i loathe the term 'auto-fiction' cause all fiction is and is not auto, just as all our life is and is NOT us....we CONSTRUCT memory, we CONSTRUCT experience...we are constructions of everything....anyway, Octopus Man sounds interesting...if you recommend, i will read....i think this is important vid for your readers so that they understand writers or books when they are reading if they are NOT writers...btw, I LOVED the damned Utd, and his other football book (im forgetting the name now)...anyway, for me, what is most important in a book LANGUAGE & CHARCTER....lovely, ttyl, bb

Hi Marc. Loving the videos, as always. Wondering if you've gotten round to Ducle Maria Cardoso's 'new' (in English) book, Eliete: A Normal Life. Hachette have spat it out without an ounce of effort. Yet to see a single review, or display. For me, it doesn't reach the dizzying heights of Violeta Among The Stars, but not sure it was ever going to. Some say it's one of her best books and I certainly couldn't put it down. Would love to hear your take.

I loved this book and was surprised at how effectively it engaged me. I expected it to be more didactic, and although the point is made how incredibly difficult life was as a gay man at that time, it was the plot that fully engaged me. It was a total page turner because the impact of decisions made by the characters could have disastrous results. I recommended it to my book club and look forward to our discussion.

The new Houellebecq is absolutely brilliant.

My enjoyment of Enter Ghost was a step up from yours, but yes one of the elements in that was better understanding the different groups within the Palestinian community. I'd add to your list the Palestinians who have been living as refugees in countries like Jordan for decades and are now second and third generations. And as a British Palestinian, Hammad could convey the tensions between these groups and the sense in which no one of Palestinian origins can ignore questions of history and identity.

Carole Maso in a thumbnail! My God! I read and loved her novel Ghost Dance in college, bought Ava for my mother. Talk about a writer who isn’t discussed as much she deserves to be. Hey, my friend, I’m reading your recent collection of stories just now and thought you’d like to know. I hope you’re well.

I have to say as soon as you said Ava features a 90 year old woman I was sold! But the rest of your review cemented the desire to read it. Good luck with Solenoid Mark!

fabulous....I've sent the link to your review of The Trees Witness Everything to Victoria...Im certain she will be thrilled: you've done again a lovely and sensitive read of her book and the collection,,,victoria is one of my fave american contemp poets writing in english as she has a restless mind and insatiable need to try on and conquer form while out-of-the-black chirping extraordinary beautiful and heartbreaking lines...just wait until you read the other i sent, With My Back to the World...masterpiece.....and i am so so hungry do read Ava...damn it Solenoid...ok, begin tonight...btw, lovely to hear O'Brien book is still lovely...one of the finest NARRATIVE novelists and most un-pigeon-holable in America..and The Things They Carry is easily top 3 of the best books on vietam from an American perspective....anyway, will touch base later when I begin solenoid....GO ENGLAND!