Monday, June 14, 2010

What I Am Reading.



Wolf Among Wolves
by Hans Fallada
Melville House | $18.95 |Buy


From the publisher: "This sweeping saga of love in dangerous times – the 1923 collapse of the German economy, when food and money shortages led to rioting in the streets and unemployed soldiers marauding through the countryside – is deemed by many to be Hans Fallada’s greatest work. Yet its 1938 publication made his publisher so fearful of Nazi retribution that he told Fallada, “If this book destroys us, then at least we’ll be destroyed for something that’s worth it.”"

Wolf... is a dangerous read. Its engrossing enough to zone you out so that you end up two T stops past work. The physical act of reading this book is not all dissimilar to drinking a few beers at the carnival before hitting the Pirate Ship. You get nauseous with both anticipation and experience. Along the way there are barkers begging you, men and women in the shadows, grime, and above all various forms of wetness (sweat, rain, drool, etc). So good you'd think the Dalkey Archive published it.

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Bird Any Damn Kind
by Lucas Farrell
Caketrain | $8.00 |


I'll just leave you with this sample rather than ramble on about how immensely terrific this book of poetry is. That was a really poor sentence. Whatever. Its late. Enjoy.

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