Sam Pink’s Book

I got Sam Pink’s book, I Am Going to Clone Myself Then Kill the Clone and Eat It, in the mail a few days ago and have started reading it. I’m on page 41 of 168. I’m kind of surprised the book is that long, because I was expecting it to be a chapbook. But this is a happy surprised because I like it and I’m glad there’s more of it to read.

I carry it around with me and read bits between classes. This is easy to do because a lot of the pieces are small (yet big, where it counts). People say “that’s weird” when they ask what the title of the book is and I tell them, but that’s their problem.

So far my favorite line was on page 18: “I used a net to catch some butterflies. I put the butterflies into my mouth and whispered them into your ear.” I really like those two sentences. And most of the other sentences.

Sam’s website is here.

BNAV2010 2/16: Lizard Man

I like David James Poissant’s “Lizard Man” because the guy who shouldn’t be teaching anyone anything is the one who does the teaching. And it’s nice to see a father get past his son’s homosexuality.

But I’m not sure how I feel about the crocodile. Or the girl with the balloon (though an extremely haunting image).

BNAV2010 1/16: Bethlehem Is Full

I’m going to do something a little different: I’m going to blog my way through a book. And maybe I’ll do this a lot. I don’t know. But I’m going to do it with Best New American Voices 2010, which was edited by Dani Shapiro – and I just got it.

Anyway, there are 16 stories in the book, written mostly by students in the top MFA programs across the country. I figure it’s important for me to read them since a. I hope to be them in a few years and b. they have a pretty good shot at becoming famous and I like being first on the bandwagon.

Also, SPOILER ALERT: I’m going to be discussing the endings. A lot.

The first story in the collection is “Bethlehem Is Full,” by Boomer Pinches (what a name!) of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It is good. The basic premise, looking at how a relationship can survive (or not survive) after an abortion, isn’t particularly new, but certainly isn’t stale. But dropping the couple on a whirlwind Australian vacation immediately after the procedure is pretty cool.

I think the strength in this story comes from the little dog that follows the couple around. It’s diseased and they take it to a pound (a considerable detour) in the hopes of saving it. Of course this trip puts a strain on their relationship and, when coupled with the abortion trouble, the relationship’s strength is tested to the breaking point. But the ending, I think, of Keith asking to put the dog down himself, proves to me that he, at least, will do whatever it takes to make the relationship work – letting this dog die, while not exactly equivalent to performing an abortion, shows an attempt on his part to understand what Amy went through. It’s sweet, in a morbid kind of way.

But I’m really confused about the part with the crocodiles. Why he jumped in the river with them is beyond me. Yes, he was stressed, but I don’t think that’s enough to put your life in such danger. That didn’t detract too much from the story, it just made me wonder how, well, sane this guy is – when I probably shouldn’t have been.

NaNoWriMo?

Today is November 1st, the start of National Novel Writing Month (better known as NaNoWriMo). Basically you force yourself to write a novel in a month – completely ignoring quality as you push toward the prescribed word count.

Some people at Emerson put a group together to help each other finish, by hosting writing days and generally being as encouraging as possible, and I got invited. And while I didn’t decline, necessarily, I can’t see myself writing a novel anytime soon. I have a few problems:

• When I write I’m constantly reading over what I’ve previously written to be sure a. it doesn’t suck and b. my voice is consistent with itself. While this has worked well for short stories, this would be fatal in trying to write an entire novel in a month.
• I have no novel ideas. Haha. Seriously, though, it seems as if I’ve trained my brain to think in short-story mode; it’s a chore for me to write something above 8,000 words. I can’t even imagine writing a novella in the near future (although I LOVE reading them and wish there were more of them around to read).
• When I write fiction I usually listen to one song on repeat when I’m writing that particular story – for example: “Jumping Rooftops,” which will be at Necessary Fiction in December, is courtesy of Coldplay’s b-side “Murder.” And there is no way I’d be able to listen to a single song for the entire novel-writing process. I would probably go insane.

So I really don’t think I’ll be writing a novel anytime soon – especially not a good one. But one day (hopefully) I will. And maybe it will be big.

Halloween Story

The trick to writing a decent Halloween story, apparently, is to make it not about Halloween. See Carthage. It’s absolutely beautiful.

Lung 2

The second edition of Lung is now live. You should probably go see since, you know, I’m in it.

BP: The Poet

I don’t even have an explanation for this one. Only that it’s dated February 24th. Good luck:

The poet
rests her hands on
the podium. She
recites her life’s
collected work from
memory. Her book
rests on the table
opposite. She’s touch
it if not for fear
that her withered
hand would catch flame.