"These little stones, thoughtfully placed, only one each time, on the edge of a name as the promise of a return." - Jacques Derrida, The Deaths of Roland Barthes Thoughts are bugs flying into a windscreen. I start thinking 'if she was here' and the thoughts go splat. I think of the bonfire night when… Continue reading Leftovers
Tag: literature
With love on a birthday
"It is said that mourning, by its gradual labour, slowly erases pain; I could not, I cannot believe this; because for me, Time eliminates the emotion of loss (I do not weep), that is all. For the rest, everything has remained motionless. For what I have lost is not a Figure (the Mother), but a… Continue reading With love on a birthday
new haven
"Sometimes a vast solitude opened in my head and the entire world disappeared inside it, but came out again intact, without a scratch, with nothing missing." —Maurice Blanchot, The Madness of the Day Haven’t had anything to do with the man on my mind since he saw my initials on a list and emailed me… Continue reading new haven
On Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Following 2010’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, Manhattan Beach (2017) is a far cry from the time-hopping experimental prose anyone might have expected. It’s a “traditional” historical novel set in Depression era/World War II New York and centred on the Navy Yards. Egan’s melancholic, Noir-esque drama is elegiac and affirmative — which was also true… Continue reading On Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
A Review of Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett's sprawling domestic novel begins in 60s Los Angeles at a suburban christening party. The reader is immediately planted in the middle of the action and given a panoramic view of the scene. When handsome Bert arrives with a bottle of gin we see an almost comical jump to action as men roll up their shirtsleeves to… Continue reading A Review of Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Letters for Rent 