Grab the Lapels

Books of Winter I Did Not Finish

#1: Monster: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer

Summation: an author with almost nothing to say in the conversation about cancel culture, Dederer posits an artist or writer she feels is a “monster” and then adds a few of her own thoughts. For a book that fails to look inward with any depth, it certain seems that Monster is all about Dederer. Her conclusion is that we’re all monsters in some way. Right…

#2 Suggs Black Backtracks by Martha Ann Spencer

Summation: I hadn’t realized that Spencer’s book was basically a collection of little bits of story from her family. It reads more like a personal collection of memories than anything publishable with a greater perspective on humanity. Mostly, I was reminded of poetry that one of my great-aunts writes that causes this face: 😬

#3 Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval

Summation: a novella about a Norwegian student who goes to university in a made-up UK town. Mostly, she comments on her pee, her roommates pee, etc. I think this book wants to be edgy by reminding you that we all pee?? All the walking the main character does fails to improve upon Tolkien’s hobbits walking, so…why?

#4 The Man Who Shot Out My Eye is Dead by Chanelle Benz

Summation: A short story collection that jumps from Western to Victorian era to modern-day spies, I could not get a handle on Benz’s writing. Every story I had to start over again because the writing obfuscates what’s even happening until about three pages in, then you have to go back to get yourself oriented. Unlike George Saunders, I was not riveted. Biscuit and I read this together, and the first question she asked was, “Is this writer supposed to be, like, good?”

#5 Touched by Kim Kelly

Summation: so unfortunate that this one did not work for me! The author writes about the days leading up to her accepting an award at a graduation ceremony and how she experiences anxiety. Sounds perfect for me, but I could not keep tabs on why she kept writing tangents about her family history. The history didn’t show signs of anxiety in order to demonstrate a genetic link, and I started to lose the thread until I was completely lost. However, now that I have a sense of what Kelly is trying to do, I plan to reread this book soon with a different mindset/expectation.

#6 At Wit’s End by Erma Bombeck

1960s syndicated humor columnist Erma Bombeck was hilarious in bursts. Other times, I couldn’t find the connections between one idea and the next — heck, sometimes one sentence and the next. However, when she’s hot, she’s on fire. Here is an example of how to behave around her husband during tax time:

Keep the children out of his path. From January through April they cease to have names. They become Deduction A, Deduction B, and Deduction C. Mentally he begins to add up what he has invested in their teeth, arches, sports program, fine arts, education, clothes, food, lodging, entertainment, vitamins, and social welfare. Once he has figured out that $600 wouldn’t keep them in catsup and breakfast cereal, his resentment reaches a danger point.

Or how she survived the family camping trip:

I relived that first camping trip in my mind a thousand times. … I’ve tried to analyze why we failed. First, I think we had seen too many Walt Disney films and expected more help from the animals than we got. Second, unlike other families, our family does not have the necessary primitive instincts for survival. We are lucky to get the car windows rolled down to keep from suffocating.

26 comments

  3. I really don’t remember all the pee. I have a vague recollection, but what I remember is the damp and the mold and how weird and uncomfortable the book and the roommate situation made me feel. I kept telling the narrator to leave, get out before it’s too late.

    As for Erma Bombeck, I remember her columns in the newspaper. My mom loved her and would laugh and laugh and read some of them out loud to the family. My sister and I would sometimes find them funny, but most of the time it was “Mom’s being weird and we can’t handle it.” 😀

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    • Oh, I love that you recognize Bombeck! I think the pieces would have made more sense had I read them when they were published in the newspaper. It felt like there was an ongoing conversation that I was not part of.

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  4. I can’t imagine dnf-ing so many books, but I enjoyed your ‘explanations’. I think it’s a serious question, should we read books by monsters. Are you saying the author didn’t make a case either for or against?

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    • The author rolled around like she was on fire despite there being no flames. Honestly, there are so many terrible artists out there, and we enjoy them until we learn that they are terrible. Most people in power abuse others along the way, so we shouldn’t be surprised. On the other hand, when an author is so terrible I emotionally cannot enjoy their work anymore, it’s pretty much decided for me.

      Also, why did you put the word explanations in quotes? 😅

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  5. Interesting to read your comments on Monsters alongside the blurbs – sometimes I think the people who write those comments read an entirely different book to the one I read.

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  7. I like what you say about going back into “Touched” with a better idea of what the author is trying to do. I sometimes find that I have to do this, if a book is really different from what I expect it to be – put it aside for a while, and then revisit it with fresh eyes.

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    • I was absolutely thrown, so it’s almost like my attention was wanning. However, I like the premise and put the book on my bedside table to come back to ASAP. I also recently stated a book that had a terrible opening sentence. I almost didn’t finish, but I gave it another shot because I knew I had a lot of anxiety, and perhaps I just needed to focus a bit more on the words themselves (anxiety makes people unfocused).

      On a different note, I saw on the news there is an outbreak in the UK of meningitis.

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      • Yes, and it’s a bit unsettling because my brother lives in Canterbury (which is the epicentre of the outbreak) – he’s too old to be particularly at risk but he does teach students who are the right age to be vulnerable. However, it’s not nearly as contagious as a lot of illnesses, and it looks like the peak might hopefully have passed already.

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  8. I guess I’m with Bill in that, for some reason, I rarely DNF a book, and it’s been a long long time since I didn’t.

    I’m sorry you found Touched a challenge. I worried it might be triggering after our conversation, but it sounds like it wasn’t that. I had to go back to my review to work out what it was you meant! I found the mix of history (back to the Greeks and on through philosophers etc), her extended family’s past, and her own present really interesting. It didn’t seem to confuse me. I’m not sure that she was trying to prove a genetic link, but to more broadly look for understanding and perhaps patterns. Unfortunately, I am now in Melbourne and my copy is in Canberra, so I can’t look at my marginalia for any particular thoughts I had as I read! But, life is short so you don’t need to feel you should read it …

    I have mixed feelings about Monsters, as I think we discussed when you wrote about this book. But I certainly knowing negative things about a writer (or any sort of creator) can affect my feelings about them. Just how much depends on what that negative is. If it’s proven abuse of children, then I would not read, see, listen to whatever it is they produce, and it would colour anything I had already read, seen, heard! (Australians will be aware of some examples that have shocked us.)

    Sorry about the delay in replying to your recent posts. I had a really packed week, and then we drove to Melbourne and I have had two full-on days of grandchild care. I will read your next two posts tomorrow. (Actually I read the second one in the car during our trip but didn’t manage to comment as we bounced along!!)

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    • I don’t think your review misled me, to be clear. It was more my expectations of a memoir about anxiety. Typically, they have a common patter to them, and Touched was doing something different! I will happily reread it.

      About cancel culture, I’ve found that I rarely make the intentional decision to stop listening to, watching, or reading an artist. What usually happens is my brain and body don’t enjoy the experience, and I disengage (e.g. listen to Michael Jackson or reading Junot Diaz). When a project has many players, my brain supports the efforts of the team and forgets the predator, such as when I’m watching a Roman Polanski film.

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      • Ah I’m glad re touched but it’s still ok if you do t get to it or do t like it. I have a good appetite for non-memoir memoirs!!

        As for the other, that makes sense. You know I keep forgetting about Michael Jackson … and continue to enjoy his music. Why is that? Whereas I don’t about Roman Polanski nor our singer-entertainer Rolf Harris. I think Michael Jackson has always felt like a sad person to me but I don’t want to excuse “monsters” either.

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  9. I remember reading my nana’s copy of the Erma Bombeck back when I was in high school and not getting her humour at all! I wonder if I’d find it different now.

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    • I’m not sure. I think because she was published in a newspaper, having everything together in a book doesn’t quite work. It almost feels like she’s responding to something, like I’m in the middle of the story.

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      • I think she had a column or something, right? It was definitely a book I picked up while spending the summer at my grandma’s when I ran out of my own reading material. I read a lot of random books that way!

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