From a future work

From a story I'm working on right now

“Luna recedit tempus ut rediret. Dominus Deus omnipotens in sapientia admonet nescimus viis ejus.”

“The moon departs for a time to return once more. The Lord God, in his almighty wisdom, reminds us that we do not know his ways.”

—From an untitled 13^th century manuscript at the Biblioteca Nacional

de la República Argentina

New Review at CS2

I have a new review of The Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde available at CommonSense2.com:
http://commonsense2.com/2011/09/book-reviews/the-complete-fairy-tales-of-oscar-wilde/
JPC

New Piece in CS2

My new review of Patti Smith's Just Kids and Judy Linn's Patti Smith 1969-1976 has just been published by CommonSense2.com. It is available here:

http://commonsense2.com/2011/08/book-reviews/just-kids-by-patti-smith-and-patti-smith-1969-1976-by-judy-linn/

JPC

Ulysses fin

At 12:49 this afternoon, just as the mailman came around with a stack of letters for me, I finished the last page of Ulysses. This is a moment that I'm extremely proud of, even though it arrives a little bit late. I was supposed to have finished the book over two months ago. I read it with a reading group. But during my second semester at college, I was distracted by such meaningless things as speech class and extra-credit papers. And so, Ulysses, though ever-present in my mind and on my night table, slipped from sight for several weeks at a time.

However, I made a conscious choice that I was going to finish the book before I left for a beach trip with some friends. I didn't want the weight of James Joyce hanging over me... After all, remember what Bloom does on the beach... As I read Ulysses, I was frequently met with situations that resembled the novel. Much as I liked Bloom, I wouldn't want to have a repeat of that scene come into my life while I'm on vacation. No, I'd rather run into Buck and Stephen shaving in the early hours.

I often read at the beach, but it's usually pulp fiction novels that I take, not massive tomes. And after reading a book such as Ulysses or say one of Nabokov's more challenging works, or particular works of post-post-modern literature, I feel the need to go through a period of relaxation via, frankly, trash-lit. (Thus why I'm reading 2 James Pattersons and a Dan Brown novel.) I thought that I might be able to sneak in the last bit of Ulysses at the beach if I had to, but then I changed my mind. Fired up by a recurring case of insomnia, I read chapters 16 and 17 one night after the other. I stopped myself from continuing onto Chapter 18, even though I felt that I could continue. Chapter 18 would have to have a day to itself, I thought. And what a better way to begin Molly's soliloquy than by laying in bed? I lazily picked the book up and read the first 2 sentences of the 8 sentences that make up the final chapter.

By 9 AM I was downstairs at my desk, answering emails. I read sentences 3 through 6 in between small tasks, taking a moment to reflect on them before moving along. By 11:30, I was on sentence 7. I went out to get bread for lunch, then ate up the rest of the tuna I'd made before. While I ate the sandwich, I propped the book up against a stack of other books and finished sentence 7. By the time I finished my sandwich, it was 12 o'clock, and time to begin the final, transformative sentence. I call it transformative because it marks a shift in Molly's thinking, beginning with the word "no" and ending with the repetition of the word "yes" again and again.

As I finished the book, I must admit that I felt Molly saying "and yes I said yes I will Yes." I felt myself tearing up. I've spent almost a year with these people, and it was hard to say goodbye.

Ah well, there's always next time. Plus I still have to read Portrait of the Artist. And of course there's always the Wake.

JPC

New Review @ CS2.com

I'm happy to inform you of my new review at CS2 of Simon Winchester's recently published book "The Alice Behind Wonderland." You'll find a link to it here:
http://commonsense2.com/2011/07/book-reviews/the-alice-behind-wonderland-by-simon-winchester/

New Review

I'm happy to say that CS2 is back up and running. My first new review is Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Dunker (1996).

Link to the Review:
http://commonsense2.com/2011/06/book-reviews/hallucinating-foucault/

More to come soon

J.

Publication

My short story, "Pajamas for Mr. Kafka" will be published in the new issue of Shoefly, the KU literary magazine. It will be published towards the end of April, in Shoefly 2011. I should be reading the story at the April 20th launch event. The story is about a woman's obsession with Franz Kafka's life and works. More details to come soon. J.

Let us talk of what has happened

In the last few months, I've had a few setbacks, both in employment and in my personal life. Of course, CS2 shut down, which was a blow, but, worse than that, my first novel was rejected by the publisher I wanted it to go to the most.

I would be lying if I didn't say that this brought back some older issues with depression that I won't get into here. I had friends, good ones. But I also have some not-so-good friends, some of whom I've recently had to purge from my life.

Along with purging these not-so-good friends, I've also purged several dozen not-so-good books from my life, thus insuring that my room will not fall through the floor and cause the house to implode upon itself.

I have this feeling sometimes that I'm not meant to be a strong person. I'm tired of having to fight all the time just for speaking my mind, either in class or with my family. I feel very sick over this. I don't feel like myself. But, then, someone has to do it. There are times when fighting is the only thing that gets work done. Honestly. I feel that deep down inside of me and I know it to be true. But whenever I start fighting, I slip and slide and those not-so-good friends vanish when I need them to be good friends. And so I return to books.

Reading through Ulysess with a group of friends, I've begun to let the book just envelope me, to let the language dance over my skin. It is the only way I can cope some times. To get lost in the pages of something so brilliant, so amazing, that you can get lost inside of it within half a page. That is to feel true happiness.

JPC

Last Update from CS2

A review of Steve Martin's novel The Pleasure of my Company:
http://commonsense2.com/2010/12/book-reviews/the-pleasure-of-my-company-by-steve-martin/
This will be the last review I will write for CommonSense2.com as the magazine is, unfortunately, shutting down. I would like to thank my friend Chuck Brown for giving me the opportunity to work as a reviewer for him, and hope that we can get together again real soon.

JPC

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is the time of the year when I go nuts attempting to write a novel in a single month.

Currently, I'm working on the story of Iris and Brent, working through their relationship. The novel will be called "Relations". And let's hope things go well this time.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/697495

JPC

I caved in

I joined Facebook yesterday and now am finding my life being sucked out of me. You can watch it happening to me and others (in almost real time) here:

http://www.facebook.com/

JPC

New Reviews

The first of the month means new publications at CommonSense2.com:

A review of Wild Nights by Joyce Carol Oates (Just in time for Halloween)
http://commonsense2.com/2010/10/book-reviews/wild-nights-by-joyce-carol-oates/

and
A review of In Rough Country also by Joyce Carol Oates
http://commonsense2.com/2010/10/book-reviews/in-rough-country-by-joyce-carol-oates/

JPC

The Importance of Being Bloom

Currently listening to an audio book of my favorite critic, Harold Bloom. How to Read and Why, which was published in 2000. Aside from the dated political references, the text is fresh in a way most texts aren't after ten years have gone by. Perhaps that is because the case for reading well always needs to be stated.

New reviews coming up soon, within the next few days. Hopefully I'll have more news soon.

JPC

Empty

I've finished the last Millennium volume by Stieg Larsson. Why? Now I feel incredibly upset. Why? It's all over. No more books. The possibility of a fourth volume does not make me cheer--it would be incomplete, and an incomplete mystery is pointless. That said, I would like to see the fourth book published one day, but it could not possibly be a runaway bestseller in the mystery category. Because it is unfinished, and the mystery genre is all about finishing things, wrapping them up and packing them away, this last book cannot be accepted by the mystery community.

JPC

PS Salander, not Bella, is the heroine of our times

The Pale King gets a Cover

JPC

Is Franzen "Franzen"?

Okay. Who is Jonathan Franzen?

Not like who is he as in "Who is he in the public's mind?" That I know. We all know him as the somewhat uptight author of the bestseller of the pre-9/11 eerily accurate Bush-era novel The Corrections. Unlike Updike, the similarly themed malaise-of-suburbia writer, Franzen has the persona of a real jerk. Updike, purveyor of culture high and low, was known as a jolly, happy Pennsylvania boy with a serious side. Franzen is the lonely, self-obsessed and uncomfortable author trapped in the city, peering with contempt into the suburban life. How did he get this image?

Well, that's a long story.

With the release of his new novel, Freedom (which I am currently looking forward to reading--I have my copy stashed away where no one can get it), a slew of media has been dedicated to this man and his reputation and all of the usual stories are being played out again. The "Oprah" snub--a lose/lose situation if ever there was one. Whether he snubbed her or she snubbed him doesn't really matter anymore, considering that her show is going off the air soon.

So why bring it up every story? It's a good way to fill in a few extra columns.

Indeed, in the Time magazine story (the first time in, what, ten, fifteen years that a writer has been on the cover of Time?) includes semi-juicy gossip on this particular angle. I preferred when they described his writing room. Even the pictures (gray-scale and amazingly bland) were more interesting and probably had more to do with the book than yet another "Oprah" moment.

What are the reviews saying? They seem to be reviewing his persona more often than they are reviewing the book--a rookie mistake if ever there was one. The novel is compared with his last, shining glory, The Corrections. No one says if it's a step up from his awful, awful non-fiction works, The Discomfort Zone (which I dare everyone to try and read without becoming frustrated and throwing the book across the room) and the self-righteous essay collection How to be Alone. (Remember, "Alone" is the key word.)

Even by looking at Franzen's non-fiction (stuff that [I would assume] he's had the final "OK" on), we still don't know who he is. Excluding the media-image on the man doesn't help. The "Franzen Character" that Franzen presents to the media is, perhaps intentionally or unintentionally, a real snot, a jerk. I'm sure he doesn't intend it to come off that way, but that's the way he is received, none the less. Perhaps the media image of himself has become the way he views himself, which would be a sad thing. However, it might just be that he's presenting himself as this kind of know-it-all just for the sake of having people say things like, "He's a total jerk, but man can he write good fiction!"

JPC

The Importance of the Bandanna

Reading through David Lipsky's book on David Foster Wallace, I am struck by the importance of the Bandanna, frequently seen in Wallace's media-interactions, wrapped around his head, as if to keep his brain from overheating (1).

"[Lipsky says] Tell me about the bandanna stuff we were talking about yesterday.

[Wallace replies] I started wearing bandannas in Tuscan because it was a hundred degrees all the time. When it's really hot, I would perspire so much that it would drip on the page. Actually, I started wearing it that year and then it became a big help in Yaddo in '87, because I would drip into the typewriter and I was worried that I was gonna get a shock.

And then I discovered that I felt better with them on...

I mean, I don't wear it all the time. I wear it--I know it's a security blanket for me--whenever I'm nervous. Or whenever I feel like I have to be prepared, or keep myself together, I tend to wear it... [I]t made me feel kind of creepy that people view it as an affection or a trademark or something. It's more just a foible, it's the recognition of weakness, which is that I'm just kind of worried that my head's going to explode." (295-6)

I also saw Jonathan Franzen on the cover of Time. Interesting man, dull as dishwater, though. Seriously man, don't get all hung up about the whole gray scale/bland-colors, tortured-writer-working-in-a-wasteland BS that teenagers dream about (2) and just try to get some enjoyment out of it. I hate that Time had to abridge the piece for their online edition. Why? The whole subtext (or subplot or detour or whatever you prefer) about his friendship with Wallace was one of the best parts, humanizing the seemingly un-human writer. As such, the Internet version of the article just seems to enforce the idea of Franzen as a detached, frigid, genius.

JPC

Footnotes:

(1) This is not an original observation; several others have preceded me (including Wallace Himself).

(2) Every writer goes through this phase. I did too. The good ones out-grow it. The great ones make fun of it, play with it; make it their own. Franzen has yet to develop beyond that stage. He is a great writer; he just needs to become a better individual.

That's What it's like to be rejected

Trashed from two magazines in the last two weeks. For legal reasons, I will not name the magazines directly. X(1) rejected 3 poems. X(2) rejected the same 3 poems, rewritten. They [X(2)] were, however, more helpful, offering the following:

Thank you for sending us "3 poems". We appreciate the chance to read
it. Unfortunately, we're going to pass on it at this time. Please refer
below to the editor's notes as to why.

Editor's notes:
Unoriginal subject matter
trite wordings
cliches

Thanks again for you submission.

I doubt the "thanks".

JPC

Hypatia

http://agorathemovie.com/
I cannot wait to see this film. I am also researching the stories behind it, from both perspectives. Work, work, work.

JPC

New Reviews

In my newest pieces at CommonSense2.com, I review:

Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai
http://commonsense2.com/2010/08/book-reviews/the-last-samurai-by-helen-dewitt/

The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges
http://commonsense2.com/2010/08/book-reviews/the-book-of-imaginary-beings-by-jorge-luis-borges/

and

Bech at Bay by John Updike, the final Bech book:
http://commonsense2.com/2010/08/book-reviews/bech-at-bay-by-john-updike/

JPC