FLORIDA
BY LAUREN GROFF
Much like many writers right now, I’ve been reading a lot less than usual. And slower. I’ve just moved to Florida and most recently finished an open wound of a book, Florida by Lauren Groff. Short stories around Floridian culture that exist both in and out of the state—the compelling admixture of decadence and decay. I feel like this book was the first person I met in this new place amid social distance. She’d be wearing a bad wig with expensive jewelry and might have a stealing problem.
REVENGE OF THE ASIAN WOMAN
BY DOROTHY CHAN
I am rereading Dorothy Chan’s Revenge of the Asian Woman in preparation for teaching it this upcoming term. Pure kitsch excess wrapped in neon purple and yellow and pink, definitely pink. I love her and I love her books.
PRICKS IN THE TAPESTRY
BY JAMESON FITZPATRICK
Just prior to my move I was reading my pressmate Jameson Fitzpatrick’s Pricks in the Tapestry—a gorgeous, meditative consumption of memoir, a wink, tongues and cheeks and all of their many uses.
DELUGE
BY LEILA CHATTI
I’ve also just finished Leila Chatti’s Deluge a couple weeks ago as well. The cultural veils we drape on the experience of individual pain is astounding and so is this collection.
SOME ARE ALWAYS HUNGRY
BY JIHYUN YUN
And lastly, I have Jihyun Yun’s Some Are Always Hungry on order. I suppose I am hungry too, Jihyun Yun, to subdue the intense necessity of my physical movement at this time, to enliven some still, dead thing hanging at edge of the latest newsreel and my own guilty inattention. I’d like to get back to it, wouldn’t you? Will we ever get back to it?