Wrote Nell Zink, in "Sister Europe,” quoted in the Dwight Garner section of the NYT piece "Our Book Critics on Their Year in Reading," and that's a free link to the NYT because Garner does such a fine job of finding sentences to quote.
Here's his book — which I've bought for myself and others — collecting quotes in the same manner you'll find in that "Year in Reading" piece: "Garner's Quotations/A Modern Miscellany" (commission earned).
And here's the commission-earned link for "Sister Europe," which I bought on the strength of that one sentence.
Here's one more quote from that "Year in Reading" (this one's by Mariel Franklin): "There was something about air travel that made me think of Swiss euthanasia clinics."
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20 comments:
Dude lived up to the surname by garnering some quotes.
"Life is an excruciating phase in the life of everyone."
Wrote Nell Zink
Kamala Harris is going to sue this guy for stealing her schtick.
I had initially written a snarky response about that quote (then deleted it), but on reading the Amazon review, I am not sure if the quote is a quote from the perspective of the author, or from a character in the fiction (which seems to be aiming for quirky charm).
Perhaps the quote is from the character of an addled solipsistic loon. Perhaps.
I am Laslo.
I was lazier than Laslo.
I just assumed the NYTs picked a writer whose prose match the intellectual level of their readers.
A little context (from Zink, Nell. Sister Europe: A Novel (pp. 26-27). (Kindle Edition):
"[H]e noted with self-approval that he didn’t immediately feel he was being too kind. Nicole’s attempts to present as femme tended to embarrass her elders—in particular, her former use of a stuffed bra worn too high—but they in turn embarrassed her no end, with their relentless missteps, and who isn’t embarrassing, really, when you get down to it. Life is all about raising expectations and seeing them crushed. Life is an excruciating phase in the life of everyone. You can’t really relax until you give up on it. Toto had given up at twenty, following his training as an archaeologist’s laborer and inept drummer, when he realized he was going bald. Not merely losing his hair, but in an especially goofy pattern."
Thanks Althouse! From the Amazon reviews I got a bit of a Wes Anderson vibe.
Can a female author truly 'get' the Wes Anderson vibe? I've got opinions on that.
I am Laslo.
Great clip from Nell Zink. Also- great quotes. Just bought that book. I may need to steal some of those in future comments. Perhaps you won't recognize them coming from me.
This video is a good start to understand why the absolute slop Ann quoted gets published by modern publishing.
https://youtu.be/9XqO34RGn4A?si=oraNqDZmsnynT90x
How DEI and “sensitivity readers” have destroyed modern literature.
Are we blocking tags in posts now?
Sounds like a pretty good novel, I might give it a read. And this despite the absurd snippets of praise on Amazon.
"Zink is one of the most humane writers we’ve got, and one of the best. ." Humane?
Or this piece of Bullshit:
"The night narrated here feels like the kind of time outside of time in which classical comedies take place—a liminal space in which characters experience transformations impossible in the everyday world."
What I find amusing is that the quote --"Life is an excruciating phase in the life of everyone" -- could just be the average NYT writer Thinking Big Thoughts, and all of the NYT readers would nod along (with some of those readers then turning to the Comments to blame Orange Man Bad)...
I am Laslo.
I rarely read fiction. Sometimes, I'll read a 19th century novel. They're pretty good, and it's a bit like time travelling.....I read a lot of history. Apparently a lot of what we know now wasn't true then and vice versa.
Speaking of life, Delta House has a long-standing tradition of existence to its members and to the community at large.
When in doubt, wait for movie.
Life is an exercise in risk management.
“ Here's one more quote from that "Year in Reading" (this one's by Mariel Franklin): "There was something about air travel that made me think of Swiss euthanasia clinics."”
I know the feeling. But don’t do it, Mariel. The plane will land, and like the pain of childbirth, the suffering of air travel quickly fades in memory.
Euthanasia Clinics or Planned Selfiehood. Sure, there are precedents for wicked solutions. Let the State aid and abet its progress.
well you can get out of air travel, not so much swiss euthanasia clinics,
ot, there was a chaveysky tribute on tcm, which was interesting until all the gasbags like sorkin and jeff daniels, and some others got into the scrum, utterly missing the point of network, frankly the hospital a favorite of michael k,
is so beyond their reference point, they don't recognize a diana christensen, in themselves, extolling the chaos of the
'summer of love'
the arch commentary from the folks who never really see
anything wrong with communism (in a review of Reds) well it didn't work out as planned, don't mind the millions of bodies,
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