I can’t do either of these men justice in this little column. That’s why they have to go together. I finished Slaughterhouse Five nearly two months ago, have read multiple books since then, and have still been stuck on the proper song with which to match Vonnegut. I usually have a few vague ideas for [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘NYRM Literary Society’
June 2, 2010
NYRM Literary Society: Joyce and The XX
Drawing By Louise Zergaeng Pomeroy I did not enjoy Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It was tedious. There were a lot of dark thoughts about humanity. There was a lot of Catholicism. There was a lot of Irish history. There was a lot, a lot of manhood. And unless I can get [...]
April 18, 2010
NYRM Literary Society: Cash and Capote
How could you pair In Cold Blood with anything but “Folsom Prison Blues?” Capote’s prose is astonishing, much in the same way Cash’s voice is singularly recognizable. Both quickly get to the point, mercilessly straightforward, but somehow lush with description and depth. Both have deep voices that cut to the quick of what it means to [...]
March 23, 2010
NYRM Literary Society: Huxley and Dirty Projectors
Somehow I missed out on Brave New World in high school English class. In some ways, I’m very glad that I did. Having a college history degree behind me really helped to see how astounding it is that this book was published in 1932. Though I can’t imagine what Huxley would have made of the [...]
March 9, 2010
NYRM Literary Society: DeLillo and The Flaming Lips
I would very much like to be at a dinner where Don DeLillo, author of White Noise, and Wayne Coyne, wacko frontman of The Flaming Lips, meet each other. I think that they would turn out to be two of those people who seem wildly different from each other, but wouldn’t get along because of [...]
February 27, 2010
NYRM Literary Society: Richard Hell and Lethem
I’ve never read a book before that wasn’t explicitly about music that is so very much about music. If I had to say what Fortress of Solitude is about, I’d say gentrification, friendship, abandonment, Brooklyn, growing up, and navigating racial identity through music. Because the novel is so centered around Dylan Ebdus’ life through race [...]
January 18, 2010
NYRM Literary Society: Woolf and Beach House
I just finished Mrs. Dalloway on an airplane ride to Indiana (this trip was why I was sadly absent from blogging over the weekend). I decided to read it simply because I never had before, and I knew it was supposed to be very good. I wasn’t nearly as blown away by it as I [...]
January 12, 2010
NYRM Literary Society: Oxford Collapse and Chabon
It’s been a light show week. Good thing I’ve FINALLY got my next NYRM Literary Society entry ready! I finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay nearly two months ago, but I’ve been really struggling to find the proper song to go along with it. I knew it had to be a band with [...]
November 10, 2009
NYRM Literary Society: Franzen and The National
I finished this book a few weeks ago, but I was wrestling with which song to pair it with. The National seemed like such an obvious choice for Franzen’s The Corrections that I wanted to come up with something a little more under the radar, but the more I thought about it the more I [...]
October 7, 2009
NYRM Literary Society: Marquez and Feist
Back in September, I posted about the Replacements song, “Androgynous,” because reading Middlesex reminded me of the tune. It was just a one-off type of thing, but then a co-worker suggested that I make it into a regular feature. This will probably end up being more embarrassing for me than anything else (now the internet [...]
