Bookpost: Some more stuff from 2022

[roadrunnertwice]

Calvin Kasulke — Several People are Typing

July 10

A surrealist epistolary novel written as Slack transcripts (which is one of those concepts where you’re like ah yup, someone was gonna do that eventually). Anyway, Brenna and Chase recommended this and I quite liked it! Hilarious and cute and incredibly disorienting.

Random fact that Ruth tipped me off to (because she is low-key an internet supersleuth): apparently Kasulke is besties with Isaac Feldman, whose novel Breath of the Sun I quite enjoyed a couple years back.

Bryan Washington — Memorial

Aug. 25

I hadn't heard of this or anything, but Ruth had it checked out from the library while we were on vacation, and it sounded interesting.

It was! I was wary at first, because A: Benson (who narrates the first section) showed signs of being some kinda Joyless Literature Man and I ain't got time for that, and B: the plot that was shaping up would not exist if any of the main characters were capable of having ONE (1) fucking conversation with another human. I stopped sweating so much about item A once we had a scene or two of Benson working at the daycare and it became clear that he really loves and cares about both his co-worker Ximena and all of the kids there. And item B was ultimately kinda the point of the whole book, rather than a classical Dumbass Plot.

Anyway, this is a story about two guys in a relationship that is Bad. Like, The Mountain Goats' Tallahassee caliber Bad. Both of them come from homes where the relationships were Bad. (One of them has also sustained massive psychic damage from contracting HIV and having his family react to that in really bullshit ways, but tbh that might not even be his biggest problem.) I think the main question of the book comes down to: if you become aware that you just suck at being a person, and you do not want to continue doing so, where do you fucking start?

And the story's argument, or its best guess, at least, is that you start with the act of nurturing and care. Knowing why won't help, and knowing how won't help; you have to invite something into your life that you can stand to nurture without succumbing to your self-negating drive to destroy, perform the hard work of nurturing day-in and day-out, and then find a way to apply those strengthened better impulses to the people you're actually vulnerable to and need something from.

Which is definitely something to chew on, and might not be wrong. And I felt very fondly toward both these awful guys by the end. I don't know how I feel about the conclusion that they need to get back/stay together; tbh that doesn't seem necessary for their growth or their happiness, and you can go forward with love for someone without staying in a relationship with them, ask anyone who knows. But never mind. Good book.

(Note to self about an internal taxonomy that might or might not result in a post some years from now: novels by authors whose natural format is the short story.)

Return of the Thief (re-read)

Aug. 18

Still fuckin slaps.

Martha Wells — Network Effect (re-read)

May 25

Still rad.

Bonus Level: CrossCode: A New Home

April 19

CrossCode was fantastic, and this epilogue DLC is more of the same, so go for it! New quests, new biome, new final dungeon, and resolves some story loose ends.

...Some somewhat wild loose ends, which I took a while to chew on! I think one answer I've come to about [why a particular character is sympathetic despite all the reasons they shouldn't be] comes down to: Evotars really aren't their source. Not just because of their different experiences starting at the branch point, but... they just never were to start with. They aren't true "copies," it's a messy and nondeterministic statistical process with a lot of randomness and shear built-in. And then also maybe something about "power corrupts," idk.

Comments

[brainwane]

Thanks for the recommendations! This is at least the second rec I've heard for "Several People are Typing" so I am likely to try that out at some point!

[roadrunnertwice]

It was quite good!