FArTHER

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In "I Just Called to Say I Love You," Franzen beautifully captured the societal damage being caused by cellphones. He also draws the issue close to home, describing how his relationship with his late parents may have coloured his view of cellphones. How easy and natural love is if you are well! And how gruesomely difficult—what a philosophically daunting contraption of self-interest and self-delusion love appears to be—if you are not!” The novel itself was written 1924-25, a couple of years after the giddy expectations of 1922 had probably burned off. It's interesting he chose to set the novel in that particular year. Following the 90s analogy, it would be like someone writing a novel in early 2000s about the year 1999 - in the same sort of cultural era, but with a darker, more sober mood. FArTHER is another beautiful book by Grahame Baker-Smith – whose first picture book for Templar, Leon and the Place Between (written by Angela McAllister) received critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the 2010 Greenaway Award.

The second essay of note is on autobiographical fiction and contains an interesting and informative insight into Mr. Franzen's working methods. The book is worth reading for this essay alone, especially if you're a writer or interested in the art of writing.

Sabbath’s theater” и е започнал да приема Рот като приятел, а не като враг (в смисъл на литературно влияние). When he suggests that maybe if David Foster Wallace had gotten into birdwatching, he wouldn't have committed suicide... Flitsend geschreven levensverhaal van James Cook en zijn drie reizen door de Grote Oceaan en rondom de wereld. De titel is iets te veel eer vind ik, er zijn een aantal ontdekkingsreizigers die hem wel bij kunnen benen (Columbus, Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta, de conquistadores, etc.) en het is maar net hoe je dat meet. Here is a story about Jonathan Franzen: I read The Corrections several years ago, perhaps just after it was at its zeitgeistiest. Yes that's a word. What are you looking at. Anche le deformazioni psicologiche come la masturbazione vanno viste in quest'ottica. Il problema della masturbazione non è semplicemente sessuale (la semplificazione morale va rigettata), ma trova il suo nocciolo nella sua solitudine, nella pretesa di ridurre il climax di una vita inseme all'altro a oggetto di piacere.

The biggest reason why this is so tough to review is that it's impossible not to compare this with the incomparable essayist/novelist, the late David Foster Wallace, close friend of Franzen's and the subject of two of the "essays" in this collection. In the titular "Farther Away" (easily the best of the bunch) Franzen discusses his quest to observe a rare bird on a remote island off tbe Chilean coast, then (quite effectively) shifts the focus to his friendship with DFW. It's a truly heartbreaking story, and it (along with a speech given by Franzen at a memorial service for DFW) is a fitting tribute to one of the best writers of our generation. Coincidentally, I listened to this introduction while watching one of my sons' baseball game in a tiny, historic stadium in downtown Newport. Needless to say, it hooked me from the beginning. Indeed, as Franzen learned, “When you stay in your room and rage or sneer or shrug your shoulders, as I did for many years, the world and its problems are impossibly daunting. But when you go out and put yourself in real relation to real people, or even just real animals, there’s a very real danger that you might end up loving some of them. And who knows what might happen to you then?” The winning book, Farther by Grahame Baker-Smith, tells the story of how a son takes up his father’s unfulfilled dreams of flying, and finally takes to the air. Later he adds “I do here admit the possibility that, compared with everyone else on the airport concourse, I am an extraordinarily cold and unloving person.” Um, yeah, maybe. He’s worried that the too-frequent habitual repetition empties the phrase of its meaning. Perhaps less than habitual repetition empties the phrase of its relevance. Perhaps Franzen just takes the phrase "I love you" too seriously, if its utterance ought to be reserved for sacred, intimate moments, rather than casually tossed off.Lizbeth got arrested on her second trip to Greece the following year due to legal complications. In a horrible turn of events, on May 20, 1996, the Greek courts reversed their previous judgment and temporarily granted the girls’ custody to Grigorios. Lizbeth discovered that he had filed a petition to prove her an unsuitable mother and hence the decision changed. Later, after a lot of push and pull with the government officials and legal bodies and with some support from authorities, Lizbeth finally gained rightful custody of Meredith and Marianthi. However, as a whole this book is an excellent introduction to Cook and his quirky rise from farmer to sailor to navy officer, and his almost OCD level drive to discover literally ever land in the Pacific... and then every land in the Arctic as well. Ironically, his main quest throughout two voyages was to find Antarctica, and he never actually set foot on the continent, nor fully believed it ever existed.

He hits the nail on the head again in "What Makes You So Sure You're Not the Evil One?" Instead of simply listing why Alice Munro is a fantastic writer, he chooses to suggest why the Canadian author isn't a household name. He also brilliantly describes why short stories -- Munro's bread and butter -- shouldn't be dismissed by the general reading public. The first thing I will comment on are the illustrations. They are incredible. Using photographic collage and illustration, this is the first book that Grahame has both written and illustrated and the results are amazing. The illustrations really do bring this picture book to life and the size of the book make it perfect for reading to groups of children.In James Cook geval is hij de grote ontdekker van wat er niet was (terra incognita) sinds hij op zoek was naar het zuidelijke continent wat uiteindelijk niet bestond. Antarctica bleek heel klein en hij voer er rondom heen, en Nieuw Zeeland en Australie waren deels al ontdekt (Abel Tasman) en zelfs Tahiti waar Cook’s naam bijna synoniem mee is was al door een Fransman ontdekt. Paaseiland was ook al een keer bezocht (Roggeveen). Op zijn derde reis ontdekte hij hij wel de Hawai eilanden waar hij bij een tweede bezoek spijtig ook gedood werd door de lokale bevolking. One of the most humiliating aspects of friendship with a genius - and again, Franzen never quite says this, although he sort of implies it by some of his anecdotes - is the fact that a genius is bored most of the time, and that includes most of the time he is with you. Like I said, this is a humiliating realization. All those years I tried - the way Franzen admits that he did with Wallace - to be smart and funny - only to have my friend find far more of interest in the non-literary, the non-intellectual, the non-sober. Because, well, those people were intrinsically more interesting than my frantically patched-together quasi-intellectual-Bohemian posturings and half-baked, half-educated "opinions." It took me years to get over my own snobbery and bombast and bullshit that obscured the fact that, yep, a guy who is really good at vehicle electronics is almost always more interesting and enjoyable to spend time with than someone with an MFA full of bureaucratic (i.e. academic) or corporate ambitions - more interesting than me, I mean. Not forever, not to be roomies, but in the mere moment-to-moment encounters with other people, a genius finds those people with a grasp on the actual are far more...something. Real? Lovable? Interesting? Real lovably interesting? I don't know what, but to some extent, I do understand it now, if a bit late in the game.