colin lavery

To me, few authors come off as thoughtful or as wise as Percival Everett. His brilliance comes through most often in his sharp humor, but it’s clear that he’s also a master technician with great emotional insight, is very well-read in literary and linguistic theory, and most importantly, tells a great story. In short, the…

Having only run into extended uses of “instant-messaging as dialogue or plot movement” writing in young adult fiction, I was somewhat skeptical about whether Several People Are Typing could be something that I’d get into. I think you could make a good argument that this book is also both a pandemic and internet novel –…

It’s unlikely that I forget the phrase “wan little husks of ‘auto fiction’”, anytime soon, and I highly doubt whether that’s a good thing for my literary brain. For the luckily unfamiliar, I am referring to this tweet from Joyce Carol Oates: Around the time that she tweeted this, Patricia Lockwood (the patron saint of…

11/13 gloomy weather (allergies plus depression) absolutely kicking my ass today. reading Drifts, by Kate Zambreno and i think i like it, though i wonder how little one can contribute to a work while still having it taken seriously. most seriousness comes through kafka and wittgenstein. holding it against zambreno though feels unfair, since she…

In case the content warning wasn’t enough of a hint, Copenhagen Trilogy, by Tove Ditlevsen, is probably the darkest, heaviest book to get written up on this here blog. The three of us read some fairly bleak, disturbing books on a pretty regular basis though, so I’m sure there will be more to come. And…