Lost in the City

Lost in the City
by Edward P. Jones
read: 2015
Pen/Hemingway Award

When I wrote about The Known World, I mentioned Edward P. Jones' all-seeing narrative voice, free of judgment. That voice is almost frustratingly present in Lost in the City - Jones might give you several of a character's thoughts and actions, but he never reduces it to something simple by tying a verbal bow around it. The reader is left to wonder, judge, extrapolate, and doubt. I might liken his short stories to those of Flannery O'Connor, but O'Connor's stories - many of them brutally depressing - seem to suggest we should be laughing at the same time we're crying. Jones doesn't open the door to humor in the same way, which probably suggests something real and depressing about the African-American condition.

Y: The Last Man

Y: The Last Man
by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra
read: 2015
Eisner Award

I finally finished reading Y: The Last Man after a break of several years. Vaughan created a post-apocalyptic world where all man save one have been killed by an unknown plague. Like much of the best science fiction, this new world serves a commentary on our world, in issues such as the role of women in the military and government, and the benefits and perils of cloning. Ultimately, the tale Vaughan tells is Yorick's; like in The Handmaid's Tale, the story is a reminder that an individual's fate matters even amidst tremendous general upheaval.

Inherent Vice

Inherent Vice
by Thomas Pynchon
read: 2015

Perhaps my favorite movie ever is The Big Lebowski, and it's easy to draw parallels between that film and Inherent Vice. Both feature noir-format stories with convoluted plots but a drug-addled hippie protagonist largely unable to comprehend them.

Do we need to stage an intervention at this point for Thomas Pynchon's predilection for writing lyrics for fake pop songs?