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A review by thelizabeth
Desires by John L'Heureux
4.0
(I read "Brief Lives in California," anthologized separately from this book. I'm going to mark this read for lack of having another way to add the story here. This is also a pretty hard book to find!)
Even though this story is about a totally berserk character whom I shouldn't like, I really liked it. It makes sort of a perfect capsule of crazy, as well as an intentional comment about the strand of American culture obsessed with bestness, specialness, selfishness.
It works so well it's better to read yourself than discuss. Leonora's character-building moments are so on-pitch I kind of wanted to scream even as I laughed at what happened. She's loathsome and pitiable at the same time. Why don't you appreciate her? Why are you so determined to hurt her feelings? Her self-centeredness is both epic and believable. That it has such ultimate consequences is almost stupid, but in a way that's believable too. These things come out stupid, they do.
I'm rounding this one up too because it feels like that sort of day.
Even though this story is about a totally berserk character whom I shouldn't like, I really liked it. It makes sort of a perfect capsule of crazy, as well as an intentional comment about the strand of American culture obsessed with bestness, specialness, selfishness.
It works so well it's better to read yourself than discuss. Leonora's character-building moments are so on-pitch I kind of wanted to scream even as I laughed at what happened. She's loathsome and pitiable at the same time. Why don't you appreciate her? Why are you so determined to hurt her feelings? Her self-centeredness is both epic and believable. That it has such ultimate consequences is almost stupid, but in a way that's believable too. These things come out stupid, they do.
I'm rounding this one up too because it feels like that sort of day.