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mmcloe's reviews
214 reviews
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
funny
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Lots of fun for a stupid weekend read, especially with the Picasao illustrations in my edition.
Idk much about ancient Greek politics or social relations and I'm sure they don't map onto our current ones much at all but it's interesting to see how women can be depicted as leveraging some kind of social capital for political aims, even if it's depicted wholly as satire
Idk much about ancient Greek politics or social relations and I'm sure they don't map onto our current ones much at all but it's interesting to see how women can be depicted as leveraging some kind of social capital for political aims, even if it's depicted wholly as satire
Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It was ok! I don't think managed to successfully find its balance between an ecological treatise and a subversion of the heist genre, it just kind of oscillated between the two without much cohesion.
The final section was especially messy. I love a nonlinear novel but the bouncing around took the air out of the preceeding sections.
The prose was often quite nice and I found the lead up to the heist itself to be quite gripping.
The final section was especially messy. I love a nonlinear novel but the bouncing around took the air out of the preceeding sections.
The prose was often quite nice and I found the lead up to the heist itself to be quite gripping.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
Oh good lord this is permanently etched into my brain
Thinking about the burden of bureaucracy and suffocation through detail, about hauntings, about the Nakba and the ongoing genocide, about the ecological destruction central to settler colonialism
Required, required, required reading for all Americans
Thinking about the burden of bureaucracy and suffocation through detail, about hauntings, about the Nakba and the ongoing genocide, about the ecological destruction central to settler colonialism
Required, required, required reading for all Americans
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Rape, War, and Genocide
Moderate: Animal death
Running Dog by Don DeLillo
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
My first pre-White Noise Dellilo and it's fascinating to see him work through the conceptual and stylistic quirks that make his writing so distinct. I think this one was a little muddled and a little too many characters but it was nevertheless a really engaging and damning exploration of the way that governmental, corporate, media, and erotic heterosexual institutions are all increasingly indistinguishable in the wake of the Vietnam War. The US is a militaristic profit machine with a lot of psychosexual hangups and Delillo draws attention to this oddness really well. I also appreciated the early mentions of surveillance capitalism that would come to define the following decades into the present.
Content Warnings
Minor: Antisemitism
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It was OK! It was a little too rooted in tropes (moon colonies, time travel, simulation) to be much more than a slightly elevated sci-fi story but I liked that the day to day of the future wasn't radically different than the present.
Pandemic parts were a little dorky
Pandemic parts were a little dorky
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic
Appalachian Ecocriticism and the Paradox of Place by Jessica Cory, Laura Wright
I skimmed through a handful of chapters that weren't particularly relevant to my work or theoretical interests but I dove deep into a few others. Chapters by Pendygraft and Vernon were especially helpful, as was the introduction by Cory (an academic friend of mine!) and Wright.
The book does a good job at troubling the notion of Appalachia as a kind of ur-rural for the US. It's a complex region and ecology and many of the contributors to the collection reflect that.
The book does a good job at troubling the notion of Appalachia as a kind of ur-rural for the US. It's a complex region and ecology and many of the contributors to the collection reflect that.
The Enormous Radio and Other Stories by John Cheever
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Cheever's first (kinda) collection of stories and while many of them aren't too revelatory outside of an anthropological capacity, there's a few little gems like "The Enormous Radio," "Torch Song," "The Hartleys," and "The Sutton Place Story" that showcase the sort of suburban imaginary realism that would appear throughout his later work.
The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability by Jasbir K. Puar
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
One of the single most essential analyses of Israel's ongoing genocide in Palestine. Goes through the eugenic impulses that underscore every part of the Zionist project, from warfare-as-torture to bizarre pro-natalist actions to the restriction of mobility on personal and geographic levels.
At the same time, the book levies queerness and the abolition of settler colonial states as a locus of radical confrontation and departure from oppression.
I encourage anyone unsure about what's happening in Palestine right now to read this cover to cover. It's dense but deeply important.
At the same time, the book levies queerness and the abolition of settler colonial states as a locus of radical confrontation and departure from oppression.
I encourage anyone unsure about what's happening in Palestine right now to read this cover to cover. It's dense but deeply important.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, War, Islamophobia, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, Rape, Genocide, Child death, Sexual violence, and Murder
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
What a gift this novel is. The turn of the century is a baffling and uncertain and unstable time, infinitely more so (I imagine) for immigrants and the children of immigrants living in the corpse of a still warm empire. I like to imagine Chalfen's rat as a kind of metaphor and cipher that everyone reckons with in some way or another as they stumble through the world. How can something modified, changing, surveilled, tiny, futuristic, sick, and eternal all exist in one little assemblage? Quite good stuff.
Blackouts by Justin Torres
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Absolutely sublime, just go and read this it's one of the best novels I've read in ages. Archives, memory, queerness, desire, yes; but also hauntings, art as liberation, art as trap, art as object.
The novel itself is also a beautiful noun to hold - the subtle brown text and the images are simply beautiful. A reflection of the world and yet another object in it, to paraphrase Borges.
In excellent company with Shola Von Reinhold, Pola Oloixarac, Saidiya Hartman, Catherine Lacey, Samuel Delany, and the like.
The novel itself is also a beautiful noun to hold - the subtle brown text and the images are simply beautiful. A reflection of the world and yet another object in it, to paraphrase Borges.
In excellent company with Shola Von Reinhold, Pola Oloixarac, Saidiya Hartman, Catherine Lacey, Samuel Delany, and the like.