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Paul Ilechko <noSPaM_pilechko_DeLETe.TakeThisOut@patmedia.net> wrote:

 > I read that one a long time ago - it was mildly amusing. Isn't he the
 > guy who was a soap opera writer ?

The blurb on the back of Foolscap said Malone's an academic, but that
could've been to add verisimilitude. Presently I am enjoying "Cosmopolitan"
by Toby Cecchini, a bartender's "Kitchen Confidential". Who knew that there
were so many premium rums?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Over the past 24 hours I have devoured Dylan's Chronicles and James Marcus'
Amazonia.

The first 100 pages of Chronicles is wonderful with Dylan's extraordinary
display of remembrance in memory and emotion. Later on he gets bogged down
in the technicalities of recording albums and never quite recaptures the
initial brilliance. I envy him his recollection.

James Marcus story of Amazon is also a good read demonstrating the
deskilling by computer that has finished so many careers in recent times. A
good story.


--
Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com" target="_blank">http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com</a>
"Jim Ward" <tomcatpolka.TakeThisOut@NyOaShPoAoM.com> wrote in message
news:cl1ml0$293$3@news1.radix.net...
 > "Foolscap" by Michael Malone. A fun academic romp,
 > this one has plenty of scene changes from North Carolina
 > to the New York and English theatres. I now am offically
 > burnt out on the academic satire (after finishing "Moo" (Midwest)
 > and "Straight Man" (Pennsylvania) - is a Berkeley novel is out
 > there?). Malone's "Handling Sin" also looks fun, has anyone read it?
 >
 > Can one buy foolscap (with the watermark) any more?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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In article <cl1ml0$293$3@news1.radix.net>, Jim Ward
<tomcatpolka.RemoveThis@NyOaShPoAoM.com> wrote:

 > ...A fun academic romp...
 > ...I now am offically
 > burnt out on the academic satire ... is a Berkeley novel is
 > there?).

An early David Lodge novel is set in Berkeley, although all the
place names are changed.

--
Mostly economics: <http://www.dreamscape.com/rvien/#PublicationsForFun>
r c
v s a Whether strength of body or of mind, or wisdom, or
i m p virtue, are found in proportion to the power or wealth
e a e of a man is a question fit perhaps to be discussed by
n e . slaves in the hearing of their masters, but highly
@ r c m unbecoming to reasonable and free men in search of
d o the truth. -- Rousseau<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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_The Crime of Father Amaro_ Eca de Queiros. This is a really great
one, published, or rather republished, in 1880 after a massive rewrite
of an earlier, more salacious version which had been soundly denounced
as lurid trash by such luminaries as Machado de Assis. (My paraphrase
of a description of his actual comments.) The rewrite is tremendous.
It's the story of a Roman Catholic priest and the life and death of
his beloved, an avalanching entanglement of battling psychotics, with
a supporting cast of the slapstick enabled. I love it.
Then, _The Heart of the Matter_ by Graham Greene. Another great
book, exploring yet another devastating extreme of love. In _TCOFA_,
disaster arrives of the back of selfiness; in _THOTM_ it comes
riding compassion. Scobie is a police officer in West Africa,
and during WWII, over extends himself first for his wife, then
a lover, and then them both.
Now I'm reading _Forbidden Colors_ by Yukio Mishima.
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I found Handling Sin a tiresome book. Skip it, would be my
recommendation.
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U.S. Drag, by Gina Gionfriddo, the first of her plays I've read. Excellent,
really, except I nearly cried when we discover that one of the characters
has taken a job in a bookstore via this bit of dialogue:

MANAGER: We have to start you at minimum wage, you understand that. The
wage goes up a dollar with an MA or MFA and then a Phd brings you up to
eight. So if you get, you know, an advanced degree while you're working
here, you should let us know.

My life in fifty words.

htd
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