“Here, in other words, is a long-range backstory—a device that, in…recent times, has grown from an option to a fetish…In all narratives, there is a beauty to the merely given, as the narrator does us the honor of trusting that we will take it for granted. Conversely, there is something offensive in the implication that we might resent that pact, and, like plaintive children, demand to have everything explained.”
---Anthony Lane (in this week’s New Yorker)
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4 comments:
Joe-I'd like to invite you to Megan's reading on July 9th. If there's somewhere I can send it, email me. Even if you can't come.
I read Nobody's Perfect on vacation a few years ago-- it was in fact perfect vacation reading. -Susan Q
That book includes his craziest piece ever -- his review of "While You Were Sleeping" is basically a proposal of marriage to Sandra Bullock.
I didn't remember it so I just took a look-- you are so right. And I don't know if it's the Sandy effect or the intervening 14 years, but he was much kinder and gentler then-- age has not mellowed our A.L.
-sq
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