We’re all living in a historical moment that we can’t get out of.
“Within Spitting Distance of the Exit”
Some people will go to the ends of the earth for closure, while others maintain until their last, hypertensive breath that it doesn’t exist.
Dundy’s novels fit our times well while also existing blissfully without any of this baggage. Her characters are often selfish and reckless, but there’s nothing forced in these stories.
Suffering doesn’t actually have to be a prerequisite for having the right to be creating something, nor does anyone actually have a god-given directive to whittle their suffering into something to be offered up to a market.
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath – Heather Clark
Clark’s biography is not only one of the most impressive examples of the form in recent history, but a long overdue exercise in placing Sylvia Plath firmly within the poetic traditions she helped shape.
I did not read Lauren Oyler’s debut, FAKE ACCOUNTS, for fun, and I won’t say that’s what it turned into, because that would be something adjacent to a lie. I read it for the discourse.