Most Anticipated Addendum

A couple of books have crossed my path since the last post that I wanted to share with you. (And hope you remember them when they do come out.)

You & Me by Padgett Powell. Powell’s last novel The Interrogative Mood was a book composed entirely of questions. I had my doubts about it at first, but at some point, I realized that you would learn a lot about yourself if you actually bothered to answer the questions themselves. Even without that element, it is still a strange and mysterious, yet compelling book. Powell’s new book, You & Me, is coming out in August, and is described as a Southern send-up of Waiting for Godot. Any other author I would be very suspicious of reinterpreting such a precisely surreal and truthful work, but I’m excited to see Powell’s take on it. In some ways, The Interrogative Mood is about living without answers. Since Waiting for Godot is, in many ways, also about living without answers, I can’t way to see Powell tackle it.

Amsterdam Stories by Nescio. You are probably going to get sick of hearing me talk about this book. Beautiful. Truthful. Artistic. Vibrant. Did I mention beautiful? For me at least, reading these stories has been akin to watching Casablanca; you try to open your eyes and ears as wide as you can to take everything in, knowing that something staggering and beautiful is just out of sight and just out of earshot, and even though you can’t say specifically what made that shot work or that line stunning, you know that whatever it is, is perfect. Amsterdam Stories is scheduled for release on March 20.