debut novel from the author of āA Little Lifeā, this book is written from the perspective of an obnoxious, morally questionable, but undeniably brilliant doctor/scientist who goes to a small island to study a society in which the inhabitants have discovered a form of immortalityā with the drawback that the body is preserved while the mind continues to age and deteriorate, making them perhaps more animal than human. iām halfway through and the book is grotesquely detailed and multilayeredā we are introduced to the āauthorā of the memoir first by the announcement of his imprisonment for abusing one or some of his 43 adopted children from the island that he studied. the writing is so creative and the premise is so insane, iām excited to see where it goes!
super interesting concept!! Have never forayed because āA Little Lifeā seems too sad for me (if you read and liked it or her other recent book, lmk!) but this sounds great š³š³
@EVIE i also havenāt read āA Little Lifeā, this book was gifted to me and i honestly had never heard of it, but i would guess that they are very different! i knew this would be good because of how acclaimed her other work is, but i am impressed at how nuanced the topics in the book are, it is so creative i highly recommend!!
Itās about a guy finding a manuscript about a documentary that might not exist, about a house that shouldnāt exist, all wrapped in layers of footnotes, hidden messages, and pure existential dread. If you like books that mess with your headāliterally and figurativelyāread this.
Remember when a girl's fucking weirdo dad moved into the dorms at Sarah Lawrence and started a cult? This guy wrote a disturbing, poignant, and beautiful memoir about it.
omg you havenāt seen that film? you havenāt heard that music? you havenāt read that book? THATāS NORMAL!!!! i feel like there is so much social pressure to consume whatever media makes you niche and unique and cultured and iām OVER IT. itās normal to have not seen every cool movie or show on the planet or heard every album to ever exist. consuming media is something that should be enjoyable and happen gradually over time, not something you force to meet arbitrary cool person standards. iām so done with feel a social obligation to consume certain things. iāll get to it when i get to it! let me have my taste, im okay with not knowing everything!
sometimes i get frustrated when iām at a low point in drive, inspiration, or general productivity, but phasesā highs, lows, and in betweensā are an inevitable feature of life. wouldnāt it be mundane if things were perfect all the time, if we didnāt have something to strive for. there are phases where i listen to music nonstop, phases when iām into podcasts. phases when i work out and cook for myself, and phases when i eat out every day. phases when i want to go out every night and phases where i just want to be alone. a life lived cyclically is not a life i want to live, and i think at a point we need to allow ourselves to be in the off phases in order to succeed in the great ones. iām trying to be better to not beat myself up when iām not at my very best, because how can we be expected to maintain perfection in a world of constant change. āonly a dark cocoon before i get my gorgeous wings and fly away, only a phaseā - joni mitchell
i made this collage (like real magazine cutout situation) on new yearās day and it will be my lock screen for the year. a nice mix of things i like and goals/visions for the future, and i think it looks niceāŗ(although itās too big so i canāt fit the whole image in the lock screen)