Today in contemporary literature (haha), we had some fun evaluating Steve Almond's "Donkey Greedy, Donkey Gets Punched," the leadoff hitter in the Richard Russo edited 2010 Best of American Stories. Although that one is mainly about fathers and sons, therapy, poker, and among men competition, bonding, animosity, drunkenness, insanity, and generalized angst, we still had time to consider his comic "deconstruction" of Toto's Africa in relation to all of the postcolonial and transnational stories we've been reading.
So it was a veritable Steve Almond Experience in Daniel 405, and apologies to any students present or innocents reading this now who wind up swaying to the beat at an inopportune moment.
Here's some bonus coverage of Almond on bad jobs with some additional thoughts on the bad job that is the writing life.
Man, if this wily veteran rock 'n roller is still knocking on doors, what does that mean for the rest of us?
Yikes.
Alex Kudera’s award-winning novel, Fight for Your Long Day (Atticus Books), was drafted in a walk-in closet during a summer in Seoul, South Korea. Auggie’s Revenge (Beating Windward Press) is his second novel. His numerous short stories include “Frade Killed Ellen” (Dutch Kills Press), “Bombing from Above” (Heavy Feather Review), and “A Thanksgiving” (Eclectica Magazine).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
In theory, a book isn't alive unless it's snuggled comfortably in the reading bin in the bathroom at Oprah's or any sitting Pres...
-
Reading Little White Duck: A Childhood in China led me to Wuhan, China, a large sprawling city dissected by a huge river that Chairman Mao ...
-
And Duffleman has the nerve to think he has problems! Is he a homeless man breaking into and reopening a bar? No. Is he earning over $10K a...
-
I've been reading Zone by Mathias Enard, tired sometimes and spacing out, but always some vivid description or series of incisive fused...
-
I stumbled upon a couple articles on Atlantic City's current casino "contraction," here and here , and it sounds like the bea...
-
It's always a bit disappointing to see these somewhat simplistic articles get a shiny new website when my more developed and nuanced n...
-
" Frade Killed Ellen " is featured at GoodKindles today and received a full review at Goodreads earlier in the week. Look ... -
Two articles on retail work in America recently caught my eye: here and here .
-
Marcus Hayes, along with the comments that follow, pretty much sums up the brutality, angst, glory, forgiveness, sin, exploitation, joy, pai...
-
Lavinia Ludlow's Single Stroke Seven drops on March 1, and I had a chance to ask her questions about the writing life, unaffordable ho...
No comments:
Post a Comment