Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 4:40PM Their love was born of late Friday nights and logistical challenges. It grew to include later Saturday nights and cheap wine. This love matured amidst quiet moments and brushes of hands. It might have been a storybook, but neither ever said, “I love you,” and they went their separate ways.
(inspired by the song "From Above," from the album Lonely Avenue by Ben Folds and Nick Hornby)
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 7:32PM Heaving, retching, wrenching his hands, he labored but could not expel the demon. How much longer, he wondered, will this exorcism last? And when shall I be free? Sweat beaded on his forehead and the small of his back. HIs breath caught in his lungs, and he closed his eyes.
Monday, January 2, 2012 at 5:05PM I don't typically write about or recommed books before I've finished reading them. I'm a little less than a third of the way through John Jeremiah Sullivan's earth-shatteringly good Pulphead, but I probably started telling people to read it after about three paragraphs.
Sullivan's sense of narrative in nonfiction is among the best I've encountered. Most reviews I've read say Pulphead is reminiscent of David Foster Wallace's A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. The comparison with DFW is fair, but I'm also comfortable putting Sullivan on par with other nonfiction heroes of mine like Joseph Mitchell and John McPhee--which is to say I think Sullivan is an historically significant journalist.
At any rate, I'm fully convinced at this point that I need not wait any longer to officially state that you should buy, read, and love this book at your earliest opportunity. Since I started reading it on Christmas day, I can say it was among the best books I (partially) read in 2011. Since I'll finish it in 2012, I can confidently say it sets an obscenely high bar for anything else I read this year.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 9:59PM The invitation was unexpected--hardly considered, even. Upstairs he went, nonetheless. A few hollered words made their way up the staircase, and she made her way down to explain.
The room was small, and the bookshelf was full. Old favorites, unread classics, hidden gems. Yes, he thought, this will do.
Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 9:16AM Toward the bottom of the below post from the Freakonomics blog, they link to a Wall Street Journal article about a vaccination program that the US government conducted as cover in the hunt for bin Laden. This was one of the details in KBL about which I wondered--was it a real operation, or just the sort of thing the CIA may have done? Turns out it was real. Lends a bit more credence to the veracity of Weisman's "fictional" account. (More on that, and a giveaway opportunity, here)
More Collateral Damage From the 9/11 Attacks (excerpt):
The Wall Street Journal now reports on a most unlikely unintended consequence of the attacks and the ensuing hunt for Osama bin Laden:
The United Nations says a reportedly fake vaccination campaign conducted to help hunt down Osama bin Laden has caused a backlash against international health workers in some parts of Pakistan and has impeded efforts to wipe out polio in the country. A number of families across Pakistan refused vaccinations from July, when news of the reportedly fake campaign broke, to September, said Dennis King, chief of polio vaccinations in Pakistan for Unicef. “Following the early reports, some families in the provinces did refuse to have their children vaccinated citing the fake campaign as the cause,” Mr. King said. … The issue has given fresh ammunition to Islamist preachers who for years have claimed foreign health workers are spies and urged people to shun vaccination campaigns.
(Via Freakonomics)
