rheto-rhinos

Am a bit of a tosser for not posting this weekend. Have a headache from working hard/ watching Australia's Next Top Model on YouTube. I am not ashamed. I'm mortified, but soon I will go back to watching it anyhow. I'm a bad TV junkie.

I'm reading about four books at once: Half of a Yellow Sun, Fires, by my fellow alum/acquaintance Nick Antosca, Freshman, by my fellow alum/friend Mike Gerber, and another book, which I am not readily able to admit I actually read. I can admit to watching pathetic television shows. Reading pathetic books, not so much.

Thus far Half of a Yellow Sun is all everyone says it is, and more, and a bag of chips. And not greasy gross potato chips, but, like, one-of-a-kind perfect potato chips. It's really genius. Charles Dickens genius, maybe.

Fires, thus far, is really well-written and clearly the work of a passionate and observant artist. Nick's prose is really great -- actually, I was hoping it would be awful because I'm madly jealous, but it isn't. I just wish he wasn't writing about something I already know... it's so close to home that I can't help but wonder most of the time how much of it is autobiographical, and I hate it when writers write non-fiction fiction. It's like NY writers who write about NY and people they know. I find that aggravating, but he still does what he does well, even if it's not phenomenally original. It's also enraging that his book has a fire in it (lots of fires actually) and so does mine. I feel like an ass. But my fire is the result of arson, so it's a bit different. Anyhow, if you can find it, you should buy it and read it. It's slim, it's got some good stuff in it, and he isn't one of those people who got their first book deal young because of who they know. You have to support that.

Mike sent me Freshman, and it's much funnier than I expected, as I assumed it would be a direct parody of Yale life, which, considering it felt like a parody most of the time, I feared might be more depressing than funny. But, of the bit I've read, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mike has no problem delving into the absurd, which is a particular style of writing I like. Life is so absurd, what with cows with extra noses and reality TV and Zell Miller, that any book that pretends life ISN'T absurd is, in fact, merely joining the roster of "absurd things in the world." Which is a fairly extensive roster.

I like this "first impressions" reviewing better than waiting until I finish the books because that might either be a very long time from now... or never. These books WILL be finished, but I'd rather share my thoughts now rather than later because otherwise this post would only be about how I watch Australia's Next Top Model when I should really be writing the bit of my book set in Franconia. But if I end up hating or loving one of the books more than I let on here, I will correct my opinion later.

Sound good? No? Too bad. It was a rhetorical question anyhow (Anyone get a mental image of rhinos when they write rhetorical? No? Me neither...).