Welcome to Litsy!

Few people have heard of Barbara Loden, but she won a Tony and was the second wife of Elias Kazan. While she had small parts in several movies, she‘s best known for directing and starring in Wanda (1970), now an art-house classic. My interest? Loden grew up in the same poor Appalachian small NC town that my mother did. I wouldn‘t read this unless you‘ve seen the movie, but it‘s a thoughtful meditation on the film, life, and art.

"I've left men, sometimes heartlessly, with the trembling joy that one feels slipping away down a side street, or vanishing into a crowd, or jumping onto a passing train, or standing someone up; the acute and rare pleasure of avoiding something, of evading something, of disappearing into the landscape[...]"

"They drive around in silence, he is clutching the steering wheel, tense and irritable, like a husband and father who's been ruined and is considering the idea of collective immolation at the next service station; she sits the way my mother used to sit next to my father, upright, short, alert, holding her breath, just waiting to be murdered."
Sounds like driving with my dad. ??

My girlfriend and I are reading this to each other, because she's a fan of both experimental film and vintage Hollywood, and I'm a fan of the Dorothy Project, which published it.

Do you plan to observe women in translation month? I have recommendations. http://readingenvy.blogspot.com/2018/07/recommended-reads-for-women-in.html

Oh young men.

GUYS. We should totally start a #hipsterabook hashtag where we post pics of books with faces and the Litsy glasses stickers. 😂🤓

I adore books that blend genres and weave narratives. This gem is a mix of biography, film criticism, and autofiction. I've seen a number of creative nonfiction essays do interesting mixes like this (it's also my preferred style of writing), so I hope more books like this (and The Argonauts, which is another example of this style) will crop up!

There was an indie book fair in town yesterday and I got this amazing haul! There are so many small presses out there that are just killing it with their awesomeness. My favorites are Button Poetry, Two Dollar Radio, Dorothy Project, and Coach House Books, among others. 📚📚📚📚

You must read this gorgeous work of biography/autofiction/film criticism/magic.

So, so pretty. I 💟 the Dorothy Project. #judgingabook #cover #translation