Welcome to Litsy!

I didn‘t get lots of these stories. Stories are supposed to be escapist, and if I have to read and re-read, the pleasure is lost. Perhaps I‘ll try a novel instead

If you‘re in the mood for heady, absurdist fare, I highly recommend DeWitt‘s mind-blowing short story collection. A couple of the stories were a bit too cryptic, but overall I felt exhilarated by the challenge of these funny, offbeat tales of art versus commerce and misunderstood genius.
(Painting used on the book jacket: The Satisfied Hare by Kevin Sloan.)

“I really like the fact that ‘front seat‘ is a spondee. And it‘s reflected in the spelling, the two separate words. And one thing I really hate is the way they try to make you agree to ‘backseat,‘ which is obviously trochaic. I DON‘T agree. I don‘t pronounce it as a trochee, I pronounce it as a spondee, and I always spell it as a spondee, ‘back seat,‘ which has the additional virtue of being logical.”
(Author photo from internet)

It‘s interesting, everyone knows that Perec‘s La disparition is a book in which the letter e does not appear, but Rabbit, Run is never mentioned as a companion piece in which the letter å does not appear. Ångstrom being the correct spelling of the surname of the eponymous protagonist.

He saw presently that it would be a mistake to try to establish a chain of schools. One is subject to so much unwelcome supervision. What was wanted, surely, was a chain of child-oriented restaurants. The sort of place where a parent could leave a child any time day or night. Everyone cannot afford the fees for a private school. One might be able to afford a session or two a week at an educational restaurant.

If you have never thought of a treehouse as requiring plumbing and electricity, it‘s probably because you have never seen treehouse-construction as a competitive sport. You don‘t come from a family of boys, is the inference.
(Photo: my view as I sit reading in an atrium at the college in Olds, Alberta.)

Short stories. I loved how some of these stories took a logical or mathematical point of view. They were the sorts of stories I have not seen a lot of.

I think this book merits a reread, even though normally I save rereads for only the books I find to be without exaggeration incredible.

But the prose in this collection is so distinctive, the ideas so quirky and the choices DeWitt makes (I'll say it) tricky, that it gives the work as a whole an air of gobsmacking impressiveness.

These stories about genius and disfunction are intelligent and well-written, but they were uneven, with several relying on cleverness rather than heart.

Could not resist this cover. ??
(Have never read DeWitt but know she's a bit "out there.")

I don't know what my problem is these days: I seem to be in a hating-everything-I-read frame of mind. I found these stories to be unbearably shallow and silly. I used to think Helen DeWitt was brilliant, now I think she's an idiot. I think that recent Paris Review profile put me off her - she sounded disorganized, disheveled, and incompetent.

Picked up this #ARC as a freebie after getting books for wife and daughter celebrating #indiebookstoreday!

Hell yes. I could not be more excited to get this in the mail today.