pick“At some point, after I‘ve stirred the pot of real life with made-up backstory, these semifictional beings always revolt against me, freeing themselves to make their own startling, self-defeating choices.”
Emotional trauma balances the playfulness in this novel about a writer interacting with his own characters. Let yourself go with the weirdness and you might love it as much as I did.
#ShadowGiller2023 #CanadianAuthor
Just the thought of her kindness, given everything that happened that day, steams him open like a mussel.
Recent Reads September 26: an eclectic mix of books + making stuff from the garden + nostalgia
https://youtu.be/VQlJw155sYs
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pickWow. What a spectacular read.
An author tries to make sense of his past by wrestling it into a fictional narrative and assigning his childhood self a larger than life protector. But as his own reality intrudes on his narrative, he stumbles into writers block. Then, fiction intrudes on his reality, forcing him to face demons, real and imagined.
Cont'd in comments...
pickChong‘s story about a graphic novelist confronting his past by writing a semi-autobiographical story only to have the life of his fictional characters collide with his own (the story is every bit as meta as the blurbs say) is a powerful, challenging read about trauma & abuse, toxic masculinity, and family, & stories/writing as catharsis & escape. It‘s not always an easy read, there are some difficult scenes, but it is very well-written.
Today‘s book mail is a Goodreads giveaway win. From the blurb on the back, it‘s “a work of metafiction” about a graphic novelist who loses control of the narrative he‘s writing as he tells the story of his childhood. Certainly sounds intriguing. It‘s due to be published in April 2023.
The Double Life of Benson Yu: A Novel | 
