Weekly Dispatches Category
Marcel Proust, Jay Cutler, and Mike Glennon Walk Into a Bar
Posted on October 7, 2017 Leave a Comment
As we enter Week 5 of the NFL Season, the Bears are 1-3, Mike Glennon has thrown more than twice as many interceptions in Chicago than Jay Cutler has in sunny Miami, and I’ve really only started reading Proust. But before we get to that, I’d just like to note: (1) this story about how […]
Zombies, Pre-teen Millionaires, and The Orange Priest of Orcus
Posted on September 20, 2016 Leave a Comment
By Dan Bjork I absolutely plowed through M.R. Carey’s The Girl with all the Gifts, giddily even. I read on the subway, I read while my wife watched the Chilean version of Access Hollywood, I read at work while a high school freshman bickered with his mother about whether an hour was enough time to get […]
The Hungry Games
Posted on September 12, 2016 1 Comment
By Chandler Klang Smith In an underground bunker, sometime in the near future, little Melanie is strapped into her chair and wheeled down the hall to class with her beloved teacher Miss Justineau, even though little Melanie can walk just fine. Little Melanie has lots of questions about her world, big questions, poignant questions, like: […]
Perfect to Each Other: On ‘How to Be Happy’ and My First Season of FBC
Posted on February 14, 2016 Leave a Comment
By Dan Bjork How to Be Happy (proper) is preceded by an author’s note that instantly endeared me to the book: “This is not actually a book about how to be happy, however, and if you’re struggling, the following have been helpful for me.” After which, Eleanor Davis lists three books that can be a […]
The Final Confession of Ryan Joe
Posted on February 10, 2016 Leave a Comment
By Ryan Joe 1. I have a confession. I have been watching NFL football since the playoffs. That, as well as other writing projects, have kept me from updating with any degree of regularity. If you weren’t watching, the playoffs were immensely entertaining, filled with on-field heroism (Larry Fitzgerald, Aaron Rodgers), villainy (Vontaze Burfect, Adam […]
The Season Is Over: Rob’s Final Post: Part I
Posted on February 2, 2016 Leave a Comment
By Rob Casper So the season is over for our collective teams. I was walking home last week when I spotted the Cardinals-Packers playoff game on in our local bar. Standing outside in the cold, I followed the waning seconds of regulation but decided to give up right before the last play — I said […]
Fever Dreams: On Eleanor Davis’s ‘How to Be Happy’
Posted on January 13, 2016 2 Comments
By Adam Boretz Because of a high fever, ear infection, and generally delicate constitution — my doctor once told me I have the stored protein levels of “a frail elderly woman” — I ended up reading Eleanor Davis’s How to Be Happy twice. The first time, I burned through about two-thirds of the book, took […]
Getting the Most Out of One Woman’s Suffering: On ‘The Case Against Satan’
Posted on January 4, 2016 Leave a Comment
The Case against Satan is ostensibly about an exorcism. The haunting cover would seem to suggest the book is concerned with the woman who does (or does not) need to be exorcised. It is concerned with her, as far as how she arrived at her current state, sort of. It cares about saving her, for […]
The Empty House: On ‘Here’ and ‘The Case Against Satan’
Posted on December 11, 2015 Leave a Comment
By Adam Boretz 1. I was hoping Ryan Joe would deliver the goods in his response to Richard McGuire’s Here — and his post did just that. For me, this was actually a second reading of Here. The first time around — months ago, when I got my hands on a galley — I really liked the book for […]
Background Music to the Story of a Space: On ‘Here’ and Comic Book Storytelling
Posted on December 10, 2015 1 Comment
By Ryan Joe Richard McGuire’s Here is an impressive feat of choreography, among other things. One aspect of comic book storytelling I’ve recently become more aware of, in part because of a class I’m taking with the cartoonist Tom Motley, is the way panels and word balloons contribute to the overall design of a page. […]
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