My greatest treasure as a child was my junk box. junk box was the parent term for it. If we had the vocabulary, we would have called the object a “treasure tomb” or a “vault of valuables.” It was a cardboard cigar box filled with rubber bands, two-dollar bills, candy, and plastic “vomit pranks.” The instinct to hoard loot begins at an early age.
My box was off-limits to others, so it was my first encounter with the concept of private property and my first experience of curation. Items were added and removed with great care.
After learning to read, I threw away my junk box for more grand conquest plans. To each book, I glued a card with the title, author, and owner (me) on it and sent it to my brother. ordered to follow the library’s protocol if he wanted to borrow a book. Fearing retribution, they complied. And that was my first tyranny.
Although I no longer run a fear-based library, I continue to be tempted to mark my territory with a bookplate. A friend recently sent me a gorgeous sample he found in a paper shop in Venice. (When I die, please be reborn as a paper shop in Venice.) collection of plate To funWhat do you think — shall we start a trend?
—molly
Opening a new Lawrence Osborne book is entering a maze of thrills with no exit other than to finish the book in one go. Adrian is a British journalist. Jimmy is descended from a wealthy family in Hong Kong. The two met in Cambridge and were united by Li Bai’s poetry. Now they both live in Hong Kong, Jimmy gets involved with a young protester who has since disappeared, and Adrian has a competing crush on the protester so he stops sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. I can’t.
Osborne’s novels have a material sensuality that leads to a strong craving.After reading his previous book, The Forgiven, I requirement Moroccan coffee with a cardamom seed saucer. ‘The Glass Kingdom’ has started a temporary mania skeleton flowerThe petals become transparent when exposed to rain. I have an unfortunate history with cigars. When the “On Jawa Road” characters pulled Cohiba out of a walnut box, it was all in my wits not to fire up Google Maps and search. Cigar lounge near me. Indeed, this is not what people mean when they refer to the “power of literature.”nevertheless a power of literature.
Please read: Graham Greene, Eating Alone, Romantic Misdeeds, Paul Bowles, Sinister Undercurrent,third man”
Available from: penguin random house
“Kerer of Roberval” by Kevin Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler
Fiction, 2022
It’s finally here: the Quebec erotic novel about labor disputes we’ve all been waiting for. The stage is a lakeside town at the northern end of the prefecture. The character is a sawmill worker whose function is to turn his trunk into planks. This allows the mill to turn more profitable trees into money.
Querelle is a factory new employee. He is an intruder from Montreal and should be deported according to the xenophobic laws that govern the small town. (No disrespect. I grew up in what must be one of America’s top 10 xenophobic small towns.) In addition to his dubious cosmopolitan origins, Querelle is gay and local. classified as a form of deviation. But he has a secret weapon in the form of nuclear-powered charisma that will crush the reservations of his new neighbors.
The book is written in an icy style. Try to find extra adjectives. It’s not for the squeamish (or rather, and), but it’s one of the best novels I’ve read this year.
