Currently Browsing: identity

Lana Del Rey & Real Poetry: ‘Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass’

At a dinner party populated mostly by poets, someone asked what I’d been reading. I explained that with my new hobby (knitting) occupying my hands and eyes during my free time, I’d turned to audiobooks.

“Mostly fiction and non-fiction?” my poet friend Jacob asked. “Any poetry?”

“Mostly fantasy novels from my childhood,” I confessed.… read more.

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How To Play Yourself: On Jen Silverman’s Debut Novel

In a red-lit room with tile walls, a woman in a tank top and a face mask operates a video camera.

The first time I read We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman – all in one day after a gloomy, rainy week of reading Russian literature for no real reason – I cried so hard I gave myself a migraine. “I’m sorry,” said a friend when I told them this. “No,” I had to correct them, “that’s a good thing.”

The book wasn’t what I expected after many months of admiring it on my nightstand.… read more.

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