I am in awe of Lydia Millet's creativity. Alas I am not talented enough to describe the wonderfulness of this book. On the surface, it is a collection of short stories, each featuring an animal and a famous person. Underneath it is about life, the universe, and everything. It made me laugh, it ma...
This is the first book of a trilogy that circles around the concept/theme of extinction. The second novel, GHOST LIGHTS, was released last year. The third, MAFNIFICENCE, is still pending (scheduled for Nov release). The protagonists in the second and third books are minor characters from the firs...
There were comments on what we encountered, though, the content of the patter overlapping with an image that flashed across a TV screen, a person driving the car beside us, a squirrel on a branch, a fresh berm at a building site. I’d see Lena’s eyes alight on something and seconds later the voice...
And yet Cara found she actually believed it—or more, even: about the sea otter, part of her had already known. She knelt at the edge of the walkway, staring down. All she saw was the mist of the sprayers, the wet wood. “But, Mom. I mean, how can you do that and still be…” She trailed off. The res...
I almost remember normal life back then.Almost. But not really. I tell myself that I remember it, but to be honest it’s a mix of made-up and autolearned things.I was a little kid when the last tipping point came, but part of me ignores that fact sometimes and wants to believe Back Then is my true...
He got out to check the sign on the door—a paper clock with the hands stuck at seven and twelve—while a streetlight above him flickered and buzzed. “I don’t understand,” he said to the driver as he got back in. “What about the jail, then? There has to be some kind of holdi...
said Jim, when he got off the phone with the city of Pasadena. There were old women milling around them in the kitchen, wearing pastel colors and cheerfully garish prints. One blouse had numerous teddy bears, with pink and blue bows around their necks. &n...
NEWLYWEDS Chip picked out the destination for our honeymoon. He’d always wanted to take a cruise, just like Middle Americans. Middle Americans love cruises, Chip said ardently. Chip’s a romantic when it comes to the people of the Midwest, and also those dwelling along the Rocky Mountain front, ...
To her the morning felt quiet and almost disappointed, the way it always did after a big rain, with the slow drip-drip-drip of water off branches and leaves. She crossed the cool bedroom floor in her bare feet. Her room was at the back of the house, on the bay side, which ...
No room for levity. Those around him might be lighthearted. Often they laughed, sometimes even at his expense—the miniature size, bouncing gait, flopping ears. He was a dachshund. Not his fault. You were what you were. He would have preferred the aspect of an Alsatian, possibly a Norwegian elkhou...
