Tag: jess walter
-
If I were asked for my ten books of the 2000s for the New York Times list
Not that they asked, but if they had, I went through my reading log and did the painful winnowing down of books I’ve read published in 2000 or later down to ten “best” books (the last seven to get cut really hurt) to the following (in order by publication date): Housekeeping: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson…
-
Beautiful sentences
At peace? Who but the insane would ever be at peace? What person who has enjoyed life could possibly think one is enough? Who could live even a day and not feel the sweet ache of regret? Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins
-
Beautiful sentences
But aren’t all great quests folly? El Dorado and the Fountain of Youth and the search for intelligent life in the cosmos—we know what’s out there. It’s what isn’t that truly compels us. Technology may have shrunk the epic journey to a couple of short car rides and regional jet lags—four states and twelve hundred miles traversed…
-
Beautiful sentences
At first, it seemed like the saddest thing to me, that no one would ever see these paintings. But then I got to thinking: What if you tried to take this wall and put it in a gallery somewhere? It would simply be five faded paintings in a gallery. And that’s when I realized: perhaps…
-
Beautiful sentences
Your parents don’t get to tell your story. Your sisters don’t. When he’s old enough, even Pat doesn’t get to tell your story. I’m your husband and I don’t even get to tll it. So I don’t care how lovesick this director is, he doesn’t tell it. Even fucking Richard Burton doesn’t get to tell your story!…
-
Beautiful sentences
Some memories remain close; you can shut your eyes and find yourself back in them. These are first-person memories—I Memories. But there are second-person memories, too, distant you memories, and these are trickier: you watch yourself in disbelief—like the Much Ado wrap party at the old Playhouse in 1961, when you seduced Ron. Even recalling it is like…
-
Beautiful sentences
Alvis stared into the drawing for a long time. He even thought about buying it, but he realized that if he hung it this way, upside down, people would just turn it over. This, he decided, was also the problem with the book he hoped to write. He could never write a standard war book;…
-
Beautiful sentences
Great fiction tells unknown truths. Great film goes further. Great film improves Truth. After all, what Truth ever made $40 million in its first weekend of wide release? What Truth sold in forty foreign territories in six hours? Who’s lining up to see a sequel to Truth? Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins
-
Beautiful Sentences
On the train, Pasquale was still thinking about tennis. Every point ended with someone missing; it seemed both cruel and, in some way, true to life. Jess Walter,Beautiful Ruins