Dreaming in Cuban Review

I finished reading Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia yesterday. The first thing I thought of when I read it was that it was exactly the same as Monkey Hunting for my college class. It was the same story format with the intergenerational narratives. It saddens me to know this is a "form" for her writing. I did enjoy reading the book and hearing the characters' distinct voices. It was a nice short story and I am glad that I can say I read it, since it is Christina Garcia's more famous books. I think she painted a beautiful portrait of a family but I wish she would have gone into more details like if Celia's husband felt guilty about being cruel to her during their early days of marriage and how their relationship developed after that. I also want to know more about Felicia's husbands and her children, especially her twins. I wonder if this writing format was novel when she first used it in Dreaming in Cuban.

Running with Scissors Interpretations

The reviews of Burrough's Running with Scissors are very interesting for two reasons. First, many of them make comments about points in the book but are completely inaccurate. They refer to one man having an incestual relationship, but he was just having sex with a girl for whom he was her guardian, he was not her blood relative (not that this is an ethical thing to do). Second, like me, most reviewers did not know really what to say about the book. Some wrote it got slow at points, but most just said the book is really funny and sad all at the same time. A few wrote that this book gets at the heart of the 1970s for the middle class but I feel a lot of what happens could happen today still. I think I left the book the same way the reviewers left it: shocked and sad but laughing the whole way.

Cursing with Freud

In addition to calling each other standard names like bitch and whore, the Finches incorporated Freud's stages of psychosexual development into their arsenal of invectives.

"You are so oral. You'll never make it to genital! The most you can ever hope for is to reach anal, you immature, frigid old maid," Natalie yelled.

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Shoes

My mother only wears fancy shoes when she's going out, so I've come to associate them with a feeling of abandonment and dread.

Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors Review

I just finished Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. The book was fabulous in a rubber neck sort of way. Everything was so crazy, so I can completely believe it was true. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have my mom sign over legal guardianship to her shrink. I wonder if Augusten is going to therapy or something now. I guess Levitt was right in Freakonomics as long as who the parents are is good, the kid will end up okay. I believe that both of his parents were college-educated and his dad was a college professor. It did not matter that they (and the Finches) stunk at parenting, Augusten had "good genes" so to speak. Wow, it was really interesting in a way to read these books back to back. I would also like to note that I really liked the writing style. I could see all of his adventures taking place. There was just enough description to get a full picture of the Finch house and its colorful cast of characters.

Barrel Fever Interpretations

All the critics loved Barrel Fever except for one. I guess she didn't like his humor. Since this was one of his first pieces of published work, everyone said they have high hopes for him. They were right to think so. Many remarked that his later full length novels had problems and after reading this group of short stories, I agree. Sedaris is a short story writer.

Loved

I was on Oprah a while ago, talking about how I used to love too much. Did you see it? The other guests were men who continue to love too much. Those men were in a place I used to be, and I felt sorry for them. I was the guest who went from loving too much to being loved too much. Everybody loves me. I'm the most important person in the lives of almost everyone I know and a good number of people I've never even met. I don't say this casually; I'm just pointing out my qualification.

"Parade" in Barrel Fever by David Sedaris