elizabthgreene's reviews
43 reviews

oh :( seems so sorrowful about the state of art & audience. the beauty in human connection written about in Lighthouse has advanced into something more pessimistic (what with the war and all perhaps?) also the swapping between characters/perspectives is like sleight of hand, and I eventually mostly gave up and let it wash over me

modernist hero Kundera <3 making me believe in books again! a book for our time (for all time), affirming, moving…your smartest friend sitting beside you telling you stories

also - a book for grown-ups!! asks you to look directly at things

hmmmmm I read mary’s interview in the paris review and I j’adored it, ran to read this and was just meh on it? and I loved Secretary: The Film too! but stories felt a bit overwritten in detail, but lacking some of the punch I like in short stories?! I feel stumped…mayb she was the first real one to do the whole waify emo sub girl thing, but I much preferred her stories about women on women (good complicated relatable friendship stuff!). the finale, “Heaven,” a Time Passes by Woolf ripoff, was formally neat but not much else going on. mary I still like you and ur substack tho!

chew and chew and chew on for days. love kundera’s voice and his winks and nudges (he flatters you for paying attention!) and such contemporary ideas! the author is dead, long live the author, etc etc. 

a good sermon usually finds you when you need it 

washed over me, knocked me over the head, ran out in front of me and laughed. love!

thoughtful and timeless reflections of the writer towards the visual arts. enjoyed picking out themes of consumption (devouring art, washing over the eyes — what is there to say too of current Content Consumption lol). I adore Virginia and this collection, though it’s quite introductory art criticism (pair with your art hist 101 course for maximum results)

all consuming, all feeling. I winced throughout with recognition - at least I know heartache does this to us all! how lucky that annie would write it out for us so simply and beautifully

unfair to try this after east of eden! I’m so sorry, maybe one day I’ll try again 

his work is a blessing! it has been slowly shaping me for nearly a decade, and I feel so lucky. this was a rich, rich book and fascinating to learn about restaurant culture pre-food network era, pre-insta viral era. if I wasn’t convinced before that food is spiritual, this book pushed me over the edge (e.g. eyes rolling back as he described omakase in tokyo) just forever grateful we had him!