Current Reading Carmen Maria Machado and Karl Ove Knausgaard

 

I find myself reading and collecting lists. Lists of books. Lists of movies. (Like the Criterion top ten lists.) Lists of television shows. Especially books.

 

One source that I used, until recently, was to look at what writers were coming for events at Grinnell College. This is the college my son, Michal, attends.

 

I will admit this source is a bit odd since my son is not really interested in literary fiction and I will not be able to attend the events since I am nowhere near Grinnel, Iowa. 

 

But I do sometimes find things he might be interested in. At least in the pre-covid days. This is how I first learned about Zadie Smith, Marlon James, and Carmen Maria Machado. Zadie Smith was a recent commencement speaker and I read White Teeth later. I think she is a writer worth reading and thinking about. James and Machado came Grinnell to give readings and meet students. 

 

I have not yet gotten to Jemes Brief History of Seven Killings, but I do own it. But I did read two of Machado's books. I finished In the Dream House yesterday. The cover is shown at the top of this entry. This book is a well-written memoir about her queer love affair through her graduate school years that was filled with abuse. Verbal and psychological abuse. The book is divided into many short chapters which I think was a good choice. I think this is only Machado's second book, but she is a writer I want to keep a look out for when she releases her next book.

Another source for lists and recommendations is personal recommendations. One person I know is an art professor at Houghton College named Ted Murphy.

Under the influence of Ted Murphy's personal recommendation, I started the first volume of Karl Ove Knausgaard's book My Struggle yesterday. Last year I read several Elena Ferrante novels so it seems time to continue on with what the New York TImes calls autofiction. Not sure if I like the term. But I do think both the Neapolitan tetralogy and the six volumes of My Struggle will be books I will remember and think about for years.

Yesterday I wanted to see what YouTube might have about Knausgaard and found a Lanaan foundation event -- a conversation with Knausgaard and Zadie Smith. (Video above.) So I watched that I felt inspired to continue on past page ten of my struggle -- the place I stopped last night. Knausgaard struck me as a quiet and introspective man. More so than other authors I have seen interviewed.