The Grumpy Librarian, Oct. 9, 2014
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Caitlin Goodman tells you what to read.
Loved: William Gaddis, J R
Loved: David Mitchell, Ghostwritten
Hated: Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
Recommendation: The Grumpy Librarian suspects you spend a lot of time reading in public with the book held for maximum title visibility. Obviously you hated The Corrections; you called it “middlebrow.” The GL isn’t quite sure why you wrote to her, except perhaps to test her cool kid bona fides, and she is happy to tell you she fails and liked The Corrections. Also, read some goddamned women, it won’t kill you. Djuna Barnes is excellent, ditto for Jean Rhys and the GL guesses it’s ditto again for Clarice Lispector except she hated Near to the Wild Heart. But perhaps it would behoove you to read something not on the syllabus of “Freshman English Majors’ Introduction to Being Insufferable”?
In which case you should read Lynda Barry’s Cruddy, because it is exceptional and alternative and another example of the great modern things happening in books without spending a lot of time worrying about being Great and Modern.
