 380. Carol Brown - 2010-08-08 20:52:48 |
| Can’t help but think there is something autobiographical going on here. Wondering what "skill" you have. Sometimes things that a person experiences are so strange no one would believe you so the only way to communicate about them is to pass them off as fiction! |
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379. Joanna - 2010-07-29 20:15:01 |
Dear Aimee, Your new book has assaulted me, moved me, left me with indelible images and feelings that take a long time to digest. I want to talk to everyone about it, but like the main character, I find I don’t have the words--I just want to thrust your book at them because reading your work (here and in your earlier books) is more about having an experience than having ideas. Your portrayal of Joseph is for me the single most powerful evocation of an autistic personality I’ve ever come across. You do the seemingly impossible--give me access to his inaccessible interiority, make me feel his will to disappear, to escape the burden of awareness. I felt my own life, my own family, illuminated by this book in totally unexpected ways. Your use of the mythic in realist fiction--your ability to cook a metaphor until it breaks and buckles into narrative--is astounding and feels inevitable. In short, I am deeply grateful. This book, like the best fiction, gives me a new world.
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378. Maryann Flynn - 2010-07-25 23:03:43 |
| I do not know what to say......sometimes an author "touches a person" in some way. I LOVED The Particular Sadness..... Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The whole concept is extraordinary. Your writing is gorgeous. I could not put it down.....I blame you for the bags under my eyes, haha. Seriously, this is a novel I will remember for a LONG time. You are quite gifted. Needless to say, I will recommend you to any and all. Thank you ;^) |
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377. Teri Tossey - 2010-07-19 17:49:41 |
| Aimee, I live in the Chicago suburbs and have just selected your new book for my book club selection. I loved The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and Feel it will lead to a great discussion. However, you did leave Joseph’s condition a bit over the top and I don’t even know what to think about it or to make any sense of it unless he was trying to time travel and got stuck. You seem to be a private person so I’m not sure you would like to give me your input but I sure could use it to lead my discussion of the book. Saw that you were going to Iowa City but don’t believe the date was listed. I wouldn’t mind driving there. |
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376. Kim Battern - 2010-07-19 16:11:35 |
| Hi Aimee, I loved your Lemon Cake! You are an amazing writer. I am a librarian and just wrote on the Fiction blog on www.bookspace.org about your book. Check it out! I am now going to read your previous novels. Thank you for a thrilling read. |
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375. amy- seattle - 2010-07-19 14:44:16 |
I haven’t gotten this involved ina book in years. Thank your for Lemon Cake. I can’t beleive the person who says they didn’t want to know more about Joseph! I can’t stop thinking about that scene in his bedroom with the chair and wondering what happens to him. Your writing is so visual it is a delight.
Thank you for giving me a book that I don’t want to put down and can’t wait to get back to every day. I am sad to near the end. |
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374. Amy Sprague - 2010-07-18 22:39:17 |
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373. Jan Channon - 2010-07-17 03:16:19 |
Hey Aimee!
Wow, I saw your new book recently and of course had to buy it, but havent yet had a chance to read it. Then I was looking at the NY Times list and there you are!
Congrats to you. My Aunt Billie and your grandmother is looking down on you with that wonderful proud and loving smile of hers.
Much love and be in touch if you come to Chicago again!
Cousin Jan
tel. 847.945.7422 |
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372. Dinah Lenney - 2010-07-14 15:34:57 |
Hi Aimee.
Just to thank you for last night’s good conversation at the LAPL -- such a pleasure to hear a writer talk about writing, teaching, and reading, with joy, and warmth, and respect for her colleagues, students, and audience.
Much looking forward to reading the new book.
Best,
Dinah Lenney |
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371. brian - 2010-07-14 02:38:43 |
Hi Aimee
I like your short stories. However, instead of gushing, I will write nonsense on your board. This is a story about the most delicious blueberry muffin; it is given by jesus.
Jesus steals my sandwich and takes a bite. "I didn’t steal your
sandwich," he says. I stare at him, I’m surprised that he knows my
thoughts but shoudn’t be. He takes my sandwich and rips it in two and
offers me the half without the bite in it. When I take it, I notice
that it’s a full sandwich again. "See?" he says. Showoff, I think.
He gives me a smile.
"You could have asked first. I would have given it to you," I state flatly.
"Yah, but this is more fun," he answers with a mouth full of grilled cheese.
"I like how you use little butter," he says between mouthfuls. "I
don’t like too much butter."
Somehow, he manages to eat the grilled cheese without getting crumbs
on his beard. "Comes with the divinity." This time, he doesn’t even
bother talking, he just says it in my head.
I’m bothered by this and have to sit down.
I’m on the corner of lake and villa and I forget what I was waiting for.
"You know," jesus says, finishing the last bite of the sandwich.
"She’s not coming."
Yah? I think, well fuck you.
Jesus puts his arms around my shoulders.
"Her direction only intersected yours. Hey, don’t feel bad though,
you’re headed somewhere too."
I don’t bother responding. I toss my sandwich into the gutter and take
out a cigarette. As I begin to light it, he snatches it from my mouth
and breaks it in two. This time, he doesn’t give me half back.
I take another cigarette out and light it before he has a chance to
grab it. He sits down next to me and lights the half broken one he
took from me. It’s whole again and I don’t see him use a lighter.
We sit there, smoking, and don’t share any words. I think jesus is
kind of a douche, but he gives no indication that I hurt his feelings.
I get a sense that he’s been through a lot worse than what my silly
thoughts can do.
"What are you doing here?" I break the silence.
"Oh, just kicking it, I suppose"
"Don’t you have better things to do?
"No, not really. Hey, you wanna go fishing with me?"
I pull out another cigarette.
"No." I say.
"What about the batting cages.
Hitting a few balls doesn’t sound to bad, so I say, "fine."
For some reason I kind of expect to be transported there, but jesus
gets up, flicks his cigarette into the gutter and walks towards my
car. I finish my second and follow him. I don’t remember unlocking my
car, but he’s already inside and digging through my record collection.
"The beatles are over-rated" he says, scrolling through my mp3 player.
"Ah," he says, "now this lady got some talent."
It’s dinah washington; who woulda guessed? I ask him
which batting cage he’d like to go to, but he doesn’t respond; he’s
too busy crooning along to dinah’s rendtion of smoke gets in your eyes, so I
decide to go the one in alhambra and get on the 210. As jesus sings, I
try to let my mind wander, but his singing is so terrible that I can
only focus on that. he sings either too high or very flat and seemigly
can’t hold a key. Fuck it, I think and start singing with him. My
voice isn’t any better by any standard, but I have fun and we start
belting outloud to howling wolf’s whose been talking. Neither of us
are in tune and we’re jumping from octave to octave and
singing/shouting as loud as we can.
"You know, howling wolf is in hell now. So is miss washington."
"What the fuck," I respond. Way to kill some fun, I think.
"Hey, just speaking some truth is all" Jesus answers.
"a lot of people are in hell. Hell" he says, "most everybody is there.
Your grandma? Yup, hell."
"Thanks" I say. Now I’m thinking about my grandma in hell and feel annoyed.
"You’re headed there, too, most likely," he says, biting into an apple
that he apparently had.
"Oh, this apple? I just have enough faith to make shit happen like
that. "Whoop-di-doo." I dryly reply.
I try to think of an apple in my hand too, but nothing happens. I
think of a $25k, a laser gun, a hamster, and six other impossble
things and still nothing.
"Faith," he says, handing me a blueberry muffin. "Just gotta have faith."
I bitterly take the muffin from him and take a bite. It is the most
delicous muffin that I have ever tasted in my life. My eyes get teary
and I think of how beautiful life is. It’s so delicous that it breaks
my heart and makes me want to love everyone i meet. "I love you." I
say.
"Nah, that’s just the muffin talking, jesus says. He takes a big bite
from his own muffin and I notice how perfecly he bites into it. So
perfect, in fact that not a single crumb falls. I can’t take the
emotional rollercoaster that is eating the muffin so I throw it onto
his lap. Again, no crumbs fall on him and the muffin is whole again.
"too bad," he says, " these are some of my favorite." |
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