Talia Lavin: im rereading kavalier & clay and forgot how devastatingly sad it is

im rereading kavalier & clay and forgot how devastatingly sad it is

and, on a sentence level, how beautifully crafted, despite or because of the surfeit of 5 dollar words

i love noticing when a writer has fallen in love with an unusual word. "spavined," which means old and kinda busted up, has recurred around five times

I love this too! Terry Pratchett's fave is "coruscating."

Not unusual, but after reading multiple Ramona books out loud to my kid I’ve noticed that Beverly Cleary used “indignantly” over and over and over (and I love it)

Was reading something a couple of months ago and the author really enjoyed the word febrile.

i'm guilty of this too, big time, in everything serious i write

Never heard anyone use that outside a horsey context! Like “knackered” in British English.

There's also those words they aren't as aware they're overusing. Makes a good drinking game.

Also! Much better, to me, than when a writer falls in love with a word: when a 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 does.

This is one of those books that is so compelling, so beautifully crafted, and so full of humanity that it feels downright gorgeous to be alive. (also, as a writer, intimidated and impressed that such a thing of amazingness was crafted by a fellow member of the same species)

I love that book so much.

I remember reading it for the first time before smartphones were a thing and having a bookmark of scratch paper I wrote all the words I didn't know on to look up later.

One of my favorite books I ever worked on. I used to show up in the editor’s office every now and then and say: This is it! This is the Great American Novel! Also, MC is a dream to work with.

(I think that when I was a very young person I thought that the Great American Novel was an actual thing, like you won a contest or it was appointed by the government.)

I used to wonder what it meant and I similarly thought that there must have been a contest at some point

It's the American inferiority complex-- the idea that there surely couldn't be more than one.

oh wow. that must have been an amazing experience to copy edit!! all those fancy and exciting words... each sentence is a little gem

I wasn’t its actual copy editor, but I was its supervising in-house production editor, so I got to guide it to the finish line. MC and I spent umpteen hours on the phone going over fine points, and there was nothing he wasn’t eager to talk about. An absolute literary champ.

Including whether any given word was exotic and rare or something he’d simply made up.

Picturing you faxing* suggestions to Mr Wilde. (*Fans of a certain film will get that ref.)

I loved Yiddish Policemen equally.

I actually read part of Yiddish Policemen while in Sitka. Made it a bit more special.

That was after our professional time together, but I read it for fun and was enchanted.

Thank you. Seriously. As a comics history geek it’s a great book.

That is great to hear; he is absolutely one of my favourite authors.

Thanks for the recc. I'm looking forward to finally reading it this summer. My dad gave it to me soon after it came out-right around when my son was born. Son is now 25, dad is gone, and I have more time on my hands than I did then. MC also wrote one of my favorite short pieces- Normal Time

It's a truly magnificent book

I'm really looking forward to reading it over the holiday week! Can report back

It's really a lovely novel, Catherine. Very funny, very moving, *very* about America.

Just what I'm feeling the need to read right now. And, I will definitely cry knowing that my dad gave it to me-no idea why he thought I would have had time to read it back when I had a newborn though. Thanks for replies, appreciate you both 🙏

I think all the time about the earlyish scene where everything depends on their coming up with a comic “and then, in the tradition of young men everywhere, the proceeded to waste some time.”

And also the scene where he appears at his mother’s door “towing the largest imaginable piece of treyf.”

i like the image of the "omniveillent maternal loupe." and the mighty molecule is just heartbreaking

I was completely unprepared for how ruined I would feel emotionally, sad enough that I don't think I'd ever be able to reread it though it's such an incredible book.

it's been years since i read it (and the first read was more or less a devouring) and i'm glad & sad to revisit it at oncr

I haven't read it in so long, I should, I bet it would hit different now.

im trying to reconnect to my judaism in a time when i have never felt more bitter and disconnected from my community

Oof tell me about it! I’m supposed to give a paper on crises and Jewish history next week and I’m struggling.

I can report that while the "community" is certainly not rising to the community, the group of Jews who silently don't feel represented by the community and its pro-Bibi leaders is very, very large.

One factoid: I track Amazon sales of my titles and those adjacent in the small Jewish publisher space.

Shaul Magid, who recently quit the Hartman Institute for its Zionist politics, is consistently outselling Donniel Hartman's book amzn.to/3XQb5sd

Amazon.com: Who Are the Jews―And Who Can We Become?: 9780827615618: Hartman, Donniel: Booksamzn.to Amazon.com: Who Are the Jews―And Who Can We Become?: 9780827615618: Hartman, Donniel: Books

same. but w the US.

Super same

"I wish he was real."

😭

I can still feel the spot that line hit me 20 years ago.

Still so bummed we didn’t get the Coen Brothers Yiddish Policeman’s Union movie

Oh I would have loved that

ooooof immediate flashback to that one scene (antarctica)

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