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Stuff I'm Reading

 "An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination," by Elizabeth McCracken. This writer is in the news because her recent work, "The Hero of This Book," dazzled many critics and novelists.


McCracken is a funny contrarian; she particularly hates when people say they are "humbled" by various awards. "I don't believe you. Do you know what is humbling? Failure. I like failure, because it leads you to crave revenge; I tell all my students to write for revenge. I'LL SHOW THEM. Revenge is wonderful fuel."

"An Exact Replica" tells about McCracken's experience giving birth to a dead baby. I especially like McCracken's honesty; she says she valued people who simply wrote to her. She took comfort in "I'm so sorry" and "I don't know what to say." The villain of the piece is someone who let many months go by in silence, then tried to frame her own apathy as a virtue: "I really wanted to send you postal mail, and since I didn't have an address, I couldn't contact you. E-mail would not suffice."

"Olivia the Spy." In this picture book, Olivia the pig travels to Lincoln Center, and she needs to use the restroom, so she wanders onto the stage and pees in the "Swan Lake" fountain. Also, she dreams of creating her own perfume, called "Fussy." (The author is Ian Falconer.)

"The Kind Worth Saving." Peter Swanson writes 2023 versions of Patricia Highsmith tales. In this one, two young friends join up to murder various undesirables: an obnoxious cousin, a twelfth-grade mean girl, a cheating spouse. The climax of the story involves a sharpened end of a telephone wire, which you can insert through the eyeball; the wire causes massive hemorrhaging in the victim's brain, but the death resembles something that has resulted from "natural causes."

You'll also find bombs and knives in this novel; Swanson knows what he is doing, and he seems to be having a great time. I generally look forward to his books.
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