He grew up around the corner from my Dad and was a childhood friend of my uncle’s. I think he wrote his poem “Where are the Buckhead Boys?” about their hood.
He lives on Fripp where I used to spend my summers as a boy and spent time as a teacher on Dafuskie where I’ve also spent a lot of time.
His descriptions of the lowcountry always get to me.
He’ll be in town for his new book soon.
Asheville, NC
Tuesday, September 8 - Time tba
Captain’s Bookshelf
31 Page Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801
Signing only
Can’t wait!
So, didn’t make it to the Conroy book signing. Did you EM?
His new book, South of Broad, is perfect shite.
The dialogue, especially in part 1, was completely weird and unbelievable. The characters were just a wee bit cartoonish. And most of the story takes place in the ‘90’s ?
Seems to me like Conroy had a contractual obligation to fill and dusted off an idea that had been shelved (perhaps rightly so) years ago.
However, I just cracked Direct Action: An Ethnography by David Graeber.
If the next 500 pages are as good as the preface I won’t be able to put it down.
In the best tradition of participant-observation, anthropologist David Graeber undertakes the first detailed ethnographic study of the global justice movement. Starting from the assumption that, when dealing with possibilities of global transformation and emerging political forms, a disinterested, “objective” perspective is impossible, he writes as both scholar and activist. At the same time, his experiment in the application of ethnographic methods to important ongoing political events is a serious and unique contribution to the field of anthropology, as well as an inquiry into anthropology’s political implications.
The case study at the center of Direct Action is the organizing and events that led to the dramatic protest against the Summit of the Americas in Québec City in 2001. Written in a clear, accessible style (with a minimum of academic jargon), this study brings readers behind the scenes of a movement that has changed the terms of debate about world power relations. From informal conversations in coffee shops to large “spokescouncil” planning meetings and teargas-drenched street actions, Graeber paints a vivid and fascinating picture. Along the way, he addresses matters of deep interest to anthropologists: meeting structure and process, language, symbolism, representation, the specific rituals of activist culture, and much more.
David Graeber is an anthropologist and activist who teaches at the University of London. Active in numerous direct-action political organizations, he is the author of Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology; Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value; and Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire.
I figured your love of comics would make Kavalier & Clay something of a slam dunk.
Haven’t read The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, so keep us posted.
They are both great. The Cohen Bros are currently turning YPU into a film…which totally fits. If I had to choose which to start with I would pick K&C…I don’t know if I have read a better novel. I laughed, I cried, I almost plotzed!
Skipped the Chabon and went straight into a Cormac McCarthy binge. Read “All the Pretty Horses”, “The Road”, “No Country for Old Men” and “Blood Meridian” in pretty quick succession. I am summarily blown away right now.
Skipped the Chabon and went straight into a Cormac McCarthy binge. Read “All the Pretty Horses”, “The Road”, “No Country for Old Men” and “Blood Meridian” in pretty quick succession. I am summarily blown away right now.
Amazing Adv. of Kavalier and Clay was awesome.
All the Pretty Horses series was pretty good.
The Road- dissapointing- is the movie any good?
Blood Meridian-kick ass. No way they could ever make a movie version that did the book justice.
Shakey- Neil Young’s biography-strange and twisted like the subject.
Last year I read Stephen King’s On Writing while in the airport- essays and non-fiction- pleasantly surprised.
Looking for some new books to read because soon I’ll be waiting in airport so I don’t want to have to talk to anybody else there.
Just finished “Under the Dome” which was utter crap. Now starting “Quicksilver” by Neal Stephenson, one of the two best science fiction writers currently working, in my opinion.
