a premature book report

Two things: (1) I really like to recommend books, but (2) I usually won’t recommend a book that I haven’t finished, or at least read most of. However, I’m going to break my rule today because I feel obligated to write about how good The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is. I mean it’s really, really good. I’m a fan of all of Chabon’s work – he’s brilliant. And with Union, even in the first sixty pages (which is all I have read thus far, though I hope that number will double by this evening), it is apparent that as he is maturing as a writer his brilliance is becoming more focused and his work more impreessive, accordingly.

In his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Chabon’s talent for storytelling and constructing characters cannot be ignored. In Wonderboys, these skills are supplemented by a multi-dimensional plot and a foray into strategic detail. In The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, all of these elements are infused with tremendously, almost overwhelmingly so, rich details – this book could have been a series of novels and still been just as satisfying.

With Union, Chabon shows how disciplined of a writer he has become. His detail in this book is insanely perfect – it’s as if he wrote out twenty or thirty possible details for every sentence and chose the very best to use. Accordingly, the prose flows in a lively and very satisfying way. Chabon offers everything in the book by providing just enough. The story flows and develops in such a beautiful, well-constructed way, and the narrative has a very emotional feeling of immediacy to it. And, of course, the story really, truly means something. It carries weight, the sort of weight that makes literature worthwhile.

Check it out if you get a chance.

welcome

By answering the following questions, which a reader of this weblog may or may not find him or herself asking, my intention with this introductory entry is to provide a bit of clarity as to what might go on here, and why.

Why is the url for this weblog northgarden.wordpress.com?

The three contributors to this weblog – Andy, Bryan, and myself, Matt – all happen to live in the same run-down apartment complex on a street named North Garden. I set this site up and really had no idea what the web address should be. Selecting a url representing the geographical commonality shared by the three of us seemed appropriate enough and relatively unrestricting.

Why doesn’t this weblog have a title? And furthermore, why not even a descriptive heading?

I couldn’t think of a title, so we don’t have one. And we’re okay with that. As far as a descriptive heading is concerned, I tried incorporating one, but with the limitations of the WordPress template being what they are such a tagline would have to overlay our header image. And we’re not okay with that.

Speaking of header images, why is yours of a child crying?

We like the image. We were aiming for something between offensive and endearing and I think we struck that balance. We also thought that such a picture accurately represented what the content of this weblog might end up becoming – whiny and/or offensive enough to, we hope, cause children to cry. We’ll see how we end up doing. We reserve the right to change our header image as often as we like, to images as ridiculous as we desire, simply because we might find doing so to be amusing.

Why do you keep using the word weblog? Don’t you realize that using that word so many times in this entry is repetitive?

I happen to have a pretty strong aversion to the sound and shape of many words, most of which contain the letter o. The abbreviated form of the word weblog – the b word – is one that strikes me as particularly ugly. It is also a word that carries a lot of implications with it, most of which I hope will not characterize the content of this particular webpage. And yes, I realize my overuse of the word weblog in this entry is repetitive. Thank you for noticing.

Okay, so what is your little “weblog” going to be about?

Well, we’ll see, I suppose. I intend on posting recommendations for books and records that I am enjoying, and the like. Andy will probably contribute his own opinions on art and culture, in addition to making fun of those less fortunate than himself. Bryan is less predictable, given his capricious nature. He’ll probably write at least one entry on beer, and at least a few on mental illnesses.

Who are you guys?

I’m Matt. Andy is my apartmentmate. Bryan is our neighbor.

When are we going to hear from those two?

Soon, I hope. Look forward to it.