So inspiring! 9:44 AM >>> 0 comments

Definitely the best graphic novel I've read so far this year is Massacre au pont de No Gun Ri by Park Kun-woong (adapted from a novel by Chung Eun-yong written in 1994). It's a huge, over 600 pages long, dense, upsetting graphic novel that tells the story of the start of the Korean War from the perspective of the ordinary citizen, and a rather difficult to understand massacre committed by American troops against the South Korean people the were supposed to be saving. It's an important story, a true anti-war story, but what attracted me the most to the comic is Park Kun-woong's amazing artwork - really sustained great stuff in a variety of ways. I've heard no word yet of an English language release, but there is a very impressive French translation now available from Vertige/Coconino. More samples of the artwork, and some info (in French) can also be seen here. 11:50 AM >>> 0 comments

12:39 PM >>> 0 comments

http://everygame.wordpress.com/. The site has just started - hopefully they'll make it to the end. 6:59 PM >>> 1 comments

Milt Gross Sunday pages 11:26 PM >>> 0 comments

DeBeck Barney Google Sunday page 7:46 PM >>> 0 comments

http://minchi.lomo.jp/ 2:36 PM >>> 0 comments

10:24 AM >>> 7 comments

I remember liking Richard Yates Revolutionary Road okay, but I feel like The Easter Parade is a much more powerful book. The writing seemed clearer, simpler, more effective, and most importantly, more moving. It's also one of the most unrelentingly negative books I've ever read - a quality I have a lot of appreciation for. On the surface, it's the story of a single mother and her two daughters as the grow up, grow apart, grow old and pass away - but what's really impressive is how much story Yates puts into the book - especially considering it's only a relatively brief 220 pages long, and how that story keeps one's attention. Besides being a portrait of his three main characters, it's, of course, a portrait of the times they live through - from the 1930s to the 1970s and the way people's relationships and attitudes towards each other changed in America over those years. Mostly it seems like a meditation on the difficulty of finding happiness in life, when you can't even figure out what happiness is. His characters are simply pulled along by the passage of time. And that time passes damn fast.

So this is only the second book by Richard Yates I've yet read, but now I want to read the rest. The short stories seem to be especially highly regarded - though those thick complete short story collections are something that usually intimidates me. There's a biography out on Yates that look pretty tempting too. Anyhow, I feel like an idiot for letting The Easter Parade languish on my to-be-read shelf for nearly two years. Such a good book. 1:16 PM >>> 0 comments

More time please... 4:13 PM >>> 0 comments