I love the energy of your voice. It kept me reading even though I don’t intend to read any of these books in the near future. Thank you for procrastinating, and good luck for the gruelling, gratifying work of revision!
i just sent the Sargent section to a friend for her catchup reading. thank you for the fine work. Have you read Edwin Frank’s Stranger than Fiction? terrific writer, thoughtful and similarly to you not a pushover.
I’m fascinated by the story around Inigo Philbrick because we knew his parents, Harry and Jane, through a mutual friend (the best man at our wedding grew up with Harry and his older brother, Nathaniel, the notable author). The Philbricks stayed at our house and went to a baseball game with us when Inigo was about 7 or 8. I mention it because it amuses me that he, and everyone?, was just a regular, curious kid once. His mother, phew, she was a piece of work. She worked her eccentricity hard.
Heard about you through someone sharing the interview, and read and shared your brilliant piece on 'A Little Life'. So important to me (as a queer person).
In light of the above, an interesting contemporary quote about Sargent by Edmund Gosse which I've just come across in the book I'm reading (The Artist's Palette). Feels like a pretty good description of an artist born a rich kid:
“[He] thought that the artist ought to know nothing whatever about the nature of the object before him . . . but should concentrate all his powers on a representation of its appearance. The picture was to be a consistent vision, a reproduction of the area filled by the eye. Hence, in a very curious way, the aspect of a substance became much more real to him than the substance itself.”
I am so in love with Knausgaard's Morningstar series. Now we have to wait how long until the next books?? I'm tempted to go back and read the Struggle cycle to fill the gap
I loved James, I am loving Caledonian Road. I also can suffer from book-induced malaise, so I’m so happy to have some ideas of what might keep it at bay. Thanks for your amazing work, including this newsletter! I’m here for the procrastination as long as you are.
I also loved A Grand Affair and Small Rain. A Grand Affair is so open about Sargent's sexuality which I think is refreshing. Also the novel in progress concerns Sargent! Happy and healthy.
I read Kairos a few weeks ago and I still can't answer whether I liked it or not because it made me so profoundly agitated and melancholy that I needed to finish it so I could breathe normally again.
My TBR pile is already teetering Jenga style but you've persuaded me that I must add a few of these. I've been wary of James for exactly the reasons you suggest, so I'm glad to hear I can safely read it. I've just started really getting into Sargent recently and I'm fascinated by the late Victorian age, so cannot wait for that one. Thanks for this list!
Great list! I read Small Rain shortly after my husband spent time at UIHC (which added a whole other layer to the reading experience) and it cracked me open. Profound is exactly the word I'd use.
I have found your book reviews to be refreshingly direct. You aren't afraid to dislike something, whereas it feels like most every review I read is fluff intended to drive book sales. I'm very confident you're not a shill. Thanks for being fearless on that front!
Unclear how I’m supposed to go on not knowing what book actually made you neurologically ill for months!!!
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n17/brandon-taylor/use-your-human-mind
I came to the comments to reaffirm that it was this book!
😅
thank you, glad i resisted it.
I love the energy of your voice. It kept me reading even though I don’t intend to read any of these books in the near future. Thank you for procrastinating, and good luck for the gruelling, gratifying work of revision!
I seldom am moved to read by a reviewer’s opinion but I am delighted to say that I now have a fine list of books to read. Thank you!
Woo!!!
i just sent the Sargent section to a friend for her catchup reading. thank you for the fine work. Have you read Edwin Frank’s Stranger than Fiction? terrific writer, thoughtful and similarly to you not a pushover.
It's on my list for my winter reading!
Definitely going to make James one of my first reads of 2025. Happy holidays!
I’m fascinated by the story around Inigo Philbrick because we knew his parents, Harry and Jane, through a mutual friend (the best man at our wedding grew up with Harry and his older brother, Nathaniel, the notable author). The Philbricks stayed at our house and went to a baseball game with us when Inigo was about 7 or 8. I mention it because it amuses me that he, and everyone?, was just a regular, curious kid once. His mother, phew, she was a piece of work. She worked her eccentricity hard.
This is FASCINATING.
Also, James is my favorite book of the year. I’m astounded at all it pulls off, and packaged as a rollicking adventure story. Deep bow.
Heard about you through someone sharing the interview, and read and shared your brilliant piece on 'A Little Life'. So important to me (as a queer person).
In light of the above, an interesting contemporary quote about Sargent by Edmund Gosse which I've just come across in the book I'm reading (The Artist's Palette). Feels like a pretty good description of an artist born a rich kid:
“[He] thought that the artist ought to know nothing whatever about the nature of the object before him . . . but should concentrate all his powers on a representation of its appearance. The picture was to be a consistent vision, a reproduction of the area filled by the eye. Hence, in a very curious way, the aspect of a substance became much more real to him than the substance itself.”
That reminds me of the line from Richard II:
Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,
Which shows like grief itself, but is not so;
For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,
Divides one thing entire to many objects;
Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon
Show nothing but confusion
Some big Sargent news from over here in London: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/jan/06/john-singer-sargent-portraits-dollar-princesses-come-to-london-kenwood
!!!! News I can use!!!
Excellent - I had a feeling that might be the case!
Hope you saw... Bill Kristol... appreciates your taste and insight
https://x.com/BillKristol/status/1870501774823719064
I am so in love with Knausgaard's Morningstar series. Now we have to wait how long until the next books?? I'm tempted to go back and read the Struggle cycle to fill the gap
I loved James, I am loving Caledonian Road. I also can suffer from book-induced malaise, so I’m so happy to have some ideas of what might keep it at bay. Thanks for your amazing work, including this newsletter! I’m here for the procrastination as long as you are.
I also loved A Grand Affair and Small Rain. A Grand Affair is so open about Sargent's sexuality which I think is refreshing. Also the novel in progress concerns Sargent! Happy and healthy.
I read Kairos a few weeks ago and I still can't answer whether I liked it or not because it made me so profoundly agitated and melancholy that I needed to finish it so I could breathe normally again.
My TBR pile is already teetering Jenga style but you've persuaded me that I must add a few of these. I've been wary of James for exactly the reasons you suggest, so I'm glad to hear I can safely read it. I've just started really getting into Sargent recently and I'm fascinated by the late Victorian age, so cannot wait for that one. Thanks for this list!
THE GRAND AFFAIR is so great. Have you read Julian Barnes’ THE MAN IN THE RED COAT?
Great list! I read Small Rain shortly after my husband spent time at UIHC (which added a whole other layer to the reading experience) and it cracked me open. Profound is exactly the word I'd use.
I have found your book reviews to be refreshingly direct. You aren't afraid to dislike something, whereas it feels like most every review I read is fluff intended to drive book sales. I'm very confident you're not a shill. Thanks for being fearless on that front!