Brain Pain discussion

This discussion covers Islands –thru- The Agency, pg. 90 – 170 and Conclusions/Book as a whole


It had never occurred to me, though, what an oddity, intellectually, ventriloquism on the radio used to be.

Read Islands last night. Core story is about vacation life on a Mediterranean island near Italy, which she returns to throughout the section. Between are "island" stories with little or nothing to do with the main story, so you sort of island-hop from story to story.

It's a strange phenomenon, but I find it difficult to remember much specific info from the stories. They are all interesting and engaging as I read them, but they are ephemeral and don't really stick in memory. Instead, I have a more general recollection of her words rather than something I can tell others about.

Jim wrote: "It's a strange phenomenon, but I find it difficult to remember much specific info from the stories. They are all interesting and engaging as I read them, but they are ephemeral and don't really stick in memory. Instead, I have a more general recollection of her words rather than something I can tell others about. "

I've finished Speedboat a week ago, and though it hasn't really left my mind yet, I can't really say I've held on to anything I've read either, I couldn't re-tell a specific episode with any sort of precision but I still have a very strong sense of the rhythm of this book that - in it's randomness - mimics life pretty (before it undergoes the cosmetic surgery of adding narrative to stitch our days together into something coherent)
I am really impressed by her ability to capture a moment and 'freeze' it into a sentence. There seems to always be an aphorism just around the corner. I was initially trying to find a red line that holds that collage together, some sort of secret glue or hidden structure and then felt strangely excited to just give up and surrender to the fact that there's none, or at least none I can detect.

I also found that her journalistic approach to looking at things, events, people, even herself by sort of keeping them at pen length is strangely contagious. (though it does make for a fairly neurotic constant inner commentary)

I'm about at the half-way point (it's taking a weirdly long time to read this tiny little short book, even though it doesn't feel like a difficult book as I'm reading it. Maybe it's me and I'm just tired?).

I think everything you said, Jenny, is basically exactly right. This does reproduce a sort of un-arranged experience and it's very enjoyable for exactly that lack of organizing narrative.

I also find myself thinking that the basic plot-less-ness allows for an emphasis on the writing itself, which is also very enjoyable. She does strange things with sentence structure: the adverb is never where you'd expect it, for example, but her writing remains nonetheless easy to read. I feel like I've read a lot of other books that play with language, or try to, or put the emphasis on the writing itself, and often this comes with a denseness and difficulty of the prose, while this does not.

I am also at about the half-way point, somewhere in Islands. I agree with the comments above that "This does reproduce a sort of un-arranged experience and it's very enjoyable for exactly that lack of organizing narrative." It might be interesting to compare Speedboat to Mrs. Dalloway. Then again, one might just make oneself crazy by attempting it.