tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post114148566565219421..comments2024-03-28T08:37:58.136+01:00Comments on Limited, Inc.: Why we love himRoger Gathmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1141509816931744032006-03-04T23:03:00.000+01:002006-03-04T23:03:00.000+01:00I actually liked 'I'll Let You Go' less than the p...I actually liked 'I'll Let You Go' less than the previous 'I'm Losing You' which I thought was the best and the harshest (very good movie adaptation he did too, Janet Maslin all wrong not to think so)one of the trilogy (I just discovered he wrote 'Still Holding'as the 3rd part, haven't read it yet.) Only continued with this because critics seemed to think 'I'll Let You Go' was some sort of huge achievement, although I didn't--I thought he was running out and that's when I thought the internet was making the novel even more vaporous than it is anyway. The newest one 'The Chrysanthemum Palace' is MUCH better, I think, even if Mme. Kakutani thinks otherwise in her infinite Nipponese wisdom. I like the way he doesn't care if he uses vulgarities openly instead of trying to apologize for them. I now want to start staying at the Chateau Marmont if I had the money, if my hot-sheet motel gets sold (they are now doing a new deal to close down 60 H'wood Blvd. businesses. This is too depressing, it might really look like 42nd goddam Street.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1141505122049652732006-03-04T21:45:00.000+01:002006-03-04T21:45:00.000+01:00oops. Somehow my sentence got garbled: "I liked th...oops. Somehow my sentence got garbled: "I liked the first one, but the second, I'll let you go, struck me as not right in tone." By which I mean I felt like he was not in control of his subject.Roger Gathmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1141505034577319272006-03-04T21:43:00.000+01:002006-03-04T21:43:00.000+01:00Yeah, I've reviewed Wagner for somebody. Was it th...Yeah, I've reviewed Wagner for somebody. Was it the Chronicle? I liked his first novel, but the one struck me as slightly not right in tone, I'll let you go. I was staying with a friend, a jazz enthusiast, actually, in LA when I did the Wagner review.Roger Gathmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11257400843748041639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3077210.post-1141493237248421442006-03-04T18:27:00.000+01:002006-03-04T18:27:00.000+01:00Some of the beginning of the fiction reminded me o...Some of the beginning of the fiction reminded me of Joseph Heller, it was most amusing. I was remembering 'Good as Gold' somehow, but this may be off. Also a little bit Bruce Wagner, my favourite modern fiction writer. LATimes had a blog a while back about LA fiction, they said 'the City of Hollywood and the Westside doesn't exist anymore,' but that's a crock of shit, because Wagner cranks out a new one about 'The Industry' every year, each one funnier than the last (I even found Armenian almond pastries on H'wood Blvd. due to 'I'll Let You Go'.) They said it was all Montclair, City of Industry, Pomona, Hawaiian Gardens, Bell and Bell Gardens, etc., none of this *Western* and *Vermont* acid-homo talk. Of course, Wagner's a little provincial-cosmopolitan, you have to be an LA enthusiast, but I think he has proved that the limitations of the internet are still substantial enough for us to have a few more years of physical concentration. I wondered if you'd read him, he wrote teleplay of 'Wild Palms' for Oliver Smith way back in 1993 about 2007--and it seems truer than ever that 2007 is going to be like that. Was first science fiction-like thing I saw that started using the near future rather than faraway future. I thought it was magnificent, and it made me sick for a few weeks. Wagner knows things about LA even Joan Didion never dreamed of. I think you could really write well for Playboy, but you're probably too principled. Hell, if they paid me, I'd even start preferring chicks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com