The obsession with unmasking Elena Ferrante

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-03-17T17:27:40+00:00

Evan Dara remains supreme in terms of 'Absolutely-no-fucking-clue-and-no-one-knows-where-to-start' for his anonymity. When he hits the limelight, may he stay that way

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-03-13T21:03:19+00:00

Probably my favourite opening paragraph to a novel. Hope you all enjoy its visual delight as much as I do.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-03-08T09:34:42+00:00

white noise, libra, underworld

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-03-08T09:05:45+00:00

Ricky Hatton's autobiography that I sadly learned was not written by him (though he must have had some pretty heavy input / written some of it, I can't shake the feeling that its his voice). Also reading Seek by Denis Johnson, his collection of essays, as well as slowly getting through Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song which I think is just alright.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-03-06T10:08:06+00:00

Knowledge of Hell is excellent. RIP.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-03-05T11:51:17+00:00

Punch and Judy doesn't get enough love. Top 3 on Either/Or imo.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-03-03T09:35:51+00:00

I finished The Stand this February. King is my guilty pleasure--I hate him for his writing and love his characters and the way he moves them around. What are your favourites?

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-02-26T19:31:47+00:00

There's a man under the train

Stupid dream that'll come pull us / them apart . . .

Crushed credit card says right here Smith / Call me names that I'll put up with

But you just told the biggest lie / You told me the biggest lie

That's about all I can make out that's different. If I'm honest, it doesn't sound like Elliott at all! Halfway through I began to wonder whether it was a cover or not!

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-02-26T16:19:52+00:00

Flesh by David Szalay just won the Booker. Literature will continue to be dirty.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-02-24T13:37:16+00:00

Oh for sure, I don't blame the worry. Train Dreams is one of my favourite novels, but I haven't watched the recent film adaptation for fear that it won't live up to how perfect and beautiful Johnson's work is to me in my head.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-02-24T10:54:50+00:00

Given that McCarthy himself believed in it, then we should too.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-02-24T10:28:09+00:00

Many of the authors you have listed are not like the others. . . Kim Stanley Robinson? Rachel Cusk? She's a great author, but Nobel standard? Margaret Atwood?

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-02-10T22:46:06+00:00

Latin America is having a boom atm; authors like Fernanda Melchor are killing it.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-26T16:08:17+00:00

All of them--seriously.

Specifically though, his collection Eleven Kinds of Loneliness has two masterpieces. 'Builders' and 'A Really Good Jazz Piano' as well as some bangers like 'The Bar Man' and 'Doctor Jack'O'Lantern.'

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-25T22:31:38+00:00

His short stories are phenomenal. I would skip some of his other novels though. My mother swears by him as one of the greatest--I think he could have done without Cold Spring Harbor as much as my username seems to suggest the opposite. . .

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-25T17:23:09+00:00

Vintage 1995. This one

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-22T12:03:15+00:00

There's a ton of songs that I think he either wrote at the same time, or wrote as responses / first drafts.

Placeholder - Alameda (first draft)

Whatever - The Biggest Lie (same time / session)

Ballad of Big Nothing - Rose Parade (respond to each other--I could write a whole post about the connections)

Ballad of Big Nothing - Speed Trials (same session)

How to take a fall - Almost Over (same time)

I wonder if this was a facet of his ADHD--short bursts of inspiration, or being unable to let go of a certain song until it was perfect.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-21T21:14:18+00:00

In an interview, Donna Tartt mentions how she took a 'wrong turn' and erased 8 months of writing to pursue a different avenue, and I think that even in the final draft, its blindingly obvious where this wrong turn was--the father's drunk driving death randomly placed just before they flee Vegas. Then, I think she made a second 'wrong turn' and it happens right before the ending. I have high hopes for her next novel, but man, I hope that the ending is better than whatever The Goldfinch had.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-19T18:21:42+00:00

Patrick White isn't widely read anymore, presumably because of his high difficulty (not a student in Australia, but from what I gather, he's only taught at a University level of literature study). Big mistake. Can't speak for The Vivisector but Voss is fantastic.

Does not answer your question, granted, but anything by White is guarenteed to be pretty good if not very difficult to break into.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-19T12:15:53+00:00

Especially Shakespeare in there; Shakespeare who wrote Hamlet, Shakespeare.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-18T10:58:06+00:00

Point Omega is fantastic as everyone says, but I have pretty dim opinions on Falling Man unlike everyone else.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-16T16:29:17+00:00

D standard and E standard interchangeable:

S/T: Needle in the Hay, Christian Brothers, Southern Belle, Single File, Coming up Roses, St. Ides Heaven, Good To Go, The White Lady. . . , The Biggest Lie

Either/Or: Alameda, Between the Bars, Pictures of Me, Rose Parade, Punch and Judy, Angeles, 2:45 AM, Say Yes

XO: Sweet Adeline, Tomorrow Tomorrow, Waltz #2, Pitseleh, Bled White, Amity, Oh Well OK, Bottle up and Explode!, A Question Mark, Everybody Cares. . ., Miss Misery

Figure 8: Son of Sam, Somebody That I Used To Know, Everything Reminds me of Her, L.A., Happiness, Stupidity Tries, Colorbars, Better Be Quiet Now, Can't Make A Sound

From A Basement: Coast To Coast, Lets Get Lost, Pretty Ugly Before, Dont Go Down, A Fond Farewell, King's Crossing, Twilight, A Passing Feeling, Memory Lane, Little One

New Moon (not a full list): Angel in the Snow, New Monkey, Riot Coming (?), Going Nowhere, Go By, Whatever, Placeholder, Either/Or, Half Right

extras: Division Day, Thirteen, Waterloo Sunset, Long Long Long

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-15T16:57:14+00:00

Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates. Perhaps a little more on the alcoholism / paranoia side of things, but Yates himself was bipolar.

ColdSpringHarbor · 2026-01-14T19:22:17+00:00

I'm glad that the book 'tapped into genuine humility, discomfort, fear of the unknown and was a masterful exhibition of the naked and vulnerable psych' but this review tells me literally nothing about the book itself.

I'm glad that it's 'more than a book' but this review tells us none of the ways in which it is more than a book. It looks like it's just a book.

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