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Archive for the ‘Magazines’ Category

Periodical: Technology Review

Posted in Funky Web Sites, History, Military, Research, Robots, Smarty Pants, Technology, Technology Review, The Future, Universities, War on November 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

tr3A patron asked for Technology Review to be added to our collection.  When he said it was a technology magazine published by M.I.T. I thought it was going to be way too academic for our patrons.  But when I read the sample issue, I was really delighted with it.  So much so that I ordered a subscription for myself (the library has yet to decide).

The technology that the magazine covers is actually tech that is accessible to everyone: alternative fuels, cheap laptops, even technology in medicine (and how it will impact us as patients).  But there’s also some super high tech stuff: robotic arms, nuclear power, genetic engineering.

It opens with an Editor’s Letter followed by Reader’s Letters.  Next comes the Notebooks section.  This features several very short pieces about different ideas: green energy, memory boosting drugs. (It also has oddly computer generated drawings of the writers). (more…)

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Stephen King–“Premium Harmony” (New Yorker, November 9, 2009)

Posted in Consumerism, Death, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Short Story, Sonic Youth, Stephen King, Summer on November 16, 2009| 2 Comments »

ny119SOUNDTRACK: SONIC-YOUTH-the eternal (2009).

eternalIt was the release of this disc that inspired me to see what they’ve been up to since the 80s.  And, sometimes it’s really fun to root through a band’s back catalog to see what kind of progression they’ve made over the years.

There are three things that set this disc apart from  many other SY discs.

The first is the dual/harmonized vocals. I don’t recall ever hearing Thurston and Kim split vocals duties in a song before, least of which in a half-line by half-line way.  There’s also some points where they sing (sort of) harmonies.  It’s a really interesting addition to their sounds.

The second is the staccato playing.  In the past I’ve always felt like SY ‘s sounds flowed over everything (even if it was noise, it was a continuous wash of noise).  On The Eternal, there’s three or four songs where the band plays a chug chug chug chug rhythm (with everyone playing along).  It’s most notable in “Anti-Orgasm,” where the chug chug part is accompanied by Thurston and Kim chanting uh uh uh on every beat.

The third is the bass.  The band has added Pavement bassist Mark Ibold to their lineup.  And as far as I can tell he does things on bass that Kim never did.  He seems to complement Steve Shelly as a rhythm section.  I always felt that Kim played something of a lead bass: she didn’t seem to go in for a notable steady bass rhythm (note on “Kool Thing” where her bass plays the main riff).  And since Thurston and Lee were often playing noise, it was essential for Kim’s bass to be more than just a rhythm instrument.  On this disc you have bass sections playing the song’s rhythm. Its a simple thing, something that all bands do, but it sounds so different for them.

They even mix up the song lengths quite a bit.  The opener is a two minute bit (with great lyrics from Kim: “What’s it like to be a girl in a band?  I just don’t understand.  That’s so quaint to hear.  I feel so faint my dear.”)   While “Anti-Orgasm” is over six minutes (three of the chug chug section and then three of an extended jam).  Lee’s awesome song, “What We Know” runs about 4 minutes.  And the final song, the very cool “Massage the History” runs over 9 minutes.

These elements give the band a revitalized sound.  And they sound like they’re really having a lot of fun. And boy are they rocking.  The band sounds heavy, they sound intense, and they sound great.  There’s not a bad track on the disc.

[READ: November 6, 2009] “Premium Harmony”

This story takes a look at a dysfunctional husband and wife on the way to Wal-Mart.  She wants to stop at the Quik-Pik on the way, to buy something that he thinks will be cheaper at Wal-Mart anyway.  This detour turns out to be significant, and nothing will be the same for them again.

I have to be this vague because saying anything more will give away too much of this rather simple story. (more…)

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Jonathan Lethem-“Procedure in Plain Air” (New Yorker, October 26, 2009)

Posted in Egyptology, Funny (strange), Jonathan Lethem, Kate Bush, New Yorker, Oddities, Short Story, The Bride Wore Black, The Innocents on November 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

nyoct26SOUNDTRACK: KATE BUSH-Never for Ever (1980).

neverWith this disc, Kate Bush totally blew me away.  The leap from Lionheart to Never for Ever is monumental.  And Never for Ever was the first record by a solo British female to go to number 1.  Even 29 years later, this album still sounds fresh, current, a little bonkers, and totally amazing.

Kate is still pretty out there (there’s some wild screams and howls on a lot of songs), but she has really mastered the art/prog rock sound.  The disc starts out with “Babooshka” a wild romping rocker that, once again, sounds simple, even silly (chorus: “all yours babooshka babooshka babooshka ya ya”), but which has a rather sophisticated premise (of a married couple looking to cheat on each other but actually dating themselves).  The next song “Delius (Song of Summer)” shows some of the fun new sonic elements she’s added to her repertoire.  She adds a deep bass vocal singing along with her (it’s as absurdly deep as her voice is high). The “ta ta ta” section, the operatic chorus, and the jaunty piano play off each other perfectly.  I have no idea what the song is about, but I adore it.

“All We Ever Look For” has a wonderful part where footsteps walk across your headphones and open different doors.  Behind each door is a different sound (a chorus singing (but I can’t place what), birds singing, the rapturous applause, until the song kicks back in.  It’s very cool.

Side Two opens with “The Wedding List” a wonderfully weird, intense song that has interesting whispery bits (headphone friendly again) but then ends with awesome banshee howls. It’s inspired by François Truffaut’s film The Bride Wore Black.

But for me the song that distinguishes this disc is “Violin.”  It’s an ode to, yes, the violin, (chorus: Get the bow going! Let it scream to me: Violin! Violin! Violin!) and it is theatrically over the top.  It references Paganini (which completely makes sense).
but it also features a blistering electric guitar solo.  It’s entirely possibly that listening to the song a lot leads to madness, but I’m okay with that.

It’s followed by the dreamy delicate, “The Infant Kiss” which, lyrically is about a woman who falls in love with a little boy because the spirit of an adult man is inside him.  (Yea, that’s pretty wild, but it’s inspired by the film The Innocents). The disc ends with “Breathing” a look at life after a nuclear blast. It’s creepy and weirdly compelling and absolutely catchy (“chips of plutonium are twinkling in every lung”).

Musically, the disc contains a wonderful variety of sounds and textures.  Kate has her bassist play some awesome watery fretless bass, and there’s some great use of the Fairlight CMI (the first digital sampler).  There’s orchestration, synths, analog instruments, whistles and pianos and all manner of things.  Why, her brother Paddy alone plays: Harmonica, Mandolin, Balalaika, Sitar, Koto, Banshee, Saw and Mando.

And there’s not a bad song on the disc.  There is so much experimentation that it runs the risk of losing track of itself, but Kate is an artist and she knows exactly what she wants.  And she keeps the disc from getting out of control.

On her next couple of discs, she picks the best experiments and embellishments and really fine tunes her sound.  But for me, it’s the courageousness of this disc that makes it one of my favorites.  You have to suspend some disbelief, to really enjoy the disc but if you get it, it’s pretty amazing.

[READ: November 5, 2009] “Procedure in Plain Air”

I feel like this story is political but I can’t tell just how political it is trying to be.  The simple premise is that, while hanging out in front of his local coffee shop, Stevick watches a jumpsuited group of men dig a large hole in the street.  They block of much of the road, but cause somewhat minimal commotion with their efficiency.

Once they have finished, the jumpsuited men force a similarly jumpsuited man (who is bound and gagged) into the hole.  The rest of the story concerns the narrator’s interest and ultimate involvement in the situation. (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“The Godchildren” (New Yorker, October 12, 2009)

Posted in Charlotte Bronte, Death, Kate Bush, New Yorker, Short Story, Tessa Hadley on November 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

nyoct12SOUNDTRACK–KATE BUSH-The Kick Inside (1978).

Kick+InsideFor the longest time, Kate Bush was my soundtrack for reading.  There was something about her voice and her musical style that I felt was conducive to reading (must be the Wuthering Heights connection).

This, her first record, was recorded when Kate was 19, and now that I’m older (and have heard her later discs) I can really hear how young she sounds.  And with that youth comes a certain degree of naivete.  If you bring any amount of cynicism to this disc, it completely crumbles.  I mean she’s a teenager in the late 70s, so there’s an awful lot of earnestness here.  There’s Buddhist chants, there’s a lot of well written feminist thought, there’s an interpretation of Wuthering Heights.  There’s even whale songs in between tracks!

But there’s also a lot of songs about lost love.  And the thing that is so strange about that is, if I understand her biography correctly, she was not terribly worldly.   So the songs about lost men or Berlin pubs or even pregnancy are unusual to say the least.  And they show a furtive imagination.

So, you get songs of love and longing.  Songs about “Strange Phenomena.”  But you also get some wonderfully weird lyrics, like my favorite couplet: “Beelzebub is aching in my belly-o / My feet are heavy and I’m rooted in my wellios”

And I just love the audacity of her writing a song about Wuthering Heights (and, yup, it got me to read the book).  Not to mention the audacity of the notes she hits in the song.

Because clearly the thing most notable on the disc is her voice.  She wails and screeches and hits notes that were previously unheard in popular music.  The chorus of “Over the Moon” is striking in its ambition.  And let’s not forget the outrageous opening notes of “Wuthering Heights” (she’s so out there that she had to re-recorded it for the greatest hits record to try to get more airplay).  But no matter how otherworldly and at times bizarre her singing is, there is no doubt that her voice is a phenomenon unto itself.  Just listen to the gorgeous control she uses on “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”).

As she got older, she reined in some of the excesses of her voice (while unleashing excesses in other areas!).  She would begin multitracking her voice for awesome effect, as well as using some surprisingly deep gutteral vocals on other songs.

kickinsideKate would go on to write a few brilliant records in to 80s.  And this is certainly a fun starting point.

Of course, I’m disappointed that the US cover is the one featured above, which is clearly dumbed downed for US audiences who didn’t get (or like) her.  Because check out the cool original cover.  I mean, I’m not even sure what it’s all about, but it’s certainly more interesting!

[READ: November 6, 2009] “The Godchildren”

I loved the premise of this story from the get go.  And I thought it was a genius way to bring together three strangers who know each other.  The three characters: Amanda, Susan & Chris are the godchildren of Vivien.  Vivien was a friend of each of their parents, but she herself never had any children.  So, it was agreed early on that the three kids would occasionally spend a day with Vivien.  But the parents soon lost interest in talking to Vivien and the kids’ visits became something of a substitution for the parents actually talking to her. (more…)

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Alice Munro–“Too Much Happiness” (Harper’s, August 2009) & Charles Foran “Alice in Borderland” (The Walrus, September 2009)

Posted in 19th Century, Alice Munro, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Charles Foran, Don H. Kennedy, Dreams, Essays, Harper's, History, Marriage Trouble, The Walrus, Tindersticks on November 12, 2009| Leave a Comment »

harpersaugSOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Donkeys 92-97 (1998).

donkeysDonkeys is a collection of singles, rarities and unreleased recordings.  It came out just before Simple Pleasure, and has tracks from the era of the first four discs.

With the reissue of those first four discs (and all the bonus tracks therein) and the Greatest Hits collection, it’s not really necessary to get this for these rare tracks.  (I admit that I haven’t actually checked to see if all of the tracks here are now available elsewhere…there seems to be a number of different mixes and versions of songs, so I’ll let someone else do the legwork).

However, if you’re disinclined to get the reissued discs for whatever reason, this is a great collection of songs that are worth having for any Tindersticks fan.  And, interestingly, it works quite well as an introduction for the newbie: it features several of the most accessible songs from the first few discs.  But, for fans, the highlights include their great cover of “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.”  Also “Plus de Liaisons” a French version of  “No More Affairs.”  It also has the fabulous duet with Isabella Rossilini (“A Marriage Made in Heaven”) and another version of “For Those”  (I’m not entirely sure how many versions of that song exist, but there’s got to be about 3 or 4.

This disc is probably easy to track down cheaply since all the tracks are available elsewhere now (although my copy came from my friend Lar and has the Euro symbol on the Used sticker to prove it). Or, maybe it’s now totally rare and out of print and is hugely expensive.  Either way, it’s still a great collection of tracks.

[READ: November 5, 2009] “Too Much Happiness”

It’s a little lame to lump these two pieces together, but the Charles Foran article isn’t something I would review on its own.  Nevertheless, it is a very interesting look at Alice Munro’s hometown, and the Self-Guided Tour of Points of Interest in the Town of Wingham Relating to Alice Munro sounds like a fun thing to do if you’re in Ontario.  (Even if Munro herself is never actually there).

But onto Munro’s story.

I’ve only read a few stories by Alice Munro (they’ve all been reviewed here).  And yet, I’ve come to think of her as writing a certain type of story.  And this one does not conform to any of my notions of a Munro story.

First, it’s rather long. Second, it’s not set in Canada.  And third, it’s a historical piece about a real person.  There’s an author’s note at the end of the story which informs us that she learned about Sophia Kovalesky when she was looking up something else in the Encyclopedia Britannica (which I find charming in and of itself).  So, all of this seems to be something of a departure for her (at least from what I’ve read). (more…)

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Periodical: Prospect

Posted in Airlines, An Education, Art, Book Reviews, Books about music, Books about writers, Brian Eno, David Hockney, Essays, Frank Auerbach, History, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martha Wainwright, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Nature, NPR/PRI/PBS, Political Humor, Prison, Prospect, Technology, The Daily Show, The Wire, War, Warehouse 13, Word usage on November 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

propsectI recently received an e-mail from a nice person at Prospect (a British magazine).  The email asked if I’d like to review their magazine.  After being completely flattered, I said, “Of course!”  And then I waited nervously hoping that the magazine was good and that I wouldn’t have to say anything mean about it, because I would.  Oh yes, I would.

ctBut I don’t have to. They grabbed me right off the bat because the c & the t in the title are connected by a little filigree doodad.   I love typography, so that little flourish was a selling point (okay a superficial one, but I liked it immediately).

The “subtitle” of the magazine is “Good Writing About Things That Matter” and it is a totally apt description.  Prospect is a monthly magazine that covers all aspects of society: British, European, American and the world.  And, indeed, the writing is quite good.

In many ways it reminded me of The Walrus, a favorite magazine of mine.  (It’s a weird comparison since The Walrus has only been around for a few years, while Prospect has been around for about 13 (the November issue is number 164, so I’m guessing here), but it’s an apt comparison for its coverage: politics, culture, arts and more.

Because this was a new (to me)  magazine (and because I knew I’d be reviewing it), I decided to read every article.  There were a few that I thought I wouldn’t care much about.  But the writing totally grabbed me.  For instance, the article about Princess Diana (about whom I am indifferent) was fantastic.  It was cynical and funny and totally engaging.  And the same was true for just about every article in the magazine.

Normally I like to have at least two issues to refer to when reviewing.  So there may very well be things about this issue that are different from the others.  So, forgive, please, if I generalize incorrectly. (more…)

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Louis De Bernières–“The Girt Pike” (Prospect, November 2009)

Posted in Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Fishing, Louis De Bernières, Nostalgia, Paul Quarrington, Prospect, Short Story, Summer, The Doors, Tindersticks on November 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »

prospectSOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-can our love… (2001).

loveAfter Simple Pleasure, Tindersticks continued in this looser, less chamber-pop vein.  This disc features more organ fueled songs.  And– in something of a departure–they made many of the songs quite long (two are over seven minutes, one is almost nine!).  You could almost say these are jams, but that would give the wrong impression.

The band still sounds like Tindersticks (there’s no mistaking that voice), but they feel looser, less intense.  Yet they’re still passionate.  In fact, “People Keep Coming Round” and “Can Our Love” are two of their best tracks.  “People” has this really long keyboard section that my wife said sounded like the Doors, and she’s quite right about that.  But it’s more than just a Doors-keyboard solo.  It’s a catchy yet haunting single.

It’s easy to be feel disappointed about the latter Tindertsicks discs because they don’t rival the crazed intensity of their earlier ones.  And yet, Tindersticks is now a different band, playing a different kind of music.  It’s still beautiful, still affecting, it’s just different.

“No Man of the World,” the second to last song is a slow, meandering, deceptively simple song.  It features spoken lyrics and gently sung backing vocals.  And on first listen it’s nothing special, but the more you listen, the more elements you notice: strings, horns, sadness.  It’s really quite moving.

The disc ends with “Chiletime” another deceptively simple song that begins with an organ drone and simple strings.  Staples whispers his way through the first few bars.  But then the track builds to a full band with gorgeous vocals.  Then it slows down as if coming to and end, but it builds once more, this time to a beautiful finish.  It’s a perfect ending to this disc.

[READ: November 3, 2009] “The Girt Pike”

De Bernières wrote Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (which I’ve neither read nor seen the film).  In fact, this is the first story by him that I’ve read, and I’m fascinated by his style.  I don’t know if his other works are like this but I’m rather intrigued by this one.

This is a fairly simply story of a boy going fishing.  (I don’t fish myself, and I don’t really care all that much about fishing, but I’ve gotten a great deal of pleasure out of fishing stories (Paul Quarrington’s Fishing with My Old Guy was a surprise treat)).

The story opens with an endearing style that I would consider almost fairy-tale-like.  (The second sentence does indeed open with “Once upon a time”).  But the words are not of fairy-tales, rather, they reflect a somewhat nostalgic past: when boys fished in ponds with sticks and then threw the sticks to their dogs who splashed in the ponds.  Such an idyllic set up is altered somewhat once the “action” starts with the sentence: “On the morning that concerns us, however….” (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–possible excerpts from The Pale King: [“Three Fragments from a Longer Thing” (2000); “Good People” (New Yorker, February 5, 2007); “The Compliance Branch” (Harper’s, February 2008); “Wiggle Room” and “Irrelevant Bob” (New Yorker, March 9, 2009)]

Posted in Boredom, David Foster Wallace, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Infinite Summer, Karen Green, New Yorker, Pregnancy, Short Story, Tindersticks, Work on November 7, 2009| 2 Comments »

paleSOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Live at the Botanique, 9th-12 May 2001 (2001).

This is called an “official bootleg.”  It must be very rare as I can’t even find a picture of it online.  My friend Lar must have gotten it for me, as I have never seen the band live and it was (apparently) only available at their shows.  Or maybe I got it online during the tour?  Whatever the case, it’s a great live selection of their later songs.

It’s a cool collection of songs from shows over the course of three days.  It’s also interesting that the track listing is five songs from one gig, then three from the final gig and two from the middle one.  The band sounds great (the live setting always suits them). On this disc, Paula Frazer sings the duet of “Buried Bones” and there are some nice backing vocals from Gina Foster and Viki St. James on the last two tracks.

It’s a rather mellow set list, but the crowd certainly enjoys it.  And, as this is something of a greatest hits (of the more recent tracks), I could listen to it all day.

There appears to have been only one other “Official Bootleg”: Coliseu Dos Recreios De Lisboa – October 30th 2001.  But I’ve never seen it.

[READ: October 25, 2009] “Three Fragments from a Longer Thing,” “Good People,” “The Compliance Branch,” “Wiggle Room” and “Irrelevant Bob”

These are the last pieces of uncollected David Foster Wallace fiction that I had left to read.  I saved this for last because, well, they are supposedly parts of the soon to be released The Pale King.  Some of these pieces are definitely from The Pale King (it states so in the magazine  openings).  A couple are possible contenders for The Pale King, but we won’t know until the book comes out (sometime in 2010, I’m led to believe).  I had read some of these pieces before but it is much more satisfying to read them together.

The strange thing for me about these pieces is that when I read the New Yorker titles initially, there was no indication that the pieces were excerpts.  They treated them as short stories (even giving them titles).  So, when you read them, they feel like something is missing (namely 900 more pages).  And in many respects, I think that’s bad for the author.  Sure its good to get the work out there, but when a story feels unfinished, it leaves a bad taste in the readers’ mouth. (more…)

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Javier Marías–“While the Women Are Sleeping” (New Yorker, November 2, 2009)

Posted in Demons, Foreign Books, Funny (strange), Javier Marias, Marriage (Happy), New Yorker, Sex, Short Story, Summer, Tindersticks, Violence on November 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

nySOUNDTRACK: TINDERSTICKS-Simple Pleasure (1999).

tinderTindersticks changed a bit with this disc.  And it’s evident from the moment the opening track kicks in: “Can We Start Again” is the most upbeat (musically) song they’ve ever done.  (Even if lyrically it’s not exactly puppies and rainbows).  And it is a truly magnificent song.  The next track, “If You’re Looking for a Way Out” has Staples singing so emotionally, his voice almost seems to break.”

As the disc proceeds, new aspects of the Tindersticks come into view.  The biggest change is an influx of soul stylings.  Staples actually croons from time to time; but the two biggest soul aspects are the groovy keyboards (not unheard of on previous discs, but very prominent here) and some gorgeous female backing vocals.  Indeed, “From the Inside” is propulsive instrumental with very 60s-sounding organ.

“If She’s Torn” sounds like a beautiful long-lost soul song, especially with the delicate keyboard notes that sprinkle down as the songs ends.  The final two tracks “I Know That Loving” and “CF GF” prominently feature the backing vocalists and they end the disc on a glorious note.

This disc is considerably shorter than their previous ones.  It seems like rather than making an epic mood piece, they settled down to make a more simple soul, almost pop record (although surely not pop by conventional standards).

This was the first Tindersticks disc I bought and it remains one of my favorites.

[READ: October 29, 2009] “While the Women Are Sleeping”

I have not read any Marías before.  And I was delighted by the multifaceted nature of this story.

It begins rather lightly with a man and his wife people-watching on a beach.  He needs glasses but, as this is the beach, he doesn’t wear them (no facial tan lines!).  So, he squints at people until, through some fascinating physics, he looks through his wife’s straw hat and is able to see much better.  (The image of a man with a straw hat held to his face is quite amusing).

After relaxing and spying for a few days, a new couple appears on the beach.  She is stunningly beautiful and is pretty much always naked on the lounger (this is Europe after all).  Her boyfriend is a considerably older, overweight, balding man.  He spends his entire time on the beach filming her, every inch of her, while she rests/sleeps/checks for blemishes. (more…)

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Chris Ware–“Unmasked” (New Yorker, November 2, 2009)

Posted in Chris Ware, Demons, Graphic Novel, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Sex, Tindersticks on November 3, 2009| Leave a Comment »

nySOUNDTRACK: TINDERTSICKS-“curtains” (1997).

curtains“Rented Rooms” from Curtains is another one of my favorite songs. It is dark yet sensual at the same time: “We had to go find somewhere else more… you know.”  The disc itself works similarly to their first two discs.  It’s not as long, and is a little less dynamic.  But it is still unmistakably Tindertsicks.

The album has a lot more strings on it (not that it didn’t have strings before, but they feature more prominently here).  And they add a new dimension of tension and intensity to the proceedings. “Don’t Look Don’t ” has sections that sound like a scary action movie. “Desperate Man” returns to that gorgeous flamenco-tinged music that they played with on the first disc.

And “Fast One” has crazy demented strings as the song chugs along quite fast.  “Bearsuit” is a whimsical (!) look at sex.

“Buried Bones” is a gorgeous duet.  (Female singers complement Staples’ voice so well).  While “(Tonight) Are You Trying to Fall in Love Again” is another great uptempo string-filled song.  The disc ends with a trio of great tracks.  The beautiful “I Was Your Man” the sinister (I’ve never heard a band make a piano sound so sinister) “Bathtime” and the closer, “Walking”

The reissue comes with a bonus disc of alternate versions of songs from the disc (and some that didn’t make it). Yet another version of “For Those…”  It also has two versions of “Rented Rooms” (the orchestral version is quite fascinating). “Paco’s Theme” is a great instrumental. “Shadow” has that flamenco thing in spades as well.  Probably the best addition is “A Marriage Made in Heaven” a beautiful duet with Isabella Rossellini.

Curtains is something of a transitional record for Tinderstciks, and it’s not quite as awesome as the first two, but it is full of top notch songs.

[READ: October 29, 2009] “Unmasked”

I’ve enjoyed Chris Ware’s work  for years.  His cartoons are meticulous, fascinatingly detailed, often with crazily-sized boxes and sometimes hard-to-follow linear styles.  They are almost universally sad.  And I can’t get enough of them.

This one is the first I can remember in a long time that focuses on adult-adult relationships.  That’s not precisely true, as many of his stories deal with familial themes and the problems of growing up.  But, and perhaps that’s because this was a shorter piece (I’m more familiar with his longer multi-character-filled stories, the main characters are a woman and her mother.  (Her daughter is with them, and her husband is working). (more…)

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