What I’m reading: Anthony Lapwood
Ilike to have several unread books on the shelf and find my way from one to the next by theme or feeling. I’m also intrigued by what stories can sustain or juggle over different durations, and lately I’ve been relishing long stories or short novels.
After years of good intentions, I’m devouring Clive Barker’s books – currently his novella The Hellbound Heart, source of the Hellraiser films. Barker’s a master of the macabre, but I suspect his deeper interests in metaphysics and desire are shaped by his queer identity. I wish I’d read him earlier in life.
Barker follows on nicely from
A S Byatt’s Little Black Book of Stories. Across five novelettes, Byatt
introduces uncanny mysteries that reveal uncomfortable truths about her characters.
I’ve also enjoyed A Good Winter by Gigi Fenster and Entanglement by Bryan Walpert, both shortlisted for the Ockham awards. Fenster’s sustains the exacting voice of a tragically unreliable narrator, and like Byatt, uses discomfort as a dramatic force. Walpert’s is a sensitive exploration of tragedy and guilt, where processes of writing, memory and time-travel blend.
My book of stories, Home Theatre, grew up with Maria Samuela’s Beats of the Pa‘u, Clare Moleta’s Unsheltered and Sharon Lam’s Lonely Asian Woman at [Victoria University’s] International Institute of Modern Letters. I’ve loved returning to their work. Samuela is a versatile storyteller and she knows how to put a good sting in a tale. Clare’s novel is a thrilling look at what caring for others means in a crumbling world. Sharon’s novel is a hilarious and moving account of a young idler.
Next to find my way between are Devil House by John Darnielle (also a genius lyricist, with his band The Mountain Goats), How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, and Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell.