Prospecting, maps, old typewriters, some dogs, rafting, heavy foods, fruit trees, weather, sorting boxes of correspondence from angry relatives, psychopharmacology, old abandoned shacks in the woods, coincidences, La Capra Crepa, low tide, my bike, the Yukon
Music
Neil Finn, John Prine, Greg Brown, Steve Woodhams, Turtle Island SQ, Belle and Sebastian, Barenaked Ladies, classical, opera, sea shanties
Movies
Ginger e Fred, Best of Youth, Io Non Ho Paura, My Life as a Dog, The Last Wave, Sense and Sensibility, Waiting for Guffman, To Russia With Love, Modern Times, The Party
Books
Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unconsoled, So Long, See you Tomorrow, Concluding, Warlock, Wild Sheep Chase, Dance, Dance, Dance, A Fan's Notes, A Fortunate Life, The Vivisector, The Verificationist, Catfish and Mandala, Pagan Time, The Riders, The Talented Mr. Ripley, War and Peace, The Ambassadors/Portrait of a Lady, Old School, Light Years, In His Own Write, The Crazed, Accidents in the Home, March, Isaac and His Devils, The Master, The Boy Who Loved Windows, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.
What I'm reading right now: THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A BEAR, John Straley Just finished: THE MANTICORE, Robertson Davies THE SEA, THE SEA, Iris Murdoch CONCLUDING, Henry Green REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, Richard Yates THE WORLD'S MOST HANDSOME MAN, Edwin Heaven THE LIFE AND EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF PRIVATE IVAN CHONKIN, Vladimir Voinovich THE MOTHER OF WATER, Kathryn Kefauver HOW PROUST CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE, Alain De Botton SATURDAY, Ian McEwan THE EMPEROR'S CHILDREN, Claire Messud PUG HILL, Alison Pace OFF TO THE SIDE, Jim Harrison On the nightstand: SUNSTROKE AND OTHER STORIES, Tessa Hadley
Wit's END, Karen Joy Fowler "McKenzie is an accomplished humorist and a developed stylist, and she wastes no time dazzling the reader with her clean direct language, her simple but searing use of metaphor and her unflinching eye. The paragraphs are put together with razor sharp concision, and the book is rich in both narrative and linguistic surprise. An original."--NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW “McKenzie's observations prove to be droll, shrewd, fair-minded, and irresistibly entertaining. This is a writer whose modesty and ingenuousness threaten to disguise the range and subtlety of her gifts."—ATLANTIC MONTHLY "Hilarious." --NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED "McKenzie single-handedly reinvigorates the coming of age genre. Here is a writer to watch and a book to breeze through with glee." --SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE "Smart, funny, and fiercely observant."--LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW "A smart, swift-paced debut that couldn't be more engaging."--O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE --A NEWSDAY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
DAVID SCHICKLER, author of KISSING IN MANHATTAN and SWEET AND VICIOUS: "Elizabeth McKenzie's wonderful, winning and sympathetic novel frees you by enchanting you. Her hero, MacGregor West, glides around San Francisco, dappled in the liberal summer light of first love, wolfing tacos, suffering truths. When MacGregor begs his girlfriend not to freak out but to freak in--to stick by him and his dizzy, determined way of reckoning with the world, make sure you take his dare. You'll want to buy a drink for this kid and for the first-rate author who gave him to us."
*****
ALFREDO VEA, author of LA MARAVILLA and GODS GO BEGGING, says: "Reading MacGregor Tells the World was like being kidnapped and carried off. I found myself peering into cryptic yet fully rendered lives and eavesdropping on delicious conversations...and completely unable, unwilling to tear myself away. Elizabeth McKenzie's writing spirited me away to a stunning denouement on a carefully crafted tide of wit and words that can only be described as irresistible."
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BRILLIANT WRITER/CRITIC JAMES MARCUS READING MACGREGOR TELLS THE WORLD AT 7000 FEET while hiking in eastern Oregon! See House of Mirth.
Hey Thanks for lending your ears and taking the time. Hope things are well with you and a propos of Spoleto, I finally got this baby off the ground ie Summer Literary Seminars with Creative Writing Workshops in Italy with Francine Prose, Robert Coover, Mary Di Michele, Vittorio Rossi for two weeks of inspiration, hard work and some genius. Join us 15-30 May 2009. Our website: www. sumlitsem. org. Tell your friends!
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