robert stone

I've just finished Robert Stone's short story volume, Bear and his Daughter. Tales of fear and addiction, just miserable reading if it weren't for Stone's absolute perfection of craft. I've read two of his novels before now: Damascus Gate, a story of social apocalypse told around a handful of broken-hearted foreigners living in Jerusalem, and A Hall of Mirrors, about a doomed and drunk New Orleans couple. As Lady Day sings: but beautiful.

Those were good, but I prefer the stories.

A lot of alcohol and crystal meth here, almost to the point where you roll your eyes when yet another character drinks too much scotch or dips her fingers into an envelope of powder. If it bothers you, you'll forgive his reliance on speed and liquor as plot drivers since his writing is so tight and his characters so right on.

I'm now onto Chabon's 'Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay'. (I love the design on this book.) In baby reading, I'm looking at 'What's Going on in There?', 'Sign with your Baby' and 'Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child'.