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Garth Greenwell: A Classic Can Be Both ‘Homophobic’ and ‘Lifesaving’
What books are on your night stand? What tends to accumulate is a mix of active pleasure reading, books I hope to pleasure-read very soon and anything I might want a sip of before sleep. It rotates seasonally; it’s a mess. A selection: Poetry: James …
What books are on your night stand?
What tends to accumulate is a mix of active pleasure reading, books I hope to pleasure-read very soon and anything I might want a sip of before sleep. It rotates seasonally; it’s a mess. A selection:
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Poetry: James Longenbach, “Seafarer”; Lynn Xu, “Debts & Lessons”; Shakespeare’s sonnets.
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Fiction: Maya Binyam, “Hangman”; Kevin Lambert, “May Our Joy Endure” (translated by Donald Winkler); Mark Haber, “Lesser Ruins.”
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Nonfiction: François Truffaut, “The Films in My Life” (translated by Leonard Mayhew); Ryan Coyne, “Heidegger’s Confessions.”
What kind of reader were you as a child? Which books and authors stick with you most?
The first book I loved was “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” which still seems perfect to me. As a young kid, I read a lot of fantasy: Mercedes Lackey, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Guy Gavriel Kay. As an adolescent, I read all the books I could from the tiny, shadowy, wonderful gay and lesbian section at Hawley-Cooke Booksellers in Louisville: Baldwin, Barnes, Genet, Mishima, Kenan, Winterson, Woolf.
Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?
It’s not a novel, but a couple of friends and I are reading Heidegger’s “Being and Time,” which I’ve always been intimidated by. Being intimidated by books is an old, deep-seated impulse; it’s always a waste of time.
Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?
It’s amazing how angry some people get when they hear you’re reading Heidegger.
What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?
For years my answer has been Pedro Lemebel’s “My Tender Matador”; I can now add the new Penguin selection of his crónicas, “A Last Supper of Queer Apostles.” He is one of the world’s great writers; everyone should read him.
What’s the last book you read that made you laugh?
Miranda July, “All Fours.”
You’ve described yourself as a fan of “annoyingly obsessive granular” close reading. Where do you think that came from?
