The River Swimmer - Jim Harrison

This book contains two novellas - one concerning an aging art professor and the other explores a gifted, young swimmer whose wisdom belies his years.

Harrison seems to use his characters as proxies of himself lately and these two novellas are no different - lustful outdoors-men who enjoy their whiskey, wine and food. At first I was scared that this his writing was beginning to become a parody of itself, but even if these tropes show up often, his insights and prose lay the parody notion to rest. Mr. Harrison, please keep writing about struggles of the heart, the mysteries of life and if whiskey, women and French cheeses seem to often appear in the mix, so be it. What a ridiculous complaint, eh?

The Flamethrowers - Rachel Kushner

Chapter 3, in its entirety, is a study in beautiful language. I dug the motorcycle parts. I didn't dig the art parts. I dig her obvious love of language. I didn't dig her obvious overuse of language.

This is another "flawed genius" book. It's worth the pretense and, let's be honest, I think it's impossible for any artist not to be ostentatious as part of the process of creation. Two of William Blake's proverbs of hell come to mind: "You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough, " and "Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity."

Albeit the pretentiousness, Kushner is a tremendous talent whom I hope can replicate what amount of language is "just enough" more often.