I’ve started reading these out to my wife over coffee on the weekends. She loves them too. Hearing these pieces with the inner ear, when I read them to myself, and with the actual ears outside of my head has been brilliant, like looking at a sculpture from multiple angles. Also, once she gasped at something you'd written that I'd laughed at, and we had a fun argument about who was reading it right. (Obviously my wife won.)
You may, but whether I can answer is dependent on memory/my ability to find the line again. I forget which essay it was from now (we've read a whole bunch together at this point), but if I do recall it I'll drop it here.
Got it! It was from the one about your fight with the manager, where you think up the insult about his having a "cream of muscle". My wife thought that was brutal (though impressively so), and I thought it was joyfully clever. She read it through the lens of empathy, through the person it was aimed at; I read it through the lens of writing, as an intellectual achievement on your part.
Agreed. I discovered this Substack through Naomi Kanakia and there is something so intriguing about this writing style. The different vignettes jump around randomly until I slowly make out the connecting thread somewhere near the end. There's also a certain melancholy that I can never trace to any exact word or phrase.
I'm always delighted when someone says they were amused by one of these but this is the first time I've heard anyone describe the experience of reading it. I'm still figuring out what I'm doing here so this was really meaningful, thank you. I've been thinking about it since last night.
I’ve started reading these out to my wife over coffee on the weekends. She loves them too. Hearing these pieces with the inner ear, when I read them to myself, and with the actual ears outside of my head has been brilliant, like looking at a sculpture from multiple angles. Also, once she gasped at something you'd written that I'd laughed at, and we had a fun argument about who was reading it right. (Obviously my wife won.)
What a bizarre delight to hear lol this is such a warming thought! May I ask which line lent itself to different readings?
You may, but whether I can answer is dependent on memory/my ability to find the line again. I forget which essay it was from now (we've read a whole bunch together at this point), but if I do recall it I'll drop it here.
Got it! It was from the one about your fight with the manager, where you think up the insult about his having a "cream of muscle". My wife thought that was brutal (though impressively so), and I thought it was joyfully clever. She read it through the lens of empathy, through the person it was aimed at; I read it through the lens of writing, as an intellectual achievement on your part.
I like your style.
Thanks, I thrifted it
Writing style. (If that was a joke, you're super quick - hat's off)
Lol I know -- and thank you, I appreciate the compliment, and I'm glad you enjoyed the piece!
Agreed. I discovered this Substack through Naomi Kanakia and there is something so intriguing about this writing style. The different vignettes jump around randomly until I slowly make out the connecting thread somewhere near the end. There's also a certain melancholy that I can never trace to any exact word or phrase.
I'm always delighted when someone says they were amused by one of these but this is the first time I've heard anyone describe the experience of reading it. I'm still figuring out what I'm doing here so this was really meaningful, thank you. I've been thinking about it since last night.
I enjoyed this so much I just bought a Kindle version of Cubafruit. I'll start that now.
That's wonderful! I hope you like the book, and it makes my day to think enjoyed this enough to give that a shot, thanks for letting me know!
Enjoying CUBAFRUIT!
That's wonderful, Im so glad to hear it!
I love this so much. Beautiful 🙏
Thank you for giving it a shot, Im glad you enjoyed it!