Eduardo Santiago

Skip it. Blasphemy, I know, but consider: Equal Rites and Mort, Sir Terry’s first decent books, are 1987 and 1988 respectively. The dreadful Color of Magic is 1983. These stories, with one exception, are 1970-1975! Publishing them is like grabbing Picasso’s third-grade sketches off his parents’ fridge. Sure, there are tiny recognizable glimmers of what is to come, but they’re stepping stones. None of this is actually good nor worth reading.

Sweet... cozy... sometimes to the point of cloying. Preachy... but entirely about values aligned with mine (kindness, community, chosen family, antiracism, resistance to bullying) so that gets a pass. Cringey levels of privilege: the love interests are all physically attractive (and we're constantly reminded of it), the main action takes place in a beautiful seaside estate without concern for anything so pedestrian as money, and all crises -- tense as they are -- get resolved rather more conveniently than is customary in (at least <i>my</i>) real life.

Still.

I liked it. Really liked it. Unashamedly. Not in a guilty-pleasure or bubblegum sort of way, either: it had depth and warmth and tension and a lot of heart.

There is a lot packed into this short work. Not all of it worked for me, but the ninety percent that did, wow. And the rest, it's probably a failing in me: one gift-slash-curse of mediocrity is being able to recognize genius but only myopically, where you know it's there and if you squint you can almost make it out but you know there's much more to it.

Like, Sokal Hoax. Chapter 2 is obviously a riff on pompous postmodernist windbags, with lovely echoes throughout the rest of the book. Or is it? And Heller: I thought I saw hat tips to Catch-22 several times, particularly the absurdist exchange between de Kooning and Rauschenberg. But what am I really seeing? I can tell that's the central focusing point in the book, but I lack the ability to see it in its fullness.

Erasure is much more than satire. I'd say the main theme is loneliness, with Everett tackling it from an impressive number of perspectives. Loss, too, and racism, code switching, integrity (artistic and personal), and our human need to be seen. Plus much, much more.

I didn't mean to read it. I picked it up intending to skim, scan, browse. It didn't work out that way.

This book is amazing. Not only do the authors have an eerie sense for human factors, they can communicate their findings. Well organized, well written, almost even inspirational. It was moment after moment of “aha!”, recognizing so many examples of what I've seen in real life to work and not to work. The gift of genius is to explain something so well that it seems obvious in hindsight; the authors accomplish that.

I think this has the potential to be a life-changing book. I wish I'd read it twenty years ago.

[November 2018 update: I just noticed there's a Second Edition. Please note that my review is for the First; I have not read the Second, so please do not be discouraged from reading that because of my review.]This is material I need to recommend; I just can't recommend this book. At least not to my friends, not to the people I hang out with or care about. Read [b:Nonviolent Communication 71730 Nonviolent Communication A Language of Life Marshall B. Rosenberg https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386925124s/71730.jpg 2766138] instead. Please.Verbal Judo is... disturbing. It's about communication, but the undertone is about lying and pretending to empathize in order to get people to do what you want:“The other person will believe you're trying to understand. Whether you really are interested is irrelevant.” (p.81)Halfway through the book, I almost abandoned it. I was feeling upset, dejected, cheapened. But I persisted, picking it up again after a day. Now I don't know. My best guess is that the author has developed compassion, has grown into a decent human, but is using a gruff tone to reach a coarser target audience. Bubbas for whom “listen” is a four-letter word. This is an all-macho book. Maybe he's hoping to civilize a few people by surprise? I don't know. I'll hope that's it, and wish him well.There is important material in Verbal Judo: stuff that is critically important to know to lead a better life. But to my friends and loved ones: please read Marshall Rosenberg's [b:Nonviolent Communication 71730 Nonviolent Communication A Language of Life Marshall B. Rosenberg https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386925124s/71730.jpg 2766138]. That's about being a better person, developing better relationships, about caring. Not just pretending.