Jay

It's quite creepy to consider that the words of Osamu Dazai reek of an ongoing behavior within Japan–he wrote this shortly before his death in 1948!–that is defined by a contradictory form of servitude (emotionally torn, functionally obedient) and a penchant for vices. No Longer Human evokes the kind of self-awareness that should be alarming, even as it packages itself as a fictional reading of three notebooks from a character named Oba Yozo.

The quickest way I can describe reading this is that it evokes itself so nonchalantly that any form of Japanese media that comes before or after makes a lot of sense. It's astounding to consider that this is all compressed into such a story. Wow.

I do feel an immensely richer undertaking with Children of Dune. The way Herbert navigates the aftermath of Messiah and steers it towards an adventure wrought in suffering and constant dilemmas... it's really impressive to see that the book just takes on a weird life of its own, even moreso than Messiah ever had.

It’s really hard to appreciate in full unless you are a curious scholar of Kafka. But he does write with elegance and when the lines work, they do. Just as it does when the last letter appears and the story of a relationship in letters ends on a bittersweet one.

That was more intriguing than the first!

Not since Raymond Carver's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" have I felt a surge inside of me after reading a collection of short stories. With SWWLYAYDG it is an intensely curated mishmash of stories built to rollercoaster your feelings in ways unimaginable. The type where you can't binge this in one go because every single story is made to hit you somewhere. It could be about firm lawyers, or bizarre wedding rituals, or scientists walking into doors, but the feelings are just the same.

It's a considerable flex that Raphael Bob-Waksberg can write prose like this that stands quite differently (or complimentary) to his work on Bojack Horseman. A clear display of talent and finesse at work.