“Madame Manec brings sandwiches. Etienne doesn’t have any Jules Verne, but he does have Darwin, he says, and reads to her from The Voyage of the “Beagle,” translating English to French as he goes — the variety of species among the jumping spiders appears almost infinite… Music spirals out of the radios, and it is splendid to drowse on the davenport, to be warm and fed, to feel the sentences hoist her up and carry her somewhere else.” –Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See, 2014 “SUDDENLY IT WHIPS FROM THE ANGRY SEA — A BEHEMOTH THAT SMASHES INTO THE QUINJET, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“For a few breaths he forgets himself in the swim of nature around him. Its rhythm is so different from Bit’s human own, both more nervous and more patient. He sees a bug that is smaller than a period on a page. He sees the sky, bigger than all that’s in his head. An overwhelm from two directions, vast and tiny, together.” –Lauren Groff, Arcadia, 2012 “YOU SPEAK SO CASUALLY OF DEATH, VIPER. I GREW UP WITH DEATH. I WALKED HAND IN HAND WITH IT ALL MY LIFE! I SAW CHILDREN STARVE IN THE RUINS OF STALINGRAD, AND MEN FREEZE SOLID … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“Outside it was one of those depressing blue-crystal-golden-drops-of-sunlight afternoons. The weather is always perfect at Four BEE, but now and then the Jang manage to sabotage something, and we get a groshing, howling sandstorm come sweeping in past the barrier beams to cheer us all up. I’ll never forget the time Danor and I, both female then, I might add, disabled the robot controller at Lookout 9A and let in a downpour of volcanic ash from one of the big black mountains outside, floods of it for units and units — everything went zaradann. They had to deliver food by … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“My favorite bit of Outside is the window. It’s different every time. A bird goes right by zoom, I don’t know what it was. The shadows are all long again now, mine waves right across our room on green wall. I watch God’s face falling slow slow, even orangier and the clouds are all colors, then after there’s streaks and dark coming up so bit-at-a-time I don’t see it till it’s done.” –Emma Donoghue, Room, 2010 “THE ROARING SILENT SCREAM OF INTERSTELLAR SPACE RUSHES THROUGH THE SENSES OF THESE ONCE-MEN…SENSES ROOTED FIRMLY TO THE EARTH. THE GLOW OF A LIFETIME … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“I go back to the porch and stand there for a minute. The sky is darker. I can see a firefly or two. One of the little boys in the neighborhood passes by on his bike, all shiny blue, with training wheels on the back. There are streamers on the handlbars. The cat that kills birds walks by. I’ve been known to fill a water pistol and squirt the cat when nobody’s looking. I’ve also turned the hose on it. It walks on the edge of our lawn. I know just what it’s thinking.” –Ann Beattie, “Home to Marie,” 1986 … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“‘I was hoping we’d go together.’ I winced at hearing myself reproduce the tones of some minor courtier, or possible those of Ralph Bellamy in a movie belonging to Cary Grant.” –Jonathan Lethem, Chronic City, 2009 “MIDNIGHT IN MANHATTAN: ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE LOOK UP FOR A MOMENT FROM THEIR AIMLESS, POINTLESS SCURRYINGS — LOOK UP, AND ARE WARMED BY THE ROCKET’S BATHING GLOW. THEN, THEY LOWER THEIR HEADS ONCE MORE, AND THEIR HALF-DREAMS DIE A-BORNING…” –Roy Thomas, FANTASTIC FOUR, Vol. 1, No. 159, “Havoc in the Hidden Land!” 1975 Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“‘Well, Tommy,’ he said, pulling on his Albert-Einstein-riding-an-invisible-bicycle sweatshirt, ‘the fact is that most childhood fears that carry on into adulthood tend to be sexual in nature. Particularly, I would think, if they have to do with monkeys.’” –Bradley Denton, Lunatics, 1996 “NEW YORK IN AUGUST. THE VERY BEST TIME NOT TO PLAN A TRIP TO FUN CITY, AS ITS EX-MAYOR USED TO CALL IT…BEFORE HE GOT OUT! THE TEMPERATURE RARELY DROPS BELOW EIGHTY…THE AIR HANGS HAZY AND BURNS IF IT GETS IN YOUR EYES…AND THE CLOSEST THING TO RAIN IS THE SCATTERED DRIPPING OF EIGHT MILLION AIR CONDITIONERS. NEW … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“While he was watching, Polly walked the length of the porch and bent over to scrape something out of a bucket — lye soap, it looked like. She was a pretty woman, light of step; he had always fancied women who were light of step. The sight of her made him all the more anxious to get the gunplay over with, so he could take her on home.” –Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Zeke and Ned, 1997   “DAWN CREEPS OVER MANHATTAN, PAINTING AVENGERS MANSION IN BLOODY HUES.  INSIDE, STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY DOWN A PLUSH-CARPETED HALL IS A LONE FIGURE…A QUIET, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“I took a deep breath and told Arthur I wasn’t just somebody to fuck. ‘What did you think we were?’ he said. ‘A little family?’ He was getting into a lot of harder drugs — they made him say things he didn’t agree with a few minutes later. But they were still the things he said. That was the last time I felt betrayed by a man, I think. Afterward I expected it.” — Leslie Jamison, The Gin Closet, 2010 “THE POWER KNOWS NO DISTANCE! IT PROJECTS FOR MILES — TO THE CITY! TO A BUILDING — TO A WINDOW! AND … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature

“I stopped listening to tapes at some point: it was a phase. You either get used to noises in your head, or you learn to focus instead on whatever other noises happen to present in the room, like the air conditioner. Still, I kept them, and they’re arranged neatly on the top of the dresser in my bedroom, which means Vicky dusts them once a week. They look like museum pieces now. Chaos Blood, Black Lake, Rexecutioner’s Dream. Sean at sixteen thought Rexecutioner’s Dream was the greatest thing he’d ever heard, something so strange and different it seemed like a … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature