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A Review of The Sitter (2023) by Angela O’Keeffe
By Jay Innis Murray I could not help wondering last evening whether my attempt to describe the woman in the red armchair had given you any clear idea of it. – Rilke in a letter of October 23, 1907 Of the risks that paid off during the research and development era for English-language fiction (i.e. Continue reading
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The Aiken Street Bridge in Lowell / Jack Kerouac
In an amusing passage in his novel Visions of Gerard (1963), Jack Kerouac puts a fictional version of his father Leo (here in this passage, Emil) in the sidecar of a motorcycle that crosses the Aiken Street Bridge in Lowell. Following the passage are some photos of the bridge taken by me with my phone. Continue reading
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Notes for a Long Thing about Deadwood #1
For a long time, I’ve been writing a book about the HBO series Deadwood. It’s entirely in my head, the book. I scribble ideas or claims (sometimes daydreams) in my Deadwood notebook (red, spiraled). I want to make an argument about Al Swearengen. The first time I watched the show, Al struck me as a Continue reading
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Style Pop Quiz: Nabokov and Proust
By Jay Innis Murray In his lecture on Proust, Nabokov breaks down what he considers three especially distinctive elements of Proust’s style. With a flourish of humor, he describes metaphorical imagery, clauses, and Proust’s merging of conversations and descriptions. As a prelude to this, Nabokov makes a claim about style in general. It’s not a Continue reading
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On The Plotinus (2023), a novella by Rikki Ducornet
By Jay Innis Murray This sleek novella was published last month by Coffee House Press as part of their new NVLA series. The tag line for the series is an artistic playground where authors challenge and broaden the outer edges of storytelling. This novella is one of the first two in the series, and it Continue reading
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Mars is ghost country. A review of The Strange (2023) by Nathan Ballingrud.
By Jay Innis Murray “Mars is ghost country.” (Annabelle Crisp) An alternative history can be the launch pad for a ripping adventure yarn. The tradition is old and may seem played out, but, as a counter to that feeling, one of my favorite novels of the last decade is Paul Park’s underappreciated All Those Vanished Continue reading
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Mid-Year 2023 Reading List
I’ve finished 34 books half way through the year. Not a sprinter’s pace, but it is more titles than I finished in all of 2022. The list is below. There are some highlights. There are always highlights. I finished two books by the late Mark Fisher and also read probably 70% of his k-punk blog. Continue reading
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The Afterlife of Anecdotes: A Review of The Belan Deck (2023) by Matt Bucher
By Jay Innis Murray “An attempt to smuggle reality into anything, into a PowerPoint deck.” — The Belan Deck “Plotless. Characterless. Yet seducing the reader into turning pages nonetheless.” — David Markson, This Is Not a Novel The scaffolding of character and plot are here in The Belan Deck, but they can be summed up Continue reading
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Javier Marías describes a photograph in Tomás Nevinson (2021)
This passage moved me. I immediately recalled an image that had appeared in the press at the time, possibly after the Zargoza bombing, although it really doesn’t matter which, it was just one of those images you never forget; against a backdrop of desolation and destruction, the ground strewn with rubble and, hanging over it Continue reading
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What Time’s Arrow (1991) by Martin Amis is like
Martin Amis has died. He was 73. Have you read his novel Time’s Arrow (1991)? This is what it is like. To get at the feeling, I thought of describing events of my own life run backwards, and that’s a little disturbing. There’s the scene in the restaurant of yours truly removing the engagement ring Continue reading
About Talking Big
All posts by Jay Innis Murray.
Always on the lookout for new books to review. Please drop me a line at grashupfer@gmail.com or say hi on Twitter, Mastodon or Blue Sky.
Read my novel here: https://tinyurl.com/p98jtu7c
Recent Posts
- Impossible to Say: A Review of Glantz (2025) by Tobias Ryan
- A Review of The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
- Stealing Einstein’s Underpants – A Review of The Delegation (2025) by Avner Landes
- A Review of On the Calculation of Volume 1 (2024) by Solvej Balle
- A Review of The Cannibal Owl (2025) by Aaron Gwyn
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