Little Labors

ISBN-13: 9780811225588 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 136 str.

Rivka Galchen

Opis

Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book--a key inspiration for Rivka Galchen's new book--contains a list of -Things That Make One Nervous.- And wouldn't the blessed event top almost anyone's list?Little Labors is a slanted, enchanted literary miscellany. Varying in length from just a sentence or paragraph to a several-page story or essay, Galchen's puzzle pieces assemble into a shining, unpredictable, mordant picture of the ordinary-extraordinary nature of babies and literature. Anecdotal or analytic, each part opens up an odd and tender world of wonder. The 47 Ronin; the black magic of maternal love; babies morphing from pumas to chickens; the quasi-repellent concept of -women writers-; origami-ophilia in Oklahoma as a gateway drug to a lifelong obsession with Japan; discussions of favorite passages from the Heian masterpieces Genji and The Pillow Book; the frightening prevalence of orange as today's new chic color for baby gifts; Frankenstein as a sort of baby; babies gold mines; babies as tiny Godzillas ...Little Labors-atomized and exploratory, conceptually byzantine and freshly forthright-delights.