POETRY MONTH: text redacted from 2017 SAFE MODE by Sam Riviere blog post
redacted text from septy ’17
Tag: alcohol
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
fiction about child soldiers that felt a little underdone
John Barleycorn by Jack London
1914 memoir about alcoholism that oozes big denial
Every Fox Is A Rabid Fox by Harry Gallon
death, dying, dead
Street of Thieves by Mathias Enard
another ruddy belter from enard who i love
My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
a dark, engaging, affecting read
LOST #TotNTV EPISODE: Lily Dunn
A Wild and Precious Life
Drunken Baker by Barney Farmer
the bottle salves but doesn’t heal
Notes on ‘Camp’ by Susan Sontag
my past changes shape as my future brightens
#Breakdown: What happened to the blogging?
I have mental health problems
Home is on my Mind… by Sheena Rose
Review of a lo-fi art book and footnotes about depression
Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality by Fredric Jameson
A pointless book for pointless people.
Triumph of the Now TV
home of the lo-fi magazine web series
Happy Ending NOT Guaranteed by Liam Hogan
My latest review over at Open Pen discusses the point of fiction…
The Ladybird Book of The Hangover by J.A. Hazeley & J.P. Morris
Humour books about the bottle don’t sit right
Attrib. and other stories by Eley Williams
drowning in sobriety like I used to drown in booze; even sublime prose can’t hoist me happy
Dysfunctional Males by Fernando Sdrigotti
Men are disgusting.
Nicotine by Gregor Hens
If Gregor Hens can give up smoking, I can give up booze.
White Girls by Hilton Als
Off the booze (again), I enjoy a book but despair of life.
Swinging the Maelstrom: A Critical Edition by Malcolm Lowry
Lunar Caustic is a lie.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
an accurate depiction of the lust and boredom that threatens to overwhelm all of us who aren’t pious, delusional, fuckheads
Berg by Ann Quin
“Help me, help me,” I cry, “I’m too sober to read”.
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
I’m bored of life, but this book’s a banger.
Preacher: Book Four by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
Preacher is fine, but it’s irrelevant to real life. I should adopt a Syrian child refugee.
The 24-Hour Wine Expert by Jancis Robinson
Should non-fiction books about intoxicants even be legal, yeah?
Zone by Mathias Enard
pleasure is a lightening bolt that leaves no trace
Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl
Fantastic Mr Fox is an ode to adventure capitalism. My life is an ode to wine.
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz
Have you ever had a dream? Have you ever dreamt a day, a week, a month, a year? Have youContinue Reading
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
I don’t know where this book came from. I know I bought it, I’m pretty certain I went out ofContinue Reading
From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
This is my first blog post in a while, and even then it’s still happening a little earlier than expected.Continue Reading
Recovery by John Berryman
Long before James Frey was breaking Oprah Winfrey’s fragile heart by fictionalising his time in addiction therapy and the behaviourContinue Reading
Save Me The Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald
Once he had said, ‘If you want to choose, you must be a goddess.’ That was when she had wantedContinue Reading
So Sad Today: Personal Essays by Melissa Broder
I shouldn’t have read this. CONTEXT: I walk a tightrope, emotionally, one that has become longer and looser ever sinceContinue Reading
The Trip to Echo Spring by Olivia Laing
I’m an abyss filling up with regret and alcohol at equal measure, like a really wet martini.
The Neva Star: A Story by C.D. Rose
One of the good things about a sober evening is the mental energy to read. This is the only way IContinue Reading
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
Where is Pittsburgh? At any point while I read this novel, I could’ve looked it up. I didn’t, and I’mContinue Reading
Some Rain Must Fall: My Struggle Book Five by Karl Ove Knausgaard
It’s taken me a few more days than I’d hoped, but I’ve just finished reading the fifth book of KarlContinue Reading
Shaking Hands with Death by Terry Pratchett
When I was young it was normal practice for supermarkets to fill the spaces around the tills – where peopleContinue Reading
Othello by William Shakespeare
About two months ago I spent a week in Finland, driving through the countryside from flea market to charity shopContinue Reading
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
fuck So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckContinue Reading
Hip-Scott: Pass the Dostoevsky on the Left Hand Side
Please enjoy my hot new drag-hop video:
Sex: The Summer of Hard by Joe Casey and Piotr Kowalski
Again, I am too caffeinated to concentrate, too buzzed up to stop typing for more than the fifteen minutes orContinue Reading
¡Tequila!: Distilling the Spirit of Mexico by Marie Sarita Gaytán
Marie Sarita Gaytán is an American academic (an Assistant Professor of Sociology) and ¡Tequila!: Distilling the Spirit of Mexico is anContinue Reading
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
The Vegetarian by Han Kang is an odd book. I bought it for myself on my mad, wild, Foyles birthdayContinue Reading
Malcolm Lowry: Psalms and Songs (edited by Margerie Lowry
Psalms and Songs is an odd book, a collection of short stories by Malcolm Lowry (some previously published, others unfinished),Continue Reading
The Lost Weekend by Charles Jackson
Malcolm Lowry, secret hero of these blog posts, fell into a deep depression after the publication of Charles Jackson’s TheContinue Reading
A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck
I’m going on a trip to Russia in about six weeks, so have begun my travel research. Unlike normal people,Continue Reading
In Ballast to the White Sea (A Scholarly Edition) by Malcolm Lowry
The biggest tragedy in Malcolm Lowry’s life (in his own opinion) was when the lakeside shack he lived in burnedContinue Reading
The Minister of Evil – The Secret History of Rasputin’s Betrayal of Russia by William Le Queux
The Minister of Evil: The Secret History of Rasputin’s Betrayal of Russia is a very strange book. I read itContinue Reading
Filth by Irvine Welsh
Recently I’ve been very much enjoying Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong*’s Channel 4 police drama, Babylon. This under-watched TV showContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 