It took me years to stop looking for the triangles in paintings after Freshman year Art 101. Not as long to enjoy a good read without trying to extract the ‘hidden’ voice in the work. Sometimes all the signifying buries the work so deeply that it is no longer possible to enjoy it for what it is.

Miz O’Connor’s characters and situations may be her invention, but their essence is drawn from the fertile red mud of middle Georgia. ‘Keep Milledgeville Crazy’!

Sebald’s books are far, far better known than Cole’s book. I mean, there are volumes of critical studies on Sebald’s stuff (I’ve reviewed at least one here), conferences, blogs devoted to him, etc. Maybe your perception is that Cole is “mainstreaming” Sebald (I’m not sure if that’s what you’re suggesting), but I’d say it’s more like Sebald is a raw template for Cole, or opening for Cole, maybe, as to what a novel can be. In turn, Sebald is following Thomas Bernhard, adding his own synthesis; these writers are, for lack of a better metaphor, “writing away” form the 19th century novel, as well as the conceits of modernism and postmodernism.

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A great writer.

“Jesus Christ is a robot who died for our sins.”