Clark Ashton Smith, The End of the Story (2015)

It is definitely a bit jarring to go from the relentless understated realism of Anthony Powell to...the opposite of that.  But that's what I've gone an' done here!  Smith was one of those dudes writing "weird fiction" for pulp magazines in the early-mid twentieth century, along with people like Lovecraft (with whom he had a long-running literary friendship) and Robert E. Howard.  This is the first of five volumes collecting the stories he wrote in that vein.

Read more »

Anthony Powell, Casanova's Chinese Restaurant (1960)

Well that was slightly better time. What of the name? Well, there was some fusion Italian-French restaurant that then went out of business and was bought by the Chinese restaurant down the block so there you have it.

Read more »

Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's (1957)

Am I taking a FULL MONTH to finish each of these?  THAT'S not practical!  Well...I had various things going on.  Preparing for classes...breakthrough COVID...memorizing the entirety of "The Raven" for no reason...spending too much time playing Eastward on the ol' Switch...you know how it goes.  And it's too bad, because I think this one was actually pretty engaging; it's just hard to really judge when you go so darn slowly.  OH WELL.

Read more »