i am alt lit

79.0 :: ‘today & tomorrow’ by ofelia hunt

‘today & tomorrow’ by ofelia hunt // magic helicopter press, 2011

there are a lot of ‘non-sequiturs.’ those are good. words are said by the narrator that are not quite clear in meaning or intention.

billy murray kittens in a basket.

this is probably the best book i’ve never finished.

i’ve changed the ‘score’ of this book between 1-5 times in the past 3 minutes.

there is erik. there is aaron. there are funny car scenes. with dogs. with other people. there are funny driving scenes. with cars. with zambonis.

people get hugged. people get threatened. people get tied up.

feel like the narrator is desperate. wants something ‘more’ out of life. feel like she is unsure of what that is. must go to convenience stores to find the meaning of life.

is certain in her misdirected goals. every chapter makes a lot of sense, could stand on its own as ‘great’ examples of alt-lit.

forward-thinking concrete details with sharp absurdity of ‘modern living.’ 

but

very little pay-off long-term. except for the immediacy of what’s there, the particular observation or sentence construction.

Merna’s lips continue to move soundlessly in a sudden and jerky way. I watch them closely, their pinkness, the stuttering shuffled way each lip pulls from the other then clamps back into place, the wet tongue darting between the lips and retreating behind the wet teeth, waiting for the next daredevil move, springing crazily outward.

seems like the problem is that the ‘narrative’ is unsustained. much funny(!) scrutiny, little forward motion. books have plot or something. this one has more of ‘something.’ though it’s really something, that something.

have you seen that movie ‘young adult’? 

will ‘more than likely’ read ofelia hunt again.