420 Characters
Lou Beach
169 pp
Here's one of the entries in the book: "I lay the book on the floor, open to the middle. It's a lovely volume, green leather covers, engraved endpapers. I remove my shoes and step into it up to my ankles, knees, hips, chest, until only my head is showing and the pages spread around me and the words bob up and down and bump into my neck, and the punctuation sticks to my chin and cheeks so I look like I need a shave."
Each of the 169 pages of this book has a mini-story like the one above. Each of the stories is a perfect moment of prose. Some are disturbing, some amusing and some are just downright strange but they are all beautifully crafted and incredibly appealing. Each calls to mind a distinct image and emotion. The author, Lou Beach, is an artist who's done album covers and illustrated for magazines such as The New Yorker and Harper's. Paintings are interspersed throughout the book. In fact, each of the stories is sort of like a painting. The effect is like walking through an art gallery, contemplating each work in the artist's exhibition. Some you stare at for quite awhile, others receive barely a glance but all move you to marvel at the creativity and to wish you could paint that way.
I'll be thinking about this book long after I've turned it in. In fact, I might need to own a copy. For a librarian who knows the joy of reading for free, that's saying something.
Kim F
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