Author: benjwoodard

Categories
Essay

That long, long road…

Over at The Bygone Bureau, I have a short essay on road metaphors, David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, and Leos Carax’s Holy Motors:

Perhaps no metaphor saturates language more than the one that equates life with a journey down a long, winding lane. Frost has his forked path, Whitman his “Song of the Open Road.” Troubadours — from Springsteen to Willie to Kanye — march along with lyrics aimed to chauffeur listeners down Thunder Road or to unfurl “the coldest story ever told/ somewhere far along this road.” We even adopt such symbolism in everyday conversation. We seek direction, cross a bridge to make a decision, move on from failure, stand at the crossroads of change, and run into the speed bumps of life. We are so ensnared with this metaphor that it has turned into a cliché.

Read the rest right here.

Categories
Book Review

The book born on the 4th of July

I can’t think about Independence Day without my brain switching over to Aimee Mann’s song “4th of July.” Such a heartbreaking and beautiful tune, full of memory and regret. If you don’t know it, you’re missing out.

We all sit around cookouts and light fireworks, but the 4th of July simmers with an emotional undertone, doesn’t it?

There’s a new book out, titled The Fourth of July, that I recently reviewed for Rain Taxi. It’s a fun story, one that takes the chaos of the holiday and spins it like a screwball comedy. I compare it to an old Saturday matinee, and I think that’s a pretty good description. The men are loud and obnoxious. The women are nags. The rug gets pulled out over and over. People learn. Others don’t. Mix-ups are a common occurrence.

If you’re interested, you can find my thoughts right here.

Categories
Random

Archived

Though I’ve only been on Numero Cinq‘s masthead for a few months, I’ve actually (sporadically) published there for a couple of years. And now I have my very own archive page on the site. Check it out.

Categories
Book Review

Looking at Lipsyte

My review of Sam Lipsyte’s story collection, The Fun Parts, is titled “Laughing at Despair,” and that kind of sums up—in my mind, at least—the career of the author. He has such a gift for examining people living on the fringe, these desperate, lost souls. Yet what makes Lipsyte’s fiction so great is the fact that it turns these lives into uncomfortable comedy.

You can read my thoughts on the book over at Numero Cinq.