Tommy Pico’s IRL Saved my Personal Statement

I wish I could say I discovered Tommy Pico’s IRL in a dusty library basement, a spotlight shining down on his debut book, a light of hope in an otherwise dreary and bleak world. In reality, I heard about the Native American poet infiltrating classrooms on NPR, interviews, reviews, etc. Then I stumbled across his Instagram and quickly followed his fun, lovable persona. After admiring from afar for about a year, I finally bought IRL. Hearing so much about this book, I expected to be impressed, but that was it. I like to play Devil’s Advocate, particularly the kind that is a skeptic on everything that high-brow critics define as art or revolutionary. I braced myself for hot air stylistically delivered. And now, I’m here to tell you, the real-life Pawnee Public Radio’s hosts —those guys, well, they’re right. IRL is incredible.

BOOK REVIEW: Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler

You are about to begin reading Sirena’s book review on Italo Calvino’s If on a winter’s night a traveler. Adjust the lighting or the brightness on your phone or laptop, so as not to strain your eyes. You’ve come here because you’ve seen Calvino’s book in a bookstore and you’re currently debating on whether or not you should get it. You decide that you should. You open his book and you find that you are the protagonist. You are the Reader and, the plot of which you read, is of you reading.

On Real Women and Allende

It’s taken me a long while to write this, in part due to the business of life and in part due to my tendency to fully digest a work before offering any analysis. In the case of Allende’s 500-page masterpiece, there is an overabundance of themes, devices, motifs, styles, etc., etc. that needs to be absorbed. I wonder even now if I am entirely ready. Therefore, I’ll tackle a specific subject which is the most invaluable lesson that I believe can be and should be learned from The House of Spirits: how to properly write female characters.

BOOK REVIEW: Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits

Isabel Allende’s The House of Spirits, often compared to Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, holds a, as Publishers Weekly writes, “distinctive voice, however…being clearer, more accessible, and more explicit about the contemporary situation South America.” Existing in multiple dichotomies, focusing on the links and loops of history, story upon story of love and violence, The House of Spirits shows the literary world how women, and men, should be written: honestly. I’ll delve into this more so in another post, but if you are interested in how real women are best portrayed, open this book.

A Gift from García Márquez

One of my favorite writer interviews is a YouTube video my Fiction II professor showed our class. The video, linked below, gives a small look into the most famously asked but vaguely answered question that many writers, and artists in general, come across. As Neil Gaiman quite humorously puts it “we [writers] don’t really know.” Readers or admirers of any artist often wonder how someone could come up with an idea that produces something so beautiful but, more so than writers, we, as onlookers, barely know. Yes, we can often see, at the very least, a loose connection between an author’s life and their writing. But that, after all, is only rooted in assumptions. Even if our assumptions are correct, we cannot, as outsiders, pinpoint the exact moment in time when an idea sparks with life—not without the help of the artist.

BOOK REVIEW: Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez

As you open Of Love and Other Demons  are met by “an ash-gray dog,” you may search the pages for men with enormous wings or the travelling show of an enslaved prostitute or, at the very least, a little town named Macondo.

Stop now, lest you’ll be disappointed.