I read Iberia (a non-fiction book) as required prep for a study abroad semester in Spain, and I liked it. I recently tried reading The Drifters, a novel, and while it wasn't bad, I wouldn't tell anyone to stop what they're doing and tear through it. Too long, for one thing. When you're 250 pages into a novel and the…

Oh, stop, you're still doing very well. Keep those experience points.

Years ago I had a great experience watching Signs, not because of the film itself (which was okay), but because the group of teenage girls in the front row who consistently lost their shit and went into hysterical screaming fits every time a cat jumped out of a garbage can or whatever. The whole theater had a blast…

@avclub-3db41011acc2d229176bf6a92202728d:disqus I would say most of these books were appreciated when they were published. A number of them are still appreciated. So they don't quite fit with this list. But they do indeed emphasize what an important year for books 1983 was.

I want to add what an awesome column this is—hardly any reviewers go back through the stacks to find the underappreciated gems published in ages past, and I welcome it with glasses perched seductively mid-way down the bridge of my nose. I will always owe a debt of gratitude to New York Review of Books Press, for…

The first I've heard of this book but the review above, and this comment, really make me want to read it. You persuasive devils, you.
I've heard about Wilcox for decades, and never read one of his books, though I bought a copy of Sort of Rich years ago and probably still have it somewhere. I need to retire early so I…

I remember being more shocked and horrified by the landowner's seduction of his niece (now THAT was a jarring reveal) than by his castration; when we find out his wife cut him, and that it was his crotch, I felt relieved for the young women around him.
And yeah, Max Von Sydow rules in this movie. His best performance,…

I saw My Girl 2 in a run-down movie theater; about halfway in, I noticed that the rubbish in the aisles was moving; not only did I see a rat, I saw several. Rats were running back and forth across the aisles in the dark. I kept moving my feet to make sure rats stayed away and didn't crawl up my legs (but I was too…

"Liked," but not because I enjoyed it. It was a "like" or support. My sympathies, that sounds just crushing.

I was describing the "Valerie's story" issue of the V for Vendetta comic to someone the other day and my voice started catching, like I was on the brink of a sob. Powerful stuff.

There's a "too much?"

No, Italy is-a where-a they have-a the hot a-broads.

You rang?

@avclub-9024f9f0a80d2d248c7c6efb2e715c37:disqus I would cite HPL's letters to Willis Conover as a pretty solid and sincere demonstration of Lovecraft bemoaning the racist things he said when he was younger (claiming, it might be okay to go through a bigoted phase when you're young and dumb, but coming from a man in…

@avclub-d9f98704e1610e7073dbee992ee1f381:disqus Yeah, his change of heart doesn't erase his earlier racism, but given the enduring flaws in humanity, seeing someone take baby steps toward being a better person is better than nothing.
@avclub-717729ce391c20ef3e722c3e6ef79a58:disqus I think he did support the New Deal,…

As a young man, Lovecraft (like a lot of other guys in the era before WWI) was a staunch believer in "racial purity," and it's there in bright neon in those early stories. He moved to New York, and spent his time there seething at everyone who wasn't a WASP. Thing is, his attitude clearly started changing, and you can…

Even for a Lovecraft fan, reading all of the author's stories is not rewarding. There are too many bad ones. And his ghostwriters did him no favors, perpetuating the worst of his concepts and stylistic choices.
But the good stories are amazing, and compare to the best of Poe. Charles Dexter Ward, Call of Cthulhu, "Shado…

Yeah, I gotta agree with everyone about Seconds. There's a clinical quality to it—the viewer is always at a distance from the characters and doesn't quite get wrapped up in their lives and psyches—but it's an utterly compelling film nonetheless. Vertigo is always cited as a perfect cinematic nightmare, but as much as…

Thigh-high leather boots and a miniskirt—yes, Darkseid's quite the tramp.

Man, I just didn't care for The Boys. Maybe I gave up on it too early; my main complaint was that it just seemed utterly joyless. But then, I never liked Preacher either, and The Boys confirmed my impression that Garth Ennis is trying too hard to be edgy and shocking and offensive to the squares.
That said, I know lots…