Writing & Insights
Some selected cultural gems from Delighter, from the Renaissance Tour to To The Lighthouse and many in between.
Toad by Katherine Dunn
Sally, by all accounts, is a toad, hopping around glumly and compulsively, making mordant one-liners under her breath, and observing her peers from her vantage point of being kept at an arm’s length.
The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
The sepia desert at the bottom of the world gives way to the lush post-war estates at the precipice of modernity, which despite its sprawl remains beholden to the fates dictated by vigilant stars.
Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney
Alice and Eileen grapple with the value of making art in a world that’s falling apart; feeling selfish in caring about love and relationships and beauty while the fate of humanity looms large. Their emails to each other are nuanced, clear-headed ruminations on neoliberalism, the limits of Internet political debate, the Irish housing market, the role of art, fame, and God. Real life interactions with their lovers are awkward, insecure, restrained, filled with longing. Alice and Eileen are far more comfortable intellectualizing their fears and desires than expressing what they want. Intermittently, they’ll look down at their phones, and think about how pointless it all is. In other words, they’re very much like people we know, or are.
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
We are seduced into believing in her mission through her unassailable style and oscillating self-possession, a jaguar on the prowl for the answers to her life’s greatest failures.
Vernon Subutex I-III by Virginie Despentes
Brutal, clueless, vain, cunning, violent, heartbroken, and searching, they are all drawn to the nostalgia that Vernon represents, along with the music and dancing that provide them the release that they crave.