pantryslut

...except possibly for the fact that my birthday was Tuesday. Happy birthday to me!

I've been dipping into Daphne Gottlieb's new book of short stories, "Pretty Much Dead." This quite possibly might be the best book of short stories I have read in a very long time. Keep in mind when I say this that I just finished Kelly Link's new collection, so this is high praise indeed. It probably helps that the subject of Gottlieb's book -- the homeless, almost-homeless, destitute populations of San Francisco -- is close enough to witness, to be uncomfortable. It probably also helps that I've heard several of these stories read out loud, and also the author is a personal friend, so I hear her voice when I read. Nonetheless. If you're at all inclined, I recommend picking up this book. It's devastating and beautiful. It's hard to put words to how devastating and beautiful it is. It is devastating and beautiful.

(On a related note, I also spent a good chunk of yesterday falling down an Internet hole about the old Market Street Cinema, the ghosts that are rumored to have lived there, the Real Live shenanigans that used to take place there, and plans for that space now that the theater is closed and sold to developers. Condos, of course. Condos.)