Under the Beret

What am I reading now?

I’m currently reading a book about the CIA called The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez. It’s a non-fiction biography. It’s okay, but not riveting.

What did I just finish reading?

I just finished a graphic hardcover called Dotter of her Father’s Eyes, which was interesting but not as satisfying as I wanted it to be. The author, Mary Talbot, writes a twisting tale of fathers and daughters: in one case, the tale of her and her relationship to her own father, James S. Atherton, a renowned Joycean scholar, and in the other case, Joyce himself and his daughter Lucia Joyce. There are ways in which the material feels like it’s walking in the shadow of Fun Home — a daughter’s fraught relationship with an emotionally explosive father, peppered with literary allusion. But the book doesn’t successfully gel for me, possibly because the author’s voice is less strong. The relationship between Joyce and Lucia is much better defined than the relationship between Talbot and Atherton — it seems like Talbot is unwilling to delve into her own history with the kind of brutal honesty that characterized Bechdel’s book.

What do you expect to read next?

I bought Red Plenty after seeing wild_irises‘ post about it last week. I peeked into the first coupl’a chapters and the subject matter interests me. I also have another graphic novel called Green River Killer (with gorgeous black and white art). And I also bought Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars, edited by Nisi Shawl. So, y’know, one of those.