I'm reading Ecstasia by Francesca Lia Block right now. It's fantastic, of course. Cos She's just completely fantastic. I'm really enjoying reading some early work by one of my favorite authors, cos I don't take the opportunity to do that often. And it's nice because most of her non-Weetzie Bat fiction is written in the form of a poem these days or at least the last few things I've read have been, and I really like having actual prose to work through. Poems read so quickly. She certainly hasn't came into her style yet with this book, but I suppose it's a bit difficult to do that when you haven't really had anything published (or much published cos Primavera may technically pre-date this one).
The concept of the book is pretty awesome though. So far, figuring out what the book is going to be about is about as far as I've gotten but anyway, it's about this place called Elysia which usually means a very pleasant place like a paradise or something, but to live in Elysia you have to leave the desert which surrounds the place. And then once you age, you have to go underground because everything in Elysia is beautiful and so there can be no signs of aging. Also, apparently people self-police this habit so they just go underground willfully most of the time. It's a metaphor for Los Angeles. I'm so excited to read more, which I should get to doing.
wren001:
And you should continue to report back to us.
gainsbarre68:
That sounds interesting--I'm reading just Dilthey right now, and also a novel by the name of "A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian" by Marina Lewycka. It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in Great Britain. Otherwise I'm just enjoying German beer and the wines from the Mosel and Saar rivers. 