When you read a work of fiction, you are (hopefully) experiencing the by-products of someone else’s mind at work at the height of its creative power.
This feeling may seem a little mysterious. I’m sure I’m not the only person who has read a book and at the same time wondered where the book’s content came from.
That’s a feeling I often have when reading the novels and stories of Lydia Millett, an author I’ve been reading for nearly 25 years. What started out as her bizarre satire in 1999 now seems like something from another world. In “George Bush, Love’s Dark Prince,” the era of the first President Bush is treated as a kind of erotica by a fairly free-spirited narrator.
Millet’s books sell well for their humor, but you never know what else you’re going to get. Her collection of novels, Love in Infant Monkeys, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, is a series of fantastical stories about encounters between famous people and non-human species. “Sweet Lamb of Heaven” is a chilling political thriller mixed with horror. 『チルドレンズ・バイブル』は、休暇中の島で嵐に遭い、大人たちがあまりにも無謀なため、自分たちだけで自分たちを守らなければならなくなった子供たちの物語を語る上で、ほとんど神話的なIt has an atmosphere. 「ダイナソー」は、アメリカ全土を歩いて横断することを決心し、それを実行すると、ガラスの壁のある家の隣に住みながら人生を立て直す男の物語です。 Somehow, it’s both heartwarming and menacing.
The limits of Millet’s imagination seem limitless.
Millet has given us another book from her unique and vibrant mind, this time a collection of essays, We Loved It All. The book is heavily influenced by Millet’s day-to-day work at the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Earth and its species as much as possible.
“We Love It All” is an exploration of living things in the world, both animal and human, and is at once a beautiful and sad book, as well as deeply uplifting and uplifting. Each chapter is largely unstructured, starting with an idea, such as how to assign animals to corporate spokespeople, and then developing that idea in search of insight. Such insights are always available.
Many of the things Millet catalogs are things we have lost from the world, things that once roamed the earth but have become extinct, often through human carelessness, like the sea slug, a giant flightless bird. These are the living things that have happened. Millet writes about how men tasked with capturing seeds for collectors came across a breeding pair that appeared, according to the men, to be “very dignified.”
Millet wrote, “Despite their dignity, two of them strangled the nesting pair, and the third cracked the eggs under his boot.”
Millet mixes a clear, cold gaze with great warmth, without falling into emotion or sentimentality. This makes her observations about the extent of human destruction of the natural world and our failure to understand its wonders all the more powerful.
Toward the end of the book, Millet compares his current writing practice to a “form of prayer.”
“Is there anything more sincere than prayer?” she asks. “What could be more heartfelt than begging?”
She continues: “The truest word of all is a plea for mercy. Of course you can pray to God. But you can also pray to others.”
There is hope here, and along with the book’s title, it reminds us that ultimately we can choose each other, and in that choice we choose love.
John Warner is the author of Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.
Book Recommendations from Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you read.
1. “Too much.” Written by Hannah Pittard
2. “Burn It Down: Power, complicity, and a call for change in Hollywood.” Written by Maureen Ryan
3. “The Best Minds: A tragic story of friendship, madness, and good intentions.” Written by Jonathan Rosen
4. “Looking for Warren Harding” Written by Robert Plunkett
5. “Hit, Failure, and Other Illusions: My 40 Years in Hollywood.” Written by Ed Zwick
— Sean G., Highwood
Along with the nonfiction books he’s reading, I’d recommend to Sean the classic Hollywood novel, The Prayer by Michael Tolkien.
1. “Harold” Written by Stephen Wright
2. “Knife” Written by Salman Rushdie
3. “Lazarus Project” Written by Alexander Hemon
4. “Open Secret” Written by Alice Munro
5. “How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life.” Written by John Fahey
— Robert M., Chicago
Something tells me that the invention and wit of Keith Lymon’s “Long Division” is a perfect fit for Robert.
1. “The first time I believed” Written by Wally Lamb
2. “Lady Tongue’s Circle of Women” Written by Lisa See
3. “Murray McBride’s Five Wishes” Written by Joe Seiple
4. “Homecoming” Written by Yar Gyasi
5. “Women” Written by Kristin Hanna
— Leanne A., Park Ridge
Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge” is not for the faint of heart, but it delivers such a satisfying emotional hit that I have to recommend it to Leanne.
Read from Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
