We read Telex from Cuba

Recently, a (new) reading group: Rachel Kushner’s Telex from Cuba. Discussed: that no character was accessible; that all characters acted as prisms to see Cuba on the brink of revolution; that the structure loosely constructed so as to convey the many textures of action that make political moments revolutionary. And why not follow children and wives and supporting cast rather than the actors themselves? Why not create a work of historical fiction that feels fabricated? Also some comparison to Tom McCarthy and the rigor with which he writes from multiple perspectives and the difference between that style and Kushner's, which can seem (frustratingly) too neutral. A gender thing? Eaten: rosemary nuts, chocolate cookies melted from the oven, black bean hummus, slices of salty, fatty, ham. Drunk: water and wine.

In an interview about her book, Kushner observes that novels work not by rules of logic but by rules of aesthetics.

I stopped reading the Orphan Master’s Son after 100 pages. No good reason why.