Monday, February 04, 2013

Because nothing says Monday like logorrheic psychologists?

Metaphor alert: C.P. Boyko's narratorial
intrusions remind one reviewer of
a dive-bombing raptor. #awesome
Morning, folks, and happy Monday. Always nice to kick off the week with a thoughtful reading—especially one full of difficult-to-spell words. This just in from The LA Review on Psychology and Other Stories. We've got lots more stuff coming up for you on Thirsty in the next few days, though, including book giveaways, event announcements, and yes the next issue of the mythical Draught, so stay tuned!

From The L.A. Review of Books:

"C. P. Boyko takes as probing a look into the world of psychology as any doctor might into the confused mind of a patient, and comes away with a similar diagnosis: narcissism, delusions of grandeur, flights of fancy, logorrhoea ... The author bucks current trends in fiction like invisible narrators and single-character focus, preferring instead to soar omnisciently above the human fray, until such time as he deems it necessary to dive-bomb, raptor-like, into the backstory and motivations of a particular character. Occasionally he addresses the reader directly to make a point, a satirical take on the industry he excoriates in this book: don’t worry, I’ll tell you what to think. The style, reminiscent of an earlier time in fiction when authors sometimes played God, takes some getting used to in these days of sparseness and minimalism, but once the reader understands where Boyko is coming from, then, unlike the subject of psychology, it all makes sense. And the explorations drill so deeply into this mysterious medical science that they make the effort worth the reader’s adjustment."

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