i have been "reading" or immersing myself for over ten years ever since Ifound Blood and Soap in one of the "stalls" outside the Strand Bookstore in New York City, Then I found Borderless in Moe's in Berkley, and ordered your other books mostly from ABE books ( actually I found America Tatt and the cheesy one at Unnameable Books when the owner (Adam Tobin) moved some of his store to New England where Ive been living since 1993 after having livved most of my life in NYC ( born in Brooklyn in a post world war ii project and also lived on the Lower East Side for ten years watching the gentrifiers take over(orTRY to take over but it is one those pllaces who soul cant be stolen). I have admired you work greatly, fouond much of it fresh ,astonishing yet familiar.
Postcards is your masterpiece , I only wish it could be required reading ( or at least highly recommended reading since i personall dont believe in required reading althouogh I dont think any US kid should graduate from highschool without reading what I consider the essentials, including the Sophocles Cycle, Richard Wrights Uncle Tom's Childrren, The Man Who Lived Underground, Eight Men,Chester Himes' If He HollersLet Him Go and Run Man Run, Toni Morrison's Beloved,Gwendolyn Brooks' The Blacks(that has her five main books ofpoetry)Victims ofA Map an at anthology of three world class Middle East poets, the maestro Mahmoud Darwish of Palestine,
Adonis of LebANON/SYRIA, and Samih Al- Qasim, author of Sadder Than Water and Every Place but mine. I would also add Time Past by Le Luu and the short story collection The Cemetery At Chai Village by Doan Le, and let's not forget OranPamuk's My Name Is Red, Pat Barker's Union Street,Ngugi Wa Thiongo Petals of Blood and the fivev most undderated works of literature in the US- John Beecher's Report To The Stockholders, The Collected Poems of Sterling Brown, Shedding Silences by Janice Mirikkitani, Yokohama California by Toshio Mori, Crazy Melons andChinese Apples byFrances Chung, 100 Chinese Silences by Timoty Yu, and the immortal classic by Tom kromer - Waiting For Nothing ( circa 1935).
Youmight also check my own out of print short. story collection about hospital workers ( not doctors or nurses, but the bedpan brigade of aides orderlies, housekeeping, food service essential invisible workers
I forgot the title: I Looked Over Jordan and Other Story(Boston: SouthEnd Press,1980). I also forgot to mention three of the best short story collections ever written anywheree:
James Alan McPherson'sElbow Room, Yu Ha's The Past and The Punishment, and Hassan Blasim's The Corpse Exhibition.
The UN has recently been touting their "pact for the future" and since a One World Government appears to be inescapable, I hereby nominate Chris Hedges for President and Linh Dinh for VP.
(Linh, you'd have gotten the top slot but hedges is a bit older)
My friend from Egypt just sent me this to read - This is the best interview I've read from Linh - plus I like Chris Hedges. You have to be outside looking in - in order to see things - sometimes - no - all the time. lol It helps to be a refugee, some guy from the middle of Alaska, or an X - pat too. Thanks for being Honest, but you know - the good guys never win. But you have the satisfaction of being - Righteous.
The underclass has been my people also, and I feel most comfortable amongst them too. Less to no judgment. Even in the middle of Alaska, like Nenana, poverty and degradation are present, although to a lesser extent than Anchorage and Fairbanks. These small communities were much more alive when I came up here in the 90's. Eagle, where I first ventured to and still spend summers, has gone from 200 people to less than 100. Hardly anybody is thriving. The state worked on the road every day with multiple pieces of equipment back in the day, now if there is a problem, they throw an orange cone at it.
If I were destitute and starving, I would head to a place like Sand Point, Alaska. You can live in a shack (or boat), eat like a king, and make big bucks throwing fish around.
Nowadays the upper class doesn't even show its face to us lower middle class folks , I suspect. I spent 35 years in Ak starting in 73. I know the road system quite well { had a boat in Homer- fished next to the Russians back then, but I got into flying a cessna for over 20 years so I know Ak. very intimately. I still have my homestead in Yenlo Mts but after the mid to late 90s , Ak became too much of a POlice state . I know that sounds strange, but when I moved to Ak. Wasilla/Knik I would be lucky to see a trooper once a month and he was a good guy and everyone respected him and most of the laws. I lived in McGrath for years hunting, flying etc. but the cold got to me after I hit the 50s in age. Now I'm in a place that only I can understand.
I'm in Knik out by the Tug Bar. I think drugs changed the scene here. There was a retired cop from here in Wasilla that came to Eagle complaining about the situation here from his side. It kind of sucks that it feels pretty risky to park a car in a lonely spot out here. I moved to an empty street only to have woman that is a hoarder move in right across from me in the right- away storing everything imaginable. Then another guy with the same problem moved in doing the same thing. This hoarding shit has got to stop! It's driving me crazy! But, sssshhhhhhh, were non judgmental around here. She'll get her 16th dog if she hears this.
You know the Indians across from Knik Lake ? They are my brothers and sisters - the Theodores - Art and I were in Nam together - do me a favor and stop by and tell them Garry is oK and in Russia and any other country he can visit. That would make my day since I haven't been able to talk to them in a long time. Thanks. If you run into Ray Redington, say hello also.
Knik used to be dog mushin country and good for a moose in the winter time. Redingtons' - Ray, Joey, Joe had 300 mutts back in the 60s and 70s. The road to Big Lake was called the Burma Road and only for 4 bys. It's all changed now . I used to fish with the Indians out in the inlet and on Fire Island - same with the Reddingtons. 40 -50 yrs ago. lol
Where the old wooden boat sits in the grass? I don't know them but I will find out and give the shout out. They're still mushing dogs here but that is not the reason my neighbor has 15 dogs. Burma Rd is still dirt and can be driven with 2 wheel drive but I wouldn't park your car on it for too long unless it's a beater and you can afford to lose it or something on or in it. I see where the Reddington's live, seems they're selling real estate.
Thanks - the old skiff is hundred yards down from the Indians who are right on the road - just stop in and ask if Arthur is still around, and tell them you have a message from Arts old Nam partner Garry - Leave the message cause you are probably talkin to the grandchildren or Arts kids. There is a house near Knik road and Arts cabin is just behind in in front of Knik Inlet - nice view as we used to fish from there with beach nets and the skiff. Thanks for your hand uddr - Garr
Wow! Those were the days! So glad I can still "hear" what you have to say, Linh.
i have been "reading" or immersing myself for over ten years ever since Ifound Blood and Soap in one of the "stalls" outside the Strand Bookstore in New York City, Then I found Borderless in Moe's in Berkley, and ordered your other books mostly from ABE books ( actually I found America Tatt and the cheesy one at Unnameable Books when the owner (Adam Tobin) moved some of his store to New England where Ive been living since 1993 after having livved most of my life in NYC ( born in Brooklyn in a post world war ii project and also lived on the Lower East Side for ten years watching the gentrifiers take over(orTRY to take over but it is one those pllaces who soul cant be stolen). I have admired you work greatly, fouond much of it fresh ,astonishing yet familiar.
Postcards is your masterpiece , I only wish it could be required reading ( or at least highly recommended reading since i personall dont believe in required reading althouogh I dont think any US kid should graduate from highschool without reading what I consider the essentials, including the Sophocles Cycle, Richard Wrights Uncle Tom's Childrren, The Man Who Lived Underground, Eight Men,Chester Himes' If He HollersLet Him Go and Run Man Run, Toni Morrison's Beloved,Gwendolyn Brooks' The Blacks(that has her five main books ofpoetry)Victims ofA Map an at anthology of three world class Middle East poets, the maestro Mahmoud Darwish of Palestine,
Adonis of LebANON/SYRIA, and Samih Al- Qasim, author of Sadder Than Water and Every Place but mine. I would also add Time Past by Le Luu and the short story collection The Cemetery At Chai Village by Doan Le, and let's not forget OranPamuk's My Name Is Red, Pat Barker's Union Street,Ngugi Wa Thiongo Petals of Blood and the fivev most undderated works of literature in the US- John Beecher's Report To The Stockholders, The Collected Poems of Sterling Brown, Shedding Silences by Janice Mirikkitani, Yokohama California by Toshio Mori, Crazy Melons andChinese Apples byFrances Chung, 100 Chinese Silences by Timoty Yu, and the immortal classic by Tom kromer - Waiting For Nothing ( circa 1935).
Youmight also check my own out of print short. story collection about hospital workers ( not doctors or nurses, but the bedpan brigade of aides orderlies, housekeeping, food service essential invisible workers
I forgot the title: I Looked Over Jordan and Other Story(Boston: SouthEnd Press,1980). I also forgot to mention three of the best short story collections ever written anywheree:
James Alan McPherson'sElbow Room, Yu Ha's The Past and The Punishment, and Hassan Blasim's The Corpse Exhibition.
Heard of a writer called Dan Fante?
You Magnificant Bastard! You are our modern Diogenes!
The UN has recently been touting their "pact for the future" and since a One World Government appears to be inescapable, I hereby nominate Chris Hedges for President and Linh Dinh for VP.
(Linh, you'd have gotten the top slot but hedges is a bit older)
My friend from Egypt just sent me this to read - This is the best interview I've read from Linh - plus I like Chris Hedges. You have to be outside looking in - in order to see things - sometimes - no - all the time. lol It helps to be a refugee, some guy from the middle of Alaska, or an X - pat too. Thanks for being Honest, but you know - the good guys never win. But you have the satisfaction of being - Righteous.
The underclass has been my people also, and I feel most comfortable amongst them too. Less to no judgment. Even in the middle of Alaska, like Nenana, poverty and degradation are present, although to a lesser extent than Anchorage and Fairbanks. These small communities were much more alive when I came up here in the 90's. Eagle, where I first ventured to and still spend summers, has gone from 200 people to less than 100. Hardly anybody is thriving. The state worked on the road every day with multiple pieces of equipment back in the day, now if there is a problem, they throw an orange cone at it.
If I were destitute and starving, I would head to a place like Sand Point, Alaska. You can live in a shack (or boat), eat like a king, and make big bucks throwing fish around.
Nowadays the upper class doesn't even show its face to us lower middle class folks , I suspect. I spent 35 years in Ak starting in 73. I know the road system quite well { had a boat in Homer- fished next to the Russians back then, but I got into flying a cessna for over 20 years so I know Ak. very intimately. I still have my homestead in Yenlo Mts but after the mid to late 90s , Ak became too much of a POlice state . I know that sounds strange, but when I moved to Ak. Wasilla/Knik I would be lucky to see a trooper once a month and he was a good guy and everyone respected him and most of the laws. I lived in McGrath for years hunting, flying etc. but the cold got to me after I hit the 50s in age. Now I'm in a place that only I can understand.
I'm in Knik out by the Tug Bar. I think drugs changed the scene here. There was a retired cop from here in Wasilla that came to Eagle complaining about the situation here from his side. It kind of sucks that it feels pretty risky to park a car in a lonely spot out here. I moved to an empty street only to have woman that is a hoarder move in right across from me in the right- away storing everything imaginable. Then another guy with the same problem moved in doing the same thing. This hoarding shit has got to stop! It's driving me crazy! But, sssshhhhhhh, were non judgmental around here. She'll get her 16th dog if she hears this.
You know the Indians across from Knik Lake ? They are my brothers and sisters - the Theodores - Art and I were in Nam together - do me a favor and stop by and tell them Garry is oK and in Russia and any other country he can visit. That would make my day since I haven't been able to talk to them in a long time. Thanks. If you run into Ray Redington, say hello also.
Knik used to be dog mushin country and good for a moose in the winter time. Redingtons' - Ray, Joey, Joe had 300 mutts back in the 60s and 70s. The road to Big Lake was called the Burma Road and only for 4 bys. It's all changed now . I used to fish with the Indians out in the inlet and on Fire Island - same with the Reddingtons. 40 -50 yrs ago. lol
Where the old wooden boat sits in the grass? I don't know them but I will find out and give the shout out. They're still mushing dogs here but that is not the reason my neighbor has 15 dogs. Burma Rd is still dirt and can be driven with 2 wheel drive but I wouldn't park your car on it for too long unless it's a beater and you can afford to lose it or something on or in it. I see where the Reddington's live, seems they're selling real estate.
Thanks - the old skiff is hundred yards down from the Indians who are right on the road - just stop in and ask if Arthur is still around, and tell them you have a message from Arts old Nam partner Garry - Leave the message cause you are probably talkin to the grandchildren or Arts kids. There is a house near Knik road and Arts cabin is just behind in in front of Knik Inlet - nice view as we used to fish from there with beach nets and the skiff. Thanks for your hand uddr - Garr
Remarkably coherent interview, bro. Good work. Hard to believe that ever got aired.