THE OAKLAND REVIEW BLOG

Kaia Mueller - Words, Favorites, and ‘The Secret History’

“As you read, you become convinced that the murder is somehow necessary. You sympathize with the characters who organized it, despite their less-than-honorable intentions. I used to catch myself falling for the heroes—the Percy Jacksons and Harry Potters—only to find that now, it’s Henry Winter who’s on the tip of my tongue in conversation, my favorite fictional character…”

Jack Kiggins - Why You Should Try Reading Infinite Jest

“Fundamentally, ‘Infinite Jest’ is a story about pleasure and the paths we take to achieve it; there are the unparalleled highs and cavernous lows of competition, the immediacy and subsequent fallout of drug abuse, the dangers of overindulgence. Understanding why and how we seek the pleasures that we do is one of the great philosophical questions and a defining element of what makes us human…”

 Allison Blair - Tragedy and Being an Ambitious Woman

“When I write, I find myself returning over and over again to Lady Macbeth’s arc. Maybe it’s out of concern for my own ambition which I sometimes fear will be my downfall; I push myself to be the best at everything I do, even if it’s to my detriment. Maybe my fixation comes from my desire to be something beyond myself, something more…”

Stephen Makin - On Pointless Passions, Dead-End Deaths, and ‘Stoner’ by John Williams

“Taking its time to get there, admittedly, ‘Stoner’ becomes something of a comforting read in its last few paragraphs. It is difficult to spin death into a hopeful ending, but Williams accomplishes it with genius poise…”

Dylan Courtney - On Being a Vessel

“I guess I’ve started to feel uncomfortable calling myself a writer. Maybe it’s the small body of work, or maybe it’s that quiet sense of imposter syndrome that seeps in when saddled with any title. Being called something, ‘a writer,’ ‘an actor,’ feels like a bizarre claim, as though putting a name to it makes it real, or like I’m committing to some universal standard…”

Kathryn Villareal Bell - Why We Write

“Writers are constantly bombarded with questions about how they do their job. Is there a certain headspace you need to be in to write? How do you manage the editing process? Are you a stream of conscious writer or do you deliberate on each and every word before putting it on the page?…”