Bibliophobia by Sarah Chihaya
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Narrator's title is apt as she describes her depression and mental breakdown while a literature professor. My interest was more geared to what she read, books by Toni Morrison, Helen DeWitt, A. S. Byatt and Anne Carson, and interesting exploration of her traumatic response to these, but I struggled to relate to her obsession with reading and suicidal ideation. Indeed, different readers need different things from the same book and reader responses can differ over time, but my bent is bibliophilia.

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Loop by Brenda Lozano Loop by Brenda Lozano
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The narrator of Loop is a Mexican writer living in Mexico City, recently recovered from a serious accident, visiting friends and family, keeping a notebook (Ideal brand) of her activities and thoughts while her newish boyfriend, Jonás, is traveling in Spain. She fancies herself a Penelope reweaving a shroud to discourage suitors while Ulysses is off to war for twenty years. Jonás is only gone a matter of weeks, but his absence is uppermost in her mind. She ponders literary success, goes off to festivals, listens to music, reads books and wonders about her lover's fidelity, his grieving his mother. She concocts a chapter of proverbs on stories and writing, i.e. "Seek words, and there are none; no longer seek them and they shall come." She is alert to her neighborhood, to a dapper dwarf she keeps seeing on her block, to music (David Bowie) and to art, philosophy, authors Proust, Pessoa, Walser, Vila-Matas, Lispector, Kafka and poets. I found the easy literary chat, the discursive format, perfect bedtime reading. She reminds me a bit of Claire-Louise Bennett, perhaps Kate Zambreno, both favorites.
Another winner from Charco Press, translated by Annie McDermott - translator

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