FERNANDA MELCHOR — PARADAIS

Cheeto dust

Fans of Larry Clark’s Bully (me!) will love this thing (I do!). It’s nasty. It’s about teenage boys. Now, the inside of yer teenage boy’s head is a mucky place… not exactly a controversial idea, but it is an idea elaborated with bracing specificity (how much muck, what kind of muck) in Melchor’s prose (where a lesser author would have just signaled it and gotten on to other agenda points). The novel’s got me wanting to read more Melchor. But here’s the thing. All her stuff is in these Fitzcarraldo Editions. They’re beautiful and blue. But they’re expensive and I’m feeling a lil broke right now. Maybe after the wedding. 

Read April 2022.