« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
December 21, 2010
Book Notes - Paula Bomer ("Baby & Other Stories")
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Paula Bomer's short story collection Baby & Other Stories is filled dazzling, raw, and bitingly honest tales of family life.
HTMLGIANT wrote of the collection:
"The most interesting thing Bomer does in this collection is reveal a unique perspective on motherhood, one that is complex, touching, sometimes ugly, always brutally honest. All too often motherhood is portrayed in literature in narrow, clichèd ways but the mothers in Baby defy the traditional ways in which motherhood is written into the literary cannon."
In her own words, here is Paula Bomer's Book Notes music playlist for her debut short story collection, Baby & Other Stories:
I wrote these stories over the course of at least eight years. I feel the need to say I did a lot of other writing during that time as well, including writing a novel. I very often listen to music to prepare for writing, usually the same things over and over again. Many of these stories were written around the same time period (and then there was a gap for some of the others— for instance, "Homesick" was written earlier, and "A Walk to the Cemetery" later, and "The Second Son" even later) and during that time, I listened to PJ Harvey's album, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, over and over again. In fact, I stole one line from one of the songs on the record and put it directly in a story, in fact as a final line in a story. ( I wonder if anyone can find it.) "The Second Son" was written after listening to "Bertie" by Kate Bush from her most recent album, Aerial. I also listened to tons of Juliana Hatfield, in particular her metal record, Juliana's Pony: Total System Failure, and was inspired by her nasty take on domesticity and shallow people. Music very much informs most if not all of my writing. I love listening to music more than anything - more than looking at paintings, even perhaps more than reading and definitely as much as reading. I never had the guts to pursue music. I guess I could say that my relationship with music is a lifelong unrequited love affair. It's my greatest passion, but one I've never really been able to touch.
PJ Harvey's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
"Good Fortune"
"You Said Something"
"This is Love"
"We'll Float"
Juliana Hatfield's Total System Failure
"Houseboy"
"The Victim"
"The Breeders"
Kate Bush's Aerial
"Bertie"
Paula Bomer and Baby & Other Stories links:
Ed Champion review (at The Millions)
HTMLGIANT review
Kirkus Reviews review
NewPages review
NYPress review
Publishers Weekly review
Fictionaut interview with the author
Publishers Weekly interview with the author
Recommended Reading interview with the author
Vice interview with the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
Online "Best Books of 2010" lists
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
