ADAM LEVIN: The Instructions, Hot Pink, Bubblegum, & Mount Chicago
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
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The Instructions - www.indiebound...
Hardcover, 1030 pages
Published 2010 by McSweeney's
Hot Pink - www.indiebound...
Hardcover, 207 pages
Published 2012 by McSweeny's
Bubblegum - www.indiebound...
Hardcover, 784 pages
Published 2020 by Doubleday Books
Mount Chicago - www.indiebound...
Hardcover, 592 pages
Published August 9th 2022 by Doubleday Books
#leafbyleaf #bookreview #adamlevin
"[Adam Levin's] body [of work] is absurd"- Adam Levine of Maroon 5 (not to be confused with writer Adam Levin)
actually good one lmao
Hahaha! Bravo!
This is why I love you so much Chris. Not only do you publish in depth reviews of the all-time greats that desperately need it like Gravity’s Rainbow and The Recognitions but you also read the newest and best and defend it with incredible passion. To quote a Pixar movie (lol):
In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends.
Thanks so much, my friend! What a quote! The only point on which I differ is that negative criticism is fun to write and read--I actually don't find it fun or useful at all. But I get the spirit of it. Thanks again for these kind words. I very much appreciate them and take them to hear.
Hey Leaf. Will you cover the new Cormac novels in the coming months?
Omg I really hope that the leaf by leaf about the new Cormacs is approximately 7 hours long !!!!
Who knows what the future holds? :)
About 530 pages into The Instructions and loving it. Agree that it is very fast paced. Will update when I'm finished. I started this because of your recommendation.
So happy to hear!
@@LeafbyLeaf I finished it earlier today. I absolutely loved it! That ending, the last 100 pages or so, was so fun to read. Thank you for not spoiling it too much!
Re: Your theory that Adam Levin would agree with that Gaddis quote and Pynchonian reclusion, George Saunders for the Chicago Tribune (speaking of Adam Levin): "When I started to take off as a writer, there wasn't as much this sense you have now of being part of your own marketing. Now it can feel like people are de-authoring you, turning you into a personality," he says. "I bet Adam doesn't want to be de-authored.”
...the breakfast monologue...I swaNEE I laughed so hard it hurt my belly muscles. Ordered!
Long time viewer, just wanted to say I love your channel. Thank you.
Hey there! Thanks so much!
Hi, thanks for making this video. Im a big fan of Levin.
One note is that my copy of Bubblegum is indeed bubblegum scented.
Wondeful video, thank you for your work, only with your help I can learn English well, watching your books review. Love from Ukraine ❤🇺🇦
Thanks so much! All my best to you and yours! BTW, I should have a video on _Grey Bees_ by Andrey Kurkov sometime soon. Keep safe!
Wow, ❤️❤️❤️
Just finished Bubblegum last night and loved it. Thank you for this review and introducing the book (and Levin) to me. Would love to hear people’s thoughts on the unreliable narration. How much of what other characters said in this book was embellished by our one and only Belt Magnet? I felt like we were living in his slightly altered version of reality in most every scene.
My pleasure! Here's my thought: Depending on how strictly we define _reliable_ , it could be argues that all narrators are unreliable (and not just fictional ones). :)
So glad someone’s finally stepped up to talk about and analyze Adam Levin, one of my favorites! Liked and subscribed!
Welcome aboard! Always glad to meet a fellow Levin admirer!
"Torah means, in the literal Hebrew, instruction, or guidance, and is used in this sense by the ancient prophets and sages.
Prior to the first destruction of the great Temple in Jerusalem, by “Torah” the Hebrews meant the Books attributed to Moses. Shortly after the time of the second Temple, the final settlement of the Canon was made at Jamnia about 100 C.E. leading to the Bible's present form as codified by the seventh century rabbis known as Masoretes. Therefore, the Hebrew Bible in toto, as well as all Talmudic and later literature was often referred to as Torah.
The Hebrew Bible as it appears in our texts today is an anthology of thirty-nine books, reckoned as twenty-two, written for the most part in Hebrew, a little of it in Aramaic. (The uncanonized apocryphal sections are in Greek as well as Hebrew.) There is hardly any doubt that these books were written over a time stretching more than a thousand years. A much larger segment than commonly supposed is written in poetic and aphoristic form. In this sense the Torah is to be considered one of the world's greatest collections of pure literature.
Basically it contains five types of material: (1) the legendary tales, frequently influencing faraway Asian story writers, as in India and Persia; (2) the historical books (of remarkable accuracy, as shown by recent archaeological findings); (3) the ritualistic codes with their 613 commandments and prohibitions as to diet, habitat, marriage, prayer service, sacrifices and legal procedure; (4) the prophetic sermons on current political and social issues; (5) the philosophical and poetical works.
Pray tell me if there is anywhere, or was at any time, another volume of writings such as this, whose impact set aflame the lands between the Nile and the Euphrates more than three thousand years ago-a flame that has never ceased to burn all these millennia and has leapt from continent to continent, from tongue to tongue, from heart to heart.
Show me a village of people and I will find somewhere among them a trace of the Mosaic flame, be it in a book, a house of worship, a painting, a sculptured figurine, a phrase of music or the memory of a sage proverb from Solomon, the king of kings. And even in places where the Torah has been defiled and its people erased, you will find the ashes of Israel still glimmering to remind the forgetful.
The Torah cannot be forgotten nor can it be thrown aside. If one had such intent, he would have to rip out a thousand books from a thousand shelves, a thousand statues and portraits from a thousand walls, and a thousand temples and churches from land to land.
For millennia the people of the East and the West have grown and flourished in the breath of the Torah. The songs of its inspired sages reverberated in the poets, the dramatists, the painters, the sculptors, the fabulists, the preachers, the statesmen, the legislators, the philosophers and the people at large, forever seeking justice.
If there ever was a book that has moved the world, this is it. It was of this Torah that Jesus said, “I come to fulfill it, not to destroy it.” And it was because of the Torah that Mohammed called the Hebrews the People of the Book."
-The Wisdom of the Torah
Happy Rosh Hashanah! Baruch Hashem!
Thanks so much for sharing all of this here for everyone's edification!
I have been appreciating and studying Jewish culture for quite a while now, and have travelled to Israel 3 times (going again next year).
It has been some of the most fruitful study of my life!
@@LeafbyLeaf Yes, I think the above quote is educational, and beautifully written. I realize it's longer than the typical UA-cam comment, but Leaf by Leaf examines the pages of books, so please add the above quote as one more leaf to Leaf by Leaf!
I visited Israel years ago, and it was amazing. I found it to be a Land of much variety. From modern Tel Aviv, to the Old City of Jerusalem. From the Dead Sea scrolls, to current literature. From the happiness of swimming in the Red Sea, to the pain of the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem. It is a dynamic Land, and my thoughts shifted with the dunes of the Negev.
On this Day of Atonement, remember the Shoah. Remember the 6,000,000 souls.
Shalom
As I read Bubblegum, I was awed at how Levin managed to get it published in today's industry. And--pure speculation here--it seemed like the overt and maybe redundant mentions of parataxis near the end were non-contact jabs at editors, or publishers who declined it 😆
I had the exact same thought--how did this get approved in today's publishing climate?! This book is certainly not for a _consumer_ or books, but rather a _reader_ of books.
Gurion reminded me of JR (the precociousness of both characters). Great review of a great author.
Another writer I'll have to look into . Thanks .
My pleasure!
I love the infinite jest shirt
I've been looking forward to this video since you hinted at it. I finished reading Mount Chicago a few weeks ago. It was my first Levin book I've read and honestly I didn't really like it. There definitely are good elements to it, many of which you highlighted in this video, but I found more things to dislike than like.
Much of my dissatisfaction was due to how unlikeable the characters are. With the characters been so based in Levin's actual life it really didn't give me a good perception of who he is. Maybe this is just the issue with starting with Mount Chicago. Maybe reading some of his earlier, better, works gets you more acclimated with what kind of writer he is and you give a lot of the persona stuff a pass but for me it dominated too much of the reading experience. Overall Mount Chicago asks a lot of the readers patience and tolerance and doesn't really reward them for doing so.
The way you described his other works definitely makes it seem like they are a more enjoyable read but I don't really know if I can go through another one of his works if they are as self indulgent as Mount Chicago was.
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THE LINK FOR THAT T-SHIRT MY FRIEND :)
My pleasure!
an enticing introduction to Levin's work. I already ordered a used copy (no new ones exist but are coming in a Bar Mitzvah, 13 years after initial publication from McSweeney) in good condition of The Instructions. Crazy how the prices increased before my very eyes on the resale market- I guess you are an "influencer". Anyway, I can't wait to receive my copy of what sounds like an explosive Jewish Fictional masterpiece.
Glad to see that the NYPL and Miami Dade Libraries have several copies of both Bubblegum and Mt Chicago and that are at lengths that I can maybe finish in a few weeks of borrowed time.
LOVE LOVE your reviews and this one especially as it exposed me to a new voice and creative wunderkind.
I love this channel
have you ever talked on Auerbach’s Mimesis? seems like it could be up your alley!
Oh, yes-one of my absolute favorites books of literary criticism. Top 5 for sure. I’ve talked about it here and there but I can’t remember exactly where. Really, it deserves a dedicated video.
Hey Chris! Another great video. I’ve been trying to track down The Instructions for years(still haven’t found it), then purchased Bubblegum on iBooks and was blown away! Belt Magnet is one of the most loveable characters I’ve come across! I’ve got Mt. Chicago on the shelf!
Loved your takes here!
…might you still be considering tackling ‘Disobedience’ some day soon?!
Cheers
Thank God you're praising Adam Levin and not Adam Levine, who is horrible.
XD
Rocking the Wallace camisa with style 📖 ❤️🩹
:):):)
Bubblegum is one of my favorite books of all time. Great review of it, thanks!
Yes, yes!
Infinite Jest shirt is firrrrre
This guy does great stuff! www.teepublic.com/user/obliterature
Incredible video, as always, Chris! My copy of Bubblegum does smell like bubblegum. Yours doesn’t?
😮😮😮
Sure enough-mine does smell strongly of bubblegum if I scratch it! In fact, Adam Levin emailed me after I posted this video to tell me that the publisher DID go through with this cool feature!
Brilliant Chris!!!
Thanks, Phill!!!
Nice shirt...?
Thanks...?
Always wondered about this author - is it true that he went to the same college as John Hawkes?
I was really looking forward to The Instructions (in part because I grew up Jewish not far from where it takes place), I ended up stopping around 300 pages in. The narration was tedious and long winded while rarely saying anything interesting. And something about how the dialogue is written just really irked me. I really loved the “Story of Stories” section at the Passover Seder though.
Womderful job introducing this author. You probably earned Levin a new catalan reader...🎉❤
Ah, how wonderful! I really think you will enjoy!
I honestly wasn't really a fan of Bubblegum. I think the concept was brilliant, and I didn't hate it by any means, but the narrative was loose and never that compelling for me, and never seemed to be going anywhere - mysteries that spurred me on and carried great gravity were never remotely explained. I also grow pretty tired of this hyper-self-awareness in contemporary literature, where characters are paralysed with thoughts of the various subtexts behind theirs and everyone else's every sentence. There was one point in Bubblegum where a brutal 10-page monologue turned out to be merely the subtext the protagonist had attributed to another's short offhand remark. I'd rather be left to determine the subtext myself; sometimes it feels like the writer thinks I'm too stupid to read dialogue beyond its face value. David Foster Wallace somehow managed to make it minimally annoying, but even in everything he wrote post-Infinite Jest it still grates on me.
I felt the same way about Mount Chicago. The overly clever prose devolves into tedium by the last half of it. I think if Levin edited out all the completely unnecessary clauses in each sentence, the book would lose about 150 pages lmao