Anyone else read this? It seemed to receive a lot of acclaim and criticism.

I haven't read that yet, but I usually love Tobias Wolff's short stories. Have you read anything else by him? I like his stuff because it's usually about something unlike a lot of short fiction. He's good at blending funny and sad at the same time - there's a great story of his about a priest and a few nuns who wind up staying in a Vegas hotel. My favorite Wolff story I read about 5 years ago in the New Yorker and it was about a doomed high school romance (which sounds hackneyed but it was incredible). I think it was called "The Kiss".

Have you read anything else by him?

This was my first Wolff exposure. Have any of his short stories been published in a collection?

I think his first collection is Back in the World and he has a more recent one, The Night in Question. Also, if you go here you can listen to his story, "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs".

ETA: Actually, it looks like they have several of his stories at that sight (plus a lot of other cool stuff).

Cool, thanks Maysa! I'll check my library for those collections.

So, I got this book for Christmas, Mr. Timothy, by Louis Bayard. "Mr. Timothy" is Timothy Cratchit, aka Tiny Tim from A Christmas Carol. It's basically AU futurefic -- he's grown up now, not a cripple, and says he was never the annoyingly pious little kid his father wanted him to be. It's interesting, because the story would hold up without him being Tim Cratchit -- it's a story about a young man struggling in London and a prostitution ring and whatnot -- but it gives the background a lot more depth, without the author actually having to go into it. The character could still have a rich "Uncle" without it being Ebeneezer Scrooge, but that fact that it is means as you read it, you know more about the characters than the author tells you. Interesting.

I felt like I was making a good deal of progress yesterday in Middlesex , but I am only on page 150. It is so not gripping me. Anyone have this experience with it?

Ooooh, "Mr. Timothy"! On my TBR list.

I liked it, wasn't in love with it. But it does have "effulgent" in it, so there's that.

I just read the underworld which is the novelization of the movie. It too had the word effulgent in it.

But it does have "effulgent" in it, so there's that.

Yeah but then so does every article Roger Angell wrote for the New Yorker. Once I noticed it I started checking each piece.