logged: it lasts forever and then it's over by anne de marcken
4: and the war of the foxes by richard siken
Book 3 of 2025:
The War of The Foxes by Richard Siken
I enjoyed Crush, so this collection was next. The War of the Foxes was the lonely crushing aftermath of what was rife with longing and yearning in Crush. Explores here the inevitability of death, our destructive tendencies and impulsive human existential anxiety. I keep finding these lines that crush me, and I'll never know if I saved them with correct interpretation in mind. More than in Crush, the lines I remember from this collection are a sucker-punch in context, rather than by themselves. That barely matters, though.
Quotes:
“Because people die. The fear: that nothing survives. The greater fear: that something does.”
“I hope it’s love. I’m trying really hard to make it love.”
“How much can you change and get away with it, before you turn into someone else, before it's some kind of murder?”
“Bird 1: This is the wrong story. Bird 2: All stories are the wrong story when you are impatient.”
“When you have nothing to say, set something on fire. A blurry landscape is useless.”
“Can we love nature for what it really is: predatory? We do not walk through a passive landscape. The paint dries eventually. We collide with place, which is another name for God, and limp away with a permanent injury. Ask for a blessing? You can try, but we will not remain unscathed.”
“Someone has to leave first. This is a very old story. There is no other version of this story.”
Book 4 of 2025:
It Lasts Forever And Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken
I went into this book blindly and I came out gushing about the stunning imagery. It was a short read, a lyrical and abstract meditation on grief and memory. It is strange and haunting, I’d suggest reading it in one sitting (160 pages). Grief is always a rough topic, but this felt like a love letter for it, and highlighted the reflective pain and the melancholic beauty of it.
Quotes:
“This sadness is not an empty church and not an empty house. It is the whole empty world and I am in it and it is in me.”
“The earth holds things in its body. In clay. In ice. The real. The unreal. Time. Each other. All the chances we had.”
“I would have had so much in having you and would have lost so much in losing you that I would no longer want anything.”
“I close my eyes and try to breathe but the end of the world is in my throat.”
“I don't miss my name and I haven't bothered to replace it. I miss your name. I'm sorry but I have forgotten it, too. I don't look for it on the walls. The thought that I might read it and pass it by, just to go on to the next name is terrible. Like meeting you in another life and failing to recognize you.”
If you liked this piece:
RICHARRRDD!! Oh my heart, I don't know anybody that knows Crush, so hi. Favourite quote just for fun:
“You’re in a car with a beautiful boy, and you’re trying not to tell him that you love him, and you’re trying to choke down the feeling, and you’re trembling, but he reaches over and he touches you, like a prayer for which no words exist, and you feel your heart taking root in your body, like you’ve discovered something you don’t even have a name for.”
Keen to get to It Last Forever and Then it's Over; I've heard only good things, and it sounds right up my street.