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Thumper6488
Newbie Poster
Username: Thumper6488
Post Number: 3
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2004 - 07:48 pm: | 
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Hello All,
I just started this month's CWMYB selection, The First Thing Smoking by Nelson Eubanks. Now, I know many of you have went completely ga ga over ZZ Packer, but The First Thing Smoking is the sh-t! I've just finished the first story and am working my through the second one. I'll let you all know what's up when I'm a little more into it. |
Yukio
Newbie Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 4
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 11:20 am: |
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i read a few reviews and Eubanks received both good and bad....i'll check it out! I still need to catch up cynique and read mosley's latest! |
Yvette
First Time Poster
Username: Yvette
Post Number: 1
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 29, 2004 - 12:05 pm: |
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I'm looking forward to getting into The First Thing Smoking this weekend. I haven't done much short-story reading, so I hope it will be a pleasant experience. |
Thumper
Newbie Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 6
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 31, 2004 - 01:09 pm: |
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Hello All,
I'm just about half way through The First Thing Smoking and I love it! I'm going to have to read the reviews of it when I get done with the book. But so far so good. |
Thumper
Newbie Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 7
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 03, 2004 - 04:13 pm: |
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Hello All,
I just finishedThe First Thing Smoking. And I have to say that I enjoyed three-quarters of it. The last quarter kinda pissed me off. It's not due to the quality of Eubanks writing either. From the first page, its very obvious that Eubanks has mad talent! The last quarter of stories, Lighthouse, Uptown, and a Lie in Seven Parts all had the same feel and tone where the male protagnist/narrator was either describing the scenery or the woman he was sleeping with or trying to get with, nothing about him. If there was something about himself that he was descibing, it was much to subtle for me to detect.
But, let me talk about the three-quarters of the book that was absolutely marvelous! I was caught up in the book from the first story Avenida Atlantica on. The crown jewel in the book, in my opinion was "Uncle Raymond" and the title story "The First Thing Smoking". If I ahd only read these two stories alone, I would have said that Eubanks was an author to watch.
I appreciate the format of the collection as well. Well, I wouldn't know if I would call it a short story collection or not. For certainly, the stories were linked with each other. I was reminded of how Cane by Jean Toomer is layed out, you know with a poem serving as a divider between the stories. Eubanks does approximately the same thing except his dividers are not poems but snapshots that gracefully, whispily connects the stories. Eubanks is a bad boy. The First Thing Smoking is a wonderful book to kick off the New Year with. |
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