I am taking a trip to NEW YORK on Saturday and I need a decent sized (both long and not too big & heavy) novel to read; one that will perhaps last me there and back. Or, two books if they're not heavy and bulky.
I was going to buy Iain M Banks' The Algebraist (sp?) and/or China Mieville's Iron Council. Unhappily, both are in hardback still, and so cost £17 and will take up a lot of room and weight.
The best books I have read on aeroplanes are by Richard Price, but he doesn't have a new one out.
Based on these novels I was going to buy or have enjoyed on planes in the past, can you suggest a long, but light (both not too taxing, and not physically heavy) novel or two that I can buy easily by Friday?
Preferably late 20th century/early 21st, and by a white man living in America or England. Those are my favourite books.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
Or Scotland at a push. Before someone points that out, about Banks.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
Geoffrey Eugenides - Middlesex.
Out in paperback, suitably pageturning, quite long. The "man" bit is debateable though.
eta: But it does concern the experience of the European immigrant to America, so could be apposite.
[ 25.05.2005, 09:11: Message edited by: OJ ]
Posted by Black Mask (Member # 185) on :
William Boyd's Stars and Bars might be apt. The Godfather. Or a couple of Bond novels? Always good when travelling.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
I don't actually think Bond novels are very "good", but I have enjoyed some Wm Boyd (if it is like Armadillo and not his foreign-set muck) and heard good things about Middlesex, though also weird things.
Posted by fish (Member # 22) on :
I recently muchly enjoyed "The Cutting Room" by Louise Welsh. Don't be put off by the fact that the author is a woman... the hero is a man. Although he is a gayer. And old. And Scotch.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
Yep, The Cutting Room is great. But maybe too short for a transatlantic flight.
What's weird that you've heard about Middlesex Kovacs? The fact that its central character is intersex?
Do you only want characters and plot devices that samuel norton would happily invite around for dinner? I'm confused....
As page turners, with enough intelligence to feel satisfying but not too much intellectual challenge for a tiring journey go.... you could try Sarah Waters. Who fails your criteria on account of being female. Or indeed Wilkie Collins, who is about 100 years too old for you, but would probably suit.
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
Ii loved 'I'll Go To Bed at Noon', which is written by a man, is pretty hefty, and totally wins on the grounds that it could be classed as 'intelligent trash' - perfect for a long haul flight.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
quote:Originally posted by OJ:
What's weird that you've heard about Middlesex Kovacs? The fact that its central character is intersex?
Do you only want characters and plot devices that samuel norton would happily invite around for dinner? I'm confused....
I was exaggerating a bit in specifying my tastes, but it is nevertheless true that my favourite authors are Amis and Updike, and my favourite books seem to reflect the late 20th century experience of urban Anglo-American masculinity.
That doesn't mean I rule out anything else, but I do seem to have that special affinity (boringly really) with novels that connect quite closely to my own social identity.
I must confess that "intersex" is not a term I'm familiar with. Is it someone who's like transsexual but not crossing from one thing to the other, but deliberately staying between the two?
NB. I didn't say anything about this being the factor that other people had reported to me as weird, so you are jumping to conclusions a bit if you think I'm put off novels by any gender deviance.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
How about that book Bailey is often banging on about, "A Million Little Pieces", is that any good?
And what's that Booker shortlisted novel about a tattooist or... something?
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
Kovacs, not jumping to conclusions, just joking. Though perhaps not very convincingly.
But anyway, intersex - a person of indeterminate gender at birth. Apparently it happens, though I'm by no means an expert on it. I insert this disclaimer incase anyone thinks I must have an opinion on any aspect of gender.
What was the other aspect of the novel that someone told you was weird, out of interest?
I don't think you'd be alone in wanting to read fiction that is either close to your experience, or is at least written from a viewpoint close to yours when looking for an unchallenging but enjoyable read. Which is what I presume you'd want for a long journey.
eta: The Booker nominated novel about a tattooist is The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall (woman!). I started it a while back and it failed to grab me sufficiently to get past the first couple of chapters, in which boyhood memoirs of tubercular Northern seaside resorts feature highly. Morecambe to be precise.
[ 25.05.2005, 10:29: Message edited by: OJ ]
Posted by scrawny (Member # 113) on :
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: And what's that Booker shortlisted novel about a tattooist or... something?
The Electric Michaelangelo - dull, dull. My suggestion was Booker Prize-nominated too!
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
quote:Originally posted by OJ: What was the other aspect of the novel that someone told you was weird, out of interest?
I think I heard it had an unreliable narrator and was about whole generations of people (?) Also, the person describing it confessed they had expected it to be about the county of Middlesex, so... what can you say.
Apologies for my brief and badly-crafted posts as I work... I am grateful for all these suggestions.
Posted by OJ (Member # 752) on :
I honestly can't remember whether there's an unreliable narrator. Though if it's narrated by the (sort of) eponymous character him/herself then it's not exactly going to be a realistic narrator - because it does cover several generations.
But I don't think that the very fact of it being a bit of a saga is a turn-off. A cheerful publisher might call that an 'epic sweep'. The opening section about the fall of Smyrna is pretty action packed.
Have to LOL at your acquaintance who might have been expecting cricketing memoirs...
[ 25.05.2005, 10:46: Message edited by: OJ ]
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
The Magus by John Fowles Ripped off by everything from Michael Douglas's The Game to the current crop of alternative reality games - but this is tha' sensual, swirling shiznit original. DO NOT read Fowles' foreword as it contains a semi-spoiler.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub Gorgeously crafted Main St, USA, horror - a shiversome snapshot of a lost dream of the US, post-Dubya.
Domain by James Herbert One of the best London novels and an indispensible vision of what post-nuclear war society will probably be like. CAUTION: contains gratuitous Damo-style meddling with God's Creation.
House of Bush, House of Saud - Craig Unger Meticulously researched and, in blurb-speak, 'reads better than any thriller'; an outrageous and depressing panorama of the twilight of Houston-Jeddah oligarchy that, little did we know, was the guiding hand behind world history for thirty years. NOT too heavy for reading on the plane, though I'm now tempted to trade my library copy in for a paperback as this will be an essential reference work for at least the next decade.
Bon voyage! Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
Thanks everyone, I have written these down on an old-skool bit of post-it to take to a bookshop.
Along with Chabon, The Final Solution, which I hear is about Holmes and Hitler and sounds good.
And Carter Beats the Devil, which I have also fancied reading for some time, without really knowing why.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I'm assuming that kovacs is familiar with the World's Greatest Living Writers: Messers Ellroy and Lodge.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
Actually, Lodge might be a good one. I have read the two about the Anglo-American exchange, and the one about the businessman/female lecturer exchange. What else is there you can recommend, VP.
For the record the last books I read and rather enjoyed were by cloven WOMEN! the hi-class chicklitte SF Time Traveller's Wife and the picking-a-scab pleasures of Notes on a Scandal.
I also enjoyed, this year, two novels about the evil NAZIs ruling Amerikkka: by PK Dick and P Roth.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
I was going to say that the Anglo-US professor exchange trilogy would be good.
Therapy is excellent; I'm assuming you are referring to Thinks.
I can't believe I went into the huge flagship Waterstones on the Strand for the first time the other day. They've handily clumped books into little categories: "Tear Jerkers", "Jap Fiction" etc. The quantity of books waiting to be read induced mild panic.
[ 26.05.2005, 05:20: Message edited by: Vogon Poetess ]
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
No, I was referring to Nice Work, I think. So maybe I should look at Thinks, thanks.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I don't really get David Lodge. The only title I've read was Thinks... and I found it unresolved and therefore unsatisfying. I must be missing something
[ 26.05.2005, 05:58: Message edited by: H1ppychick ]
Posted by Jessica Rabbit (Member # 776) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: I don't really get David Lodge. The only title I've read was Thinks... and I found it unresolved and therefore unsatisfying. I must be missing something
I know that book! It actually resolves really tidily to the point of being old fashioned/ convenient. I think what you're missing is the ending of the book, because there's nothing in it left unresolved.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
quote:Originally posted by H1ppychick: I must be missing something
Yes. Yes you are.
I won't say how the novel is resolved, because it would SPOIL it for kovacs, but I can't imagine how you'd have ended it better than Lodge.
Luckily, such is my generous mood today due to the GLORIOUS RED VICTORY, I feel I could even deal with someone posting that they didn't really get James Ellroy.
I had to point out to someone at our party last Saturday that we were operating a No Homosexuals door policy when they disagreed about our Greatest Living Writers. When I challenged them to come up with someone more gooder than Ellroy or Lodge, they did a cartoon-style visibly painful demonstration of cerebral effort and eventually came up with Don De Lillo and JD Salinger. For fucks sake.
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
Put it this way, it's a long time since I read it and I can't remember all the fine detail. Suffice it to say that it didn't create any appetite whatsoever for other Lodge titles.
But then I like sci-fi, fantasy, historical novels (can I talk about Dorothy Dunnett again, please?) and chicklit. My tastes are obviously far too plebeian for this forum.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
Hello there. I have some suggestions, if you haven't long since gone to W'stones/Borders...
William Boyd-wise, Any Human Heart is v excellent, though it might make you cry unexpectedly and violently, which could be embarrassing on a plane.
In that vein, On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks is gripping, in a romance kind of way, and will make you cry.
If you don't want to blub like a baby, The Corrections by jonathan Franzen I found most agreeable, though you've probably either read it already or been put off it by Ben.
As far as books by girls about the Far East go, Memoirs of a Geisha rules.
Posted by Vogon Poetess (Member # 164) on :
quote:Originally posted by herbs: As far as books by girls about the Far East go, Memoirs of a Geisha rules.
Isn't that by Arthur Golden? Or was it a clever pseudonym. Also, kovacs doesn't like Chilean belt-maker type novels.
I read a Johnathan Franzen and though it was ok. Is The Corrections proper good?
Posted by H1ppychick (Member # 529) on :
I know you think my taste is shite, but honestly and truly, these books are superb. Also a decent double-transatlantic size.
Posted by herbs (Member # 101) on :
quote:Originally posted by Vogon Poetess:
quote:Originally posted by herbs: As far as books by girls about the Far East go, Memoirs of a Geisha rules.
Isn't that by Arthur Golden? Or was it a clever pseudonym. Also, kovacs doesn't like Chilean belt-maker type novels.
I read a Johnathan Franzen and though it was ok. Is The Corrections proper good?
Re Geisha: so it is. Godd, I'm a ret. Or, he's just very convincing as a female narrator!
As for the Corrections, I thought it was mega-brill. We seem to share book taste, so I think you'd like it.
Posted by The H Pony (Member # 784) on :
quote:Originally posted by scrawny:
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: And what's that Booker shortlisted novel about a tattooist or... something?
The Electric Michaelangelo - dull, dull. My suggestion was Booker Prize-nominated too!
I haven't bothered with a prize-winning boke since The God of Small Things which was unadulterated overwritten self-important shiteballs.
Good plane reading...I reckon you can't go far wrong with Heinlein. Enough sex and quantum constructs to keep anyone gripped for a few hours.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
Lanark by Alasdair Gray - haven't finished it yet, but it's been good so far;
Yeah well what happened is, I was persuaded by Scrawny's repeated suggestion and had to ask specially for it, but it isn't out in pb until July 7th.
Having left my old-skool post-it pasted to my computer screen, not very useful because I was miles away, I found Chabon's Final Solution but it was a tenner for a small hardback. Picked up Stars and Bars and realised I may well have read it during a Boyd-from-the-library period.
What the fuck else did they recommend? I scoured my mighty brain. O yes, LODGE. VP is such a hard bitch, if she likes something it must be good? So I bought Thinks... and hope it will sustain me.
I then broke rebelliously from the ill-remembered list of recommendations and picked up a book whose blurb shouted at me with the words 1988... CHEERLEADER... SHRINE TO PRINCESS DIANA.
It is called something like Notebook of a Teen Bitch and looks "OK", I shall report back.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
Spares or One of Us or Only Forwards by Michael Marshall Smith. Dark and occasionally funny cyperpunk (Spares & One of Us), and Only Forwards is....umm...kind of cyber/sci fi...but not quite, very bizarre. All are absolutely superb and available in small paperback format.
Posted by Abby (Member # 582) on :
Oops, didnt read the last post. Too late.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
I am in easyeverything on 42nd St and TMO has entertained me for no more than two minutes. Try harder please.
Whoever recommended D Lodge Thinks, I am indebted to you! (was it VP...yes.) Not only did it entertain and mildly educate me for whole plane trip and hrs in hotel, it gave me an "in" to conversation with 2 middle-aged lesbian academics at a "barbeque" (chilli, "ale") in Queens.
i recommend new york it is aces!
Posted by froopyscot (Member # 178) on :
Tip: make sure you have some cash on hand before taking the subway across, because if memory serves they don't take credit cards. It's the first stop on the Brooklyn side of the east river, located near the pier underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Your mouth will thank you.
Posted by kovacs (Member # 28) on :
too late! for my last meal there I went somewhere called Latino, on the lower East Side.
Posted by Ganesh (Member # 685) on :
quote:Originally posted by fish: I recently muchly enjoyed "The Cutting Room" by Louise Welsh. Don't be put off by the fact that the author is a woman... the hero is a man. Although he is a gayer. And old. And Scotch.
An old Scottish gayer writes:
Realise I'm late to the table and all the derring-do's derring-done, but I wanted to second The Cutting Room, as well as Walsh's second book, Tamburlaine Must Die, an account of Kit Marlowe's final days, but actually good (it'll make you want to punch Neil Gaiman in the neck).
Also just finished Chuck Palahniuk's new one, Haunted. I'd gone off him after Choke, when he was seeming more and more like the non-virtual version of some of Barbelith's weirder trolls, and just as repetitive. Haunted is a collection of short stories, though, in decameron-style a la Canterbury Tales. It's also a satire on reality television. Seventeen individuals leave jobs, homes and families for three months at a 'writers retreat', only to find themselves locked into an old theatre, with dwindling heat, light and food supplies. They're all forced to tell stories, as their group descends into mutilation, murder and cannibalism. The first story, Guts, famously causes fainting and vomiting when Palahniuk does readings...
So... whether or not you're leaving on a jet 'plane, I'd recommend those.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ganesh: It's also a satire on reality television
Cutting edge stuff.
"Sssssss!" Posted by Ganesh (Member # 685) on :
Sssssss indeed.
*shrugs*
Didn't claim it was the first satire of its kind or even the best, merely that it satirises reality TV. I'd say it's sharper than Elton's version, a good deal more extreme (as one might expect) and the decameron style works particularly well with Palahniuk's materal; he's more digestible in bite-sized chunks.
Posted by Thorn Davis (Member # 65) on :
I read Guts and thought it was a bit - I dunno - pointless? It just seemed to be trying to be as nasty as it could be without any point to it. It reminded me of Irvine Welsh at his very worst (everything other than trainspotting) when he hadn't realised that the reason people liked Trainspotting wasn't because the people were vile, but because they were vile yet recognisibly human.
Also, Guts really annoyed me because the physics of it is all wrong.
*spoilers, sort of, and some grusomeness*
I mean the guy's sat on the filter, and his anus prolapses, getting sucked down into the filter. He swims upwards, and his intestine starts to trail out behind him, and he even looks back and recognises a few hard to digest bits of meal.
Except... how? It's not as though your anus is like, I dunno, a vacuum cleaner hose - it's attached to the rest of your body. If your guts were spooling out your ass in this fashion, surely they'd be turning inside out as they did so? Think about it. Or, don't bother if you prefer.
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
quote:Originally posted by Ganesh: Didn't claim it was the first satire of its kind or even the best, merely that it satirises reality TV. I'd say it's sharper than Elton's version, a good deal more extreme (as one might expect) and the decameron style works particularly well with Palahniuk's materal; he's more digestible in bite-sized chunks.
I don't know, reality TV just seems like such a pointlessly obvious thing to satirise. It's practically self-satirising.
Look at CLI - I can't imagine Palahniuk coming up with anything a tenth as grotesque as Paul Danan.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Except... how? It's not as though your anus is like, I dunno, a vacuum cleaner hose - it's attached to the rest of your body. If your guts were spooling out your ass in this fashion, surely they'd be turning inside out as they did so? Think about it. Or, don't bother if you prefer.
I am going to try to draw you a picture...
Posted by ben (Member # 13) on :
Fucking hell, how counterculture is Palahniuk?
quote:You've reached a Premium Membership page! In order to see what we have among these awesome pages, you'll need to sign up for a Premium account. Or, if you are a Basic member, upgrade. Once you do, here's what you'll be getting in the Workshops:
Full access to the full Archive of Chuck's 2004 essays for writers Full access to Chuck's 2005 Essays and Assignments Participate in Chuck's Q&A Sessions, every quarterly Give and Receive Peer Review on your Works Option to now also submit screenplays, teleplays, stageplays, excerpts and more New Privacy Feature allows you to keep your work restricted to registered workshop participants only, if you prefer. Submit a Revision of your story and the new draft appears in the story lists with an "R" plus revision date. Your previous draft stays attached for comparison. Keep Revising and make your story strong enough to "graduate" into the all-new Graduated Story List. With your permission, a select number of graduated stories will be featured on the front page of the site for all to see! Talk about promotion... A Handpicked selection of the Best Stories will be published in the 2006 Writer's Cult Anthology. Chuck Palahniuk himself will write the Introduction for this book! So what the hell are you waiting for? Get onto our Premium Membership plan today!
Become a Premium Member!
Not sure if you want to join The Cult Workshop? You can still browse the archives of older submissions using the Archives links on the left. So take a look around; read some of the archived stories. Chances are, you'll want to sign up and join in all the fun!
Who knows? Maybe it's meant to be satirical.
Posted by Ganesh (Member # 685) on :
quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: I read Guts and thought it was a bit - I dunno - pointless? It just seemed to be trying to be as nasty as it could be without any point to it. It reminded me of Irvine Welsh at his very worst (everything other than trainspotting) when he hadn't realised that the reason people liked Trainspotting wasn't because the people were vile, but because they were vile yet recognisibly human.
Yes, Guts isn't my favourite. Thankfully, it's the first story recounted, so one can merrily skip over it and get to the other stuff, none of which is trying qui-i-ite so hard to be grotesque.
Broadly agree on Irving Welsh, although I'm not sure everything other than Trainspotting is beyond redemption. I read Glue, though (is that the one with the pig-mask on the cover, about the cop?) and thought it was so earnestly, pointlessly repellent, I couldn't finish the book. It was just deadening. Ironically enough (not really), I was actually in a train at the time, and chucked it out the window between compartments.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
A
G
E
quote:I mean the guy's sat on the filter, and his anus prolapses, getting sucked down into the filter. He swims upwards, and his intestine starts to trail out behind him, and he even looks back and recognises a few hard to digest bits of meal.
Except... how? It's not as though your anus is like, I dunno, a vacuum cleaner hose - it's attached to the rest of your body. If your guts were spooling out your ass in this fashion, surely they'd be turning inside out as they did so? Think about it. Or, don't bother if you prefer.
Yeah, that all bothered me, on two counts. Firstoff, you're absolutely right: the sweetcorn wouldn't be glimpsable through the strand of colon; it'd be sticking to what'd become the 'outside', and drifting off in the water. Secondly, gut can't turn itself out in this way because it's 'attached' inside by the mesentery, a sort of curtain of tissue which both anchors the gut and provides its blood supply. Even if it were possible to pull yards of colon out of one's backside, one would have to tear it free of the mesentery, resulting in massive internal haemorrhaging and, within a short space of time, death of the bowel itself from necrosis, having been ripped free of its arterial supply.
I think Palahniuk just flipped through some pathology/gastroenterology textbooks, saw a prolapsed rectum (where a couple of inches of gut does evert itself, like a turned-inside-out sock, and hang out the anus) and thought, "hey, wouldn't it be cool if the whole bowel did that".
Meh.
[ 24.06.2005, 06:41: Message edited by: Ganesh ]
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Ganesh I wish you hadn't explained that I was doing well with my cartoon cut-away anus.
Posted by Ganesh (Member # 685) on :
quote:Originally posted by ben: I don't know, reality TV just seems like such a pointlessly obvious thing to satirise. It's practically self-satirising.
I know what you mean. It's only really the framing device for the stories, though, rather than the point of the book; I think if it had been a novel, it would've irritated me more than it did.
Posted by Benny the Ball (Member # 694) on :
This was the story that was in the Guardian several saturday's ago?
Thought that the gore bit was rubbish, but quite liked the teenage suicide thing being nothing more than a mass cover-up for auto-asphyxation obsessed teens.
When I was at Uni, some kid hanged himself in my block, and a lot of people, upset of course, wondered how, why oh why? I always had a suspicion that he was knocking one off with a belt round his neck, but will never know.
Posted by Ganesh (Member # 685) on :
quote:Originally posted by New Way Of Decay: Ganesh I wish you hadn't explained that I was doing well with my cartoon cut-away anus.
Had I explained that you were doing well with your cartoon cut-away anus?
Posted by Uber Trick (Member # 456) on :
I think Mikee needs one of these "," in his sentence, I'll let him borrow mine if he's good.
Posted by New Way Of Decay (Member # 106) on :
Commas won't help. The laptop I'm using died and lost the piccy. I was just putting the final touches by pasting a picture of Thorns head on the prolapsing 'thumbs aloft' character and it went tits-up.
Posted by sleazenation (Member # 816) on :
Start with a colon story and you'll get to a comma... and, eventually, a full stop.
Posted by The Stoat (Member # 813) on :
Hmm... I quite enjoyed Haunted- as a collection of short stories, I think it's ace. The framing story, I didn't like so much- I think it would have worked much better as a short story on its own; could have been some kind of Palahniuk/Ballard hybrid, which would have been smart. It had that whole 120 Days/Salo thing going on, but I found it hard to care because EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED was so clearly a device to get to the next story (told in the same narrative voice as the others, no matter who the teller) that it all seemed a bit tacked-on. But some of the individual stories are just chuffin' excellent.
I read Guts last year when it was in the Guardian- second time round, it wasn't anywhere near as good. I think the fact that the first time I read it I was taking a shit probably enhanced the "yuk" factor for me.
Posted by One Reason Why (Member # 819) on :
I find myself easily distracted during flights always worrying about wings falling off and the like but I have managed to read breezy, familiar books or short stories. Recommending Party Monster/Confessions of a Superfreak by James St James, The Jungle Book/The Jungle Adventures of Mowgli (which just makes me astoundingly happy each time I dip into it) or a Somerset Maugham collection (rarely dissapoints).
[ 26.06.2005, 18:31: Message edited by: One Reason Why ]
Posted by sleazenation (Member # 816) on :
I dunno, I tend to find the uncomfortable seats on planes not conducive to reading, but fine for watching TV/films so I take my laptop and a few films or a boxed set or something and watch that on the way - a added bonus is you don't have to put up with the crappy selection that is usually programmed for your viewing pleasure...
Posted by Nina (Member # 800) on :
I quite like reading on planes, last time I was on one I read most of the latest Diana Wynne Jones book and the first few pages of Madame by Antoni Libera, which was really great. I much prefer reading to watching when I'm travelling because I find it distracts me more. Unless a film really draws me in it doesn't stop me from remembering how uncomfortable I feel.
Posted by Louche (Member # 450) on :
If any of you nice people what have read Haunted could summarise how it ends in a aneat little paragraph, I'd be quite pleased as it would save me wasting any more of my life on the fucking thing.
Posted by Ganesh (Member # 685) on :
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
for my last meal there I went somewhere called Latino, on the lower East Side.
