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Jesse Relkin

@jessereads

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Writer & book reviewer living in FL.📚🏖 Currently obsessed with Cheever.

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Well, I declare. Between NYRB’s revival of Nancy Lemann’s Lives of the Saints and its new release of The Oyster Diaries, Scott McClanahan’s Fights!, and Cash4Gold’s reissue of Rudy Wilson’s The Red Truck, I’m fixin’ to say this was a #SouthernSummer.

Read about it in my very private Reading Diary at the link in bio.

#nancylemann #scottmcclanahan #rudywilson

@nyrbooks @rosebooks.co @c4gbooks by @jessereads

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8 days ago

I couldn’t let the venerable, time-honored social media holiday #WomeninTranslationMonth pass by without singing the praises of the recent translations by @rachelcareautranslator of the Madonna of French letters—nay, of all letters (nay, wait, just remembered Sappho...)—the mononymous Colette.

Several years ago, I just about died of bliss reading Careau’s translations of Chéri and The End of Chéri, released together in one volume (scroll down for my review). Earlier this year, Careau followed up with a translation of The Pure and the Impure, which Colette considered to be her best book. It feels almost like a form unto itself: an autofictional work of reportage, in which Colette as narrator has been compared to a Dante-and-Virgil figure in one, reporting back to us from the sexual underworld.

Personally, I prefer Chéri and The End of Chéri over the ellipticality of The Pure and the Impure’s coy narrator. I like sex writing that doesn’t ... beat around the bush? ... quite so much. But what could I do against Careau’s reproduction of Colette’s devastating mots justes, musicality, and lush readability? Like the curling smoke of the demimonde’s opium dens, they lured me into the dreamy-druggy torpor of the book’s elusiveness. I recommend it for any Colette fan.

#colette #frenchliterature #thepureandtheimpure by @jessereads

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a month ago

aruba + curaçao ⋆｡°✩ by @jessereads

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2 months ago

My latest review, for @metropolitanreview

Link in bio ⬆️ by @jessereads

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4 months ago

Reading nook by @jessereads

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4 months ago

I’ve always been a sucker for the underdog. So when the The Republic of Letters asked me to make the case for Dimes Square’s lit scene, I was like sign me up. See what books I recommend and disagree with me in the comments. Link in bio. ⬆️

P.S. I have no idea who the people in these photos are. Do you?

#dimessquare

@petervackofficial by @jessereads

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7 months ago

The prevailing reading of #TheDirector by Daniel Kehlmann misses what’s most interesting about the book. My latest review is out in @metropolitanreview. Link in bio. by @jessereads

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8 months ago

Birthday reading 🥂 Congratulations to @newritualpress and Juan Ecchi on the new book — grateful for the copy.

#dryback #altlit #newfiction by @jessereads

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8 months ago

Best books of 2025 (that I’ve read so far).

#happinessandlove #zoedubno #perfection #vincenzolatronico by @jessereads

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9 months ago

Christmas book stack ✨Where should I start? by @jessereads

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9 months ago

Happy holidays 🎄✨Guess the holiday movie. by @jessereads

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9 months ago

In honor of the fact that I cut my manuscript down by 20K words, I shared a new excerpt on Substack today. 🎉 Here’s an excerpt of my excerpt.

I will be sharing my book with indie presses too now. Which ones should I include on my list? by @jessereads

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a year ago