friends with books: first thoughts/first read on amina cain's A HORSE AT NIGHT

this is from my diary on nov. 15:

got amina's new book yesterday, a horse at night. i'm liking it very much. it's a small book, quiet, & i think for me that invites an extended & slow engagement with it. i can show up to it as a reader because it leaves room for me to do so on my own terms, to bring myself to it again & again, moving deeper & deeper. the language is simple at first glance, which i think is what so vexed the big-deal reviewers who panned it. if one gives this book a superficial read, it will seem superficial. if they engage in relationship with it--which is how i read, & how amina seems to read, too --there is more there than appears at first glance. the language is actually highly concentrated, poetic in the way my language is poetic (at least in my poetry). it's interesting to be looking at m & s galleys while reading a horse because i can imagine some reviewer trashing my book for the same reasons they trashed this one--it is not directive, additive; it is evocative & quiet, & they didn't recognize what it was & what it was doing, & how. my books rarely get reviews, & i am assuming that their uncanniness is part of it. they [my books] don't tell you overtly what to seek in them or how to read them. they invite deep engagement & relation, but they do not solicit by adopting a seductive or evangelistic air. they wait like mushrooms for the right person to notice them & act on their curiosity. this is how i approach friendship, too, though i also will make overtures in that area. of course. amina also links friendship to reading on a number of levels, & that is very important. there's an important parallel between dismissive & scornful reviews, & a neoliberal approach to friendship. do you want to experience a person as they are, over repeated engagements & in various circumstances? or do you want to judge them & move on to the next one, in hopes of finding something you can use?