Jubilee

Not only did I get my tax rebate, or whatever they're calling it, the IRS informed me this week that it has dropped its case against me concerning my 2006 taxes. ("Case" makes the proceeding sound far grander and Kafka-esque than it was, since it all happened by mail. A "postal shakedown," maybe.)

In the resultant burst of consumer confidence, I bought
"Collapse IV." Which looks very good, despite the fact that it contains no fiction by Antoine Volodine. I guess Volodine wouldn't have fit. He's not so much "concept horror," or even horror, more quasi-Blanchotien apocalypticism in decaying, vaguely Russian or Chinese cities.