Andrew Bertaina

Comfort cat

2001 On God and failure and being old enough to drink

Wrote about a year of bifurcation that defined my sense of self for years beyond.

andrewbertaina.substack.com/p/2001

“The Consul felt a pang. Ah, to have a horse, and gallop away, singing, away to someone you loved perhaps, into the heart of all the simplicity and peace in the world; was that not like the opportunity afforded by life itself? Of course not.”

Malcolm Lowry Under the Volcano

“Love, I still believe, exists outside of time. Or it is its own time. It makes its own measures—not in minutes or hours or calendar days but in something closer to seasons, or tidal movements. All winter long I’d been suspended in it.”

Thirst For Salt by @madelaine_lucas

Seminal movie!

Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry a section on golf and the Golgotha Hole

“Still, I had carried the memory of that night in my pocket like a rock plucked from a mountain. In my boredom I had rolled it in my fingers. In the sun I had held it up and stared at the lines of quartz, wondered what was inside
Still Alive by @ljabouttown.bsky.social
@malarkeybooks.bsky.social

Almost a month since I have hit this trail.
Glad to be back after some knee setbacks.

“Was Steinbeck’s home a national monument? It was not. America did not have its literary priorities straight, nor did it rank its writers with any precision. In China, everybody knew who the top three were, in order.” From Daydreamers by @alvinlu.bsky.social at afC2

Also, East of Eden!!

Glad you sent it along! It deserves attention!

Morning read

Still alive by @ljabouttown.bsky.social @malarkeybooks.bsky.social

It’s awesome :)

Those sentences! I love this :)

This is excellent

That’s valid :)

I’d vote Top of the lake then! You get crime and strangeness!

It’s a fantastic show, IMO. But it’s not crime or surreal :/. Department Q? Top of the Lake?

💀😅

I am also too old. And I am on there 🤣

Yes! You’re also now my agent. Let’s get going!

I mean, Tik-Tok??
I know. I know. But it’s tough here

Did you watch, Industry?

You’re now my editor for all posts. That’s how this works. They are all one shot blasts of thought. And I expect you to fix them 😅

Fine. I fixed it. But I refuse to italicize!

No edits, baby. We are not pausing the train on these posts! But I do appreciate you :)

Me just casually getting through that second read of Infinite Jest in 2010

On Reading In Search of Lost Time: Some inadequate thoughts on the read of a lifetime In Search of Lost Time comes in at 4,211 pages, a fact that I include at the start of the review because it’s the thing most readers know about it.

Some brief thoughts on reading Proust.

andrewbertaina.substack.com/p/on-reading...

Really wonderful to see my short story @theforge.bsky.social , up with @turnandwork.com amongst other amazing writers!

forgelitmag.com/2025/08/04/p...

Thank you, @anothermag.com for running an extract from GREYHOUND with a few photos from the road….

#nonfiction #greyhound #thecommunal #ontheroad #bustravel #theusa