I Wished

this was unlike everything I've read before. it is somehow a collection of memories, a chaotic surrealist piece of autofiction, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. it was hard to follow Cooper's writing, sometimes, but, nonetheless, I think he did a great job capturing love, and, more than that, the obsession to be loved by someone we do love. and also what it feels to spend a whole existence trying to make sense of your feelings for someone and knowing that probably no one will see beyond that person's flaws and very perturbed behaviour. it felt desperate. by the end, Cooper says that he is writing only for George and that we are his witnesses or the admirers of this whole story. I think one can feel that, indeed, that the book is entirely for the man he had loved his entire life, and not to serve other literary purposes. it's a heart-breaking and dark eulogy.