It’s almost a punchline at this point: every writer is a little in love with and a little afraid of Anne Carson. Perhaps less with Carson herself (who is famously private, and allergic to the spotlight) and more with what she gets away with: living an unquestioned life of the mind on the page.

Throughout Olga Ravn’s latest novel, My Work, protagonist and new mother Anna repeatedly says she wants to write a “normal book.” It’s a brilliant refrain, because of course Ravn’s book is anything but normal, though it is an ambitious one.

I think he’s one of the least interesting things ever to happen to this country and electing him was the most obvious thing we could do. He’s the most American thing about America and we’re all just so disgusted and ashamed and horrified to realize it. But he’s the natural endpoint. And I don’t necessarily mean Trump, but someone like Trump.