{"id":173516,"date":"2026-04-30T10:00:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=173516"},"modified":"2026-04-29T15:18:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:18:01","slug":"notes-on-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/notes-on-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes on New Book"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Hermit Notes, 2023. Courtesy of Patrick Cottrell.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the late summer of 2023, I kept a log of process notes, so I could keep track of what I was writing and chart my frustrations. I had suffered from writer\u2019s block for several years, but there were moments when I experienced true lightness and clarity. Some of them are described here.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

July 14, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

At the beginning: The memorial gathering on the five-year anniversary of my brother\u2019s death + the new mystery<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end: The person disappears and you can\u2019t bring them back<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

July 16, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Each day is pain\/writing and yet I see myself writing new things and trying to add dimensions in order to justify this pitiful book but all i can hear are the doubts and critiques about WHY was this necessary, WHY am I doing this\u2014\u201cHe\u2019s repeating himself.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s rewriting his first book, but trans.\u201d \u201c<\/span>Sorry to Disrupt the Peace II: The Sequel No One Asked For.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But i remind myself RC opened <\/span>Kudos<\/span><\/i> with the same opening as <\/span>Outline<\/span><\/i>\u2014<\/span>Kudos<\/span><\/i> might even be a slight rewriting of <\/span>Outline<\/span><\/i> with its workshop\/lit conference\/panel scenes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s AE\u2014she has written books about the same relationship\/affair\/obsession with a man. One relationship written across multiple books?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

July 29, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Derailed by a tooth that has a cracked root fracture. Has to come out. Each day is so awful. A sense of stagnation and stillness when what I want is for the book to open, open, open into something expansive and true.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

July 30, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Need to think about all the threads\u2014maybe the idea at the end is it\u2019s not a big memorial, it\u2019s just a small dinner at my father\u2019s favorite restaurant\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

August 11, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Took a long break. Came across Colson Whitehead\u2019s <\/span>The Intuitionist<\/span><\/i> in <\/span>Cruel Optimism.<\/span><\/i> A really great reading by Berlant. It reminded me how at Hamline as an undergrad, I was supposed to give a talk on Whitehead\u2019s <\/span>John Henry Days.<\/span><\/i> I don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t read the paper I had written. Instead I tried to do some kind of comedic meta-performance talk and it BOMBED. It was so embarrassing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One can\u2019t always skate by on charm (however thin).<\/span><\/p>\n

My tooth is healing. <\/span>Now I\u2019m back.<\/span><\/p>\n

The more I think about it, the more I think the festive gathering\/memorial needs to be a simple dinner at a restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

August 14, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

I have this sense I need to get Dan Moran out of the house sooner than later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thinking about <\/span>Woodcutters<\/span><\/i> and how the core of the book is about the narrator\u2019s development as an artist\u2014also <\/span>Extinction<\/span><\/i>, which actually \u201cfeels\u201d the most novelistic of all his works (<\/span>Limeworks<\/span><\/i> an outlier).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

August 21, 2023\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Had the thought of someone (not me) writing a trans version of Andrew Martin\u2019s <\/span>Early Work<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to write it but I want to read it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I need Dan Moran to go to the address 212 Alexander Lane\u2014new house\/new dimension<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

August 24, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Read somewhere (Jules Gil-Petersen\u2019s substack?) that there are two transmasculine narratives:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have become a man (P Carl)<\/span><\/p>\n

I am worried about becoming a man, and resistant to it, but ultimately, I have become a man (Cyrus Dunham)<\/span><\/p>\n

I have become a man, man<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

August 25, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Today I made little progress. <\/span>I feel like I could be halfway through this draft.<\/span><\/p>\n

Halted by the thought that this has been done before (by me).<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

August 28, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

If I can figure out what\u2019s happening at 212 Alexander Lane I can figure out the entire book.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sarah says the voice seems more \u201cmature.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as focused on shitting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Hermit Note, August 28, 2023. Courtesy of Patrick Cottrell.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

August 29, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Today I was feeling weird about 212 Alexander Lane when I realized the problem was it\u2019s NOT supposed to be a house\u2014it\u2019s an apartment building.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

September 1, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Nap dream I am out to lunch and see RC at a Panera Bread-like cafe. <\/span>Nowhere to sit but an empty spot at her table so I sit down (rude) and I tell her I am a big fan (very rude) \u2026 I am giving her too many compliments. I ask her how she\u2019s had such longevity in her career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How did she keep going even when she felt things were doomed?\u00a0<\/span>She\u2019s smiling at me and I\u2019m aware of how much I am flattering her, how overboard I am going, even in my dream I am too much of a fan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She keeps smiling enigmatically, eager to answer my question, she\u2019s about to tell me her secret\u2014I am so excited, my heart is racing, I can feel how excited I am in my dream, she\u2019s about to divulge her secret\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

September 4, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Nothingness and deep depression.<\/span><\/p>\n

In bed all day.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019m one of those writers who has verbal diarrhea.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

September 5, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Reading W. G. Sebald and I looked up the doctor at Norwich Hospital who knew the whereabouts of Sir Thomas Browne\u2019s skull.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Sebald, there are two eccentric academic figures\u2014Michael something and Janine Daykins (I think) who are both obsessive about different things (Ramuz and Flaubert).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today in academia, people aren\u2019t as eccentric.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

September 7, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Need to think about last third of the book\u2014can feel it\u2019s almost over.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

September 10, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

The threatening smiley letter\u2014who sent it to him?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t answer this!!<\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to answer this!!<\/span><\/p>\n

You need to write the book in such a way in which the answer simply DOES NOT MATTER!!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

September 15, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

Today a breakthrough re: the end.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was written on my brother\u2019s hand the night he died\u2014like the revelation at end of <\/span>The Intuitionist<\/span><\/i>\u2014it\u2019s a little joke<\/span><\/p>\n

There were three names on his hand<\/span><\/p>\n

But when I asked my mom about them she could only remember her own<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

September 16, 2023<\/b><\/p>\n

What did my brother do all day?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How did he spend his time?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people don\u2019t do much, she said. I swear, some people really don\u2019t do much at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(that\u2019s what Dr. Schwarz told me when I asked her.<\/span><\/p>\n

she was going through a divorce.)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Patrick Cottrell’s second novel,\u00a0<\/em>Afternoon Hours of a Hermit, is now out from Ecco.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHad the thought of someone (not me) writing a trans version of Andrew Martin\u2019s Early Work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1504,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68416],"tags":[20345,22974,3357,67827,45108,68287,12043,7515,722,34097],"class_list":["post-173516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diaries","tag-andrew-martin","tag-annie-ernaux","tag-diary","tag-featured","tag-outline-trilogy","tag-patrick-cottrell","tag-rachel-cusk","tag-thomas-bernhard","tag-w-g-sebald","tag-woodcutters"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNotes on New Book by Patrick Cottrell<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 30, 2026 \u2013 \u201cHad the thought of someone (not me) writing a trans version of Andrew Martin\u2019s Early Work.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/notes-on-new-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Notes on New Book by Patrick Cottrell\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 30, 2026 \u2013 \u201cHad the thought of someone (not me) writing a trans version of Andrew Martin\u2019s Early Work.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/notes-on-new-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-30T14:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/img-0784-scaled-e1777318644232.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1042\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1103\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick Cottrell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Cottrell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/notes-on-new-book\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/notes-on-new-book\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Patrick Cottrell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/917483aca44f603d4c1d3bb3605c07d4\"},\"headline\":\"Notes on New Book\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-30T14:00:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/notes-on-new-book\/\"},\"wordCount\":1084,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2026\/04\/30\/notes-on-new-book\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/img-0784-scaled-e1777318644232-967x1024.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Andrew Martin\",\"Annie Ernaux\",\"diary\",\"Featured\",\"Outline trilogy\",\"Patrick Cottrell\",\"Rachel Cusk\",\"Thomas Bernhard\",\"W. 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