Good to hear from you Papalaz. Of the list I've read 2-4-7 and 9. The Hamsun book twice actually. I've read some Pessoa--selected poetry. Also one book by Moravia but I had a hard time slogging through that and I've read Frisch at least a couple times. I liked his 'I'm not Stiller' quite a lot. Tieck, Fosse and Bracewell I wasn't familiar with.

At the moment I'm finishing Richard Power's 'Gain' which juxtaposes a present day cancer victim against the long history of the corporation that poisoned her. Also re-reading Perec's 'A void' and Per Pettersson's Impac winning 'Out stealing horses'. Speaking of Impac winners I recently reviewed 'No great mischif' by a Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod that I liked quite a lot.

Here are a few names that I wonder if you've ever heard--among the list of Oulipo friendlies which included Sorrentino--there is an English writer Richard Beard, a German poet Unica Zurn, a Polish writer Stefan Themerson and an American writer and poet Keith Waldrop.

As well listed as an influence or as an 'anticipatory plagiarist' is the English poet George Herbert. Do you have an opinion on him?

posted by lriley at 12:39 pm (EST) on Jul 23, 2008

Your Manchete reviews really grabbed me!

posted by slickdpdx at 11:22 pm (EST) on Jul 8, 2008

Papalaz--just put up a review of Beckett's Stories and texts for nothing.

posted by lriley at 6:37 pm (EST) on Jun 23, 2008

Papalaz--if you're interested--I have done a review of Kourouma's Allah is not obliged. It reminds me quite a bit of Journey to the end of night. Hilarious and tragic at the same time.

posted by lriley at 9:06 am (EST) on Jun 5, 2008

Papalaz--It's been a while--so I thought I might check up on you. Did the Cavafy poems and liked a lot of them. Also did a review on Rings of Saturn--though it was more impressions. Currently reading Elias Khoury's (Lebanese)--Gate of the sun--which I think is great and Ahmadou Kourouma's (Ivory Coast?) Allah is not obliged which is raunchy and hilarious.

posted by lriley at 12:36 pm (EST) on May 31, 2008

Have only read Updike once Papalaz. I suppose if you don't like it you can always pan it. Serve them right for sending you a crap book in that case. As for the Sebald I don't think I'll have a problem at least getting most of my money back for it if I didn't like it but it seems to me he (or I) deserve another chance.

posted by lriley at 4:34 pm (EST) on May 3, 2008

Papalaz--thanks for the headsup. I'm only wondering if I don't want to read what they decide to send me? Anyway currently working my way through Cavafy's poems which I like very much and in the meantime Rings of Saturn showed up yesterday--so hopefully I'll get to that soon as well.

posted by lriley at 1:34 pm (EST) on May 2, 2008

Papalaz--well if there's an afterworld (I have serious doubts) father and son will have to sort it out there.

The one book of Graves I've read is his World War I memoir which was pretty good.

Still working on my re-read of Van Niekerk's Triomf. It is kind of lengthy--528 pages and I've been slower in the last couple months with longer works. I think it's brilliant though. Reminds me a bit of a more modernistic Flannery O'Connor.

posted by lriley at 12:20 pm (EST) on Apr 27, 2008

Papalaz--betrayals come with the territory of father-son relationships. Dmitri can specualte about his father and his wishes and how he might--given time have changed his mind better than I. Nabokov's legacy at least over here seems to be fading. He had some great books and some not so great. Anyway maybe this book will bring him back some spotlight.

On the subject of Sebald I ordered the Rings of Saturn.

posted by lriley at 6:28 am (EST) on Apr 27, 2008

I read a Sebald some time ago and I don't know if I was quite ready for it as I didn't particulary care for it. I have been looking at buying something of his lately but waiting for the prices to come down. There are writers who your first time through you don't really care for but then afterward you think what was wrong with me then?--For me Borges would be such an example also Philip Roth, Henry Green. I've been thinking for some time anyway that I need to give him another chance.

posted by lriley at 2:54 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2008

Papalaz--Corning Library sale today. I picked up 9 books for just over $11.00--including a 1st american edition of McEwan's 'The Cement Gardern' though it does have black mark on the bottom of the binding. We also took care of our Cavafy problem his 'Complete poems' the book is in nice shape though pages are faintly yellowed. J. G. Ballard's 'The kindness of women'. Denis Johnson's 'Already dead'. Jeanette Winterson's 'The powerbook'--I read her for the first time recently and kind of liked it. Richard Power's 'The Echo maker'--won the National Book award a couple years ago. I have never read anything by him though. Paul Auster's 'The Brooklyn follies' which is a trade paperback. None of these by the way have sat on the shelf of a local library. They are free of markings--except for the McEwan. Also picked up a noir novel by an Algerian who writes under the pseudonym Yasmina Khadra. It's title is 'Double Blank' and looks really interesting.

posted by lriley at 1:28 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2008

Papalaz--been browsing around but haven't quite figured out where the Kelman interview is. Did find a number of interesting things though--Mark E. Smith (of the British band--The Fall) reading H. P. Lovecraft. A few other things. I'll mess about over there tomorrow a bit--see what else I can find--I'm off to bed here though pretty soon--got to be up early in the morning.

I did a review of Richard Price's--Lush Life the other day--which I liked a lot. It's a police procedural done step by step--very gritty but at the same time very imagistic. Re-reading Marlene Van Niekerk's Triomf--set in de Klerk's South Africa. She's a wonderful writer with a very fine though very nasty comedic sense. It revolves around the Benades family--poor white trash--Mol, her brother Treppie, husband Pop and son Lambert--as for Lambert question is whether his father is Treppie or Pop. All of them have sex with her though. Even so there is a certain charm to them all--albeit a kind of evil charm to Treppie and Lambert can be quite the brute.

posted by lriley at 6:00 pm (EST) on Apr 21, 2008

I don't know if you've noticed this Papalaz:

http://internationalnoir.blogspot.com

Got Raymond on the front page.

posted by lriley at 4:38 pm (EST) on Apr 11, 2008

To me Roth is akin in some respects to Ian McEwen though McEwen takes greater pains to try to wow his readers. The one Roth book that I like the most is Sabbath's Theater. Mickey Sabbath is a Celinian type of character--kind of a Courtial des Perrieres from Death on the Installment Plan or maybe even a character who would fit well into Guignol's band. It may seem a reach--but maybe not so much when Roth had this to say about Celine--"To tell you the truth, Celine is my Proust! Now there is a very great writer. Celine is a great liberator. I feel called by his voice."

posted by lriley at 1:32 pm (EST) on Apr 9, 2008

Papalaz--today a Lobo Antunes review--Knowledge of Hell. Later on or tomorrow I plan on doing Queneau's Elementary morality.

posted by lriley at 1:16 pm (EST) on Apr 5, 2008

Papalaz--don't know if it's all that great but have put up a Tristram Shandy review.

posted by lriley at 2:05 am (EST) on Apr 1, 2008

Papalaz--closing in on the end of Tristram Shandy--maybe finishing tomorrow. Just added a Robbe-Grillet review.

posted by lriley at 5:41 pm (EST) on Mar 22, 2008

Papalaz--I have a short review of the Raymond book. You might also be glad to know that I've made quite a bit of progress on the Shandy book in the last couple of days. I'm finishing up Volume 6--cutting down on the note reading a bit. I have to say I do like it--there are some very modernistic touches--a lot of tongue in cheek comedic flourishes. A very sly use of language and good psychological insights--especially when considering the time it sprung from.

posted by lriley at 12:59 pm (EST) on Mar 17, 2008

Papalaz--a lot of notes in my copy--and a lot of them are wordy explanations. A lot of interruptions as well--most of that is my fault as for the last few weeks I keep being sidetracked by a lot of other stuff--most of which is fairly useless. Then of course there have been other books I've been reading as well--Atonement, No country for old men, Cocaine Nights, Crust and Roth's My life as a man. Sterne's language at times reminds me of Joyce--although Sterne came first--there are a lot of what I would call archaisms--along with unusual language patterns--these drag a bit for me. Keeping in mind that having read both Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel and Cervantes' Don Quixote--they both took me a very long time as well. Much longer than normal anyway. Boccaccio was another one--but a little easier as most of his stories were not all that long. Speaking of Joyce's Ulysses that took me a couple--three weeks anyway. Some things I just plod along I suppose.

I liked Cocaine Nights but I guessed the deja vu ending about 100 pages before the finish. Raymond's Crust reminds me kind of a like a cross between Celine's Guignol's band with a little clockwork orange worked in. The tone of the book is excellent.

posted by lriley at 8:26 am (EST) on Mar 16, 2008

Papalaz--The crust on its uppers was excellent. Well certainly review that one soon. I've also finished Ballard's Cocaine nights and have passed the halfway mark on Tristam Shandy--that one I've been taking a lot of time with. Lots of notes and archaisms.

posted by lriley at 1:46 pm (EST) on Mar 15, 2008

Have you ever seen this one Papalaz?

http://internationalnoir.blogspot/

Anyway slowly going through Tristam Shandy--reminds me in some respects of some sections of Ulysses. Also started Ballard's Cocaine nights and Cormac McCarthy No country for old men. And Raymond Queneau's newly translated Elementary Morality showed up today and it looks as if I'm the first on LT to own it--at least in translation.

posted by lriley at 1:05 pm (EST) on Mar 4, 2008

I admit I didn't finish it, but Making of Americans (G. Stein) is worth reading for as long as you feel like. Its like a Philip Glass composition. (I'm sure there's a more pertinent comparison but I don't know enough about music.) Theme sentence, slight variation sentences and repetitions, it slowly moves forward, then returns. Two steps forward, one and a half back, and forward again. Quite unique and not totally pointless.

posted by slickdpdx at 11:09 pm (EST) on Mar 3, 2008

Papalaz--Ever hear of a Mancunian writer named David Bowker? I'm slowly going through Shandy--but am also working on 'I love my Smith and Wesson'--a kind of noirish comedy revolving around a hitman name of Steve Ellis but more often known as Rawhead.

From Publishers weekly--For readers who like their mobsters with a side order of smart satire writing and who doesn't?

Kirkus review (on a different title)--Alternatively quirky and grisly. Bowker's first crackles with energy and surprising warmth.

Literary review (on a different title)--Grotesque, original, and murderously funny, it conforms to no other existing crime template. We are sailing unchartered waters and there are sharks all around...Bowker tells his tale with wit, invention, and a raw energy that boils off the page.

posted by lriley at 6:26 pm (EST) on Feb 29, 2008

Maybe the two of his I liked the best up until now--Cement Garden and The comfort of strangers. The construction and language use in Atonement does remind me a lot of Trevor--maybe a little less of Boyd's Ice Cream War but those two writers spring to mind. It's really good. Having not read Roth's plot against America yet--I'm not sure how it would compare to Bolano's work. Lindbergh had sympathy with at least some of the fascist ideology of his time. In that regard I can imagine. This to me compares somewhat more to Borges or even the one book I've read by Vila-Matas. Bolano takes on a kind of the clipped dry tones of an academedician that you might expect of someone writing up short biographies for a reference work. The imaginative part comes from him dreaming up these people and then fixing them into a reality that is not at all far-fetched. In this respect for the most part they come off as grotesque and/or repugnant but still very visibly human. There's no doubt in my mind that Bolano who was committed to the deposed Allende govt. has a political intent but the p in the political is a small one. The last and longest of his biographies is for a Carlos Ramirez Hoffman aka Emilio Stevens (which is a rehashing of a Bolano novella--Distant Star) a serial killer who preys on women and at the same time is part of Pinochet's air force--one of those who have the job of disappearing people--though as it turns out he is a bit of a free lancer. As a pilot and a poet he writes his poems in the sky (which reminds of one of the Ballard short stories from Vermillion sands) which among other things makes references some of the women he's murdered. He also considers himself an artist and at a party he gives for friends and acquaintance he draws his guests one by one into his bedroom to look at photos of some of the women he's butchered.

posted by lriley at 12:26 pm (EST) on Feb 23, 2008

Naomi Klein?--She has a newer book out on what she calls disaster capitalism--which more or less comes down to a look at the unfettered wealth of corporations and the return of an era of robber barons. I've been waiting for the price to drop on that one. I haven't read either of her books so I can't comment on her writing skills.

Bolano draws up fake portraits of right wing literary types. Histories, works, associations, bibliographies. Some our very short and I might send you a couple.

One reason for reading Atonement is I might wind up seeing the movie. I'd been waiting for the price of that one to go down but found a somewhat worse for wear trade copy at the library sale for $2. I like it actually. I've read him several times--sometimes it hasn't been all great. Black Dogs for instance meandered too much for my taste. There was another that had a tunnel going under the Berlin Wall which was so-so. Amsterdam I thought was so-so. Atonement reminds me somewhat of some of William Trevor's best work--thinking Fools of fortune or Lucy Gault. It also reminds me a bit of William Boyd's Ice Cream War or Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong. Anyway another book I picked up at this sale with a recent film out is Cormac McCarthy's No country for Old men--which I expect I'll get to in the next two or three weeks.

posted by lriley at 5:01 pm (EST) on Feb 22, 2008

Papalaz--currently finishing up on Bolano's Nazi literature in the America. Also about half way through McEwen's Atonement. Both are pretty good by the way but thinking that when Bolano is done--tomorrow maybe I'll start on Sterne.

posted by lriley at 1:43 pm (EST) on Feb 22, 2008

Some of what I do might be called work--but there are lulls. Times nearly everyday when things are just dead. This has a lot to do with policy decisions way up the food chain. And it's been this way for several years. The Postal Service runs things much the same as the present administration in the White House runs its business. It can be aggravating getting up five days of the week at two in the morning. We get five weeks of paid vacation a year--which is probably as good or better than 90% of the country--anyway 90% of those who can find work. Some people think this place is civilized. IMO they're not too good at comparisons. Ever wonder why there are so many maniacs running around here? Anyway I can easily relate to Celine's insomnia ridden alter-ego's.

posted by lriley at 12:56 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2008

Papalaz--Like your Vian story very much.

posted by lriley at 12:18 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2008

Papalaz--there's quite a bunch of French writers who I like a lot. I'd include Zola, Manchette, Le Clezio, Claude Simon, Echenoz, Houellebecq, Barbusse, Perec, Pinget, Rimbaud, Giono, Camus, Lydie Salvayre, Jean Claude Izzo--another noir writer, Robbe-Grilet. Beckett is also a French writer but an Irish one.

As for books--I hardly ever buy anything near the publishers price. There's a site in the United States called Half.com that I buy and sell from. Oftentimes you can find books that you're interested in for less than a dollar--though there is a standard shipping price which boosts that up to about $5. The other thing is there are library sales--one going on right now--not all the books are marked either--about half will be donated and not go through the process of being stamped and loaned out. Some will be pretty much brand new. Nearby Ithaca NY has the very high faluting Cornell U.--has Ithaca College--both very expensive--there are always a wide variety of books and authors at their sales. I envy the gorgeous climate and scenery of the island you live on but I don't imagine it's as easy or as affordable for you to come by books as it is for me. I guess it's a tradeoff and I would probably choose what you have rather than what I have--but you have to go with what you can get.

posted by lriley at 12:13 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2008

Robbe-Grillet? No--but I knew he was in his 80's. Born in the same year as my father I think. 1923? Some of his work I like quite a lot. The Erasers. In the Labyrinth. Marienbad I'm a little more so-so about. Celine and Queneau will forever be my favorite French writers. I don't think there are too many of the nouveau-romanticists still around. Michel Butor I think, maybe Claude Ollier. Le Clezio was lumped in with them--but they all had their own distinct methodology as does Le Clezio.

I'm one of those people that one thing sometimes leads to another--so sometimes things you start off on get set aside because you run off on some other tangent. Today I'm looking at a Czech writer Patrik Ourednik (or Ourdenik)--whose name popped on the Dalkey Archive--center for the book site--in relation to Paul Verhaeghen's Omega Minor--which I reviewed and gave 5* today. There's almost no way I can read everything I buy. I believe I have Cocaine nights--I might get started on that soon, or on Raymond. or on Sterne. It will probably be either Ballard or Raymond though.

posted by lriley at 3:41 pm (EST) on Feb 19, 2008

Papalaz--still working on figuring out what Ballard to look for. OTOH Derek Raymond's The crust on its uppers showed up today.

posted by lriley at 1:05 pm (EST) on Feb 19, 2008

Ran into a recent Ballard title--Kingdom Come--that sounded very interesting but it's not very available in the United States--apparently hasn't a US publisher yet.

posted by lriley at 12:12 pm (EST) on Feb 17, 2008

Papalaz--it's very good. I think I have Cocaine nights around here somewhere. Maybe need to put it on the short list--maybe have to look up more of his stuff.

posted by lriley at 8:07 am (EST) on Feb 17, 2008

Not all the Nobels are good choices--some of the best writers have never got a sniff at it. It's okay. The choices sometimes come right out of left field but it keeps it interesting and keeps readers like us on our toes. Who is this? From where? and then Why? Part of the fun for me anyway. I don't where I would start with a list. I could probably think of 50 or more who are living.

posted by lriley at 5:27 pm (EST) on Feb 13, 2008

Papalaz--Haven't heard anything about the state of Ballard's health. Does he have some illness? In the review it said it might be his last book. Not that I want to burst your bubble but ss for the Nobel I think Ballard's chances are slim. The nature of politics that surround the prize tells me that Pinter winning a couple years ago and Lessing last year--though some might argue she's not British tells me that British writers as a whole are not going to get that prize again in the next several years--it may even be a few years before any english speaking writer gets it. There are numerous writers all over the globe who I'd like to see win it--for the most part they don't. His 'Crash' is probably a book I'll have to look at before too long. I have to get to Sterne as well. This Omega Minor is a great book--will probably be a 5 but it takes a long time--691 densely packed pages. Very remarkable.

posted by lriley at 2:28 pm (EST) on Feb 13, 2008

Papalaz--I'd gotten the crust on its uppers in the meantime though. I'll wait on Dora for now.

posted by lriley at 3:00 pm (EST) on Feb 6, 2008

Papalaz--if I remember--I was Dora Suarez--was one I was interested in. Looked around a little. They have the two Manchette's, several by Vazquez Montalban--I've read them all. The one by Thierry Jonquet--Tarantula I think goes by the title 'Mygale' in the states. That was interesting. Other books I noted were Fernando Vallejo's 'Our lady of the assassins' which is very hard to find at an affordable price and which I don't have. Nicolas Royle's Antwerp looks interesting likewise--though I believe I've read him once and didn't particularly care for that book. Finished up Saramago's All the Names over the weekend. The Verhaeghen book I mentioned is really excellent but I'm going to be on for quite a while. I can see it lasting a couple weeks.

posted by lriley at 1:18 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2008

I like it Papalaz. I have only read Bowles once--the Sheltering Sky--but I think I might look this one up. Some of his pals (Vargas Llosa and Rodrigo Rey Rosa) are excellent writers.

posted by lriley at 5:32 pm (EST) on Feb 3, 2008

Papalaz--I don't know if you've ever read Camilo Jose Cela--I just put up a review of his Christ versus Arizona--the book in which I meet my untimely end.

posted by lriley at 2:21 pm (EST) on Jan 27, 2008

first time for everyone and everything Papalaz. Most important of all I'm keeping my composure.

posted by lriley at 3:19 pm (EST) on Jan 24, 2008

Papalaz--I was murdered and then hung in the book I've been reading today--from the Camilo Jose Cela's (Spanish nobel literature laureate) Christ versus Arizona we have this:

'Wyatt Earp was called the Lion of Tomiston, he risked his life in the shootout at the O.K. Corral and died years later, the mulatto Jane Kolb knows all the details of that bloodbath, Wyatt Earp worked as a gunfighter in the service of the Dodge City Peace Commission, all of them wore mustaches except Charlie Bassett who looked like a priest, Charlie was fat and white and killed people with great aplomb without ever losing his smile, the Litany of Our Lady is the breastplate that preserves us from sin, I say regina angelorum regina partiarcharum and you say ora pro nobis twice, Professor Licencia Margarita was romantically involved with Luke Short, the one who shot the ranch-hand Larry Riley in the back and then ordered his corpse hanged, the way to make sure hanged men don't kick is to hang them dead, look at Riley up there--what composure!,'

posted by lriley at 12:32 pm (EST) on Jan 24, 2008

Papalaz--I see you have added a couple reviews and very fine ones also on Manchette. Some nasty stuff. Boiled down pot boilers.

posted by lriley at 3:51 pm (EST) on Jan 21, 2008

Papalaz--apparently of the 367 people here who own a copy of Beckett's Murphy--I'm the first to review it. That's a little amazing--considering it was his first published novel. I'm working on Camilo Jose Cela's 'Christ versus Arizona'--which is much in the vein of other works of his. It is one 261 page paragraph--of exactly one sentence--a collage of recurring images that tightly fit together, and at least in the past tend to build little by little in intensity. This one somewhat centers around Tombstone Arizona--and the Hispanic community there towards the end of the 19th century and the event of the shootout at the OK corral.

posted by lriley at 3:46 pm (EST) on Jan 21, 2008

In the meantime my New York Rangers vs. New Jersey Devils tickets for March 27 at MSG in NYC just showed up a minute ago.

Ever hear of Paul Verhaeghen? and his Omega Minor?

Back to Nabokov--don't really know the facts surrounding Vladimir's death--that could make a lot of difference for me. Last requests though are pretty cut and dried at least when left to immediate family. I tend to agree with you.

As for Sterne I'm pretty good at looking aup the notes and it's not really a problem. I definitely look if I'm unsure about what is being got at.

posted by lriley at 1:16 pm (EST) on Jan 18, 2008

Papalaz--As his son I would think burning it would be the right thing to do. As a friend--maybe not. Automatically Kafka comes to mind. While I'm not the biggest Kafka booster out there--I'm glad his friend didn't listen to his request to destroy his manuscripts. I wonder also why Nabokov leaves it to his son to do this. If his ghost is out there somewhere it has only itself to blame if Dmitri decides to publish it instead and it may be lucky for us too. I tend to like Nabokov--but there are certain of his works I didn't like at all including one of the more popular--Pale Fire. Bend Sinister is probably my favorite.

As it happens Tristam Shandy arrived in the mail today. A penguin trade size paperback. 543 pages and over 100 pages more of notes. We'll get to it within the next couple-three weeks hopefully. Currently finishing Julian Barnes' Talking it over which I kind of like. Many many years ago I started reading his Flaubert's parrot and for some reason stopped and can't tell you now why. If I remember I thought it was good--but just stopped reading it and never picked it up again and no longer have it. This may be the only occasion that I remember not finishing something I started.
Also getting towards the end of Beckett's Murphy--which was the first book of his I ever read--again many many years ago.

posted by lriley at 12:22 pm (EST) on Jan 18, 2008

Papalaz--have ordered Tristam Shandy--it should be here in one-two weeks. I see you've been busy reading and reviewing Beckett's. I am fortunate to have one of his books signed--Fizzles--(at least the signature looks authentic from others I've seen). Maybe I'll re-read Murphy again. Have put up another review on Bolano for a shorter work (184 pages)--Amulet.

posted by lriley at 9:27 am (EST) on Jan 14, 2008

Papalaz--I'll have to order Tristam Shandy. Currently finishing up Bolano's Amulet. Just started Grete Weill's Last trolley from Beethoven straat. Both are less than 200 pages. Bolano is as usual excellent.

posted by lriley at 12:37 pm (EST) on Jan 12, 2008

But I've never read Tristam Shandy--Papalaz. To me Rabelais does come to mind. The old american folk tales. He really seemed to be dipping into a lot of different sources.

On the comic--A confederacy of dunces is a great comic novel. I see a lot of the comic in Celine, Schmidt, Boon etc.--very dark comedy but...one of the funniest books for me believe it or not was Emile Zola's 'The Earth'--this family of farmers hating and killing each other over the inheritance. One of them named Hyacinthe goes by the nickname of 'Jesus Christ' because of his resemblance to christ is the best of the lot though a boozing, whoring total non-conformist. Antonio Lobo Antunes is just hilarious--but dark humor again. Bukowski's Post Office comes to mind--McCabe's Butcher Boy as sad as it is, ditto for James Kelman's How late it was. Then there's Queneau's 'We always treat women too well'--where he borrows some of Joyce's Ulysses characters--one ones that give Bloom a hard time in the pub--and puts them in the GPO during the Irish easter rising. Marlene Van Niekerk's Triomf is great. Tristan Egolf's Lord of the Barnyard. Heller's Catch 22. Halldor Laxness who was just a brilliant writer. Flannery O'Connor's Wiseblood. Faulkner's As I lay dying.

posted by lriley at 5:03 pm (EST) on Jan 11, 2008

Papalaz--Review on Blue Pastoral is up.

posted by lriley at 1:08 pm (EST) on Jan 11, 2008

Papalaz--have not read 'The sky changes'. On Sorrentino I've read Imaginative qualities, Splendide Hotel, Mulligan Stew, Aberration of starlight, Red the fiend and Steelwork.

posted by lriley at 2:50 pm (EST) on Jan 8, 2008

Papalaz-I read Mulligan Stew some years ago--I have to say I like this better. My favorite Sorrentino is Imaginative qualities.

posted by lriley at 3:51 pm (EST) on Jan 7, 2008

Papalaz--decided to read 3 to kill again and I have to say I think it's fantastic. Also about half way through Sorrentino's Blue Pastoral. I had a hard time getting started with that one but I like it more and more as I go along. Probably do a review of it when I'm finished--that might not show up until friday or saturday.

posted by lriley at 12:55 pm (EST) on Jan 7, 2008

Papalaz--I really love Manchette. They are both excellent. If I had to choose it would be 'Three to Kill' but it's close.

Started another Denis Johnson book today--The stars at noon. Finished Joshua Ferris's 'Then we came to the end' which was one of the NYTimes notable books of 2007. It's good--but I think they could have found something better. It's going to be a 3 or 3 1/2. Did a review yesterday of Elfriede Jelinek's 'The Piano teacher'--she reminds me a bit of her fellow Austrian Thomas Bernhard. I also picked up Arno Schmidt's 'Collected stories' which I see is in your library too.

posted by lriley at 1:55 pm (EST) on Jan 2, 2008

You're very good at what you turn your hand too Papalaz--judging by this and the work in progress you were working on formerly. Anyway thank you for letting me read your poem. I liked it a lot. Christmas for us is usually a bit understated. It's nice to have the extra day off. Gave my wife an MP3 player which is what she wanted most, a few books, this and that. We've added a flat screen monitor to our computer setup--she gave me a digital camera with a zoom lens--actually we're going to exchange cameras--she's going to take the zoom as she's more the picture person--a couple New York Ranger ballcaps, the books and dvd I mentioned before, a wallhanging sign from my daughter 'How can I miss you if you won't go away' and also a 2008 calendar of Bush misquotations and verbal foulups--and a bottle of Tanqueray vodka. Not too bad all in all.

posted by lriley at 1:16 pm (EST) on Dec 25, 2007

Read that article about Kharms a couple weeks ago Papalaz. Might see what I can find on him. I did a review on Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing today. I liked that one very much.

posted by lriley at 3:02 pm (EST) on Dec 24, 2007

Papalaz--4 books coming out in 2008 I'm looking forward to.

Elementary Morality--Raymond Queneau--in February.
Nazi literature in America--Roberto Bolano--also in February.

Today I find 2 books by the Portugese Antonio Lobo Antunes--one coming out as a Dalkey Archive in March--Knowledge of Hell and the other a W. W. Norton in August--What can I do when everything's on fire?

posted by lriley at 3:39 pm (EST) on Dec 22, 2007

Merry Christmas--Happy Holidays or whichever you would prefer Papalaz. I hope to do a book review today on Leonard Gardner's Fat City which I think you might like. Reminds me a lot of the Carver short stories recently read--or even somewhat of Agnes Owens for that matter. It's relatively short--183 pages and apparently Gardner's only book--published 1969. It tells the story of two boxing bums--one starting out and the other trying to make a comeback. Humor, pathos but also starkly realistic. It's set in Southern California and one of its anti-heroes Billy Tully (the one trying to make the comeback) is battling his depression with alcohol and making ends meet between matches by working as a migrant worker picking fruit and vegetables. Anyway starting on a Trevor tonight, finishing up on a Mutis novella and half way through Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing (2nd of his Border Trilogy books).

posted by lriley at 2:39 am (EST) on Dec 21, 2007

I have strange tastes in movies Papalaz. Favorite war movie--which I kind of consider a comedy--Full metal jacket. The atmosphere and drill instructor of the boot camp scenes reminded me of my own. I couldn't stop laughing the first time I saw it. Matewan. Syriana. The pope of Greenwich village. Reservoir Dogs. Southern Comfort (set in the Louisian bayou where a small squad of weekend warrior National guardsman somewhat inadvertently set off a mini civil war with the locals). Germinal. There are a few others. My head is a little fuzzy now. Reading wise I'm working on the Oulipo connected Lynn Crawford's Simple Separate People and Don De Lillo's Great Jones Street and with a Lebanese Hanan al-Shaykh's Zahra's story which has their civil war somewhat in the background and is so-so or nothing extraordinary--at least for me.

posted by lriley at 2:24 am (EST) on Dec 14, 2007

Not a bad weather pattern--considering. We're in these valleys. Sometimes we get missed--sometimes not.

On books for christmas I usually buy a bunch--no one has a clue what to get me.
Among other things--Roberto Bolano's Amulet. Camilo Jose Cela's Christ versus Arizona. The Joshua Ferris book mentioned a couple comments ago--which is supposed to be signed by the author. Two books that I would surely get but won't be available until February Elementary Morality-Raymond Queneau and Nazi literature in America by the above mentioned Bolano. Also a dvd of Ken Loach's The wind that shakes the barley--all about the Black and Tan war.

One of these days I'll have to get back to something by Beckett as well. Possibly rereading Murphy--which was one of my favorite works of his and was the book chosen for C in Julian Rios's Loves that bind.

posted by lriley at 1:43 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2007

Seasons greetings to you and all in Crete also Papalaz. Today's weather is a bit nasty around here though. It took me twice as long as usual to get home today. Roads are treacherous at the moment. Sunday we may have a blizzard.

posted by lriley at 12:21 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2007

Papalaz--I don't know if you've ever read anything by the Italian noir writer Leonardo Sciascia but I put up a review today on him.

posted by lriley at 5:29 pm (EST) on Dec 12, 2007

Papalaz--NYTimes--10 best books of 2007. 5 fiction mentioned. They include--The Savage Detectives--Roberto Bolano, Tree of Smoke--Denis Johnson.

The other three are--Man gone down--Michael Thomas, Out stealing horses--Per Petterson, Then we came to the end--Joshua Ferris.

posted by lriley at 12:42 pm (EST) on Dec 9, 2007

Your Molloy review made me smile. I've always found a lot of comedy in Beckett--in constant search of an understated and/or ironic view of life--but he can pitch the tone higher and higher and still retain a bare bones approach and control of his language. An amazing writer.

posted by lriley at 5:11 pm (EST) on Dec 7, 2007

Papalaz--I've gone about Roth in the same haphazard way that I've gone about a lot of writers--not in any particular order. I read a blurb and it sounded interesting in the sense anyway that this culture of ours has a history of going off on witch hunts. I can't really comment so much on other countries but people here IMO will from time to time have their emotions tweaked for them on this and that. Somehow this seemed to be veering off on that kind of a tangent. Like most writers though he does have some that are much better than others.

By the way--my review of Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson is not all that great but the book is truly excellent. Maybe I could use a bit more motivation at the moment. There are several threads that come together at times and at other times unravel. It centers around a CIA operative and his recruitment by his uncle in the Phillipines and later on it takes us through the first few years of the Vietnam war. Johnson is a very subtle writer--depending on the book--somewhat experimental--a little more in the thematic sense than in the linguistic. In some respects he reminds me of Paul West--in some respects of the J. G. Ballard sci-fi book I recently read.

The Salon readers guide references him this way--Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers covers the same drugged-out apolcalyptic terrein that Johnson's fiction does. Herman Melville's Pierre is as flat-out weird as Fiskadoro while Rimbaud's vertiginous A season in hell echoes the precise ravings that reverberate through the heads of Johnson's antiheroes. Graham Greene's The end of the affair shares Johnson's obsession with redemption and an absent god, and Leonard Gardner's Fat City--a work that Johnson has paid homage to--echoes his sad empathy with life's losers.

Maybe I should look up this Fat City. Anyway the above Salon guide only reaches the year 2000.

posted by lriley at 5:04 pm (EST) on Dec 7, 2007

Papalaz--have been reading Johnson's 'Tree of Smoke'--which we talked about before and it's very very good. Mostly about Vietnam as you probably know. In some ways it makes me think a bit of Paul West--he's juggling several different threads throughout but doing a good job of it.

posted by lriley at 5:13 pm (EST) on Nov 27, 2007

Papalaz--not to worry--I expect that sooner or later everything I want book wise will show up at the door. Up until now there are two exceptions to the rule--the Queneau book I mentioned and Celine's doctoral dissertation on Semmelweiss which is paired with one of his pamphlets Mea Culpa. Those two are pretty rare though.

On my brother there is a bit of distance between the West Coast and here and in some respects none of us (3 sisters and 1 other brother) keep close tabs on each other except for maybe my two younger sisters. Keeping in mind also that not a lot of unexpected disease and death has come our way in a long while.

Anyway it wouldn't be a problem if you have a person acting as a conduit here for care packages. In country rates at the Post Office here are very cheap.

Looked up Tierney some more and there are a couple sites displaying more of his work. I like it a lot. Apparently he's in Massachusetts which is not that far away and we used to go on vacation every two or three years to Cape Cod--which is also in Massachusetts. Not sure we'll be heading that way this year though. Currently finishing Philip Roth's 'The Counterlife'--I like it a lot. Very cleverly written work.

posted by lriley at 5:25 pm (EST) on Nov 19, 2007

Papalaz--no I'm not a facebook. The McLean--Bunker Man was not all that hot--maybe bucket of tongues is better. It revolves around a high school janitor in a small coastal town in Scotland who becomes increasingly sex obsessed which kicks him into a neurotic/paranoiac and finally a psycotic. It's very uneven in some respects--though in others McLean reminds me of Patrick McCabe--though the McCabe bookes I've read--at least the early ones McCabe maintained control over his material. McLean has a problem with that in this one and his janitor goes from being a two dimensional character to a single dimensional while the other characters for the most part become more and more peripheral--it is a noisy one.

What I started on today is David Markson's 'The last novel' which was one from the Strand book signing and was published this year. 50 some pages in and I like this one a lot. Very enjoyable. Calling it a novel--might be a stretch though--a lot of snippets and aphorisms from the world of literature and art.

I'll give you page 8 and 9--the whole book (190 pages) is written in the same kind of format.

'The courtesan Lais, who once asserted that she knew nothing at all about the alleged wisdom of poets and philosophers--except that they knocked at her door as frequently as anyone else.

No philosopher has ever influenced the attitudes of even the street he lived on.
Said Voltaire.

I do not see why exposition and description are a necessary part of a novel.
Said Ivy Compton-Burnett.

I am quite content to go down to posterity as a scissors and paste man.
Said Joyce.

Rilke was raised as a girl--in girl's clothing--until he started school at the age of seven.

The Rilke who would later devotedly collect lace.
And maintain apartments habitually overflowing with flowers.

Garcia Lorca's ten or eleven months in New York City--during which he apparently did not learn two dozen words of English.

I am not an orphan on the earth, so long as this man lives on it.
Said Gorky re Tolstoy.

What sort of christian life is this, I should like to know? He hasn't a drop of love for his children, for me, or for anyone but himself.
Reads a contrasting view from Sofia Tolstoy's diary.

People speak of naturalism in opposition to modern painting. Where and when has anyone ever seen a natural work of art?
Asked Picasso.

How miraculous it was, noted Diogenes, that whenever one felt that sort of urge, one could readily masturbate.
But conversely how disheartening that one could not simply rub one's stomach when hungry.

The very not apocryphal tale that David Hume, always grossly overweight, once went down on one knee to propose marraige--and could not get back up.

Dante walked with a stoop.
Said Boccaccio.

Coleridge fell off horses.

Albert Camus had already purchased a train ticket, between the Vaucluse and Paris, when he made a last minute decision to accept a ride with Michel Gallimard--which would end in the crash that killed them both.

How many times before his own death twenty-eight years later would Rene Char recall that Camus and Gallimard had invited him to drive north with them also--but that he had decided their car would be too crowded?

posted by lriley at 4:14 pm (EST) on Nov 13, 2007

Papalaz--no it's a different one. It's a novel titled 'Bunker man'.

posted by lriley at 7:30 am (EST) on Nov 10, 2007

Papalaz--The Owens was a short one and is already done. We're not ready to leave Scotland yet though. I'm going to begin Duncan McLean tomorrow--which will be a first. I'm putting off my reviews until tomorrow. Sorry but my brain is a little bit foggy today.

posted by lriley at 4:38 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2007

Papalaz--as a matter of fact I've already read it and liked it a lot. There are some similarities between him and Denis Johnson in his Jesus' son IMO. Though Johnson's characters in that one are a bit more of the derelict. Carver's stories overall a little more in the realistic vein. Probably do a review of it either today or tomorrow. I did two reviews yesterday though both were a bit rushed especially the second. I'll be finishing Vargas Llosa's 'The Bad Girl' today also and have started another Agnes Owens--a short novel titled 'For the love of Willie'. I don't think I reviewed the other book of hers I read but it did make a very good impression.

posted by lriley at 2:46 pm (EST) on Nov 7, 2007

Papalaz--Carver's 'What we talk about when we talk about love' showed up today. Looks pretty good and I think I'll be getting to it fairly soon.

posted by lriley at 1:19 pm (EST) on Nov 1, 2007

If it's that short it might be in with other of his pieces under another title. I'll have to investigate.

posted by lriley at 12:47 pm (EST) on Oct 30, 2007

It was imagination Papalaz. If it's that short it might be in with other pieces of his under another title. I'll have to do some investigating.

posted by lriley at 12:45 pm (EST) on Oct 30, 2007

Papalaz--The Beckett title drew an absolute blank with me--I looked it up on Addall though and all that came up was Calder and Boyars--it never had an US imprint. Is it a play, novella, novel? A Boon interview circa 1971:

http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/context/200...

posted by lriley at 4:28 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2007

Panos Karnezis? I've had that book sitting around for a while. I haven't read much of Beckett in the last few years. Once in a while I reread one of his plays. For a work of his that seems a little underrated--I always liked 'The lost ones'. I've never reread Murphy--that might be a good one to get to one of these days. Boon is as close to Celine as any writer I've run into. It's not just in the way he writes but in the way he views the world around him. Very dark--more explicitly with a political and social angle. The way he merges in this work the three different threads together--1)his story about a late 19th century girl Ondine--which 2)he allows his friends to peruse and comment on in present time--allowing another alter-ego Johan Janssens at the same time 3) to rewrite the lives of an old Belgian fable set around the character of Reynard the Fox--and it is really amazing in how he seamlessly fits it all together using it as vehicle to comment on the state of Belgium in the mid 20th century.

posted by lriley at 2:30 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2007

I believe it's the same Carver article. It showed up in yesterdays NYTimes in the Week in Review section. A lot about this Gordon Lish in it.

Still on Boon's Chapel Road. Second time around with it and it is amazing.

http://www.centerforbookculture.org/cont...

A very good article on him there. According to the wikipedia article on him he committed suicide. His wife went to get her hair done because of some social function that night and told him to be ready by the time she got back. His reply was something like 'Of course, I will. Just remember though I have a bad character.'

Anyway Ballard book is done and I will review it soon hopefully. I also have another Englander book to do.

posted by lriley at 12:33 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2007

Thinking of getting the Atrocity Exhibition and reading that next of his Papalaz. It might be a little while before I get back to him though. Johnson's Tree of Smoke of which we spoke a few weeks ago showed up along with Vargas Llosa's The bad girl. TOS is a big one. I got a gift certificate for my birthday and used it on those. Been re-reading Boon's Chapel road--remarkable writer. Very dark humor--reminds me very much of Celine--though definitely a left wing one. Also going through a book of poetry by an Australian Les Murray--it's okay but a bit of a slog. Tomorrow we'll be on the move for a large part of the day. My daughter's last marching band competition this year--not really my cup of tea but now and again sacrifices have to be made.

posted by lriley at 2:34 pm (EST) on Oct 27, 2007

Changed it just a little bit more Papalaz. More or less re-editing the re-editing post first review. Getting towards the end of Vermillion sands--in some ways Ballard's work here reminds me of Alvaro Mutis's Maqroll novellas. Language usage and vast landscapes. Distance.

posted by lriley at 4:39 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2007

Papalaz--anyway I hope I didn't ruin the Quin review. Anyway another on Lynn Crawford's Solow--today.

posted by lriley at 1:42 pm (EST) on Oct 25, 2007

Papalaz--but I just did and I think I like it better.

posted by lriley at 12:39 pm (EST) on Oct 24, 2007

Papalaz-the answer is yes--I kind of edited it out from what I originally started. I don't know if there was a special reason for that decision but after I took it out the review seemed to go much better--although I am thinking of re-editing and replacing the language 'some won't like it but' just because it tends to drive people away. As for a relationship between S. and Leonard and/or Ruth there is definitely something there--more than likely with Leonard but possibly both.

I'm actually re-reading something now Louis Paul Boon's 'Chapel Road'. Also have started Ballard's short story collection 'Vermillion sands'. It's interesting. I really liked the first story.

posted by lriley at 12:24 pm (EST) on Oct 24, 2007

Papalaz--reviewed Ann Quin's Three today.

posted by lriley at 12:58 pm (EST) on Oct 23, 2007

Several years ago we went to Bar Harbor Maine during the summer for a couple weeks--and one day went on kind of field trip. We wound up in Stoneham Maine--coming down this huge hill you have all the ocean in front of you. It's a small village that seemed almost to be built on top of a cliff. Anyway there was a bookstore there and I went in--very dark inside. I wasn't finding very much of interest but finally came across an old Chatto and Windus copy of Emile Zola's 'His excellency Eugene Rougon'. In the dark it looked like they wanted $15 for it and having read several of his Rougon Macquart books by that time I was quite happy finding it but when I got to the counter it turned out owner--a middleaged lady rang it up as $75--so I questioned her on it and sure enough that's what it was--anyway I didn't have a lot on me and she had a book on book values but it wasn't listed. Anyway she asked if I intended to resell it and said no--I was a Zola fan and she sold it to me for $15 making me promise if I ever did sell it and made a big profit on it that I'd remember her. Anyway they've been reissuing Zola's works and there is a paperback version of it now. That particular book though up until last year was just about the only version around and used to run on Addall which is an antiquarian booksellers database for anywhere between $600 and $900--now since the paperback it's much more reasonable--running somewhere around $175 to $5-600. As for my copy I still have it and intend on keeping it.

posted by lriley at 11:06 am (EST) on Oct 19, 2007

I'm not a trekkie or a Star Wars fan but we'll get to Ballard pretty soon--Papalaz. I expect he'll be pretty good. Reading 'They're cows, we're pigs--a kind of satiric novel revolving around pirates and Tortuga in the 17th century. An attractive title.

posted by lriley at 2:08 am (EST) on Oct 19, 2007

It may be just that Gallagher thinks they were edited too much. I don't know--I've never published anything so I can only speculate but if I were to put myself in Carver's shoes at the time--if I respected Lish enough I'd probably agree to make changes or cut something out if it made sense and if it seemed an improvement to me. I know a lot of writers wouldn't want anything messed with. It could be that Gallagher thinks the longer versions were edited too much and/or the newer versions turn them into something somewhat different--might also draw more sales. Funny in a sense--I have the updated corrected text version of Joyce's Ulysses which supposedly fleshed things out a little bit from previous texts. All in all though it doesn't really change the sense of the book. That may be something to wonder about with Carver. Anyway I'll check out your suggestions about him.

The Ballard seems to be sci-fi which is not a genre I read a lot of but the Wikipedia site mentioned it as one of his better collections.

As for Crawford--it seems at least she has written for some publications sponsored by Oulipo. Wikipedia again says she's a member but on a Oulipo site updated membership around 2006 there wasn't any confirmation of that. The book I just got does have a blurb by Matthews--yes, the only Oulipian american until now--or still the only one. He calls her first book a stunner, says it reveals a formidable new talent that is both invigorating and somewhat unnerving. Another writer--Jim Harrison--compares her to an early John Hawkes.

posted by lriley at 4:07 pm (EST) on Oct 18, 2007

Had to shut down--computer acting up a little. I can read Spanish a bit--not French--at least not yet. Maybe when I retire I'll take it up. It might be an interesting thing to do. Borges for me at least has been an acquired taste. In the beginning I didn't really think all that much of him and now I wonder why. On Carver--do you have any favorites by him?

posted by lriley at 1:36 pm (EST) on Oct 18, 2007

Speaking of the New York Times there are very few papers in the United States with any clue or who make any attempt at all to cover literature or the other arts--and IMO they do a good job--though there is not a lot to compare them against. The problem with me going on-line with them is the avalanche of phone calls and e-mails that will come afterwards soliciting subscription--I used to subscribe to their Sunday paper with the book review and travel section and arts section etc. but I prefer actually going out and buying it. My info though is kicking around in their database so I'm going to avoid going onto their site. Anyway give me the gist of it but be forewarned that I have not read much of Carver's work and am not sure who Lish is. I'm aware of Tess Gallagher--his second wife and have read a collection of her short stories. I probably should have read more of Carver and my take on him--which might not be a good one--is of a somewhat proletarian nature (which is good)to his work--cleverly done of ordinary workaday people. In Britain maybe Owens, Sillotoe, Kelman-like. Here maybe this Denis Johnson--maybe not, Larry Brown, Bukowski if you really want to go down and out or Selby.

Ballard's Vermillion Sands has shown up along with Lynn Crawford's Solow. Interesting looking text. Not sure if she's an official member of Oulipo or not but if she is she's the second American.

posted by lriley at 1:03 pm (EST) on Oct 18, 2007

Papalaz--have another review of a Borges book--dreamtigers. Now that we're done with the house for the most part I can probably spend more time reviewing things. I feel a little out of practice though and I've also been messing around with biographical data on authors here since LT has opened up new vistas in that realm. I'm not sure I did the Reyes books as well as I would have liked and I might add more to it. I have also finished Quin's book. Liked that as well. Might get to that one tomorrow.

posted by lriley at 4:07 pm (EST) on Oct 15, 2007

Papalaz--finally did a review on the Reyes book Behind Closed Doors.

posted by lriley at 9:36 am (EST) on Oct 15, 2007

papalaz--I've been messing about looking for info on some of the members of Oulipo and ran into a Lynn Crawford--have you ever heard of her? She lives in the Detroit Michigan area and has three or four novels out--one is 'Blow'--another is 'Solow'--the synopses I read sound very intriguing but I don't see anyone here with either of those two--there is however another novel three people have. Another writer came up--Anne F. Garreta--apparently she's won the Prix Medicis in 2002 and a novel--'The Breakdown' has been translated--but seems difficult to find in the most usual places on the internet.

posted by lriley at 5:59 pm (EST) on Oct 13, 2007

I see you have a few of her books--Papalaz. Though I've heard of her I've never read anything of hers. Her name hadn't popped out in the pre-selection hype but there are often surprises and some of them turn out to be good surprises. If I had my druthers of the names that had popped up it would have Roth or the barely known Le Clezio. On Quin we're moving along and I like it very much.

The site here is offering a new feature where you can plug in a lot of biographical information. I might be checking that out soon. Also spotted a thread you started about noir and thought that Celine is much as anybody could fit into that.

posted by lriley at 12:05 pm (EST) on Oct 11, 2007

On Ballard--I ordered Vermilion sands which I believe is a story collection. Currently on Ann Quin's three--very good so far and Sinclair Lewis's Main Street. I have never read Lewis and so far it's okay but dragging a bit.

posted by lriley at 1:32 pm (EST) on Oct 10, 2007

Papalaz--I fleshed out the Johnson 'Jesus' son' review a bit. Also did another review of Roberto Bolano's 'Last evenings on earth'. A great writer.

posted by lriley at 10:49 am (EST) on Oct 8, 2007

Papalaz--the 'Jesus' son' review I did this morning is tentative. I have things to add to it. I just wanted to start something. We're still busy on the house and I hope to get back to it soon--and also to do the Reyes book. The house project will be petering out sometime soon--the hockey season beginning is a hell of a distraction besides. Too many things going on--I'm still on Dos passos's '1919'--making progress in the Hrabal book and also reading another Bolano 'Last evening on earth'. Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew I suppose. In the end everything will get done but my reviewing has been suffering.

On using my reviews on the Flue--you have my go ahead--although some might not be all that great--even those though you're welcome to use--it's not like I'm trying to hold to any standard of excellence--might as well show off all your warts.

posted by lriley at 12:23 pm (EST) on Oct 4, 2007

Papalaz--and as it happens another agnes owens--for the love of Willie showed today. I had to think of things to get for my birthday which as it happens was last week. I hit the big 5---0. So there's been a rather larger than usual influx of reading material for the time period in question. One of these days I'm going to have to get Raymond Queneau's 'A hard winter' no matter what the cost. There are very few of them around--it will probably cost somewhere in the neighbor of $100 anyway with or without the dustjacket--I'm hoping with. The Denis Johnson book 'Jesus' son' is very very good. Quite a bit better than the short novel of his I read about 3 weeks ago. Lots of deranged drug addicts stumbling through their lives offset by an almost innocent humor and confusion--kind of like a Hrabal book--with the Hrabal characters tending towards drunkenness--the Johnson characters tending towards drug addiction. I'll have to send you a couple excerpts. Speaking of Hrabal and his beer swilling characters at the moment I as a matter of fact am finishing off a locally microbrewed concoction which isn't too bad and comes in a bottle containing 1 pint + 6 fluid ounces which is a nice size too while I wait for my wife to come back from the hardware store with a fixture that attaches to the siding and connects to the outside light. We're still fooling around with this although she wants to quit with only 3 sides done and finish off the last side next spring. Well we're about where we need to be then. I'm planning on starting on Hrabal again tonight. That will be the little town where time stood still.

I did have problems hitting on that site. Didn't come up.

posted by lriley at 1:21 pm (EST) on Oct 1, 2007

Papalaz--finished the Reyes book yesterday--may do a review tomorrow if I have the time--otherwise maybe sometime during the week. An Ann Quin book came in. Also I should keep you on my Denis Johnson adventures. A couple of weeks ago I read a short novel of his 'The name of the world'--it was pretty good but not all that special. I opened up his very short story collection 'Jesus' son' though and it looks really promising. The epigraph is from the Velvet underground song 'Heroin'--When I'm rushing on my run and I feel like Jesus' son--that one got my attention. The first story 'Car crash while hitchhiking' is exceptional.

posted by lriley at 10:53 pm (EST) on Sep 29, 2007

papalaz-3 and a half stars are a little low on the ratings maybe. I've read Moore twice and liked both of them. Black Robe is set somewhere around the middle of the 18th century in the area of upper New York state and lower Ontario--maybe Quebec. French missionaries come to convert the native Indian population. It's a historical novel and was made into a pretty good film besides by a French filmmaker--all subtitled. The bits about the Iroquois indians seem to be right on--they were quite clever people--a North American of the Incas and Mayans. Very violent--and cannibalistic. The lonely passion of Judith Hearne is the other I've read and I like that as well. There are a number of good to great Irish writers--Bernard MacLaverty--who lives in Scotland now and is a close friend of Kelman's and Alasdair Gray I believe--his 'Walking the dog' is one of my favorite short story collections. 'Grace Notes' is a very good novel. Eoin McNamee--really liked Resurrection Man but he has two others I think are excellent--'The blue tango' and 'The Ultras'. There is very strong noirish feel to his books and Resurrection man and the Ultras both deal with Northern Irelands troubles--taking a look into things like British government Psyops and the infiltration and coercion of protestant paramilitary outfits during that time. Very dark--language and content is kind of a cross between Smiley era LeCarre and noir type of writers like Manchette or Leonardo Sciascia. Ricardo Piglia might be another comparison. Patrick McCabe also--though after The butcher boy and The dead school he's not quite as good. Other worthy Irish writers--Liam O'Flaherty, Michael Longley, Seamus Deane--Reading in the dark, Sebastian Barry, Tom Phelan, Conor McPherson, John McGahern, Aidan Higgins, John Banville--then of course the heavy hitters that everyone knows--Joyce, Beckett, Flann O'Brien, Heaney.

posted by lriley at 5:02 pm (EST) on Sep 22, 2007

too serious all the time though is not good--it's most important to mix things up--to try new writers. Experimentation whether with experimental writers or not is part of the fun. It's also a cheap way to travel--I do like reading a lot of non US (american) writers. I've been reading Guy Debord--it's interesting but tough sledding if you're going through an insomnia phase like I've been this week. Reading the same bits two or three times--trying to focus because it calls for a lot of focus and still I'm not sure I'm getting a good read of it. I've been doing some Vietnam war books lately also--one (the 13th valley) by John M. Del Vecchio was very good. The other thing I'm on is a novella by Alvaro Mutis--Abdul Bashur--dreamer of ships. I've been going back and forth between his and Arno Schmidt's novellas off and on the last couple months. I plan on the Reyes book by the weekend and maybe Dos Passos' 1919.

posted by lriley at 3:18 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2007

Papalaz--On Joyce Carol Oates--I know she's well thought of even here in the United States but it's another one of my holes--I've never read anything of hers--though I have seen a number of good reviews over the years. I have her 'The Falls'--and my wife has read it and she liked it but with reservations. I should get to her one of these days though.

posted by lriley at 12:16 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2007

Papalaz--A lot of Trevor's work seems to comment on the religious divide in Ireland--at least while he was growing up. Religion seems to fit in anyway as a factor in the lives of most of his characters--even if they're only trying to get away from it. Lots of empathy in his writing--a sober and almost birds eye like view of Irish growing pains in the 20th century. It's funny that someone brought up the Nobel prize for this year in one of the groups here and I mentioned him. You never know but that definitely is a longshot. Even so--he's got a body of very serious work that could easily compare IMO to one of the more frequent considered candidates Milan Kundera.

posted by lriley at 2:19 am (EST) on Sep 20, 2007

Papalaz--I have a number of Trevor's works including 'The Boarding House'--though I haven't read that one. I think it won the Whitbread prize. Anyway I think Trevor is a fine writer--maybe even a Nobel worthy one. I can't think of anything of his I've read that I haven't liked. Have to maybe move the Boarding House up the list but next week I think I'm going to start the Alina Reyes book.

posted by lriley at 1:11 pm (EST) on Sep 19, 2007

Papalaz--the three David Markson books showed up today from his book reading at the Strand in NYC. All of them are trade sized--I'm not sure if the new one is a first edition or not. Might not be a hardcover 1st ed. on that one. They're all signed though--which is nice. $28 isn't bad--my birthday is coming up in a couple weeks. Anyway titles are: The last novel--Going down--Epitaph for a tramp/Epitaph for a deadbeat (that one looks pretty interesting--noirish). Anyway I'm going to have to start paying more attention to the Strand's activities.

posted by lriley at 4:17 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2007

Papalaz--finished my review of Etel Adnan's 'Sitt Marie Rose'. I liked it a lot and excerpted rather freely from it in my review.

posted by lriley at 9:12 am (EST) on Sep 10, 2007

papalaz--have not seen the film. Haven't heard of Nye either. I'll have to see if I can look them up. Haven't got to the Reyes book yet. Will try to get to that soon--within the month. I started a long novel on the Vietnam conflict by a former grunt named Delvecchio. Also a short novel by a Lebanese lady Etel Adnan--Sitt Marie Rose--who has quite an extraordinary writing style. I might excerpt a bit of it for you tomorrow or Monday depending on how are home project goes. Right now we're in the first stages of a lightning storm and I may be getting off soon. The novel revolves around the Lebanese civil war and takes a hard critical view of both sides of the conflict.

posted by lriley at 9:19 pm (EST) on Sep 8, 2007

Papalaz--did a review of Nathan Englander's 'The ministry of special cases'. I gave it 5*. Great book. I think this young writer has a lot of potential.

Started reading another of Arno Schmidt's novellas. Lake scenery with Pocahontas--which is the one that Julian Rios draws on in Loves that bind. Had to smile over this line on the first page--The Lord, without whose willing it no sparrow falls from the roof and no 10 million are gassed in concentration camps: would have to be one curious fellow---that's if he existed!' Ever and always an iconoclast. One of the reasons I like his work so much.

posted by lriley at 6:02 pm (EST) on Sep 6, 2007

Papalaz--cover story of the Sunday NYTimes book review is--as it happens--Tree of Smoke--Denis Johnson. Haven't read very much of it yet though as we've just come in from working on our house. We're working on our third side now--which may be the easiest side of all. We've got the tougher parts done--practically speaking.

Anyway on Johnson's book mentioned above--the review is written by one Jim Lewis (?) another novelist and an obvious fan. The review titled 'The Revelator'--begins as such: 'Good morning and plaease listen to me: Denis Johnson is a true American artist, and Tree of Smoke is a tremendous book, a strange entertainment, very long but fast, a great whirly ride that starts out sad and gets sadder and sadder, loops unpredictably out and around, and then lurches down so suddenly at the very end that it will make your stomach flop. It comes with armor and accoutrements of a Major Novel: big historical theme (Vietnam), semi-mythical cultural institution (military intelligence), long time span (1963-1970, with a coda set in 1983) and unreasonable length (614 pages), all of which would be off-putting if this were not, a major novel, and if Johnson's last big book hadn't been the small collection of eccentric and addictive stories called 'Jesus' Son (1992).

Anyway Papalaz after our conversation yesterday I ordered a Johnson book 'Fiskadoro'--so I should be getting at him sometime in the near future. To be honest though I'm looking forward to it--the major novel deserving of all its hype so far this year is the Bolano book 'The Savage Detectives' and I don't expect anything I read this year is going to knock it off the pedestal of best novel I've read this year. Hopefully though something will supplant it--maybe this--but we will see.

posted by lriley at 5:21 pm (EST) on Sep 2, 2007

Papalaz--a bit inebriated. On Denis Johnson--I've heard about him and have heard good things about him but have never read anything by him. It is one of my holes I suppose. He's in the Salon.com Reader's guide to Contemporary authors and they recommend especially Angels (1983), Fiskadoro (1985), The resuscitation of a hanged man (1991) and Jesus' son (a short story collection 1992).

It says 'Johnson's longest and most ambitious novel, Already Dead: A California Gothic, takes Johnsonian demons that had hitherto been merely phantasamagorical and makes them real. With its wild mix of genres and narrative techniques--not to mention an actual demon-Already Dead is both consummately weird and genuinely moving. But it is utimately too agnostic, too lacking in a single authorial perspective to be completely successful.
Johnson has written two perfect booksd, but perfection isn't what he's about. His voice is so strong it sometimes obscures his characters. His plots can dissolve into space. He's too intense, too risk taking, to make the rabbit jump out of the hat every time. It doesn't matter. He's touched by fire.'

Sounds like someone I should really check out.

Salon goes on to compare him to Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers (my one attempt with Stone was okay but hardly spectacular). Salon also has other comparisons which are all over the place--Herman Melville's Pierre, Rimbaud's--Season in Hell and Graham Greene's 'The end of the affair'. Also mentions a Leonard Gardner and his book 'Fat city'.

posted by lriley at 8:48 pm (EST) on Sep 1, 2007

Tell me what it is Papalaz. I don't subscribe and don't want to send them info but I always buy their Sunday paper with their book review so I've probably have read it--that is the book review anyway. Might not be until later I get back to you--my brother and a couple of my nephews are in from Seattle area and we're going to be going right over to my sisters house.

posted by lriley at 12:49 pm (EST) on Sep 1, 2007

On the T-shirts--I basically go with plain or hockey related. Way back when I was first hired by the Postal Service I used to wear the Russian Red Army CSKA--hockey jersey to work which was the cause of a lot of unfavorable comment. I also have a Homeland Security--fighting terrorism since 1492 t-shirt which pictures a band of armed apaches. I think items of a political nature would be more interesting for me now anyway--going the Nader, Chomsky route. The idea of atagonizing the more reactionary around me is childish but as one of my best friends tells me 'you have to make your own fun.'

posted by lriley at 2:54 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2007

Papalaz--actually Markson is at the store on Sept. 5 which is in the very near near future. No way I'm going to be able to get there. I did do the pre-order on all three of his signed books being offered though. We'll be going to NYC in March I expect--hopefully the Strand which does authors events will have somebody interesting at the time. I haven't checked out your other--I'll get to it now.

posted by lriley at 2:40 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2007

Papalaz--have never read anything by Mosley--have heard of him though and also of Oswald. Anything of his you particularly like? Mention made of Hopeful monsters. Anyway have been meaning to ask you about a David Markson. I was on the Strand-NYC bookstore--Website and apparently he's making an appearance there in the near future and you can pre-order some of his works which he'll sign at his appearance.

posted by lriley at 12:11 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2007

Papalaz--I like McCarthy quite a lot--at least what I've read of him. The bulk of his work is still out there for me to get to. His writing can be very dense--somewhat like a Faulkner. A lot of internal musing. But very dark, myth like in an American way but focused on the past. Joyce like in some respects. I almost always get the times on Sunday. They have a book review section that beats anything any other paper in the US is doing or has done by a wide, wide margin. I consider it to be vital reference material and have often purchased books because of reviews found there. They cover a wide gamut of literature--also non fiction, politics, biographies, sports, childrens--the bulk from the US and Britain/Ireland but there is almost always something or two or three of translated works.

The Saramago article today was in the Magazine section--not the Book Review section. Several pages--I've only read part of it--(we've been working)--a large colored photo of him seated in a black leather armchair with an impressive size library behind him. 'The Portugese novelist and Nobel prize-winner Jose Saramago is a stubborn atheist, an unreconstructed communist, an ornery political polemicist--and the creator of some of the world's most magical, imaginative, sweetly lyrical fiction.'

posted by lriley at 8:59 pm (EST) on Aug 26, 2007

Agnes is very very good Papalaz. You can see the bit of Kelman on the social issues--although more understated. I think she would compare well to Flannery O'Connor. She has great control over her material all the time. Very easy to read--easy on the eye. I can see myself going right out and getting another of hers as soon as this one is done. The Reyes book looks very good as well but it may be a couple or three weeks before I get to it. We'll see though.

Anyway I should say about Zola--though I like the Rougon MacQuart series very much there are a couple that I don't care for at all. Generally speaking though they are great historical novels. The best of them is 'The Earth'--which is the funniest in a very black way. Hyacinthe in that novel aka as Jesus Christ because of his resemblance to the man on the cross may be my favorite of all Zola characters and he is anything but christ-like. The Debacle is a great great war novel. Loved Germinal--even bought the Gerard Depardieu movie of that. L'assommoir is also excellent as is 'The ladies paradise'.

posted by lriley at 5:56 pm (EST) on Aug 22, 2007

Papalaz--reading Agnes Owen's 'Bad Attitudes' and liking it a lot. Also Zola's 'Fortune of the Rougons'--I think it's the 18 or 19th of the 20 book series I've read--pretty much all out of order. Fortune of the Rougons being the first of them all--and the Reyes--Behind closed doors--showed up today.

posted by lriley at 12:55 pm (EST) on Aug 22, 2007

I've missed on the whole 19th century British literature thing--Papalaz. As for the French it's a little bit of a different story. I started on the preface of Figes's Nelly's version and we're back to the Bronte's again. How necessary is it (if at all) to have read Wuthering Heights? I put it down and started something by a James Purdy instead (which isn't bad--kind of seems like a cross between John Gardner's 'Grendel' and Boris Vian's (I spit on your graves). On the question of Nana I'm of the opinion that while good there are several others of Zola's Rougon MacQuart series that are better--(The Earth, Germinal, The Debacle, L'Assommoir and The ladies paradise amongst others). Nana is not much of a love story to me anyway. She's too much the cynic and too egotistical for it to be much of a real love story.

posted by lriley at 12:05 pm (EST) on Aug 18, 2007

It is a bit of a tearjerker I suppose. I liked the local color however accurate it was. I liked the bits about the musical instruments too. Maybe it's lacking a bit in the gray areas of characterization--the Black hats vs. the White Hats which as my dad would instruct us as kids about separating the good guys from the bad ones in old cowboy films. He does make Cephalonia seem like a place you would like to visit. He had a trilogy of books he set in South America. I've only read one of those. It's good but Corelli's mandolin is much better--so if you've only tried De Bernieres the one time and not liked it--I would say you probably wouldn't like those either.

posted by lriley at 1:33 pm (EST) on Aug 17, 2007

Papalaz--here is the list I promised you a week or so ago.

It might not be that great:

1. London Bridge--Louis Ferdinand Celine--Might as well start if off by one by my favorite novelist--and it's the one which revolves around Ferdinands love for Victoria.
2. The Margin--Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues--The protagonist of this one is on a sales trip to Barcelona during the Franco years. He intends to spend time in the Red light district. Upon arrival at his hotel a letter is waiting for him which he opens enough to read his wife has killed herself. The next 3 days he wanders around in a daze picking up the same prostitue each night. At the end of which....
3. Ulysses--James Joyce
4. The horseman on the Roof--Jean Giono--A kind of swashbuckler in more of 19th century sense. It's Giono's best book of which a film was made.
5. Lolita--Vladimir Nabokov--what can you say about Humbert Humbert? He is obsessed.
6. Corelli's mandolin--Louis de Bernieres--generally I think most people like this one. I did. A very interesting war novel as well and kind of set in your neck of the woods.
7. Birdsong--Sebastian Faulks--another excellent war novel/love story.
8. Victoria--Knut Hamsun. Most of Hamsun's work is excellent and this is probably my second favorite of his after Women at the pump.
9. Too loud a solitude--Bohumil Hrabal.
10. Innocence--Penelope Fitzgerald--she was a bit hit and miss with me. This is the first book of hers that I read and my favorite besides.
11. The history of the siege of Lisbon--Jose Saramago--I hadn't read the love story of his that you liked so much but this one is pretty good too.
12. Dr. Zhivago--Boris Pasternak
13. Mygale--Thierry Jonquet--maybe a bit of a weird one. Plastic surgeon kidnaps his daughters' rapist and slowly goes about transforming him into a woman. Very dark in ways--and a strong noirish element. Short and at times violent.
14. A very long engagement--Sebastian Japrisot--Japrisot is another French noir type writer--and a very good one. This one revolves around the hunt for an executed (WW I) French poilu and a woman who refuses to give up hope he is still alive.
15. Money to burn--Ricardo Piglia--again we're into noir and the love is between two male pathological criminals and based on a true story that ends in a blazing shootout.
16. Damage--Josephine Hart. The Jeremy Irons--Juliette Binoche film as I remember right does pretty good by this one. Always liked Binoche.
17. The English Patient--Michael Ondaatje. An excellent writer. The film of this one though takes way too much liberty with the text--though the scenery is beautiful.
18. The charterhouse of Parma--Stendhal.

posted by lriley at 2:13 pm (EST) on Aug 16, 2007

The other thing is the wife was off last week--this weeks she's back working. We have different hours. She has normal ones and I'm going in at 3 in the morning. She comes home and an hour or so later I'm off to bed. We get together on weekends. I don't do very much when she's not around because I don't want her to come back and say 'it's no good. We're going to have to take it apart and do it all over'. So progress has been slow--though fairly soon I expect we're going to start another part in which I can go it alone for awhile.

posted by lriley at 3:58 pm (EST) on Aug 15, 2007

I'm a master at stealing time. I'm always off to work with something. Breaks, lunch (not paid for half hour), trips to the can--lull times. We're always getting our work stolen by larger facilities--ones that worry about keeping up appearances. My job in the plant I can be several places at once and I always keep it caught up. Even on our project--I keep something close by except when others are involved like last weekend. A lot of it one will have to wait for the other and it's mostly me right now that does the waiting because I tend to be the one up high. By the way I started rereading How late it was, how late and am some 50 pages into it. I ordered the Reyes book you recommended too. It looked pretty interesting. Cortozar's Hopscotch only a bit sleazier(?).

posted by lriley at 3:51 pm (EST) on Aug 15, 2007

Papalaz--Erotic novels are like other novels in the sense that some work better than others. Personal taste is what it really factors around. On Reyes--I remember liking 'The Butcher' more than 'Lucie's long voyage' (the other half) but it was so long I couldn't tell you why. The Butcher in the story was the focus of the lady protagonist dreams and/or ambitions. I no longer have the book. I'll look into your other recommendation though--see how available it is.

Anyway I just now remembered that I was making a list for you last Monday(?) or the Monday before(?) and I've completely lost track of it. Many apologies. We're still whacking away at this house and may be at that for some time. Members of my wife's do-it-yourself family were up on both Saturday and Sunday. We've been in over our heads since the beginning but at least now we've got to the point where we don't tear down (a morale buster and the cause of a lot of heated argument) what we put up. Anyway I'll look around today and see if I can find it.

posted by lriley at 12:50 pm (EST) on Aug 15, 2007

Two young women writers I would hope to see a lot more of in the future are the South African Marlene Van Niekerk who only has one work translated 'Triomf' which I reviewed and which I found absolutely hilarious. The other review of it here I liked even better. That reviewer called it one of the most repulsive and disturbing things he'd ever read--and then went on to recommend it anyway. The other is a German writer Juli Zeh. Her only book so far in English is Eagles and Angels--which is somewhat noirish with a very nasty edge, somewhat contemporary history, somewhat gothic--roving between the worlds of high finance, world political organizations, fascistic politics and organized crime.

posted by lriley at 2:31 pm (EST) on Aug 14, 2007

Long time ago Papalaz--there were two novellas under the title 'The Butcher'. A comparison to her maybe Fleur Jaeggy. Reyes tended towards the erotic in that one. I think I like Jaeggy a little more but you never know if I read it again I might change my mind. Now Lilian Faschinger's 'Magdalena the sinner' is also erotic but quite funny too. I'd really recommend that one.

posted by lriley at 2:07 pm (EST) on Aug 14, 2007

Ordered a 'Bad attitudes' by Owens today Papalaz--so I'm going to check her out.

posted by lriley at 10:06 pm (EST) on Aug 12, 2007

Well Too loud would probably make my list too. I've just recommended it in a talk forum here for a young teacher who is going to be teaching a literature class to high school students. I have started on another Hrabal book today which has two novellas--The little town where time stood still and Cutting it short which is actually the first of the two. And a Figes book showed up the other day--Nelly's version. The Saramago you've mentioned I've never read. I've heard things about the Bronte sisters that reflected well on them but I've never got around to them. My wife though not a big reader is a fan of Jane Austen. Give me a couple days to compile a list. Maybe I'll have something by Monday.

posted by lriley at 12:53 pm (EST) on Aug 10, 2007

Papalaz--I've never read any of the Bronte sisters. Of the list in fact I've only read The English patient, Dr. Zhivago and War and Peace which are all excellent by the way though War and Peace is a real bear to wrestle with. I wonder what happened to Lolita or even many of the books in Rios's Loves that bind. Knut Hamsun's Victoria. Probably shouldn't confuse love with just sex--ala Bukowski, Henry Miller or Houellebecq but I would be tempted. If you're interested maybe I could come up with an alternative top ten but it may take me a few days.

posted by lriley at 12:29 pm (EST) on Aug 10, 2007

Papalaz--I've only heard of two or three of them. Of course McEwen--previous winner. He can be an interesting writer at times. Getting stopped and detained coming off the ferry from British Columbia to Port Angeles or Seattle and being asked whether a novelist means he writes fiction or non-fiction. A couple sound more interesting than others. The one about the Union Carbide--Bhopal disaster--the other by the New Zealander.

posted by lriley at 12:49 pm (EST) on Aug 8, 2007

I'm thinking of adding a few more names to the list Papalaz. Juli Zeh for one. I'm in an expansive mood. Of your list not on my favorites I've read quite a bit of Sorrentino, Coover, Robbe-Grillet and O'Brien. They are writers that I tend to like certain works of theirs very much and some others not at all. The first Sorrentino book I read was Imaginative qualities. Figes is someone I've read once and liked a lot. Rios is a tempting one. I might add him. Loves that bind is terrific. Actually Valery Larbaud is the only one I haven't read.

posted by lriley at 5:28 pm (EST) on Aug 3, 2007

yep. that works - love it

posted by tartalom at 5:42 am (EST) on Aug 3, 2007

Hello,
We are the only ones sharing Jacques Roubaud in our favourite authours... Have you forgotten Perec in your favourites? You seem to have a marked oulipian side. Is it reflected in your own book(s)?
Best wishes
François

posted by Pepys at 5:28 am (EST) on Aug 3, 2007

Morning Paps - the link don't work....

posted by tartalom at 3:42 am (EST) on Aug 3, 2007

how come you are adding spine images rather than cover images - have you got some composite image in mind - and where in your virtual dominions can I sneak a peek?

posted by tartalom at 4:54 pm (EST) on Aug 2, 2007

I do prefer his first book House of Leaves--papalaz. I went over to amazon to check how much they show of it online. Not all that much. It's layout is unique and beautifully done. One of the blurbs for HOL is from the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle.--'A rollicking Pynchonesque oddity, a Nabokovian linguistic obsession, and a Borgesian unreality. House of Leaves jumps and skips and plays with genre-wrecking abandon, postmodern panache, and an obsessively imaginative scope that absolutely shames most books on the market today.'

There are drawings, photographs, all kinds of literay allusions and quotations throughout from a great variety of sources. An array of typography and textual manipulation throughout--colors, size of typeface, page layout--elements of an existentialist thriller--also of the horror genre--and it does take a while to read.

posted by lriley at 4:25 pm (EST) on Jul 25, 2007

papalaz--I don't know whether you've read anything by Mark Z. Danielewski but I just reviewed his Only revolutions.

posted by lriley at 3:35 pm (EST) on Jul 25, 2007

papalaz--probably based on his life and maybe borrows from his work. The two books I checked which have an extensive list of his published material--including quite a lot not translated and other things like letters and minor or unfinished work doesn't mention anything like it. They are Frederic Vitoux's Celine: A biography--translated by Jesse Browner which is really fabulous--maybe the best literary biography I've ever read--and Patrick McCarthy's Celine: A biography. Same titles for both. Another really excellent one is Celine: The recall of the birds by Philippe Bonnefis. What's particularly excellent about this is it how connects the dots from Celine's early to later works finding numerous themes throughout making his work seem like just one long extension of Journey. All paths lead back to Journey. It also mimics in a way some of Celine's dreamlike prose.

posted by lriley at 1:00 pm (EST) on Jul 18, 2007

Kind of strange Papalaz--because Nord is the second of Celine's trilogy of works very loosely based on his WW II experiences. In english they are Castle to Castle, North and Rigadoon. I looked through my biographical works on Celine and as far as I can tell the only plays he ever wrote were L'Eglise--The Church and Ballets sans musique, sans personne, sans rien--Ballets without music, without dancers, without anything.

Anyway his novel 'North' is my second favorite of his novels and is set on a Prussian estate towards the end of the war with the Russians always somewhere out on the horizon about to make their appearance. Very very comical. Celine, his wife, the actor Le Vigan and the cat Bebert are dumped on some aristocratic Prussian landowners who are less than estatic about hosting these French war refugees and do everything they can to make their feelings known.

posted by lriley at 2:55 pm (EST) on Jul 17, 2007

Papalaz--have read both books by Coover and Fuentes. I actually like Cormac McCarthy--Blood Meridian--and Michael Ondaatje's cut and paste rendering of the Billy the Kid legend. Terry Southern's--Texas Summer--not that I would really call it a western. I have never sat down to read Dickens (we all have holes--that might be one of my more gaping ones) but it sounds like he and Dostoyevsky had some things in common.

posted by lriley at 8:13 am (EST) on Jul 9, 2007

Not a big fan of sci-fi either Papalaz or serial westerns. The black hats vs. the White hats kind of color blindness. So many people love Stephen King but it's horrible that his characterizations are so wooden. Dostoyevsky though had some of the same problems. All his very memorable and most likeable characters are his villians. Without them his novels would have fallen flat.

posted by lriley at 5:36 pm (EST) on Jul 8, 2007

Papalaz--it's taking down the old aluminum siding and putting up new siding. Problem came along because we had to rebuild the attached garage last year from scratch. The floor wasn't properly laid when the house went up--and was collapsing and knocking the rest of the garage out of kilter. Very expensive to have it fixed--materials, contractors, etc. Anyway when that was all done--the only thing left from the old garage was the roof which had been somewhat damaged and the new garage--the lower half cinder block, the upper plywood sheeting with weatherproof paper--still needed to be sided or painted and Mae is not one that likes one color for one and another for the rest. Uniformity--I suppose. So the entire house and garage is being done by us since we've decided to cut the contractors out of the equation and save ourselves and aggravation over their timetables. It's kind of boring and we usually go somewhere for the summer but c'est la vie.

As for Pamuk. He is an interesting writer--Nobel worthy in a sense more than some others. I like him but this being my third time with him I can offer the opinion that there are others--contemporary and not so contemporary that I like better. I think in a sense you're a little bit more on the experimental side than I am--though I certainly have my favorites in those areas--there aren't enough people who are always trying to challenge themselves with their reading material. I look at literature as an ocean accessible to almost anyone willing to swim in it. I say this because I've seen people look at what I have with some astonishment--it flips some people out and not always in a comfortable way--at least for them--but I don't try to go out of my way either to prove I'm especially cerebral. I can be quite profane actually and I like to laugh a lot.

I do have Zadie's White teeth--which made quite a stir a few years ago but have not gotten around to it. I've still to get around to Gerald's party also. Izzo's Solea came in yesterday. Mediterranean (Marseilles) noir. Philip Roth's Human stain came in also. Ordered David Mitchell's Black swan green. Have to get back to Hrabal soon.

posted by lriley at 8:25 pm (EST) on Jul 7, 2007

Papalaz,

Been awhile. Thought I pop in. Working on Pamuk's My name is red--somewhat of a Turkish murder mystery novel set 300 or so years ago around and about the art world of the time--and Mark Z. Danielewski's Only revolutions. Both are interesting books but are going slowly--mostly because we're re-siding the house so we're more out than in and trying to figure out what we're doing as we're going along.

posted by lriley at 7:47 am (EST) on Jul 7, 2007

Papalaz--we must have some settings here that are blocking it. My wife does that stuff--she takes the time to figure these things out and I just leave her be on it because she can get a little snappy over it. All things technical give me a headache--I just cannot interest myself in them--computers, car problems, lawnmowers, swingsets. I'm okay with a hammer and a screwdriver, climbing ladders, grunt work.

anyway this is how it appears when I click on it:

co-winners:(box around it)

In any case I'm about 2/3 of the way through Derek Raymond's How the dead live. Figure that will be done tomorrow. I'm also reading Arno Schmidt's Novellas--the first three of ten. Really really liked Leviathan.

posted by lriley at 11:46 am (EST) on Jun 14, 2007

Now I get it Papalaz. Interesting. I do a lot of cross referencing out of notebooks. I'm not all that computer savvy. But the notebooks have been going for a while. Unofficially I'm at 2179 titles that I've read. I break things down alphabetically by author. By country of origin for writers. British writers include Scottish and Welsh--I do give the Northern Irish to the Irish. Another way I break things down is by year of publication (going by publication in the source language) of titles I've read. And I always make a list by year of what I read that year. Lists of literary prizes to boot. I have a number of reference books besides. My opinion is you don't find authors--especially from other countries unless you're willing to work at it. Strange as it may sound--the Jim Morrison biography No one here gets out alive had a lot to do with my getting the reading bug. I was amazed at how wide open his reading taste was for a high schooler. I had just got out of the service and I start checking out some of his favorites and ran into Celine. After that I was hooked. I thought if this guy can be reading all this at 14-15--why can't I at 27-28?

posted by lriley at 3:19 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2007

Don't know much about De Sade. Celine is the one I've read biographies and biographies about. There are a quite a number of them. I remember reading one about Joyce by Stan Gebler Davies. I thought that was pretty good but that was a long time ago. There was another about Hamsun by a Robert Ferguson. There are some I just read bits and pieces of. Last several years though I've been avoiding them. I did get one about B. S. Johnson by Jonathon Coe but I don't know when I'm going to get around to that. If I remember you didn't think much of that one--though I do like a couple of Coe's novels. The Celine's are interesting. Especially the Patrick McCarthy and Frederic Vitoux ones. Vitoux's is wonderful. He's got that whole period of France in the first 50 or so years of the 20th down pat. Writes with a lot of humor besides. Very good eye for detail and setting personal events in perspective to historical ones.

posted by lriley at 1:07 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2007

Papalaz--not exactly sure about this timeline thing--what exactly is it?

posted by lriley at 12:43 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2007

Papalaz--just did a review of a book by a Russian author named Yuri Buida--that I think you might find interesting.

posted by lriley at 12:08 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2007

It's an interesting list Papalaz. I've 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20. I have 14 and 21 which I haven't read. I've made a habit in the past when running into excerpts in different languages to try to figure them out. Post-modern fiction have numerous writers who play all kinds of language games. Big fan of Oulipo. I think I did better than I thought I would but I think a lot of people could have put the list of writers together--at least most of them--just by taking a look at the greek alphabet. Thinking beyond Rios's 'Loves that bind' which we went through a few months ago--there's a puzzle supposedly to be solved in Milorad Pavic's Landscape painted with Tea. Puzzles being made in Perec's Life: A user's manual. There's a similarity to Perec's 100 room apartment house corresponding to one chapter each in the novel and Robert Pinget's The Inquisitory--another fantastic novel. Have you ever read either of those?

posted by lriley at 11:13 am (EST) on May 31, 2007

Papalaz--on the subject of the Greek guessing game--I've been not getting too far with the titles--would be happy if you could send me the list of what you got.

posted by lriley at 1:18 am (EST) on May 31, 2007

The Sepulveda book was 'The name of a bullfighter'. Kind of a thriller. I didn't think it was all that terrific to be honest but over the past few years it seems his rep has been growing and growing. Maybe I just got the one that didn't appeal to me that much. It happened with Perez-Reverte. First book of his that I read The Seville Communion--I was ehhhhhhhh. A few years later I went back--first with The Queen of the South and then The Club Dumas--his two best books IMO and I was hooked. Like a lot of writers though he has some that are quite a bit better than others.

posted by lriley at 1:03 pm (EST) on May 29, 2007

Papalaz--have read Sepulveda exactly one time. Well I've taken care of the writers then. By the way I've read something of all of them but Woolf and Schnitzler. On the road was just a guess--there was no study involved. I would guess again on Lawrence that it was Lady Chatterly's lover. Looking at the titles and trying to correspond then with the Greek alphabet I'm more or less flummoxed. They are mostly just guesses and I'm relying on the more well known works. On Kafka between the Castle and The trial--it could be either. I relate the Saramago title to the Eco title to get All the names. I would think Steinbeck's is The Grapes of Wrath and Golding's is Lord of the flies. At least in the United States those are their most famous works--though with Steinbeck there are a few others.

posted by lriley at 11:15 am (EST) on May 29, 2007

Larry - you are doing so well!!! Spot on with the Kerouac and the Grass - 2 points! It is indeed Luis Sepulveda (he's the one I hadn't heard of) who apparently is a Chilean writer. You are really close with the DH Lawrence - you obviously got the reference to love - try the other one of his that mentions it.

Looking forward to tracking your continuing struggle.

Don't you think it's an interesting selection of writers for a Greek newspaper to be giving away?

Papalaz

posted by papalaz at 10:30 am (EST) on May 29, 2007

I've been looking at online Greek-English dictionaries Papalaz--and I'm afraid the books for the most part are going to be guesses. One would think the Kerouac is On the Road. I believe the Gunter Grass even with the longish Greek title is the Tin Drum. The author to 13 eludes me-it's a Louis-Luis something--Sepulveda(?). The Lawrence book may be Women in love. I might get the Allende. Not that I've read much of hers but it's a short title.

posted by lriley at 3:59 pm (EST) on May 28, 2007

5. Virginia Woolf 12. I'm guessing Jorge Luis Borges. The Thomas Mann book is Death in Venice. I think the Saramago book is All the Names. And the Hesse book I think is Demian.

posted by lriley at 12:06 pm (EST) on May 28, 2007

Actually it is Papalaz. 4 writers--2 with a Louis in them--20 books to go. The NT thing had me thinking DH Lawrence--but I don't think that's right. A couple of them I kind of pieced together phonetically--Saramago for one. Sometimes it's something very obvious that you don't get.

posted by lriley at 11:40 am (EST) on May 28, 2007

Just realized there's 22--not 14. To go on 1. Eco 2. Kundera 3. Allende 4. Hesse 5.? 6. Hemingway 7. Garcia Marquez 8. Kerouac 9. Steinbeck 10. Kafka 11. McEwen 12. ? 13. Louis ? 14. Nadine Gordimer 15. Joseph Conrad 16.? 17. William Golding--I think. 18. Jose Saramago 19. William Faulkner 20. Gunter Grass 21. Thomas Mann 22. Arthur Schnitzler

posted by lriley at 7:48 am (EST) on May 28, 2007

Papalaz--I liked Scoop much better than Decline and Fall--which is the other of his I've read. I'm not sure I'm going to read him out but I think I feel a bit more open to something else of his now. I noticed he has some World War II stuff and I might look into that. Anyway I'll keep plugging away at the contest. Kafka should be one I get easy enough. The Eco I think you've already said was 'The Name of the Rose'--I like Eco. I use his name on one of my hockey sites kind of merging it with some Beckett poetry and coming up with Eco's bones. Kundera--Garcia Marquez I would expect would be from their more famous works--The unbearable lightness of being--100 years of solitude.

posted by lriley at 7:19 am (EST) on May 28, 2007

Papalaz--I'm working on it. Titles I think are going to be harder. Right now I'd say 1. Umberto Eco 2. Milan Kundera 3. Isabel Allende 4. Hermann Hesse 5. don't have this one yet 6. Ernest Hemingway 7. I'm guessing Gabriel Garcia Marquez 8. Jack Kerouac 9. John Steinbeck--kind of a guess 10. Franz Kafka 11. Ian McEwen 12-14. working on them. I cheated a little. Took a look at the greek alphabet but I had 1. 2. 3. 7. 9. and was considering 10 for Kafka before I did the dirty deed. I had a buddy here once that was fluent in quite a few languages including Greek but he isn't in the are anymore and I have no idea where he is now.

Finished Scoop by the way and I'm about 70 pages into Pynchon's Vineland which reminds me somewhat of Tristan Egolf's Lord of the Barnyard in texture and tone. I've been reading a little non-fiction lately. One book by a ordinary soldier who was in a Stryker brigade in Iraq. I've been furious about this adventure of ours pretty much before it began. Colin Powell's infamous UN speech had me thinking automatically Graham Greene's Our man in Havana. I'm done with that. I'm working on another book by a John Dinges which is about Pinochet and his Operation Condor. I will get to Coover's Gerald's Party sometime soon if I can. I did have some difficulty with the Brooke-Rose Amalgamemnon. I kept on losing the thread. I think I liked Figes and Ann Quin a little more.