Random books from papalaz's library
The way opens (Discovering poetry series;no.2) by Ernest Walter Parker
Tips for Time Travellers: Visionary Insights into New Technology, Life and the Future by One of the World's Leading Tech by Peter Cochrane
On the edge by Edward St. Aubyn
The Macintosh bible by DiNucci et al
Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
Six Walks in the Fictional Woods by Umberto Eco
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About meI am a full time peasant's assistant and almost full time writer. I am now in self-imposed exile on the beautiful island of Crete with the love of my life who is also my muse.
I used to live in London where bookshop browsing was one of my favourite occupations. I now live in Crete where I am much more likely to find books in the odd secondhand shop. The move from London to Crete was a major downshift and hence the secondhand options.
I am now living my fourth life and of the few things that carry forward from one to another the books and the music form a line back through time.
A bibliophile from an early age I can remember the first hardback book I ever bought - Volume One of the Complete Plays of Eugene Ionesco. I still have it (and the rest)
About my libraryMost of what I have kept from a lifetime of reading is here now although it took me a while. I used to maintain my catalogue in Readerware but have abandoned it in favour of LibraryThing. A lot of my books don't have ISBNs and some are no longer available. I own quite a few modern firsts -signed, numbered the whole deal.
I have scanned my spines and replaced the LibraryThing cover pictures with spine shots and have tagged my collection so that it can be shown as it appears on my bookcases and shelves.
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Anyway:
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/m...
The team of Luther Blissett now write as Wu Ming. They seem to write very long (600-800 pages) alternate renderings of history historical novels at least that is what Q and Manituana seem to be. They have another novel '54' which are friend Tartalom has reviewed and maybe it was him I had that conversation with. All these books look intriguing and I think I can get them cheaply enough so don't be surprised that I'll add one or two in the next couple weeks. Manituana seems to revolve around the Iroquois tribes--pre-american revolutionary war.
posted by lriley at 8:16 am (EST) on Nov 9, 2009
My translation idea centers around one Rodolfo Walsh an Argentine who has never been translated into English. He wrote some crime novels which were supposedly quite good. I like the idea of messing about with writers more or less forgotten. He was one of the disappeared in the Argentine dirty war and quite a thorn in the eyes of the military dictatorship. That's something however I might not get going on until I retire--which is somewhere around 4 years from now--maybe though sooner.
As far as creative writing I'm not sure I feel up to that task. My powers of imagination tend to come and go and when they go my head becomes just a big blank.
posted by lriley at 2:21 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:18 pm (EST) on Nov 7, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:27 pm (EST) on Oct 8, 2009
http://www.complete-review.com/new/new.h...
posted by lriley at 5:16 pm (EST) on Oct 7, 2009
Anyway those long ones might keep you going the entire winter.
I finished the Kazantzakis book. It was interesting enough. He seems to have been a religious/mystical gadfly--always looking for a way--or someone to show him a way. I think sometimes that people aren't as unique as they may think--maybe that we're not unique at all and that there really is no answers to the why's of this life.
posted by lriley at 11:06 pm (EST) on Sep 27, 2009
posted by lriley at 12:54 pm (EST) on Sep 6, 2009
I also liked the Houellebecq but if you don't care for it that's about as good as he's done and there's no point of returning--at least for now. FWIW I've heard he's a bit of an asshole.
On Lobo Antunes I think I sent you An explanation of the birds--it's one of his best. Others of his best would be Fado Alexandrino, The Inquisitor's Manual and Act of the Damned. This year his The fat man and infinity came out--some of his newspaper work, essays and very short fiction. It's really good as well. Truthfully I like Saramago but I like Lobo Antunes better. He takes more chances and has more the comedic streak. Utterly modern.
On Kazantzakis--it's more a memoir somewhat in the vein of Lampedusa. Reminds me as well of a very obscure Spanish Mallorcan writer Llorenc Villalonga.
Anyway I'll pass greetings along to Tara. She's had her first Pollution: Natural and Unnatural class this morning and is about 15 minutes away from her first British Literature II class--roughly 17th, 18th and 19th century British writers--a particular weakness of mine. At least my wife though is a big fan of Jane Austen.
posted by lriley at 1:01 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:25 pm (EST) on Aug 20, 2009
The Izzo was kind of a last minute thing. I was just trying to pack it so everything wouldn't be bouncing around--lucky for you've I'd run out of the styrofoam peanuts and thought what I'm doing?--either get another box or shove another book in and I had the British and American edition of the same book and thought that would be a good one to put in. I was thinking about Malalparte's Kaputt though--the problem was though I had two copies I'd preferred keeping the paperback and the hardcover (w/o jacket) would have jacked the postage up way too much. The Izzo book is an excellent crime novel--Malaparte's Kaputt--is a masterpiece though. Someday I'll have to get you one.
posted by lriley at 1:19 pm (EST) on Aug 20, 2009
One helluva mess is Izzo's best book. It's a crime novel set in Marseille. That's the English title. In the United States it's titled Total Chaos. The 100 brothers is a signed copy.
posted by lriley at 9:55 am (EST) on Aug 20, 2009
Anyway happy hunting and snooping through their catalog. By coincidence this is the second conversation I've had about Archipelago on LT today. Kidzdoc who is an even more ferocious devourer of international literature than myself brought that publisher up as well.
posted by lriley at 12:03 pm (EST) on Aug 18, 2009
posted by lriley at 5:28 pm (EST) on Aug 14, 2009
Still working on Cultural amnesia which is very--almost always--interesting. Started re-reading J. M. Coetzee's 'Foe'--I found a cheap but signed copy. Also Martin Zusak's 'The book thief'--something that my college bound daughter has read numerous times. It's labeled 'young adult' but it's actually quite good and the label is IMO a misnomer. It's a birds eye like view of a small town in pre-WWII third reich Germany. Interesting slants on things from the ordinary perspectives of the town in question. In some respects it owes a nod to Grass's Tin drum but it so far can stand on its own. Anyway I had to get started on it because she wants to take it with her and we're now under two weeks before she leaves. We'll get to Kazantzakis' soon but it might be in September.
posted by lriley at 12:58 pm (EST) on Aug 14, 2009
posted by lriley at 3:01 pm (EST) on Aug 13, 2009
posted by lriley at 7:52 pm (EST) on Aug 11, 2009
posted by lriley at 3:14 pm (EST) on Aug 11, 2009
posted by lriley at 11:53 am (EST) on Aug 11, 2009
posted by lriley at 9:36 am (EST) on Aug 11, 2009
posted by lriley at 3:11 pm (EST) on Aug 8, 2009
posted by lriley at 11:58 am (EST) on Aug 8, 2009
The education business for them is serious though. The odds would be too stacked against them living around here without it. My son has Asperger's as well. Kind of like having superior math skills + a photograpic memory--the downside being backward social skills with a tendency to look inward.
Anyway the move I'm thinking of is one I've really never wanted to make but I think it's necessary. I expect it's going to surprise a lot of people there as well. Maybe even some who might think they've cornered me. Again though it's hard to tell what their motivation is and I'm not going to ask for justifications. I prefer being more pro-active.
On Gass's book--I struggled with it but finished it. An academic trying to hold onto his tenure--he's finished his book--an apologetic history of Nazi Germany and he's not sure where to go with it--looking back at his life including a weird sometimes abused childhood--a post graduate period in pre WWII Germany--the prevalent fascist tendencies in the university's there at the time which he seems to inculcate into his own outlook on life--back to the present in-fighting at his own college with his colleagues and his blown apart marraige at home--along with all the sleazy hitting up he does of college undergraduates which threatens to destroy his career never mind the damage it's done to his own at home life--for relaxation he's started digging tunnels in his basement and hiding the dirt in his wife's collection of antique dresser drawers and he murders her cat. There is certainly some comedy there and Gass's prose is interesting and adept--I just don't know if the story held up for me all that well. Sometimes if things don't grab me the fatigue sets in and it's going downhill from there.
Wallace's book can be strange at times too and it's a lot longer. I liked it a lot better though. His grasp of pharmacology and its uses is stunning. And if nothing else if you don't like it (and I'm pretty sure you will) it will make a great door stopper.
posted by lriley at 2:45 pm (EST) on Aug 4, 2009
Anyway I'm getting organized towards sending something back your way--particularly Infinite Jest. If you already have it though I'll find something else--but it's an absolute have to have as far as I'm concerned. I'll warn you though for a work of fiction it's over 1000 pages with about 150-200 pages of footnotes in the back end.
As I've said I'm on the Clive James book Cultural Amnesia--which is also a monster. Not all that far into it but so far it's fascinating.
posted by lriley at 1:57 pm (EST) on Aug 3, 2009
Arlt was known as a 'sloppy' writer. In some respects The seven madmen borrows from Dostoyevsky's 'The devils' but it's much more modern in style--Arlt always played on the grotesque-- and there are no heroes involved. The city of Buenos Aires is a character as well--drawn in almost an expressionist mode throughout. It and it's sequel 'The Flamethrowers' revolve around one Remo Erdosain--a luckless bill collector who gets fired from his job for embezzling. In order to avoid prosecution he has the get the money back and that's pretty much how it all starts out.
From the introduction to the Seven Madmen:--'Arlt was a newspaperman with a style that was often rough, blunt, and defiantly agrammatical. His unpolished mode of expression and the swarm of low-life characters with whom he populated his novels gave his fiction a naturalistic tone. many of his contemporaries saw no more in the Seven Madmen than a harsh, rough-hewn 'proletarian' novel, full of scabrous scenes, crude words, sleazy characters, and unforgivable grammar.
Some--'thoughtful readers found Arlt singularly imaginative, willing to violate the tenets of realism in favor of bold invention--nurtur(ing) a predilection for creating forms in which fantasy and real-life experience played a hallucinating counterpoint. His fusion of the fancifully distorted and the realistically faithful set Arlt's work apart from that of the social realists of his time. But many who were unsure how to evaluate Arlt's blend of the real and the unreal and his roung, deviant mode of expression simply concluded 'that Arlt didn't know how to write'.
There is an article about Arlt and anarchism by an academic by the name of Close. It's pretty long but can be googled easily enough but I could find you the link if you want. Arlt strikes me as a very restless soul. He was thrown out of school at a very young age--his father was a very autocratic German immigrant and he grew up off the streets--teaching himself to read at libraries. He became a very famous newspaperman but he had a hand in a lot of different things--a number of plays--inventions--he had two or three patents, chemistry--the Erdosain character is a failed chemist as well. He dropped dead from a heart attack at 42. The execution of an Argentine Anarchist Di Giovanni (shortly after the Sacco and Vanzetti executions) which Arlt as newspaperman witnessed was a major impetus for him in writing The Seven Madmen.
posted by lriley at 4:30 pm (EST) on Jul 25, 2009
posted by lriley at 4:59 pm (EST) on Jul 24, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:47 pm (EST) on Jul 24, 2009
I don't know if I still have 100 Brothers. I might have sold it. It was a signed copy too. If I still have it I could pull it and send it your way next time.
posted by lriley at 11:35 pm (EST) on Jul 22, 2009
There are some favorites--The atrocity exhibition, 2666, House of Leaves, The mysterious flame of Queen Loana (Eco's best book), The lime twig, The counterlife, Infinite Jest.
Of what I've read there are a couple I didn't like--The hundred brothers and Pale Fire (generally I really like Nabokov).
posted by lriley at 1:19 pm (EST) on Jul 22, 2009
Anyway I ordered a Rage in Harlem. That seems to be the first--which is why with Chandler I ordered The big sleep first--sometimes it's best to go in order and sometimes it doesn't matter.
posted by lriley at 4:07 pm (EST) on Jul 20, 2009
Anyway just picked up a Matt Beynon Rees--The collaborator of Bethlehem--a crime novel set in the occupied territories of Palestine. Rees apparently has fiction and non-fiction work set in that region.
Currently am working my way through some short stories by David Foster Wallace--Oblivion. A much shorter work than Infinite Jest. A great writer but there's no way you can read him fast. Very compact and at times very dark.
Vacation is just about over for us here. We've been off two weeks. Going back to work on Thursday morning and I'm not really looking forward to it. Another 5-7 years though--it is getting closer. We spent a couple days going back and forth to Binghamton--about an hour away--my daughter Tara is enrolled for her first year of college and they were going through orientation. I think she will like it--it is a really good university and there's quite a lot that the area offers. Average incoming student last year was a 94%. One of the courses she'll be taking is Brit Lit 2 which seems to cover the period from post-Shakespeare up through Oscar Wilde--not really my area of expertise. 20th century especially Post WWII I'd feel a lot more comfortable with.
posted by lriley at 1:43 pm (EST) on Jul 20, 2009
As well I'm into the final section of No Logo and think it gets better as it goes along. Yeah it's still got a bit of a dated feel but it has me thinking in new ways about things and anyway I like the optimistic tone and the constructive engagement of many of the people and events she cites.
posted by lriley at 8:19 am (EST) on Jul 15, 2009
posted by lriley at 12:33 pm (EST) on Jul 4, 2009
I'd rank Celine's fiction: 1. Journey 2. North 3. Installment plan 4. Castle 5. Guignol's band 6. Rigodoon 7. London Bridge 8. Normance 9. Professor Y 10. Fable 11. the fragments of Cannon Fodder. The other things his play The church is okay I suppose--too long for what it is and some anti-semetic stuff is there which was definitely not needed at all. The Church was written before Journey but published many years after. The other is balletic plays--best that can be said for it is great title--Ballets without music, without dancers, without anything.
posted by lriley at 4:03 pm (EST) on Jul 2, 2009
posted by lriley at 8:40 am (EST) on Jun 30, 2009
posted by lriley at 6:10 am (EST) on Jun 28, 2009
Anyway I rate North after Journey as my favorite Celine novel. By the way--Dalkey is putting out another Boon novel in a few months.
posted by lriley at 6:22 pm (EST) on Jun 26, 2009
On Celine's WWII books--Castle to Castle is excellent. I thought North was fabulous--nothing like German generals retired and otherwise for roses and lipstick (great with the grotesque humor in that one IMO) but Rigodoon is very rushed. I especially liked his cat Bebert. The portraits he draws of French Vichy figures trying to backstab each other (in some respects it reminds me of the more ambitious at work) and low level Nazi goons are very cleverly done.
Raymond Chandler I've never read but ought to give a go--any recommendations?
On Naomi Klein--the one problem I have with No logo--is it's a bit dated. I agree with her though that behind the multinationals and brands are economy is based mostly--95% on bullshit--has been that way for a long time. That's why I almost never go to stores other than to buy food and books. By the way we've decided to buy a Prius--the 2010's specs are for more than 50 miles to the gallon. Not really big car buyers--the one it's replacing will be 13 years old. My previous car was 14. I see value though in not enriching those associated with oil any more than is absolutely necessary. Anyone that and our daughter's education are going to be the two biggest expenditures in the near future.
Along with that I'm reading two other books--Nadine Gordimer's--The Pickup which is very good and Christopher Petit's The Psalm killer--not very far into that one--it's very noirish--set in Northern Ireland during the troubles so far centering around a killer associated with the UDA--excellent tone--has the potential to be one of the best books I read this year.
posted by lriley at 1:37 pm (EST) on Jun 26, 2009
Also a little ways into Naomi Klein's No Logo. I think you've said you've read that. I like where she's going with her work. Interesting perspectives on multi-nationals and the advertising world enabling each others propaganda.
posted by lriley at 5:16 pm (EST) on Jun 25, 2009
Also started a review copy of James Hider's (Spiders of Allah). He's a London Times reporter who has been covering all things for them from the Middle East. I'm not that far and the book actually isn't even out for another month or two--but it's very interesting. He's a self-described atheist trying to trying to make sense out all the religious nuts on all sides.
On leaving an illegal Jewish settlement in Gaza: 'I left them to their brittle constructions and cold nights under the stars: my phone was ringing and I didn't want a whole pack of them noticing there was a foreign journalist in the midst, a species that ranked in their eyes only slightly above Palestinians. It was my office telling me a Palestinian suicide bomber had blown up his car full of explosives next to an Israeli bus on the coastal road to Haifa. A dozen passengers were incinerated. The bomber may have well believed he was off to heaven to meet his maker. In fact, he was a lump of burned flesh fused to the steering column of his car. I got in the armoured jeep and drove off. I'd seen all I needed to see in order to get an idea of the fundamentalists: God and land and fuck the rest of you. It would prove a good grounding for my time in Iraq'.
posted by lriley at 1:08 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2009
posted by KeiraJay at 2:52 am (EST) on Jun 9, 2009
http://dogmatika.com/dm/features_more.ph...
posted by lriley at 2:51 pm (EST) on Jun 5, 2009
Just started the Kite runner today. We'll see if it lives up to its hype.
Have you ever read Eoin McNamee--a Northern Irish writer? Very noirish. 2 of his novels look somewhat deeply into the world of British intelligence--Resurrection Man and The Ultras--during the troubles. They could almost be called treatments looking at horrific actual events--in Resurrection Man--the group known as the 'Shankill Butchers' and its abetment by British governmental agencies and The Ultras--looks into the disappearance of the real life Robert Nairac--a Northern Irish raised British spy who'd taken part in Loyalist paramilitary operations and also infiltrated the IRA and when last seen was being walked out of a Republican bar by IRA members many many years ago. I've started on his '12:23. Paris. 31st August 1991.'--the subject of which is the death of Princess Diana in Paris--and it's much in the same vein. As of now a gathering of malefactors from the fringes of Britains torturers and spy world--their aim to make a assassination look like an accident. The idea of Diana in a lifelong relationship with an Arab is just too much for certain quarters back home. Anyway McNamee's prose in some respects remind me of Ballard:
'Bennett had sent a car for him. The driver was waiting in arrivals with a cardboard sign. Harper followed him out to the car, an Escort estate, missing a hubcap. The driver was a tall man with a grey, ill-looking face wearing a Burton suit with a cigarette burn on the cuff. He seemed to be an authority in the field of ashen looks. He listed the constitutional ills of the country, oil wells in Saudi drying up, interest rates, immigration. He kept coming back to immigration. He used words like swamped. He talked about alien cooking smells.
They were driving through the flat land between Heathrow and the city, almost an estuary landscape, a dank, reclaimed feel to it. There was something impressive about the scale and density of the housing, each tract of housing identical to the next, the featureless meridians that had been reached, the eerie suburbs rushing past. The motorway climbed on to a flyover between tower blocks. Building that were no more than ten years old surrounded by burnt-out cars, old mattresses, domestic items discarded in stairwells. Something here that the architects and planners hadn't seen on the plans, the forlorn devices of decay in the weave of the plan itself, in the paper like a watermark. The impression is of extending the boundaries of emptiness, creating new classifications of void.
As they drove into the West End Harper thought that it seemed much later. The streets seemed meagre, sparsely populated. Pedestrians crossed the street with their heads down. He kept catching sight of people in alleyways and narrow streets as they passed, tense strained faces as thought they had become mired in some illicit trade. The driver talked about services on the brink of collapse, stark narratives of social catastrophe.'
posted by lriley at 1:12 pm (EST) on Jun 5, 2009
I did a review today of Santiago Roncagliolo's Red April--a very interesting thriller that I think you'd might like. Right below that is one by Lobo Antunes.
posted by lriley at 11:17 am (EST) on Jun 3, 2009
posted by lriley at 5:22 pm (EST) on May 30, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:20 pm (EST) on May 7, 2009
posted by lriley at 12:58 pm (EST) on May 1, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:23 pm (EST) on Apr 30, 2009
I'm thinking 1. may be Tristram Shandy and 5. is definitely Joyce's Ulysses.
From yours 1. may be Derek Raymond--maybe one I haven't read. 3. I believe is Portrait of the Artist and 4. Ulysses both by Joyce. 5. Crash-Ballard 6. A void-Perec. 8. I'm not sure but I think it may be Celine's Journey to the end of the night--maybe the Marks translation. 12. Too loud a solitude-Hrabal.
posted by lriley at 5:58 pm (EST) on Apr 29, 2009
We've been busy. I know you've sent me this other thing from a guy from Finland. I'll try to get to it in the next couple days. We've been kind of doing a last minute going over of my daughter's college options and finally she's more or less made her choice for Suny Binghamton--which is an excellent school. 92% retention rate of first to second year students. 70% graduate in 4 years--many of those who don't are double majoring. It's rated at the top end (or top 5 year in and year out) by publications that rate schools (US News and World report, Kiplingers etc.)At least as of a few years ago it was one of only I think 3 universities in the United States with an active professor-student translation center--although having done several years at Spanish I'm not sure she's interested in that end. One of my favorite books Raymond Queneau's Children of Clay was translated by a student there. Lots of opportunities for internships. And it's only about an hour away with very accessible bus services.
Apart from that we're in the middle of the Stanley cup playoffs which is very distracting for me. I don't want you to think I'm ignoring that post--it's just that I am a fanatic when it comes to my New York Rangers--a real fanatic--I've been following them since 1971-72. Things do not look all that hot for them right now. If they get eliminated which may happen shortly there will certainly be a lull. I don't watch games after they're done so I'll have extra time for sure then.
posted by lriley at 4:58 pm (EST) on Apr 26, 2009
Not sure I agree with her or in the sense that the rest of the world generally acts with more deliberation or maturity--though some certainly do. Like most other countries in a historical sense the United States has the habit of spinning its past always into some glorious. I think for most people here or anywhere that is good enough for their lives--they're not interested in delving any deeper. Here we've been dreaming the dream of world power empire pretty much since World War II--before that war it was more just the dominant power of the two American continents. Britain itself had some of the same ideas pre-20th century. There are moments when we do question ourselves. The Vietnam war for instance is generally not seen as something that we should have done. W. recent Iraq adventure will not be seen in a positive light either. There's also the Watergate scandal.
I'd note that Americans in general don't understand that there's a shadow unelected bureaucracy working hand in hand with whatever elected entity which weilds at least as much power as the elected one. They certainly don't understand how sinister it is--that it's been waging economic warfare in the name of capitalism all around the globe but particularly within our own hemisphere for at least a century. A lot more scrutiny on the Chavez handshake than on the subject matter of the author of his gift. We have a benign sense of ourselves. Some still wallow in complacency and don't want to understand there might be a real political motivation behind the attacks of 9-11.
Our kind of society though is different in significant ways from others. There are other melting pot societies--Canada, Argentina, Australia--but we're in more of a state of transition now than any of them. Polite society here is best represented by the white europeanized judeo-christian segment. For them it's not just the 9-11 shock but that their grip over the political direction of the country is slipping. Like I've said they will be outnumbered in the relatively near future. The aging part of that segment tends either to ignore that fact or get hysterical about it. There is a sense of denial from that older segment which does believe itself to be very cultured. Obama certainly represent something a lot different than what they're used to and many many of them resent that. The younger part of that segment is much more adaptable though.
This country has managed to renew itself many times because of the continuing diversifacation of its population. We may be at a kind of crossroads. For it to continue to evolve we might need to dump some of our more cherished but useless ideas about ourselves such as we are god's chosen people or that capitalism is the only economic engine available for a democratic nation--(funny enough that Jesus Christ--christianity's representative of God in earthly clothes hardly strikes me as much of a capitalist).
posted by lriley at 2:06 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2009
They don't connect well with younger voters who came out in droves this time around, or with Hispanics, not well enough with Asians. Not at all with African Americans or Gays. These minority populations (the different races anyway) altogether will within the next 20-25 years outnumber white american altogether. They are also becoming more and more organized. These are fact that the political entity ignores at its peril--and that's exactly how they've marginalized themselves pretty much in the deep south--by ignoring them. The Republicans criticize these days a lot but they don't very often offer any solutions. They lack ideas. Whether the agenda or how much of the agenda of the Obama administration works is another thing--but offering no alternatives of your own does nothing to help. What they seem most interested is in maintaining the wealth gap--supporting the super rich and the defense and arms industry. I ask you how relevant is the Nasa program to a high speed railway transportation system? I see the Nasa program as a relic of the cold war--pumping money into the defense industry--and making heroes of really a bunch of elitists. The transportation system would be useful if you get the right civic minded people to run it. We're fed these dreams of invincibility for so long that too many people just cannot let go of them.
Anyway American foreign policy absolutely sucks and has sucked for a long time.
posted by lriley at 2:15 pm (EST) on Apr 22, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:34 pm (EST) on Apr 20, 2009
Meanwhile though in the United States--the former Republican speaker of the house Newt Gingrich along with Republican Senators--the retiring after the present term Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and John Ensign the leader of the minority party in the Senate are up in arms about it. According to Gingrich--Obama is showing how weak he is and he compared him to Carter. These people are only concerned of course with the politcal gamesmanship and the arrogance of military and economic power that has fueled our most asinine foreign policy in the region. I expect Kissinger to rear his ugly head soon as well. It's really remarkable that we could fight another asinine conflict in Southeast Asia in the 60's and 70's and then afterwards build a relationship which the morons mentioned above would approve of (mostly because it lines the pockets of them [many of whom were eligible for but did their level best to avoid fighting in that conflict] through the exploitation of Southeast Asian labor) with Vietnam and still after all these years not even to attempt to rebuild a relationship with a country sitting right off our Florida shore. Amazing. What Obama's administration is doing--even if it's just babysteps right now should have been done long before. As for trying to mend relationships throughout Latin America this falls right in line with things I've been hoping for and pleases me very much. The jackass Bush 2 administration tried to organize a coup in Venezuela. The fear is that Venezuela and other countries in the region by not accepting our economic policies might show the rest of the world and right under our noses that there is another way than that and the might not include the World Bank and the IMF and Friedman's theories--that may even work better given the chance. That is just too much to bear for so many stuck up assholes here. I think I'm going to be looking up that Galeano book by the way.
posted by lriley at 1:30 pm (EST) on Apr 20, 2009
posted by lriley at 4:17 pm (EST) on Apr 19, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:35 pm (EST) on Apr 17, 2009
Anyway get the protestant religious right linked up with the Catholic cardinals here and it becomes big news--they make a lot of noise. Right now the big complaint is done through 'tea parties'. That's not necessarily a religious thing though. They don't like Obama's agenda of printing money and 'high taxes' for the wealthy and vis-a-vis capital gains. Not that I'm great on taxes being a taxpayer myself but I have very little sympathy in any case because--1) we got ourselves in this hole and dragged a lot of other people with us--not that others elsewhere didn't sometimes play a part as well and 2) specifically to the U. S.--so many millions here will piss and moan about their taxes but ask them to make cuts into the defense budget?---not that. No fucking way. It's like asking us to castrate ourselves--so you want an efficient high speed rail system? or National Health Care? affordable or maybe even completely subsidized university or college education?--other countries have this but we're more interested in planting flags on the moon and/or occupying adversarial foreign countries and/or having this network bases all over the globe.
I know I'm taking advantage of your innocent Kazantakis' question--but all this was on my mind already today and needs to be vented.
posted by lriley at 1:33 pm (EST) on Apr 17, 2009
posted by lriley at 4:11 pm (EST) on Apr 16, 2009
You do need to get to the Boon though. I think that is fantastic. Almost one which I would defend with my life.
posted by lriley at 3:20 pm (EST) on Apr 16, 2009
Anyway still slowly going through Gass's Tunnel. Those are 652 very densely packed pages. I can see why it took you a month. A couple books in the mail today--back to Argentina--so many people have raved about Cesar Aira that I finally broke down and got his 'Ghosts'. Also a crime novel by a German author Andrea Maria Schenkel--The murder farm--which looks very very interesting.
posted by lriley at 4:17 pm (EST) on Apr 8, 2009
posted by lriley at 5:10 pm (EST) on Apr 4, 2009
posted by lriley at 4:58 pm (EST) on Apr 1, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:09 pm (EST) on Mar 27, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:00 pm (EST) on Mar 24, 2009
posted by lriley at 8:23 am (EST) on Mar 24, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:11 pm (EST) on Mar 23, 2009
I like Noam. Not usually an easy read though. He's fearless. He shows up on C-span every now and again. Very long and technically precise answers to everything. Well go anywhere and doesn't try to dodge anything. With Iraq going full blast he's answering questions from Cadets at West Point. A very polite but somewhat hostile audience. Among other things he explained to them some of the merits of anarchism.
posted by lriley at 6:22 pm (EST) on Mar 20, 2009
3. Cuts to social spending. Generally the idea is to make already rich people richer even if (it always will) it widens the gap between rich and poor. Friedman believed that catastrophe's whether natural or man made provided opportunities in which people with the right mindset if they were in power could impose his economic ideas under the guise of emergency measures. Well he was a friend of Thatcher and a friend of Pinochet and admired by Bush. What does that tell you?
From pages 155 and 156 speaking of the lingering after effects of these policies in conjunction with the dictatorships in Argentina and Chile that enable them:
'Claudia Acuna, an Argentine journalist and educator, told me how difficult it had been in the seventies and eighties to fully grasp that violence was not the goal of the junta but only the means. "Their human rights violations were so outrageous, os incredible, that stopping them became the priority. But while we were able to destroy the secret torture centers, what we couldn't destroy was the economic program that the military started and continues to this day."
In the end, as Rodolfo Walsh predicted, many more lives would be stolen by "planned misery" than by bullets. In a way, what happened in the Southern Cone of Latin America in the seventies is that it was treated as a murder scene when it was, in fact, the site of an extraordinarily violent armed robbery. "It was as if that blood, the blood of the disappeared, covered up the cost of the economic program," Acuna told me.
The debate about whether "human rights" can ever truly be separated from politics and economics is not unique to Latin America; these are questions that surface whenever states use torture as a weapon of policy. Despite the mystique that surrounds it, and the understandable impulse to treat it as aberrant behavior beyond politics, torture is not particularly complicated or mysterious. A tool of the crudest kind or coercion, it crops up with great predictability whenever a local despot or a foreign occupier lacks the consent needed to rule: Marcos in the Philippines, the shah in Iran, Saddam in Iraq, the French in Algeria, the Israelis in the occupied territories, the U. S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. The list could stretch on and on. The widespread abuse of prisoners is virtually foolproof indication that politicians are trying to impose a system--whether political, religious or economic--that is rejected by large numbers of the people they are ruling. Just as ecologists define ecosystems by the presence of certain "indicator species" of plants and birds, torture is an indicator species of a regime that is engaged in a deeply anti-democratic project, even if that regime happens to have come to power through elections.
I can't argue with any of that. The thing is we may finally become the victim of the Frankenstein monster we've created here in the U. S. of A and have been exporting all over the globe. It may be poetic justice but to be honest I've never been a fan of money making money or getting rich chasing debts and credits all over the universe. I'm a produce your own goods person--a put your people to work person and do your best to give them living wages, health care and pensions. I'm not interested in already fabulously wealthy people who really don't need any more wealth making more. So I'm not a libertarian, an Ayn Rand obectivist (I have read and detest her novels) or a Friedmanite. There isn't really a lot of difference between them in my mind.
posted by lriley at 7:11 pm (EST) on Mar 19, 2009
posted by lriley at 12:25 pm (EST) on Mar 19, 2009
Reading a book by a Canadian lady Naomi Klein--The Shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism--an almost 600 page critique of American foreign and economic policy of the past 30 some years revolving around the theories of Milton Friedman and CIA torturers beginning with MK Ultra in the early 50's and how their ideas enable each other. Fascinating that we continue to produce these clowns. Friedman and friends advising Pinochet on how to run his economy into the ground. To many people here--even many on LT Friedman is a hero.
posted by lriley at 4:39 pm (EST) on Mar 18, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:44 pm (EST) on Mar 13, 2009
posted by lriley at 11:14 pm (EST) on Mar 11, 2009
http://www.godine.com/isbn.asp?=15769236...
http://www.godine.com/isbn.asp?=15769237...
posted by lriley at 11:12 pm (EST) on Mar 11, 2009
posted by lriley at 4:13 pm (EST) on Mar 11, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:36 pm (EST) on Mar 11, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:45 pm (EST) on Mar 11, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:43 pm (EST) on Mar 11, 2009
Anyway meant to mention it but there was a big article in Sunday's New York Times on the British filmmaker Steve McQueen and his movie 'Hunger' which you first brought up last October. Sounds very good though it's not the thing that makes it into theaters around here--probably have to wait for the DVD. Anyway I don't know what was going on in my head back then but I'm sure that you know it's about the Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands--all that happened in my first year in the service in 1981. I remember following that very closely and I have read the book that McQueen in the NYT article cites by the South African journalist David Beresford.
posted by lriley at 1:30 pm (EST) on Mar 11, 2009
Also reading Assia Djebar's Fantasia--it's a novel but is based on the French colonization of Algeria. It's quite good. In some respects this work reminds me of Malaparte and in another way of Eduardo Galeano's trilogy of South American books as it's not just a novel about past it alternates also with chapters on life in Algeria at present--as well it's also works as a social and social critique on colonization and on gender politics.
After describing one historical tragedy she has this to say about one of the perpetrators of it:
'I venture to express my gratitude--however incongruous. Not to the first fumigator Cavaignac, who was forced by Republican opposition to settle matters quietly; and not to Saint-Arnaud, the only real fanatic; but to Pelissier. After the spectacular, brutal killing carried out in all naivete, he is overcome with remorse and describes the slaughter he has organized. I venture to thank him for having faced the corpses, for having indulged a whim to immortalize them in a description of their rigid carcasses, their paralyzed embraces, their final paroxysms. For having looked on the enemy otherwise than as a horde of zealots or a host of ubiquitous shadows.
Pelissier, the barbarian, the military leader subsequently discredited, is for me the foremost chronicler of the first Algerian War! For he approaches the victims when they have barely ceased their final twitches--not of hatred--but of a frenzied death-wish...Pelissier, butcher-and-recorder, brandishes the torch of death which illuminates these martyrs.'
Anyway it's very eye opening.
posted by lriley at 4:23 pm (EST) on Mar 10, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:39 pm (EST) on Mar 7, 2009
I'm not in a hurry to check out mind you--I don't like the idea of nursing homes, losing ones mental apparatus or suffering needlessly through protracted painful illness or disease for which there is not much hope. A bit ridiculous. I don't really have however the method--no guns here or cyanide. Just knives, aspirin and alcohol.
Anyway it may be a couple weeks before I get the Boon out to you but it is a great book. Reminds me of Celine a lot but one that is defintitely left wing.
posted by lriley at 2:08 pm (EST) on Mar 6, 2009
Anyway I'm thinking of something I might send back. Boon's Chapel Road which I think you would enjoy immensely.
posted by lriley at 3:51 pm (EST) on Mar 5, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:25 pm (EST) on Mar 4, 2009
Anyway speaking of a not so casual observer--John from Ottawa sent me this link:
http://www.threepennyreview.com/samples/...
posted by lriley at 7:54 am (EST) on Mar 3, 2009
posted by lriley at 4:23 pm (EST) on Mar 2, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:48 pm (EST) on Mar 2, 2009
It brings to mind other unfinished though published novels by Flann O'Brien and Georges Perec--the novels that Kafka and Nabokov did not want to publish. Celine's Rigodoon as well was not really a finished product.
posted by lriley at 1:17 pm (EST) on Mar 2, 2009
A very good review of the Vitoux book--not so much literary critiique but there are a number of books like that--Philippe Bonnefis' Celine: A recall of the birds or Merlin Thomas's Louis Ferdinand Celine. A fascinating writer despite the sometimes nasty persona--lots of people have written books about him or he's played a part in their works--novelists, biographers, academics.
I was thinking when you brought up Damon Runyon of another hole of mine and that would be Raymond Chandler.
Anyway I'll be looking out for the book.
posted by lriley at 5:11 pm (EST) on Feb 27, 2009
As for Damon Runyon I've never read him. I have a lot of holes too. Was he more in the noir vein? Sorry--I haven't read your link yet. Kathy Acker I've read once--Pussy, king of the Pirates. I struggled mightily through it. Just could not work up a lot of interest. I know she's revered by a lot of people but that didn't connect for me which doesn't mean she'll never get a second chance. I've given quite a number of writers a second chance after a horrible first experience. Time to check out your Vitous review.
posted by lriley at 2:19 pm (EST) on Feb 27, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:21 pm (EST) on Feb 23, 2009
Reading a first novel by Philipp (with 3 p's) Meyer--titles American Rust. It was offered on Early Reviewers here at LT. As well he's an LT member. It's really good. Reminiscent of Steinbeck's better plotlines only written in a Faulkner or Cormac McCarthy like prose. Beyond that a very honest appraisal of the desperation of many many people getting lost between the cracks in the American landscape--it's been going on for a long while and I don't think a lot of people from outside get how fucked up this country can be to its own on the inside.
posted by lriley at 12:02 am (EST) on Feb 23, 2009
posted by lriley at 3:54 pm (EST) on Feb 17, 2009
On Rushdie--some of his work is excellent and some of it kind of pedestrian. Probably is a bit overrated at times--having the fatwa on his head was great for publicity and book sales. Almost ditto for Banville--though it's short enough where one way or the other it won't take up a lot of time. Looking forward to the Carter. Not too far into Nesbo yet--Redbreast supposedly reaches back into Norway's past--those who collaborated with the Nazi's and brings their legacy back to the present in the actions of modern day Nazi's.
On Helen Dewitt--it sounds like you're bringing in the heavy hitters.
posted by lriley at 3:16 pm (EST) on Feb 15, 2009
Anyway I'm about 20 pages from the end of the Lavender way. Sometime late afternoon or early evening. The Rangers are on in about an hour.
Have never read Angela Carter--but got a book of short stories--Fireworks--in the mail yesterday. Also picked up Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children--John Banville's The sea. I started as well a Norwegian crime novel by one Jo Nesbo---Redbreast which looks pretty interesting.
I've seen reference in TLW to Eduardo Galeano--I've only read the first part of his trilogy but it was very very good--reminding me of Chomsky's historian pal--can't think of his name right now.
posted by lriley at 11:21 am (EST) on Feb 15, 2009
As for Crash the movie. No. Other than hockey games I don't watch that much TV. Usually with books--I read them first before I watch the movie if there is one. I did make an exception recently--In Bruges which is very good--but I love all of Martin McDonagh's plays. One thing is Mae tends towards romantic comedies--a movie genre that doesn't very often appeal to me. As you probably remember we were watching the Soprano's a lot a year or so ago--that was more like a comedy to me. Right now as well all of the main video stores around here have and/or in the proscess of going out of business. To see Crash I'll have to buy it or become a member of netflix.
Anyway I'm into July now--have less than 100 pages of the Lavender way. Hoping to finish by Sunday.
posted by lriley at 7:23 pm (EST) on Feb 13, 2009
posted by lriley at 3:22 pm (EST) on Feb 13, 2009
posted by lriley at 7:10 am (EST) on Feb 13, 2009
In respect to Cuba we had promised that island it's freedom for its help in dislodging the Spanish--Spanish-American war circa the beginning of the 20th century and sometimes it's like one person or group makes a promise that they're unable to keep later on because another person or group has replaced them. Life and history are full of such absurdities and tragedies. Speaking of absurdities--we fought another asinine Vietnam war which destroyed many thousands of lives at both ends and yet now we have a more or less cordial relationship with that country and yet our dispute with Cuba--many times less destructive in scope has gone on and on and on. It really all comes down to being a political calculation--win Florida--win the election.
posted by lriley at 11:10 am (EST) on Feb 12, 2009
posted by lriley at 10:14 pm (EST) on Feb 11, 2009
I think we're probably not all that far apart politically speaking and there is just no way anyone who spends any time musing about it seriously is ever or should ever be completely in agreement with anyone on everything. I hope that sentence is not too confusing. As for the so-called good guys--the democratic party has betrayed their constituencies numerous times in the recent past--basically the Clinton years were seasons after seasons of betrayals. Much the same could be said of Mr. Blair in England I'm sure. What I consider my fine nose detected new aromas in 2006. A more people oriented approach and one that wouldn't apologize to the holier than thou types of the right wing minded christian conservatives. Just to mention the dems gained 6 senate seats in that year including Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown especially who are both particularly committed progressive minded people. Webb, Jon Tester and Claire McCaskill weren't bad either. It's new but it feels significantly different though I'm skeptical about some of his cabinet choices.
Anyway I'm not sure I helped you all that much but will look in again later.
posted by lriley at 2:56 pm (EST) on Feb 11, 2009
Anyway back to Obama for a few moments. Part of what's interesting for me now is the reaction. Faced with economic crisis that reaction has no real response and/or does not even seem interested in offering a solution--it's more 'let's sit tight and let it correct itself'. As for the stimulus package and Obama himself--the right is more or less demonizing it. They raise the spectre of FDR and socialism. It is the kind of usual attack meant to derail things like a national health care program. Anyway I'm determined to be less cynical as I get older. It means much to me and is not the same as expecting never to be disappointed or feel betrayed. Americans generally have never been able to accept that socialistic concepts can go hand in hand with capitalistic ones in our society which in fact has been the case for quite some time but I have also the sense that they are waking up more on this though many here still suffer from the illusion that we're some kind of purist capitalist society. It's not reality but it's encouraged by many movers and shakers in both the politcal and the business worlds. How much control these interests have if any over Obama or events to take place remains to be seen but it may be that this is not the usual kind of politician beholden to their wishes. As well I have the sense that the public at large is more engaged than I can rembember maybe going back to the sixties and they expect much from him and in large part that he will put the long term interests of the population at large over the ambitions of the rich and powerful.
Anyway I hope to finish your book this week and of course I'll review it.
posted by lriley at 5:45 pm (EST) on Feb 10, 2009
Anyway something I'm kind of interested in your opinion of Obama. It still being early and all. I did vote for him--I've always voted third party before--and I'm cautiously optimistic about him but an astute outsider's take (I don't know if outsider is a good word here as so much of what happens here seems to rebound somehow everywhere else) on it is always welcome. The last 8 years were just a nightmare of overarching ambition and incompetence at its worst. I think the public finally started coming to its senses 6 months after they elected him the second time. The Katrina thing was him and his friends doing to us what they'd been doing to everyone else all along.
posted by lriley at 1:38 pm (EST) on Feb 10, 2009
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php...
When Bolano switched from poetry to prose--he started entering literary contests.
posted by lriley at 10:50 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2009
I'll have to set your new book aside. I'm still working on your other. I'm about 10 days into April--somewhere around 350 pages. You've been looking in the mirror and wondering who exactly is looking back at you. By the way I wonder sometimes myself. I'm also closing in on finishing Bolano's 2666 and I'm about half way through Ballard's Crash. So I have irons in the fire.
A few comments on 2666. It's almost like Bolano has written 5 distinctive novels and/or novellas with mostly different characters in all of them but which leads everyone out into the desert border area of Northern Mexico where hundreds of women have been murdered--sometimes mutilated by a serial killer and/or a system that protects the exploitation of labor by the maquiladora's, a super wealthy diletantish overclass, narco and human trafficers, corrupt judges, police and politicians. Not sure how it's going to conclude but it's been terrific up until now.
On Vitoux's biography of Celine--I have several biographical works on Celine and his is the best. Patrick McCarthy's is very good as well but doesn't have half the detail. Philippe Bonnefis' Celine: The recall of the birds is much shorter and focuses mostly on style and linguistic and narrative techniques was really interesting as well.
posted by lriley at 1:50 pm (EST) on Feb 4, 2009
On Auster again--I've liked the books of his I've read but he's never reached that extra level for me. I've only read the first of his New York trilogy though--City of Glass along with The book of illusions, Oracle Night, Augie Wren's Christmas story and The red notebook so I'm hardly a big expert. Actually also some translations of his of the French poet Mallarme a long time ago A tomb for Anatole--best forgotten in a way.
Roth as secular jew impresses me more. Sabbath's Theatre is a particularly good read. Mickey Sabbath is almost right out of Celine. I like his take on the Israeli-Palestine thing as well when it comes up in his work--caracturizing both sides more or less being run by their worst militants. Unreasonable people trying to pass their rigid dogma off as not only logical but moderate.
posted by lriley at 12:22 pm (EST) on Jan 27, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:29 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:16 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2009
Anyway a bit of a thaw here today. The ice is beginning to rattle in the downspouts.
posted by lriley at 2:08 pm (EST) on Jan 23, 2009
posted by lriley at 10:04 am (EST) on Jan 23, 2009
'Here we see that solipsism, strictly thought through, coincides with pure realism'.--Ludwig Wittgenstein
posted by lriley at 3:47 pm (EST) on Jan 22, 2009
Anyway back to Celine--he needed space. Sometimes I need space. A relationship like that you have to try to give back as much as you get though. But almost all his friendships soured over time. There were a few--he hung in with his second wife, the novelist Marcel Ayme who was much more sensitive than some of the others. A lot I would factor back to the wounds and injuries he suffered in WWI--the head trauma, the severed shoulder nerve. He found it very difficult to sleep and as a doctor at least in his final years he would give himself morphine shots every day.
Some of what I've read of Joyce is interesting as well. The eye problems going back to his father's syphyllis which had an effect on practically all his family. Living in Paris--not in the better part--entertaining the whole neighborhood with battles with his wife--his occasional philandering. His kids problems.
A lot of these people certainly weren't perfect and it's wrong to expect to be superhuman. It just doesn't tend to work out that way. And on Beckett he could be quite a nitpicker when it came to staging his plays.
posted by lriley at 2:54 pm (EST) on Jan 22, 2009
Anyway I'm somewhere around halfway through Jan 2005 so I'm a long way from finishing. I'm just over the 100 page mark in 2666 another huge work so I can say the same for that. I've as well cracked open Victor Pelevin's A werewolf problem in Central Asia. I've read him a couple three times before--not always happily but so far so good with this--the first story somewhat reminiscent of Bulgakov.
Saw Hillary give a speech today at the State dept. I have never been a big fan of the Clinton's. Even so I'm hopeful that the new administration including her will be a breath of fresh air from the last regime. It's almost as if we've been pinned under a gigantic boulder forever. The number of lies and the corruption more manageable--the insanity and lack of pragmatic thought process which started the Iraq debacle something maybe we can start to put behind us. Already talking about closing Gitmo by years' end--discussions on winding down troop levels in Iraq. The wind never really got in the sails for that until right after GWB's re-election in '05 but when it did it took on a life of its own. Katrina helped in the sense that the mass of the american public finally saw firsthand that that administrations way of doing things really was fucked up.
posted by lriley at 12:02 pm (EST) on Jan 22, 2009
Johnson's book is very good--very somber though.
2666 is coming up fast--maybe in the next day or two.
Checked out McKinty. He has his own blog as well. I scrolled through some of that too. I'll have to check out the first in the series.
posted by lriley at 3:16 pm (EST) on Jan 19, 2009
On Johnson--I've read about 6 chapters. I've just been picking them out randomly as Johnson (and Coe) suggest--not going by the order they came in.
On the swearing--it is just natural. My father was a prison guard (two hitches in the USMC including during WWII). I've worked in factory enviroments--and even in the service (just as an enlisted). It comes with the enviroment. There's a mentality that comes with that--sometimes maybe not very articulate but it depends on the person.
Anyway have fun with your olives. I'll go see what this McKinty has to say.
posted by lriley at 2:31 pm (EST) on Jan 19, 2009
I read Jonathan Coe's introduction to B. S. Johnson's The Unfortunates last night--so I'm going to get into it somewhat today.
I've been going at your book about 15-20 pages a day. The entry for 12-4-04 (on swearing)caught my eye. You're really talking about me. I probably average a couple hundred f-words a day. I'm familiar with the abso-fucking-lutely but more inclined to the fan-fucking-tastic. By the way there's a documentary film titled 'Fuck' which I found to be hilarious--the varieties of usages--the pro f peoples and the anti ones. The Billy Connolly's etal vs. the Pat Boone's and company.
posted by lriley at 3:37 pm (EST) on Jan 18, 2009
posted by lriley at 1:33 pm (EST) on Jan 14, 2009
posted by lriley at 2:42 pm (EST) on Jan 8, 2009
posted by lriley at 5:28 pm (EST) on Jan 3, 2009
Speaking of noir (or crime fiction) writers--recently finished Arnaldur Indridason's 'Silence of the Grave' which was pretty good. Currently waiting for 'Redbreast' by a Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo--also a thriller which links present time neo-nazi characters with events going back into WWII on the Eastern Front. Anyway synopsis for that sounded very interesting. As well waiting for a book by an Icelandic writer (like Indridason) Yrsa Sigurdardottir--title eluding me right now--I just started my new schedule today and I'm a little whipped. More the straight graveyard hours. Tuesdays-Wednesdays--new days off.
posted by lriley at 1:46 pm (EST) on Jan 3, 2009
Anyway glad that people are finding your e-book. There may be hpe for it yet--and I think talking to HD could be very beneficial and is a very good idea.
I'll try to get the Vitoux and the Lobo Antunes in the mail by the end of next week.
By the way a book by one A. Louise Staman showed up yesterday. It's title--With the stroke of a pen--kind of true crime look at the murder of Robert Denoel--founder of the Denoel publishing house that first published Journey to the end of the night. There was some controversy and legal shenanigans when that publishing house was taken away from Denoel's widow and sold through a front company to Gaston Gallimard. Denoel had been accused of collaboration with the Nazi's. He was alleging that Gallimard had even more so. A murky look at French publishing during the occupation. Apparently Staman had access to recently released government documents pertaining to this affair and builds her book around it.
posted by lriley at 12:40 pm (EST) on Jan 1, 2009
I have other doubles by the way. Have you ever read any of Witkiewicz's plays? I have two Madman and the Nuns. You might really like him. He was quite a character. Also 2 copies of Frederic Vitoux's Celine biography which is a really excellent book. And then there's an excellent Lobo Antunes book--An explanation of the birds. A good one to compare to his Nobel competitor and portugese compatriot Jose Saramago. And then one of my favorite poetry collections Zbigniew Herbert's Report from the besieged city. Pick two if you like.
posted by lriley at 11:32 am (EST) on Jan 1, 2009
Anyway I think you need a better editior than me. What HD describes seems pretty much par for the course in at least the English speaking part of the publishing world with maybe the exception of Canada, Ireland, Australia. I don't think however being set up in Germany probably helps her cause a lot. Publishers like other businesses worry first and foremost about the bottom line. Authors willing to find the time to promote and go through the various paces to do with that process are increasingly important. She seems to be very multi-lingual and might try to hook up with a German publisher using that source language. It's rare but not totally unprecedented.
There's never been much fair about what gets published and what doesn't. More or less formulaic millionaire writers have been mass producing their pap for the last century and a half and building huge readerships. The best writers tend to be marginalized as far as selling ability. She is a very talented writer though and I wish her the best and would love to see more of her work. It sounds like she has financial problems. It sounds like she's got a lot of material kicking around. It sounds like it has been a source of some anguish.
posted by lriley at 2:20 am (EST) on Dec 30, 2008
posted by lriley at 6:18 pm (EST) on Dec 26, 2008
posted by lriley at 6:00 am (EST) on Dec 25, 2008
Some of Le Clezio I think you would like--maybe it all--but his earlier works were more experimental with a nod to the nouveau romantics like Robbe-Grillet and Butor. His later works tend to be more traditionally plotted but he is a very evocative writer of the natural world--his later works also take us all over the world. The Prospector likewise has been re-issued and should not be very hard to find and is a book I've read twice and could see myself reading at least once or twice more.
On the crime novel list--it seem biased more towards english speaking writers. Manchette would figure pretty much at the top of my list. Many of those listed I haven't read though. Some of them are very popular writers--a class I tend to avoid. Of those named the one I like best was 26. Vazquez Montalban. Raymond would probably come afterwards. I've read Camilleri once and liked it as well. Per Wahloo. I have a weakness with the Scandinavian writers who at least in these times seem to excel at this kind of writing. A lot of catching up to do. I recently read a book by a Swedish writer (Theorin?) which I reviewed and liked a lot. Mankell is on my list to be read next year as well. There is a book by a German writer Gunter Ohnemus--I think it's called the Russian passenger which I liked very much. Also Thierry Jonquet's Mygale aka Tarantula (or something like that). The Irish writer Eoin McNamee has both a distinct voice and noirish sense to his work. Resurrection Man, The blue Tango and The Ultras. The Ultras has only been published in Britain--is based on the disappearance of one Robert Nairac a British operative who had infiltrated into the IRA--he also took an active part in some operations of loyalist paramilitaries including the infamous Miami Showband massacre. He was walked out of a bar one night or early morning and has never been seen again.
posted by lriley at 9:26 am (EST) on Dec 21, 2008
posted by lriley at 2:15 pm (EST) on Dec 12, 2008
Anyway a ton of snow today--must have been around a foot. Heavy stuff. Called in and told them I'd be late. I live on a fairly steep and twisty hill. Thought that the plow might come around but no luck. As early as that is in the morning it's a sometimes yes and a sometimes no. Eventually I went--first gear all the way. Around the first curve a car planted in the ditch. The ditches up there are at least 3 feet deep. I took my time and didn't really have any problems. Even so next time it snows like that I'm waiting for the plow.
posted by lriley at 1:16 pm (EST) on Dec 12, 2008
Anyway I really liked DeWitt's book and I think it will be right up your alley.
And your writing is very good to excellent. You should keep with it. You have to be good and you probably will have to have some luck too--but you need to have the one to get the other.
posted by lriley at 3:04 pm (EST) on Dec 10, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:01 pm (EST) on Dec 5, 2008
Location and poverty--hopefully not too impoverished. I imagine it's tough getting the more unique stuff you like where you are. I imagine as well shipping costs can be prohibitve.
Bert Hirsch sent me an interesting link on my page here today. In some respects Bukowski is an american version of Kelman. As it happens he worked many years at the Post Office. When I first read his novel I wound up passing it around at work. The old timers then got a real kick out of it.
posted by lriley at 12:49 pm (EST) on Dec 1, 2008
It sounds as if christmas can't get to you soon enough. I always have tons of unread books lying around. I'm thinking your location must have something to do with it but you can always get out Ulysses again and do a re-read.
posted by lriley at 12:51 pm (EST) on Nov 30, 2008
posted by lriley at 8:16 am (EST) on Nov 30, 2008
posted by lriley at 8:51 am (EST) on Nov 16, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:37 pm (EST) on Nov 15, 2008
'Orin now always gets the shower so hot it's to where he can just barely stand it. The condo's whole bathroom is done in this kind of minty yellow tile he didn't choose, maybe chosen by the free safety who lived here before the Cardinals sent New Orleans the free safety, two reserve guards and cash for Orin Incandenza, punter.
And no matter how many times he has the Terminex people out, there are still the enormous roaches that come out of the bathroom drains. Sewer roaches, according to Terminex. Blattaria implacibus or something. Really huge roaches. Armored-vehicle-type bugs. Totally black, with Kevlar-type cases, the works. And fearless, raised in the Hobbesian sewers down there. Boston's and New Orlean's little brown roaches were bad enough, but you could at least come in and turn on the light and they'd run for their lives. These Southwest sewer roaches you turn on the light and they just look up at you from the tile like: 'You got a problem?' Orin stomped on one of them, only once, that had come hellishly up out of the drain in the shower when he was in there, showering, going out naked and putting shoes on ond coming in and trying to conventionally squash it, and the result was explosive. There's still material from that one time in the tile-grouting. It seems umremovable. Roach-innards. Sickening. Throwing the shoes away was preferable to looking at the sole to clean it. Now he keeps big glass tumblers in the bathroom and when he turns on the light and sees a roach he puts a glass down over it, trapping it. After a couple days the glass is all steamed up and the roach has asphyxiated messlessly and Orin discards both the roach and the tumbler in separate sealed Ziplocs in the dumpster complex by the golf course up the street.
The yellow tile floor of the bathroom is sometimes a little obstacle course of glasses with huge roaches dying inside, stoically, just sitting there, the glasses gradually steaming up with roach-dioxide. The whole thing makes Orin sick. Now he figures the hotter the shower's water, the less chance any small armored vehicle is going to feel like coming out of the drain while he's there.
Sometimes they're in the bowl of the toilet first thing in the A.M.. dog-paddling, trying to get to the side and climb up. He's also not crazy about spiders, though more like unconsciously; he's never come anyplace close to the conscious horror Himself had somehow developed about the Southwest's black widows and their chaotic webs--the widows are all over the place, both here and Tucson, spottable on all but the coldest nights, their dusty webs without any kind of pattern, clotting just about any right-angled place that's dim or out of the way. Terminex's toxins are more effective on the widows. Orin has them out monthly; he's on like a subscription plan over at Terminex.
Orin's special conscious horror, besides heights and the early morning, is roaches. There'd been parts of Boston ner the Bay he'd refused to go to, as a child. Roaches give hime the howling fantods. The parishes around N.O. had been haveing a spate or outbreak of a certain Latin-origin breed of sinister tropical flying roaches, that were small and timid but could fucking fly, and that kept being found swarming on New Orleans infants, at night, in their cribs, especially infants in like tenements or squalor, and that reportedly fed on the mucs in the babies' eyes, some special sort of optical-mucus--the stuff of fucking nightmares, mobile flying roaches that wanted to get at your eyes, as an infant--and were reportedly blinding them; parents'd come in in the ghastly A.M.-tenement light and find their infants blind, like a dozen blinded infants that last summer; and it was during this spate or nightmarish outbreak, plus July flooding that sent over a dozen nightmarish dead bodies from a hilltop graveyard sliding all gray-blue down the inclin Orin and two teammates had their townhouse on, in suburban Chalmette, shedding limbs and innards all the way down the hillside's mud and one even one morning coming to rest against the post of their roadside mailbox, when Orin came out for the morning paper, that Orin had had his agent put out the trade feelers. And so to the glass canyons and merciless light of metro Phoenix, in a kind of desiccated circle, near the Tuscon of his own father's desiccated youth.'
Of the Serpent tails list I have read many of the authors and a number of the works. A big fan of Manchette as well you know. Also of Manuel Vazquez Montalban who has several here. Kenzaburo Oe is one of the better recent Nobel picks. And I like Jelinek as well. Theirry Jonquet represented here with Tarantula which goes by another title in the U. S.--Mygale. I have reviewed that. I also liked Mehdi Charef's Tea in the Harem, Houellebecq's Whatever, Goytisolo's Juan the landless, Vallejo's Our lady of the assassins and then of course there is Derek Raymond.
Also at Serpents tail--Referencing cockroaches again Daniel Evan Weiss wrote a novel from a cockroach's POV. It was okay. Stasiuk, Chavarria Daeninckx are okay as well. On Juan Rulfo--Pedro Paramo is very famous but I didn't care for it much. I did like his short story collection 'The burning plain' though. Authors here I didn't care for--Ken Bruen, Dianela Eltit.
posted by lriley at 1:32 pm (EST) on Nov 13, 2008
posted by lriley at 2:34 am (EST) on Nov 12, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:39 pm (EST) on Nov 6, 2008
posted by lriley at 7:22 am (EST) on Nov 2, 2008
I noticed the new B. S. Johnson's you listed. Over here they are very rare and cost a lot. My Le Clezio's have all of a sudden done that. The early ones even if they're ex-lib's are worth something now--there are about 6 different novels that were short printed in hardcover--never any paperback editions--in the 60's and 70's. The Kelman book 'A disaffection' is a great one as well. I have that Coover book you've mentioned but have never read it. I don't know if I'll get around to it real soon but maybe I should push it up the foodchain.
posted by lriley at 1:46 pm (EST) on Nov 1, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:17 pm (EST) on Nov 1, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:40 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:16 pm (EST) on Oct 27, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:12 pm (EST) on Oct 23, 2008
posted by lriley at 5:13 pm (EST) on Oct 21, 2008
4 chapters(stories) into Ballard's Atrocity exhibition. I really like this a lot. Very unique. I don't know what copy you have of this but in my copy there are notes he makes in the margins (some 20 years after its being published) explaining his thought process. Elements of Robbe-Grillet--especially Marienbad in this. It makes me think of Arno Schmidt and Guy Debord as well. Reminds me of Le Clezio's 'The Giants' as well .Ballard mentions B. Traven as one influence.
posted by lriley at 2:55 pm (EST) on Oct 20, 2008
Anyway I always liked the Sand pebbles. Actually McQueen as well and the recently deceased Paul Newman who used to hang around our area near the Watkins Glen speedway. Not that I care much for auto racing though. Each was a race car nut and each did a movie based on a Faulkner work. Both were interested somewhat in politics as well.
Anyway speaking of Hunger--from the Hamsun standpoint--an excellent work. From the McQueen (the director?) perspective it sounds interesting as well--on the Irish Famine. Brings to mind Liam O'Flaherty's 'Famine' which is a great work.
posted by lriley at 12:04 pm (EST) on Oct 19, 2008
Anyway I don't mind the voting. I'm a believer though that societies/economies should be built from the bottom up. The bottom is always where your foundation will be found. This has been Obama's shtick. I expect he is going to be elected--the question will be then--how true he will be to what he's been articulating. McCain is pretty much committed to the same top (trickle) down economic theories that have become completely discredited here. Many people who might otherwise have supported him in the past are finding out that if they're havenots now they will probably be worse off later if they support him. Whatever works in other parts of the world he like his party are too arrogant to take a look--they will not budge on their preconcieved ideas about how an economy should work--or even on how another nation might conduct itself. Our major problems here are economic--costs of education and health care are too high, infastructure has been collapsing for quite a while, there's been no real initiative to have a coherent energy policy--we've been involved in a very senseless war in Iraq. We've had stagnant or negative job growth for quite a whil--yet our population which reached 300 million in 2006 is projected to reach 400 million by 2035. So if we're going to have political leaders we're going to need ones with vision who can look down the road. However or not Obama remains true to his vision--McCain just does not qualify. He's been busy trying to attract the end timers support. Enough said for him. Anyway at 51 years now any talk of my own future is ?--sometime in 20-30 years?--maybe even sooner I'll be heading over the precipice. I worry about my kids though. It's really their world coming--at least for a while.
posted by lriley at 5:57 pm (EST) on Oct 18, 2008
The W. movie looked interesting but I read a review and in typical Stone fashion he makes up some scene between W. and his father H. W. about Iraq which seems to be more fantasy than anything else. For me that is a bit of a turn off. Richard Dreyfuss looks like a passable Cheney though. Two and a half more weeks until the election--add another couple months and a half and they'll be finally gone. We're voting for Obama by the way. No third parties this time. Nader may be closer to where I am but Barack is a better candidate (has closed the gap enough for me) than either Gore or Kerry and seems a better person as well--or maybe the frustrations of the past 8 years has just pushed me too far. Anyway you vote for someone and they win--they're going to disappoint you sooner or later.
posted by lriley at 12:30 pm (EST) on Oct 18, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:51 pm (EST) on Oct 16, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:50 pm (EST) on Oct 9, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:30 pm (EST) on Oct 9, 2008
Saw a couple interesting ones at Dalkey. The French mafia one. Looking at Ducornet at half.com. Think I'll get on it soon. The Phosphor one + they have a couple signed which aren't too expensive.
posted by lriley at 1:13 pm (EST) on Oct 9, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:59 pm (EST) on Oct 8, 2008
posted by lriley at 9:37 am (EST) on Oct 6, 2008
Any Lustig recommendations? Picked up two today. The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao--Junot Diaz and Angels--Denis Johnson. B. S. Johnson's The Unfortunates has been backordered. Helen DeWitt's The last samurai has yet to show.
posted by lriley at 7:42 pm (EST) on Oct 5, 2008
Anyway Ladbrokes gives the best odds to Italy's Claudio Magris. I've read one of his books. It was okay. After him comes the Syrian poet Adonis--I've read one of his books. It was okay. I'd be underwhelmed with either of those two. After them come the following Amos Oz, Oates*, Roth, Delillo, Murakami, Les Murray, Yves Bonnefoy*, Inger Christensen *(?), Le Clezio, Ondaatje, Pynchon, Arnost Lustig *(?), Kadare, Vargas Llosa, Transtromer, Yehoshua, Djebar, Nooteboom, Gitta Sereny *(?), Ko Un *(?), Atwood, Munro*, Tabucchi, Bei Dao *(?), Carlos Fuentes, Kundera, Peter Carey, Eco, Achebe, Cormac McCarthy, Mulisch, Herta Muller*, McEwen, James Ngugi *(?), Mahasweta Devi *(?), Byatt *(she shows up), Malouf, Ernesto Cardenal (a Nicaraguan libertarian theologist Roman Catholic priest), F. Sionel Jose *(?), Marge Piercy*, Maya Angelou*, Rushdie, Willy Kyrklund *(?), Adam Zagajewski, Beryl Bandbridge*, Doctorow*, Eeva Kilpi *(?), Banville, Jonathan Little*, Julian Barnes, Mary Gordon*, Tournier, Patrick Modiano, Auster, Rosalind Belben *(?), Vassilis Aleksakis *(?), William H. Gass and Bob Dylan*. Those I haven't ever read get a star.
posted by lriley at 4:21 pm (EST) on Oct 4, 2008
posted by lriley at 3:53 pm (EST) on Oct 4, 2008
posted by lriley at 5:13 pm (EST) on Oct 3, 2008
Problem with Coover's winning it--is not quanity or quality. It's just he's virtually unknown in his own country. Sorrentino suffered from that a bit as well. I'd rate an american's chances this way 1. Roth 2. McCarthy 3. Delillo.
Le Clezio is an unknown here but he has a huge body of work--some relation to the nouveau roman and at times has shown a real experimental side to his writing--for instance The Giants which is my favorite work of his. He is also a world writer in the respect that he has set his novels all over the globe.
Ondaatje has also had an experimental side especially his first couple works--mosaics of poetry and prose, newspaper clippings and photographs. I prefer him to Atwood.
Goytisolo would also be an interesting choice. As for Eco--I actually like him but he is hit and miss. I would say Baudolino is a disappointment. Loved 'The mysterious flame of Queen Loana' though. The format is wonderful.
Of my 1-5--I'd suspect that Vargas Llosa would have the best shot. Parra is probably my favorite poet ever and mainly it's because of humor and attitude. Khoury's Gate of the Sun is IMO a masterpiece. Lobo Antunes churns out dense parodies comparable to a Faulkner or a Simon only saturated in very sarcastic tones. Faulkner, Dos Passos, Celine are writers he's often compared too.
The blurbs from Antunes latest--What can I do when everything's on fire?
'This is an extraordinary novel by one of the living writers who will matter most. Lobo Antunes chooses to manifest his debts to Freud (L-A has been a practicing psychiatrist), Joyce, and Faulkner on the surface, but in the depths, he is a great original. This is a very dark and searing vision of reality at its fiercest, and will leave its mark on sensitive readers everywhere.'--Harold Bloom
'The greatest living Portugese writer...He has been compared to Celine...but he owes as much to Proust in the complexity of his style. One could also invoke Malcolm Lowry or Cormac McCarthy for the visionary power, the buried violence.--Vogue (Paris)
'A mad amalgam of Dos Passos and Celine.'--NY Times Book Review
'Considered by many [to be] the greatest novlist of the Iberian peninsula...one of the finest international novelists of the moment.'--La Vanguardia (Madrid)
'The heir to Conrad and Faulkner.'--George Steiner
posted by lriley at 5:01 pm (EST) on Oct 2, 2008
To bring up our neighbor to the north Canada--they've never had a nobel literature laureate. I really like Michael Ondaatje--Alistair MacLeod as well but he doesn't have the body of work. Margaret Atwood would also seem a worthy writer.
To me what I like best is when I like the writer--not so much where he comes from.
French writers--J. M. G. Le Clezio, Jean Echenoz.
British--(though I think after Lessing last year it's unlikely this year)--James Kelman, I like David Mitchell--potential for the future there. J. G. Ballard is a possibility. Ian McEwen--very good chance some day. Michael Frayn or Julien Barnes--maybe Jeanette Winterson. A. S. Byatt.
Irish--William Trevor. Paul Muldoon. Perhaps John Banville.
Spanish-Juan Goytisolo. Javier Marias. Long shot--Juan Marse.
Italian--Antonio Tabucchi--Umberto Eco.
Russian--Vassily Aksyonov.
Czech--Milan Kundera.
Portugese--Antonio Lobo Antunes.
From Holland--Harry Mulisch, Cees Nooteboom.
Peru--Mario Vargas Llosa.
Argentina--Ernesto Sabato--long shots--Ricardo Piglia, Luisa Valenzuela. Tomas Eloy Martinez.
Chile--Nicanor Parra.
Israel--long shots Amos Oz. A. B. Yehoshua. Aharon Appelfeld.
Nigeria--Chinua Achebe.
Algeria--Assia Djebar
Lebanon--Elias Khoury
Australia--Thomas Keneally, David Malouf, Les Murray, Peter Carey.
India--very long shot Salman Rushdie. Potentials Amitav Ghosh, Anita Desai.
My top five of the above:
1. Nicanor Parra
2. Antonio Lobo Antunes
3. J. M. G. Le Clezio
4. Elias Khoury
5. Mario Vargas Llosa
posted by lriley at 1:09 pm (EST) on Oct 2, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:30 pm (EST) on Sep 30, 2008
posted by lriley at 8:08 pm (EST) on Sep 28, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:09 pm (EST) on Sep 26, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:00 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:52 pm (EST) on Sep 17, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:09 pm (EST) on Sep 16, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:21 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080914/ap_o...
posted by lriley at 8:09 am (EST) on Sep 14, 2008
Anyway if I remember correctly Suttree is set in Knoxville Tennessee--a very rough and tumble place in the period that McCarthy writes about. It catches that depression era vibe very well--and McCarthy has excellent vibratory touch. Of his latest two--both of which I've read this year I liked No Country for Old men better than the Road--both have become movies. I haven't seen either of them though.
posted by lriley at 4:08 pm (EST) on Sep 13, 2008
Thank you very much for offering on the Johnson but I can always go through the publisher. A link to them and the Johnson book here: http://www.ndpublishing.com/books/johnso...
Click on the pictures to get an even better look. No doubt the major multi-national book sellers don't like the format of loose chapters in a box. I think it would be tres cool. I'm a sucker for the unique.
posted by lriley at 12:33 pm (EST) on Sep 13, 2008
posted by lriley at 2:22 am (EST) on Sep 13, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:57 pm (EST) on Sep 11, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:47 pm (EST) on Sep 10, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:13 pm (EST) on Sep 6, 2008
posted by lriley at 5:09 pm (EST) on Aug 24, 2008
Our summer has been wetter and cooler than usual. Today it's in the 90's and a bit humid as well--that's fahrenheit which means pretty hot and very sticky. We've been running around a lot this summer. Hitting colleges and universities when we get a chance as our daughter will be going into her final year of high school. Tomorrow we're going to Suny Buffalo about a 3-4 hour trip to and another 3-4 hours back.
posted by lriley at 5:07 pm (EST) on Aug 24, 2008
Also in the Times Book Review--one Charles Taylor very positively reviews B. S. Johnson's 'Unfortunates'. The concluding paragraph:
'The difficulty,' Johnson writes in the book's final chapter, 'is to understand without generalization, to see each piece of recieived truth , or generalization, as true only if it is true for me, solipsism agian, I come back to it again, and for no other reason.' I don't know the reasons that, four years after 'The Unfortunates' was published, Johnson killed himself at age 40. But reading those words at the end of this extraordinary book you recognize a writer whose belief in truth as the raison d'etre of the novel, and whose fastidious determination to achieve it, made him worry that he had fallen back on the 'fiction' he abjured. Yet it's hard to imagine a less solipsistic novel than 'The Unfortunates'. This book with no belif in God, no hope of heaven, makes you feel the stuff of life as sacred, and our inability to hold on to it as damnation enough for anyone to be made to bear.'
posted by lriley at 12:35 pm (EST) on Aug 24, 2008
Anyway to go back to Kourouma--Allah is not obliged is a great book--recommend that. I'm reading his Monnew now and I'm not going to say it's bad but knowing what I know I'd pass on it. Kevin Phillips is an apostate conservative or put it another way most of the elected conservatives we have now are the apostates. He's a throwback who no longer fits in. his book is a critique on domestic and global economics. He has an interesting writing style but books of this nature IMO aren't a whole lot of fun to read. We've been deregulating our financial markets for years. I agree with most of it more or less. There is a thought process here that money makes money and that by investing in debt--the more the debt the better--you can make huge profits as well. The onus is on the buyer and it's basically a con job that has ruined a lot of ordinary people--at least in terms of their financial state.
MacLeod I would unreservedly recommend. The lost salt gift of blood short story collection of 7 stories does not even have one weak story. They are all A+. Beautifully concieved and realized from the beginning of the first to the end of the last.
posted by lriley at 12:45 pm (EST) on Aug 9, 2008
I've been reading 3 books--one is not a novel--it's a book on the state of our financial markets--Kevin Phillips--Bad money. I really really liked Ahmadou Khourouma's 'Allah is not obliged' but his earlier book 'Monnew' which I'm wading through now is not nearly as good. OTOH the Canadian Alistair MacLeod who won the Impac for 'No great mischief' which is a fine novel--his short story collection 'The lost salt gift of blood' is excellent. He is two for two and just went on my favorite authors list. His works tend to be set in his native Nova Scotia locales--his characters working class Scots and Irish immigrants but he renders their lives very beautifully. He hasn't produced much--two short story collections and a novel and he's 70 years old or so but what he has done is really good.
posted by lriley at 5:33 pm (EST) on Aug 8, 2008
Joyce was one comparison--for me there's echoes of Kafka and Borges--maybe even Bulgakov. Mad scientists, the supernatural, and always the mundane--he mixed them all together and came up with his own stew.
posted by lriley at 1:42 pm (EST) on Aug 1, 2008
Anyway the B. S. Johnson book has me quite excited for when it comes out. Today in the mail came a very large formatted book of one of the newer Oulipo member--a Canadian poet--Victor Coleman--From the dark wood.
posted by lriley at 1:18 pm (EST) on Jul 29, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:16 pm (EST) on Jul 28, 2008
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
posted by slickdpdx at 11:22 pm (EST) on Jul 8, 2008
posted by lriley at 6:37 pm (EST) on Jun 23, 2008
posted by lriley at 9:06 am (EST) on Jun 5, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:36 pm (EST) on May 31, 2008
posted by lriley at 4:34 pm (EST) on May 3, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:34 pm (EST) on May 2, 2008
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
On the subject of Sebald I ordered the Rings of Saturn.
posted by lriley at 6:28 am (EST) on Apr 27, 2008
posted by lriley at 2:54 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:28 pm (EST) on Apr 24, 2008
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
http://internationalnoir.blogspot.com
Got Raymond on the front page.
posted by lriley at 4:38 pm (EST) on Apr 11, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:32 pm (EST) on Apr 9, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:16 pm (EST) on Apr 5, 2008
posted by lriley at 2:05 am (EST) on Apr 1, 2008
posted by lriley at 5:41 pm (EST) on Mar 22, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:59 pm (EST) on Mar 17, 2008
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
posted by lriley at 1:46 pm (EST) on Mar 15, 2008
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
posted by slickdpdx at 11:09 pm (EST) on Mar 3, 2008
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
posted by lriley at 12:26 pm (EST) on Feb 23, 2008
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
posted by lriley at 1:43 pm (EST) on Feb 22, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:56 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:18 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2008
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
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
posted by lriley at 1:05 pm (EST) on Feb 19, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:12 pm (EST) on Feb 17, 2008
posted by lriley at 8:07 am (EST) on Feb 17, 2008
posted by lriley at 5:27 pm (EST) on Feb 13, 2008
posted by lriley at 2:28 pm (EST) on Feb 13, 2008
posted by lriley at 3:00 pm (EST) on Feb 6, 2008
posted by lriley at 1:18 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2008
posted by lriley at 5:32 pm (EST) on Feb 3, 2008
posted by lriley at 2:21 pm (EST) on Jan 27, 2008
posted by lriley at 3:19 pm (EST) on Jan 24, 2008
'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
posted by lriley at 3:51 pm (EST) on Jan 21, 2008
posted by lriley at 3:46 pm (EST) on Jan 21, 2008
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
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
posted by lriley at 9:27 am (EST) on Jan 14, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:37 pm (EST) on Jan 12, 2008
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
posted by lriley at 1:08 pm (EST) on Jan 11, 2008
posted by lriley at 2:50 pm (EST) on Jan 8, 2008
posted by lriley at 3:51 pm (EST) on Jan 7, 2008
posted by lriley at 12:55 pm (EST) on Jan 7, 2008
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
posted by lriley at 1:16 pm (EST) on Dec 25, 2007
posted by lriley at 3:02 pm (EST) on Dec 24, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 2:39 am (EST) on Dec 21, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:24 am (EST) on Dec 14, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 12:21 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2007
posted by lriley at 5:29 pm (EST) on Dec 12, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 5:11 pm (EST) on Dec 7, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 5:13 pm (EST) on Nov 27, 2007
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
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
posted by lriley at 7:30 am (EST) on Nov 10, 2007
posted by lriley at 4:38 pm (EST) on Nov 8, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:46 pm (EST) on Nov 7, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:19 pm (EST) on Nov 1, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:47 pm (EST) on Oct 30, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:45 pm (EST) on Oct 30, 2007
http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/context/200...
posted by lriley at 4:28 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:30 pm (EST) on Oct 29, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 2:34 pm (EST) on Oct 27, 2007
posted by lriley at 4:39 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:42 pm (EST) on Oct 25, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:39 pm (EST) on Oct 24, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 12:58 pm (EST) on Oct 23, 2007
posted by lriley at 11:06 am (EST) on Oct 19, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:08 am (EST) on Oct 19, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 1:36 pm (EST) on Oct 18, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 4:07 pm (EST) on Oct 15, 2007
posted by lriley at 9:36 am (EST) on Oct 15, 2007
posted by lriley at 5:59 pm (EST) on Oct 13, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 1:32 pm (EST) on Oct 10, 2007
posted by lriley at 10:49 am (EST) on Oct 8, 2007
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
I did have problems hitting on that site. Didn't come up.
posted by lriley at 1:21 pm (EST) on Oct 1, 2007
posted by lriley at 10:53 pm (EST) on Sep 29, 2007
posted by lriley at 5:02 pm (EST) on Sep 22, 2007
posted by lriley at 3:18 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:16 pm (EST) on Sep 20, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:19 am (EST) on Sep 20, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:11 pm (EST) on Sep 19, 2007
posted by lriley at 4:17 pm (EST) on Sep 15, 2007
posted by lriley at 9:12 am (EST) on Sep 10, 2007
posted by lriley at 9:19 pm (EST) on Sep 8, 2007
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
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
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
posted by lriley at 12:49 pm (EST) on Sep 1, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:54 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:40 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:11 pm (EST) on Aug 31, 2007
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
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
posted by lriley at 12:55 pm (EST) on Aug 22, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:05 pm (EST) on Aug 18, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:33 pm (EST) on Aug 17, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 3:58 pm (EST) on Aug 15, 2007
posted by lriley at 3:51 pm (EST) on Aug 15, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 2:31 pm (EST) on Aug 14, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:07 pm (EST) on Aug 14, 2007
posted by lriley at 10:06 pm (EST) on Aug 12, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:53 pm (EST) on Aug 10, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:29 pm (EST) on Aug 10, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:49 pm (EST) on Aug 8, 2007
posted by lriley at 5:28 pm (EST) on Aug 3, 2007
posted by tartalom at 5:42 am (EST) on Aug 3, 2007
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
posted by tartalom at 3:42 am (EST) on Aug 3, 2007
posted by tartalom at 4:54 pm (EST) on Aug 2, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 3:35 pm (EST) on Jul 25, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:00 pm (EST) on Jul 18, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 8:13 am (EST) on Jul 9, 2007
posted by lriley at 5:36 pm (EST) on Jul 8, 2007
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
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
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
posted by lriley at 3:19 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:07 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:43 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:08 pm (EST) on Jun 9, 2007
posted by lriley at 11:13 am (EST) on May 31, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:18 am (EST) on May 31, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:03 pm (EST) on May 29, 2007
posted by lriley at 11:15 am (EST) on May 29, 2007
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
posted by lriley at 3:59 pm (EST) on May 28, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:06 pm (EST) on May 28, 2007
posted by lriley at 11:40 am (EST) on May 28, 2007
posted by lriley at 7:48 am (EST) on May 28, 2007
posted by lriley at 7:19 am (EST) on May 28, 2007
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. Actually Quin's was very intriguing.
posted by lriley at 7:41 pm (EST) on May 27, 2007
posted by lriley at 11:02 am (EST) on May 21, 2007
posted by lriley at 3:16 pm (EST) on May 20, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:24 am (EST) on May 16, 2007
Anyways have also brought Pynchon's Vineland and Coover's Gerald's Party upstairs which is a way of officially putting them in the rotation--so I expect I will be getting to them sometime in the relatively near future.
posted by lriley at 1:20 pm (EST) on May 15, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:13 pm (EST) on May 11, 2007
posted by lriley at 6:04 pm (EST) on May 5, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:07 pm (EST) on May 4, 2007
posted by lriley at 3:01 pm (EST) on May 3, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:28 pm (EST) on May 3, 2007
Anyway I have a Van Niekerk review here for Triomf. I've read Mills once--Three to see the king--and wasn't all that knocked out by it. I agree with you on Donleavy--funny in the beginning of the ginger man--but got old real quick. I've read all of O'Brien--novels, all of Kafka, lots and lots of Beckett--for an off the beaten track one of his--The lost ones. All of Joyce.
This Bolano is really really good. Like it a lot. I can see myself reading it again. Philip Roth--I like a lot of his work. The main character in Sabbath's Theatre would fit right into Guignol's band or Death on the Installment plan with no problem. That's maybe the funniest book of his that I've read. American Pastoral was excellent though too. I haven't read the one you're on now though.
posted by lriley at 12:49 pm (EST) on May 3, 2007
Anyway the other site I put in my favorites for now because I want to explore it more. Noted one Jennifer Ouellette on its contributors page who has done an article fractal patterns in the paintings of Jackson Pollock. I don't know what you think about Pollock but I think his stuff is amazing. When we went to NYC we went to the MOMA which has a number of them.
I've been a bit distracted lateey with the playoffs and I'm a bit burned out. I'm reading Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives. There is a lot of buzz about this book in the literary world (at least in the US) right now and it is very deserved IMO. It's quite extraordinary and his style is unique to himself. I think you'd might like it.
posted by lriley at 12:55 pm (EST) on May 2, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:52 pm (EST) on Apr 5, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:50 pm (EST) on Mar 31, 2007
posted by lriley at 11:32 am (EST) on Mar 25, 2007
posted by lriley at 4:27 pm (EST) on Mar 23, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:35 pm (EST) on Mar 21, 2007
http://internationalnoir.blogspot.com/
latest review there mentioned three publishing houses including Serpent's tail and so I sifted through their catalogs. ST is a British publisher I'm sure you know--I have several books myself with their imprint. They also carry both the Manchette titles I've mentioned in the past. Anyway thought I'd mention it.
posted by lriley at 2:28 am (EST) on Mar 21, 2007
posted by lriley at 5:54 pm (EST) on Mar 17, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:34 pm (EST) on Mar 5, 2007
Speaking of Joyce--Queneau's We always treat women too well takes some of Joyce's Ulysses characters and plunks down in the Dublin GPO for the 1916 Irish easter uprising. Very comic. One of my favorites of his.
posted by lriley at 10:31 am (EST) on Mar 5, 2007
As for North it's my second favorite after Journey. Very dark and funny. The hoarding of food--the old general with his lipstick and the adolescent Polish girls he plays with. I named a cat Bebert--who died a couple years ago. We were good friends.
posted by lriley at 1:06 pm (EST) on Mar 1, 2007
posted by lriley at 5:46 pm (EST) on Feb 26, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:42 pm (EST) on Feb 21, 2007
posted by lriley at 9:24 pm (EST) on Feb 18, 2007
posted by lriley at 9:17 pm (EST) on Feb 18, 2007
Not finished yet but getting there. I'm fascinated by the way people file their books and I refuse to do alphabetic or by author or by publisher. Every so often I completely re-arrange.
And yes there are a few gems in terms of signed books and some good modern firsts - I used, when rich, to be a small time collector in a small way.
posted by papalaz at 11:49 am (EST) on Feb 18, 2007
posted by lriley at 8:33 pm (EST) on Feb 17, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:06 pm (EST) on Feb 17, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:48 pm (EST) on Feb 16, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:43 pm (EST) on Feb 16, 2007
I always liked Get Smart by the way--Don Adams--Agent 99--the Sopranos to me are interesting and there's not much in the way that I like in terms of American TV scripting these days. There is a lot of subtle juxtaposing between different segments of society going on besides. Very dark but quite often laugh out loud funny. No holds barred as far as language either--my wife always wants the kids out of the way.
posted by lriley at 1:36 pm (EST) on Feb 15, 2007
posted by lriley at 4:38 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2007
posted by lriley at 4:12 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2007
http://www.grasslimb.com/sallis/GlobeCol...
posted by lriley at 1:21 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:24 pm (EST) on Feb 9, 2007
posted by lriley at 3:55 pm (EST) on Feb 8, 2007
posted by lriley at 3:52 pm (EST) on Feb 7, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:05 pm (EST) on Feb 7, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:32 pm (EST) on Feb 7, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:33 pm (EST) on Feb 6, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:48 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2007
posted by lriley at 12:49 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2007
I looked at your site and am thinking about it. I do blog here though quite a lot and also at a hockey forum (with a bunch of mostly Manhattan and Brooklynites) in the Rangers forum at Hockeysfuture under the alias of Eco's bones.
posted by lriley at 8:48 pm (EST) on Jan 28, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:23 pm (EST) on Jan 28, 2007
posted by davodja at 10:27 am (EST) on Jan 14, 2007
posted by davodja at 9:04 am (EST) on Jan 14, 2007
posted by davodja at 6:47 am (EST) on Jan 14, 2007
posted by davodja at 10:41 pm (EST) on Jan 13, 2007
posted by lriley at 1:21 pm (EST) on Jan 13, 2007
posted by lriley at 2:38 pm (EST) on Jan 5, 2007
posted by lriley at 5:07 pm (EST) on Jan 3, 2007
In some ways he reminds of the Belgian Boon.
posted by lriley at 10:41 am (EST) on Jan 2, 2007
posted by lriley at 9:05 pm (EST) on Dec 24, 2006
posted by lriley at 3:33 pm (EST) on Dec 17, 2006
posted by lriley at 4:49 pm (EST) on Dec 15, 2006
As it happens as I begin this book the other Rios book I just ordered 'Monstruary' shows up as has also Ann Quin's 'Passages' which looks quite a lot like a B. S. Johnson book at least as far as format. I will probably get to her book in the next week or two. I'm usually reading a long work and at the same time reading shorter works in conjunction with it. The new Rios book will probably be at least a couple months down the road. I tend to have democratic ideas about how I fit in writers and their works. I don't like the idea plowing through someones entire ouevre of work one right after the other.
posted by lriley at 12:27 pm (EST) on Dec 13, 2006
posted by lriley at 2:44 pm (EST) on Dec 11, 2006
posted by lriley at 11:29 am (EST) on Dec 11, 2006
Anyway I'll get to your site hopefully tomorrow. Been busy with the hockey game today. Big win for my team.
posted by lriley at 6:47 pm (EST) on Dec 9, 2006
posted by lriley at 4:25 pm (EST) on Dec 7, 2006
posted by lriley at 4:23 pm (EST) on Dec 7, 2006
posted by lriley at 4:20 pm (EST) on Dec 7, 2006
posted by lriley at 12:46 pm (EST) on Dec 7, 2006
Anyway from looking at your site it seems to be a kind of work in progress. I read your last piece and thought it was pretty interesting but think I might need to go back further to get a better idea. Anyway we'll get back to you on it.
posted by lriley at 3:54 pm (EST) on Dec 6, 2006
posted by lriley at 12:55 pm (EST) on Dec 6, 2006
posted by lriley at 8:48 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2006
posted by lriley at 12:43 pm (EST) on Nov 22, 2006
posted by lriley at 2:22 pm (EST) on Nov 20, 2006
As for the second site--Stewart Home(s) seems to be someone I should look up. By the way since she's mentioned in the article--the Ann Quin book I've ordered has never shown. About once or twice a year it seems I get stiffed by this book site I buy and sell from. Sometimes patience is needed--the fact of its not having shown puts you in a temporary state of paralysis on acting on it once again. One other writer mentioned Kathy Acker--don't know but I really didn't care for 'Pussy, King of the Pirates' and have never had an inclination to go back to her again. Like 'A history maker' in a sense--writers creating alternative new worlds out of their own imaginations often leaves me a little cold. I see Johnson, Trocchi, Kelman and even Figes and their characters very much grounded to this world in what they write although those same created characters often have unusual takes on how they see their worlds.
posted by lriley at 11:23 am (EST) on Nov 13, 2006
posted by lriley at 2:56 pm (EST) on Nov 12, 2006
posted by lriley at 4:08 pm (EST) on Nov 11, 2006
posted by lriley at 2:27 am (EST) on Nov 3, 2006
posted by lriley at 3:57 pm (EST) on Oct 31, 2006
posted by lriley at 1:37 pm (EST) on Oct 31, 2006
posted by lriley at 6:47 am (EST) on Oct 29, 2006
posted by lriley at 7:20 pm (EST) on Oct 28, 2006
FWIW seeing 121 people here rate it at 5* kind of makes me wonder as it is not all that credible and had a really hokey ending. Things were different in the 19th century and some slack should perhaps be given for it however I certainly thought Zola to be an effective writer at least most of the time. I prefer Anatole France too.
Anyhow don't know if you're interested in all that but I might get going on the Figes book today and if not probably in the next week or two. I'm considering 4 or 5 different things right now so I'll let you know how it works out.
posted by lriley at 9:05 am (EST) on Oct 23, 2006
posted by lriley at 4:22 pm (EST) on Oct 22, 2006
posted by lriley at 1:09 pm (EST) on Oct 15, 2006
posted by lriley at 4:41 pm (EST) on Oct 14, 2006
posted by lriley at 1:00 pm (EST) on Oct 14, 2006
posted by lriley at 4:13 pm (EST) on Oct 13, 2006
posted by lriley at 3:51 pm (EST) on Oct 12, 2006
posted by lriley at 2:43 pm (EST) on Oct 12, 2006
posted by lriley at 2:10 pm (EST) on Sep 21, 2006
posted by lriley at 7:28 am (EST) on Sep 10, 2006
posted by lriley at 3:02 pm (EST) on Sep 9, 2006
posted by lriley at 10:29 am (EST) on Aug 21, 2006
posted by lriley at 2:23 am (EST) on Aug 19, 2006
posted by lriley at 12:32 pm (EST) on Aug 18, 2006
posted by lriley at 1:08 pm (EST) on Aug 17, 2006
Anyway papalaz how do you come to live on Crete? I've always wanted to travel to the mediterranean region (I believe Crete is a little bit east of that) of the world but it doesn't look like it is going to happen anytime soon.
posted by lriley at 4:59 pm (EST) on Aug 16, 2006
posted by lriley at 2:40 am (EST) on Aug 16, 2006
posted by lriley at 3:01 pm (EST) on Aug 15, 2006
(I see 9 own it. . . maybe we all know what a brilliant book it is.) Esta1923
posted by Esta1923 at 11:12 am (EST) on Aug 2, 2006
Btw, a friend has recommended Cathi Unsworth's THE NOT KNOWING as being Raymond-ish. Have you read it, and if so is it worthwhile?
posted by bibliotheque at 5:23 pm (EST) on Jul 30, 2006
posted by bibliotheque at 7:22 pm (EST) on Mar 10, 2006