I'm about to start The Invention of Morel tonight. Has anyone else read this?

I've read it and thought it was pretty good. It's a little slow paced, but ultimately I thought it was pretty intriguing. It got me curious about reading more Bioy Casares, though I haven't gotten around to it.

I loved it, christiguc.

I too loved this book: it's a compact but thoughtful fantasy, with a smooth style.

NYRB has also issued Bioy Casares's Asleep in the Sun, which I liked a lot less (its plot is less enjoyable and the underlying ideas less interesting).

#1 christiguc, it is on my to read list but I have not purchased it yet. I will be curious to see what you think of it as well.

I read The Slaves of Solitude and TheDud Avocado earlier this year -very different books. I am also almost done with A Time of Gifts The prose style of the last requires a slower pace but is worth it.

I liked The Invention of Morel--I think the plot and writing style were very fluid. I never really "got" the fugitive, never fully understood his motivations or identified with him, but that may have been a casualty of the translation (language or culture). Nevertheless, I found it completely enjoyable, and I think the ingenuity of the plot and the thoughtfulness of the exploration of ideas make up for the fact that I didn't get emotionally invested in the characters.

I am reading The Child by Jules Vallès. I read The Dud Avocado earlier this year. I found it rather flat, not at all what I expected. Perhaps, it was just the particular mood I was in at the time.

Lovely to see you here, urania1!
I have The Dud Avocado in Virago edition and I read it a while ago. I think it is ok, but not one of those books that will remain with me for a very long time.

I'm reading A Journey Round My Skull. With an introduction by Oliver Sacks it's an Hungarian writer's account of his brain tumor experience. Fascinating!

I'm finishing up Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte, which is good if you don't think of it as nonfiction, and also reading The Summer Book.

4 - would you recommend avoiding Asleep in the Sun, or is it worth reading, just not as good as The Invention of Morel?

Finished The Summer Book and Count d'Orgel's Ball. Now I'm reading The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermout.

#11 DieFledermaus - Did you like Count d'Orgel's Ball? I'm waiting for a shipment of NYRB books, which includes this book.

#11 DieFledermaus did you like The Summer Book?

I enjoyed both books - would recommend both.

Count d'Orgel's Ball was a quick read and depicts a familiar topic - a love triangle involving a married couple - but Radiguet is very effective in showing all the small but important self-deceptions and misunderstandings that complicate the situation. I'm probably going to look for his other book, The Devil in the Flesh.

The Summer Book also looks at the importance of small events - no plot building to a climax, just a series of the ordinary and not so ordinary days on an island. I really enjoyed the author's descriptions and subtle humor.

#12 urania - what other NYRBs are you getting?

Currently reading The Fountain Overflows, as posted in the Virago group (as it, also, was published by both). In the spring, I had a fortunate introduction to A High Wind in Jamaica, which is more immediately impressive.

As I said in the Virago post, more of my purchases, not merely my desires, need to come from the NYRB list.

# 16 Eurydice - I, too, found A High Wind in Jamaica impressive.

#14> DieFledermaus, I read The Devil in the Flesh many years ago and loved it. I did not know NYRB publish it, now I will have to get it (and Count d'Orgel's Ball as well).

I'm looking forward to reading Darcy O'Brien's A Way of Life, Like Any Other this weekend.

I read that recently, Ortolan, and you are in for a treat! Enjoy!

18 - aluvalibri - NYRB doesn't publish The Devil in the Flesh, but is is available in English from Marion Boyars. It looks like they used to publish Count d'Orgel previously, but that edition isn't available anymore. Did you read The Devil in the Flesh untranslated?

I read Stefan Zweig's Chess Story last night, a novella that packs a lot into a few pages.

#21> DieFledermaus, thank you for the info!
I read it in Italian, as a young girl, not in French...alas!

Finished The Ten Thousand Things and am starting The Invention of Morel. It's a bit funny - both of these books and another one that I read recently, The Summer Book prominently feature islands.

I just received a box of NYRB books from Symposium Books including Sunflower, Count D'Orgel's Ball, Nonsense Novels, The Ivory Tower, and The House of Arden. I can't wait to get started.

Nice haul, urania1! I didn't mention it when you first brought them up but feel compelled to now: I love Symposium Books! I order from them often-they have one of the most fascinating bargain book/closeout sections around (hampered by a rather primitive and not very helpful search functionality though). They're a great source for Dalkey Archive publications and old Sun & Moon Classics as well as NYRB volumes.

marietherese,

Thanks for the tip about Dalkey Archive publications. I'm not familiar with Sun and Moon Classics? What's it's speciality?

I just finished The Ten Thousand Things, which I found fascinating. It has a very haunting poetic style and I particularly like how all the individual strands of the narrative come together in the end.

Next on my list to read is Indian Summer, which is on its way to me from Vermont courtesy of PaperBackSwap, and then Wheat that Springeth Green.

I finished The Invention of Morel, which was very good, and am now reading The Big Clock.

urania1, Sun & Moon Press was an independent small press founded by Douglas Messerli, that operated between 1976 and 2003/2004 (when the corporation sort of morphed into Green Integer Press*, another one of my favorite publishers).

Sun & Moon had a regular series of contemporary (frequently avant-garde or experimental) publications (Susan Howe, Barbara Guest, Rae Armantrout, Harry Mathews and Paul Auster were all published by Sun & Moon at one time) as well as a Classics series that showcased translations of works by great Symbolist, Surrealist, and Modernist writers from Europe, Latin America, and Asia as well as English language authors like Gertrude Stein and Djuna Barnes. Many of these "Classics" publications were later reprinted under the Green Integer label.

*Does anyone here know what the actual status of Green Integer is? Amazon is showing formerly projected 2008 releases from this press as "unavailable". The Green Integer website hasn't been updated for a while (December 2007). Small press publishing is hell and delays and setbacks happen all the time but I'm a little concerned this might be more than just a scheduling hiccup.

#28 inge87 I loved Indian Summer, William Dean Howells is such a neglected writer and he is so good. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

#30 marietherese you are such a fount of information! I will have to search out the publications under their various titles.

I hope we haven't lost another small press. Chicago lost Punk Planet Press which had published some interesting books before it folded.

I am longing to reread The Summer Book because of how it makes me feel and how it recalls my own childhood summers but I am also longing to pick up Names on the Land because it would connect with my love of maps and place names.

I got released from work early so I wandered into a bookstore and picked up Names on the Land.

I have just finished reading Stephen Leacock's Nonsense Novels, a parody of various genres and writers. On the whole, I found the book a mixed bag. Some pieces were quite funny - for example "Maddened by Mystery or, The Defective Detective," with its Holmesian counterpart who keeps "half a bucket of cocaine and a dipper" at his side. When "a mystery is committed," which "so completely baffles" the police "that they are lying collapsed in heaps; many of them having committed suicide," one knows the ensuing story will be one of the soundest (or perhaps unsoundest is the word I seek). Other stories fall a bit flat, for example "The Man in Asbestos" a send-up of overly optimistic, futurist novels. Overall, I'm glad I read the book for some of its priceless lines; however, I am also glad I did not pay full price.

Message edited by its author, Jul 8, 2008, 5:56pm.

I finished The Big Clock and thought it was a good read until the end, which was rather abrupt and inconclusive.

Now onto Moravia's Boredom.

Marensr, I also picked up Names on the Land and have just started it. It was a favorite of my mother's, and I believe I have a hard cover edition in one of the unexcavated boxes from my parents' apartment.

rebeccanyc, it is next on my list after I finish rereading The Blithedale Romance and The Three Sisters but I would like to compare notes.

Edited to try and fix the touchstones.

Message edited by its author, Jul 8, 2008, 11:07pm.

Marensr, I'd love to talk about it by since I'm also reading several other books and since Names on the Land is an easy one to dip in and out of, I don't know when I'll finish it.

#28 I'm halfway through The Ten Thousand Things. I think this book may end up being #1 on the list of NYRB novels that I've read. I haven't read many works set in Indonesia; however all of the books portray it with wistfulness and longing. In light of the more recent history of Indonesia, one senses that Indonesia is a kind of paradise lost.

I finished Boredom and really enjoyed it. It was similar to Contempt in that the narrator - a rather unsympathetic failed artist - obsesses over his relationship with a woman who can't return his affections in the way he wants. Even though I didn't like the main character, I loved Moravia's descriptions of his narcissism and obsession. Now I'm reading The Fountain Overflows.

I just started the slim copy of The Pilgrim Hawk which I am enjoying.

Having recently read The Sun Also Rises the first person struggling author/narrator and lost generation malaise seem familiar, but I am finding that Wescott comes out with these startling linguistic gems and precise encapsulations of human nature.

I had a flash of insight about what I think is going to happen so I am waiting to see if I am correct or if Wescott surprises me.

#38: I loved The Ten Thousand Things. The atmospherics and the Indonesian setting even inspired me to chase down a Yale Univ. Press edition of The Ambonese Curiosity Cabinet, which, though pricy, is, as depicted in the novel, quite fascinating.

Hi, I've just joined this group. I've recently discovered NYRB, and so far I've read and enjoyed Indian summer by William Dean Howells and Alfred and Guinevere by James Schuyler.

I've also bought Belchamber by Howard Sturgis and White walls, the collected stories of Tatyana Tolstaya, neither of which I've read yet - has anyone read these?

Message edited by its author, Jul 19, 2008, 3:00pm.

I just finished Tove Jansson's Summer Book which I thought was masterful, especially during these hot summer days and when you are of a certain age and are able to slow down a little (notice I didn't say "need to...")! I think the most compelling portrait of a grandmother that I've read....

And now have begun A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes for the third time at least as I had loved it when I was younger. Another hot summer book...

I could jump up and down everytime I see another person enjoy Jansson. She is such a favorite of mine. I know it may seem odd but it is worth reading her children's books the Moomins capture some of the same wistfulness and quietude of The Summer Book

I finished The Pilgrim Hawk earlier this week and the crisis was what I expected but I was surprised at what he did with it. The story has grown on me in subtle ways since finishing it and I am quite pleased with it.

I just finished The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig. Set in post-wwi Austria, it is dark and brilliant--one of my top 5 books this year so far. If anyone is looking for a suggestion (and likes noirish novels of hope/hopelessness), look into this one.

Thanks for the recommendation, christiguc. I bought it and will move it up on the TBR pie.

I recently read A High Wind in Jamaica and A Way of Life Like Any Other, the second because of recommendations here.

With previous recommendations, I bought four books from Symposium: The Slaves of Solitude, which I'd wanted for a long time, Beware of Pity, Indian Summer, and Count d'Orgel's Ball, which somehow edged out Sunflower.

I'm really impressed with the quality of the copies Symposium sent me; as I'd heard I would be. So far, I've read The Slaves of Solitude and begun the utterly captivating Indian Summer. Both are thoroughly worthy of having made it onto the shortlist of books actually bought.

Maren, I read The Pilgrim Hawk years ago, and remember being genuinely impressed, struck by it. Comments here, and the memories they raise, may send me back for a rare re-read.

Mention of Kenneth Fearing reminds me..... As a fan of The Big Clock and the equally original Dagger of the Mind, I wonder if any of you have read Clark Gifford's Body? Without any further knowledge, it's high on my interest list. (With a lot of company.)

I read Clark Gifford's Body fairly recently. It is a fascinating work, but nothing like The Big Clock, the other work I have read of Fearing's. It is a formally inventive parable of political insurrection set in a vague future, in a vague country reminiscent of the American midwest. It is in significant ways elliptical and fragmental, and ambiguous as to it's story -- the opposite of a thriller. I found it an interesting experiment, worth reading -- but haven't settled on whether I think it more than that.

Message edited by its author, Aug 19, 2008, 4:56pm.

>48 - I was considering reading Clark Gifford's Body after finishing The Big Clock and your description makes it sound even more interesting. Maybe I'll go poke around inside the book, I'm pretty sure I saw it in my university bookstore. I'm having a similar problem with Manservant and Maidservant - it's stylistically inventive (I've never read a breakup scene or discovering-the-affair moment quite like the ones in the book), I appreciate the acrid humor and some of the characters are truly memorable (illiterate Miss Buchanan and omniscient Bullivant) but I don't know if I really like the novel or if I'd want to read more by Ivy Compton-Burnett.

I've just finished In Hazard by Richard Hughes, one of the newest NYRBs. It's wonderful -- suspenseful and insightful and (if one reads Hughes's afterword, unconsciously symbolic).

I started A Way of Life Like Any Other last night. It's wonderful. I didn't want to go to sleep.

I've started Jessica Mitford's whimsical and bittersweet memoir Hons and Rebels. So far, it's lyrical and mostly lighthearted, but already tinged with regret (especially if one knows how some of the family stories end).

Reading The Book of Ebenezer Le Page right now and really enjoying it - unfortunately, I haven't had too much time to read recently.

I've just begun As A Man Grows Older by Italo Svevo...

I finished Ebenezer Le Page and enjoyed it - would definitely recommend it. Also had time to finish Lolly Willowes, which was a very quick read.

I'm reading Count d'Orgel's Ball by Raymond Radiguet, a somewhat strange book, more so since the author was 20 when he wrote it.

Message edited by its author, Nov 1, 2008, 11:23am.

I just started The Post Office Girl by Zweig, I hope it's as good as Chess Story.

I haven't read Chess Story so I can't speak to that, but The Post Office Girl is one of my top books of this year.

I just started Alfred and Guinevere. Thus far, it's immensely funny.

Currently reading the Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig. He has become one of my favorite writers!

I got side-tracked by other reading, but I sat down today, restarted, and finished Alfred and Guinevere. Thumbs up NYRB. Is there any chance that you will publish either Schuyler's Nest of Ninnies or What's for Dinner?

Urania1: We've actually done What's For Dinner—but we've passed on Nest of Ninnies. Have you read it?

I loved What's for Dinner and bought Nest of Ninnies recently because I enjoyed What's For Dinner so-- it seems to have been just republished by Dalkey Archive. I haven't read it yet, but at a quick glance it looks a little harder to get into.

I haven't read either. Both just suonded interesting to me.

Message edited by its author, Dec 15, 2008, 6:17pm.

I just finished the Post-Office Girl by Zweig and loved, loved it! I've added it to my list of favourite books of all time. I can't wait to read his other novels.

Master piece, under the shadow of omniscient god: Jorge Luis Borges

Right now I'm reading Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge - pretty good so far. I also loved The Post Office Girl and I'll definitely be seeking out more Zweig. Besides the NYRB Beware of Pity, it looks like Pushkin Press has a lot of his works translated. Also, I had a question - maybe one for sarajill. I was looking up Zweig on Wikipedia and they had the title listed as The Intoxication of Metamorphosis (certainly appropriate). Does anyone know why it was changed?

As I noted elsewhere on this forum, I just finished The Tenants of Moonbloom. I loved it. A fabulous way to begin the new reading year!!!

#68: I suppose you should get the honor of starting a thread for '09!

#53 and # 55: "The Book of Ebenezer Page" by G. B. Edwards
has long been a favorite of mine, so I am delighted that you have found it. (Recently, having heard so much about "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" I got it from the library. It does not hold a candle to
Ebenezer!) I hope more readers will seek out this excellent/unusual/worth-your-reading-time book. It is, alas, the only work by G. B. Edwards.

Message edited by its author, Jan 3, 2009, 12:44am.

In answer to the question of why the title of The Post-Office Girl was not translated literally, as "The Intoxication of Metamorphosis," the answer is that that title, while appropriate, made for an awkward title in English. I suppose it's one of those things that's a matter of taste, but there wasn't much debate here that it wouldn't work.

In answer to the question of why the title of The Post-Office Girl was not translated literally, as "The Intoxication of Metamorphosis," the answer is that that title, while appropriate, made for an awkward title in English. I suppose it's one of those things that's a matter of taste, but there wasn't much debate here that it wouldn't work.

I am currently reading John Collier's Fancies and Goodnights and am loving it.

I read The Box of Delights and The Midnight Folk over the holidays and I have just started Pinocchio which is my early reviewer copy and not having read it before I must say it is different than I expected. More complicated and enjoyable.

I also got both Lolly Willowes and Selected Stories by Robert Walser as presents so I am itching to start those as well.

I need to reread Lolly Willowes. I liked it when I first read it but it didn't impress me the way some of Warner's other novels did. I think, as an older woman, I might have a very different take on Lolly's story now. *throws book on TBR pile for 2009*

Marensr—so glad you picked up the John Masefield books—they're among my favorites of the kid's collection and have definite adult crossover appeal.

I finished Unforgiving Years, which I enjoyed, and am now reading The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay.

I love The Towers of Trebizond.

I am reading The Tiger in the House. It's deliriously good.

I second Murr's approbation of The Tiger in the House.

I just started What's for Dinner?. I think I'm going to like it.

>81 My copy of What's for Dinner just arrived in the mail yesterday. I am saving it for a time when I've been extra good.

I just finished one of the earlier NYRB Classics, An African in Greenland, by Tete-Michel Kpomassie. It's a delightful memoir of a Togolese man's unlikely dream to visit Greenland, and how the dream is fulfilled. It felt vaguely appropriate to read the book now, in the middle of the seemingly-endless New England winter. Warming, even.

Warmth? What is that?

I loved What's For Dinner! Very funny in a completely understated way.

Just finished The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. Such a treat!

hjelliot,

What exactly did you like about the book? It bored me so badly, I thought of moving to Sudan. Furthermore, our local used bookstore has about a zillion copies of the book on the shelves.

I loved The Dud Avocado too, but I know a lot of people didn't. I wasn't happy with the ending, but I just loved the protagonist's idiosyncratic voice and American ignorance of Europe.

76 sarajill, Thanks, I did enjoy both volumes. I suspect they will be among books I try and force on strangers at parties. He's another of those authors that writes well and defies categorization.

jfclark I am so glad someone else has read An African in Greenland it is one of those I try and force on people. I actually enjoyed The Dud Avocado immensely.

I just finished Pinocchio. My review is here.

http://www.librarything.com/profile_revi...

I have just started Lolly Willowes which I am enjoying immensely.

I have started (in a desultory fashion) What's for Dinner. Thus far, I can't seem to work up much interest. I feel like I'm caught in some nightmare version of The Feminine Mystique set in Levittown.

I read the first hundred or so pages of C.V. Wedgwood's The Thirty Years War yesterday (I picked it up after a trip to Bohemia a while ago, and am finally getting around to it). It's so elegantly written that one constantly wants to underline her exquisitely-turned sentences, and the pacing is so perfect that it's a difficult book to put down. How many history books focusing on the seventeenth century can one say that about?

dcozy, The Thirty Years War is on my TBR; thanks for the encouragement to move it up on the pile.

#87 I liked the character, her voice. Strangely enough it reminded me a little of The Bell Jar. But just ran into someone the other day that had wanted to love The Dud Avocado and just couldn't get into it. Go figure.

91 - I usually stick to the fiction NYRBs, but your description really made me want to look up The Thirty Years War. Guess I'll have to add it to the to-buy list.

I just started reading Sunflower - I've heard good things so I have high expectations.

Sunflower is quite strange, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Oh I'll be curious to hear what you think of Sunflower, strange but enjoyable is a good description.

I recently finished Lolly Willowes which was splendid. It is amazing how many Virginia Woolfish things she says pre-A Room of One's Own and how she plays with the crone/witch myth that surrounds unmarried women of a certain age throughout history.

I'm about to start Olivia Manning's School for Love. My local bookstore is about to succumb to the economic crisis, and is having a going-out-of-business sale in March. I may have to buy up all of their NYRBs, of which there are a half dozen or more on the shelves.

I finished Sunflower and loved it. It was definitely strange - the only thing that I can think to compare it to would be The Ten Thousand Things and even that would require a bit of a stretch. I'd like to read something else by Krudy - seems like there's only one other book of his available in English though.

I also read Beware of Pity - another 5-star book.

Another one that I'd recommend would be Rogue Male. I was pleasantly surprised by that book; it's probably the best thriller I've ever read (though admittedly lacking in that genre).

rbhardy - Sorry about the bookstore closing - hopefully there's another (good) one nearby?

DieFeldermaus, I agree with you about Sunflower and Beware of Pity but I must admit I struggled with Rogue Male, finding it a little too odd for me.

School for Love (reviewed here) was very good. Now I'm trying to decide what to read next. I only found two NYRBs at the bookstore's going out of business sale: Rock Crystal and The Post-Office Girl. Since I'm concurrently reading a 900-page history of the Civil War, I may go with the thinnest novel!

>101 The PostOffice Girl, Rob.

Rob I am glad you have rescued some from your poor bookstore and I always look forward to reading your reviews.

Rob - choose Post-Office Girl! You'll be glad you did.

Okay, The PostOffice Girl will be my next NYRB. But meanwhile I've been sidetracked by a non-NYRB, V.S. Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival.

Here to put in my vote for PostOffice Girl, too! I know you will appreciate Zweig.

This morning on the subway I started the slight little Monsieur Monde Vanishes by Simenon. So far it seems like it's going to be a good little escapist bon-bon!

I'm now reading the Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy but it's turning out to be such a 'dud,' I just can't get through it.

I just finished The PostOffice Girl, which was highly recommended to me from all quarters (#103, 105, 107, above). Didn't love it, didn't hate it. (I've reviewed it here.) It did make me want to read more Zweig. But next on my reading list is Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room, one of the few Woolf novels I neglected when I was in my twenties. Back to NYRBs in April.

Message edited by its author, Mar 27, 2009, 10:36pm.

i'm reading The Winners by Julio Cortazar for the Reading Globally Argentina theme read. One interesting thing about this book is that it was such an early addition to the NYRB catalog that it doesn't have the now-universal cover design! (My copy of Peasants and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov likewise has one of these early covers.)

Tuppy,

I, too, found The Dud Avocado a dud.

I just read Anne Carson's smart, quick-moving translation of Euripides' Hippolytus from her NYRB volume Grief Lessons. If you're interested in reading a little Greek tragedy in translation, it would be a good place to start.

Hons and Rebels. I almost fell out of bed laughing last night. I want a dear little appendix in a jar! Rare is the page that can get through without having to read something out loud to my wife.

I'm reading The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (though not in the NYRB version) and The Dud Avocado. I'm very interested in the latter, as it seems to have polarized the group. Also, I'll be getting The Old Man and Me from Early Reviewers so I thought it would be helpful to read this one first.

Oh Rob, Hons and Rebels has long been on my wishlist. I may have to pick it up now.

DieFledermaus it seems several of us have gotten The Old Man and Me it will be fun to see what everyone thinks and I am interested to see what you think of The Dud Avocado.

I got my copy of The Old Man and Me yesterday and I have only read the introduction but I was glad to see Dundy mention Virago in her introduction.

Hons and Rebels is a lot of fun, perhaps more so if you have some familiarity with the Mitford story.

Yes I had read a Mitford family biograph and Love in a Cold Climate but then I slipped out of my Mitford phase. I will look forward to it rebeccanyc.

I've jumped on the Hons and Rebels bandwagon. Purchased it a short while ago and had no intention of reading it so soon but all the chatter of late around LT pushed it to the forefront of my thoughts. So far? Immenently entertaining---sometimes the humor is just plain old variety witty in that very British way, sometimes it's wry humor, sometimes acerbic, and at other times it's just laugh out loud hysterical. This is certainly what folks mean when they say a book is just a "good read."

OK Mitford fans, any opinions on the follow up to Hons and Rebels, A Fine Old Conflict?

I know I enjoyed it when I read it, but that must have been close to 30 years ago, and I don't remember it very well.

Oh! I was not aware of the existence of A Fine Old Conflict. Are you going to publish it, sarajill?
If so, I will definitely get a copy!

I just finished Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship yesterday, and it was wonderful.

We're definitely considering A Fine Old Conflict. Good to hear some supporters of it.

I will ALWAYS support the Mitfords, they are way too much fun!

> 120

I didn't even realize there was a "sequel" to Hons and Rebels but I can tell you this, if NYRB decides to publish A Fine Old Conflict then the l *least* I can do is buy it! : )

I finished The Dud Avocado and enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm definitely in the 'liked it' camp. rebeccanyc (in #88) did a good job expressing how I felt about the book. Looking forward to reading the ER copy of The Old Man and Me.

Also - clearly I need to jump on the Mitford bandwagon.

My ER copy of The Old Man and Me came, so that will be the next book that I start.

> 124

sarajill,

Got an ETA on that? Say late 2010? Early 2011? I'd totally be willing to put off buying an older/OOP edition A Fine Old Conflict if a little insider birdy could sorta, kinda, strongly hint that it would be coming down the awesome NYRB Classics pipeline in a year or two. Heh. : )

Message edited by its author, Apr 28, 2009, 11:13pm.

I'm about to start Elizabeth Hardwick's Seduction and Betrayal, which I picked up a the hospital auxiliary book sale.

>129

No ETA for the Mitford as of yet, sorry to disappoint!

The NYRB I'm reading now - Life and Fate by Vasiliĭ Grossman - is excellent, truly epic.

"Life and Fate" is the best novel I read in 2008. I had bad posture from carrying it around, but it was worth it.

Life and Fate is also one of my very favorite books. Quite amazing.

Hons and Rebels arrived today and I am torn do I force myself to finish This House of Brede and Novel on Yellow Paper or just read all three at various intervals. I suspect the latter.

I say start Hons and Rebels—it's non-fiction after all, and doesn't count as overlapping reading!

>136 I just noticed that you all have recently (March) released The Wonderful O! I love that book, and Simont's illustrations--mine is a beat-up old copy, so I probably do need a new one. . .

I wish I could read Stoner for the first time again, but I guess I will settle for a second read. It is fabulous!

After the discussion here I decided I needed to dive back into the Mitfords. I finally read Hons and Rebels which I enjoyed thoroughly but I was disappointed that she did not tell about the rest of her life. I understand why she cut off but I wanted to see her keep going.

I read Great Granny Webster in a couple sittings. I loved it. It was hilarious. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for Corrigan. I don't know whether to describe it as funny in a terrible way or terrible in a funny way. It's mostly a description of the narrator's dysfunctional family, but the descriptions are so vivid and entertaining that you're left wanting more.

I'm stuck in the middle of Mr. Fortune's Maggot. I don't know what's wrong with me. I loved Sylvia Townsend Warner's Lolly Willowes and The Corner That Held Them, but I've been very cool toward Mr. Fortune.

I just started Don't Look Now. Some creepy Du Maurier short stories seemed a good way to kick off the summer.

I loved Don't Look Now. "The Birds," in particular is MUCH creepier than the Hitchcock film.

>140 Fair enough on Mr. Fortune's Maggot but don't give up on STW. Summer Will Show is engrossing and a real love story to boot.

#140 I've already pre-ordered Summer Will Show with my local bookseller.

I've read four STW novels. Lolly Willowes and The Corner That Held Them really transported me into their rich alternate reality. Mr. Fortune's Maggot and The True Heart seemed like thinner allegorical fables to me. But I still love her writing, and have definitely not given up on her. I'm looking forward to Summer Will Show.

143 rebeccanyc I am only halfway through the volume but I did read "The Birds" and it was so striking. I confess I have only seen clips of the Hitchcock but an American setting seems to diminish the story somehow. Plus all the immediacy of the fears in a small costal village under attack post WWII seem more resonnant and have a deeper immediacy.

She really is gifted at writing stories that plumb deeper human fears.

144-145 I loved Lolly Willowes I may put Mr. Fortune's Maggot off in favor of a different STW.

I finished Mr. Fortune's Maggot, and ended up with a higher opinion of it than I had at the outset. Here's my review. I hope, Sara (#144), that I've redeemed myself!:-)

147: You were never out of our good graces!

#148: What a relief! Now...you wouldn't happen to have a job for my favorite 2009 Carleton College graduate who wants a job in publishing in New York, would you? ;-)

>147 You have given me hope, as I started and put down MFM last year.

I am currently reading The Pilgrim Hawk, though not a NYRB edition. I found it in an old anthology. Really good, so far.

I just finished Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker and enjoyed it quite a bit. I loved the character of Cassandra, despite the fact that she was at times actively unsympathetic. However, I didn't always trust her as a narrator. The author has a section narrated by Cassandra followed by a section narrated by her twin, Judith. I was constantly looking for confirmation/discrepancies in the two accounts. Baker did an excellent job with the different voices - I noticed going back that in the Cassandra section, I did plenty of underlining and commenting in the margin, but significantly less for Judith. For a book about a neurotic, manipulative, narcissistic main character and her dysfunctional family (they have all the signs of a proper dysfunctional family - death, denial, drugs and drinking), it manages to be remarkably subtle in depicting the difficulty of communication - as well as a very funny, entertaining read.

Also, I recently picked up a copy of Hons and Rebels and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for Mitford-related background reading.

I'm reading The Mitfords at the moment, a collection of the sisters' letters. I've also had recommended to me the biography The Mitford Girls, though I haven't read it yet. Concurrently with The Mitfords, I'm reading Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, and realizing how much of it is based on her own family. The novel is full of Mitfordisms, including the use of "in pig" to mean pregnant.

In addition, Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate also fictionalizes the sisters' story, and is a lot of fun.

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I'll try to read both of Nancy Mitford's books and get a good biography before I start Hons and Rebels. I've had The Pursuit of Love on the list for a while; this will give me an excuse to go out and buy it now.

I just started The Pure and the Impure by Colette; it looks like a quick read.

Current offers on NYRB include Eric Linklater's "The Wind on the Moon." First published in 1944 it is truly a book for children and intelligent adults. I've reread my ancient Puffin edition many times with pleasure. (If you aren't familiar with Linklater you will be rewarded by a hunt for his adult novels also.)

@Esta1923: oh, are there any adult Eric Linklater novels you'd particularly recommend?

I just finished The Old Man and Me. I had very high hopes for this because I was one of the people who loved The Dud Avocado. While it had some very funny moments, and while Dundy was as lively a writer as ever, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to, probably because the character of Honey Flood didn't hold me the way that of Sally Jay Gorce did. But there were wonderful insights into the British and their real and perceived differences from Americans.

Beautiful "A Spell for Old Bones" and wild "Private Angelo" are Eric Liklater at his best. . . I hope you can find them.

I'm reading An African in Greenland right now. Only a couple chapters in, but it looks to be another good read.

I think An African in Greenland is my favorite travel book of all time. It is so frank, open minded and charming.

It looks like there will be some kind of artistic pow-wow about it in Williamsburg, Brooklyn this fall.

http://www.fluxfactory.org/an-african-in...

I'm reading Sleepless Nights and loving it.

It was a wonderful surprise to find out that Hardwick is from Lexington, where I currently reside. This is probably the only piece of literary fiction that features Lexington alongside New York City!

Oh I am so glad there are some other fans of An African in Greenland. I enjoyed that book so much and have mentioned it to so many other people that my husband knows when I am going to mention it in conversation. Thanks for the link Ortolan.

rebeccanyc, I can see that, Honey Flood is much more calculating and angry and much less appealing. Sally Jay Gorce is a bit more of a lost free spirit.

Reading Stoner, and am suitably impressed. So far, it's reminding me of Jack London's Martin Eden, or something by William Dean Howells.

I have just finished Alien Hearts by Guy de Maupassant. It is lovely. I posted a review on LT as well as on the Club Read Forum.

I'm about to start Maupassant's Afloat.

I recently finished Don't Look Now and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier. I would call it 'compulsively readable' - I read the majority of the book in one night. The title story and 'The Birds' are little masterpiece of suspense. Of course, I'd seen the movie before (for The Birds - though I also found out that Nicolas Roeg made a version of Don't Look Now that is supposed to be rather more faithful than the Birds) but it didn't detract from the quiet horror of that story. A few of the stories are a bit predictable and simplistic, but some of this is due to the fact that the twists Du Maurier uses are almost expected in horror/sci fi genres today. The wonderful ambiguity in the stories left them lingering in my mind.

I loved Don't Look Now too and thought the original version of "The Birds" was much more chilling than the Hitchcock movie. I got the "Don't Look Now" movie from Netflix and wasn't wild about it -- it was kind of hard to follow, even after having read the story.

I agree - I thought the original Birds story, with its more limited focus and the absence of the romance/family tension, conveyed the hopelessness and claustrophobia of the situation more effectively. That's too bad about Don't Look Now - I was thinking it would make a great movie.

I just started The Enchanted April; so far, it seems like a fun read.

I thought I wouldn't like The Enchanted April, but it ended up working its enchantment on me!

I still contend that The Enchanted April is deeply cynical—but I'm in the minority. Maybe it's all the biographical details we have about von Arnim that convinces me of this.

Message edited by its author, Jul 29, 2009, 6:06pm.

I started reading The Enchanted April today, albeit an ebook version. I saw the film in 1992 with my husband. I remember dragging him along to the cinema thinking he'd be bored, but we both ended up enjoying it and I've been meaning to read it ever since...

171 Oh I can see that a bit. Especially if you have read her garden books. There is a lightness to her humor that belies the depth of her criticisms when it comes to human relationships, which doesn't diminishe the loveliness of the book somehow.

I just finished Madame De Pompadour by Nancy Mitford and loved it. I ordered copies of The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate and the oop Voltaire in Love. So far my favorite NYRB's are the histories. Any chance NYRB will publish more by Nancy Mitford?

"It's about doing paperwork (or avoiding doing paperwork), going to teas with your boss's wife, and overseeing village well-digging projects, as well as smoking pot, masturbating, and reading Marcus Aurelius."

That's Akhil Sharma in the introduction to English, August: An Indian Story by Upamanyu Chatterjee, incisively summing up the novel , and if that doesn't whet a reader's appetite, particularly a reader looking for something new out of India, something without the sickeningly sweet fetor of "magical realism," then I don't know what will. His account of the life of a slacker, forced to give up his citified ways (if not the vices mentioned above), when, as a member of the Indian civil service, he is sent to a backwater town, is often laugh-out-loud funny, and never less than amusing. It is also refreshing that the slacker-narrator never does find certainty about the path his life should take but instead, at the end, accepts that life is an uncertain business.

(I finished Kokoro just a bit before reading this. I sure seem to be reading about slackers a lot these days.)

I just got The Stray Dog Cabaret mostly for dramaturgical research on Sergei Esenin but it looks like it will be fun -no fun is the wrong word- but I will enjoy having all the poets in translation.

dcozy that is quite a description!

@agmill: which Mitford history do you recommend? I've been reading her letters with Waugh recently and now want to check out her translation of The Princess of Cleves. I don't know what its critical reception was, though.

@nyrbclassics I just started reading Nancy Mitford so I don't have any recommendations yet. All of her histories sound good to me. I just ordered The Sun King and Frederick the Great along with the Voltaire in Love I had already ordered. The Princess of Cleves sounds interesting, too. I also picked up a copy of Mary Lovell's The Mitford Girls the other day and I need to read Jessica Mitford's Hons and Rebels.

I am reading The Queue right now. All in dialogue, set in the long queues in the former Soviet Union.

I've just read Sunflower. What a revelation! Krudy's prose is enchanting, lyrical throughout but somehow (I'm not sure exactly how, especially since the book felt a little overlong to me) avoids being cloying. The character portraits are lovingly drawn but also sophisticated. Apparently there's not much Krudy in translation (at least not in-print), which is a shame, given how unique his style is. A great read.

179> Does The Queue "work"? I'm hesitant to pick it up.

Just finished Stoner. Very good. Hard to put down. It reminded me a little of Evan S. Connell's Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge (also set in Missouri).

I do wish the books had afterwords instead of introductions. I usually skip the introduction until after I've finished the book anyway.

Message edited by its author, Sep 3, 2009, 2:53pm.

I loved Sunflower too, and I found something else by Krudy, Adventures of Sindbad, but I haven't read it yet.

I read Alistair Horne’s A Savage War of Peace last year and thought it was excellent both as a history of the French war in Algeria (with which I wasn’t at all familiar before I started) and for the insights it provides into the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is very dense and took a lot of reading. I had to let the general themes wash over me and not try and keep track of all the details. In a way Horne’s book is a sequel to Bernard B. Fall’s Hell in a Very Small Place about the siege of Dien Bien Phu. A lot of the French military leaders were involved in both events.

Message edited by its author, Sep 12, 2009, 11:40am.

Just finished Dino Buzzati's Poem Strip and The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily.

I thought Poem Strip was very good. I especially liked the Talking Jacket (I wonder if it influenced the cover of Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead.) As usual the design of the book itself is excellent. I hope NYRB publishes more graphic novels in the future.

I've had a copy of The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily for a while but never got around to reading it. It turned out to be a great children's story and I will probably be giving copies to my nieces and nephews.

Message edited by its author, Sep 27, 2009, 8:51am.

I just picked up Rock Crystal today and have only read the first few pages. I am very intrigued.

I just finished reading Rock Crystal. I enjoyed it but it wasn't quite as good as I expected. I might have liked it more if I read it in one sitting.

Finally finished The Thirty Years War. This book is local history where I live and so was necessary reading. Excellent and very detailed coverage of the topic. Now I need to go out and see some of the places mentioned in the book that I haven't been to yet.

agmlll, I just finished Rock Crystal as well. It really can be read in a sitting. I think I enjoyed it more than you. It is a simple story (and I was annoyed that dear Mr. Auden summarized the plot in the Introduction) but appreciation grew on me.

I think perhaps because I grew up in the mountains and appreciate his sense of the combined beauty and danger of nature and they way they take on the nature of a character when you live next to them.

I also liked the interesting tension between the Catholicism of the villagers and a throwback to early Nordic sagas in which the divine is dwarfed by nature and nature itself is the threat against human existence. I don't want to read too much into it since is is essentially a simple tale, almost a fairy tale but I liked it more than I anticipated especially after having the plot spoiled.

Marensr, That is what I was trying to say about preferring afterwards to introductions back in 182. A professor in college once told me to always skip the introduction to a book if it wasn't written by the author. You can always go back and read it after you've read the book if you want. I've found that to be very good advice that for some reason I never thought of myself.

Agreed, sometimes I skip them and go back later but I have gotten used to many introductions not spoiling the book and instead giving intersting author tidbits. Ah well. I will be more cautions for awhile.

I just got A House and its Head yesterday.

>192 Good luck Maren. I read A House and Its Head a number of years ago. I found it a bizarrely funny book, but reading it was difficult. I am not sure why.

I just finished reading Lolly Willowes. This was the first book I've read by STW. I thought it was very good. The only other book I have by STW right now is her biography of T. H. White.

I just started Manservand and Maidservant also by Ivy Compton-Burnett. Have read 2 chapters so far and it is a difficult read. I think her style takes some getting used to. I'm really hoping to like this book. Has anyone else read it?

tuppy and Mary I am finding the style a little strange to get into but also very darkly funny

oops double post

Message edited by its author, Oct 22, 2009, 11:12pm.

I'm about three-quarters of the way through Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter. I'm liking it a lot, though I'm wondering if the turn in the story which might be about to happen will prove to be one that disappoints me. It is a novel about men who begin as petty criminals and hustlers living on the streets or in flophouses as teenagers -- but it is about the men, and not so much the plot, contrary to the case of many crime/noir novels.

I'd advise against reading the story synopsis on the back jacket, however. It reveals some late plot points, and, moreover, gives a misleading view of the shape of the overall novel. I'd have been happier not reading the book against the false expectations created by that misimpression.

(Also, there's a typo in Jonathan Lethem's name on the back cover.)

I got my early reviewer copy of Point de Lendemain No Tomorrow by or possibly by Denon it looks intriguing. I'll post a review when I've finished.

I've just started A Sorrow Beyond Dreams by the Austrian writer Peter Handke, which is about the life, postwar grief and "voluntary death" of his mother.

I'm reading Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's Memories of the Future. The NYT review was right. All these stories take place in a dream-like or a near dream-like state. Interesting but sometimes difficult to get through.

Message edited by its author, Nov 9, 2009, 1:18pm.

I am a little more than halfway through Sylvia Townsend Warner's Summer Will Show, and I'm spellbound. It's fabulous. It starts out strong, and seems miraculously to get better with every page. As my English niece and nephews would say, "Absol brill" (i.e., it's absolutely brilliant).

After I finish it, I will turn immediately to The True Deceiver, which I just received as an October 2009 Early Reviewers book, before hunkering down with Thackeray's Vanity Fair, one of the last of the Victorian Alps that I haven't conquered yet.

Message edited by its author, Nov 18, 2009, 5:59pm.

I'm dipping in and out of The Scientist as Rebel by Freeman Dyson. It's not from the NYRB Classics series but from the other arm of NYRB. It's mostly a collection of his reviews that appeared in the magazine but does collect a few other pieces also. It's quite thought provoking and entertaining.

I just finished reading The Goshawk by T. H. White. I wanted to read it because My Side of the Mountain was one of my favorite books. The Goshawk is the story of White's attempt to practice the art of falconry. I thought it was interesting but not overwhelming.

I've been reading a lot of T. H White this year.

I started with Mistress Masham's Repose about a girl's discovery of a colony of Lilliputians and her attempt to protect them from people who would exploit them. I enjoyed the story enough that I sought out some of White's other work.

Darkness at Pemberley is an early mystery that didn't work for me although it had some nice touches.

In The Elephant and the Kangaroo T. H. White makes himself the main character who is warned by an angel of an impending flood in Ireland and told to build an ark. It is supposed to be a satire but it seems awfully hard on the Irish and doesn't come to much of a resolution.

I still have England Have My Bones left to read.

>202: So glad to hear that you're enjoying Summer Will Show. I had the same experience with it. I've read other Sylvia Townsend Warner books, but none enthralled me like this one. I would say it's her most enjoyable book. It should've been a best-seller!

You are inspiring me to pick up Summer Will Show -- I bought it after being entranced by Lolly Willowes.

I found Dud Avocado terrific and witty, a great alternative to more popular novels about young women abroad or coming of age in which they die and/or are miserable (Bell Jar, "Daisy Miller," etc.)!

Just finished Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter. It was an excellent, hard to put down book. I hope there is more good work by Carpenter waiting to be republished.

>207: I know what you mean about Daisy Miller. The ending is completely wrong.

I'm reading Life and Fate by Grossman--it's an amazing, wonderful book.

I've blogged my review of Summer Will Show. Five stars. Highly recommended. One of the best novels I've read all year.

I just finished The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka. I'm sure there is a lot of truth in what he says about natural farming but the fact that people live much longer healthier lives nowadays makes it hard to wholeheartedly accept all his views on the primitive lifestyle. The book is still well worth reading.

Message edited by its author, Nov 28, 2009, 4:31am.

I just finished Tove Jansson's The True Deceiver and posted my review, which also incorporates a review of The Summer Book.