Random Reading Thoughts: War, what is it good for?

[Mmelissa]

Also, Zadie Smith has a new short story in the latest New Yorker. It's a treat, as Smith doesn't write much short fiction, and a double treat, since it's not behind the paywall. I just read it this morning, and I thought it was quite excellent: cleverly structured (liked how the chapters are like scores of a badminton game and how she changes perspective), but not overdoing it, with a beautiful sense of character and place. Stories of this kind can easily be heavy-handed, but Smith's execution is nicely understated. She should write more short stories. She also does an interesting, insightful interview about the story for the magazine, which is worth reading too.

She also has another short piece in the latest issue of McSweeney's. Makes me wonder longingly if she'll ever allow her short stories to be collected in one volume the way she did with her essays.

February seems to be the month of reading-things-I've-always meant-to-read for me. I plowed my way through Octavia Butler's Kindred in one night. It was amazing. Also worked my way through The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing which I've been meaning to read since it was published back in 1999 (oops). I found it totally surprising and captivating, an intriguing look at one woman's experiences with romantic love that is unsentimental and funny. Two of the stories were turned into a horrible movie with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Alec Baldwin a few years ago and I mourn how ham-fisted and awkward the translation from page to screen was.

Currently I'm reading Three Day Road which is the kind of awesome epic novel that should have immediately been turned into a prestige pic if the Canadian movie industry had any kind of money or market for it. It's about two Cree snipers during WWI and it's as incredibly engrossing and beautifully written as it's sequel Through Black Spruce which I mistakenly read first.

[McTeague]

So, have any of you read anything by Javier Marias? I remember being constantly told at highschool and university how he was the most-translated current Spanish writer and how he was a huge success in Germany and UK, but I haven’t really found any foreigner who has read his books (although Wikipedia shows it’s true he’s been translated a lot, that he has amazing reviews and that he seems to be successful).

I mention this because I just finished his compilation of short stories, that includes all of his short stories published since the beginning of his career (except a few he hates nowadays). I had already read a compilation of some of them (“When I Was Mortal”) but I’ve re-read those too anyways.

And the thing is, I’ve come to the conclusion he’s not very good in the short stories genre. I love him as a novelist, especially in his latest phase in which he’s become very experimental and loose and his novels are not really novels and mix stories with autobiography with essay, with pictures and with everything that can be put on paper, and are exhilarating and almost transcendent. But I’ve found most of his short stories to be quite average, and many have a mechanical feeling because he uses many times the same devices to arrange a particular story. There are a few great ones, but no masterpiece (three or four of them come close, though).

Have any of you read something by him? Despite mi diss of his short stories, I vividly recommend “Dark Back of Time”.

Next for me: Running, by Echenoz.

[Blue Zeppelin]

Never heard of Javier Marias, which makes me realise I don't know much about Spanish literature (except for the obvious Miguel de Cervantes) even though I'm a big fan of literature in Spanish (especially from Argentina). I just ordered Rayuela, by Cortázar. I've read it a few years ago in Portuguese and now I want to read it in Spanish.

Right now, I'm struggling with Burmese Days (Orwell), but determined to finish it someday soon and I've just started Playing with Fire (non-fiction, Pamella Constable) about Pakistan, which is always a fascinating reading considering how complex this country is.

[Cricket]

She also has another short piece in the latest issue of McSweeney's. Makes me wonder longingly if she'll ever allow her short stories to be collected in one volume the way she did with her essays.

Oh, cool. Is it that translation issue? I don't know if Smith has enough short stories to fill a book (yet), but her best stories that have been published in the New Yorker (the "Hanwell" stories and "Cambodia") are online for free, so at least there's that.

I haven't read any of Joseph Boyden's books. I know his last one won the Giller Prize, so I should probably get on it at some point. I actually saw him in person a few years ago, and he's cute! :superficial:

So, have any of you read anything by Javier Marias? I remember being constantly told at highschool and university how he was the most-translated current Spanish writer and how he was a huge success in Germany and UK, but I haven’t really found any foreigner who has read his books (although Wikipedia shows it’s true he’s been translated a lot, that he has amazing reviews and that he seems to be successful).

I've read a couple Marias novels. My favorite is A Heart So White, which is probably his most well-known book among English-speaking readers. (It won the prestigious IMPAC award a few years ago.) His writing style, at least in translation, takes a little adjusting to, but if you follow its rhythms, it's quite lyrical and very refined. He gets compared a lot to Proust. I've heard very good things about his Your Face Tomorrow trilogy, and his new novel The Infatuations, which comes out in English translation this year, has gotten a lot of pre-publication buzz.

Unfortunately, my impression of Marias has been somewhat tarnished after he recently decided to leave his longtime American publisher, New Directions. For those who don't know, ND is an amazing small press that publishes a lot of great niche writers, and many in translation (such as Clarice Lispector and Laszlo Krasznahorkai). They originally started publishing Marias almost 25 years ago, and have really been responsible for building his reputation in America. But when his contract was up recently, New Directions was outbid by one of the majors, Penguin, and ND lost not only all future books, but also their Marias back catalog. Naturally, these things happen in publishing all the time, but ND obviously felt betrayed. In any case, it's a sobering reminder that art is still a business.

I recently got my hands on an advance copy of the new J.M. Coetzee novel, The Childhood of Jesus, and am just starting to dip into it. It's quite strange, but very interesting so far.

[Mmelissa]

Oh, cool. Is it that translation issue? I don't know if Smith has enough short stories to fill a book (yet), but her best stories that have been published in the New Yorker (the "Hanwell" stories and "Cambodia") are online for free, so at least there's that.

I haven't read any of Joseph Boyden's books. I know his last one won the Giller Prize, so I should probably get on it at some point. I actually saw him in person a few years ago, and he's cute! :superficial:

I'm not sure if it's the translation issue. It's issue 42 if that helps, I just had a brief glance at it in the book store.

I'm mostly curious about the short stories Smith wrote in University, the ones that helped her get the book deal for White Teeth. Although after reading her essay on writing I'm wondering if she would even want these to be read at all. She talks a bit about how uncomfortable it is for her to read her old work and how she likes to edit and hack at stuff she's written before reading it out at readings (I had the pleasure of seeing Mary Gaitskill once and she did the same thing, changing up a piece she had published in the New Yorker, so it doesn't seem like it's unique to Smith at all).

Also you should read Joseph Boyden! Since writing that comment I ended up inhaling the rest of Three Day Road and it is truly a marvellous work, even better than Through Black Spruce. Going to seek out his book of short stories sometime in the future.

[ladylurks]

Read Roadside Picnic this weekend, a sci fi novella that was the inspiration for Tarkovsky's film Stalker. It was pretty awesome!

I've been meaning to tell you that I loved it too. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Eduardo Zuckerberg]

So I just finished Cloud Atlas today. It is a freaking masterpiece. I cannot wait to see how Tykwer/The Wachowskis have adapted it. Letters from Zedelghem is basically just but all of the sections are gems.

I'll be tackling Middlemarch next which sounds as well as Perks of Being a Wallflower on the side.

[Bean]

I read Alison Weir's The Wars of the Roses over the past week and found it very dry. Is that the general feeling on all her histories?

[Artimus]

So I just finished Cloud Atlas today. It is a freaking masterpiece. I cannot wait to see how Tykwer/The Wachowskis have adapted it. Letters from Zedelghem is basically just but all of the sections are gems.

I really didn't take to this, though I really feel I should have.

[crazyfists3600]

I just picked up Winter's Tale and can't wait to read it. Anyone read that yet? I'm wrapping up Cloudsplitter this week (freaking amazing) but I'm ready for a different narrative so I'm excited for some adult fantasy.

[Dent]

I read Alison Weir's The Wars of the Roses over the past week and found it very dry. Is that the general feeling on all her histories?

Hm. It was drier, sure, but I enjoyed it all the same, maybe just because I find the history of the period so fascinating.

[Bean]

Hm. It was drier, sure, but I enjoyed it all the same, maybe just because I find the history of the period so fascinating.

I mean, I found it fascinating, too. I read the whole thing in a week, so clearly there's enough interest there for me to pick up The Princes in the Tower at some point, but it seemed to lack the urgency and insight into the culture and personalities that I got from Barbara's Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. Though Tuchman purpose was much larger and more critical than Weir, who is just chronicling a period.

[Dent]

The new Pynchon gets a title, release date:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...s-title-424510

Penguin announced that Bleeding Edge, the new novel from reclusive writer Thomas Pynchon, will be published Sept. 17.

...

Taking place in 2001, the book is set in “the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11."

Can't wait.

[desirelines]

reading the glass castle... so beautiful and sad.

maybe they can find a way not to cast jennifer lawrence.

[Cricket]

The National Book Critics Circle Award winners were announced tonight:

Poetry
D. A. Powell, Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys (Graywolf Press)

Criticism
Marina Warner, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights (Belknap Press: Harvard University Press)

Autobiography
Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies (Blue Rider Press)

Biography
Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Alfred A. Knopf)

Nonfiction
Andrew Solomon, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (Scribner)

Fiction
Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (Ecco)

http://bookcritics.org/

I was expecting Katherine Boo to win the Nonfiction prize, since her book was huge. But I've been hearing so many good things about the Andrew Solomon that I sort of had a feeling it might go that way. I just picked it up the other day, and am bracing myself to dive in (it's 700+ pages).

And since the NBCC award has proven to be a good precursor for the Pulitzer, I guess we can call Ben Fountain our official favorite. (He was nominated for the National Book Award too.) I still haven't read it, but from what I've heard, it very much fits the Pulitzer criteria. Has anybody read it? I feel like I should now, though it doesn't really sound like something I'd like.

[hurricanesmith]

The National Book Critics Circle Award winners were announced tonight:



http://bookcritics.org/

I was expecting Katherine Boo to win the Nonfiction prize, since her book was huge. But I've been hearing so many good things about the Andrew Solomon that I sort of had a feeling it might go that way. I just picked it up the other day, and am bracing myself to dive in (it's 700+ pages).

And since the NBCC award has proven to be a good precursor for the Pulitzer, I guess we can call Ben Fountain our official favorite. (He was nominated for the National Book Award too.) I still haven't read it, but from what I've heard, it very much fits the Pulitzer criteria. Has anybody read it? I feel like I should now, though it doesn't really sound like something I'd like.

It's... okay. I feel like it will seem like a forgettable winner in 25 years, but it won't be an outright embarrassment or anything.

HS

[haqyunus]

I didn't know about Andrew Solomon was up in the running for winning but last week, coincidentally, I came across this bizarre story about and by him.
http://andrewsolomon.com/articles/in...dent-of-ghana/

[Howard Beale's Toothpaste]

I've been really getting back into reading and did a recent library run, but for once decided to be somewhat adventurous and dig into a few authors I've never read anything of before. So far, I haven't been disappointed, as both Ian Rankin and Iain M. Banks are terrific writers, and very much up my alley, although this is judging by one-book samples (The Impossible Dead - Rankin, The Player of Games - Banks). I have books by Don Delillo and Paul Auster waiting. Also read some non-fiction. One of which I just eventually gave up on, because it turns out my memory of math has regressed to prealgebra levels, and it was a fairly involved book explaining the history of the concept of infinity. Another was a biography of Pauline Kael, which was sort of entertaining, but I found myself wishing I'd checked out a book of her writing instead, as the samples of her work in the text were leaps and bounds more interesting than the biographer's scattered observations about Kael. It was one of those anecdote-filled type of biographies with no real zing, nothing compelling about it. Fairly inert. The most recent book I finished was a philosophical work called The Year of Dreaming Dangerously, by Slavoj Zizek. A lot of it went way over my head because I'm not well read when it comes to Marxism, but the bits that I did understand were intriguing.

[Artimus]

Try Use of Weapons next from Banks.

[Cricket]

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has a new short story out in the New Yorker. And it's quite good. This is really astonishing. Jhabvala is 85 years old (she turns 86 in May), and her first story that ran for TNY was published in 1957. Offhand, I can't think of any other writer who has published with the magazine for as long a span of time, under numerous editors. Maybe John Updike or Mavis Gallant (though I think Gallant stopped writing some time in the nineties). Even perennials like William Trevor and Alice Munro only started publishing with the mag in the seventies.

Jhabvala is a unique writer and perhaps a great one. I think her success as a screenwriter might have diluted her reputation somewhat in literary circles. She's not as highly regarded as her female contemporaries, such as Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, Penelope Fitzgerald and Doris Lessing. But she has a wry, perceptive eye, particularly for domestic relations (the author she's most compared to is Jane Austen), and her attention to class and clashes of culture really does make her an heir to many of the great writers she adapted to film, like Henry James, E.M. Forster and Jean Rhys. And she's certainly one of the most decorated person of letters of her generation, with a Booker Prize and a slew of film awards, including two Oscars!