i like the opies' 'lore and language of schoolchildren' (mentioned above), it's got an amazing ethnographic touch. i only wish it were more about american children (or slightly latter-day ones).
their recent selection of thoreau's journals (chosen by damion searls, of the recent melville redaction) is very nice too.
― j., Thursday, 5 August 2010 04:39 (thirteen years ago) link
i read like a quarter of 'the long ships' in the bookstore the other day it was so rad
― max, Thursday, 5 August 2010 04:39 (thirteen years ago) link
ice is really readable and for the first third really riveting but he does sacrifice story/character/language for the sake of explicating the thematic/structural ideas hes interested in - i think maybe if you dont care much about post-stalin russian lit the middle section in particular might be a slog. i mean the arguments hes making arent as repetitive/textual as the ones in werewolf but they infect the very form hes using.
― ☼ (Lamp), Thursday, 5 August 2010 04:50 (thirteen years ago) link
im a lot more interested in post-stalin russian lit than a werewolf explaining buddhism 102
― max, Thursday, 5 August 2010 05:48 (thirteen years ago) link
max werent you guys talking abt victor pelevin on the other thread, rather than sorokin? or are you just comparing the two
― just sayin, Thursday, 5 August 2010 07:21 (thirteen years ago) link
lol
― max, Thursday, 5 August 2010 07:27 (thirteen years ago) link
we were
all those russian "v"s
hahaha
― just sayin, Thursday, 5 August 2010 07:29 (thirteen years ago) link
lets not tell anyone about this
― max, Thursday, 5 August 2010 07:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Last night in Grand Central I picked up the The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick and the one I've read so far is ace.
― The Wayne Shorter Dinah Shore Test (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 October 2010 17:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Picked up Paul Schmidt's The Stray Dog Cabaret last weekend.
http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~kohler/z/nyrb/stray-dog-cabaret.jpg
― Ballard, Dick (Eazy), Friday, 22 October 2010 18:54 (thirteen years ago) link
their edition of félix fénéon's novels in three lines has a great introductory essay
― ======.======= (Lamp), Monday, 25 October 2010 00:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Yes. Was having trouble getting into that book- I usually avoid reading forewords and back cover summaries to avoid spoilers- but after reading your post I went back and read that intro and it is essential.
― The Wayne Shorter Dinah Shore Test (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 25 October 2010 15:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Couldn't get into Novels in Three Lines myself: principle + Santé enthused me, but Barnes in the LRB cooled me a little bit again - plus I wasn't enjoying the experience of reading it that much.
― portrait of velleity (woof), Monday, 25 October 2010 16:41 (thirteen years ago) link
that barnes piece is sorta half right or maybe its right in letter but not in spirit. like santé (and the publishers) probably go too far in 'contextualizing' the work but its wrong to freight the thing with too much significance or 'meaning' either way. fénéon's life and his philiosophy were interesting to read about & some of santés parallels (like the futurists quote) seem correct, or at least illuminating. & really a beautiful turn of phrase, real wit, economy of form all these have value of their own - i dont think the collection needs to be 'ART' or w/e barnes wants it to be.
it also helps not to read them all at a time but just a page or two a day, i found.
― soda lake swame (Lamp), Tuesday, 26 October 2010 23:39 (thirteen years ago) link
Reading Grossman's brilliant unfinished novel Everything Flows, might have to chase up on The Road.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 27 October 2010 19:49 (thirteen years ago) link
The Road's pretty great -- collection of stories, articles, letters -- the later stories especially are wonderful. I've not read any other Grossman, though 'Life and Fate' is looming hugely on a shelf
― buildings with goats on the roof (James Morrison), Thursday, 28 October 2010 04:10 (thirteen years ago) link
we appear to have a bunch of remainders come in
― thomp, Thursday, 28 October 2010 11:44 (thirteen years ago) link
I bought "In Hazard" by Richard Hughes for a couple of quid without any particularly high expectations (I like Richard Hughes a lot and I like NYRB but I'm not so hot on yer maritime novels) - it's really very tremendous indeed.
― Tim, Thursday, 28 October 2010 11:57 (thirteen years ago) link
any recommendations from this lot?
stephen benatar, wish her safe at homemavis gallant, the cost of livinggeoffrey household, rogue malejakov lind, soul of woodguy de maupassant, afloataudrey platonov, the foundation pitvictor serge, unforgiving yearsfrancis wyndham, the complete fictionstefan zweig, the post-office girl
― thomp, Thursday, 28 October 2010 15:52 (thirteen years ago) link
francis wyndham, that sounds good. complete things are always better.
also, mavis gallant is a good name, and 'the cost of living' sounds like it could be about Important Things.
so i say those.
― j., Thursday, 28 October 2010 17:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Unforgiving Years is great, but I haven't read many of those.
I read Season of Migration to the North a few months ago and really enjoyed it.
― clotpoll, Thursday, 28 October 2010 17:34 (thirteen years ago) link
thomp, I read Gallant's "Paris Stories' a while back and I'm genuinely curious about 'The Cost of Living'.
― A Reclaimer Hewn With (Michael White), Thursday, 28 October 2010 17:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Platonov and Serge, from that list.
The NYRB have done really well to assemble some of the really good stuff from the former USSR.
All we need now is the complete tales from Shalamov's Kolyma Tales cycle. xp
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 28 October 2010 17:47 (thirteen years ago) link
I really liked Platonov's Foundation Pit, but I think his collection of stories is better. Would like to read most of the rest of that list, thomp.
― wmlynch, Thursday, 28 October 2010 21:11 (thirteen years ago) link
stephen benatar, wish her safe at home -- very good, very dark comedy - woman comes to own London house, goes madgeoffrey household, rogue male -- superior adventure thriller about a big game hunter in the 1930s who decides to hunt down Hitlerjakov lind, soul of wood -- brutal but excellentguy de maupassant, afloat -- lovely non-fictional record of boating tripaudrey platonov, the foundation pit -- brutal but excellentfrancis wyndham, the complete fiction -- so, so, so goodstefan zweig, the post-office girl -- I love Zweig, and this is wonderful--sort of post WW1 Bonnie-and-Clyde in Germany, but with lots more to it
― buildings with goats on the roof (James Morrison), Thursday, 28 October 2010 22:29 (thirteen years ago) link
I love Zweig, and this is wonderful--sort of post WW1 Bonnie-and-Clyde in Germany, but with lots more to it
I will definitely check this out.
― A Reclaimer Hewn With (Michael White), Thursday, 28 October 2010 22:48 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah the zweig is fantastic but its p brutal throughout. i really like mavis gallant but cost of living is a weaker collection than any of 'paris stories', 'collected works' or the penguin collection (the best intro imo) - its all earlier stories and shes nowhere near as lean & unsentimental & wise in these stories as she becomes later. theyre kinda 'writerly' also so i dont know how much that will appeal...
'soul of wood' is the one id most like to read but havent
― soda lake swame (Lamp), Friday, 29 October 2010 05:29 (thirteen years ago) link
god, oakley hall's warlock is good, isn't it? i can't get enough of it, but it can be so tense i have to stop sometimes. this is a cliched thing to say but it crackles with energy. smart without being ponderous. it feels like it "gets it." walks right up to the edge of romanticism and then rips your guts out. poor bud gannon.
― max, Tuesday, 16 November 2010 21:08 (thirteen years ago) link
really need to restart that one. preferably on vacation
― BIG MUFFIN (gbx), Tuesday, 16 November 2010 22:05 (thirteen years ago) link
i started reading it once but i didn't really know what i was reading.
― j., Wednesday, 17 November 2010 00:50 (thirteen years ago) link
warlock. says so right on the cover
― BIG MUFFIN (gbx), Wednesday, 17 November 2010 00:57 (thirteen years ago) link
man, i finished warlock a week or two ago and it was so good. waiting for the movie from netflix right now, kind of curious about how good it's going to be.
now i'm reading the big clock by kenneth fearing, don't know how into it i am but it's interesting and seems like a quick read so i'll probably keep going. kind of a noir with a very unappealing "hero" and a ridiculous plot and awkward writing.
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 1 December 2010 23:56 (thirteen years ago) link
wait there's a warlock movie??
― BIG MUFFIN (gbx), Thursday, 2 December 2010 00:09 (thirteen years ago) link
starring richard widmark, henry fonda and anthony quinn, no less
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 2 December 2010 00:10 (thirteen years ago) link
it was funny reading it thinking "huh it's weird no one's ever heard of this book" and then finding out about the movie and that the book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 2 December 2010 00:12 (thirteen years ago) link
i read a thing the other day that noted most old-skool pulitzer nominees/winners were bestsellers in their day.
― j., Thursday, 2 December 2010 02:59 (thirteen years ago) link
(and i guess, as a corollary, lots of bestsellers probably fall out of view pretty quickly. especially if their authors don't stay in the game somehow.)
― j., Thursday, 2 December 2010 03:05 (thirteen years ago) link
The Big Clock has a very odd ending, kind of lame in a way, but it's interesting. I find Clark Gifford's Body, also by Fearing, totally fascinating and unique, though I still don't know quite what to make of it.
― clotpoll, Thursday, 2 December 2010 05:20 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought I was going to hate "Clark Gifford's Body" and I ended up loving it. One of the things NYRB has done for me is intorduce me to some brilliant leftish US novels from the midele of the twentieth century, including "Clark Gifford's Body", "The Middle of the Journey" by Lionel Trilling, "What's for Dinner" by James Schuyler. Thanks, NYRB.
― Tim, Thursday, 2 December 2010 12:00 (thirteen years ago) link
Currently reading a new NYRB: Iris Owens's 'After Claude', which I'm really enjoying, despite/because of the narrator being one of the most repellent people EVER.
― buildings with goats on the roof (James Morrison), Thursday, 2 December 2010 22:33 (thirteen years ago) link
btw "Warlock" movie - not really recommended. They made a decent effort but had to cut a bunch of stuff (mostly for time, obviously, but also the entire mine union plot was taken out, probably due to the time/climate that it was made). Widmark is good, Fonda is good but doesn't really seem right for the part IMO. Seems like it would have been confusing to anyone who hadn't read the book.
Also they do a weird thing where at the beginning Blaisedell and Morgan ride into town together, like they've been traveling together as a team (unlike in the book, where Morgan's already in Warlock and running the saloon). But then all of a sudden Morgan has his own saloon, with no explanation of how he bought it so quickly or anything. Maybe I missed something.
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 13 December 2010 23:45 (thirteen years ago) link
Read a fair bit of Oakley Hall a few years ago (for a big thing on Warlock that got spiked – ashamed of parts of it now, screechy and ignorant about politics, America, not good enough on the history of the Western); didn't like any of his other books as much as Warlock - the Ambrose Bierce mysteries had their heart in the right place, couldn't get through that one about downhill skiers. It was enlightening about what happens to writers - I mean from a lot of perspectives it does look like Hall vanished after Warlock, but there he is, working hard for the rest of his life, right at the centre of West Coast creative writing and regional fiction.
― portrait of velleity (woof), Tuesday, 14 December 2010 10:35 (thirteen years ago) link
i think hes "known" as a teacher more than an author. disappointing to hear that nothing else reaches warlock, though.
― max, Tuesday, 14 December 2010 15:19 (thirteen years ago) link
the book store down the street was selling a bunch of these for 99 cents each! bought a bagful. then bought another bagful to give as christmas gifts. couldn't believe it.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 14 December 2010 18:03 (thirteen years ago) link
so lucky! my most recent book score story - last time we were on holiday the local bookstore had those paris review interview collections for 50p each so of course i bought them all
― just sayin, Tuesday, 14 December 2010 19:27 (thirteen years ago) link
i still need those!
― scott seward, Wednesday, 15 December 2010 01:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Came across this article while doing some research and realized that Bill Klapp IS Lowell Lake from A Meaningful Life
http://books.google.com/books?id=oucCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=%22ghosts+of+hell%27s+kitchen%22+%22new+york+magazine&source=bl&ots=eJDl4IV8cb&sig=Br1Z7Q4TtPH5lSDnu8z40Lwr5H4&hl=en&ei=9d4LTbucHMGC8gby66TRCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22ghosts%20of%20hell%27s%20kitchen%22%20%22new%20york%20magazine&f=false
"The sameness. I can't be part of that sameness again."
― mandatorily joined parties (Hurting 2), Friday, 17 December 2010 22:08 (thirteen years ago) link
started this on the train today and lolled
― mookieproof, Friday, 17 December 2010 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link