Bonfires In The Sky: What Are You Reading, Winter 2021-22?

Didn’t she write a famous takedown of Pauline Kael?

This, probably: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1980/08/14/the-perils-of-pauline/

She's a fine cultural critic. I treasure her essays on the confirmation of Rehnquist as chief justice and on the Lewinsky-Clinton affair

Can't wait!

I can't wait for this volume, to be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York) in August this year. It will include a previously unpublished autobiographical study of Lowell's childhood, plus memoirs of figures including T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, John Berryman, and others. pic.twitter.com/Gto1eEdfXq

— John Haffenden (@johnhaffenden) February 22, 2022

lol

Can't haridy wait.

I suspect Lowell may be more read about than read these days. I was in a smallish independent bookstore yesterday and happened to check the small poetry section (maybe a couple yards of titles). There were no books by Lowell to be found. For comparison, there were several volumes by Rupi Kaur (I thumbed through one hoping to be appalled but sadly must report that I liked the few poems I read), the obligatory Bukowski, a surprisingly large section of William Blake. There was one anthology called "100 Poems to Break Your Heart" which appeared to be, as the title suggests, a selection of sad poems, in chronological order, with exegesis, and there was a Lowell poem in that.

There was also a large stack of "Devil House" prominently displayed on the front table. Reminded me I need to read "Universal Harvester".

I suspect Lowell may be more read about than read these days.

Agree. Especially as most of us are confronted with LRB (or NYRB, TLS or whatever) articles about his letters, always by Colm Toibin, once every 3 months.

I'm reading Audrey Schulman's Theory of Bastards.

The parts of Devil House I mentioned above, especially the fictional True Crime author's reverie on the pre-TC life of Miss Crane---that fine tuning of the fictional and the real author's shared (though not entirely the same) sense of what can be shared, and not, expressing that boundary too, crossing over, just long enough: another example of JD at his best---and a lot of subsequent development was worthwhile---but the ending lost all credibility even before I got to the bottom of the page.
And it exposed some inherent structural weaknesses of the Devil House story proper that I then realized I'd been keeping almost below the level of awareness, building enjoyment around, because the virtues of the book had that kind of momentum---yeah, yeah, the same old Willing Suspension of Disbelief, but it could have kept on working for a while, allowing a decent interval before the penny dropped---if not for the ending.
And I'm the jaded novel reader who usually says, "Endings, shmendings." But this wasn't baggy enough for that. (There was also a close-to-penultimate set piece, but it did no harm.)

But I still say it's worth reading.

the ending lost all credibility Unless! Unless it is a deliberate "loss," of a character, giving an exaggerated confession:"If I say this much, which is true, it's bad. But if I add this much more bullshit, it makes my whole huge mess blow up, and go away!" Manic (true to to this character) and magical thinking, thematically appropriate as hell to the story, and the story-within-the-story. Or is this my own magical thinking? Is this post fan fiction? All of this shell gaming is also thematically appropriate to the JD reading experience. Just read this damn book, if you were already thinking you might.
RIP Dave Hickey wrote that he believed in the evolutionary, not the creationist theory of art: as soon as some one sees it, it continues to change, all bets should be off.
But I can't unsee what the "loss" or loss made a bit more visible re preceding structural weaknesses, though they don't upstage all the good stuff.

But if I add this much more bullshit, it makes my whole huge mess blow up, and go away!" Manic and maybe so magical it's too magical to be more than a moment's outburst, not an official confession, but it's being recorded.

The Audrey Schulman has got its hooks into me. It's set in the near future, where there is increasing evidence of climate crises and attendant issues. Most people wear a Bindi, a version of Siri worn as an implant, and wear Lenses, a kind of contact-lens version of Google Glasses. The protagonist is a long-term sufferer of endometriosis and we're slowly told her story - of multiple misdiagnoses and how she has learned to live with pain - while also being shown her other 'story': her role as a researcher and nascent evolutionary biologist, assigned to study bonobo chimps (all in captivity, their habitats having been largely destroyed). The latter unfolds in the present with the rest told in flashbacks. I almost don't want to mention Houellebecq but he's probably the closest analogue I can think of. Thankfully, Schulman is free of Houellebecq's stink of fascism and is more concerned with compassion - with the bonobos and with the central character's pain. The architectural work in entwining the two narratives is masterful.

Several of us have read that, starting with James Morrison, of course, think most would agree with you, I know I would, although I do wish you hadn’t mentioned that other guy.

A friend of mine mentioned he was reading the newest Houellebecq and I've never thought the same of that friend.

Reading a set of Myles na gCopaleen CRUISKEEN LAWN columns from 1940s to 1960s.

On the whole fair to say: in the 1940s he is astoundingly consistent with his lightness of touch; in the 1950s he veers into anger, sometimes reactionary - yet he does still retain the underlying verbal wit and can often pull something out, eg with an alphabet of Irish items late in the 1950s. Didn't read so much 1960s this time, but he still seems able to keep going till near the end.

Another simple observation: into the 1950s, the column more typically becomes broken up into smaller sections, separated by asterisks; possibly a sign of loss of inspiration and flow.

Individual columns are treasurable though, eg: one where he essentially pretends to be have been W.B. Yeats on the first night of THE PLAYBOY.

Anyone read Meredith? I've put down The Egoist three times in twenty years while digging his poetry ("Modern Love" sonnet sequence in particular). I picked up Diana of the Crossways and I'm rarin' to go.

Seems to me Meredith went out of fashion ages ago, so perhaps ripe for a reappraisal. Recall reading Wilfrid Sheed writing about Edmund Wilson saying to him "What do you think of Meredith, Sheed? We don't think much about him now, do we?"

He went out of fashion the moment he expired. Woolf was calling him out of fashion a hundred years ago.

I have Diane Johnson's book "The First Mrs. Meredith" and have been meaning to read something by Meredith before reading it, but so far, nothing doing.

Rereading Hugh Kenner's A COLDER EYE: THE MODERN IRISH WRITERS (1983): the long chapter on Synge, and the early chapter on the Abbey and the Playboy riots.

Once I start rereading this book I could easily want to reread the whole thing - apart from anything else, it slips down so easily. It does, though, contain some very dubious beggorah-istic condescension towards the Irish.

I finished Theory of Bastards. I liked it a good deal and found it very emotionally affecting. Although, I found the final third kind of frustrating and the 'no, don't do that!' aspect of watching an apocalypse unfold kind of wore me down (even as I fell more in love with Frankie and the bonobos). I don't know that I ever need to see/hear/read another version of the North American apocalypse.

why hidden text?

I spoilered the entire last third of the book?

I'm finding A Savage War of Peace about the Algerian War for independence to be slow going, partly because it reaches for a level of detail that requires close attention, moving forward and back in time as it covers different areas of the country.

The author's sympathies for the French are not hidden, but he at least has the integrity to expose the war crimes and intransigent racism of the French in depth and detail. He struggles to frame them in the kindest light, but any attentive reader will see them for what they are: war crimes, massive racism, and white colonial arrogance.

Reading it right now does throw an interesting side light on the current invasion of Ukraine, although the similarities are far more broad and general than strikingly obvious.

Finished Clark Coolidge's 'To the Cold Heart' and Gail Scott's 'Permanent Revolution.' The former I found to be the most accessible of Coolidge's books, but still able to display his unparalleled style and music. The latter was perhaps the most dreary book of essays I've read in recent memory— unlike her fiction, the pieces seems uninspired, full of apologetics and repetitions without purpose. Best when writing about her perspectives on how literary culture and communities relate to each other.

Going to take a break from full-lengths and focus on chapbooks for a while.

Against White Feminism Rafia Zakaria
Pakistani American writer tells history of the inherent bias in mainstream feminism which excluded women of colour.
I'm finding this to be a pretty easy read. Trying to read as much in this area as I can.
Caught a webinar with the author a couple of weeks ago and thought it was interesting. & now 1/3 of the way through the book after one sitting.

Demon Haunted World Carl Sagan
Finished this yesterday and thought it was pretty good. Mid 90s book on scientific illiteracy and avoiding credulity which still seems pretty relevant right now in the age of MAGA, anti-Vaxx and other anti-science movements.
Not sure why i haven't read this before.

Biased Jennifer Eberhardt
Book on forms of prejudice and bias etc. I started this a few months ago and then got into my continual chain of interlibrary loan reads .
So now have it up as my loo book .
Pretty great book anyway.

Speaking of Winfrid Sheed, he also seems to have gone out of fashion or at least out of print, but I recall his novels being quite good. I do see in the archives that James Morrison has read Max Jamison, at least.

re Renata Adler: she is discussed in this marvellous review by David Thomson:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n02/david-thomson/peachy

It suggests that writing a bad review of Kael ended her career.

I'd like to read the Kael review (I don't have NYRB access) and again, I should read Adler's novels.

For comfortable reading I went back to Maurice Bourgeois: JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE AND THE IRISH THEATRE (1913).

I have a naive tendency to be impressed that people in the past could do things, and thus I'm naively amazed by the quality of Bourgeois's scholarship, 110 years ago, with no thought of digital reference systems. I suppose he spent much time in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, and dug out all these obscure newspaper items there. Or perhaps much came from the National Library of Ireland, that oddly small yet legendary place.

It's marvellous how old books contain facts or suggestions that complement each other, or add little things to what we think we know in the present. This one has some of that, and also a hilarious opening outlook which may be a justification for discretion. At the start of a long account of the life of J.M. Synge:

Of his parents little need be said.

I have never seen a biographer say this before.

It gets better:

Synge's father dying on April 13, 1872, when Synge was quite a small child, cannot be said to have affected his upbringing in any way.

!!!

Finally, this marvellous sidelong note, breaking the fourth wall in a way, on p.58:

As a rule he preferred original works to critical writings. He would not have read a book on himself - this one least of all.

Speaking of Winfrid Sheed

Demon Haunted World Carl Sagan
Finished this yesterday and thought it was pretty good. Mid 90s book on scientific illiteracy and avoiding credulity which still seems pretty relevant right now in the age of MAGA, anti-Vaxx and other anti-science movements.
Not sure why i haven't read this before.

― Stevolende, Saturday, February 26, 2022 10:33 AM (yesterday)

i have been meaning to read this since it came out! maybe this is the year.

I enjoyed it. Probably better to read it in a more concentrated fashion than i did when I'm not trying to get thorugh a load of other things. But does make quite a bit of sense.
Want to read that book on Great Popular Delusions but got a few other things ahead of that. Gone back to reading Biased by Jennifer Eberhardt which is pretty good. Also got Thinking Fast & slow lined up.

Oh yeah finally finished A brief History of 7 Killings last night too. & Marlon James was in the Guardian magazine hing yesterday. Want to read Black Leopard, Red Wolf when I get the chance . Magazine thing ties in with a sequel I think.

All The Marvels, Douglas Wolk.

Mona by Pola Oloixarac - "like Rachel Cusk's Kudos on drugs" according The Atlantic which a) lol and ii) would only be true if the drugs were to turn Kudos' somewhat humble narrator into a monster of self-obsession.

Seems like a thing drugs do to people (some drugs; some people).

Indeed! And Mona does in fact seem to depend on a modest cocktail of weed and valium.

Halfway through Maurice Bourgeois, who declares (p.101):

Irish history, for a considerable number of years, was itself the most poignant of tragedies. Ireland, living through real drama, had no time nor desire for dramas of imagination. The 'play-activity', which is the essence of all art, and which extracts literary fiction from actual life, could not possibly exist in Ireland as long as drama and life were one and the same thing.

I'm frankly not quite sure whether that's somewhat insightful, or patent nonsense.

It reminds me in turn of the later claims eg: of Sean O'Faolain that Ireland couldn't develop the novel, only short stories, because it was a fractured and underdeveloped society -- claims that when you first encounter them can look authoritative and stimulating, but may actually be absurdly deterministic cobblers that have little to do with the practice of writing. (Though O'Faolain should have known something about the practice of writing.)

Theatrical production is a far more communal and social art form than the writing, publication and reading of prose fiction, so it is more plausible at least that it would be more strongly affected by social conditions. But if during those "considerable number of years" plays were staged in Ireland, just ones that hadn't been specifically written by and for the Irish, then that plausibility vanishes.

And Mona does in fact seem to depend on a modest cocktail of weed and valium.

People who have figured out how to live.

Ireland, living through real drama, had no time nor desire for dramas of imagination.

Lmao what?! The Gaeity was founded about twenty years after the end of the Famine, a greater period of tragedy in Irish history than pretty much any I’d care to name. Smock Alley was knocking around for centuries before independence in various guises. Also, it says a lot about the author if he loftily assumes that was the reason and not, idk, the lack of theatres and the majority of the country living at or near subsistence level? The long oral tradition suggests there’s always been an appetite for storytelling as entertainment as well as education.

re the Gaiety, founded in 1871 I see: yes - 'in fairness' to this venerable author I think he was talking about much longer ago - maybe more like the Middle Ages and Renaissance. But I do think that his claims are so large as to seem daft.

I agree that poverty / subsistence agricultural economy would be a bigger factor than political turbulence in any case.

I mainly like this book as an instance of how people used to write, rather different from how most critics write now.

Chris Sylvester's "Gain of Function," a strange book that seems like an ode to the strange surreal ennui of suburban parenthood. Very weird and interesting.

Finished Mona, now on to Maigret Travels South. I'm not normally one for detective fiction but Maigret seems to be a board favourite and Tim was happy to donate the one he'd just finished.

I was happy to donate it, I had found it OK and diverting enough, not to the point of wanting to keep it around. It has an excellent green cover.

Detective fiction isn't generally my thing either - I take this to be a failing of some kind in me, rather than a problem with detective fiction.

https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/md/md31066500794.jpg

I read "The Sweet Indifference of the World" by Peter Stamm, Swiss, translated by Michael Hoffmann, it was fine in a current litfic kind of way, man comes across his younger self living his life, tells story of life to younger man's girlfriend who's a younger version of his own great lost love, you get it. Nice quick read, manages to touch on the eerie feeling I think it aims for in a few spots. Happy I read it, won't hang on to it, that manner of book.

I read "Guestbook" by Leanne Shapton. Billed as a book of ghost stories it's a set of stories, spooky and otherwise, mostly told through a combination of word and image; I don't know that Leanne Shapton is a particularly good writer - I'm pretty sure that "good writing" is not what she is getting at here, but as someone who thinks about how to tell stories with books, she is a total inspiration to me and has moments of total genius IMO. There are a good handful of those moments in this one.