NYRB Publishing

what is letter killers actually about? i added to my amazon basket a while ago because i liked the title ( + probably because one of the last things i read in nyrb wz 'the post office girl', and there was a subliminal connection there ) and i have no idea

oh my god the red shift you're talking about is the alan garner novel!! that is so weird

do they reproduce the secret message inside the covers??

what is letter killers actually about?

its one of krzhizhanovsky's strange allegories stretched out uncomfortably long - its about a group of artists who decide to create basically conceptual art projects and then instead of making them describe them to one another at club meetings, leaving no trace in order to preserve their purity and integrity. its sort of 'about' the impossibility of art under the soviets, i think? but theres a bunch of stuff abt the club members and moscow in the 20s and its really really good

it doesnt really match the heights of mania, clarity and despair that the best few stories from 'memories of the future' reach but its still p incredible and thoughtful and idk perceptive? gah i want to do it justice but im too fanish abt it, i think...

i have never read or heard of krzhizhanovsky otherwise -- that does sound kind of awesome though -- i suspect soviet era fiction is my favourite thing i know almost nothing about -- oy

do they reproduce the secret message inside the covers??

― thomp, Tuesday, January 3, 2012 7:33 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yes!

it seems so weird that that could be a book that could need specialist republishing, or even go out of print

I know--in the UK it's pretty much constantly in print (though as a children's book)

it might be a little "dark" for US kids? i dunno

that being said i liked it at a lot at 26, probably would have liked it even more at 13

i think it's probably too "dark" for US parents, kids like all kinds of dark stuff

i haven't read it, just assuming based on context

sorry yeah thats what i meant

also i think it assumes/requires a certain baseline of knowledge about england and the english civil war that american kids wont have

god, warlock is so good

Can someone tell me where I can find these books again?

where do you usually find books?

There's a place called Book Court on Court Street in Cobble Hill that I go to now and again, I wonder if they might have a volume or two.

http://www.nybooks.com/books/wintersale/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Winter+Sale+2012&utm_content=Winter+Sale+2012+Version+B+CID_4e5028b3d486472c305c3d2b5cfb5a71&utm_source=Email+marketing+software&utm_term=Shop+Now

I love this series.

spent way too much money on that sale yesterday :-/ also i appear to have signed myself up for the six month subscription

Just about all of Victor Serge now in print

i went to city lights when i visited SF last month and they've got a whole section devoted to these. had trouble restraining myself from buying 10 of them.

ive heard theres a bookstore in cobble hill that has a nice selection

If only I could remember where that place was.

gd i wish i didnt have to pay rent

didn't know there was an nyrb edition, but jean stafford's the mountain lion is an awesome, creepy book and is on sale.

http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-mountain-lion/

seriously why is my cats food like $70

haha i know i am just lalala pretending that sale isn't happening btw

I was gonna say go to libraries or something, but then I realized I always return my books late so that doesn't really help w/ $$$$

books are like one of the few things i think are really worth spending money on but i already spent soo much money this month on like sweaters and plane tickets

I was gonna say go to libraries or something, but then I realized I always return my books late so that doesn't really help w/ $$$$

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Sunday, February 26, 2012 3:14 PM (25 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i just paid $40 in late fees for library books. :( i am a deadbeat and only finished half of them, too.

i havent taken anything out of the library since the summer because i have $24.56 in late fees

Was thinking about The Mountain Lion while reading the recently revived Harper's thread. Back in the 80s, when Michael Kinsley was editing it (and well!), James Wolcott wrote about Stafford, who I (and all the people I mentioned the article to) had forgotten mostly forgotten about. To us, she was mostly the wife whose nose was broken twice by hubby Robert Lowell, as graphically described in Ian Hamilton's Lowell bio.Stafford also got some material, for both fiction and poetry, I think out of those experiences; don't know Lowell's confessional verses go that far, but he also became literally a textbook example of bipolarity)Nevertheless, Wolcott got us into The Mountain Lion, Boston Adventure (novel), and I still need to read the non-fiction A Mother In History, Stafford's encounters with Lee Harvey's mom. Way later, an interviewer mentioned this column, and Wocott said people were still thanking him for it. As well they might. the main character of The Mountain Lion seems like somebody you might never want to bother having compassion for, but she compells it, a sympathetic sub-villain (maybe like Lowell to her? Although she did get the hell out--the mother in Boston Adventure is somewhat similar)

sorry about stupid typos

i've never read Boston Adventure! i should check it out. i think of Molly as a character that defies any attempt at readerly sentimental identification, but i don't know if she's a villain, exactly. she's terrifying.

She does defy it, and she's scary, but o shit, where Stafford takes her and the reader, the ending o shit

paging scott seward btw; have you read jean stafford? i think you would enjoy jean stafford.

I saw The Mountain Lion at my local bookstore last year and didn't buy it -- a mistake. Should I start with that one or BA?

Hard to say--The Mountain Lion is shorter, not as dense, which might be good or bad; you can't forage for so many consolation prizes if you get tired of the main line of development. Boston Adventure starts like its title suggests, oh a plucky underdog's gonna make it after all. Might have some tense moments, but some wry me resolutions, not so unusual then. Probably got into some school libraries that way. But it keeps tunneling into, for instance, scenes with a mental mother, very convincing, beyond standard coming of age etc novels then; It's not only about such relationships, doesn't settle even for them, though could have, re merited reviewer-bait.

Oh yeah, and here's an description, for non-subscribers like me, of a Stafford collection's title story:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1948/02/21/1948_02_21_023_TNY_CARDS_000214532

Weirdly, all 3 of Lowell's ex-wives are now published by NYRB: Jean Stafford, Caroline Blackwood, Elizabeth Hardwick. All 3 are really great writers, too

Don't know Blackwood's work, is it good?

The one I read was good, and others here have repped for some of the others.

Oh yeah, now I see mention of Great Granny Webster, what's the writing like?

Remember it being witty and funny, byt it was a while ago, I couldn't tell you more. Maybe I should read this copy of Corrigan sitting right here.

Please do! I'll look around online when not so lazy.

Yeah, Blackwood is witty and funny and often pretty dark, too. Good stuff.

Forgot to mention the darkness. Enjoying first pages of Corrigan. May stick with it