NYRB Publishing

xpost granted I hadn't seen the film yet when I read the book, so when I saw the movie I was looking through those "they left out that part I liked" glasses

Note that J. Hoberman said that the film "is neither a great movie nor even a classic noir but it has a great ambition to be daring and, once seen, is not easily forgotten."

Has anyone read The Three Christs of Ypsilanti?

It's interesting and distressing in equal parts, but also a bit too long--skimmed the second half. Hard for any book to match up to its premise, to be fair: 'True story of 3 mental patients who all believe they're Jesus sharing a house! Hijinks ensue!'

i don't really know anything about searls still, but as far as i'm concerned he is probably 100% otm from being editor/selector of thoreau's journals:

http://conversationalreading.com/damion-searls-top-ten-nyrb-classics/

To avoid needless repetition, please cut and paste in your mind the following sentence into all ten descriptions below: “It passes the bounds of human understanding how good this book is.”

the patrick leigh fermor books are all so so so great

^^ agree

The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos Hardcover
Patrick Leigh Fermor (Author)

This title will be released on September 12, 2013.

that's the uk edition. hope there's an nyrb ed too

Another Melville House hijack - anyone had the chance to look at their Neversink Library titles?

http://www.mhpbooks.com/series/the-neversink-library/?id=506

Definitely seek out the Irmgard Keun, Ödön von Horváth, Raymond Radiguet, Simenon and the Strugatsky Bros books. I have a couple of the others but haven't read them yet.

3 NYRBC books on the Kindle Daily Deal today: Stoner, Inverted World, and Rogue Male

Stoner is marvelous.

i'm reading one on kindle now. fatale by jean-patrick manchette. it's short.

stoner and rogue male are both fantastic if very different.

Came to say Inverted World is a popular title around here.

One thing I like about the NYRB ebooks is that they have the same cover art and intros and afterwords and such as the print version, so you really are giving up as little as possible. Might end up buying the ebook and hand my print copy over to a lucky ilxor.

That edition of Inverted World and its afterward by John Clute really made me want to read anything by Christopher Priest, M. John Harrison or J. G. Ballard and anything praised by John Clute. OK, maybe it is hard to read all of Ballard and maybe Clute gives out too many positive reviews but I don't think I was too far off.

Just picked up Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi after reading bits of the intro (Peter Esterhazy): the world of Musil (Kakania) via Chekhov (banality is amazing if you look hard enough). Reading as I have been, the first 50 pages just now, I find this Hungarian sensibility hardening in my mind for a facility and dexterity in a way in which they spin a tale, Arabian Nights fashion might be close, but really no cigar.

Another passage from the intro is the praising of Kosztolányi as a rhymer of words, of an ability to cut to the chase, be sharp and direct. I find that also a very Hungarian thing too, maybe something that was in much medieval and Renaissance lit but then was lost by all many regions but somehow kept going by that region we now call Hungary, I don't know.

Perhaps Hrabal has that too, and he's Czech. Its a thing...whatever it is its very compulsive.

Seriously, the only bad novel by a Hungarian I've read was some crap by Peter Nadas--the rest of these guys really know/knew how to write.

See also: Miklos Banffy, Sandor Marai, Antal Szerb, Imre Kertesz, Frigyes Karinthy, Ferenc Karinthy, Zsigmond Móricz, Gyula Krudy, Lajos Zilahy, Tibor Dery, László Krasznahorkai

Hmm. Obviously I need to find some female Hungarian writers, too.

At the end of Skylark I thought that well this is the closest the circus must be like as a book, and that's what Kosztolányi, Marai, Krudy, Dery and maybe Szerb do. Comes through a town spreading joy and leave everyone with a hint of sadness when they go away.

Krasznahorkai and Kertsz are v different to that.

Great description!

Yeah, Krasznahorkai is never going to be compared to a circus.

Special Film Forum tie-in screening of Nightmare Alley tonight.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/john-williams-stoner-wins-waterstones-book-of-the-year-8979661.html

i started reading that just recently, it's terrific. i cant really think of anyone id give it to as an xmas gift, though

i usually this version in uk bookshops rather than the nyrb one -

http://theasylum.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/stoner.jpg

Hmm. Obviously I need to find some female Hungarian writers, too.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-51wZVF16wq8/TskkXCsPq-I/AAAAAAAAABg/ooXEBISUysQ/s640/vampir_noemi.jpg

Nice - is she from Transylvania too?

There is a piece by Julian Barnes on Stoner today.

The re-issue of the forgotten American novels, mostly from the 20s and 30s (Glenway Wescott), is the one bit from NYRB 'programme' that I find it hard to muster any interest in.

I actually think Stoner will be boring and actually dull. It might also be that I really dislike some of the people that have gone for this (the Barnes piece is like 'oh I am sent books all the time but more than one of my buddies told me to read it' I mean plz fuck off!) Maybe I should stop doing that, but I suspect I'll just get worse..

I've enjoyed that end of the catalogue, funnily enough: James Schuyler, Kenneth Fearing, JF Powers, Elaine Dundy. Think you might like "Tenants of Moonbloom" by Edward Lewis Wallant and "The Unpossessed" by Tess Slesinger, xyzzz. These were all things I knew nothing about before taking NYRB-related punts.

Can't speak for those others, xyzzzz__, but your instinct about Stoner is correct.

Nah, read it. I recoil from fiction about the groves of academe but this novel works -- and a quick read.

Ah yes I remember liking this piece on Schuyler so I'll try and give him a go for a start and if I can find some of the others...tx.

Like that guy who wrote the review you just linked, Michael Hofmann, both his translations from German and his own stuff.

Both myself and James Morrison agree he's great yeah. We disagree on his essay on Zweig tho'.

From the translation work the Joseph Roth is awesome, as is Keun's Child of all Nations. Muller and Junger didn't leave an impression but I think this is to do with the works themselves. Love to read his Kafka translation sometime.

I've read his Kafka 'Metamorphosis & Other Stories' with the groovy Sammy Harkham cover:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_hvV0JHPYX_I/SpSRJd5394I/AAAAAAAAGEg/lgPAkGzr_-U/s1600/pg+%281%29.jpg

I was just re-reading Benjamin's essay on Kafka (as a result of my above remarks.) Its great he has translated those stories, will look!

To further clarify this is all I thought he had translated.

Looking at the 'forthcoming' section and I have to say I am excited about this book:

http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/last-words-from-montmartre/

Has anyone here tried to suggest anything to them? I sent a horrible rambly suggestion of John Galt's _The Entail_ a while back, but never got any sort of response. I do occasionally think of other works I'd love to see republished, but ehhh, I'm not too tempted to try to send more suggestions to what may well be a bit bucket.

Who is John Galt? Sorry, couldn't resist, but also it's a real question & please state yr case for The Entail, thx. Seems like we're due for an Ivy Compton-Burnett revival too, or have they already done that?

they definitely read them, not sure how many from that suggestion box they actually follow up on

My interest in Galt came about thanks to a set of posts on the blog Wuthering Expectations. There's a bunch on Galt, but the three on _The Entail_ start here: The Entail, Galt's best book (hit "newer" post to keep going, or click the John Galt label to see the rest of the posts.)
I've read parts of it on Project Gutenberg and really wanted to keep going, but I don't enjoy reading longform on a screen, and don't have an ereader. If I remember correctly, my suggestion primarily consisted of quotes from the book and some links (including the above). Probably some embarrassing, daffy rambling, as is my wont.
I guess a suggestion from someone who hasn't read a book isn't likely to weigh too heavily.

Dunno about revival, but they have released some Compton-Burnett. I enjoyed _Manservant and Maidservant_ a lot, but haven't picked up anything else yet. I keep thinking I'm not a fan of dialogue-heavy novels, but that novel is a good case against that belief.

I just now enjoyed all those Galt quotes, descriptions and speculations. Checked my local library online: no Galt, but they do have Castle Rackrent, in an Edgeworth twofer with Ennui. That's another promising title, re the attitude in the Wuthering commentator's Castle quotes.

nyrb is pretty responsive on twitter too

Nah, read it. I recoil from fiction about the groves of academe but this novel works -- and a quick read.

― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, December 14, 2013 8:17 AM (1 month ago)

i think i had heard of the reissue before i was privy to a talk by a MORAL PHILOSOPHER all about STONER and what a etc. etc. example it was, the whole thing (the talk i mean) seemed to be an exercise in academic narcissism ('oh i found this book… how coincidental that it is about unsatisfying academic life…')

… so i kind of felt like that was a red flag

Would have preferred it if the tone was somewhat different, maybe black comedy too much to ask, but perhaps something more muted than the "Ah Stoner, Ah humanity!" that we get.

Reading speedboat right now and loving it

yeah, just read it, so good.

also reading Speedboat. This might be my new favourite sentence of all time:

"I stole a wash cloth once from a motel in Angkor Wat."

i should reread that book some less sad weekend than the one i read it