2019 Winter: The What Are You Reading thread that came in from the cold

That bio of her inspired this thread: ILB Brief Encounters: Literary Figures Appearing in Interesting Situations

I finished Sick by Porochista Khakpour. It was quite breezy in style, not as literary as I expected. It read more like a blog, or an email to a trusted friend. She is charmingly willing to share things that are potentially quite embarrassing. The book is about her journey through endless doctors and emergency rooms trying to get to the bottom of a mysterious syndrome with somewhat vague symptoms, though usually including headaches, insomnia and general malaise. Many doctors insist that what she really needs is a psychiatrist, and at times she edges towards acceptance of that idea, but is ultimately resistant. Finally she seizes on a diagnosis of late-stage Lyme as a reassuringly physical ailment with a prescribed course of treatment. By the end of the book, as the condition relapses, the sense of relief has mostly dissipated though, so perhaps there'll be a sequel. One can't help rooting for her, while at the same time feeling that she is usually her own worst enemy.

Now I'm reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante.

I read "Tentacle" by Rita Indiana, which is a near-future post-ecodisaster transgender time-travelly (kinda sorta) thing and it seems to me rather well-done even though that's not really the kind of thing I read regularly. This is nearly the end of an And Other Stories subscription from last year and I'm pleased that has pushed me into reading things I otherwise might not have.

Last night I read The Order of the Day, Eric Vuillard. I'd hesitate to call it a history of anything; it assumes a rather large base of pre-existing knowledge about the people and events it describes. It is highly impressionistic, consistently preferring to create an atmosphere or ambience, to the point of adding small colorful details that I am certain are not recorded in his source materials - they seem to be invented or imagined - which are quite effective. In short, it is a highly filmic treatment of historic events and should be classed as counter-propaganda to the mythic glamor the Nazis so carefully sought to wrap around themselves, a glamor that still persists.

The one thing that bothered me in Vuillard's counter-propaganda exercise was the necessity he felt of striking a tone of contempt that never wavered for a moment. However much this contempt is well-merited by its objects, maintaining it so doggedly dehumanizes the subjects of the book, the author, and the reader - to the extent the reader participates in and approves of the author's tone.

That's the problem with propaganda. It can be artful, but it can never be humane. I guess if your targets are Nazis, their enablers and sympathizers, we aren't supposed to let this bother us.

I've read a bunch of Elizabeth Bowen this month. I finished Death of a Heart and started A World of Love (awful titles).

Ellen Wood, East Lynne

Alfred, please comment at some point about those Bowen novels; I've never ready any, though yammered though previous What Are You Readings about her Collected Stories.

I read Jennifer Clement's Widow Basquiat. I don't have a huge amount invested in Basquiat but this was certainly immersive and grungy. I hesitate to pathologise, but he came across as an abusive little boy. Good to know that Rene Ricard thought he had a nice penis.

I also read Andrew Hankinson's You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat], which is an interior monologue based on source material written entirely in the second person [with occasional editorial interventions in parentheses]. It's brutal and certainly hits home but the narrative choice has its limitations [no Gazza, for a start]. Cautious recommend, on the whole.

I have started another quick read, The Word for World is Forest, Ursula K. LeGuin. Already I can see that the movie Avatar not only stole most if its plot from this, Cameron's changes dumbed the script down quite a bit from the book.

I read “ Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner” by Karina Marçal - I thought I was picking up a book about feminist economics, which I suppose I was, but more so I was picking up a feminist book about economics and it’s deeply gendered world view. It will take a while for me to digest and it doesn’t claim to posit answers to all the questions it poses but it’s a very very good book, I think.

I also read “The future, un-imagine” which is a collaboration between Angela Gardner (poet) and Caren Florance (printer and book artist). I think Florance is a bit of a genius and I think this slim volume is brilliant but I couldn’t tell you how it works - just that I keep coming back to it and I like it more each time.

The year so far:

Josep Pla - The Gray Notebook
Violette Leduc - La Batarde
Violette Leduc - The Lady and the Little Fox Fur
Giorgio Vasari - The Lives of the Artists

The first was discussed in the ILB Notebooks thread, that and La Batarde were reads I began last year. The Lady and... is a concentrated blast of a piece of short prose, about an elederly loner who finds a fur coat, and its a great piece on the rhythms of a city (and to be Paris-specific there is a love for the Metro in its pages). Vasari's Lives.. is something I've had on my shelf for years and now finishing. The piece on Michelangelo is something else, maybe the only extended piece of pure adoration (about 70 pages) that totally comes off and is almost never boring. Its something to read a critical work -- 'lives' disguised as a fierce set of opinions on the history of art and sets out on what makes a painting good from a bad one -- without a lot of the -isms and theories that were to follow down the centuries = basically the word beautiful and good are seen at least once on every page. But its no less entertaining and great for that.

Returned slightly to Andy Beckett, PROMISED YOU A MIRACLE. I admire him but I increasingly wonder about the tendency for factitious parallels - 'As Botham led an unlikely revival on the cricket pitch, many wondered if Thatcher could do the same in the political arena'.

This is the kind of thing which when you experience it in real time clearly seems fake and irrelevant. 'As Klopp and Guardiola battled for the Premier League, many wondered if German or Catalan influence would prove most decisive in the Brexit endgame'.

But possibly I exaggerate - AB is basically a very good popular historian, and better than many others at avoiding slack repetition of standard narratives.

Blame ilx: "meet me in the bathroom." That scene passed me by completely but love reading the book.

'And My Head Exploded: Tales of desire, delirium and decadence from fin-de-siecle Prague': splendid title, fascinating, frequently overwrought collection
https://btmedia.whsmith.co.uk/pws/client/images/catalogue/products/9780/99/3446719/xlarge/9780993446719_1.jpg

The LeGuin book was just fine, very smart, not overwritten or unnecessarily protracted to epic length. The presence of the Vietnam War hangs very heavy upon this book.

Now I'm reading Stalingrad, Antony Beevor, wherein Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia become locked in a cage death match.

I read “Tokyo Ueno Station” by Yu Mira which was absolutely brilliant and bottomlessly sad. Something about it reminded me of Jean Rhys in a strange kind of matter-of-fact way.

THE LITTLE REVIEW 'ULYSSES' again.

I read “ Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner” by Karina Marçal - I thought I was picking up a book about feminist economics, which I suppose I was, but more so I was picking up a feminist book about economics and it’s deeply gendered world view. It will take a while for me to digest and it doesn’t claim to posit answers to all the questions it poses but it’s a very very good book, I think.

Yeah, I enjoyed that book quite a bit, and was also surprised that it didn't turn out to be what I'd expected. I like how it undercuts the logic of Economic Man at every turn, and it pops into my mind all the time now in everyday situations.

I finished The Purple Cloud - happy I read it but I do feel the need to get the bitter taste out of my mouth. A deranged, mean spirited book written by a clearly not at all well man. So E.M. Delafied and Consequences is my next port of call.

Your take on KM's book reminds me of Mary Wollstonecraft refuting Edmund Burke's contrast of nice British parliamentary gov/superior culture & morality to nasty French, esp. Revolution: she citing the long and twisting and often bloody road to nice (also seeing and raising Declaration of the Rights of Man w A Vindication of the Rights of Woman).

Kind of obvious, but I'm a fan.

over the weekend I finished my lazy reread of If on a winter's night a traveller…. In the past couple evenings, read Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts several years after everyone else. No less provocative, wise, and kind for the waiting.

I've been trying to get back into the swing of reading with a French translation of The Lord of the Rings, always the most immersive book for me. Maybe I will actually finish a book soon.

"The Chateau" by William Maxwell. After I bought it was was a bit concerned to to find I was being prompted to buy "Stoner" by John Williams on an "if you like that you'll like this" basis. But I needn't have worried: I've only read a quarter of it so far but whatever I think of it in the end I'm confident I'm not going to hate it as much as I did "Stoner".

Mars BY 1980 by David Stubbs.
Got back into this over the last few days. Just read the Joy Division and Depeche Mode bits.
THink I prefered Future Days by him.

Just finished Alex's Adventures in numberland which was quite enjoyable.

Also the Sylvain Sylvain memoir There's No Bones in Icecream which I'd recommend. I need to get around to reading a biography of the New York Dolls which this partially covers from an inside viewpoint.

Drinking Molotov Cocktails With Gandhi by Mark Boyle which I just started.

Thanks for the LeGuin rec, Aimless. I started The Word for World is Forest 10 minutes ago, a break from Frederick Brown's exemplary Flaubert bio, which doubles as a history of mid 19th century France (1848, Second Empire, the Commune).

Reading that I thought Frederic Brown had written a Flaubert bio, which would have been something.
https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1284316880l/439211.jpg

Lol.

THE CORRECTIONS.

oh I haven't mentioned Alter's Hebrew Bible itt yet. Still in Genesis, Abraham just circumcised his whole household. Bible's long.

I like 'The word for world is forest', but it's not one of her best books.

I'll finish it tonight.

Looking through the new translation of Bruno Schulz's stories - I think the rhythm is tight and he is more akin to Robert Walser in his tales that seem to be made up of plotless impressions that he keeps digging into until they give out and go sideways. Its interesting how he writes about a father figure and family; additonally the stories can veer into the fantastical sometimes -- stuff I am thinking more around as I am half-way through.

I finished If You Leave Me by Crystal Mae Kim
Beautifully written & would recommend but it’s not something you really “enjoy” as the story grows more and more deeply sad as you go on. It’s set in the 50’s through to the 60’s and feels like it was written in that time period, i was very impressed by the writing.

I got halfway through Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao & had to stop. Love her writing (like, seriously LOVE it) but the plot felt engineered for maximum horrors, like a choose your own adventure where every plot beat is more horrific than the last. It became suffocating, for me anyway.

I've got a Heinrich Böll novel to pöllisch off then I fully intend to read one of these because the fact that Irene Handl wrote them blows my mind:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/candied-with-a-coating-of-flies-1611301.html

History of medicine. Just started.

JUst read first coupoe fo chapters of Heads by Jesse Jarnow.
Probably should have read this by now. but only got it last month. Seems pretty compelling.
Covering a bunch of people exploring psychedelics. Jarnow started with Peter Stampfel of teh hOly Modal Rounders and has now introduced, Owsley Stanley, Jerry garcia, the Hog Farm and various others.
Have heard this is good and seems so so far.

The Likes of Us by Michael collins
calls itself a history of teh White working class which sounds like it could be iffy. BUt seems ok so far. Reasonably well written and I'm not detecting an overly right wing slant so far.

Beauty Junkies by Alex Kurczynski
25c book on the beauty industry which is my current bog book.

What Robert Walser should I start with? Didn't realize he was so prolific.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71ON0HChYFL._AC_UL320_SR196,320_.jpg

It somehow passed me by that Ways of Seeing by John Berger is not a bog standard philosophy of art text but an acme of cultural marxism that literally calls for the dismantling of capitalism. Highly recommend for those interested in the western art tradition and controversial opinions.

Berger is awesome!

classic!

I wrapped up Stalingrad, Antony Beevor, last night. Like most military history it was informative, but not very instructive for anyone who not a general. Viewed purely as a story, though, it has the fascination of pure horror. All told, the battle for Stalingrad is estimated to have produced at least 1.5 million casualties, with an exceptionally high percentage of those being fatal, due to the additional factors of starvation, lack of medical care and exposure to extreme cold. The book does a reasonable job of explaining what was a very complex and protracted campaign, viewed both at the ground level and at the highest level of Hitler, Stalin and their general staffs.

I am now reading Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Elizabeth Taylor. It is rather more sedate.

Re Walser, Jakob van Gunten is also excellent starting point

And Berger really is good.

Hit return too early. berger really is good, and I had the same surprised reaction to Ways of Seeing as ledge... i assumed it would be a good but maybe slightly outdated MOR art book, but it had so much going on.

Like most military history it was informative, but not very instructive for anyone who not a general.

in that case i'd stay away from any mechanized warfare that involves attacking or defending mid-sized russian cities

I thought Stalingrad was really good! idk, maybe you're just not as into military history as you thought? you mentioned upthread you were hohum about Keegan too...

I keep looking at Ways of Seeing at the bookstore but I’m deeply put off by the typography

stay away from any mechanized warfare that involves attacking or defending mid-sized russian cities

mookieproof caught my meaning.

it's possible for a lay person to learn instructive ideas from political or social histories, but when a military history explains e.g why an offensive failed or which defensive tactics nullified which offensive tactics, this is informative in its way, but never useful to the lay person. it is purely the story of an event and must succeed or fail according to how intrinsically interesting the battle was. In the case of Stalingrad, the vastness of the suffering and struggle was epic and this book portrayed it rather well within the confines of 430 pages.

love Stalingrad. Beevor does a good job with the horror but I suspect out there is a massive and even more in-depth book regarding the battle. For now that one will do perfectly though, and always think of this when I see it on the shelf:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=65B2z_StdLE

I keep looking at Ways of Seeing at the bookstore but I’m deeply put off by the typography