NYRB Publishing

i think Foundation Pit is one of Platonov weakest stories (actually, it's a novella) maybe cause it's super realistic,dry,too political and with too much dialouge while Platonov merits are in creating a poetic,lyrical,closed to surreal, but very gentle atmosphere, which is closer to Kafka, Schultz, Gombrowicz and a little Cortazar than anything else

Well I do have a taste for political fiction -- I read the intro to Soul (the short story collection also bought out NYRB) and what did draw my attention was the politics (with one eye on the craft of writing; 'dry' and 'political' needn't necessarily go together), and that he wrote the majority of his works (which includes essays on many subjects, writers that do write really widely is a good sign to me) in that 1917-1929 period in Russian history, as I'm really interested in Russian fiction from that period.

It would probably be disappointing to me if it was some kind of Kafka knock-off.

it isn't a Kafka knock-off - it's very unique,though it resemble Kafka .
in a way,all of Platonov's writing is political, but the genius of his writing,imo,is when the political issues are the subtext of the story,not the story itself: isnt that (among other things) what makes a great art - the beauty of the transformation from "message" to "imagery"?
he did it not only because he was a talented writer but also because of the censorship and fear of the goverment,but sometimes,ironically those restaints produce great art..

"Soul" is fantastic, Jules. Summary: geezer goes to be Soviet rep dude to some dwindling, semi-migratory tribe, goes fairly native. You can have a lend of my copy if you want (it's a Harvill not an NYRB, soz). It didn't feel like Kafka, to me. I liked "The Foundation Pit" too, and have read the stories in "The Return" and the feeling I came away with wasn't really gentleness but a slightly panicky inability to move.

(I note that in his Wikipedia page Andrey is being played by Denholm Elliott: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Platonov.)

"The political issues are the subtext of the story, not the story itself" - yes, this, but (in "Soul" and "TFP" I think) it's a subtext which makes the story wrench and scream.

lolz I spent a good five mins trying to work the Denholm Elliott 'thing'. Thanks for the offer, Tim, I'll take.

I see that the translator himself 'comments' on the Amazon page for the book.

Book Court in Cobble/Boerum Hill has a whole shelf just of NYRB books.

Book Court in Cobble/Boerum Hill has a whole shelf just of NYRB books.

hey--does anyone know a place in brooklyn, say, in the cobble hill or boerum hill area, where i can find these books?

I think somebody might have posted about that way up thread.

(Thought it wasn't supposed to let me do that.)

Are there any shops that deal in books by New Directions in London?

I think I've seen some of their stuff in Charing X Foyles. But maybe a while ago - have a half-sense that Foyles have made their stock-buying a bit less idiosyncratic - others might know more.

Other thing is I don't see (unlike Dalkey and NYRB) a lot of New directions stuff 2nd hand. Maybe it just hasn't registered..

have a half-sense that Foyles have made their stock-buying a bit less idiosyncratic

Been a while since I worked there, but even at the time it was part of the remit to move from the old (admittedly ludicrously haphazard and expensive) habits to the new ones. We were still encouraged to take a punt on eccentric hunches (my favourite was getting in a load of Anatomy of Melancholy when NYRB republished it - nowhere else in London got it in, and I took loads - bonanza) but, even if that doesn't go on any more (and after all the misses were greater than the hits), I think there's still a general attempt to take a more left-field approach to things. As much as anything this makes sound business sense, separating you out from competitors. Like anywhere else tho, it's the computer books and medical stuff that brings home the bacon. (Plus true crime and big big blockbusters). Any largish bookshop would be a fool to miss out on that.

Don't know about New Directions, mind, haven't been in for a while, but worth asking, as given a sympathetic ear, they might start getting them in to see how they sell, even if they haven't already.

That NYRB shelf at Book Court is so enticing. It makes me feel like there's this entire alternate universe of great literature I've never read.

Thinking some more, it might have been Borders where I saw them - back in their UK heyday when they had lots of American books unavailable elsewhere (didn't use Amazon back then). The only things I know I've seen, though, are the Ezra Pound editions.

So that isn't very helpful.

That's ok. So much of what's on their Latin American and Asian lists interests me.

I guess I'll eventually have to start buying things on amazon.

they really are like the criterion collection of book publishers. the jg farrell ones are my favorite i've read thus far, particularly 'troubles'.

That's an interesting comparison.

Thinking about getting Anatomy of Melancholy soon.

they really are like the criterion collection of book publishers.

truth bomb

A few NYRB favourites, pulled out of my head at random...

Any and all Tove Jansson and JG Farrell, as you said, plus Stefan Zweig

LJ Davis: A Meaningful Life -- black suburbanite comedy, very uncomfortably funny
Adolfo Bioy Cesares: The Invention of Morel -- clever, mind-twisting sci-fi
Christopher Priest: Even cleverer, more mind-twisting sci-fi
Harvey Swados: At Night in the Gardens of Brooklyn -- wonderful short story collection
JR Ackerley: My Dog Tulip, My Father and Myself, We Think the WOrld of You -- the first two are memoirs, the 3rd a novel, all great
William Attaway: Blood on the Forge -- savage, bleak, amazing story about two black brothers in the 1930s
Frigyes Karinthy: A Journey Round my Skull -- funny and fascinating memoir of brain injury
Dezső Kosztolányi: Skylark -- beautiful short book about doting parents whose daughter goes away on a holiday, causing them to break out as gamblers, drinkers, eaters, etc etc

Man, so many other gems, cant list them all. Am also especially looking forward to:

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti: "On July 1, 1959, at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, the social psychologist Milton Rokeach brought together three paranoid schizophrenics: Clyde Benson, an elderly farmer and alcoholic; Joseph Cassel, a failed writer who was institutionalized after increasingly violent behavior toward his family; and Leon Gabor, a college dropout and veteran of World War II.

The men had one thing in common: each believed himself to be Jesus Christ. Their extraordinary meeting and the two years they spent living together serves as the basis for this poignant and often hilarious investigation into the nature of human identity, belief, and delusion. With novelistic momentum and insight, Rokeach takes us into the lives of these three incredible and, despite their common claim, altogether singular personalities who find themselves “confronted with the ultimate contradiction conceivable for human beings: more than one person claiming the same identity.”

In scenes of remarkable power and vividness (“I'm telling you I'm God!” “You're not!” “I'm God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost! I know what I am. . .”) we see the three Christs argue, proclaim, and soliloquize about the nature of their contentious divinity, and are given a window onto one of the most remarkable psychological case studies on record. "

Harvey Swados: At Night in the Gardens of Brooklyn -- wonderful short story collection

this is really terrific & its kinda so good that i think anything i cld say wld do it a disservice? its fantastic imo

if i were doing a pov i think id choose:

vladimir sorokin: ice - 'flat' kinda minimal russian horror + socialist realist parody + ad-speak parody
don carpenter: hard rain falling - impressionistic 50s crime novel really beautiful
mavis gallant short story collection - i just like her voice stark and knowing and terrible
stefan zweig: post-office girl - idk... unrelenting? really wonderful tho
gregor von rizzi: memoirs of an anti-semite - five interconnected stories abt a central european aristocrat 'dark and funny'

hey lamp we were talking sorokin on the shakey hates books thread--if i read sacred book of the werewolf and found it readble and engaging but haaaaaated the buddhist theologizing, would i like ice

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.

i read like a quarter of 'the long ships' in the bookstore the other day it was so rad

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.

im a lot more interested in post-stalin russian lit than a werewolf explaining buddhism 102

max werent you guys talking abt victor pelevin on the other thread, rather than sorokin? or are you just comparing the two

lol

we were

all those russian "v"s

hahaha

lets not tell anyone about this

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.

Picked up Paul Schmidt's The Stray Dog Cabaret last weekend.

http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~kohler/z/nyrb/stray-dog-cabaret.jpg

their edition of félix fénéon's novels in three lines has a great introductory essay

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.

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.

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.

Reading Grossman's brilliant unfinished novel Everything Flows, might have to chase up on The Road.

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

we appear to have a bunch of remainders come in

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.

any recommendations from this lot?

stephen benatar, wish her safe at home
mavis gallant, the cost of living
geoffrey household, rogue male
jakov lind, soul of wood
guy de maupassant, afloat
audrey platonov, the foundation pit
victor serge, unforgiving years
francis wyndham, the complete fiction
stefan zweig, the post-office girl

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.

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.

thomp, I read Gallant's "Paris Stories' a while back and I'm genuinely curious about 'The Cost of Living'.

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

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.