Been meaning to read That Awful Mess, but I'm afraid it will just go on the shelf next to the others I've gotta get around to.
― Horace Silver Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 24 July 2009 16:09 (fourteen years ago) link
multi-xp
I liked Morel a lot a few years ago - for me got the mix of reality-twisting oddness and 19th-century Stevenson-y island adventure about right (ie it worked as middle-distance Borges), but I think I was moping about unobtainable women at the time so I might find it a bit less appealing now.
Haven't got more than a few pages into his one about a dog though.
― woofwoofwoof, Friday, 24 July 2009 16:12 (fourteen years ago) link
I enjoyed 'The Awful Mess...', but from what I gather, it's what Bierce disdainfully referred to as 'novel in dialect' - apparently Gaddo captured Roman slang really, really well though how you would translate that is a complete mystery to me.
Is 'Morel' by Bioy Casares? Wasn't he pals w/Borges or something?
― Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Friday, 24 July 2009 16:14 (fourteen years ago) link
Yes, they were great mates I believe. Also collaborated with him on some stories. So Morel being Borges-y is very understandable, but I meant it's successful in that - doesn't seem like a rip, seems to be synthesising the same stuff well over a different length.
― woofwoofwoof, Friday, 24 July 2009 16:23 (fourteen years ago) link
borges wrote an intro to morel, that i believe is included in the NYRB edition
i was disappointed by morel in part because it was recommended to me very highly--it had the borgesian plot mechanics w/out the economy of style that makes borges so gripping; i felt like the man himself could have done the same thing twice as well in half as many pages
― max, Friday, 24 July 2009 16:25 (fourteen years ago) link
Well, that is Borges' forte, isn't it?
― Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Friday, 24 July 2009 16:44 (fourteen years ago) link
i would read all these nyrb books.
seriously, they all look appealing to me. of the ones i've seen.
― scott seward, Friday, 24 July 2009 18:39 (fourteen years ago) link
― Horace Silver Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 24 July 2009 18:40 (fourteen years ago) link
Warlock by Oakley Hall
^^^ i think this may be the only one of these i read but it was dope. oh - looking ive also read the stephen leacock nonsense novels, which was okay.
― here comes the slug line (Lamp), Friday, 24 July 2009 18:47 (fourteen years ago) link
For those who enjoyed Morel, I also recommend his similarly Wells-ian Plan of Escape. His later stuff I don't like too much.
― Horace Silver Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 24 July 2009 18:55 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh, Michael, I really liked The Dud Avacado -- you recommend the other Dundy as well?
It's true, these things have always looked a cut above, from the get-go.
― nabisco, Friday, 24 July 2009 20:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Cesare Pavese - The Moon and the Bonfire
Really on the WILL WILL read: Victor Serge - The Unforgiving Years, and Henry De Montherlant
As for the Gadda - The 'mess' is part of the point and integral, but this seems amplified by the almost impossible job of translation of those linguistic puns! Still it does hold its fascination and the guy has written widely on a range of topics. I really hope that bringing this translation out will mean more novels and writings to come in English, but I do fear it was the wrong book of his to bring out, as much as I liked it.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 24 July 2009 20:36 (fourteen years ago) link
I really liked The Dud Avacado -- you recommend the other Dundy as well?
Yes! Unfortunately it's in England as opposed to France but the plot is neater and the ending far superior to the ending of TDA, which I found a little artlessly abrupt. You can tell that Dundy is more grown-up or something. It's a hoot.
I find Montherlant rather depressing. His prose is rather gorgeous in French but he's such a bitter misogynist.
I seriously, like scott seward, would read almost all of these (except for the translations from the French) but the one that's next for me is probably Zweig's 'The Post-Office Girl'.
It's a posthumous novel, just now translated into English and it's a 2009 PEN Translation Prize Finalist. Also, I just love Zweig.
― Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Friday, 24 July 2009 20:45 (fourteen years ago) link
yah the zweig u linked sounds fantastic
― here comes the slug line (Lamp), Friday, 24 July 2009 20:49 (fourteen years ago) link
turn yr zweig on
― max, Friday, 24 July 2009 21:01 (fourteen years ago) link
The Post Office Girl is, indeed, fantastic. I love NYRB--beautiful books, and most of those I've read have been great.
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Saturday, 25 July 2009 02:40 (fourteen years ago) link
wasn't there a thread on this before?
i have read and enjoyed:
the Joyce Cary trilogy - Herself Surprised/The Horse's Mouth/To be A PilgrimDarcy O'Brien - A Way of Life Like Any OtherJ.F. Powers - Morte D'UrbanGeorges Simenon - Three Bedrooms In Manhattan
― velko, Saturday, 25 July 2009 09:14 (fourteen years ago) link
oh yeah, High Wind In Jamaica - Richard Hughes too
and i have The Go-Between on my shelf,bought it a few years ago and forgot it so I will start that in the next couple of weeks
― velko, Saturday, 25 July 2009 09:32 (fourteen years ago) link
Darcy O'Brien - A Way of Life Like Any Other
― Horace Silver Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 July 2009 12:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick Seconding this one too. Will take this opportunity to recommend Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood. I think they've got another one by her as well.
― Horace Silver Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 July 2009 12:24 (fourteen years ago) link
i really like the thing mentioned upthread, where the typesetting is a slightly wonky copy of the previous edition's. it's nice to have that reminder of er the history of the book you're reading as a series of previous physical objects
(/wank)
their children's books are occasionally quite gorgeous; i bought this for my nephew and never actually gave it to him
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515bHOayxkL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
― thomp, Saturday, 25 July 2009 15:22 (fourteen years ago) link
Didn't Buzzati write 'The Tartar Steppe'?
― Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Saturday, 25 July 2009 17:19 (fourteen years ago) link
Think it was called The Desert of The Tartars but yeah, that's the same guy.
Found another one to recommend: The Waste Books by George Chistoph Lichtenberg. Perhaps will post some cherce nuggets in the near future.
Found a bunch more I've purchased but never gotten round to reading. It's a little depressing. Ah, M. White! Ah, humanity!
― Horace Silver Machine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 July 2009 22:41 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product-file/52/memo9152/product.jpg
!!!!! these dudes have been str8 killing it w/east european translation l8ly
also nice that they put out that mavis gallant collection - penguin canada had a slim and pretty collection of eight stories that i have but this one seems tighter and better chosen also bought memoirs of an anti-semite, vladimir sorkin's ice and the chrysalids (lol)
― as the hart pants after the water brooks even so my blashphemous soul (Lamp), Wednesday, 23 September 2009 09:34 (fourteen years ago) link
That's just up my alley
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 23 September 2009 20:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Memoirs of an Anti-Semite and The Chrysalids are arse-kickingly good. Must read Memories of the Future!
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Wednesday, 23 September 2009 23:43 (fourteen years ago) link
i would like to read memoirs of an anti-semite. i have a couple of these on my shelf that i haven't read (because they're on my shelf...). they're very pretty!
― steamed hams (harbl), Wednesday, 23 September 2009 23:46 (fourteen years ago) link
I have been enjoying some of those mid-century novels of the American left, which I barely knew existed: "Clark Gifford's Body" by Kenneth Fearing; "The Unposessed" by Tess Schlesinger; "What's For Dinner" by James Schuyler, that Lionel Trilling novel, all variously fine, I'm sure there were one or two more.
I love publishing houses I can trust when I'm not sure whether to take a punt or not. I recently took a punt on "The Ten Thousand Things" by Maria Dermout, and I was pleased I did. It ended up reminding me of "Sleepless Nights" by E. Hardwick herself, which is somewhere near where we came in.
It's costing me money, though: now I want the nice NYRB editions not inferior editions from elsewhere. Time was I'd have been very pleased to pick up the Virago copy of "The Old Man And Me" available for pennies off Amazon...
― Tim, Thursday, 24 September 2009 13:19 (fourteen years ago) link
After reading Stephen Vizinczey's review of The Death of My Brother Abel I don't plan to read anything by von Rezzori.
― alimosina, Thursday, 24 September 2009 19:20 (fourteen years ago) link
haha that's funny because i got memoirs out today. but it was the viking edition :(
― steamed hams (harbl), Thursday, 24 September 2009 19:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Really good turn for these guys to give away some of the essays for free -- really enjoyed reading Toni Morrison on Camara Laye.
Right now I really want to have a look at the Walser short story collection. Really.
One slight negative => Let me suggest the way its bound/the design of the books doesn't quite suit anything over 250 pages. But I speak as someone who has not given an awful lot of thought to the way books are designed.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 7 October 2009 21:28 (fourteen years ago) link
vladimir sorokin's ice
this was weird its not "good" but it was surprisingly tense and creepy. i missed my subway stop one night - sunday maybe? - reading part I and i wish that hed kept up with that. the socialist realist parody section was grating i mean i guess it was supposed to be? and the level of contempt is hard to forgive - it feels like a book that has everything figured out and doesnt really want to know its world any better just to heap derision on its many failings. also it was really violent...
im going to try some of the tatyana tolstaya stuff they have next
― h3len k. (Lamp), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 03:35 (fourteen years ago) link
Anyone checked out Andrey Platonov? Read an intro to one of the books on the NYRB page, the translator does compare him to Musil/Proust elsewhere but those comparisons always come across as more like blind enthusiasm.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:00 (fourteen years ago) link
I picked up the NYRB edition of the Opies' Lore and Language of Schoolschildren yesterday (which my Amazon reseller seems to have liberated from Newton le Willows library) which looks fantastic on first glance (includes an extensive etymology and mapping of the use of "fainites"!).
― Stevie T, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Really on the WILL WILL read: Victor Serge - The Unforgiving Years
oh man this is so good, check out his Memoirs of a Revolutionary too.
I've read one Platonov for a class - The Foundation Pit. It's weird as hell and terribly sad. I think I liked it, I was probably the only person in class to finish it. I checked out one of his books of stories which I never really gave a chance to; about 20 pages in it was getting so over-the-top in Russian misery that I was having trouble not laughing, and then I had to return it to the library.
― clotpoll, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:37 (fourteen years ago) link
I try to get these for the library whenever I see them. Lately we've gotten No Tomorrow by Vivant Denon, The Cost of Living by Mavis Gallant, and Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter.
Other paperback publishers who consistently make me happy: New Directions, Editions Gallimard.
― Virginia Plain, Thursday, 22 October 2009 02:51 (fourteen years ago) link
I've read one Platonov for a class - The Foundation Pit. It's weird as hell and terribly sad. I think I liked it,
Read, not for a class, but for "fun" -- very sad, very odd, sometimes hard-going, I _think_ I liked it as well.
Summary: a bunch of Soviet workers are digging the foundations for a massive utopian communist self-contained city thing, but it may actually be a Stalinist mass grave
― When two tribes go to war, he always gets picked last (James Morrison), Thursday, 22 October 2009 03:42 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― Zeno, Thursday, 22 October 2009 08:33 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 22 October 2009 09:31 (fourteen years ago) link
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..
― Zeno, Thursday, 22 October 2009 11:39 (fourteen years ago) link
"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.
― Tim, Thursday, 22 October 2009 11:51 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 22 October 2009 16:51 (fourteen years ago) link
Book Court in Cobble/Boerum Hill has a whole shelf just of NYRB books.
― the onimo effect (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 10 December 2009 21:54 (fourteen years ago) link
hey--does anyone know a place in brooklyn, say, in the cobble hill or boerum hill area, where i can find these books?
― max, Thursday, 10 December 2009 21:56 (fourteen years ago) link
I think somebody might have posted about that way up thread.
― the onimo effect (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 10 December 2009 22:03 (fourteen years ago) link
(Thought it wasn't supposed to let me do that.)
Are there any shops that deal in books by New Directions in London?
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 20 July 2010 13:46 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― tetrahedron of space (woof), Tuesday, 20 July 2010 13:53 (thirteen years ago) link
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..
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 20 July 2010 14:21 (thirteen years ago) link
What was that in the sky? A flash? Must be the NYRB Classics Summer Flash Sale! Up to 40% off list price. Free shipping on orders of $50 or more within the US. https://t.co/cMPrY3Wl6c pic.twitter.com/kBisVepIxZ— NYRB Classics (@nyrbclassics) June 30, 2022
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Monday, 4 July 2022 19:17 (one year ago) link
This looks real tasty
https://www.nyrb.com/collections/ferit-edgu/products/the-wounded-age-and-eastern-tales?variant=41906350489768
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 26 October 2022 21:32 (one year ago) link
Very funny bitching about nyrb.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/lament-for-susan
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 14:07 (nine months ago) link
Review of the novel was fairly convincing tbh.
As to the bitching it was just something to put upfront. Publishing is looking to make stuff happen. Which includes some forgotten things, if you feel they are now again the fashion.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 14:10 (nine months ago) link
What the editors declare a “classic” is almost certainly a subcanonical instance of Europe’s endlessly dying modernism or its American imitations.
Sounds great to me.
― hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Tuesday, 18 July 2023 14:14 (nine months ago) link
This relentless pushing of Elizabeth Taylor novels -- I feel smothered.— Moderna Love Gets Me to the Church on Time (@SotoAlfred) July 18, 2023
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 18 July 2023 14:16 (nine months ago) link
that Tablet piece is like a book world version of "Pitchfork is Dumb..."
― hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Tuesday, 18 July 2023 14:35 (nine months ago) link
I'd rather they publish more translation than reissue Anglo literary writing but they are already doing a lot.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 14:37 (nine months ago) link
pic.twitter.com/wK664Lxobf— Chris (@CMccafe) July 17, 2023
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 22:32 (nine months ago) link
The resolution of the photo is so bad I can't read most of the titles . . . or maybe it's just my eyes. At any rat, I do see that The House of Mirth is the bottom title. I'd be OK being ruled over by Edith Wharton.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 18 July 2023 23:43 (nine months ago) link
*rate
Actually, it's The New York Stories of Edith Wharton lol
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 18 July 2023 23:44 (nine months ago) link
Start of that Tablet piece is so astonishingly dumb, can't imagine why you'd want to read to the end.
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 19 July 2023 00:01 (nine months ago) link
Edith Wharton would have no problem ruling over us all tbc
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 19 July 2023 00:02 (nine months ago) link
I tried to read the Susan Tubes novel Divorcing, referenced in the review xyzz posted. A very sixties experimental stream of consciousness novel, which sounds good on paper but I found it just too baggy, verbose, formless. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for that kind of thing at the time. The story around it is an eye-opener though, she committed suicide 2 weeks after publication - possibly because of a bad review in the NYT, and Susan Sontag identified the body!
― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 19 July 2023 00:10 (nine months ago) link
Taubes not Tubes, thanks autocorrect
― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 19 July 2023 00:11 (nine months ago) link
Is Inverted World in there?
― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 July 2023 00:11 (nine months ago) link
While browsing in bookstores, I always get fooled by those red-spine Vintage classic paperbacks that look identical to NYRB paperbacks from the spine, with same typeface and everything. I guess its an intentional homage?
― o. nate, Friday, 28 July 2023 18:40 (eight months ago) link
A few favourites that I don't think have been mentioned so far:
Emmanuel Bove - My FriendsFriedrich Reck-Malleczewen - Diary of a Man in Despair Alberto Moravia - Boredom and ContemptIvo Andric - Omer Pasha LatasG B Edwards - The Book of Ebenezer Le PageRose Macaulay - The Towers of Trebizond
― gravalicious, Sunday, 30 July 2023 13:14 (eight months ago) link
Ebenezer Le Page is amazing.
― JoeStork, Sunday, 30 July 2023 16:27 (eight months ago) link
finally read it a couple of years ago, & yes^
― no lime tangier, Sunday, 30 July 2023 23:21 (eight months ago) link
Since twitter is wild west at the moment, I'm going to pipe up to say that those of you who are dragging Tove Jansson for not being sufficiently "adult" in her writing are showing if not your whole ass, a good portion of it.— NYRB Classics (@nyrbclassics) August 11, 2023
― hardcore technician gimmicks are also another popular choice f (President Keyes), Sunday, 13 August 2023 00:15 (eight months ago) link
That poll has been quite something..
It's not even wild west, it's just "book twitter".
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 13 August 2023 10:24 (eight months ago) link
they do pretty good though on the translation front imo -- they can't be selling too much Ivo Andric but there he is! tons of super edgelord lit types like to hate on nyrb for what amount imo to not being edgelordy enough
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 13 August 2023 13:54 (eight months ago) link
I love this review of Johnson's Anniversaries. It's very good at describing the book, gives a sense of the achievement as well as it's potential flaws, and does this with a good level of precision. It matches a lot of my reading of it.
https://4columns.org/scribner-charity/anniversaries
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 13 August 2023 21:49 (eight months ago) link
xp - is edgelord lit like William Burroughs/the Beats?
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 14 August 2023 10:11 (eight months ago) link
nah yknow I mean this is now a v dated reference but ny tyrant types, of whom there are a good handful
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 14 August 2023 10:42 (eight months ago) link
wild western canon still includes blood meridian
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Monday, 14 August 2023 11:15 (eight months ago) link
The Alvaro Mutis is all time.
May the memory of Edith Grossman be a blessing! What a dear professor, and an incredible titan in world literature. Her translations provided terrifying and melancholic worlds. pic.twitter.com/ZCbfYHMCui— Zach Issenberg (@ZIssenberg) September 4, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 5 September 2023 08:11 (seven months ago) link