August reads (so far)
The fiction has been excellent, as has the weather ...
José Saramago, Raised from the Ground (Margaret Jull Costa) [Mariner/HMH]: Higher hopes justified, though this initial exposition in his signature style didn't displace any of my favorites, though that style is perhaps even more appropriate to this storyline.
Umberto Eco, Inventing the Enemy (Richard Dixon) [HMH]: one of the more disappointing collections of his essays (his preface opens "The title of this collection ought to have been the subtitle, Occasional Writings" and it's too like occasional poetry, not of the same caliber as the good stuff). Not that it doesn't have its moments, but they were fewer, and some of it felt warmed over (overdoing excess in Hugo and Dumas, the lists more listless ...), but one of the better essays, "Why the Island Is Never Found" segued nicely into ...
Peter Matthiessen, Far Tortuga [Vintage]: I was actually put on to Matthiessen by the NYTSM profile that just preceded his obit, and this particular title as the best-regarded if not best-known; but also by John Latta's last notebook entry. (And this and the books that follow below were hard to come by this side of the pond, all came by way of UK.) But on to Spenser Island ...
Arno Schmidt, The School for Atheists: A Novella=Comedy in 6 Acts (John E. Woods) [Green Integer]: Schmidt slows down your reading, the later the slower, so this one moreso: I'll let MAO explain. (And taking this on is just warm-up for Bottom's Dream ...) I will mention that among the namechecked authors (Cooper, Bulwer, and of course Shakespeare) is Verne, segueing again ...
Adam Roberts, Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea (Illus Mahendra Singh) [Gollancz]: Ingenious homage to Jules Verne, and to the illustrated novel. Roberts has long been playing with various sci-fi tropes (bit out of date, that link, he's been busy) but also had a special interest in Verne; I wonder whether this will be translated into French.
Italo Calvino, The Complete Cosmicomics (William Weaver, Tim Parks, Martin McLaughlin) [Penguin]: by and large a reread but from long long ago, not dated even though the science it riffs on is, and this time round I came to appreciate another element beneath it, esp the Qfwfq tales, prodding me to dislodge Italian Folktales from the Bookshelf of Good Intentions. A couple of iblogatory links to particular stories: "Mitosis" is summed up by Joy Division, and I sumbled upon this before "Meteorite" ...
José Saramago, Raised from the Ground (Margaret Jull Costa) [Mariner/HMH]: Higher hopes justified, though this initial exposition in his signature style didn't displace any of my favorites, though that style is perhaps even more appropriate to this storyline.
Umberto Eco, Inventing the Enemy (Richard Dixon) [HMH]: one of the more disappointing collections of his essays (his preface opens "The title of this collection ought to have been the subtitle, Occasional Writings" and it's too like occasional poetry, not of the same caliber as the good stuff). Not that it doesn't have its moments, but they were fewer, and some of it felt warmed over (overdoing excess in Hugo and Dumas, the lists more listless ...), but one of the better essays, "Why the Island Is Never Found" segued nicely into ...
Peter Matthiessen, Far Tortuga [Vintage]: I was actually put on to Matthiessen by the NYTSM profile that just preceded his obit, and this particular title as the best-regarded if not best-known; but also by John Latta's last notebook entry. (And this and the books that follow below were hard to come by this side of the pond, all came by way of UK.) But on to Spenser Island ...
Arno Schmidt, The School for Atheists: A Novella=Comedy in 6 Acts (John E. Woods) [Green Integer]: Schmidt slows down your reading, the later the slower, so this one moreso: I'll let MAO explain. (And taking this on is just warm-up for Bottom's Dream ...) I will mention that among the namechecked authors (Cooper, Bulwer, and of course Shakespeare) is Verne, segueing again ...
Adam Roberts, Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea (Illus Mahendra Singh) [Gollancz]: Ingenious homage to Jules Verne, and to the illustrated novel. Roberts has long been playing with various sci-fi tropes (bit out of date, that link, he's been busy) but also had a special interest in Verne; I wonder whether this will be translated into French.
Italo Calvino, The Complete Cosmicomics (William Weaver, Tim Parks, Martin McLaughlin) [Penguin]: by and large a reread but from long long ago, not dated even though the science it riffs on is, and this time round I came to appreciate another element beneath it, esp the Qfwfq tales, prodding me to dislodge Italian Folktales from the Bookshelf of Good Intentions. A couple of iblogatory links to particular stories: "Mitosis" is summed up by Joy Division, and I sumbled upon this before "Meteorite" ...
posted by nnyhav | 23:53
1 Comments:
I found Far Tortuga an odd book. It reads like a very long poem in parts and a novel in others.
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