Lilacs Out of the Dead Land, What Are You Reading? Spring 2022

The post, not the list, was construed as “worth reading” because it mentioned good prose as well as bad

Citing Wodehouse as an example of good prose is no more interesting than citing Asimov as an example of bad, I agree, I just think you’ve focused on the wrong part unless you are just heavily invested in the interestingness of citations of authors

I finished Jenny Erpenbeck's 'Go, Went, Gone'. Really, depressingly good on the refugee situation in Europe, and as I said above good at making one feel guilty for one's comfortable life. Hugely and rightfully scornful of the enormous abrogation of responsibility that is the Dublin regulation. Very simple prose that occasionally startles you with an image e.g. 'For a moment, this thought opens its jaws wide, displaying its frightening teeth'.

Now started Lethem's 'Gun, with Occasional Music'. I wasn't expected such a brazen Chandler pastiche, will see if it overstays its welcome - it's fairly short at least.

It's still as good as almost any book he's written.

Finsihed Will Sargent's Bunnyman which has me hoping he gets the 2nd volume finished soon. He stops just after De Freitas has been recruited though not sure how taht works if he was still aschoolfriend of a friend in a Somerset boarding school. Though since everybody else is like 19 or 20 maybe this wasa couple of years after taht anyway.
Really enjoyed this. So do definitely want more.
I caught teh City Lights webinar book launch thing of this and Bobby Gillespie's memoir and wonder if that is remotely worth a look.
Like only reading about 15 books already.

Think I will have the combined bio of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Miles Davis by the end of this week. Have already read a lot about Miles and far less about the other 2.

A combined bio of those three? What book is that?

Miles, Ornette, Cecil : how Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor revolutionized the world of jazz / Howard Mandel.
ISBN:
9780415967143 ((hbk.)(hbk.) :)0415967147 ((hbk.) :)

Forgot about that book.

Holy shit that Mandel book costs a fortune! Was hoping I could find a cheap copy somehow.

Can you really accept this guy as an authority on jazz?

https://e.snmc.io/i/600/s/12938adddf5d9510964c642ea31bece4/2115107/howie-mandel-fits-like-a-glove-Cover-Art.jpg

Lol. wrong thread maybe.

Stevo, have you read A.B. Spellman's Four Lives In The Be-Bop Business? Early scuffling years of Ornette, Jackie Maclean (still young, still in with the bop crowd, but emerging from long heroin detour), eternal outlier Herbie Nichols (already dead in'63, but with, to this day, still-underexposed, still striking music), Cecil Taylor, still scuffling as of this book's publication in 1966---from the NYTimes review then, not paywalled:

Spellman steers clear of the misty romanticism that often colors writing about the struggles of jazz musicians. He views these men with a perceptive and understanding eye, digging through the protective surfaces and telling much of their stories in skillfully edited direct quotations that have the ring and bite of reality.

His place on Taylor is a particularly provocative portrait of a thorny, adamant and penetrating individual with a delightfully mordant wit. It sums up much of the essence of the book. It is Taylor who provides Spellman with a microcosm of the endless, Job-like adversities that can follow an innovator through the contemporary jazz world. And it is Taylor's thoughtful analysis of the relation of European music to the cultural aspirations of the white American and the black American that clarifies not only for justification for "serious jazz" as opposed to jazz as entertainment but also the underlying reasons why he and other likeminded musicians persist in the face of alienation and frustration that are their steady lot.

30pp into Asimov's SECOND FOUNDATION (1953). Having been disillusioned with the tiresome Mule story in vol 2, and not keen on this character's domination at the start of vol 3, I'm nonetheless encouraged. Two space captains set off in search of the Second Foundation, in what feels rather like a malign and cold version of Lando & Chewbacca's search for Han Solo. Adventure and intrigue seem to await. The nature of the Second Foundation remains, at this stage, quite mysterious (no spoilers please).

Separately I've been been going back to Ted Hughes - not his own poetry, but critical work, notably Paul Bentley's socialist interpretation TED HUGHES, CLASS & VIOLENCE (2014), which can be compelling to read but which I also gradually realise is fanciful and strained. The CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO TED HUGHES (2011) is of some use. The LETTERS OF TED HUGHES (2007) seem more remarkable, in the way that only letters can be. Also dipped into Jonathan Bate's TED HUGHES: THE UNAUTHORISED LIFE (2015).

I was particularly seeking evidence of TH's political views in later years and these seem to be more interesting and mixed than I'd expected. He quite often fires off moments of disdain for the influence of Conservatism in Britain. On the other hand I suspect any sustained comment on the political Left would be equally negative.

I haven't read the Spellman no. Not sure what I've read on Taylor or Coleman outside of music press. Are they in As Serious As Your Life and the Freedom Principle? That may be it if so.

Rereading Franny and Zooey the first time since I was 16. Probably holds up better than any other loved object of teenagerdom that I’ve revisited.

He feels astonishingly modern on young men and why they’re awful

I read it a few months ago for the first time -- otm

I've had a run of film-related stuff. Finished William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade which goes from funny and scurrilous into something approaching transcendent in the final third. It certainly functions as well as any other 'how to write good' book I've read.

A couple of BFI books: Yvonne Tasker on Silence of the Lambs, which didn't seem to say very much at all; David Thomson on The Big Sleep, which didn't really say a huge amount either but I could read Thomson all day so.

Now reading Otto Friedrich's City of Nets about Hollywood in the 40s.

janet malcolm wrote a great essay on franny and zooey (and how reviewers generally misunderstood it at the time) that’s well worth reading

xpost Chinaski, you might enjoy Robert Gottleib's bio-anthology Garbo, which I carried on about upthread, and Alfred said he loved it too. Incl. an otm James Harvey excerpt, so I'm going to check out JH's Watching Them Be: Star Presence on the Screen from Garbo to Balthazar
Yeah, I read Franny and Zooey in high school too, took it as, "Hang on to your dreams, kids, but don't end up like Holden!" He had followers by then---not yet Mark David Chapman, but was prob getting a bit alarmed. So, "Zooey" 's big brother lectures were understandable, esp. after Seymour's demise, but still I got a bit tired of them, though I thought of "Franny" as killer finale downtempo bonus track for Nine Stories, the high school fave that still plays in my head, maybe esp. the voice on the telephone at the wrong time, dead tired, but "rudely, almost obscenely quickened for the occasion." I know that voice.

Yep! It inspired me to read it xpost

Thanks for the Malcolm tip-off, that sounds fun - is there a free version online? (Unless I'm missing something)

If you can: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/06/21/justice-jd-salinger/

Aha - just being dozy and missed the "view this article if you register" smallprint - thanks!

"The 'mistakes' and 'excesses' that early critics complain of are often precisely the innovations that have given the work its power."

Love this so far

"The 'mistakes' and 'excesses' that early critics complain of are often precisely the innovations that have given the work its power."

think that applies to Hanya Yanigahara, but I know a lot of you hate her writing and I respect that

most recent for me

Colm Tóibín - The Magician
Anthony Doerr - Cloud Cuckoo Land
Jonathan Lee - The Great Mistake
Sally Rooney - Beautiful World, Where Are You
Thomas Grattan - The Near East
R.O. Kwon - The Incendiaries
Damon Galgut - The Promise

Returned briefly to Sean O'Brien, THE DEREGULATED MUSE (1998) and read the essay on Hughes. Eloquent and agreeable. Very brief, though he plainly knows Hughes' work so well. Funny emphasis on the Laureate poems, which happen to be the one collection I've read in full.

Colm Tóibín - The Magician

Thoughts?

I liked it, it was entertaining and informative, but it seemed like a biography more than a work of fiction

I recently read Buddenbrooks, an amazing novel, it was hard to compare the two

Soldaten Sonke Neitzel & Harald Welzer
A cache of recordings of WWII German POWs casual conversation was found and transcribed after the war . This book is based on compiling and annotating those transcriptions the contents are far from pleasant. They show the epistemology of the average German soldier at the time. Their indifference or possibly numbness to killing both uniformed enemy and civilians. their attitude to what they perceived as the jewish problem, like it is universally accepted as something they need to deal with. Quite harrowing reading that this is what a group of people can believe through peer pressure and whatever other influences. & wondering how different it is to what some elements feel today.
I picked this up from a charity shop by chance and had taken in what the subject matter was etc. It was sitting in a pile of books to read when I pointed out its existence to somebody dealing with some things in the area as in perpetrator trauma and other forms of PTSD and related trauma. I thought I should get the book read as soon as possible. I currently have it as my bathroom book. So its being read slowly. I wonder if reading faster would be less traumatic.

Harlots, whores & hackabouts : a history of sex for sale Kate Lister
Recent book on the history of sex work and what that entails and its various understandings and motivations. I think it is right across recorded time which makes things possibly more interesting. I know she refers to Gilgamesh though it may be more tied into its Victorian era translation and the prudish reaction of the main translator George Smith to the section where the wildman Ekidu is tamed by the priestess of Ishtar. I heard taht bit during a book launch tie in webinar a few weeks ago so need to read the book to know more. I've so far read the introduction since i just got this from the library yesterday. I went out last night so wasn't reading then and woke up late so wasn't reading as much as i normally do. Did see images of icons of Ishtar depicted though.
I think I'm not that hot on the font being used in the book though, think I'm seeing letters morph which isn't very handy. Don't think I get that with more solid fonts. Oversize book with 2 columns of lightweight font. Like what's the opposite of bold?

Miles, Ornette, Cecil : how Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor revolutionized the world of jazz Howard Mandel
Canadian jazz critic writes an overview/short history of 3 majorly influential jazz artists. Again I've opnly read the introduction.
So looking forward to getting into this.

Have a bunch of other books out that I need to get further into.
Nelson Algren Never Come Morning
well written 1942 novel set in a largely Polish American section of Chicago. I should really have this done by now. IT is a good book I'm just reading a load of different things at the same time.

Eric Charry Mande Music
Good Ethnomusicological study of a North West African Music i really enjoy and still need to know more about. Like reading this and knowing all the music talked about are 2 different things.
I'm currently copying the discography out to RYM so I can check it out after returning the book . Am getting to hear single tracks from Spotify from the discs listed. Hopefully this will be helpful to others too.
But unfortunately not everything is in the RYM database and omigod could do with the search engine being more specific.

stacks of bell hooks, working my way through everything in the Irish library system though do wish there was more. I find her an easy read but may need to revisit quite heavily.

& still buying books from charity shops and have 12 books out of the library.
At some point I will like DEFINITELY read every book I have at hand .

Finished Gun, with Occasional Music. I dunno. He can clearly write, even a Chandler pastiche demonstrates that. But the SF aspect seemed mostly done for effect and I didn't really care for the whodunnit, the protagonists were all unlikeable and I guessed half of the twist. And to borrow a phrase from Tom Paulin, it was like reading a jockstrap. I'd like to know what else he can do but so many books, so little time.

I read As She Climbed Across the Table and found it the most difficult short book I've ever read, and never been tempted to go back to him.

Ducks, Newburyport - I'm about a quarter of the way in and it's skipping by. I wish I were on a sunlounger by a swimmingpool so I could race through it undisturbed in a few days. The witer I'm reminded of most is Anne Tyler.

I'm finally reading Thomas Ligotti, the Penguin edition of Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe.

It is so much fun. I've been staying up 'til 1 am every night just to finish one more story.

Manuel Rivas - The Carpenter's Pencil
Volker Ullrich - Hitler: Volume II: Downfall 1939-45

Abandoned Sheila Heti’s Pure Colour halfway through. Actually enjoyed the first section which seemed grounded and captured something of how small but good life could feel before the internet. But it started unravel when she starts writing about the protagonist’s dead father’s spirit being “ejaculated” (her phrasing, uses it several times) into her body just after his death. And then a whole section where the protagonist turns into a leaf. Yes, a leaf. Awful.

I think every Lethem novel up to, say, 2007 is very good or very interesting.

I finished Asimov's SECOND FOUNDATION, and thus the FOUNDATION TRILOGY (1951-3). It makes a change for me to get through a major trilogy in a month, though it could be said that these books are not very long and are mostly quick to read.

The Hard SF element increases - more about Galactic navigation and about brain scans - though at the same time, the science increasingly becomes fantastically neurological or, in effect, about telepathy, and thus perhaps not so 'hard' after all. Unsure whether this is a good development but it's central to the direction of the trilogy.

Curiously there is an aspect of 'detection' to the whole story, viz 'where is the Second Foundation?' with a late scene in which one character after another puts forward a theory. Asimov did write a lot of detective fiction and I think the rationalism of that genre crosses that of his SF.

The 'gender representation' aspect improves: the granddaughter of the heroine of vol II is a major protagonist in vol III. This lets Asimov play out some very awkward bobby-soxxer domestic comedy material (these things seem unchanged, 50,000 years in the future, from the early 1950s), but overall he does at least show himself able to imagine women (and girls) doing things, which is a change from vol I.

The entire scheme and outcome would seem to be shadowed by a kind of moral question, basically: what are the ethics of a scenario in which protagonists are not acting on free will but actually directed by others' telepathic powers? Curiously this isn't really raised as an ethical question, though 'the free will to make our own mistakes' vs 'lack of free will achieves perfection' would seem to be the kind of ethical dilemma that Asimov could trundle around in a dialogue for many pages. There is thus arguably something sinister about this happy ending.

Asimov wrote 4 more novels from 1982 to 1993. I'm interested in these but don't think I should feel compelled to read them given that the trilogy was left complete for 30 years. The Asimov I would most like to read next is THE CAVES OF STEEL.

I will complete this post by coming full circle and noting that Arcadia's experience of dislocation and yearning among the ruins of Trantor, quite late in Vol III, seems one of many precursors to that of Pella Marsh on the Planet of the Archbuilders in Lethem's GIRL IN LANDSCAPE (1998).

Rereading Pere Goriot for the first time in 30 years.

Finished some chapbooks, and in my covid convalescing, also finished Emily Abendroth’s large book, Sousveillance Pageant. It is composed of interconnected chapters that are more like lyric essays, relating to surveillance culture, carceral systems, capture, and the way bodies are interpellated by these systems. Moving and infuriating in parts, particularly when relating the protagonist’s relationship with her incarcerated brother, and very funny in parts, too. Recommended for those interested in those subjects.

Started Kornbluth & Pohl, THE SPACE MERCHANTS (c.1953). A nice old pulpy (1960s?) edition. First impression: a SF-nal MAN MEN from the early 1950s? Sounds good.

Rereading Pere Goriot for the first time in 30 years.

I just read this for the first time last year. What struck me most was the amount of time it took him to die.

I finished The Worst Hard Time. I toyed with the idea of making a pun on 'harrowing' but nothing clever enough came to me. Also, as a book, it was quite harrowing in the emotional sense. Goddamn it's one ugly piece of history.

I think my next will be Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata, which I just brought home from the public library along with four other titles. Between those and unread books I own it's nice to have lots of options.

Reading Stacy Szymaszek’s The Pasolini Book and just ordered the new Ruth Wilson Gilmore, which I shouldn’t have done since I don’t have much dough at the moment, but oh well.

I finished "My Struggle Book 4" by Knausgaard, so only 2 more to go for me in that series. I guess I buy the hype. I find them very rich and compelling. Its probably a good thing he saved the material in this book for the 4th volume, because I don't think he would have gotten such favorable attention if he had started with this one. It covers just one year, more or less: the year after graduating high school when he was working a teacher in a junior high in northern Norway. There is less of a distancing perspective to give us a respite from the company of the protagonist, and the protagonist of this section is not very likeable: a reckless binge drinker, humorless, sex-obsessed, and with the brittle defiant pride of a young man with something to prove. Scarcely a female character is introduced without describing her physical characteristics in specific terms. His obsession with sex is purely one-sided. Yet despite these distractions, the book works its careful, methodical magic.

Now I'm reading "The Idiot" by Elif Batuman, also a coming of age novel with some similarities in theme, but very different in execution and effect.

1/3 into The Custom of The Country by Edith Wharton. If it's another 300 pages of Middlemarch's Lydgates go NYC, I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy it.

That's a helluva description.

I know right :) I love Middlemarch obv but Undine is - so far - a dead ringer for Rosamond and a novel just about her would be a tough read.

Would it? Off the top of my head I think that sounds good!

want to reread Eliot's Middlemarch and Wharton's The House of Mirth, I read them in the distant past and remember that I liked them but not much else

I finished Convenience Store Woman. It's a short, easy read. In bed this morning I was trying to figure out what I thought about it. It was pretty clearly intended as a satire and it worked reasonably well on that level, but the trick with satire is an audience who's in on the joke, who knows just how much the author is distorting and exaggerating in order to make the usual seem unusual and grotesque. The author and audience all share the same social and cultural frame of 'normal' and the satire is something of an 'in joke'.

But I'm not Japanese and this put me at a disadvantage in sussing out how the author was deftly using that shared cultural material to get her effects and make her points. My lack of deep familiarity with the details of daily life in Japan (mainly Tokyo) made some of the exaggerations less humorous. What was written to be funny to a Japanese felt merely odd or puzzling to me. Yet, I liked the book.

After tussling with it for a bit, I've concluded that this satire from an unfamiliar culture 'worked' for me as an American because it had an additional mythic quality that went beyond cultural satire. The extreme simplicity of the narrator's voice accentuated this quality. And like most good myths, it contains questions that can't be answered and prompts thoughts that can't be concluded. Pretty good for a novella.