Currently Reading: Chapter II

[Adrian]

collected works of Samuel Beckett alternated with collected works of Cesare Pavese. I should finish by about April, at which time a newly edited and typeset version of James Joyce's Finnigans Wake is published.

[grant]

AWAITING OBLIVION - Maurice Blanchot

at its crux:

It was strange that forgetting could rely in this way on speech and that speech could welcome forgetting, as if there were a relation between the detour of speech and and the detour of forgetting.
Writing in the direction of forgetting.
That forgetting speaks in advance in every word that speaks does not only signify that each word is destined to be forgotten, but also that forgetting finds its repose in speech and keeps speech in accord with that which is hidden.
Forgetting, in the repose that all true speech accords it, lets her speak even in forgetting.
May forgetting repose in all speech.

[billygomberg]

recently finished Battle For Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-39 by Anthony Beevor

recently started Nova by Samuel Delaney

[surfer]

collected works of Cesare Pavese.

Just finished Levi's Christ Stopped at Eboli. Levi and Pavese were both from Turin, and both were exiled by the fascists to small villages in Southern Italy (confino). Has anyone seen the movie adaptation of this?

Also finished:


Stefan Zweig's Post-Office Girl, which was untranslated and unpublished (afaik) until now. The first half is very much in the spirit of Henry James' Daisy Miller and other societal portraits and critiques. Poor naive girl thrust into a society of wealth and privilege. The second half labors under the didactic monologues of Ferdinand, and culminates on a unfinished and unsatisfying note. There are still many wonderful moments throughout to recommend this, and the translation reads very well. Not his best work, but anything by Zweig is worth reading. Its seems to me that rescuing Zweig's work from obscurity may be NYTRB's greatest accomplishment.


NR:

Antonio Tabucchi - Indian Nocturne

[jon abbey]

which Zweig would you recommend starting with, Darren? I looked into him a bit, but nothing made me want to pull the trigger.

[surfer]

He's most well-known for Chess Story, which is excellent and a good place to start. But my favorites are Beware of Pity, which made my list of 50 favorite fiction books, and his short stories, which I dont think are collected in one volume. Pushkin Press has published a series containing his novellas, of which I have Amok, which is excellent. Cant vouch for the other volumes but I'm sure they're all worthwhile.

[surfer]

I googled Zweig and found this appreciative essay by Clive James over on Slate:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... zweig.html

Good lunchtime reading.

[Jesse]

darren, christ stopped at eboli is well worth a look; i saw it the year i moved to minneapolis, 1979, the year it made the festival circuit. s-l-o-w, finely observed.

[surfer]

darren, christ stopped at eboli is well worth a look; i saw it the year i moved to minneapolis, 1979, the year it made the festival circuit. s-l-o-w, finely observed.

Thanks Jesse. There are so many adaptations made from novels I love, not sure I'll find time to get to them all: The Conformist, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, Disgrace, even Beware of Pity! I think Post-Office Girl would make a very good movie too.

[Gerardo A]

I read a lot of Zweig in my teens, besides the ones Darren already mentioned (Amok, Beware of Pity, Chess Game), I would recommend Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman, Confusion of Feelings (this last one has some elements in common with Death in Venice) and his lit-bios of Stendhal and Nietzsche. Darren, this reminds me, did you get anything from Giovani Papini? Gog and The Devil were also huge for me when I was growing up.

[surfer]

Never heard of him, but I went over to Amazon and there's just about nothing of his available in English. "Life of Christ", that's it. How did you ever come across him?

[Gerardo A]

Hmmm, never read that one, but Wikipedia says it was his best-selling work, which is probably a bad review in itself. I got to read him basically because, in used bookstores, you could get his paperbacks ("Gog" and "The Black Book" came in a single volume) from the same (cheapo) publishers who offered Zweig, Pierre Louÿs, Marcel Schwob, Flaubert, etc., many times with uncut pages. Kind of like the beginning of Savage Detectives, when the narrator joins the lit workshop and starts hanging at "librerias de viejo" ("used bookstores") in Mexico city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Papini

[surfer]

The Tin Drum - Günter Grass

[jon abbey]

have you read that before? I should revisit it sometime, but I remember it as maybe one of the ten best books I've ever read. I also think that Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children', which has been voted the best Booker Prize winner in their history, is pretty deeply indebted to it, to a point where I'm surprised the Rushdie is quite so highly regarded.

[faster]

Great book. Re-read it a couple years ago and liked it more.

[surfer]

have you read that before?

I thought so, but now I'm not so sure. The first 50 pages ring no bells whatsoever.

[surfer]

Have either of you (or anyone) read the other two volumes in the Danzig Trilogy: Cat and Mouse, and Dog Years ?

[jon abbey]

not me.

[surfer]

I've never read any Rushdie either, should probably amend that.

[Dohol]

you really should..