I could write a great novel if my neighborhood weren't so upscale (book thread)

[hannah]

Ada or Ardor (a'ight)

Just..."a'ight?!"

 

Heh, just joshin'. 

[Bernard]

Finished Swann's Way last week

Which translation? (or was it the original?)

[davy]

Oo, davy, Frazier published two essays on his travels in Siberia in the New Yorker last summer. I should check that book out.

I saw those! I even printed them out and was really looking forward to reading them, but I haven't had the chance yet. Thing is, now that I have this book to look forward to, I'll probably pass on the articles and wait for the main event.

[G.C.R]

Man, I'm about to establish my ignorance and sound like an excitable sixth former, but wow, Paradise Lost is awesome!

[Nick Ink]

Hey davy, if you're after excellent novels set in Siberia, you might like this:



I finished Gunter Grass's Local Anaesthetic. I liked it, but it was really dense, repetetive and hard to untangle at points. I'm sure the original style was deliberately disorientating, given that the narrator is hallucinating in a dentist's chair for half the book, but I'd be quite interested to look at a different translation to see how it's handled.

I suppose I need to read The Tin Drum next - any recommendations, regarding particular translations?

[alex]

I suppose I need to read The Tin Drum next - any recommendations, regarding particular translations?

An abridged one?

(I'm mostly joshing. I'm not very fond of that book, but it's been such a long time since I read it (I think I was 14 or 15?), and I'm actually quite sure that I did like it at the time, so I have no idea what my distaste is based on - it very likely has nothing to do with the qualities of the book. If nothing else, it sure contains some strong, memorable imagery.)

[Good Intentions]

Man, I'm about to establish my ignorance and sound like an excitable sixth former, but wow, Paradise Lost is awesome!

... I still haven't read that.

[davy]

I tried. Turns out it is poor beach reading.

[elpollodiablo]

Man, I'm about to establish my ignorance and sound like an excitable sixth former, but wow, Paradise Lost is awesome!

... I still haven't read that.

Me neither. Post-classical epic poetry is tough for me.

[hannah]

Finished Swann's Way last week

Which translation? (or was it the original?)

The Lydia Davis translation, which was amazing, because it almost read like a Lydia Davis novel—The End of the Story, but longer, and set in France. Have you read the new translations? Do the others compare?

[davy]

Hey, this Martin Cruz Smith fellow has got some talent!

Schmidt showed a smile as hard as a car grille.

There was even a short passage in the last chapter that literally reminded me of Nabokov! Something about a park full of "fat children, gross picknickers, and grunting suitors." I read 50 pages of this thing while watching SportsCenter last night. I dig it.

[davy]

I mean, this is great stuff:

"I drink to you," Schmidt whispered, "because your wife is a great screw."

Arkady hit him in the stomach. As Schmidt, surprised, bounced off the door, he hit him in the mouth. Schmidt landed on both knees and rolled all the way down the steps. At the bottom his glasses fell off and he threw up.

"What happened?" Zoya stood at the bedroom door.

"You know," Arkady said.

Then it turns out Schmidt was lying--he hadn't screwed Arkady's wife--but Arkady had believed him "because the lie was truer than their marriage." Ouch!

[Greg Nog]

I really, really liked Paradise Lost.  Have any of you guys read Paradise Regained?  I know it's out there, but no one's ever recommended that I read it.

[jm]

Finished Swann's Way last week

Which translation? (or was it the original?)

The Lydia Davis translation, which was amazing, because it almost read like a Lydia Davis novel—The End of the Story, but longer, and set in France. Have you read the new translations? Do the others compare?

See, what I like about hearing this is that I have never actually read any original Lydia Davis.  Now I'd like to.

As for your question, I know I certainly enjoy the other translations in this series (well, through Sodom and Gomorrah, at least.  You can't get the last three here yet).  I felt like either In the Shadow blah blah or Guermantes Way was a bit dry, but I can't remember which offhand.

[hannah]

Excellent, jm. I will get to them soon, I hope. And I suggest you start with her stories—if I see you in New York I can even loan you a collection!

[auto-da-fey]

I really, really liked Paradise Lost.  Have any of you guys read Paradise Regained?  I know it's out there, but no one's ever recommended that I read it.

It's a big step down in terms of scale and engrossment, but not a disgrace; more Rocky II than The Two Jakes, I guess. If I were in the habit of recommending Milton's non-PL work, I'd have to put it behind Samson Agonistes and the polemical pamphlet Areopagitica by quite a margin, and probably even the racy Comus, but I still wouldn't dis-recommend it.

[G.C.R]

I'm reading Samson Agonistes after this - I've been really looking forward to it. What I'm finding interesting in Paradise Lost at the moment is how Milton's narrator has to keep stopping and going "Actually, this Satan guy? He's just showing off and is totally a really bad dude" because the text itself makes Satan such a poetic thinker, charismatic leader and wronged hero that we need to be constantly reminded that he is, you know, the devil. I have NO idea how this got published, it seems so blasphemous.

[ellaguru]

The thing that has got me in Paradise Lost (I've been sliding on reading it as my mom's been here and before that I had to get stuff out of the way so I'd have time when she got here, so I'm still pretty near the beginning) is how, even before Satan gets reliable directions to Eden, God and Jesus are already planning the end game. God's all "and Satan will inevitably corrupt them and they'll be doomed unless a Hero sacrifices himself for them" and Jesus is all "Oh! Pick Me!" So all this has already been decided, but all the while Satan doesn't even know how to frickin' find his way to Earth yet.

I mean, seriously, who plans a universe like that?

[Greg Nog]

IALDABAOTH

[alexandra]

I'm reading awesome things like rework and yahoo's style guide. So. Move along nothing interesting here

[Greg Nog]

Reading Oryx and Crake.  So far: too much childhood trauma, not enough rakunks.

[davy]

I love Steve Almond and I've thoroughly enjoyed almost everything he's written...but I kind of hate his new book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. He's at least 8 years too late for this party. The content is almost exactly as ho-hum as the title. Chuck Klosterman has written this book three or four times already--and those books were bad enough when I cared a little about the bands under discussion. I could care less about the musicians Steve Almond cares about: Chuck Prophet, Boris McCutcheon, Dayna Kurtz, Ike Reilly, Nil Lara...I mean, who the fuck are those people? I just finished reading a 3-page unironic defense of Styx and the entire time I was thinking, "Oh, Steve...didn't you read Fargo Rock City? Somebody beat you to it, man!"

I just feel embarrassed for the dude. I'm cringing almost once per page. I think his editor failed him big-time.

[elpollodiablo]

Hey did you guys ever think about how pop music is kind of important to some people, like really important to some people you know

[G.C.R]

Giles Smith's Lost in Music is the first book like that I came across, and when other books about pop music have come up I always feel "Eh, I could read that... or I could read Lost in Music again." And then I go with that.

[morgan]

I love Steve Almond and I've thoroughly enjoyed almost everything he's written...but I kind of hate his new book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. He's at least 8 years too late for this party. The content is almost exactly as ho-hum as the title. Chuck Klosterman has written this book three or four times already--and those books were bad enough when I cared a little about the bands under discussion. I could care less about the musicians Steve Almond cares about: Chuck Prophet, Boris McCutcheon, Dayna Kurtz, Ike Reilly, Nil Lara...I mean, who the fuck are those people? I just finished reading a 3-page unironic defense of Styx and the entire time I was thinking, "Oh, Steve...didn't you read Fargo Rock City? Somebody beat you to it, man!"

I just feel embarrassed for the dude. I'm cringing almost once per page. I think his editor failed him big-time.

Oh no, this makes me really sad. I haven't gotten around to buying it yet, and I guess now I'll see if I can get it from the library first. I am in love with Steve Almond.