What did you read last month?

[wba]

March 2022

Warum die Franzosen so gute Bücher schreiben. Von Sartre bis Houellebecq (Iris Radisch / 2017 / Germany / German / German)
Deutsche Literatur der Gegenwart (Walter Jens / 1961 / West Germany / German / German)
Georges [translated by Friedrich Ramhorst, Peter Hillebrand] (Alexandre Dumas / 1843 / France / French / German) ♥
Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag (Eduard Mörike / 1855 / Kingdom of Württemberg / German / German)
Murder in the Museum (John Rowland / 1938 / UK / English / English)
Une aventure d'amour “Ein Liebesabenteuer“ [translated by Roberto J. Giusti] (Alexandre Dumas / 1860 / France / French / German)
Il Visconte dimezzato “Der geteilte Visconte“ [translated by Oswalt von Nostitz] (Italo Calvino / 1952 / Italy / Italian / German)
Later (Stephen King / 2021 / USA / English / English)
Joris-Karl Huysmans [translated by Caroline Vollmann] (Jules Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly / 1884 / France / French / German)
Der Dichter und die Jugend (Ernst Wiechert / 1933 / Germany / German / German) ♥
Drei Frauen aus Haiti (Anna Seghers / 1980 / East Germany / German / German)

[brian d]

twice told tales (nathaniel hawthorne) **
the boy with two mothers (massimo bontempelli) ****
the putney debates (various) ***
the assistant (robert walser) [reread] ****
the life and death of adria and her two children (massimo bontempelli) ***
the third book of pantagruel (françois rabelais) *****
harry potter and the half-blood prince (jk rowling) **

[wba]

April 2022

Februar 33. Der Winter der Literatur (Uwe Wittstock / 2021 / Germany / German / German)
Knight Moves (Walter Jon Williams / 1985 / USA / English / English)
Il giorno della civetta “Der Tag der Eule“ [translated by Arianna Giachi] (Leonardo Sciascia / 1961 / Italy / Italian / German)
Goldfasan (Jan Zweyer / 2009 / Germany / German / German)

[rischka]

reading desert solitaire again ♦♦

[brian d]

what is property? (pierre-joseph proudhon) *****
the narrative of arthur gordon pym (edgar allan poe) *****
the name of the rose (umberto eco) **
the wedding of zein and other stories (tayeb salih) [reread] ****
acharnians; knights (aristophanes) [reread] *****
moll flanders (daniel defoe) ***
edition 69 (jindrich styrsky, frantisek halas, vitezslav nezval) ****
travels with my aunt (graham greene) **

[niminy-piminy]

edition 69 (jindrich styrsky, frantisek halas, vitezslav nezval) ****

ha!!

https://www.twistedspoon.com/edition69.html

Launched in 1931 by Jindrich Styrsky, Edition 69 consisted of six volumes of erotic literature and illustration that followed the path marked out by Louis Aragon's Irene's Cunt and Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye. Including the first Czech translation of Marquis de Sade's Justine and Pietro Aretino (both illustrated by Toyen), three volumes were from contemporary Czech avant-garde artists, and these were all illustrated by Štyrský himself, who also contributed the text for the last volume of the series. Because of the censorship laws Štyrský encountered with his illustrations for the first Czech publication of Lautréamont's Maldoror, the Edition 69 series was not for sale in regular retail outlets, nor was it made available to libraries. As the original colophons indicate, the books were exclusively for subscribers, collectors, and a circle of friends, and the original print runs numbered no more than 200 (Štyrský's volume was limited to 69 copies).

This volume brings together English translations of the two most important texts in the series: Nezval's "Sexual Nocturne" and Štyrský's "Emilie Comes to Me in a Dream," which is also supplemented by the original essay from psychoanalyst Bohuslav Brouk, a fellow founding member of The Surrealist Group of Czechoslovakia. Additional texts from Styrsky's dream journal are included as a contextual source. Much influenced by Max Ernst's collage-novels, Andre Masson's illustrations for both Aragon's and Bataille's volumes, as well as the idea of the book-object, Styrsky's illustrations and overall conception for the edition rank among the most important of Surrealist works. Along with the Erotic Review, which he initiated and edited during the same period, Edition 69 represented a sustained attempt by the interwar Czech avant-garde to investigate the taboos of bourgeois culture.

[nrh]

march -
revenge of the rose, michael moorcock
bane of the black sword, michael moorcock
paladin, cj cherryh
marshlands, andre gide

april -
last call, tim powers
hummingbird salamander, jeff vandermeer
the fall of the towers, samuel r delaney
celestia, paul park
the unicorn, iris murdoch
homunculus, james p. blaylock

comics -
the complete crepax volume 4 - private lives
frontier #6 - ann by the bed, emily carrol
frontier #7 - sexcoven, jillian tamaki
alanzo sneak, nate garcia
muscle horse, nate garcia
hulk grand design, jim rugg

[brian d]

can't reply directly, but for some degree of reference, edition 69 is nowhere near as explicit as bataille's story of the eye (haven't been able to track down a copy of aragon's irene's cunt so no basis for comparison there), but the images they use are definitely explicit. it's a pretty fun set of pieces, and according to the afterward, written in the 30s just a couple years after the journal was published, it was an attempt at presenting a surrealist avant-garde that was not misogynist. for the most part it's much better than french surrealism in that regard.

[niminy-piminy]

i am somewhat familiar with Štyrský's & Toyen's obscene drawings/paintings but never read any of the (related) tales.

Jindřich Štyrský & Toyen

[sally]

I, of course, had Irene's cunt, it was in a volume with two of apollinaire's smutty tales & tbh it paled in comparison with the aunt-shagging of Guillaume, but then I was young and possibly not so attuned to the presentation

[wba]

May 2022

Jésus-la-Caille [translated by Fred Antoine Angermayer] (Francis Carco / 1914 / France / French / German)
The Dragonbone Chair (Tad Williams / 1988 / USA / English / English)
The Efficient Assassin (Henry Christopher Bailey / 1920 / UK / English / English)
La spiaggia “Der Strand“ [translated by Helmut Moysich] (Cesare Pavese / 1941 / Italy / Italian / German)
Gadir oder Erkenne dich selbst (Arno Schmidt / 1948 / Germany / German / German)
Enthymesis oder W.I.E.H. (Arno Schmidt / 1946 / Germany / German / German)
Der tiefste Traum (Waldemar Bonsels / 1911 / Germany / German / German)
Églantine “Eglantine“ [translated by Efraim Frisch] (Jean Giraudoux / 1927 / France / French / German)
The Hobbit [new, altered version] (John Ronald Reuel Tolkien / 1937, 1966 / UK / English / English) ♥

[brian d]

the sheltering sky (paul bowles) [reread] *****
eternity by the stars (louis-auguste blanqui) ***
the mill: a cosmos (bess brenck-kalischer) ****
harry potter and the deathly hallows (jk rowling) *
the stick chair book (christopher schwarz) *****
don bonifacio (josé milla) ***
statism and anarchy (mikhail bakunin) ***
father of lies (brian evenson) ****
excellent women (barbara pym) **

i'm a bit torn on the evenson book. it deals with church abuses and coverups (not by name, but it's clearly the mormon church), and the critique of the power structure feels right on, but the protagonist/antagonist apparently deals with something like dissociative personality disorder which gets blamed for his actions (child abuse and pedophilia). feels like the critique would be much stronger if we don't have to fall back on mental illness (or at least not so severe a mental illness) to explain someone doing things like that. it's more or less a copout, when the power structure of the church would enable it and that's where the real critique should lie.

in any case, i also learned how to make stick chairs so maybe this fall i'll get to it and see how it goes. hopefully i don't fall on my ass.

[nrh]

interesting, was reading about evenson just last month, his work sounds like it occupies a lot of spaces i'm interested in but something keeps holding me back from really looking into it (maybe the "extreme" subject matter of some of it?), but maybe i should just take the chance...

all genre fiction this month...

gunsights, elmore leonard
green eyes, lucius shepard
the changeling sea, patricia a. mckillip
the phoenix & the mirror, avram davidson
kalimantan, lucius shepard
the damnation game, clive barker

comics -

No. 5 (vol 1-4), taiyo matsumoto
blackhawk, howard chaykin

[rischka]

brian have you made a stick chair yet xD

[rischka]

we want pictures

[flip]

man in the holocene (max frisch, reread) •••••
notes on a scandal (zoe heller) •••
cain's jawbone (edward powys mathers, in progress) no idea, • or ••••• ? maybe something in the middle

[brian d]

i haven't made a stick chair yet, but that's the plan for this fall, probably an <a href=https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=htt ... rish-style one</a>. but yes, i'll post a pic

and yeah, i'd never heard of evenson before, but saw that book mentioned on a site so decided to give it a go. his style is very straightforward and easy, read it in a day. i'd definitely read some others by him.

[brian d]

and oops, messed up that link, can't edit. but it'll take you there, haha

[wba]

June 2022

Verlöschende Feuer (Horst Lange / 1956 / West Germany / German / German) ♥
Es waren Habichte in der Luft (Siegfried Lenz / 1950 / West Germany / German / German)
Nach Mitternacht (Irmgard Keun / 1937 / Netherlands / German / German) ♥
Storie dell'anno Mille “ Von dreien, die auszogen, sich den Bauch zu füllen: Roman aus dem Jahr 1000“ [translated by Moshe Kahn] (Tonino Guerra, Luigi Malerba / 1970 / Italy / Italian / German)
Murder of a Lady (Anthony Wynne / 1931 / UK / English / English)
Das Untier. Konturen einer Philosophie der Menschenflucht (Ulrich Horstmann / 1983 / West Germany / German / German)
Die begrabene Hand (Wilhelm Schäfer / 1918 / Germany / German / German)
L'Élégance du hérisson “Eleganca ježa“ [translated by Metka Zorec, Varja Balžalorsky] (Muriel Barbery / 2006 / France / French / Slovene)
Landesbühne (Siegfried Lenz / 2009 / Germany / German / German) ♥
“Contre Goethe“ “Gegen Goethe“ (Jules Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly / 1873 / France / French / German)
Desertion (Abdulrazak Gurnah / 2005 / UK / English / English) ♥
Die Vergiftung (Maria Lazar / 1920 / Austria / German / German) ♥
Le port des brumes “Maigret und der geheimnisvolle Kapitän“ [translated by Hansjürgen Wille, Barbara Klau, Julia Becker] (Georges Simenon / 1932 / France / French / German)

[nrh]

only one book this month -

neveryona, samuel r. delany

but it's a great one, and glad i spent some time with it. maybe the best thing i've read by delany so far and that is a high bar to clear.

[wba]

^^
I'm actually reading a Delaney right now, my first. It's called NOVA, from the 60s, supposedly Delaney was in his 20s when he wrote it, but I find it difficult to read as it is so juvenile, like Delaney was actually in his teens when he wrote it. Unfortuantely it's also without all of the pleasures of a children's book. I switched from reading books for kids to books for adults when I was 11 and never read anything for teenagers - so maybe that's where my difficulty with it is coming from, as I'm totally not used to books for teens/young adults?
It reads like a teen on hormones who's somehow smuggled himself to a party for adults and is now trying to tell you all this (for him) exciting new stuff that he's just discovered, but unfortunately he's not very smart and he is constantly repeating himself and he is telling you stuff for 20 minutes that you already anticipated 20 minutes ago when he started, and ... honestly, I'm halfway through, but it's a chore to read, it's so boring and uneventful.

[wba]

July 2022

Tinerețe fără tinerețe “Jugend ohne Jugend“ [translated by Edith Silbermann] (Mircea Eliade / 1976 / France / Romanian / German) ♥
?? “Unter den Blüten“ [translated by Oscar Benl] (Yasushi Inoue / 1964?, 1975 / Japan / Japanese / German)
Hollywood (Burkhard Röwekamp / 2003 / Germany / German / German)
L'Entrave “Die Fessel“ [translated by Erna Redtenbacher] (Colette / 1913 / France / French / German) ♥
Léviathan “Leviathan“ [translated by Gina Kesten, Hermann Kesten] (Julien Green / 1929 / France / French / German)
Hopalong Cassidy and the Rustlers of West Fork (Tex Burns / 1951 / USA / English / English)
Les Trois Grâces “Die drei Grazien“ [translated by Edith Silbermann] (Mircea Eliade / 1976 / France / Romanian / German)
Місто / Misto “Die Stadt“ [translated by Alexander Kratochvil, Lukas Joura, Jakob Wunderwald and Lina Zalitok] (Valerian Pidmohylny / 1928 / Soviet Union / Ukrainian / German)

[brian d]

june:
season of migration to the north (tayeb salih) [reread] *****
ice (vladimir sorokin) no clue
roanoke island (david stick) ***
mirror made of rain (naheed phiroze patel) ***
the conquest of bread (pyotr kropotkin) ***

july:
écue-yamba-ó (alejo carpentier) [reread] ****
la rebambaramba (alejo carpentier) [reread] ***
tristram shandy (laurence sterne) [reread] *****
the algerine captive (royall tyler) ***
comus/a masque (john milton) ***
nations and nationalism since 1780 (eric hobsbawm) ***
a feast for crows (george rr martin) ***

[nrh]

july 2022 -

a word child, iris murdoch
yakshi, malayattoor ramakrishnan
the terminal beach, jg ballard
on stranger tides, tim powers
rimrunners, cj cherryh

august 2022 -
a stranger in olondria, sofia samatar
the children's book, as byatt
binstead's safari, rachel ingalls
sweet days of discipline, fleur jaeggy
the taiga syndrome, cristina rivera garza
hurricane season, fernanda melchor

[brian d]

in the labyrinth (alain robbe-grillet) ****
a tour on the prairies (washington irving) [reread] ***
envy (yury olesha) ***
paradise lost (john milton) [reread] ***
philosophical fragments/johannes climacus (søren kierkegaard) ****
a woman (sibilla aleramo) ***
six characters in search of an author (luigi pirandello) [reread] ****
sultana's dream/padmarag (rokeya hossain) ****
blindness (henry green) [reread} ****

[wba]

August 2022

Joseph Lerner and the post-war New York film renaissance (Richard Koszarski / 1995 / UK / English / English)
The Old Contemptibles (Martha Grimes / 1991 / USA / English / English) ♥
How high was his brow? Albert Lewin, his critics and the problem of pretension (Susan Felleman / 1995 / UK / English / English)
Mozart-Novelle (Louis Fürnberg / 1947 / Germany / German / German)
Stone of Farewell (Tad Williams / 1990 / USA / English / English)
Film Soleil (Douglas Kimball Holm / 2006 / UK / English / English)
Quentin Tarantino gegen die Nazis (Georg Seeßlen / 2009 / Germany / German / German)
Göttliche Kerle. Männer – Sex – Kino (Sabine Horst, Constanze Kleis [editors] / 2002 / Germany / German / German)
Auf Leben und Tod. Die Macht der Gewalt in den Medien (Verena Metze-Mangold / 1997 / Germany / German / German)
Death Proof [Final Draft Valentine’s Day 2006] (Quentin Tarantino / 2006 / USA / English / English)

[wba]

September 2022

The Return of the Native (Thomas Hardy / 1878 / UK / English / English)
D-Zug dritter Klasse (Irmgard Keun / 1938 / Netherlands / German / German) ♥
Nova (Samuel Ray Delany / 1968 / USA / English / English)
Die Schwimmerin (Theodor Wolff / 1937 / Switzerland / German / German) ♥
Петербург / Peterburg “Petersburg“ [translated by Gabriele Leupold] (Andrei Bely / 1913 / Russia / Russian / German) ♥♥
Menschen im Hotel (Vicki Baum / 1929 / Germany / German / German) ♥
Hazards of Time Travel (Joyce Carol Oates / 2018 / USA / English / English) ♥
Lettre à ma mère “Brief an meine Mutter“ [translated by Melanie Walz] (Georges Simenon / 1974 / France / French / German)
Stoletje Lumiere [translated by Igor Kernel, Stojan Pelko] (Zorica Kurent [editor] / 1993 / Slovenia / French, Slovene / Slovene) ♥
Un pedigree “Ein Stammbaum“ [translated by Elisabeth Edl] (Patrick Modiano / 2005 / France / French / German) ♥
Dang Wuhan bingdu lailin “Wuhan“ [new version, last edited on 14 November 2021] [translated by Brigitte Höhenrieder, Hans Peter Hoffmann] (Yiwu Liao / 2020, 2021 / Germany / Chinese / German) ♥
Les Scélérats “Das Paradies der Bösen“ [translated by Joachim Nehring] (Frédéric Dard / 1959 / France / French / German) ♥
Amerika hijiki “Algen aus Amerika“ [translated by Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit] (Akiyuki Nosaka / 1967 / Japan / Japanese / German) ♥
Der Mann im Alang (Heinrich Wolfgang Seidel / 1924 / Germany / German / German) ♥
Die Bibliothek des möblierten Herrn (Heinrich Wolfgang Seidel / 1913 / Germany / German / German)
Solneman der Unsichtbare (Alexander Moritz Frey / 1914 / Germany / German / German)
Marylin (Arthur Rundt / 1928 / Austria / German / German)

[brian d]

disappointingly little this month:

welsh stick chairs (john brown) *****
bro (vladimir sorokin) **
the art of joinery (joseph moxon) ***

getting closer to the end of the charterhouse of parma, hopefully i can pick things back up in october.

[wba]

October 2022

The Hottentot Venus (Henry Christopher Bailey / 1920 / UK / English / English)
Das Heilige und das Profane [translated by ??] (Mircea Eliade / 1957 / West Germany / French / German)
Hotaru no haka “Das Grab der Leuchtkäfer“ [translated by Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit] (Akiyuki Nosaka / 1967 / Japan / Japanese / German)
Kuangren Riji “Das Tagebuch eines Verrückten“ [translated by Wolfgang Kubin] (Xun Lu / 1918 / China / Chinese / German)
Kong Yiji [translated by Wolfgang Kubin] (Xun Lu / 1919 / China / Chinese / German)
Die Ballspielerin (Heinrich Wolfgang Seidel / 1913 / Germany / German / German)
Arno Schmidt und Radio-Essay (Helmut Heißenbüttel / 1989 / West Germany / German / German)
Arno Schmidt im Literaturbetrieb der frühen Jahre (Friedhelm Rathjen [editor] / 2022 / Germany / German / German)
Das Seefräulein (Heinrich Wolfgang Seidel / 1937 / Germany / German / German)
Jürg Reinhart (Max Frisch / 1934 / Germany / German / German)
Ich unter anderem (Fritz Meyer / 1957 / Switzerland / German / German)
Taft zum Kragen (Else Hueck-Dehio / 1953 / West Germany / German / German)
Niebla “Nebel“ [translated by Otto Buek] (Miguel de Unamuno / 1914 / Spain / Spanish / German)
Heinrich und Götz George. Zwei Leben (Thomas Medicus / 2020 / Germany / German / German)
Yooghi (Frank Thiess / 1918 / Germany / German / German)
Norrtullsligan “Die Sekretärinnen“ [translated by Wibke Kuhn] (Elin Wägner / 1908 / Sweden / Swedish / German)
Der blonde Eckbert (Ludwig Tieck / 1797 / Berlin / German / German) ♥

[brian d]

the welsh stick chair: a visual record (tim bowen) *****
the charterhouse of parma (stendhal) [reread] ***
clouds/wasps/peace (aristophanes) [reread] ***
wuthering heights (emily brontë [reread] ***
several stories of edgar allan poe **
a gun for sale (graham greene) ****

charterhouse of parma wasn't as enjoyable as i remembered it being (though it had been 20 years or so, so i didn't recall much). the writing is of course wonderful, but the plotting is very... off, and i don't know to what extent i just wasn't in the mood or it wasn't for me. not at all sad i gave it a reread though.

reading poe just reminded me that i don't like poe much (other than arthur gordon pym, of course, which is lovely).

and i started making some stick chairs, so hopefully in the next month or so i'll have some visual proof of it