What did you read last month?

[flip]

i've read four (all more than a decade ago), including christie malry, and i'd recommend three of them -- albert angelo combines the humour and experimentalism of christie malry, and it's the one i remember liking best, though it does use some postmodern devices that feel overdone by now (that's also how i felt revisiting christie malry). a good fraction of aren't you rather young to be writing your memoirs? is brilliant, but it's an anthology, and there's some dreck in there too. and i really couldn't understand what he was trying to accomplish with the unfortunates, his book-in-a-box (where you throw the pages in the air and assemble them in whatever order they fall), not because of the conceit, but because of the writing.

and bs johnson by the pernice brothers is one of the catchiest two minutes of indie rock i know of.

[Roscoe]

A PERFECT SPY by John le Carre, re-read after a viewing of Errol Morris' film of le Carre's autobiographical THE PIGEON TUNNEL. I remember being impressed with the book of THE PIGEON TUNNEL, which struck me as being better than the same factual material fictionalized into A PERFECT SPY, which left me rather cold on a first reading -- about all I could think about it was that I was glad he'd gotten all that about his Dad out of his system. I still think A PERFECT SPY is overlong, but it worked better on a second reading.

[wba]

November 2023

Alye parusa “Das Purpursegel. Eine Feerie“ [translated by L. Klementinowskaja] (Alexander Grin / 1923 / Soviet Union / Russian / German) ♥
L’autre “Der Andere“ [translated by Gerhard Heller] (Julien Green / 1971 / France / French / German)
Odin den' Ivana Denisoviča “Ein Tag des Iwan Denissowitsch” [translated by Christoph Meng] (Alexander Issajewitsch Solschenizyn / 1962 / Soviet Union / Russian / German) ♥
Brzezina “Das Birkenwäldchen“ [translated by Klaus Staemmler] (Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz / 1933 / Poland / Polish / German)
Das andere Leben (Olaf Möller / 2019 / Germany / German / German)

[wba]

December 2023

Die Ballade des letzten Gastes (Peter Handke / 2023 / Germany / German / German) ♥
Gentleman Overboard (Herbert Clyde Lewis / 1937 / USA / English / English)
Zapisano v puščavi (Marcel Štefančič, jr. / 2023 / Slovenia / Slovene / Slovene) ♥

[wba]

January 2024

Meine Reise zu Chaplin (Patrick Roth / 1997 / Germany / German / German)
Dore Brandt (Alice Berend / 1909 / Germany / German / German)
Franz Pfinz (Oskar Loerke / 1909 / Germany / German / German)
Godekes Knecht (Hans Leip / 1925 / Germany / German / German) ♥

[nrh]

December 2023
The Queen's Necklace, Antal Szerb
The Psychology of the Rich Aunt, Erich Musam
The Famous Magician, Cesar Aira
The Perfidious Parrot, Janwillem de Wettering
Twice Lost, Phyllis Paul
Artificial Respiration, Ricardo Piglia

Comics
Talk to My Back, Yamada Murasaki
Procaryote Season, Leo Fox
Flippy, Nate Garcia

January 2024
Lands of Memory, Felisberto Hernandez
Zama, Antonio di Benedetto
Bird in a Cage, Frederic Dard
The Silentiary, Antonio di Benedetto

Comics -
City Hunter, C.F.
Bacchus Omnibus vol. 1, Eddie Campbell

[rischka]

i finished gravity's rainbow after putting it down a bunch of times. there are some nice passages but man was it tough to get through

he's doing melville wrong imo

[brian d]

23,000 (vladimir sorokin) ** - maybe moderately better than ice and slightly worse than bro, done with the trilogy
sartor resartus (thomas carlyle) [reread - liked it better the first time] ****
lust (collection of stories by roald dahl) * - plenty of misogynistic bullshit and rape apologism
the vulture (gil scott-heron) ****

some from previous months that i don't remember posting:
the death ship (b traven) ***
essays from tula (leo tolstoy) ****
the beginning place (ursula k le guin) ***
the color line (igiaba scego) ****
selected writings of elisée reclus ****

also just finished the catwings books, by le guin, reading them to my daughter. she loved them, but it's hard for me to rate things written for a young child. but they were fun.

tried one pynchon and decided i didn't need him in my life.

[rischka]

i knew i shouldve stuck with brian's favorite books list

[brian d]

haha, if you need a palate cleanser just pick up a lispector or a le guin and you'll be all better.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

i finished gravity's rainbow after putting it down a bunch of times. there are some nice passages but man was it tough to get through

he's doing melville wrong imo

I sort of felt that way about Against the Day but GR really worked for me in almost every way. One of my favorite books. I loved how as the book disintegrates, somehow the less I literally understand, the more I feel it.

Also the internet Rumors are swirling that PTA is currently shooting (a potentially modernized) adaptation of Vineland at the moment.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Cranking through Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru Quartet. Just finished the third one, Footsteps, which is really where the whole thing starts to come together.

I think he gets compared to Mahfouz and the Cairo Trilogy a lot, but I don't think that comparison does him any favors. The writing is so much more utilitarian in Pramoedya. Mahfouz is pretty sumptuous in terms of mood, and location, and all his characters are multifaceted. Pramoedya is exclusively interested in the intellectual developments of colonized people. This book is where you start to see the details of dutch colonization take effect in the character's mind and develop into a leading anti-colonial figure, and that aspect is done very well.

[wba]

February 2024

Winesburg, Ohio (Sherwood Anderson / 1919 / USA / English / English) ♥
The Grass Harp (Truman Capote / 1951 / USA / English / English)

[wba]

March 2024

Eine gefährliche Begegnung (Ernst Jünger / 1985 / West Germany / German / German)
Dein Sohn lässt grüssen (Ulrich Schamoni / 1962 / West Germany / German / German)
Das Wallmüllerhaus (Hermann Wolfgang Zahn / 1930 / Germany / German / German)
Alf (Bruno Vogel / 1929 / Germany / German / German)
Das Flügelhaus (Kurt Kluge / 1937 / Germany / German / German)
Reclam. Die Kunst der Verbreitung (Various [publisher: Reclam Verlag] / 2006 / Germany / German / German)
Tendres stocks “Amouren“ [translated by Bettina Wiengarn] (Paul Morand / 1921 / France / French / German) ♥

[nrh]

february 2024
nest in the bones, antonio di benedetto
my last sigh, luis bunuel (with, or really by, jean-claude carriere)
jaguar's tomb, angelica gorodischer
objects of desire: conversations with luis bunuel, jose de la colina & tomas perez torrent

comics -
tokyo these days vol. 1, taiyo matsumoto
everything together, sammy harkham
parallel lives, olivier schrauwen
the little man, chester brown
what awaits them, liam cobb
bacchus omnibus vol. 2, eddie campbell

march 2024
prodigies, angelica gorodischer
land of smoke, sara gallardo
the colour of magic, terry pratchett
fulgentius, cesar aira
the light fantastic, terry pratchett

comics -
dog biscuits, alex graham
the complete works of fante bukowski, noah van sciver
mere, c.f.

[nrh]

april 2024
the last of the wine, mary renault
soldier of the mist, gene wolfe
soldier of arete, gene wolfe
soldier of sidon, gene wolfe

comics
monica, daniel clowes
time under tension, m.s. harkness
my name is shingo vol. 1, kazuo umezzo
hercules: adventures of the man god, sam glanzman/joe gill/denny o'neil
the family man, jerome charyn & joe staton

[brian d]

fields, factories, and workshops (peter kropotkin) **** - mostly for the final chapter on intellectual and manual labor
a wizard of earthsea (ursula k le guin) [reread] ****
autonomy, solidarity, possibility (colin ward) ****
the philosophy of poverty (pierre-joseph proudhon) **

[rischka]

i loved the left hand of darkness ♥♥♥ maybe i'll try the earthsea books too

now i'm reading the mountain lion by jean stafford

[brian d]

i've been wanting to read the mountain lion for a while, but haven't gotten to it yet. i'm interested to hear what you think. the earthsea books are definitely more young adult than the hainish books, but they read quickly as a result and are definitely enjoyable.

[wba]

April 2024

The Waste Lands (Stephen King / 1991 / USA / English / English)
Ein Schwert zwischen uns (Horst Lange / 1952 / West Germany / German / German) ♥
Die drei ??? – Das leere Grab (André Marx / 1997 / Germany / German / German)
Storia di domani “Geschichte von morgen“ [translated by Hellmut Ludwig] (Curzio Malaparte / 1949 / Italy / Italian / German)
Als Leichtmatrose nach Kalifornien (Egon Erwin Kisch / 1930 / Germany / German / German) ♥
Arbeit mit Charlie Chaplin (Egon Erwin Kisch / 1930 / Germany / German / German)
Hollywoods Natur, Kultur und Skulptur (Egon Erwin Kisch / 1930 / Germany / German / German)
Egon Erwin Kisch. In Hollywood wächst kein Gras (Alexander Kluy [editor] / 2023 / Austria / German / German)