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To commemorate HBO’s documentary Namath, I present my 4th grade class picture with me wearing his jersey. What the picture doesn’t reflect is that I was barefoot—the info board covers that detail. I refused to wear shoes to school until 5th grade (and I was lied to in order to get me to wear shoes […]
The Letter Killers Club by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky Translation by Joanne Turnbull with Nikolai Formozov Introduction by Caryl Emerson NYRB ClassicsI’m at a loss. I liked this book. Or rather I liked the concept of this book and most of what I read. But I’m having trouble thinking of anything, or at least anything original, to […]
Links: The IMDb.com page for Szindbád My notes on The Adventures of Sindbad by Gyula Krúdy, the source for the movie (and recommended if you’re unfamiliar with Krúdy’s work). How do you adapt Krúdy’s surreal, atmospheric work to the screen? The easy answer is very carefully. The more involved answer would be something like director […]
Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters Translated and Edited by Michael Hofmann W. W. Norton & Company, Hardcover, 512 pages ISBN-10: 0393060640 / ISBN-13: 978-0393060645 Albert Einstein to B. W. Huebsch (24 February 1935) Esteemed Mr. Hübsch, I am truly grateful to you for sending me this consoling book [Job] by a real mensch and […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. The last few years of Roth’s life saw many of the same themes as already posted, and some extended thoughts on these subjects: • A lot of talk of politics and how many, especially “those who embodied the ‘word’s conscience’ were themselves […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. Once again I provide too many excerpts, but I’m finding Roth a fascinating figure. The uprising by the Social Democrats in Austria (12 February 1934) and the resulting Dollfuss dictatorship discourages Roth in a manner more than he had been in previous […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. I’m including too many excerpts from this year but it seems to mark a clear change in Roth, or perhaps an acceleration in his downward spiral tied to his despair. He was perceptive on the dangers Nazism posed for Germany and Europe. […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. The letters from this period covers much of the same material as in the previous post. During this period he wrote The Radetzky March, although how he did so in his circumstance is amazing—taking care of his sick wife, scrambling for money, […]
From Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. Michael Hoffman makes the observation that Roth “in those days was like an open knife, a mixture of prophet, revolutionary, and sociopath”. The bluntness he exhibits with his friends shows an honesty that often wanders into just being a jerk. Major topics […]
I finally had some time to start Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, translated and edited by Michael Hofmann. The young Roth sounds so…so…young, something that doesn’t come through in any of his work I’ve read so far. I’ll quote from some of his letters as they strike me, even if they are as inconsequential […]