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The Volga Rises in Europe by Curzio Malaparte Translated by David Moore Birlinn Limited: Edinburgh (1951) ISBN 0-7394-1930-7 I enjoyed Curzio Malaparte’s novel Kaputt and his recently translated writings. When I stumbled across this collection of dispatches he wrote during World War II I grabbed it without a second thought, wanting to see some examples […]
We are a couple of chapters away from finishing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, just in time for the class the oldest boy is taking. The ladies at LitWits have posted resources pages at their site (update: Tom Sawyer booklet not consistently available) and on their Pinterest board. Be sure to check out their other book resources […]
Front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 30, 1900 Source: Sudden Death: Boys Fell to Their Doom in S.F.’s Forgotten Disaster (SF Weekly News)I took the boys to a history class today where Tobin Gilman talked about his book 19th Century San Jose in a Bottle. During the talk Gilman touched on the “Thanksgiving […]
Renata Adler’s “Letter from Selma”, about the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, is available at The New Yorker. The real magicians of Latin America looks at Machado de Assis and “the publication by Dalkey Archive Presshttps://dalkeyarchive.store/products/selected-stories?_pos=1&_psq=machado&_ss=e&_v=1.0 [scheduled for March] of a book simply titled Stories, which contains 13 of Machado’s stories, 10 […]
The End of the Old Times by Vladislav Vančura Translated by Edith Pargeter Artia Pocket Books (Prague: 1965) Something I get the feeling that when I say a book is a delight to read people seem to think I mean “lightweight” and “popular,” or possibly “frivolous.” I guess I’m sensitive because what’s available by Vladislav […]
I haven’t had much time for browsing this week, so only a couple of articles… The upcoming translation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis by Susan Bernofsky has been well publicized. Here is an excerpt. And Creative Review has an article on the book’s covers. I missed this when originally published, but I completely agree with […]
OK, trying to get my posting legs again… Shin Dong-hyuk (born Shin In Guen) was born in a North Korean political prison camp and lived there until he escaped at the age of 23. He eventually made his way to South Korea and the United States. After I posted on Escape from Camp 14 by […]
Oh yeah, I signed up for FutureLearn’s course on Shakespeare’s Hamlet: text, performance, and culture. I’ll let you know how it goes. Join in! ABOUT THE COURSE: This course introduces the many ways in which Hamlet can be enjoyed and understood. Six weekly videos discuss the play’s fortunes in print, and its own representations of […]
Public Seminar has Andrei Platonov’s short story “Antisexus”, a provisional translation by Anna Kalashyan of an occasional piece by Platonov. In ‘Antisexus’ (1925-26), Platonov writes in a parodic vein about what Béatriz Préciado calls the sex-gender industrial complex. The production of gendered and sexualized bodies via technologies of the image and the orgasm appears here […]
I’d like to wish a happy new year to everyone. I’m looking forward to 2014 and I plan on showing my gratitude to all that stop by here by reinvigorating the blog. I’ve been reading a lot of interesting books lately and have many more lined up to read, so posting will resume soon. As […]
I read a fair share of out-of-print translations that I believe should be more widely available and I thought I would compile a slightly different “Top Ten” list for the year. You should be able to find these with a little digging or if you’re fortunate to have a library that provides inter-library services. There […]
Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden(Viking: New York City, 2012)ISBN: 978-0-670-02332-5 I had planned on reading three nonfiction books on North Korea this winter but everything got shuffled out of order when I impulsively grabbed Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s […]
The Bird that Swallowed its Cage: The Selected Writings of Curzio Malaparte Adapted and Translated by Walter Murch Afterword by Walter Weschler (Counterpoint: Berkeley: 2012) ISBN: 978-1619020610 I’ve written about Curzio Malaparte’s World War II ‘novel’ Kaputt. While I’m waiting for my library to get a copy of the recent NYRB Classics re-release of The […]
In the comments of my post on If This Is a Man Miguel of St. Orberose blog stole my intended opening for Anthony Sher’s performance in Primo: Primo Levi’s book is a monumental exposition of the concentration camp system, and also of the mentalities that developed inside these horrible places; extraordinary what the prisoners had […]
If This is a Man by Primo Levi Translated by Stuart Woolf Introduction by Paul Bailey Abacus (ISBN 978-0-349-10013-5) Primo Levi was 24 years old in the fall of 1943 when he was arrested with other members of the Italian resistance movement. Instead of being shot as a traitor, he confessed to being Jewish and […]
I’ve been reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with the boys and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it. I highly recommend the unabridged Sterling illustrated edition pictured. They enjoy the rich watercolors by Robert Ingpen while I appreciate the quality feel of the book. Oh yeah…we’re enjoying the story, too. There are […]
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson Wheeler Publishing—Large Print edition; 2012; 781 pages ISBN: 978-141-448286 I’ll start with a “thank you” to Cynthia Haven at The Book Haven blog for her many posts on Adam Johnson and this novel. Her last post regarding the novel finally pushed me to look for it at my […]
While I was at Phipps Country Store in Pescadero, California today [sadly, it went out of business shortly after this post] I decided to take advantage of the available heirloom beans (beyond the several pounds I bought). It seemed a fitting setting for Wiesław Myśliwski’s A Treatise on Shelling Beans, forthcoming from Archipelago Books. A […]
We saw yesterday’s matinee of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play by Joe Landryat Shakespeare Santa Cruz and I want to recommend it to readers in the SF Bay area (and anyone visiting during its run). Information on the show can be found at the SSC site: Become the studio audience as just […]
Paul Cartledge spoke at the SPHS Autumn Lecture, Tuesday November 12th 2013 held at The Hellenic Centre in London. Thanks to David Meadows at rogueclassicism for posting a link to this lecture. My post on the book can be found here. “The story I have woven…is one of commemoration, of rivalry, classically ancient Greek rivalry […]