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Currently Reading (continued)


Wilfrid

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The Harlem Book Fair moved indoors to the Alhambra Ballroom on Saturday. You might remember the photo below: who is the guy in the middle? His daughter was at the book fair selling copies of a biography of Plĕas Tusant Pearson; chef, political activist, entrepreneur. The photos in the book suggest he also met just about every celebrity who came to Harlem. For the Strength of Harlem. Yes, I bought a copy.

 

Please Tusant Pearson with Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali

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Well, actually just finished The Enchanters by James Ellroy.  There are some weak spots but this is an entertaining read.  It's about the death of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 and various Hollywood types and politicos who were involved in some way in her rise and demise.  It's narrated by a frequent Ellroy character Fred Otash a real life defrocked LAPD officer who became a notorious PI digging up dirt on celebs for Confidential magazine in the 50s and 60s.  There's quite a cast including the Kennedy brothers, Peter and Patricia Kennedy Lawford, Chief Parker, Mayor Yorty, Daryl Gates, Darryl Zanuck, Roddy McDowell, Eddie Fisher, Bo Belinsky, Liz Taylor, Lois Nettleton and even a few minor made up folks.

Sadly, the coroner to the stars, Thomas Noguchi does not make the cut.  But that's because the old camera hog is still alive at 96 (and drawing an LA County pension in excess of $250,000 annually).  Perhaps if he passes, Ellroy can spin a tale about the Bobby Kennedy assassination with Noguchi, LBJ, Eugene McCarthy, more Daryl Gates, Sirhan Sirhan, Jerry Owen ("the walking bible"), Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon.

Edited by hollywood10
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I can't recommend Javier Marias strongly enough. I read his early All Souls, am now on The Infatuations, but what really knocked me out was his trilogy, Your Face Tomorrow, that I worked through on recent long flights.

I won't try to summarize it; just warn that, if the first volume seems to go nowhere, do not give up. The themes, thoughts and apparent loose ends will return again and again in volumes two and three. The novel is spent largely in the head of a Spanish academic in Oxford and London who is taken up by what appears to be part of the British secret service because of his uncanny ability to grasp the character and likely fate of strangers. The first volume has a lot of talk, not least about the Spanish Civil War. The second two volumes become uncannily suspensful (and very violent). Because we are continuously immersed in the main character's thoughts, we are taken away from scenes where something drastic is about to happen (the stroke of a sword, a shot from a gun) only to return many pages later. The pace is Proustian, but the nature of the scenes makes the pauses nail-biting.

It is a major work. And this really has been a wonderful couple of years, discovering Gayl Jones, Jon Fosse, now this guy. This is a good time to be a reader (if not a particularly good time for much else).

Oh BTW, Ben Lerner's new poetry collection. The Lights, is by far his best. I enjoyed his novels; not so much his earlier poetry.

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Reviews of the new (first complete) English translation of Elsa Morante's Lies and Sorcery made it sound strange, complex, challenging. In fact, it's a rollicking read, very compelling -- if at times cruel and sad. I got through half of it (775pp) but then had to take a break because Nicola Lagioia's City of the Living is due back at the library soon.

An Italian novel set in the 19th century and an Italian novel set in contemporary Rome. And the first is so much better than the second.

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On 12/18/2023 at 11:21 AM, Wilfrid said:

Reviews of the new (first complete) English translation of Elsa Morante's Lies and Sorcery made it sound strange, complex, challenging. In fact, it's a rollicking read, very compelling -- if at times cruel and sad. I got through half of it (775pp) but then had to take a break because Nicola Lagioia's City of the Living is due back at the library soon.

An Italian novel set in the 19th century and an Italian novel set in contemporary Rome. And the first is so much better than the second.

I’m so glad to find someone who, like me, gets books from the library. 

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I am just halfway through, but Easily Slip Into Another World by Henry Threadgill (with lit and music professor Brent Hayes Edwards) is fabulous. Much better than I expected. It's a memoir that begins with Threadgill as a child being steeped in just every kind of music. Growing up in Chicago, he had the chance quite casually to see artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Louis Jordan; but he's up to his neck in classical music too.

The lengthy section on his time in Vietnam is both scary and at times very funny.

I expect @Sneakeater is already on this, but the book could have been written for him. 

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American food mags have gone downhill appallingly.     If you can read elementary French, like "menu French", you might look into 'SAVEURS" (unrelated to our SAVEUR) and "Cuisine  et Vins de France".    Both approachable while intelligent food and travel coverage.

Edited by voyager
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1 hour ago, voyager said:

American food mags have gone downhill appallingly.     If you can read elementary French, like "menu French", you might look into 'SAVEURS" (unrelated to our SAVEUR) and "Cuisine  et Vins de France".    Both approachable while intelligent food and travel coverage.

You mean articles like "Top 5 Kale Pop Tart Recipes the tattooed baddies at LA's 'Tart Blowout Salon' can't live without! A chat about how shaping your hair actually shapes the way we eat" doesn't captivate you? 

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