Currently Reading (continued)

[voyager]

20 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

What if you don't HAVE hair?

Reminded of an internet conversation in which two of us were looking forward to an upcoming meeting,   I gave height and hair color.   He responded with height and described hair as "skin colored".

[Wilfrid]

Just finished “Paul Laurence Dunbar: Life and Times of a Caged Bird” by Gene Anthony Jarrett. From 2022, this is the first detailed biography and it’s remarkable to have a legendary figure brought into sharp focus. A bitter-sweet read; the unbelievable accomplishments before his death at 33 plus the TB, alcoholism and violence.

For me, it also served as an introduction to his wife, Alice Dunbar Nelson, who had her own extraordinary life.

[Wilfrid]

Maggie Nelson season here with the publication of Like Love, a collection of essays and "conversations" (sometimes long email exchanges). A week later, by chance, I found a used copy of Women, the New York School and Other True Abstractions. I'd looked for it online in the past, but guess I didn't like the prices. That left only one book by her I didn't own and it came in the mail yesterday, Red Parts.

I tried to review my Maggie Nelson collection this morning, but she is such a various and versatile writer that her books are in different places in different rooms. There's the poetry, the criticism, the memoirs, a book of ethics and the unclassifiable Bluets. Still, they're all here somewhere.

[Wilfrid]

And coming out of all that, in her "conversation" with Wayne Koestenbaum he enthusiastically praises Marie Redonnet, a French writer I'd never heard of. I tend to trust Wayne, so I dug Hotel Splendid out of the library. Wonderful and turns out to be one of three short novels written in the same year and with kind of a common theme: central female character overcoming a catastrophic environment. The others are Forever Valley and Rose Mellie Rose.

They are not much more than novellas, can be read in an evening or two, and are widely available in used editions for next to nothing (yes, I now own them). Hugely recommended.

[Wilfrid]

Another French author, Constance Debré. Auto-fiction: in real life, she left her marriage and career as a lawyer to become a lesbian and a writer, so that's what the character in her trilogy does. I read Love Me Tender first, and have Playboy in the queue (Playboy should probably be read first). The third volume, Nom, hasn't been translated yet.  Highly readable.

[Wilfrid]

On 12/30/2023 at 10:33 PM, Wilfrid said:

I just finished the Morante novel. What an experience. Anyone who can find the time for it will not be disappointed.

That was “Lies and Sorcery.” I just read “Arturo’s Island,” her second novel, which is cruel and harrowing and brilliant. Paused to read the English language bio, “A Woman of Rome” by Lily Tuck.

I will finish that and the remarkable little 1950 novel, “Our Spoons Came From Woolworths” by Barbara Comyns by Saturday night. Then I fly to Denver with all the joy of diving into Xiaolu Guo’s “Radical,” nothing better than getting on a longish flight with a book by someone who has never failed to grip, fascinate and entertain me.

[Wilfrid]

Reading this thread from the top, the book recommendations I make here are absolutely solid, don’t sleep on them.

[maison rustique]

Certainly isn't heavy-duty literature, but I am reading "Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice For Murderers" by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Set in SF's Chinatown, it is engaging and humorous. A good distraction for me. I find the younger Asian generations' attitudes toward their elders/parents to be both fascinating and funny. I hope it isn't offensive to Asians because I truly don't believe the author intended it to be so. And just to keep this at least partially about food, Vera Wong of title fame runs a tea shop and cooks traditional Chinese food like crazy, so tea and food are featured prominently. Makes me hungry when I'm reading it.

[bloviatrix]

26 minutes ago, maison rustique said:

Certainly isn't heavy-duty literature, but I am reading "Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice For Murderers" by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Set in SF's Chinatown, it is engaging and humorous. A good distraction for me. I find the younger Asian generations' attitudes toward their elders/parents to be both fascinating and funny. I hope it isn't offensive to Asians because I truly don't believe the author intended it to be so. And just to keep this at least partially about food, Vera Wong of title fame runs a tea shop and cooks traditional Chinese food like crazy, so tea and food are featured prominently. Makes me hungry when I'm reading it.

I read it several months ago. It was fun.

[Wilfrid]

Some people here must remember Dining Out, a 1998 book on (mainly fine) dining and restaurant criticism in the States. Big book based on interviews with countless chefs and critics (there were more critics back then). In addition to the big newspaper names, Robert Sietsema pops up as does Jim Leff who is very nice about Ali and the arepa lady.

I stumbled over this by chance at the library. I don’t recall hearing of it. It might have come out before I got sucked into the world of people opinionated about (chuckle) New York dining and its critics.

[Wilfrid]

Talking of heavy literature, I brought Elsa Morante’s History on my current trip. It’s 550 pages sure but it is a paperback. It still weighs a ton. Very good (family in Rome during WW2), but it was killing my shoulders and hands after a few hours on the plane.

[Wilfrid]

Still 50 pages from the end of Morante. You keep thinking she’ll drift into magical realism, but she resists it (okay there is a chat with a pet dog).

In my other hand I am reading Cynthia Carr’s bio of Candy Darling. Carr wrote that excellent bio of David Wojnarowicz a few years ago, and this one likewise brings a whole specific scene to life.

[Wilfrid]

On 6/15/2024 at 11:39 AM, Wilfrid said:

... I am reading Cynthia Carr’s bio of Candy Darling. Carr wrote that excellent bio of David Wojnarowicz a few years ago, and this one likewise brings a whole specific scene to life.

Having finished it, I can say that it gave me plenty to think about. Most readers, I am sure, go to the book expecting at least to empathize with the subject. The subject makes it very difficult; a lot of the time, she can't have been a very nice person to know. And that's from a book that tries very hard to be positive about her. Self-destructive and delusional.

It's the latter point that calls for careful thought. A reader in 2024, I think, anticipates that Candy will identify with one or other of the now familiar trans categories. That's not really the case, although transgender would be close. It's made forcefully clear throughout the book that Candy identified, not as LGBTQ etc (never attended rallies or showed up for the cause), but as a woman. She wanted to be accepted as a woman, treated as a woman, and given roles as an actress. Again and again that runs up against the problem that she wasn't a woman and everyone knew it (there's no gender reassignment going on here other than hormone therapy when she could afford it).*

Anyway, I have no answers, but it's thought-provoking.

*After dealing with her childhood, Carr gives her "she, her" pronouns and that's really the only option.

[Wilfrid]

I continued to think about this as I walked to the supermarket and back. I was thinking about a friend, as well as someone else I know less well, who identify as non-binary and it occurred to me that that is the last thing Candy identified as. She was all in favor being binary.

[Wilfrid]

Here’s a recommendation: Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad’s second novel. A British stage actress of Palestinian descent goes home for the first time in years to see family and gets sucked into playing Gertrude in a kind of guerilla production of Hamlet on the West Bank. What could go wrong?

The novel is beautifully written but resolutely non-experimental: a story with characters and dialogue. I made progress with her first novel, The Parisian, on a train trip today. 

[Wilfrid]

On 9/25/2023 at 10:06 AM, Wilfrid said:

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.

 

Fun, I was at the fair again the day before I went away. Janelle was still there pitching, she remembered me and said she was trying to do more podcasts and media things for the book. Could she film me talking about it?

Humbly, stepping on stage or in front of a camera with no script is what I have done for years, so she seemed happy.

[Wilfrid]

Why I came to the thread is Gayl Jones’s new novel The Unicorn Woman. 

On the Mouthfuls of the before times, I wrote at length about what Jones had taught me. Not recapping here. This is a book of profound beauty, don’t miss it. 

Context, I didn’t love The Birdcatcher (2022). This latest seems more like another step on her long path.

 

 

[bloviatrix]

@MitchW's post about the Picasso show and the explanation about the sculpture of the girl jumping rope reminded me that I wanted to share that I recently finished reading Get the Picture: A mind-bending journey among the inspired artists and obsessive art fiends who taught me how to see by Bianca Bosker. Bosker reminds me of Bill Buford in that she engages in totally immersive journalism. When she desired to learn about the art world and how to determine what is good she not only attends art fairs, galleries, etc or talks with collectors, artists, gallerists, and curators; she goes to work in galleries, become a studio assistant, and works as a museum security guard. Along the way she learns about the gatekeepers and the choices that artists make when creating their work. But most importantly, she learns to trust herself and spend time looking - carefully.

It's extremely worthwhile reading.

[Wilfrid]

That does sound worthwhile. Thanks.

 

[StephanieL]

Mona of the Manor, the (definitely) last installment of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series.  This looks back to 1993 and focuses on Mona, whom Maupin relocated to England in the 1980s and then forgot about, only to mention that she'd died of ovarian cancer sometime between Sure of You and Michael Tolliver Lives.  A pleasant story, with a few 2024 sensibilities grafted onto the early 90s.

[Wilfrid]

@StephanieL Have you tried Eva Baltasar? I think you would like her.

Meanwhile, Norwegians everywhere. Not just Jon Fosse: Norwegian women writing really unusual, quirky fiction. I read Dorthe Nors' Mirror, Shoulder, Signal a while back (yes, features driving lessons). Recently I worked my way through everything in English by Vigdis Hjorth (except House of Norway which is not in my library). Now Hanne Ørstavik. Love is remarkable, unbearably tense. My library has The Pastor, so that's next. There are at least three more novels translated into English, but I can't keep buying books. Can I?

[StephanieL]

6 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

@StephanieL Have you tried Eva Baltasar? I think you would like her.

Meanwhile, Norwegians everywhere. Not just Jon Fosse: Norwegian women writing really unusual, quirky fiction. I read Dorthe Nors' Mirror, Shoulder, Signal a while back (yes, features driving lessons). Recently I worked my way through everything in English by Vigdis Hjorth (except House of Norway which is not in my library). Now Hanne Ørstavik. Love is remarkable, unbearably tense. My library has The Pastor, so that's next. There are at least three more novels translated into English, but I can't keep buying books. Can I?

No, I haven't read her.  I'd never even heard of her until now.