Wilfrid Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Maggie Nelson, Argonauts After Bluets (see above), I read through her three conventional poetry collections -- Shiner, The Latest Winter, and Something Bright, Then Holes. All excellent. Argonauts is something else; like Bluets, it evades conventional genre, although I guess it's a memoir. The memoir intertwines the stories of her spouse's journey between female and male, and Nelson's own pregnancy and childbirth. The memoir is wrapped in thoughtful meditations on gender fluidity, identity, the body, and Irigaray, Zizek et al make appearances, but the theory never stifles the narrative. And the language is beautiful. Great book: looks like I have four more by her still to read. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wilfrid Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Julian Barnes, The Man in the Red Coat Enrique Vila-Matas, Montano's Malady " " , A Brief History of Portable Literature " " , Bartleby & Co Non-fiction by Barnes, three novels by Vila-Matas, although all four books present a parade of well-known and obscure historical characters from the last 150 years of European art and letters. Barnes tells the story of a brilliant gynaecologist, Dr Pozzi, who also has brilliant social and private lives. Cue Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Proust, and all the gang. Entertaining, and in the last pages finally displaying a serious purpose. My only caveat is that if names like Jean Lorrain, Leon Daudet, Barbey D'Aurevilly and Count de Montesquiou are unfamiliar, it might get tedious. I can't imagine why Vila-Matas was off my radar until I read the Art of Fiction interview in the current Paris Review. I thought I had looked at all notable modern Barcelona-born writers (in English translation, anyway). And this guy has Robert Musil as a character in his novels. Turns out that's the tip of the iceberg. Musil, Kafka, Joyce, Duchamp, Picabia all make their appearances, and many more. I find it very enjoyable, but again: if you don't particularly care about Cendrars, Larbaud, Walser, and various Oulipo-ites, it might get tedious. This is literature about literature. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bloviatrix Posted October 26 Share Posted October 26 Just started Bill Buford's Dirt over the weekend. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wilfrid Posted November 11 Share Posted November 11 I continue to be bowled over by the astonishing Maggie Nelson. I have just read the two books about the unsolved murder of her 22 year-old aunt Jane, four years before Nelson was born. The first, a verse collection of such power it reminds of Reznikoff, is a sort of expurgation of the shadow the murder cast over her family and childhood, complete with poetized excerpts from Jane's Journals (Jane: A Murder). Nelson hoped to achieve closure, but around the time that book was published the family was notified that -- decades later -- someone had been charged with the murder. Nelson wrote The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial, a poetic prose work in which the past comes back to haunt. The only bad news is that soon I will have read all the books she's published. But there should be many more to come. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tubbs Posted November 19 Share Posted November 19 On 10/26/2020 at 2:29 PM, bloviatrix said: Just started Bill Buford's Dirt over the weekend. Whatcha think? Started slow (and I found the writing weird) but improved, a lot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bloviatrix Posted November 20 Share Posted November 20 23 hours ago, Tubbs said: Whatcha think? Started slow (and I found the writing weird) but improved, a lot. I'm enjoying it although I think it could have done with some additional editing. I feel like there's a bit of repetition. I loved his description of how to prepare chicken in a pig's bladder. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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