Now reading...

[king ubu]

Being a late-comer, I only saw "The Ipcress File" about two or three years ago, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's certainly one of the funniest parodies on its genre, and Caine with his silly goggles is great!

[ejp626]

My plan for 2010-11 will be first to read the two competing new translations of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita (I've heard both editions are better and more faithful than the version I read).

So I got started on this a little early. The temptation of reading the dueling Bulgakovs at Christmas was too tempting to pass up (if you are familiar with it, it involves the devil (or his surrogate) coming to Moscow and finding the people easy pickings, interwoven with chapters of Jesus and Pontius Pilate). My feelings so far are that the Peavar-Volokhonsky translation is a bit better than Burgin-O'Connor, in part because they seem to have worked from the most complete version. I do think the notes from the Burgin-O'Connor just a bit better, however. To add to the confusion there is a mass paperback of the Peavar-Volokhonsky (that I've only ever seen in the UK) without any notes or footnotes. I would probably steer away from that as some notes are helpful. But either translation is fine. Heck, even the original one I read by M. Glenny is good. If you are at all interested in Russian (or particularly Soviet) literature, you should read this book.

[jazzbo]

Great book, I'm a fan of all his work. I haven't read any of the newer translations. . . maybe sometime this year.

Edited December 18, 2009 by jazzbo

[jlhoots]

Philip Caputo: The Voyage

[jazzbo]

[Brad]

Just started Pete Fornatele's Return to the Garden, about Woodstock.

[Matthew]

The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Yo Ha Wa 13, And The Source Family. Written by Isis Aquarian, who was one of Father Yod's many wives and historian of the Source Family. Interesting story of Los Angeles in the early part of the 1970's, which in some ways was a stranger era than anything in the 60's. It's sad, funny, inspirational, and frustrating, all at the same time. Just a story about a lot of lost people looking for purpose in their lives, and found it in Jim Baker, aka, Father Yod. I always find these stories amazing -- a number of these people show up from the Mid-West, and after a day, they hook up somehow with The Source Family. Nice cd included with the book. Still, it all left me with a sad feeling.

[rdavenport]

I've just finished Steinbeck's "East Of Eden". I'm at a loss to describe how much I enjoyed it.

[carnivore]

Donald Westlake 'Get Real' - a very funny and neatly crafted riff on Reality TV....

[Matthew]

Arnold Schoenberg's Journey by Allen Shawn. Very interesting book, I'll have to buy some Schoenberg cds and have a listen.

[medjuck]

Finally finished Roberto Bolano's "2666". Liked the last book the best, but can't really recommend the investment of time it takes to get through all 900 pages of the entire book-- though some friends think he's the great writer of our time. Then blew through Alice Munro's new book of short stories "Too Much Happiness". I think she's the great writer of our time. Then because I was in an airport with nothing to read bought and re-read "Up in the Air" which I first read several years ago when we began work on the film version. Sort of surprised to realize just how much the film differed from the book in tone as well as plot.

[A Lark Ascending]

Follow up to the 1956-64 'Never Had it So Good'. Covers the Wilson (Harold, not Brian) years up to 1970. Sandbrook writes good popular history, balancing the politics and economics (which he seems to have a particular interest in) with the cultural and social changes.

Probably goes a bit to heavy on the pop music - large sections on the development of the Beatles, the appearance of the Stones, even the Kinks. Sandbrook is about 5 or more years younger than me so it's not as if he's living his youth.

250 pages in and I've got to 1966 - quite useful as I was out of the country from Aug '65 until Feb '68 (undercover in 'Nam at the time).

He's currently writing a third volume on the 70s with a final book on Attila the Hen's years due afterwards.

[Harold_Z]

Bioy Casares - The Invention of Morel. Short and terrific!

[Jazzmoose]

...Attila the Hen...

Haven't heard that particular description before...

[ghost of miles]

DREAM STREET: W. EUGENE SMITH'S PITTSBURGH PROJECT (edited by Sam Stephenson)

[jlhoots]

Richard Russo: That Old Cape Magic

[ejp626]

To my surprise, they are putting out a supposedly complete run of Berke Breathed's Bloom County, which is very heavy on the early strips that have not been published before.

I thought the early paperbacks started from the beginning; am I wrong? Just wondering as I still have the first few.

So I got this for Christmas (thanks, Santa), and it is a nice package. Much thicker than I thought (284 pages). I think the review on Amazon overstated how many new cartoons there are. There are definitely some not in Loose Tails, but probably more on the order of 5%, not 50% as one reviewer hinted. On the other hand, I have no problem with the reproduction quality. If you have all the old books, this is probably not necessary. I have the oversized collections still, but not the other ones, so for me, it is worth getting. Breathed glosses some political and pop culture references in the margins, but not others. It's kind of an odd effect.

Edited December 28, 2009 by ejp626

[ejp626]

So I am slightly over half-way through both translations of The Master and Margarita. This is a pretty interesting novel, and having to go back and forth is slowing me down so I can really appreciate it (often on rereading a book, I will rip through it and the finer points are wasted). I'll post my thoughts on the translations a bit later.

I'm doing a mini-survey of Soviet literature before starting in on my ambitious plans to go through Nabokov, Narayan and Mafouz in 2010-11. Vladimir Voinovich is definitely an heir to Bulgakov, esp. the Ivankiad, which I read many years back, and The Fur Hat (which may well be inspired by an episode in the Master and Margarita). Currently, I've checked out The Life & Extraordinary Adventures of Private Chonkin, and I'm trying to get my hands on Moscow 2042. I'm also going to read Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. This was another case where there are multiple translations (at least 3 in print). It looks like the most popular translations are Clarence Brown (Penguin) and Natasha Randall (Modern Library). (For some reason the Mirra Ginsburg version isn't discussed much.) So I was able to borrow both of these and do some comparisons. While it is a pretty short novel, I am not going to read both translations. I think Randall gets the linguistic devices a bit better, and I generally prefer her style. Brown seems inordinately proud of the fact that he predicts that uniform would be shortened to uni and not "unif" which is what most translators use. However, he is a total prat about it -- and he doesn't actually use "uni," but "yuny." I'm sorry, but there is no chance in the world that uniform would end up shorted to "yuny." Having to read "yuny" on page after page? No thank you. That sealed my decision, and I ordered a copy of the Modern Library version.

Edited December 28, 2009 by ejp626

[jazzbo]

e, do you read Russian? That's an ambitious, and I wager rewarding, undertaking. Bulgakov is one of my favorites, I like all his books, Black Snow being my recent favorite.

I'm a huge fan of Pushkin too, the "tone" in his work is one I would love to be able to emulate naturally.

Right now continuing my reading of history with

[ejp626]

e, do you read Russian? That's an ambitious, and I wager rewarding, undertaking. Bulgakov is one of my favorites, I like all his books, Black Snow being my recent favorite.

I'm a huge fan of Pushkin too, the "tone" in his work is one I would love to be able to emulate naturally.

No. When I mean comparing translation, I just mean putting them side by side, and seeing which works better based on internal logic or my own tastes really. On rare occasions I will try to read French novels or poetry in the original. That's really the only other language I can read.

This has been a great opportunity to see if Peavar and Volokhonsky really should be considered the gold standard in Russian translation, and I have to say the hype seems justified. Most of the time, you can only compare their translations to Constance Garnett and not to a modern translation based on the most accurate text. And I don't mean to diss Ms. Garnett either, though I do think Peavar and Volokhonsky are more capable translators. I grew up on her translations of Dostoevsky, and without her prodigious efforts*, 2 or 3 generations of English-speakers might not have read these works, particularly Chekhov and Turgenev. This is less true of Dostoevsky (and Tolstoy**), who would eventually have been translated, of course.

* Over 70 translations!

** To my shame, I have read nearly nothing of Tolstoy (penciled in tentatively for 2012) and I may well skip over her translations in favor of Peavar and Volokhonsky. I can't possibly read two versions of War and Peace back to back. Even Anna Karenina seems too long at over 700 pages, though I might read her version first for old times' sake and then P-V a couple of years down the road. But I did read nearly all of Dostoevsky growing up, even ripping through the Brothers Karamazov in just under two weeks. What I would do with that kind of time now!

[jazzbo]

Thanks for explaining, e. Translators can make a huge impact on readability, as I learned recently re-reading Thomas Mann novels in new translation.

[ejp626]

No. When I mean comparing translation, I just mean putting them side by side, and seeing which works better based on internal logic or my own tastes really. On rare occasions I will try to read French novels or poetry in the original. That's really the only other language I can read.

This has been a great opportunity to see if Peavar and Volokhonsky really should be considered the gold standard in Russian translation, and I have to say the hype seems justified. ...

Ok, this is probably only of interest to Bulgakov buffs, but still...

Anyway, an odd coincidence struck me. It turns out that a Russian critic (Yuly Aikhenvald) -- an early supporter of Nabokov -- died in a tram accident in Berlin in 1928. I can't find any direct evidence that Bulgakov interacted with him, but I think he would have had to have heard of the accident, given how close-knit Russian literary circles were at the time. I do wonder if the incident helped shape the early drafts of the Master and Margarita.

Now I currently have three translations, but after this exercise is over, I will give two away and hold onto the Peavar and Volokhonsky.

(This picture is a bit blurry. Michael Glenny's somewhat outdated translation is on the left; P-V is on the right.*) As I said before, the Burgin-O'Connor translation is very good indeed, but I think P-V go just that extra half-step and reveal some of the slyness of the novel.

Here are two examples (with P-V as the second entry):

The Muscovites (an editor and a poet) say the Devil, like God, doesn't exist. The professor (actually the Devil) responds.

1) "Well, now, this is really getting interesting," cried the professor, shaking with laughter. "What is it with you? Whatever comes up you say doesn't exist!"

2) "Well, now that is positively interesting!" the professor said, shaking with laughter. "What is it with you -- no matter what one asks for, there isn't any!"

During the professor's performance of black magic, an self-important bureaucrat is "exposed" as having an affair with a minor actress.

1) The young relative was seized with another fit of satanic laughter.

"If anyone can lay a hand on him, I certainly can," she answered through her laughter, and again her umbrella was heard, cracking Arkady Apollonovich over the head.

2) A second brief wave of satanic laughter seized the young relation.

"Who else should dare touch him," she answered, guffawing, "if not me!" And for the second time there came the dry, crackling sound of the umbrella bouncing off the head of Arkady Apollonovich.

In the first example, I get the echoing of rationing and empty (cheese?) shops that doesn't come into play with the "doesn't exist" formulation.

The second example is a bit more of a tie. It should be fairly evident to a careful reader that the distant relation is also involved with the bureaucrat and she is giving him "Elin" but his loathesomeness and the fact that he has to use his influence to win over ladies comes through a bit stronger.

Again, this is mostly taste. I think P-V get it just a bit more right, but both are very readable, and I would encourage anyone who enjoyed the novel to borrow the other version for the notes at the end, since they do cover different aspects of the novel. I certainly feel I understand the book much better on what is essentially the second and third go-around.

* I can't attach using this browser; I'll have to fix tonight.

Edited December 29, 2009 by ejp626

[rdavenport]

I just finished Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" - I only picked this up because my local charity shop sells 3 books for £1 and I needed a third to make up the numbers.

I am the world's biggest philistine when it comes to fine dining, but I found the book interesting, if only to confirm my suspicion that most chefs are megalomaniacs. Bourdain says much the same, claiming that kitchens attract people from the fringes of society, who don't really fit in elsewhere.

[jazzbo]

I'll look for the P-V next time i read that great novel.

[ejp626]

I'll look for the P-V next time i read that great novel.

You also might want to check out A Dead Man's Memoir: A Theatrical Novel, which appears to be a new (2007) translation by Andrew Bromfield of Black Snow. I suspect this is the version that I will eventually read (although Glenny's translation can be found for much less). Glenny seems to be falling a bit out of fashion as a Bulgakov translator, though most critics seem to feel his Heart of a Dog remains better than Mirra Ginsburg's version.