Now reading...

[ghost of miles]

Hey guys.....it's John's Grill near Union Square. Still there......still a monument to Hammett and the Maltese Falcon. He actually lived on the corner for a period of time.

If you decide to come in for it, maybe I'll meet you afterwards or something.

Excellent, BFrank! Yet another reason to visit the Bay Area. Man, I can't believe John's Grill is still there!

[BruceH]

The Voice of the Dolphins, by Leo Szilard.

[ghost of miles]

Just starting Lydia Davis' new translation of Proust's SWANN'S WAY. Only 25 pages or so into it (I'm going to try to read about that much each night), but so far it reads beautifully, with more clarity than the earlier Montcrieff and Kilmartin translations. I also bought IN THE SHADOW OF YOUNG GIRLS IN FLOWER (aka WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE), the only other new translation to come out in the States so far (they all came out in the UK about a year and a half ago). The covers are beautiful, too:

I read REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST (the Kilmartin translation) all the way through about 10 years ago... wondering what another decade of experience will do for the second time through. I think I'll have even more appreciation for it than I did when I was younger.

[Dr. Rat]

Long review of Proust translations by Christopher Hitchens might be worth a read when you're done (if you're not mad at him still about our nice little war).

--eric

[king ubu]

Currently lots of short texts by: Robert Walser, Joseph Roth, Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, Franz Hessel. Feuilletons and book reviews, mainly, searching for the "flaneur"...

Also Alfred Döblin's "Reise in Polen".

ubu

[Jazzmoose]

Excellent, BFrank! Yet another reason to visit the Bay Area. Man, I can't believe John's Grill is still there!

If so, I'd better hear from you so we can meet up!

[ghost of miles]

Excellent, BFrank!  Yet another reason to visit the Bay Area.  Man, I can't believe John's Grill is still there!

If so, I'd better hear from you so we can meet up!

Goes without saying, my friend, goes without saying!

I wish they'd bring all of the Thin Man series out on DVD--so far they've issued only the first, but I liked the second and third quite a lot, and even the last one, Song of the Thin Man, was mildly enjoyable, with the Charles interacting with hep-speaking bop musicians.

[ghost of miles]

Long review of Proust translations by Christopher Hitchens might be worth a read when you're done (if you're not mad at him still about our nice little war).

--eric

Somebody posted that to the Proust list, but I haven't read it yet. Just started the "Combray" section last night... so far, the translation is really living up to the hype. (Each volume was done by a different translator; the others have gotten mixed reviews.)

[brownie]

Just starting Lydia Davis' new translation of Proust's SWANN'S WAY. Only 25 pages or so into it (I'm going to try to read about that much each night), but so far it reads beautifully, with more clarity than the earlier Montcrieff and Kilmartin translations. I also bought IN THE SHADOW OF YOUNG GIRLS IN FLOWER (aka WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE), the only other new translation to come out in the States so far (they all came out in the UK about a year and a half ago). The covers are beautiful, too:

I read REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST (the Kilmartin translation) all the way through about 10 years ago... wondering what another decade of experience will do for the second time through. I think I'll have even more appreciation for it than I did when I was younger.

I read the whole of 'A La Recherche du Temps Perdu' while in the Army a long time ago. I had wanted to do this while in highschool and never got around to do it. I was in the Army long enough to read an early edition which was available at the local library where I was stationed.

Then when the latest revised edition was published in the prestigious Bibliotheque de la Pleiade in 1989, I bought the four-volume 7,408 pages thing. And can't face the prospect of reading the whole thing from start to finish. From time to time, I pick one of the volumes and get caught in the magic. I'm pretty sure I will never get a chance to read this all the way a second time.

The four volume come in a special box decorated with a reproduction of a William Turner watercolor. Beautiful. i'm glad to have this near me so that I can go through some of the pages when I feel like it.

[ghost of miles]

The new Penguins are based on the 1989 Pleiade edition, although I understand that the French version includes much extra material that was left out of the English translations. One of these days I need to seriously re-visit my weak grasp of the language and read Proust in the original. Magic is a great way to describe it, Brownie. I've been reading it late at night, which seems like the perfect time to inhabit the pages.

[porcy62]

WILLIAM BLUM Killing Hope. U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (italian translation)

More than 800 pages, index included, of well documented reasons for hating GWB and his predecessors (and ancestors).

Reccomended to forum's american friends

Edited April 17, 2004 by porcy62

[ghost of miles]

Peter Carroll, THE ODYSSEY OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE: AMERICANS IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR.

[paul secor]

Just finished reading Preston Love's autobiography A Thousand Honey Creeks Later. (Honey Creek, Iowa was the site of his first gig, as a teen aged drummer.)

In some ways, it's a fascinating book, granting a look at a number of music scenes - from his travels with territory bands, to playing with Basie and Lucky Millinder, to leading his own bands, to his work as a Motown musician, bandleader, and music contractor. In other ways, it's a frustrating read. Preston Love was obsessed with being the best big band first alto he could be, and much music that falls outside of that realm is given short shrift in his autobiography. That's certainly his right, since it's his life and his book, but, as I say, the narrowness of focus became frustrating for me after a while. A more frustrating point is that Mr. Love concentrates almost entirely on his life as a musician, and never gives the reader a look at Preston Love the man. His family life is virtually ignored; he writes about his good friend, Johnny Otis, but almost never writes about the time they spent together, except when it involves music; he never gives the reader any real sense of why he continued to return to his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. There is a wealth of fascinating material in A Thousand Honey Creeks. I certainly found Preston Love, the musician there. I just never found Preston Love, the man.

[jazzbo]

Naomi Mitchison "The Corn King and the Spring Queen" . . . a novel of ancient Scythia, Sparta and Egypt published in 1932. Sort of fantasy, nicely written. I'm digging it!

[Jad]

Cordwainer Smith "The Rediscovery of Man", a collection of all of his short fiction from the 50's and 60's. His real name was Paul Lineburger, and he spent his life as a diplomat, and became an expert in psychological warfare. His treatise on this subject is still used in the military today.

Fantastic. He uses his stories to tell an amazing future history. Sort of a stretched out "Canticle for Leibowitz".

[jazzbo]

Ah, Cordwainer Smith! Yes, an excellent writer. . . !

[BruceH]

Gotta love Cordwainer Smith! Kudos to NESFA Press for putting out that definitive collection you are reading, Jad.

Right now I'm reading The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram by Thomas Bass. I'm tempted to say that an authority figure ORDERED me to, but no, it was my idea.

[J Larsen]

I've been going back to books I haven't read since high school to see how my attitude towards them has changed. I still really like Catcher in the Rye, though not quite as much as I did 13 years ago. I love The Great Gatsby, which I despised in high school (must have been in a bad mood that week, because it's an amazing book). Next up: Go Tell it on the Mountain.

[Matthew]

Next up: Go Tell it on the Mountain.

You are in for a wonderfull experience when you read that. Baldwin is still an overlooked novelist of true genius. The Library of America editions of his writing are worth purchasing.

[jazzbo]

Agreed: James Baldwin's work should be read and savored.

[ghost of miles]

Next up: Go Tell it on the Mountain.

You are in for a wonderfull experience when you read that. Baldwin is still an overlooked novelist of true genius. The Library of America editions of his writing are worth purchasing.

Those Library of America Baldwin volumes are wonderful, both the fiction and non-fiction.

Currently reading Alan Furst's THE POLISH OFFICER and Allen Weinstein's THE HAUNTED WOOD: SOVIET ESPIONAGE IN AMERICA IN THE STALIN ERA.

[jamn]

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides

[Matthew]

Whew! Finally finished Anthony Powell's A Dance To The Music Of Time. This was the second time for me and I was surprised, on this read, how much death figured in the novel. Seems as if everyone dies, that death is the center which everything revolves around, and you're just left with Jenkins, the narrator of the story, and Widermerpool, the main character, who dies at the end. Supposedly, the four volumes take after the four season, which I can believe. Still have may doubts about the quality of the novel, Nick Jenkins is not enough of a presence to make us interested in him; a very passive character. Seems as if Pamala Widermerpool is the moral center of the story -- yikes! Well worth the investment of time and money to get this though. I have no doubt that I'll read it again, and, most likely, have a different reaction.

[paul secor]

Yesterday, on my lunch hour: An Alice Munro story, "Passion", and an Aline and R. Crumb comic strip, "Creeping Global Vilagism", from the March 22 New Yorker.

[ghost of miles]

Yesterday, on my lunch hour: An Alice Munro story, "Passion"

I just pulled down my volume of Munro's selected stories last week. Hoping to read a few in the coming month.

Now reading Ellen Schrecker's MANY ARE THE CRIMES: MCCARTHYISM IN AMERICA, and Gary Kern and Nigel West's A DEATH IN WASHINGTON: WALTER KRIVITSKY AND THE STALIN TERROR.