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[paul secor]

John Barth: The Floating Opera

[Brad]

Sebastià Alzamora - Blood Crime

[jlhoots]

rereading Chloe Benjamin: The Immortalists

[Matthew]

Red Harvest: Dashiell Hammett

[medjuck]

53 minutes ago, Matthew said:

Red Harvest: Dashiell Hammett

I recently re-read it and the original series as published in Black Mask.  Interesting comparison.  Original is even more violent. 

On 8/13/2018 at 8:49 AM, Larry Kart said:

 

Speaking of movies that bear some relationship to the blacklist and the role of/issues stirred by communism in the Hollywood community, I urge you to seek out if possible the fairly demented 1947 film noir “Desert Fury.” Here’s a squib I once wrote about it:

'Another interesting (and I think little known) noir is "Desert Fury” (1947), with John Hodiak, Wendell Corey, Lizbeth Scott, Lauren Bacall, and Burt Lancaster -- directed by Lewis Allen, script by Robert Rossen (the likely autuer and eventually one of the Hollywood Ten). To me, it's the quintessential pre-Hollywood Ten movie because its chief theme, transformed into a gangster setting in a more or less allegorical manner, is loyalty on the part of actual or would-be intellectuals  (or, in this case, frontmen) to the Communist Party no matter what (or rather to some degree because) the loyalty the CP required was of the "no matter what” sort. 

'This comes through in one key element of the plot -- the belief (held by many committed CPUSA members) that the ultimate test of virtue was one's "hardness" (not only as in toughness but also in one's willingness to do almost any deed in the name of submission to party discipline -- especially if the Party's dictates ran counter to the promptings of one's personal [i.e. bourgeois] conscience, convenience, or morality.) Thus Hodiak's character is a handsome, narcissistic frontman (a star gambler) who throws his glamorous rather menacing weight around but who shies away from doing the rough dirty stuff, while Corey, his sidekick who does do he rough dirty stuff when that's necessary (actually, he deeply enjoys doing it), is at once literally in love with Hodiak's character and his "star" aura (this homo-erotic aspect of the film is quite startlingly evident for its time) and enraged by the gap between what Hodiak's character thinks he himself is unwilling/ too good to do and what Corey's character both has to and, in some sense, chooses to do instead. Corey, playing a deeply twisted man, gives a terrific twisted performance.

'BTW, I can't swear that this is true, but a great American writer who shall be nameless (because, again, I can't swear that this story is true, though I trust my source for it) and who was a committed CPUSA member of the type outlined above (that committed CPUSA member part is fact) was among those who decamped to Mexico when things got hot in the immediate post-war Red Scare era and was among those who bought into the ultimate test of one's virtue as a committed Party member was one's "hardness" -- this despite (or maybe in some sense because) he was an essentially kind, gentle man. In any case, according to the story I was told, in Mexico his "hardness" was put to the test and on Party orders he engineered the death of a fellow leftist American emigre who was suspected of being a traitor to the cause and an FBI snitch.'

 

BTW, Rossen, was probably best know for writing and directing "The Hustler."

P.S. Lewis Allen is not to be confused with "Lewis Allan," the pseudonym of Abe Meeropol, the New York schoolteacher who wrote the lyric to "Strange Fruit" and eventually adopted the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

https://www.filmcomment.com/article/lewis-allen-desert-fury/
http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2012/04/desert-fury-1947.html

Rossen was a member of the Communist Party but was not one of the Hollywood Ten.  He was blacklisted but eventually named names. BTW I'm very curious about who the great American writer the rumour was about.  I can't think of anyone who was that committed and was also a great writer.  (You can pm me if you don't want to repeat rumours in public. 

58 minutes ago, Matthew said:

Red Harvest: Dashiell Hammett

I recently re-read it and the original series as published in Black Mask.  Interesting comparison.  Original is even more violent. 

[ghost of miles]

[ejp626]

I'm sure that was the point of the novel, but the characters from Katherine A. Porter's Ship of Fools were certainly an unpleasant lot.  Mostly drawn from the self-satisfied, selfish German bourgeoisie (with a couple of proto-Nazis among them) plus a Spanish dance troupe (with sideline in larceny, pimping and prostitution!) and an unpleasant Ugly American figure and then a couple of wishy-washy American painters.  Seemed like bedtime reading for Mencken, if you know what I mean.

I've just finished Russell Smith's How Insensitive, which is a satire of the Toronto art/literary scene of the early 90s.  Actually less savage towards its targets than Porter was!

I'm going to try Smith's Noise next, then Khushwant Singh's Train To Pakistan.

 

 

[jlhoots]

Daniel Silva: The Other Woman

[Utevsky]

This seems like a good time to read up on Watergate.  This is one of the better books about it.  Parts of it are just like what we've been hearing on the news . 

 

[Brad]

Translation: A History of the Spanish Civil War that No one will like. 

Edited September 4, 2018 by Brad

[Larry Kart]

50 minutes ago, Brad said:

Translation: A History of the Spanish Civil War that No one will like. 

Why will no one like it?

[Brad]

10 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Why will no one like it?

I will let you know.  I just started it. 

[Brad]

On 9/4/2018 at 4:49 PM, Larry Kart said:

Why will no one like it?

The author says that he doesn’t want to weigh the reader down with unnecessary dates and he seeks to tell what took place during the three years of “homicidal madness,” without saying who were the good guys and who were the bad ones. That’s up to reader to decide.  He said the book isn’t a novel because everything happened but it was his purpose to make it read like a novel. 

[mjazzg]

On 24/08/2018 at 1:59 AM, Brad said:

Sebastià Alzamora - Blood Crime

How did you find that Brad? 

Your post prompted me to check it out. Interesting premise intrigues but reviews seem a bit cool about the 'horror' elements

[Brad]

I loved it. He injected some vampire elements into it but it’s mainly focuses on the Spanish Civil War.  Now, I understand that because he doesn’t completely follow through on that theme, some reviewers were not happy but the book is best viewed as a meditation on the horrors of the War. 

Edited September 10, 2018 by Brad

[mjazzg]

32 minutes ago, Brad said:

I loved it. He injected some vampire elements into it but it’s mainly focuses on the Spanish Civil War.  Now, I understand that because he doesn’t completely follow through on that theme, some reviewers were not happy but the book is best viewed as a meditation on the horrors of the War. 

Great, thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Purchase now imminent

[Brad]

Here’s a review by a person who teaches Spanish Lit in the US.  His criticism is that you don’t learn more about Barcelona and Cataluña from this book than you already knew.  That may be true but he’s writing from a Catalan perspective. 

http://www.publicbooks.org/spanish-civil-wars/

The other book he reviews, The Winterlings, is very interesting, more a reflection on today’s Spain and meshing pro and anti Franco views, which is somewhat dealt in Giles Tremlett’s book of a few years ago. 

Coincidentally, tomorrow is the Diada, the annual parade for Catalan independence. Last year’s was quite contentious. I eexpect tomorrow’s will be too.  

Edited September 10, 2018 by Brad

[Brad]

Jill Lepore has a new book coming out on Tuesday, These Truths, a 900 page plus history of the US, that has received some very nice reviews. 

Here’s a profile that appeared in today’s New York Times. 

Jill Lepore on Writing the Story of America (in 1,000 Pages or Less)

[ejp626]

On 9/3/2018 at 8:51 AM, ejp626 said:

 Khushwant Singh's Train To Pakistan

Not surprisingly, pretty depressing all around.

I'm not enjoying Rezzori's The Death of My Brother Abel as much as I had hoped.  It's one of those post-modern novels where different fragments are layered on top of each other because the author (himself a minor character in the novel) can't decide on which story to tell.  It's a lot like Graeme Gibson's Gentleman Death, which I really didn't like.

After this, mostly likely rereading Mahfouz's Midaq Alley.

[JSngry]

Not begun reading yet, but it's on the nightstand, just waiting.

Probably not much in here I either don't know about or at least have heard about, but a linear layout of how all this insanity grew and got normalized...I need this now.

[mjazzg]

On 24/08/2018 at 1:59 AM, Brad said:

Sebastià Alzamora - Blood Crime

I'm enjoying this, thanks Brad.  I like the way the vampiric element is intertwined and can be read as metaphor for other horrors happening in the city. Seems well translated too (a few American English-isms aside ).  It's many a year since I tracked down novels set in Spain and Barcelona.  Eduardo Mendoza Garriga's 'City Of Marvels' is the one set in Barcelona I really remember

[Brad]

Glad you’re liking this. Uncertain Glory by Joan Sales is also quite good, although a little different. 

[mjazzg]

OK, thanks. I'll add it to the list. I remember reading some Goytisolo at the time as well, my only real memory is that it wasn't an easy read. Can't even remember which title it was

Edited September 19, 2018 by mjazzg

[Brad]

There is also another series of books by Carlos Ruiz Zafón about the Civil War in Barcelona that are supposed to be good.  

[mjazzg]

Funny you should mention that. The third or maybe fourth was reviewed in the weekend paper (yes I went analogue) and sounded quite intriguing

here's the review, it is the fourth instalment

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/14/labyrinth-spirits-carlos-ruiz-zafon-cemetery-forgotten-books-quartet-final-review

I remember the first instalment was hyped so much over here that I ended up ignoring it!  I might try it now.

Do you read these novels in the Spanish or translation?

(Also, as an aside I passed on the Sid Lowe book about Barca/Real to a football mad friend today so your recommendation still bears fruit)