jazzbo Posted August 24, 2018 Report Share Posted August 24, 2018 Fantastic stories by a fascinating writer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul secor Posted August 24, 2018 Report Share Posted August 24, 2018 John Barth: The Floating Opera Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted August 24, 2018 Report Share Posted August 24, 2018 Sebastià Alzamora - Blood Crime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted August 24, 2018 Report Share Posted August 24, 2018 rereading Chloe Benjamin: The Immortalists Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 Red Harvest: Dashiell Hammett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted September 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted September 3, 2018 Report Share Posted September 3, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted September 3, 2018 Report Share Posted September 3, 2018 Daniel Silva: The Other Woman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdavenport Posted September 3, 2018 Report Share Posted September 3, 2018 Around 1/3 the way through Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utevsky Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 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 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 (edited) Translation: A History of the Spanish Civil War that No one will like. Edited September 4, 2018 by Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 50 minutes ago, Brad said: Translation: A History of the Spanish Civil War that No one will like. Why will no one like it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 10 minutes ago, Larry Kart said: Why will no one like it? I will let you know. I just started it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 10, 2018 Report Share Posted September 10, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjazzg Posted September 10, 2018 Report Share Posted September 10, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 10, 2018 Report Share Posted September 10, 2018 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjazzg Posted September 10, 2018 Report Share Posted September 10, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 10, 2018 Report Share Posted September 10, 2018 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 17, 2018 Report Share Posted September 17, 2018 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) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejp626 Posted September 17, 2018 Report Share Posted September 17, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted September 17, 2018 Report Share Posted September 17, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjazzg Posted September 19, 2018 Report Share Posted September 19, 2018 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted September 19, 2018 Report Share Posted September 19, 2018 Glad you’re liking this. Uncertain Glory by Joan Sales is also quite good, although a little different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjazzg Posted September 19, 2018 Report Share Posted September 19, 2018 (edited) 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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