opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

24 - 31 March 2006

24 March: Worst Russian books ? | Book-a-day reviewing | Byatt at Purdue
25 March: New Man prize | Pullman's library love | Transcript 22 | Highsmith exhibit | Maailman paras kylä review
26 March: Turkish writers | Antwerp review
27 March: Books in translation in China | Audio The Tunnel | NYTBR notes | Les mauvaises pensées review
28 March: Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) | Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) | Hotakainen reviews
29 March: PEN World Voices schedule | Riyadh literary scene | Kosztolanyi reviews
30 March: Prizes | Becoming Abigail review
31 March: German public intellectual rankings | Translator profiles | Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award | Άμυνα ζώνης review

go to weblog

return to main archive

       German public intellectual rankings

       The popular sport of 'ranking' public intellectuals hits Germany, where Cicero lists (not freely accessible online) their top 500.
       Their methodology apparently involved tallying up mentions/presence in the 83 most important German-language newspapers and magazines, as well as taking into some account Internet and TV mentions. What's striking is how author-heavy the list is: check out the top ten:

1. Günter Grass
2. Harald Schmidt
3. Marcel Reich-Ranicki
4. Martin Walser
5. Peter Handke
6. Jürgen Habermas
7. Wolf Biermann
8. Elfriede Jelinek
9. Alice Schwarzer
10. Botho Stauß

       (Striking also: most of these names would fit just as well on a similar list a quarter of a century ago -- i.e. there's no young blood here.)
       More commentary sure to follow in the German press; for now, see brief introductory pieces such as Carsten Heidböhmer's Intellektuellen-Ranking at Stern.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Translator profiles

       In Al-Ahram Weekly Hala Halim offers the first of an occasional series of profiles of translators working from and into Arabic, talking to Roger Allen.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award

       Forget that man Booker thing, it's the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award that is -- at £60,000 -- apparently "Britain's biggest award for writers".
       In The Scotsman David Robinson reports that Newspaper literary editor wins award for own fiction: Andrew Crumey picks up the cash -- "for the first 10,000 words of his novel, Sputnik Caledonia".

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Άμυνα ζώνης review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Petros Markaris' Άμυνα ζώνης.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       Prizes

       The various British Book Awards have been announced.
       For those who can't get enough: "You can see the awards on Television on Saturday 1 April at 6.00pm on Channel 4.The programme will be repeated on More4 on Sunday 2 April at 5.00pm."

       As widely reported, the 10th annual Kiriyama Prizes have also been announced. The non-fiction winner -- The Reindeer People -- certainly doesn't sound typically Pacific Rim, but hey .....

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Becoming Abigail review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Chris Abani's new novella, Becoming Abigail.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       PEN World Voices schedule

       The schedule for this year's PEN World Voices festival is now available online, and there's a lot of good stuff on offer.
       It begins 25 April with Orhan Pamuk giving the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture. He'll be introduced by Salman Rushdie, and the lecture will be followed by a conversation with Margaret Atwood.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Riyadh literary scene

       In Arab News Ebtihal Mubarak reports that Riyadh Literary Scene at Center of Tolerance Debate, describing some of the difficulties writers face in Saudi Arabia -- and how the situation varies from place to place (or at least book fair to book fair).

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Kosztolanyi reviews

       The most recent additions to the complete review are our reviews of two Kosztolányi Dezső titles:

• Anna Édes
• Esti Kornél

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006)

       Stanislaw Lem passed away yesterday.
       There's sure to be tons of coverage; for now, see The Times' obituary
       One great way of honouring the guy would be for his English-language publishers to finally put out a new Solaris-translation -- straight from the Polish this time, please, not via the French as is the case with the existing version. (Of course translating all the stuff that's never been made available in English would be nice too.)

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006)

       Ian Hamilton Finlay died yesterday, too.
       See obituaries in:

• Daily Telegraph
• The Scotsman
• The Times

       See also his official site and this interview at Jacket.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Hotakainen reviews

       The most recent additions to the complete review are our reviews of two Kari Hotakainen novels:

• Sydänkohtauksia
• Buster Keaton

       Sure, we probably should have started with (or at least also gotten to) his recent Nordic Council Literature Prize winning Juoksuhaudantie; we hope to get to it too soon.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       Books in translation in China

       China Daily report that Chinese gobble up translated reads.
       Harry Potter is the not surprising mega-success story:

It has sold more than 7 million copies so far in the country where students are barraged with mounds of homework, and fewer and fewer people can afford the leisure of literary enjoyment.

The sales figure signifies the popularity of this type of tale among Chinese bookworms, said Chen, adding that a translated foreign book that sells 50,000 copies is a blockbuster in China.

       It's not quite a one-way process, but there's a clear imbalance:

From 2000 to 2004, China introduced 41,000 foreign books. Meanwhile, it exported 6,038 rights of Chinese-language books, according to statistics from the National Copyright Administration.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Audio The Tunnel

       In The Los Angeles Times Paul Reyes reviews (link only short-lived) the new audio version of William H. Gass' The Tunnel (see also our review of the book).

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       NYTBR notes

       Hardly even worth bothering noting any more, since it almost always seems to be the same old depressing story: the 26 March issue of The New York Times Book Review has 4 full-length reviews of individual fiction titles and 15 (!) full-length reviews of individual non-fiction titles (as well as one full-length review covering two non-fiction titles). (Also: one poetry collection gets the full-length treatment, and there's a four-title 'Crime'-round-up.).
       As for books in translation ... well, one of the 26 titles was originally written in a foreign language. Not surprisingly, it's by a dead guy -- and is 'A New Translation' (i.e. stuff that was previously available, albeit in a different version). (The book is the Cavafy poetry-collection.)

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Les mauvaises pensées review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Laurent Seksik's Les mauvaises pensées.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       Turkish writers

       In Pamuk in the vanguard in The Observer Jonathan Heawood looks at the situation for writers in Turkey. Among other quotes:

Pamuk has told friends that he is caught between two poles. On the one hand, it his duty to write. On the other, he believes that authors must engage with the society around them.

       A sign of how far Pamuk has come can be found in the fact that in a country that barely manages to translate any literature at all (yes, that would be the US), his novel The Black Book is being re-translated. Yes, Guneli Gun's 1995 translation is being replaced by a new one by Maureen Freely ("an original translation by Maureen Freely " the galley announces on both front and back covers), due out in July (pre-order your copy at Amazon.com).
       In her Translator's Afterword Freely briefly addresses Gun's version:

the translation, though ebullient and faithful to the original, was also somewhat opaque.

       We expect to cover the new translation in the coming months.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Antwerp review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Nicholas Royle's Antwerp.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       New Man prize

       So, there's the Man Booker Prize (as widely reported, now with a new five-year sponsorship deal; see the official press release), and the relatively new Man Booker International Prize, and just over a week ago they unveiled a new one -- albeit a Booker-less one: the Man Asian Literary Prize.
       It was announced at the recently concluded 2006 Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival, and Joyce Hor-Chung Lau mentions it in her IHT round-up, Hong Kong steps onto the international literary stage.
       There's an official press release (warning ! dreaded pdf format !), which explains some of what they have in mind:

Called the Man Asian Literary Prize, the award will seek entries from Asian writers for works that are yet to be published in English. Entries will be submitted in English, and the prize is intended to provide a broader platform for the cream of new Asian literature to be brought to the attention of English-reading audiences around the world.

       Yeah, that sounds like a plan -- non-English works submitted in translation .....
       Peter Gordon, Director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, explains:

"Asia is becoming an important source for new writing for major international publishers and this award will help facilitate publishing and translating of Asian literature into English", Mr Gordon said.

       They don't seem to have thought this quite through (but: "Further details including application procedures, eligibility and prize money will be finalised over the coming months and will be announced in Autumn 2006"). But they hope to award the first MALP in the fall of 2007.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Pullman's library love

       Philip Pullman gets on board with the Love Libraries campaign, writing about A treasure house for Moomins, Biggles and well-thumbed pages in The Times.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Transcript 22

       The tri-lingual Transcript 22 -- Identity Revolutions -- is now available online. Always worth a look.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Highsmith exhibit

       In the NZZ Beatrice Eichmann-Leutenegger writes about (link likely only short-lived) an exhibit on longtime Swiss resident Patricia Highsmith at the Schweizerische Landesbibliothek.
       See also the Patricia Highsmith Papers - Swiss Literary Archives.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Maailman paras kylä review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Arto Paasilinna's Maailman paras kylä.
       (Yeah, we know: no reviews for two weeks and then this ? But wait ! There's more Finnish fun to come next week !)

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       Worst Russian books ?

       In his Salon-column in The Moscow Times this week Victor Sonkin writes about the recently completed 'Books of Russia' fair.
       Among the amusing traditions there:

For the sixth time, the Abzatz anti-prize was distributed to honor the worst books published in Russia. (...) (P)rizes were handed out for the worst translation, to Igor Boikov for his messy rendition of French surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire; for the worst editing, to the Eksmo publishing house for its work on the novels of detective writer (and Moscow Times columnist) Yulia Latynina; and, for the worst book overall, to the creators of a pirated edition of the latest Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, who rewrote chunks of its text at the expense of the great Colombian author. (...)

The upside of the prize was that, for the second year in a row, no suitable candidate was found for the "worst proofreading" nomination, perhaps indicating a growing awareness of standards and good practices within the Russian publishing community.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Book-a-day reviewing

       At the Globe and Mail John Allemang has apparently been "reading a new book each day and then writing a review" since last November -- and while he hasn't been able to stick to a strict book-a-day habit, he has managed to read and review 66 books since 29 November. (Somewhat surprisingly, that's exactly the number of books we've reviewed at the complete review since 29 November -- though our current almost two-week hiatus has slowed our pace dramatically (not to worry: the next review should be up later today).)
       In the Globe and Mail Allemang answers readers' questions about his undertaking.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Byatt at Purdue

       A pretty good get for Purdue and their 2006 Literary Awards: they got A.S.Byatt to accept it and give a talk.
       In Novelist shares advice, inspiration in The Exponent Andrea Thomas covers the event, reporting that some 200 people showed up
       And at least one interesting titbit:

"I shall never write an autobiography," Byatt said. "The fairy stories are the closest I shall ever come to writing about true events in my life."

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

previous entries (11 - 13 March 2006)

archive index

- return to top of the page -

© 2006 the complete review


Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links