opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 January 2010

11 January: Translation leader | UK edition of Nazi Literature in the Americas | Unforgivable review
12 January: 'The contemporary Arabic novel' (in English) | Fiction in translation in ... the US | Rushdie archive | The New Republic's 'The Book' | Gross Margin review
13 January: Goh Poh Seng (1936-2010) | Larkin25 | The Recognition of Shakúntala review
14 January: Bestselling novelists in France, 2009 | Antwerp review
15 January: Portál české literatury | Latest Jacques Chessex is rated NC-17 in Switzerland
16 January: 'The Death of the Slush Pile' | Japanese literary awards | More on the Scandinavian crime wave | Landscape With Dog review
17 January: Chetan Bhagat | Plagiarism, again
18 January: Promoting Vietnamese literature abroad | 36 Arguments for the Existence of God review
19 January: Literature in ... Kenya | Tom Stoppard profile
20 January: Паранойя paranoia in Belarus ? | DSC Jaipur Literature Festival | Writing in ... Nigeria | Memories of the Future review

go to weblog

return to main archive

       Паранойя paranoia in Belarus ?

       In Belarus: love and paranoia at openDemocracy.net Natalia Leshchenko reports on Victor Martinovich's Паранойя ('Paranoia'), as:

Two days after it hits Minsk bookshops and Belarus's internet retailers, it is suddenly "unavailable". Neither inquiring readers nor embarrassed sales staff are given any explanation.

       This despite the facts that:

The book (which was published in Moscow) never mentions Belarus. The dictator is not the president but the secret-service minister, and his character is deliberately crafted to differ from the current Belarusian leader. The author opens the novel with the pointed statement: "all characters are fictional". Yet Minsk's landmarks are tangible in his social dystopia.

       Leshchenko finds:

The message conveyed by the act of suppression is at glaring odds with the official narrative. It suggests that the real things in Belarus happen in silence, unpredictably and without explanation. The government’s lack of communication in areas of international concern confirms and strengthens this adverse view.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       DSC Jaipur Literature Festival

       The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival runs from the 21st to the 25th of January. They consider it: "unquestionably Asia's leading literary festival", and it does, indeed, boast quite an impressive line-up and program.
       See also preview-articles such as Aarti Betigeri's Jaipur Literature Festival: Literati glitterati weekend in India at CNNgo, and the IANS report, Watch out for Jaipur literary fest.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Writing in ... Nigeria

       In Next Ireyimika Oyegbami reports that A new literary year kicks off in Lagos, as the Lagos State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors had a panel on the question, 'Is the Nigerian Economy Killing Literary Development?'.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Memories of the Future review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the second volume of stories by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky to appear in English, Memories of the Future.
       (This is one of the longlisted titles for the Best Translated Book Award; see the full list (with links to titles under review).)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Literature in ... Kenya

       In the Christian Science Monitor Eamon Kircher-Allen reports that 'After social upheaval, clubs and small publishers have sprung up in the East African nation as new outlets for literary expression', in Kenya's rising culture club.
       Billy Kahora, of Kwani? is quoted:

"These are people who have grown up reading people like Ngugi wa Thiong'o," Kahora says, referring to one of Kenya'’s most famous authors, who published much of his writing in the 1960s and '70s. "And they’re thinking, Man, it’s all very well to read about Mau Mau" -- the anticolonial insurgents the British called terrorists -- "to read about neocolonialism, to read about Marxism. But the Kenya today is all about overpopulation, it's about HIV/AIDS, it's about crime and insecurity. I want to read that stuff, you know? I want to see my present."

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Tom Stoppard profile

       In La utopía de Tom Stoppard in El País David Trueba profiles Tom Stoppard.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Promoting Vietnamese literature abroad

       At VietNamNet Bridge 'Overseas Vietnamese Tran Thien Dao from France and Zhu Yang Xiu from China discussed how best to promote Vietnamese literature internationally', in National award should be set up for the best translated works.
       Tran Thien Dao says:

I think that translations must be accurate, fine and pure. Works that have been translated into French are accurate but not fine and pure.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       36 Arguments for the Existence of God review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of A Work of Fiction by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Chetan Bhagat

       Random House India editor-in-chief Chiki Sarkar reviews the new book by Chetan Bhagat, 2 States, in Outlook India, and finds:

Two States is, to my mind, one of the most striking (and I use this word with care) Indian novels I have read in the last few years.

       And she suggests:

Perhaps in any other country, Bhagat would have been just another mass-market writer. In India today, he is also someone who is telling stories no one else is. This is what makes his work not just entertaining, but surprisingly important.

       There's only one Bhagat under review at the complete review -- the quite atrocious One night @ the call center -- but I hope to cover the others as well: Sarkar does make a good point, and I think it's almost impossible to avoid Bhagat's works if you're at all interested in India. Certainly he offers something not found in most of the readily-accessible-in-the-US (or UK) 'Indian' fiction.

       Bhagat has been phenomenally successful -- apparently something like a million copies of this book have been sold. Also notable: the list price is a very affordable Rs.95 (just over US $ 2.00) -- which certainly contributed to its phenomenal sales success. And particularly noteworthy, I think: the book is widely available for (presumably illegal) download -- which might not bother Bhagat too much, but which I imagine the Indian publishing industry must find rather worrying.

       See also the Rupa publicity page for 2 States, or get your copy from Amazon.co.uk or, possibly, Amazon.com.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Plagiarism, again

       In The Observer Robert McCrum takes the Darrieussecq v. Laurens to-do (see my previous mention) as a starting point to write at some length about that ever-popular subject, Plagiarism: in the words of someone else ... there's little new in literature.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       'The Death of the Slush Pile'

       Widely linked to, in the Wall Street Journal Katherine Rosman finds that 'Even in the Web era, getting in the door is tougher than ever', in The Death of the Slush Pile, as:

Now, slush is dead, or close to extinction. Film and television producers won't read anything not certified by an agent because producers are afraid of being accused of stealing ideas and material. Most book publishers have stopped accepting book proposals that are not submitted by agents. Magazines say they can scarcely afford the manpower to cull through the piles looking for the Next Big Thing.

       This wouldn't be so troubling if these were reliable gatekeepeers -- but since, for example:

At William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, Adriana Alberghetti only reads scripts sent to her by producers, managers and lawyers whose taste she knows and trusts.

       Sorry, I find it difficult believing this is the best way to find material (though I understand the plagiarism-accusation-concerns).
       And how about statements like Jim Levine's (of the 'Levine Greenberg Literary Agency'):

"These days, you need to deliver not just the manuscript but the audience," says Mr. Levine. "More and more, the mantra in publishing is 'Ask not what your publisher can do for you, ask what you can do for your publisher.'"

       Yeah, that's going to work out well -- for those publishers who can transform themselves solely into book marketers. (Recall, however, (see my previous mention) how FSG president Jonathan Galassi recently tried to sell the myth to readers that publishers still do: "far more than print and sell a book", and actually 'select, nurture, position and promote the writer's work' (I can't help it, it still brings tears (of laughter, I like to think) to my eyes when I read that guff).)
       Still, there's some refreshing honesty here -- for example, from former Time Warner Book Group CEO (and now agent...) Laurence J. Kirshbaum:

"From a publisher's standpoint, the marketing considerations, especially on non-fiction, now often outweigh the editorial ones."

       Of course, with all their best-laid marketing plans they still often don't get it right ... ; I know it's terribly old-fashioned, but I like the idea of putting out a quality product (i.e. focusing on the editorial side) and taking it from there, rather than trying to package some product.
       The death of the slush pile (suicidal for the publishers, in my opinion ...) will just accelerate the move to self-publishing (and, indeed, self-published books already form a new sort of slush pile, from which conventional publishers occasionally pluck out something), and leave great opportunities for nimbler small publishers who actually care what they put their imprint-name on; certainly (large) publishers seem to be abandoning the one area where they really could prove their worth, i.e. the editorial side, and instead are relying increasingly on their marketing and distribution clout -- making them book-packagers more than publishers.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Japanese literary awards

       As Mainichi Daily News report, 2 novelists share Naoki Prize for literature, as:

The 142nd Naoki Prize, Japan's prestigious literary award, was given to Joh Sasaki for his novel 廃墟に乞う and Kazufumi Shiraishi for his work ほかならぬ人へ, it was announced on Thursday.

       Shockingly, however:

Jurors, however, found no winner for the 142nd Akutagawa Prize for new writers of fiction

       This isn't entirely unheard of -- last time they didn't have a winner was in 1999 -- but still .....

       Astonishingly enough, there actually is a Sasaki Joh title under review at the complete review -- Zero over Berlin.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       More on the Scandinavian crime wave

       Yet another look at the Scandinavian crime wave, this time from Laura Miller, who writes on 'The growing appeal of Scandinavian crime fiction; existential malaise and bad coffee' in the Wall Street Journal on The Strange Case of the Nordic Detectives -- finding:

Counterintuitive as it may seem, the Scandinavian brand of moroseness can be soothing in hard times.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Landscape With Dog review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ersi Sotiropoulos' Landscape With Dog and Other Stories.
       (This is one of the longlisted titles for the Best Translated Book Award; see the full list (with links to titles under review).)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Portál české literatury

       In The Prague Post Stephan Delbos reports that Czech Literature Portal now has Web site in English, as 'Two young literati give site new vision, promote poetry and prose of native land'.
       The English part of the site -- Portál české literatury -- still needs some work, but it's certainly promising.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Latest Jacques Chessex is rated NC-17 in Switzerland

       I recently reviewed Jacques Chessex's A Jew Must Die, but the book I'm really looking forward to is the one he finished literally hours before he keeled over dead last year, Le dernier crâne de M. de Sade (get your copy from Amazon.fr) -- a Marquis de Sade novel that the Swiss (and recall that Chessex is Swiss) think is too hot for the youngsters: packaged in a cellophane wrapper with a warning sticker on it, it can't be sold to those under age. See, for example, Agathe Duparc's article in Le Monde, En Suisse, l'ultime livre de Jacques Chessex "réservé aux adultes" -- or Jérôme Garcin's La Suisse censure Chessex! at BibliObs.
       It certainly hasn't hurt sales: the 25,000-copy first edition has quickly sold out, and they're reprinting as fast as they can .....
       The translation of A Jew Must Die was quick in coming; let's hope they get to this in similarly timely fashion (or that somebody sends me the French edition ...).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Bestselling novelists in France, 2009

       One of my favorite annual features in Le Figaro is their rundown (by Mohammed Aïssaoui and Dominique Guiou) of Les dix romanciers français qui ont le plus vendu en 2009 -- the ten French novelists who sold the most books in France in 2009.
       As usual, it's full of fun (and surprising) facts -- Marc Lévy's books have sold 42 million worldwide ? Marc Lévy ? Stephenie Meyer shifted more books than any other author in France in 2009, a total of some 3,000,000 ? Harlan Coben outsold Dan Brown (1,300,000 to 1,000,000) ?
       The top ten French authors (keep in mind the totals are for sales of all their books in 2009, not just the most recent title):

1. Marc Lévy - 1,735,000 (up from 1,516,000 in 2008, which was also enough to top the list)
2. Guillaume Musso - 1,385,000 (almost identical to his 2008 total of 1,378,000)
3. Katherine Pancol - 871,000
4. Anna Gavalda - 784,000
5. Fred Vargas - 633,000
6. Muriel Barbery - 620,000 (up from the tenth spot in 2008, when she shifted 401,000)
7. Amélie Nothomb - 584,000 (way down from 734,000 in 2008)
8. Bernard Werber - 566,000
9. Éric Emmanuel Schmitt - 552,000
10. Marie Ndiaye - 458,000 (almost all of which were of her Goncourt-winning Trois femmes puissantes)

       Books by five of the ten are under review at the complete review (Gavalda, Vargas, Barbery, Nothomb, Schmitt), but several of these authors aren't particularly well-represented in translation.
       And: Katherine Pancol ? Most of her sales come on the back of Les Yeux Jaunes des Crocodiles ("This novel is life itself" is how she describes it at her site ...) and its sequels, but nothing recent has been translated. But an English translation of Call Me Scarlett came out back in 1986 -- and she actually spent quite a while in the United States (and Embrassez-moi is set, in part, in "1980s Rochester" ... maybe something for Open Letter Books ? yeah, maybe not).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Antwerp review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Roberto Bolaño's first -- but not debut (written in 1980, he only published it a year before his death, in 2002) -- novel, Antwerp, one of the flurry of Bolaño works coming out this year.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Goh Poh Seng (1936-2010)

       Singaporean writer Goh Poh Seng, author of the seminal If We Dream Too Long, has passed away; see, for example the Straits Times articles, Pioneer S'pore writer dies by Akshita Nanda and A man for all seasons.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Larkin25

       As Jonathan Brown reports in The Independent, 25 years on, Hull honours Larkin with tourist trail -- and:

Among the main attractions for the event, Larkin25, will be an interactive tourist trail to give lovers of his poetry a greater insight into the everyday places which inspired his work and fuelled his inimitable scathing wit.

       See also the official Larkin25 site, 'Celebrating the life and work of Philip Larkin'.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       The Recognition of Shakúntala review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Kālidāsa's The Recognition of Shakúntala, in a translation by Somadeva Vasudeva.
       This is the fourth (!) translation of the play under review at the complete review; a volume in the estimable Clay Sanskrit Library (more reviews to come !), it was high time I included coverage of it.

       Coincidentally, La MaMa in New York is staging a Magis Theatre Company production of Shakuntala next month.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       'The contemporary Arabic novel' (in English)

       In The New Yorker Claudia Roth Pierpont offers a decent if predictable overview of 'The contemporary Arabic novel' (in English), in Found in Translation, finding:

Arabic novels, while not yet lining the shelves of the local bookstore, have been increasingly available in English translation, offering a marvellous array of answers to questions we did not know we wanted to ask.

       Most of the usual suspects (though too little Mahfouz ...), going back to and including Ghassan Kanafani and Emile Habiby's The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist. Many of the authors and books mentioned are under review at the complete review (though not Kanafani, Habiby, or Khoury -- yet); see the index of Arabic literature under review.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Fiction in translation in ... the US

       Widely linked to already, Emily Williams writes on The Translation Gap: Why More Foreign Writers Aren't Published in America.
       Focusing on the major houses, she presents disturbing observations such as:

There is no comparably mature translation market for any one language in the English speaking world, and the fact that books coming into the American market come from many different countries and languages makes it harder for editors here to develop the expertise in what any market has to offer, and which books from that country have the best shot of appealing to American readers. The books that are sold for translation here are more likely to come through the handful of US agents with close ties to one region or another, who are themselves usually working through professional relationships with particular agents or publishers abroad. What books by foreign authors that end up crossing an American editor’s desk, then, depends in no small part on chance and good connections.

       And:

For literary editors, even when a rare sample translation exists, the decision more often comes down to personal recommendations.

       I am absolutely horrified by this; I realize personal recommendations move much of the literary world but it's the content -- and only the content -- that should count. As best I've seen, little good comes from relying on personal recommendations (even mine ...).
       Certainly, something seems to be broken in the decision-making process among the majors: as I mentioned, the fact that only a single of the twenty-five shortlisted books for the'Best Translated Book Award' comes from a major is not a good sign. And forthcoming titles by majors I've recently reviewed -- Philippe Djian's Unforgivable, Martin Page's The Discreet Pleasures of Rejection -- suggest they make little effort to pick the best of the litter. (Meanwhile, The Kindly Ones was a bad book worth translating and publishing -- but certainly not paying anywhere near as much for; no, the majors really don't seem to know what they're doing with regards to fiction in translation.)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Rushdie archive

       As, for example, reported by Laura Diamond in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Emory to open Salman Rushdie archive, as:

Emory University will open to the public next month the archive of Salman Rushdie, the celebrated British Indian author who is considered a world literature master.

       As noted at the official site:

Sir Salman Rushdie's archive, housed at Emory's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, are opening to the public for the first time on February 26, 2010.

       And there will be an exhibit to go along with it:

The exhibit, "A World Mapped by Stories," also marks a significant step forward in the preservation of personal digital materials.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       The New Republic's 'The Book'

       The New Republic has finally unveiled their 'online review', The Book.
       It looks promising, but I think they went a bit overboard in announcing it:

Today is a momentous day in the history of The New Republic, and in the American literary world.

       Okay .....

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Gross Margin review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Laurent Quintreau's Gross Margin.
       Polly McLean's translation was awarded the Scott Moncrief Prize for translation from the French as part of the TLS translation prizes yesterday.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Translation leader

       Nice to see The Times devote a leader to the Times Literary Supplement's Translation Prizes (see my previous mention) that are being handed out tonight, Found in Translation -- where they spout stuff like:

To convey the writings of other languages is a noble and necessary art

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       UK edition of Nazi Literature in the Americas

       A UK edition of Roberto Bolaño's Nazi Literature in the Americas has now come out, and it's good to see it get some good and serious attention; see my review for links to -- and quotes from -- them.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

---

       Unforgivable review

       I've always been surprised by how little of the very popular French author Philippe Djian's work is available in English -- other than Betty Blue (which arrived on the back of the film-version ...) ... nothing. Of course, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised: the six 'seasons' of Doggy bag, anyone ? Anyone ?
       But now, all of a sudden, another of his books is set to appear in English: his Impardonnables -- just published in France in 2009 -- is due out shortly. I assume the fact that André Téchiné is filming it has something to do with that; still .....
       Anyway, the most recent addition to the complete review is my review of said book, forthcoming as Unforgivable.
       I think it's safe to say that after this one shouldn't expect any additional translations of Djian titles in the foreseeable future.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

previous entries (1 - 10 January 2010)

archive index

- return to top of the page -

© 2010 the complete review


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