opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

11 - 20 December 2016

11 December: Android Sōseki comes to life | Dylan, not at the Nobel ceremony | Ngũgĩ Q & A | In conversation, with Gerald Matt
12 December: Publishing in ... Nigeria | Winter Quarterly Conversation | A Voyage to India review
13 December: Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature | Chinese online literature abroad | Publishing in ... Burma
14 December: WLT's '75 Notable Translations of 2016' | Shirley Hazzard (1931-2016) | Folio Prize resurrected | Norte review
15 December: Prizes: Kiswahili Prize for African Literature - Premju Nazzjonali tal-Ktieb | Le Prix des Prix | Liu Cixin profile | Stevereads' best 2016 translations
16 December: Andreï Makine claims Académie française fauteuil | Best 'Krimis' 2016 | Andrew Wylie on 'agenting' | The Truce review
17 December: Carmen Boullosa Q & A | The Goethe-Wörterbuch | Nepali literature in India
18 December: Books of the year in ... Spain | Abbas Maroufi Q & A | Baloney review
19 December: 'Hidden gems' | Lazer Lederhendler profile | The Empty Space review
20 December: 'The Year in Reading' at NYTBR | Die Zeit Christmas book recommendations | Bookselling in ... (demonetised) India | The Mountains of Parnassus review

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       'The Year in Reading' at NYTBR

       The New York Times Book Review gets a variety of well-known folks to: "share the books that accompanied them through 2016" in The Year in Reading, making for an interesting variety.

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       Die Zeit Christmas book recommendations

       In Die Zeit they don't have their critics select the top books of the year, but they offer a list of Die besten Bücher zum Verschenken ('the best books to give as gifts' -- which of course isn't quite the same as 'the best books' ...).
       Normally, I wouldn't bother with an article/link such as this, but two things did strike me as noteworthy. First, among their categories are books that are: 'Leicht zu lesen' ('easy to read' -- e.g. John Williams' Augustus) and 'Für fortgeschrittene Leser' ('for advanced readers' -- Marcel Proust's letters, for example, or titles by Cees Nooteboom and Chico Buarque). And then there are the suggestions: 'Auch für junge Leser' ('also for young readers'): this is where Sarah Bakewell's At the Existentialist Café (!) gets categorized, for example -- and, even better, a 400-page Andreas Gryphius-reader (see the S.Fischer publicity page). True, the Baroque poet and dramatist is a great read for youngsters -- I ate him up in those Reclam pocket-sized paperbacks back in the day -- but this is like recommending the Jacobeans for contemporary US/UK teens (an obvious fit, and yet ...).

       (Not much Gryphius seems available in English -- though he got a Harper's mention a few years ago -- but his work (much of it colored by the Thirty Years War) feels particularly ... apt today. "Wir sind doch nunmehr ganz, ja mehr denn ganz verheeret !" as he had it in 'Tränen des Vaterlandes' ('Tears of the Fatherland'): "So, now we are destroyed; utterly; more than utterly !", as one translation has it .....)

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       Bookselling in ... (demonetised) India

       As you may have heard, the Indian government withdraw the two highest-denomination banknotes from circulation on 8 November -- without being adequately prepared for the consequences; see, for example, The Economist's India's currency reform was botched in execution.
       Since then there have been articles pretty much daily on the hardships and problems this is causing -- and so now also, at Scroll.in Neha Bhatt considers How demonetisation has hit book sales (and what might happen at next month's book fairs). As you may have guessed, the consequences have not been ... positive.

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       The Mountains of Parnassus review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz's only posthumously published (attempt-at-a-)science fiction novel, The Mountains of Parnassus, coming soon in Yale University Press' Margellos World Republic of Letters series.

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       'Hidden gems'

       In The Observer they have a fairly extensive selection of Hidden gems of 2016: the best books you may have missed -- always an interesting exercise.

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       Lazer Lederhendler profile

       In the Montreal Gazette Ian McGillis tells The unlikely tale of literary translator Lazer Lederhendler -- "a writer who specializes in writing translations".

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       The Empty Space review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Geetanjali Shree's The Empty Space, one of a number of previously-(only-)available-in-India translations that Seagull Books is now admirably bringing to a broader audience.

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       Books of the year in ... Spain

       At El País' Babelia they now have Los 10 mejores libros de 2016 (sorry, this outrageously only appears to be available as a near-intolerable 'slideshow') -- as well as Del 11 al 20 (not a slideshow ! look how easy that is ! and how much more pleasant (well, they could kill the covers, too, but I guess that's really asking for too much)).
       It's a pretty translation-heavy top 20 -- and the top place goes to one from the English, A Manual for Cleaning Women, by Lucia Berlin; see the Picador publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
       Certainly an interesting mix of authors and books, but a lot of dead folks (Berlin, Lezama Lima, Rimbaud (!), Schrobsdorff) or about dead folks (Stach on Kafka) in the top ten. And then a very US-heavy (five of ten) 11-20. So only of limited help in pointing to what's coming (or might be, anyway) from the Spanish-language market.

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       Abbas Maroufi Q & A

       At Qantara.de Volker Kaminski has a Q & A with Symphony of the Dead-author Abbas Maroufi, the exiled Iranian author who argues: "Self-censorship is the worst"

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       Baloney review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Maxime Raymond Bock's Baloney, just out in English from Coach House Books.

       Atavisms -- which he published under the Maxime-less name: 'Raymond Bock' -- came out from Dalkey Archive Press last year, but my story-collection-aversion prevented me from covering it; obviously, I should give it a second look. See also the Dalkey Archive Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Carmen Boullosa Q & A

       At Guernica Aaron Bady has a Q & A with Carmen Boullosa: Raising Consciousness -- with much of the discussion focused on her early, but only now appearing in English, novel Before; see the Deep Vellum publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       The Goethe-Wörterbuch

       The Goethe-Wörterbuch -- 'Goethe dictionary' (though surely, in fact, what would be called a 'concordance') -- is an awesome project, given that: "Goethe commanded the biggest ever documented individual lexicon of 93,000 words", and at DeutscheWelle Gero Schliess writes about this undertaking, in God, Goethe and the mammoth task of compiling his vocabulary.
       They're even almost done, apparently ..... Well, everything being relative .....:

It took more than 20 years just to list and evaluate these 93,000 words. But now, an end is in sight. In terms of lexical evaluation, the present team consisting of 17 academics has reached the letters S and T. It is hoped that the project will be completed in 2025. Originally, the researchers had the year 2040 in mind.

       Great to see it available online, too -- even if, at this time, only through the letter 'M'.

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       Nepali literature in India

       Nepali literature isn't something you hear a lot about, whether from Nepal or from India (where Nepali is one of the 22 'official' languages) but in The Kathmandu Post Mahendra P. Lama offers: 'Descriptions of some works competing for the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award', in Nepali literature in India.
       I'd love to see round-ups like this of contenders in the many other Indian languages, too -- and maybe a few of these books eventually in translation .....

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       Andreï Makine claims Académie française fauteuil

       The Life of an Unknown Man-author Andreï Makine has claimed his seat -- fauteuil 5, last held by Assia Djebar -- in the Académie française -- and, as some of the reports have it, Russian author slams France while receiving its highest literary honour. (Apparently they only consider him French (enough) when he says nicer things about his adopted homeland -- and language .....)
       The article is really only worth checking out for the picture of him wearing the ridiculous club jacket -- and fortunately you can actually read his entire discours -- sort of his acceptance-lecture -- at the official site. Dominique Fernandez's réponse, too.

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       Best 'Krimis' 2016

       In Die Zeit Tobias Gohlis has Die besten Krimis des Jahres 2016 -- what they consider the top ten mystery/thrillers that appeared in German in the last year.
       Quite a few translated-from-the-English titles -- including the top choice, Garry Disher's Bitter Wash Road; see also the Soho publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Andrew Wylie on 'agenting'

       At Publishing Perspectives Adam Critchley profiles the (in)famous 'literary' agent, in Andrew Wylie's Global Approach to Agenting.
       Some of this sounds admirable -- such as:

Many agencies only think about money. But we only look at the quality of the writing. We train people in the agency to forget about money. It's not of interest whether we think a book will sell thousands of copies. Pay attention to the quality of the work. If the writing is unusual, appealing, and drives you a little crazy, then that's someone that we want to represent.

       (There's no doubt that the Wylie Agency client list is first-rate (jaw-droppingly so, in fact) -- but let's be serious, 'quality of the work' is not their sole selection-criterion. How else to explain King Abdullah II, Al Gore, the Gates Foundation, and ... the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Inc. ?)
       While Wylie admirably seems to take the long perspective with many of his authors, I don't know that his ... patience in holding out for the best deal really serves readers (or even many of the authors/estates) well: there are quite a few on that client list whose works are not nearly as readily available as I would like.

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       The Truce review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Mario Benedetti's 1960 classic in a new translation by Harry Morales, The Truce: The Diary of Martín Santomé.

       Penguin Modern Classics brought this out last year -- in the UK -- but Green Integer publisher Douglas Messerli reported a couple of years back that:

In 1996 translator Harry Morales sent me a new version (which he revised again in 1998), restoring what he described were missing passages in the Graham translation, and retranslating the entire text. I read this new version with great pleasure, and offered to publish the book on Sun & Moon Press. We offered a $1,000 advance to Benedetti through his agent at the time

       But it took until (almost) now until it was finally published .....

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       Kiswahili Prize for African Literature

       They've announced the winners of the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature, with Kilio cha Mwanamke by Idrissa Haji Abdalla winning the fiction prize (which also means it is set to be published by East African Educational Publishers).
       This prize was founded: "to promote writing in African languages and encourage translation from, between and into African languages", and though limited to Kiswahili entries is certainly a welcome presence, given that most African book prizes are limited to one of a few (mainly European) languages. It deserves more press coverage too ... and it would be great if in the future prize-winning texts might also get translated into and published in English .....

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       Premju Nazzjonali tal-Ktieb

       They've announced the winners of this year's (Maltese) National Book Prize, with Trojan, by Alex Vella Gera, taking the novel prize; see also the Klabb Kotba Maltin publicity page, or a review (titled: "No simple beach read") by Ramona Depares in the Times of Malta.
       Vella Gera did not, however, pick up the prize in person; see, for example, the Malta Today report, Alex Vella Gera wins book prize, despite snubbing ceremony in protest at Castille.

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       Le Prix des Prix

       As if all the end-of-season French book prizes weren't enough, a few years ago they added 'le Prix des Prix' -- the prize of prizes, pitting the winners of the eight big fall book prizes (Goncourt, Renaudot, Médicis, Femina, Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, Décembre, Interallié, and Flore) against each other -- and they've announced that this year (Médicis-winner) Laëtitia ou la fin des hommes, by Ivan Jablonka, is the best of the best.
       This is the sixth time they've awarded this prize -- and, interestingly, it has never gone to the winner of what is considered the biggest of them all, the Goncourt.

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       Liu Cixin profile

       In The Guardian David Barnett profiles The Three-Body Problem author, in 'People hope my book will be China's Star Wars': Liu Cixin on China's exploding sci-fi scene.

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       Stevereads' best 2016 translations

       At his Stevereads weblog heavy reader Steve Donoghue has lots of year-end best lists -- and, admirably, some worst-of, too -- and among the early ones he's posted is his Best Books of 2016: Translations !
       A nice mix -- including several I still have to get to.
       So far, four of the titles are under review at the complete review:

• Love Letter in Cuneiform, by Tomáš Zmeškal
• My Secret Book, by Petrarch
• Stone Tablets, Wojciech Żukrowski
• Voroshilovgrad, by Serhiy Zhadan

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       WLT's '75 Notable Translations of 2016'

       World Literature Today has now posted their annual list of 75 Notable Translations for 2016, and it's a nice -- if, to my mind, somewhat random-feeling -- sampling of what's been published in translation this year. (Needless to say, many of these titles have been reviewed at the complete review -- though there are quite a few I haven't even seen yet, too.)
       It does, however, miss what is surely one of -- if not the -- most notable translations of the year: John E. Woods' of Arno Schmidt's Bottom's Dream, a book I would have thought would be very hard to overlook but is being overlooked left and right, going without any 'best of the year' or even, like here, mere 'notable' mentions to date, as best I can tell.

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       Shirley Hazzard (1931-2016)

       Australian-born Shirley Hazzard has passed away; see, for example, obituaries in The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Age.
       The only Hazzard title under review at the complete review is Greene on Capri -- but see also, for example, her National Book Award winning The Great Fire; get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Folio Prize resurrected

       The would-be alternative Man Booker Prize, the Folio Prize, "awarded to the best new work of literature published in the English language in a given year, regardless of form" as selected from a pool recommended by The Folio Prize Academy, gave out prizes in 2014 and 2015 (though they don't make it easy to find any mention of the 2014 prize (or much of the 2015 one) on the site) and then went on ... a hiatus.
       Now it's back, with new sponsorship (Rathbone Investment Management Ltd) and less prize money (£20,000, half what they used to offer); see the official press release.
       The next prize-winner will be announced 24 May 2017.

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       Norte review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Edmundo Paz Soldán Norte, just out in English from University of Chicago Press.

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       Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature

       They still celebrate the great Naguib Mahfouz's birthday by announcing the winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature each year on (or at least almost on ...) 11 December, and though the news hasn't hit the official site, last I checked, Arabic Literature (in English) is, of course, on top of it: The Tales of Yusuf Tadrus ('حكايات يوسف تادرس') by Adel Esmat (عادل عصمت) is this year's winner -- and so we'll eventually get to see the English translation out from AUC Press (one of the perks/rewards for winning the prize).
       Apparently none of his earlier works have been translated yet.

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       Chinese online literature abroad

       As I've often noted, the success (and scope) of Chinese online literature is an under-reported/discussed phenomenon. Now Global Times claim Translated Chinese online literature making huge waves in overseas markets, so maybe more people will take notice.
       I'm not entirely convinced about the success in translation, but WuxiaWorld certainly seems to offer a great deal of content, so you can see what the fuss is about.

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       Publishing in ... Burma

       At Publishing Perspectives Claudia Kaiser offers a Book Publishing Market Overview: Myanmar's Challenges and Potential.
       Lots of issues - hence:

"I don't even know where to start when talking about our challenges," says Tha Tun Oo.

       But at least book censorship has been lifted, which is certainly a positive step.

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       Publishing in ... Nigeria

       At Publishing Perspectives Porter Anderson has a Q & A with Cassava Republic Press' founding publisher, in Nigeria's Bibi Bakare-Yusuf: 'Our Brand Is Growing'.
       Great to see their publishing success in Nigeria, and impressive that they're looking towards global expansion.

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       Winter Quarterly Conversation

       The Winter 2017 issue of the Quarterly Conversation is now up, with a great deal of good stuff and coverage of interesting titles to keep you busy well into the week.

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       A Voyage to India review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Gonçalo M. Tavares' novel-in-verse, A Voyage to India: Contemporary Melancholy (a journey), just out from Dalkey Archive Press.

       Since this 400-page work can pass both as fiction and as poetry, I wonder if it stands a chance to be the first work to make the longlists in both categories in next year's Best Translated Book Award.

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       Android Sōseki comes to life

       I've mentioned the bizarre Android Sōseki-project several times already, and with the 100th anniversary of the author's death on 9 November this version of the dead man has gone live; see the creepy video here.
       While this was definitely the most sensational (not in a good way ...) anniversary-related stunt, at least Sōseki has also gotten attention elsewhere, with a couple of media mentions of interest. See, for example:

• Bill Marx talks with Michael K. Bourdaghs in this Book Interview: Natsume Sōseki — A Century After the Death of a Literary Giant
• Damian Flanagan 'attempts to dissect the psyche of one of the country's greatest modern writers' in The Japan Times, in The hidden heart of Natsume Soseki

       Alas, it's probably not enough to make for a reprieve for the London Soseki Museum, which is set to close next year.

       Quite a few Sōseki works are under review at the complete review:

• Botchan
• The Gate
• Inside my Glass Doors
• Kokoro
• Kusamakura
• Light and Dark
• The Miner
• Sanshirō

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       Dylan, not at the Nobel ceremony

       As I noted yesterday, this year's literature Nobel laureate -- yes, really, Bob Dylan -- was a no show in Stockholm for the usual pre-ceremony events, like the 'Nobel lecture', and he was a no show yesterday at the actual big awards ceremonies too.
       Still, he sent over a statement for the banquet speech, delivered on his behalf by the US ambassador to Sweden, Azita Raji (yes, Dylan had a government official stand in for him; so much for taking a position against the man). (Note that this is not the 'Nobel lecture', which the Swedish Academy still expects from him (yeah, good luck with that).)
       He did have Raji say -- though still without bothering to offer any semblance of an explanation --:

I'm sorry I can't be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize.

       And he's proud to be in the company of 'giants of literature' such as: "Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway" (as apparently he doesn't read much reasonably contemporary fiction ...).
       And while he phrases it so carefully, with explanation and everything, it's hard not to read more into his observation:

The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.

       Meanwhile, Swedish Academy member Horace Engdahl gave the 'Award Ceremony Speech', introducing the (absent) laureate -- and trying desperately to make the best of a by now ridiculous situation, claiming:

Recognising that revolution by awarding Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize was a decision that seemed daring only beforehand and already seems obvious.

       'Daring' is certainly not a word I would have used in connection with this particular peculiar choice -- but that might be an issue of translation: perhaps he means 'daring' as in that it's 'daring' to attempt suicide -- and it certainly hasn't become obvious, and won't (unless the Swedish Academy follows up with similarly silly choices in years to come).
       Meanwhile, Patti Smith tried to sing 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall' at the awards ceremony on Dylan's behalf (because, as noted, he couldn't be bothered); Amanda Petrusich reports at The New Yorker that A Transcendent Patti Smith Accepts Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize (which isn't quite right in a number of ways) -- and you can see the performance here. In keeping with how things have gone with the awarding of the prize to Dylan, she flubbed her lines, which seems entirely appropriate to me; transcendent ? no.
       Finally, they also revealed what Dylan's 'Nobel Diploma' looks like:


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       Ngũgĩ Q & A

       At the PEN Atlas Tasja Dorkofikis has a Q&A: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.
       (He has, of course, been a much talked-about (especially hereabouts) Nobel candidate in recent years ... but no, the Swedish Academy though Dylan was a ... more appropriate choice. Not that it should be a deciding factor, but, hey, I think Ngũgĩ might actually have shown up.)

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       In conversation, with Gerald Matt

       It's being taped, so you'll be able to catch it on TV (and the Internet) next year, but if you want to see it live, on Tuesday 13 December, starting at 19:00, Gerald Matt will be in conversation first with Jeffrey Deitch and then with me at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (after his double-bill with Michael Kimmelman and Shirin Neshat tomorrow).
       (Note, however, that my conversation with him will likely be in German.)

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