opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 April 2021

1 April: Contra Mundum Press Q & A | Online fiction | If You Kept a Record of Sins review
2 April: '21 Books for the 21st Century' | Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature
3 April: Premio Nacional de Literatura (Cuba) | Laligaba finalists | Thirst review
4 April: Midnight's Children at forty | Literature from ... Cameroon
5 April: Nawal El Saadawi Q & A | Lolita in the Afterlife review | The Complete Review ... at 22
6 April: Europese Literatuurprijs longlist | Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards | Cullman Center fellows
7 April: Deutscher Sachbuchpreis shortlist | Most challenged books (in the US) | Marian Engel's Bear
8 April: Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists (II) | J R review
9 April: PEN America Literary Awards | 2021 Guggenheim Fellowships | Académie Goncourt prize finalists | Denis Donoghue (1928-2021)
10 April: Premio Carlos Fuentes | Orwell Prize longlists | Winter in Sokcho review

go to weblog

return to main archive

       Premio Carlos Fuentes

       They've announced that Diamela Eltit has won this year's Premio Internacional Carlos Fuentes a la creación literaria, a biennial prize paying out US$125,000; previous winners include Mario Vargas Llosa, A Thousand Deaths Plus One-author Sergio Ramírez, and Luis Goytisolo; see, for example, the report in Letralia.
       Several of her works have been translated into English, though most aren't easy to find; see, however, The Fourth World; see the University of Nebraska Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       Orwell Prize longlists

       They've announced the longlists for this year's Orwell Prizes.
       There are four categories, and while I'm obviously most interested in the Political Fiction prize I do like it that they have an award called: The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils.

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

---

       Winter in Sokcho review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Elisa Shua Dusapin's Winter in Sokcho, published in the UK last year by Daunt Books, and now just out in the US from Open Letter.

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

       PEN America Literary Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's PEN America Literary Awards.
       Emma Ramadan's translation of Abdellah Taïa's A Country for Dying won the PEN Translation Prize, while Steve Bradbury's translation of Amang's Raised by Wolves won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.
       The PEN/Jean Stein Book Award -- paying out US$75,000, and for: "a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, which has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence" -- went to Ross Gay's Be Holding.

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

---

       2021 Guggenheim Fellowships

       The Guggenheim Foundation has announced their 2021 fellows -- 184 artists, writers, scholars, and scientists, selected from almost 3,000 applicants.
       Only a list of the names so far, but they should be providing information about the projects the fellows received their fellowships for soon.
       Two fellowships are for translation, going to Jessica Cohen and Edward Gauvin.

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

---

       Académie Goncourt prize finalists

       The Académie Goncourt has announced (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) the finalists for three of its prizes: the Goncourt du premier roman, the Goncourt de la nouvelle, and the Goncourt de la biographie Edmonde Charles-Roux.
       The winners of the first two will be announced 4 May, while the winner of the biography prize will be announced in June.

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

---

       Denis Donoghue (1928-2021)

       Literary critic Denis Donoghue has passed away; see, for example, the obituary in the Irish Times.

       The only one of his books under review at the complete review is Words Alone.

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

       Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists (II)

       Granta has announced their second batch of 'The Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists' -- twenty-five authors under the age of 35 --, eleven years after the first batch.
       Books by two of these authors are under review at the complete review: Bodies of Summer by Martín Felipe Castagnet and Colonel Lágrimas by Carlos Fonseca.

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

---

       J R review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of William Gaddis' J R, recently re-issued by New York Review Books.

       This won the (American) National Book Award in 1976; previous re-issues came out from Dalkey Archive Press and as part of the Penguin Twentieth Century Classics series, which should tell you something about the book as well.
       J R was also recently the subject of a Two Month Review over at Three Percent, so if you want to listen to some really extensive discussion of the novel, check that out.

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

       Deutscher Sachbuchpreis shortlist

       They've announced the shortlist for the new German Non-Fiction Prize, eight titles selected from 240 they considered.
       I'm disappointed that they don't tell us what the 232 other titles were -- but impressed that they have an English-language press release.
       I haven't seen any of these, but some of these certainly look of interest -- notably the Michael Maar; see also the Rowohlt foreign rights page.
       The winner will be announced 16 June.

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

---

       Most challenged books (in the US)

       The American Library Association has released its annual list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books in the US.
       Two Nobel laureates make the list -- John Steinbeck, with Of Mice and Men, and Toni Morrison, with The Bluest Eye -- but Alex Gino's George tops the 2020 list (as it also did the two previous years).

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

---

       Marian Engel's Bear

       At The New Yorker Claire Cameron explains that “Bear” Is About Much More Than Having Sex with a Bear.
       Great to see Marian Engel's wonderful Bear continue to get attention -- including with a new UK edition coming out later this month from Daunt; see their publicity page.
       See also the CBC report by Jonathan Ore from earlier this year explaining Why the classic Canadian novel Bear remains controversial -- and relevant.

       (Updated - 10 April): See now also Katherine Angel on Animal attraction: Bear, the controversial story of one woman's sexual awakening in The Guardian

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

       Europese Literatuurprijs longlist

       The Europese Literatuurprijs is a Dutch literary prize for the best European novel translated into Dutch, and they've just announced this year's longlist.
       Twenty titles, six of them translated from the English, with several of the other titles also already available in English translation.

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

---

       Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of the 86th Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which honors: "books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures"
       Deacon King Kong by James McBride took the fiction prize, and Samuel R. Delany won the lifetime achievement award.

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

---

       Cullman Center fellows

       The New York Public Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers has announced their 2021-2022 Fellows.
       Among the fiction writers who will be fellows: Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Maaza Mengiste, and Madeleine Thien.
       The press release also has brief descriptions of all the fellows' projects.

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

       Nawal El Saadawi Q & A

       At Prospect Sameer Rahim has a previously unpublished Q & A from three years ago with Nawal El Saadawi (1931-2021): the pen can also be a weapon.

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

---

       Lolita in the Afterlife review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Lolita in the Afterlife: On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning with the Most Indelible and Shocking Novel of the Twentieth Century, a collection of thirty pieces edited by Jenny Minton Quigley and recently out from Vintage.
       Among those contributing: Alexander Chee, Mary Gaitskill, Roxane Gay, Aleksandar Hemon, Jim Shepard, and Cheryl Strayed.

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

---

       The Complete Review ... at 22

       The first reviews were posted at the complete review on 5 April 1999; now, 4745 reviews later, the site has reached the (internet-)venerable age of twenty-two. Old, slightly creaky, but still plodding ahead.

       The new year -- 2021 -- has seen a few small changes -- most notably with a switch to "https" for the site. Implementation seems to have gone (relatively) smoothly (beyond pages now featuring considerably worse on the Bing and DuckDuckGo search engines than they used to); I hope it hasn't caused any issues for users (i.e. that you didn't really even notice) -- and, hey, if you feel more secure browsing now, great.
       I've also take advantage of the switch to https to (begin to) do a very light spring cleaning of much of site, including the review pages -- a bit of updating and tidying up that is, unfortunately, very labor-intensive and time consuming (and has little to show for it); I'm closing in on having about half the review pages done .....
       Also: new reviews of books by many smaller independent publishers -- those from which you can purchase books directly -- now also include the link to the publisher's site not just in the bottom-of-each-page links list but also under 'Availability', as an alternative to the Amazon-links, and I certainly encourage readers to buy direct if and when they can, especially during these times when it continues to be difficult or impossible to frequent your local bookstore. Given the audience of the complete review -- very much from all over the place --, there really are no practical commercial retail alternatives to Amazon (sorry, Bookshop.org etc.) -- but buying direct avoids any and all cut-taking middlemen. (Yes, there's usually a sales and handling charge -- but books are often discounted if bought directly; small independents also tend to be pretty attentive to customer service.)
       (Of course, if you do buy from Amazon -- books or (especially) anything else -- a click-through via the links at the complete review is always appreciated -- the site gets a commission, regardless of what it is you then go on to purchase.)
       Meanwhile, review-wise everything continues pretty much as always, which is hopefully the way you like it.

       Thanks for your continued interest in the site, and I hope you continue to enjoy the reviews and the coverage at this Literary Saloon !


       And, of course, any and all support for the complete review is always appreciated -- for example, on/via Patreon:

       Or also PayPal:

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

       Midnight's Children at forty

       In The Guardian they have Salman Rushdie on Midnight's Children at 40: 'India is no longer the country of this novel'.
       Some interesting background information about what remains a landmark novel.
       See also the publicity pages from Random House and Vintage Classics, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

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

---

       Literature from ... Cameroon

       At Fodor's Travel Tony Vinyoh finds: 'Dzekashu MacViban is introducing some of Cameroon's most exciting writers to readers around the world', in This Man Is Taking Cameroonian Literature to the World.
       Much of this is via Bakwa Magazine, which MacViban founded, and Bakwa Books.

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

       Premio Nacional de Literatura (Cuba)

       In Cuba they've announced the 2020 winners of the national prizes in literature, publishing ('Edición'), and social sciences and humanities, with playwright Eugenio Hernández Espinosa taking the literature prize.
       None of his work appears to be readily available in English, but see, for example, the profile at Afroatenas.

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

---

       Laligaba finalists

       As Latvian Literature reports, The Annual Latvian Literature Award Nominees, Recipients of the Lifetime Award and the Special Prize Announced; see also the official site.
       There are five literature categories. It's interesting to see how different publishers dominate the different categories: all four poetry finalists are published by Neputns, while three of the four finalists in three of the other categories are by the same publisher -- amazingly, a different one in each category (fiction: Dienas Grāmata; children's literature: Liels un maz; and debuts: Orbīta).
       Among the fiction finalists is a collection of stories by Inga Ābele.
       Only one of the translation finalists is a translation from the English -- poetry by Charles Bukowski.
       The winners will be announced 30 April.

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

---

       Thirst review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Amélie Nothomb's Thirst -- just in time for Easter, appropriately enough since it is a story of the original Easter weekend, narrated by no one less than Jesus himself.

       Thirst was a finalist -- one of the final four titles considered -- for the 2019 prix Goncourt, a prize that continues to elude the author. (She's been in the running twice before, in 1999, for Fear and Trembling, and in 2007, for Tokyo Fiancée.)
       This is the twenty-sixth work by Nothomb under review at the complete review.

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

       '21 Books for the 21st Century'

       World Literature Today: "invited twenty-one writers to nominate one book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice", and they've now announced these: 21 Books for the 21st Century: The Longlist.
       This is sort of like the Neustadt International Prize for Literature where a jury of notable authors each select one candidate for the prize -- except that here the public gets to vote for the top books.
       It's certainly an eclectic (long)list -- very much personal choices rather than necessarily the best/most important titles.
       Several of the nominated books are under review at the complete review:

• Atonement, by Ian McEwan
• The Feast of the Goat, by Mario Vargas Llosa
• The Glass Palace, by Amitav Ghosh
• Kafka on the Shore, by Murakami Haruki
• 2666, by Roberto Bolaño

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

---

       Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature

       They've announced the winner of this year's Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and it is 'The Disappearance of Mr. Nobody' by Ahmed Taibaoui.
       The book will be translated into English and published by AUC Press imprint Hoopoe.

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

       Contra Mundum Press Q & A

       At the Asymptote blog Rachel Allen has The Indeterminacy of the Human: An Interview of Rainer Hanshe of Contra Mundum Press.
       The focus here is on Contra Mundum's impressive variety of Modernist work -- not least their dedication to the great Szentkuthy Miklós -- but among their recent publications is also the landmark three-volume translation of de Sade's Aline and Valcour.
       And there's also the fantastic journal they put out, Hyperion .....

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

---

       Online fiction

       China Literature is a huge (in China) Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed online publishing site. They have an English-language website as well -- Webnovel --, and in the South China Morning Post Iris Deng reports on how Tencent's China Literature wants to woo 100,000 American and Canadian writers.
       I'm curious whether this type of platform will ever achieve the kind of popularity it has in China elsewhere.

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

---

       If You Kept a Record of Sins review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Andrea Bajani's If You Kept a Record of Sins, just out in English from Archipelago Books.

       This originally came out in Italian in 2007; his most recent novel, Il libro delle case, was just named a finalist for this year's Premio Strega, the leading Italian novel prize.

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

previous entries (21 - 31 March 2021)

archive index

- search the site -

- return to top of the page -

© 2021 the complete review


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