opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 May 2022

1 May: The New York Review of Each Other's Books ? | The Satyricon
2 May: OCM Bocas Prize | 533 Days review
3 May: Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize longlist | Prix Lorientales finalists | The White Room review
4 May: Laligaba
5 May: RSL Ondaatje Prize | Translating Myself and Others review
6 May: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel longlist | SoA Awards shortlists
7 May: Joseph-Breitbach-Preis | Brisbane review
8 May: Art in Ukraine
9 May: Kawakami Mieko profile | Against Constitutionalism review
10 May: Pulitzer Prizes | Libris Literatuurprijs | Linda Lê (1963-2022) | Memento Mori review

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       Pulitzer Prizes

       They've announced the winners of this year's Pulitzer Prizes.

       The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen won the Fiction prize, beating out Palmares by Gayl Jones and Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman.
       (This is only the fourth Pulitzer Prize-winner under review at the complete review.)

       The Criticism prize went to Salamishah Tillet; none of the finalists in the category were literary critics.

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

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       Libris Literatuurprijs

       They've announced the winner of this year's Libris Literatuurprijs, a leading Dutch novel prize, and it is Wormmaan, by Mariken Heitman.
       See also the Atlas Contact publicity page for Wormmaan.

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

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       Linda Lê (1963-2022)

       Vietnamese-born French author Linda Lê has passed away; see, for example, the (French) obituary at L'Obs.

       Only a few of her works have been translated into English -- Slander (see the University of Nebraska Press publicity page) and The Three Fates (see the New Directions publicity page).

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

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       Memento Mori review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Muriel Spark's 1959 novel, Memento Mori.

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

       Kawakami Mieko profile

       At inews.co.uk Max Liu profiles Mieko Kawakami on All the Lovers In The Night: ‘I find the hells young people go through compelling’.
       Among her comments:

“I have been surprised by the success of my work in English,” says Kawakami, 45, who now lives in Tokyo with her husband and her son. “What really surprises me, though, is the actual act of translation. It’s just mind-blowing how translation transforms a story into a completely different language with different letters and sentence structures but still gets the heart of the narrative across.”

       See also my review of All the Lovers in the Night.

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

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       Against Constitutionalism review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Martin Loughlin making the case Against Constitutionalism, just out from Harvard University Press.

       As the leaked draft (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) of the Supreme Court's majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization makes clear, the question of constitutionalism and the forms it is taking couldn't be more timely .....

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

       Art in Ukraine

       At Eurozine Kateryna Botanova considers, at some length: 'The Ukrainian art that was destroyed -- and the art that never happened', in Defined by silence.

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

       Joseph-Breitbach-Preis

       They've announced the winner of this year's Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, a €50,000 German author prize, and it is Natascha Wodin; see, for example, the SWR2 report.
       This prize has a solid list of previous winners -- though they'll be hard pressed to top 2000, when they were still awarding the prize to a trio of authors: that year they gave it to Ilse Aichinger, W.G.Sebald, and Markus Werner.
       The timing of the announcement is convenient, as there's a new translation of a Wodin book just out -- her 2017 Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair Prize-winning She Came from Mariupol, which certainly sounds timely; see also the Michigan State University Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Brisbane review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Eugene Vodolazkin's Brisbane, just out from Plough Publishing.

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

       Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, awarded to: 'the best crime novel published in the UK and Ireland in paperback over the past year'.
       The public can now vote for the shortlist, which will be announced on 14 June, and the winner will be announced on 21 July.

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

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       SoA Awards shortlists

       The Society of Authors has announced the shortlists for this year's SoA Awards.
       These include the Betty Trask Prize and Awards, "presented for a first novel by a writer under 35", the McKitterick Prize, "awarded for a first novel by a writer over 40", and the Paul Torday Memorial Prize, "awarded to a first novel by a writer over 60". (Yes, writers between 35 and 40 are apparently out of luck.)
       The winners will be announced 1 June.

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

       RSL Ondaatje Prize

       The Royal Society of Literature has announced the winner of this year's RSL Ondaatje Prize, "awarded for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place", and it is Free, by Lea Ypi.
       See also the publicity pages from W.W.Norton and Penguin, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Translating Myself and Others review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Jhumpa Lahiri on Translating Myself and Others, just about out from Princeton University Press.

       (This is the third work by Lahiri I've reviewed -- but they're all non-fiction; I haven't gotten to any of her novels yet .....)

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

       Laligaba

       They've announced the winners of this year's Latvian Literature Awards, with Svens Kuzmins' Dizažio named the best prose work; see also the Dienas Grāmata publicity page.
       A translation of a collection of Arkadii Dragomoshchenko's poetry won for the best translation, while the readers' prize went to Lauris Gundars' Svešam kļūt jeb Stāsts par Gunāru A.; see also the Dienas Grāmata publicity page

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

       Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for this year's Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize , awarded for a translation: "into English from any living European language".
       Of the sixteen titles, only Rachael McGill's translation of Co-Wives, Co-Widows by Adrienne Yabouza is under review at the complete review; I'm astonished at how many of these I haven't even seen .....
       The shortlist will be announced later this month, and the winner on 11 June.

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

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       Prix Lorientales finalists

       They've announced the five finalists for this year's prix du livre Lorientales, awarded for a book published in French (original or translation) by an author of any nationality, where: "le récit, les personnages, l'action, etc…devront nécessairement se référer à l'univers oriental".
       The winner will be announced 10 September.

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

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       The White Room review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Zoran Živković's latest -- and last ? -- novel, The White Room, just out from Cadmus Press.

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

       OCM Bocas Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, and it is Pleasantview, by Celeste Mohammed.
       See also the publicity pages from ig and Jacaranda, or get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       533 Days review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Cees Nooteboom's 533 Days, now also out in a US edition, from Yale University Press' Margellos World Republic of Letters-series. (A UK edition came out, as 533, last year.)

       It's been a while since I reviewed anything by Cees Nooteboom, but he's certainly always worth getting to.

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

       The New York Review of Each Other's Books ?

       Via I'm pointed to Dan Stone looking at the data in considering Is it really the “New York Review of Each Other's Books” ? as he goes about: 'Measuring the extent of self-reviewing at the New York Review of Books from 1963-2022'.
       A fascinating data-dive -- with especially the graph of Likelihood of a New York Review of Books Contributor Having Their Own Book Reviewed in the New York Review of Books by Articles Written impressive, as he finds: "46% of people who write only one article have had a book they wrote reviewed, 58% at two articles, 63% at three articles, and 72% at 5".

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

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       The Satyricon

       In The New Criterion Victor Davis Hanson writes at considerable length on Living the “Satyricon”, arguing that: "The Satyricon of Petronius may be more relevant now than at any time in its two-millennium history".
       He also notes:

One theme of this novel is that there can be no remarkable literary or artistic achievement given the proliferation of rhetoric and academicism that has replaced creativity, trivialized existential concerns, and obviated the challenges of conducting war and maintaining peace during the prosperity of the early empire.

       Two translations of the Satyricon are under review at the complete review: the recent one by Gareth Schmeling and the earlier one by Michael Heseltine.

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

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