opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 December 2024

1 December: John Banville profile | The Princess Casamassima review
2 December: Gulf Migrants in Malayalam Literature
3 December: Translation Prizes shortlists | Wolfson History Prize | Wingate Prize longlist | Best translations of 2024 ?
4 December: NYTBR's 'The 10 Best Books of 2024' | Kafka exhibit
5 December: Kanai Mieko profile | Best covers of 2024 ? | End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland review
6 December: Jacques Roubaud (1932-2024) | Imaginary Books exhibit | Dionne Brand Q & A | Calder Prize update | Joyce Carol Oates Prize longlist
7 December: Nobel Prize lecture in literature | Leipziger Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung | Diagram Prize | Prix Grand Continent
8 December: Abe Kōbō profile | 'Against storytelling' Q & A | Where, oh where, are the 'literary men' ?
9 December: Crossword Book Awards
10 December: Geetanjali Shree Q & A | Worst fiction of the year ? | Dalkey Archive Press at 40 | Glorious Exploits review

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       Geetanjali Shree Q & A

       At Frontline Varsha Tiwary has a Q & A with the Tomb of Sand-author, in My language is my homeland, motherland, my memory, and my protest too: Geetanjali Shree -- mainly about her recently translated 1998 novel, Our City That Year.

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

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       Worst fiction of the year ?

       At his Stevereads Steve Donoghue continues his annual list-making, now with the always eagerly anticipated The Worst Books of 2024: Fiction.
       Unlike most of the year-end 'top'-lists, I've actually reveiewed some of these ! Three of the top (bottom ?) five, in fact:

• 5. The Third Realm by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• 4. The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk
• 2. The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Murakami Haruki

       But, alas, I haven't seen the new Sally Rooney yet .....

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

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       Dalkey Archive Press at 40

       As they note at the official site, Dalkey Archive Turns 40, as Dalkey Archive Press was founded in 1984 -- and continues, reïnvigorated, going strong !
       I am not sure what the first Dalkey Archive title I bought was, but certainly I acquired it not too late in the 1980s; I assume I first came to the Dalkey books via the Review of Contemporary Fiction, copies of which I picked up earlier. In any case, quite a few Dalkey titles are under review at the complete review.

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

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       Glorious Exploits review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits, which was recently named the winner of this year's Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction.

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

       Crossword Book Awards

       They've announced the winners of this year's Crossword Book Awards -- though, alas, not yet at the official site, last I checked; the best I can find is their ... Instagram page.
       The fiction prize went to Chronicle of an Hour and a Half by Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari, while the translation prize went to Jayasree Kalathil 's translation of Maria, Just Maria by Sandhya Mary; the popular choice award for translation went to Nandini Krishnan's translation of Conversations with Aurangzeb by Charu Nivedita (the book I am most eager to see).

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

       Abe Kōbō profile

       At nippon.com Toba Kōji profiles Abe Kōbō: An Avant-Garde Writer for a Time of Turmoil.

       The only Abe title currently under review at the complete review is The Face of Another -- though I expect to get to more.

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       'Against storytelling' Q & A

       At Scroll.in they have: 'A conversation between writers Peter McDonald and Amit Chaudhuri on being 'against storytelling'', in ‘Interesting to see how many people have suffered from the brunt of storytelling’: Amit Chaudhuri.

       Get your copy of the Amit Chaudhuri-edited Against Storytelling at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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       Where, oh where, are the 'literary men' ?

       I usually give these kinds of think/opinion-pieces -- that get tons of snarky comments and responses anyway -- a wide berth, but the (yes, already much commented-on) The New York Times' piece by David J. Morris, The Disappearance of Literary Men Should Worry Everyone (presumably paywalled) is too *good* to pass up a mention.
       Morris notes that fiction -- production and consumption -- is becoming a one-sided affair -- including that: "According to multiple reports, women readers now account for about 80 percent of fiction sales". This worries him, as:

In recent decades, young men have regressed educationally, emotionally and culturally. Among women matriculating at four-year public colleges, about half will graduate four years later; for men the rate is under 40 percent. This disparity surely translates to a drop-off in the number of novels young men read, as they descend deeper into video games and pornography. Young men who still exhibit curiosity about the world too often seek intellectual stimulation through figures of the “manosphere” such as Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan.

       Granted, I am no longer a 'young man' -- hell, at twenty-five even this site is long in the tooth ... -- but of course I feel (and not just envy ...) for those young men descending deeper and deeper into video games and pornography .....
       Coïncidentally, a couple of weeks ago I had considered commenting on a Nick Hornby 'Stuff I've Been Reading'-column that was recently re-printed at the Literary Hub, wherein he writes from the perspective of having now (then, in 2018) passed sixty, finding that: "there is indeed, as you might have suspected, a pill that men are forced to swallow on the last day they are fifty-nine that makes them less interested in new fiction" -- so apparently there's an old-man problem too, with Hornby claiming to put in the effort but not finding the reward:

I try to find works of fiction, I promise, but it’s like pushing a wonky shopping trolley round a supermarket. I constantly veer off toward literary biographies, books about the Replacements, and so on, and only with a concerted effort can I push it toward the best our novelists have to offer. I suspect it’s to do with age and risk.

       So anyway you look at it, there's apparently a male-fiction problem. (It should be noted that Hornby's complaints about fiction aren't new here -- he mentioned his difficulties sustaining or finding interest in numerous columns, long before he reached sixty. I remain baffled by this, as to me fiction has always and continues to seem to be so obviously superior and preferable to non.)
       Meanwhile -- going back to the younger generation ... -- Morris thinks:

These young men need better stories — and they need to see themselves as belonging to the world of storytelling. Novels do many things. They entertain, inspire, puzzle, hypnotize. But reading fiction is also an excellent way to improve one’s emotional I.Q. Novels help us form our identities and understand our lives.

       Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear .....
       'Better stories' ? 'Belonging to the world of storytelling' ? Emotional I.Q.-booster ! Etc. etc.
       (For what it's worth: I have my doubts about my literary bent having boosted my 'emotional I.Q.', and lord help us (or at least me) if my novel-reading has helped shape my identity .....)
       It is, of course, interesting that so many fewer men purchase and read fiction than women do -- as is the general falling-back of the demographic in terms of educational and other achievement; back-to-the-books (especially if they're novels) sounds good to me, but I don't see that getting much traction (not least against the competition from video games and pornography); I suspect the issue is a more complex one and won't be *solved* by a few good stories.

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

       Nobel Prize lecture in literature

       Han Kang will give her Nobel Prize lecture in literature at 17:00 CET today; you can catch it live (or then replay it) here, and a transcript of the lecture will be available here.

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

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       Leipziger Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung

       They've announced the winner of the 2025 Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding, which will be handed out at next spring's Leipzig Book Fair, and it goes to Europas Hunde the German translation of Alhierd Bacharevič's Сабакі Эўропы; see also the Voland & Quist publicity page.

       Bacharevič's Alindarka's Children came out in English (and Scots, in the creative approach to this translation) a few years ago in the UK from Scotland Street Press and then in the US from New Directions; get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Diagram Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year, and it is The Philosopher Fish, by Richard Adams Carey; see also the Brandeis University Press publicity page.

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

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       Prix Grand Continent

       The prix Grand Continent is a multi-lingual European book prize, with a shortlist of five titles originally written in five different languages (French, German, Italian, Polish, and Spanish) and they've now announced this year's winner -- and it is Martina Hefter's Hey, Guten Morgen, wie geht es dir ? (which had already won this year's German Book Prize); see also the Klett-Cotta publicity page.
       Part of the prize is that they will subsidize the translation of the winning work into the other four prize-languages.

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

       Jacques Roubaud (1932-2024)

       Oulipien Jacques Roubaud has passed away -- a great loss; see, for example, Thierry Clermont's obituary in Le Figaro.

       Several of his works are under review at the complete review:

• The Form of a City Changes Faster, alas, than the Human Heart
  
  
• The Great Fire of London
  
  
• Mathematics:
  
  
• The Plurality of Worlds of Lewis
  
  
• A Short Treatise Inviting the Reader to Discover the Subtle Art of Go, with Pierre Lusson and Georges Perec
  
  
• Some Thing Black

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

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       Imaginary Books exhibit

       The exhibit that opened at the Grolier Club in New York yesterday looks fantastic -- Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books.
       The entire exhibit can be seen online as well -- good fun !
       It runs through 15 February.

       (Updated - 21 December): See now also Marisa Charpentier's report in The Art Newspaper, A bibliophile invites New Yorkers to engage with books that do not exist.

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

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       Dionne Brand Q & A

       At The Nation Elias Rodriques has a Q & A with Dionne Brand about her recent book, Salvage, in How the Western Literary Canon Made the World Worse.
       See also the Farrar, Straus and Giroux 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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       Calder Prize update

       I mentioned the Society of Authors' new John Calder Translation Prize last week. Originally, it was limited to translations from European languages, but in light of the ... feedback they got about that they have admirably now expanded it to translations from any language -- great to see.

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

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       Joyce Carol Oates Prize longlist

       The New Literary Project has announced the very long (thirty-two authors !) longlist for the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, a $50,000 prize honoring: "a mid-career author of fiction in the midst of a burgeoning career, a distinguished writer who has emerged and is still emerging".
       Somewhat to my embarrassment, no works by any of the thirty-two authors appear to be under review at the complete review.

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

       Kanai Mieko profile

       At Kyodo News Sho Hirakawa finds Japanese author with cult status draws spotlight abroad, profiling Kanai Mieko -- and noting that, while she's enjoying success abroad: "Kanai never took off in Japan except among a coterie of literary enthusiasts", with Kanai herself reporting that:

the novels in her own language she has written thus far, which do not have clear-cut themes, have been ignored by Japanese book reviewers for a long time.

       Several of her works have been translated into English -- indeed, I have both the Kurodahan Press and the Stone Bridge Press editions of Oh, Tama ! (as well as the Dalkey Archive Press edition of The Word Book).

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

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       Best covers of 2024 ?

       Along with all the 'best books'-lists coming out there are also some other bests -- such as Print magazines 100 of the Best Book Covers of 2024.
       Meanwhile, in India they've announced the longlist for this year's Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize; see the Scroll.in report.

       (Updated - 7 December): See now also Electric Lit, where you can Cast Your Vote for the Best Book Cover of the Year.

       (Updated - 11 December): OFFS, the Literary Hub now offers The 167 Best Book Covers of 2024 ("According to 54 Book Cover Designers").

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

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       End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of the new translation of Murakami Haruki's 1985 novel, End of the World and Hard-Boiled Wonderland -- out (today !) in the UK and next week in the US.

       Alfred Birnbaum's 1991 translation was one of the Murakami titles that was heavily cut when it was published and, as translator Jay Rubin says in his Afterword: "the time is long past for a full-length translation of Haruki's great early masterpiece". Indeed !
       (I am surprised there hasn't been more pre-publication notice/mention of this one, especially since it so obviously complements the new Murakami novel that just came out in English a few weeks ago, The City and Its Uncertain Walls.)

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

       NYTBR's 'The 10 Best Books of 2024'

       The New York Times Book Review has announced its 10 Best Books of 2024 (presumably paywalled).
       I haven't seen any of these -- but will probably try to seek out Álvaro Enrigue's You Dreamed of Empires at some point.

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

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       Kafka exhibit

       A new exhibit has just opened at the National Library of Israel -- Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author, which runs through next June.
       One focus:

The exhibition will also trace the fascinating story of Kafka's estate and how his literary works were eventually published by his friend Max Brod. This story begins before Kafka's death and comes to a conclusion in 2019, when Israel's Supreme Court decided that Kafka's archive was a cultural asset that was to be deposited at the National Library of Israel.

       See also Benjamin Balint on Kafka's Last Trial, which covers that.
       See also Jessica Steinberg's report on the exhibit, Franz Kafka's papers metamorphose into National Library exhibit, in the Times of Israel.

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

       Translation Prizes shortlists

       The Society of Authors has announced the shortlists for eight of its translation prizes.

       Only three of the forty-one shortlisted titles are under review at the complete review:

• Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize
  • Robin Moger's translation of Iman Mersal's Traces of Enayat
  
  
• Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize:
  • David Boyd's translation of Oyamada Hiroko's The Factory
  • Kendall Heitzman's translation of Fujino Kaori's Nails and Eyes

       The winners will be announced 12 February 2025.

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

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       Wolfson History Prize

       They've announced the winner of this year's Wolfson History Prize -- the "most valuable history-writing prize in the UK", paying out £50,000 -- and it is Shadows at Noon, by Joya Chatterji.
       This is one of those books that was published by a 'commercial' publisher in the UK (Bodley Head in hardcover; now in paperback from Vintage) but *only* by a university press in the US (Yale University Press); get your copy at Amazon.com, Bookshop.org, or Amazon.co.uk.

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

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       Wingate Prize longlist

       They've announced the longlist for the 2025 Wingate Prize, " given to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to convey the idea of Jewishness to the general reader" -- seven novels and seven non-fiction titles.

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

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       Best translations of 2024 ?

       Steve Donoghue always offers a variety of best-of-the-year lists (and a few worsts, as well), and has now released his The Best Books of 2024: Literature in Translation.
       I can't really judge the quality here -- I've only seen a single one of these (On Leaders and Tyrants), and haven't gotten to it yet (though I expect to) -- but the list seems very classical-heavy, with only two of the books by actually living authors (and one of those books is about ... ancient Greece), and also very re-translation heavy: we've seen previous translations of practically all of these. Contemporary fiction ? Not a single title .....

       (If this had been a blind tasting, I would have sworn this list was made by Sam Tanenhaus -- the former editor of The New York Times Book Review who rarely deigned to allow reviews of translations of any sort to appear in its pages; if and when they did, chances were ridiculously good that it was either of a re-translation or a work by a Nobel laureate (we got one of those here, too).)

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

       Gulf Migrants in Malayalam Literature

       At New Lines Magazine Mohamed Shafeeq Karinkurayil considers The Lives of Gulf Migrants in Malayalam Literature -- noting that Benyamin's "Goat Days marked a turning point in Malayalam literature, introducing a new way of speaking about the Gulf in Malayali society".

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

       John Banville profile

       In The Observer Tim Adams has a lengthy profile of the Man Booker-winning (for The Sea) author, in ‘I’m writing a memoir. It’s a pack of lies’: John Banville on a lifetime in books, bereavement, and the Irish love of words.
       He isn't very far with the memoir -- "only just 8,000 words" -- but I certainly like the set-up, much more interesting than your usual memoir:

The truth is I had two ideas for books: one was this autobiography, and the other an idea to write a book about the last man. You know: a pandemic, a bomb, whatever, it’s killed everybody, and there is one survivor and it just happens to be me. I thought at my age I wouldn’t get the two books done, so I combined them. The last man is now writing his autobiography. But of course it turns out he’s not the last – there’s a woman too. So they sort of stalk each other...

       His residency-gig at the Prado museum in the Writing the Prado-programme also sounds neat -- Olga Tokarczuk was the fellow in the spring, and Coetzee also had a go.

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

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       The Princess Casamassima review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Henry James' 1886 novel, The Princess Casamassima.

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

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