December 2011
1 post
Better late...
I am immersed, with total abandon, awe, and delight in Moby-Dick. A splendid tale, full of breath-stopping action, tempered with contemplation of nature; Melville bows before the majestic beast, but does not flinch in describing the brutality of its capture, its great bulk reduced to an essence which, no doubt, he used to light the very lamp by which his masterwork was composed. Along the way, he...
May 2011
0 posts
Sonata Mulattica, Rita Dove
In 1803, Beethoven dedicated his Sonata No. 9 (now known as the Kreutzer), to his new friend George Bridgetower, son of a white woman and an “African prince.” Bridgetower, a violin virtuoso of prodigious talent, angered his mentor by flirting with a barmaid the maestro had his eye on, causing Beethoven to tear up the dedication and, in effect, banish the younger man to the back pages...
February 2011
1 post
Magical Chorus, Solomon Volkov
How can I stop reading books on Russian subjects when the topic is inexhaustible? Solomon Volkov’s Magical Chorus is like taking a graduate course in that country’s incomparable culture. He makes the connections between art, literature, music, ballet, philosophy, politics and Russia’s complicated relationship to the rest of the world. The text is serious but eminently readable,...
December 2010
1 post
Encounter
“The ludicrous nature of our feelings does nothing to reduce their authenticity.” Milan Kundera, Encounter. I hope I remembered the quote correctly; I know the gist of it is right. Another thoughtful, urbane book of essays by one of our most incisive living philosophers. This one focuses largely on music, or the intersection of music and literature and life. Worth reading slowly.
November 2010
4 posts
Dersu Uzala
Guess it’s no coincidence that this name came up in both Ian Frazier’s Travels in Siberia and in John Vaillant’s Tiger - two books steeped in the history and living conditions of Russia’s far north. I know it as a very fine film, with stunning Akira Kurasawa cinematography; I did not know it was also a book, very well known by anyone who was educated in Russia. I rank the...
Siberia! Siberia!
My apologies to Ian Frazier and his excellent book, Travels in Siberia! The Russians sold Alaska years ago!
Two books
I have the intense pleasure of being deeply engrossed in two exceptional books: Ian Frazier’s Travels In Alaska is my current bedtime reading, keeping me up much later than I intend with his keen observations of Russia’s far north, enriched with history, geography, politics (then and now), and spiced with engaging, humorous anecdotes. My favorite so far - having their camp trashed by a...
Tiger
A chilling portrait of this magnificent, terrifying beast, whose existence is seriously compromised by our relentless invasion into its territory. Reads like a horror story, with a wounded animal in vengeful pursuit of the trappers who fired their guns at him. But also an urgent call for conservation, for protecting the habitat of the few remaining tigers in the wild. Good reading.
September 2010
1 post
sigh
“She set her eyes on him as she might set a carving fork in a roast.” I.love.Wallace.Stegner.
June 2010
2 posts
Thank you, Mr Mailer
“Novelists are oxymorons. They are sensitive and insensitive. Full of heart and heartless. You have to be full of heart to feel what other people are feeling. On the other hand, if you start thinking of all the damage you are going to do, you can’t write the book - not if you’re reasonably decent….Either you produce a book that doesn’t approach what really interests...
words, words, words...
Came across this quote by Bruno Schulz, author of The Street of Crocodiles, comparing books to meteors: “Each of them has only one moment, a moment when it soars screaming like a phoenix, all its pages aflame. For that single moment we love them ever after, although they soon turn to ashes.” One could argue that some books have been with us a good long time, but who is to say what...
Monster, Oil on Canvas
Ever read a book you thoroughly enjoyed but don’t quite know how to describe? This is one. It’s about conjoined twins and a girl with two hearts. It has as much clever word play as Salman Rushdie; the author, Dmitri Zlotsky, losing no opportunity to pun (in two languages) or spin out his outlandish tale in multi-layered prose. In the end, it is a darkly humorous, more than a little...
February 2010
1 post
Hemingses of Monticello
What an impressive piece of scholarship, elegantly told. Annette Gordon-Reed, following her earlier book about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, has dug deeply into the available sources to give us a multi-faceted picture of life in 18th century Virginia, showing the convoluted interactions of the Jefferson clan with the enslaved Hemings family in all their complexity. It becomes clear, toward...
January 2010
1 post
Iain Pears, again
Just when I thought I had already read the best of this very excellent author’s work (to date), I picked up an audio of The Portrait. It is a small book, a novella, really, executed with dark, masterful imagination. Written in the first person, as one side of a conversation with a mute interlocutor, it manages to reveal a world of complex, deeply felt interactions while building, like a...
December 2009
4 posts
Byatt
May I rhapsodize one more time about A S Byatt’s The Children’s Book? I am astounded by the richness of her imagination, the ease with which she weaves the drama of so many lives into a multi-faceted narrative mosaic. Yet the work is never predictable or sentimental; it is rewarding and unforgettable.
Ah, Tosca
Even on tv, sitting alone in my cold dark house, she reaches out and grabs me. A woman who does nothing by halves, lives for the intensity of every moment, and pays for it, in a blaze of passionate glory. I got so involved, had to undo six rows of knitting to fix my sock.
Pelmeni
So inspired by Laura Schenone’s epic journey, I went to the kitchen and made pelmeni - the Russian dumplings that are the closest thing to a national dish (no, it’s not caviar, but that’s a close second). Turned out fine, I even made the dough on the board, like Laura, and let it rest. Unfortunately, the leftovers disappeared before I could get to them.
postman
A pleasant evening with the Great Writers women, watching Il Postino, talking about Skarmeta’s utterly delightful book. Don’t know why it had to be moved to Italy - maybe so the perfectly cast Massimo could play the part? Anyway, a little poetry, a little chocolate, a little wine. Nice.
November 2009
6 posts
More ravioli
Still reading, in small bites and with much pleasure, Laura Schenone’s Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken. The food search, mixed as it is with a hunger for family history, is obsessive and completely understandable; the emotional price is revealed with devastatingly brutal honesty. Brava.
growing things
It occurred to me, while cleaning up the garden today, that the entire task - pulling up dead plants, turning the soil, burying “compostibles” and leaves to get a jump start on spring - is one powerful expression of hope. No, not hope, faith in the future. That there will be a future, and I will plant things again. Without this anticipation, why bother getting out of bed?
Nice, too,...
Golden
Had the honor of meeting author, editor, mentor, teacher, and all-around fine human being Marita Golden today. She spoke to a small group of very attentive people at the Newark Library, then proceeded to read four selections by other writers from her recently released anthology, It’s All Love. Got to chat a bit, about Tolstoy, the writing process, women’s communities, and more, while I...
food!
Catching up on Laura Schenone (ravioli) and Louise DeSalvo (bread, so far) for next week’s Writing Matters talk. Food + good writing, what could be better?
Gourmand
Took a copy of Muriel Barbery’s Gourmet Rhapsody with me for a trip to NYC, because it is small and fit perfectly in my handbag. It is also the perfect book for a woman to be seen reading when dining alone in public. You know - kind of sophisticated, not trashy, with a bit of mystery behind it. Not disappointed. The writing is exquisite, the structure skillfully executed, the food...
not a book
My other travel companion was Don Carlos. Placido Domingo. ‘nuf said.
strange
Picked up Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke) at the library recently, audiobook, for a very long road trip. I was looking for a big book, for many hours on end of storytelling, and the options, I must say, are not stellar. (For instance, you can’t get anything by Orhan Pamuk in audio. Shyness? I doubt it.) Jonathan did the trick - Clarke writes very well indeed, and manages to...
October 2009
2 posts
nightstand
Books on my nightstand, in descending order: The Monkey’s Wrench, Primo Levi (next week’s Great Writers selection, almost done. Subtle, good) ; The Children’s Book, A S Byatt (rich, complex, amazing. I’m eager to get back to this one, in spite of its girth); Gypsy Tears, Cora Schwartz (a writer I met this summer); Short Stories, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (in Russian - no...