Wayne Johnston - New Author

The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

João Guimarães Rosa - Brazilian Joyce

The Devil To Pay In The Backlands

Rosa, João Guimarães, 1908-1967.

The devil to pay in the Backlands :

New York : Knopf, l963.

494 p. ; 22 cm.

Morris Library PQ9697 .R76 D4813x 1963 Normal Loan

The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice as Chronicled by Her Minstrel Laura: A Novel in Thirteen Books and Seven Intermezzos

Irmtraud Morgner's Novel Amazon Link (high priority)

New Writer: James McCourt

Amazon Link


Book Description (Amazon Blurb)
Diva Mawrdew Czgowchwz (pronounced "Mardu Gorgeous") bursts like the most brilliant of comets onto the international opera scene, only to confront the deadly malice and black magic of her rivals. Outrageous and uproarious, flamboyant and serious as only the most perfect frivolity can be, James McCourt's entrancing send-up of the world of opera has been a cult classic for more than a quarter-century. This comic tribute to the love of art is a triumph of art and love by a contemporary American master.

New Writer

• Eva, The Fugitive - Rosamel del Valle Delcat (110 pages)
  
• Voss - Patrick White Delcat (400+ pages)
  

Spanish Lit. Galaxy. Systems of Prose, Lit. Engineering

Rulfo and Carpentier----> García Márquez, Fuentes, Roa Bastos, Vargas Llosa

Borges----> Arreola, Monterroso, Bioy Casares, Cortázar, Menen Desleal

Arlt (?)------> Bolaño, Aira, Cabrera Infante and all the folletinesque authors

Cela -for his character-(?) or Benet -for his prose-(?)-----> Javier Marías, Andrés Trapiello, Eduardo Lago

mucho gracias senhor Nihilo.

Gilbert Sorrentino - new writer

Absolutely have to check out: Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things. It's only 288 pages.

nothing to say...

I took my customary stroll outside at the university main: The Greens, went all the way to check if the library was open by any chance. The lights were on in the glassed stairwells and in a few windows but most of the building was already in the darkness: closed at 5pm. I thought I would get the Apples and Oranges, a novella by Guy Davenport that Nihilo was raving about. It happened to be an early evening en-shadowed by wandering clouds and faint gusts of general wet breeze. Everything was wet, appearing fresh out of the consistent drizzle of the last three days. The fountain at the library corner was on and I had Destroyer on my iPod:

"Some people call me 'Angel' on their deathbed, in a dream.
That's right, the Czar's father thought things could've gone differntly
last night, but they didn't...

And I couldn't bear to follow you there, where trauma exists in the sky.
20th Century Masters welcome these disasters, and so do I.
But, no!
Oh baby, please don't go up into it!"

Raj Kamal Jha, Amitav Ghosh - New Authors

• Raj Kamal Jha - If You Are Afraid Of Heights
• Shadow Lines - Amitav Ghosh

Alejo Carpentier

Cuban writer of "Lost Steps" - Amazon Link


adding it in Fall Book List.

John Crowley - Little, Big (P.S)

Amazon Link

John Crowley's masterful Little, Big is the epic story of Smoky Barnable, an anonymous young man who travels by foot from the City to a place called Edgewood—not found on any map—to marry Daily Alice Drinkawater, as was prophesied. It is the story of four generations of a singular family, living in a house that is many houses on the magical border of an otherworld. It is a story of fantastic love and heartrending loss; of impossible things and unshakable destinies; and of the great Tale that envelops us all. It is a wonder.

David Mitchell (new writer)

Cloud Atlas - 2004.

Apart from the central story (Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin After'), which is uninterrupted, each story breaks off abruptly half-way through, to be followed by the first half of the next story. The interrupted story then appears within the next one, with the protagonist reading or watching the first half of its text; for example, in "An Orison of Sonmi~451," Sonmi~451 describes watching a film about the life of Timothy Cavendish, but she is only able to watch 50 minutes before her story is also interrupted. Each story ends with its protagonist finding the second half of this story, which is then printed after it.

Writers to check out

In no particular order:

• William Gaddis: possibly have to reread The Recognitions.
• William T. Vollman
• Roberto Bolano
• Borges (yes? yes indeed.)
  
• Cortazar
• Louis Ferdinand-Celine (He is coming up next, what's with that friggin' book club 2007 version2.0 picking up "Journey To The End of Madness"; here you are on my table)
• Peter Carey
• James Coetzee (more stuff by him)
• Beckett (Murphy trilogy)
  
• Jean Genet's plays
• Nabokov: Pale Fire
  

Richard Yates (new writer)

Fall Book List: The Revolutionary Road.

Malcolm Lowry - Under The Volcano (new writer)

This needs to be put in Fall Book List.

Tova Reich - The Jewish War (new writer)

Only 288 pages, must read before end of August.

Amazon Link

Steve Erickson - Our Ecstatic Days

Delcat Catalog No.

Stephen Wright - Meditations in Green

Delcat Catalog No.

August Book List.

The Last Puritan: A Memoir In The Form Of A Novel

George Santayana's novel that came out in the 30's looks something to be looked into before this wonderful summer leaves. (possibly August Book List)

The Last Puritan: A Memoir In The Form Of A Novel

Excerpt from Tao Lin Interview

Tao Lin is supposed to be the next break-out act in the lit. world, I can't reliably confirm. He's got two books coming out this month and I happened to chance upon an interview:

Q - Gene Yuen Lang, who grew up in San Francisco, makes it look very terrifying. He represents all of the Asian stereotypes with a grotesque named "Chin-Kee" who eats cats. The book won the Printz Award for Young Adult Literature in 2006. However, he grew up in the late 1970s.

Maybe the racism is worse there. I'm not sure. I went to NYU. There were a lot of Asian clubs. Whenever some place portrayed Asians as eating rice, holding chopsticks, having slanty eyes, or anything like that the Asian club would have boycotts against whoever had done that. But the Asian club called itself the Asian club. An Asian who is "proud" of his or her heritage is racist. Stereotypes are strange. An Asian in a group of Asians at an Asian club can joke about being Asians being computer experts, or something, but if a white person does it the Asian club becomes very angry. I feel interminable thinking about this. I feel interminable thinking about existential issues also, like limited-time, death, the arbitrary nature of the universe, the demands of genetics vs. the demands of society, philosophy, and consciousness, etc. I don't know. I try not to use the word "Asian" ever unless sarcastically. If I say, "Look at that German," I say it kind-heartedly and sarcastically. I know that 98% of all human beings think in preconceptions, cliches, and not factually. I don't think French people are “smarter” than Americans or whatever. I try to view each person specifically, and only their concrete attributes. Someone saying, “I'm French,” is meaningless to me. Ideally it's meaningless to me.