Words

One must draw everything one can from words, because it’s the one real treasure a true writer has. Big general ideas are in yesterday’s newspaper. If I like to take a word and turn it over to see its underside, shiny or dull or adorned with motley hues absent on its upperside, it’s not at all out of idle curiosity, one finds all sorts of curious things by studying the underside of a word – unexpected shadows of other words, harmonies between them, hidden beauties that suddenly reveal something beyond the word. Serious wordplay, as I have in mind, is neither a game of chance nor a mere embellishment of style. It’s a new verbal species that the marvelling author offers to the poor reader, who doesn’t want to look; to the good reader, who suddenly sees a completely new facet of an iridescent sentence'. ( Nabokov )

Reading Oscars 2019

The year is once again steaming towards Christmas and New Year eve, so it is time for a short moment of reflection and appraisal of our readings during the last twelve months. Let’s immediately call Rick on stage to hand him the prize for the:

Best book written by a self-exiled and banned (real and virtual) author 2019 

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas by Rick Harsch!!!

Rick’s inconveniences remind us that you can still be banned and socially punished in the 21th century for writing a poem. He is a true heir of Jonathan Swift and a faint but very real warning of the world described in Shalamov’s stories. 

(pumping a fist in the air) Free Rick!

Looking at my reading list, I can separate the books I finished and the books I left half-read. Let us look at the unfinished first:

Promising books but unfinished at this moment

Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov 

Forget about Bear Grylls. The ultimate survival guide is written by Poet and Gulag survivor Varlam Shalamov who relates in his stories what you need to do and not do to survive a forced-labor camp in the arctic region for more than a decade. Modern survival manuals miss the most important chapter: How to cope with the horrors inflicted by your fellow men?

Questioning Minds: The Letters of Guy Davenport and Hugh Kenner

I am a huge fan of both gentlemen and I thought that reading their correspondence would add to the pleasure. It did, but only in an inconclusive manner.

The game by Alessandro Baricco

The Italian philosopher Barrico is trying to explain his public what the ICT is doing to us. He is searching for patterns and explanations in our changing relation with the virtual world. To do that he uses a metaphor that complicates things even more. Never really clear in his explanations our friend Barrico

Last witnesses by Svetlana Alexijevitsj 

Hundreds of chapters of Russian adults remembering how as kids they experienced the loss of their parents and the horror of war. It is again and again the stories like the one my father (who lost his dad in the war) and my father in law ( who lost his mother in the war ) told me. How much can one take?

Curiosités esthétiques by Baudelaire Charles 

Art reviews written by that cursed poet Charles Baudelaire. The title says it all. An esthetic curiosity.

Les Demoiselles de Concarneau by Georges Simenon

I should have finished this one. Well written, awful crime, poignant atmosphere. Maybe it was because it was the third Simenon in a row that I failed to finish it.

La Méditerranée by Fernand Braudel 

Strongly recommended by Rick. The history of the Mediterranean explained by what happened in the mountains and the plains surrounding it. A book demanding full attention. Something I can rarely give nowadays. 

The Outlaw Ocean: Crime and Survival in the Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina

Wanted to read that one, but it just happened that this book is at the bottom of the stack. 

L'Afrique Fantome by Michel Leiris 

Written by a famous sociologist when sociology was not famous yet. Africans and their ghosts. What can you say?

Trois tristes tigres by Guillermo Cabrera Infante 

Good one! Funny and well written, really like it. But again, the pages demand an attention I cannot summon for longer periods.

Gabriela, girofle et cannelle : by Jorge Amado

Not started, no idea what it is about.

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

All the books above have been shoved aside by this one. The three first chapters are brilliant and super interesting. If I’ll manage to keep on gobbling the words and hanging to its phrases, this is the book I likely will finish first.

The three nominees are:

Most likely to be finished soon

Trois tristes tigres by Guillermo Cabrera Infante 

Les Demoiselles de Concarneau by Georges Simenon

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

Winner 

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans by David Abulafia

Now let’s turn to the next category, the finished books, which is of course already an important sign of appreciation: 

The Finished books

Fiction

The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazan 

Surprisingly good book written by a 19th century Countess, novelist, journalist, literary critic, poet, playwright, translator, editor and professor. She looks like your preferred Grandma but she is in fact the Spanish Mother of Naturalism and belief me, she narrates the things like they bloody well are. She didn’t make any friends with this book. Not with the Spanish Aristocracy, nor with the clerics, nor with the politicians. A recommendation! 

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

Another great book. A visit to a Mexican Ghost town inhabited by rambling skeletons. Loved it. I even managed to write a short review about it. That means something nowadays.

Scoop: A Novel About Journalists by Evelyn Waugh

Funny, British. A journalistic excursion into Africa during a “Coup d’état”. 

Maybe the story is not even that exaggerated. Which makes it less funny than initially thought.

All the King's by Robert Penn Warren

Great book this one! The narration of a political henchman who loses his soul in the everyday business of Politics. Very well written, with looping describing sentences “à la Gogol” that go nowhere. Loved it, finished it in one go.

Lenz by Georg Büchner

Very short description of a man slipping into insanity. One of the first novels on such a topic.

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas by Rick Harsch

A milestone! 700 pages of undiluted Rick Harsch, full of Americana and Anti-Americana. 

A prose protest song from the wildest living word – artist alive. A joyful heir of Joyce.

Knowing Him, makes it even more fun. Fcuking Keno!

La Veuve Couderc  and La maison du canal by G. Simenon

A nice discovery this year: my compatriot Georges Simenon. The House by the Canal is an interesting story but the writing is awful. It is of course one of the first of the many hundreds Simenon will write. The Widow Couderc is much better and the writer brilliantly describes a situation which is about to burst. Great writeri

The three nominees are

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas by Rick Harsch

The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazan 

Winner (Rick has got already his prize): All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

Non-fiction

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Can’t really remember what this book was about. A famous writer loving his library? Yes, that will do as a description.

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

This book was recommended by a young women I met 2 years ago. “This book describes my Youth” she said. After reading Bukowski sobering narrative of growing up in solitude, with an abusive father, a weak mother and serious social issues, I hope she meant it figuratively. 

I am afraid she didn’t.

Faber & Faber: The Untold Story of a Great Publishing House by Toby Faber

Interesting self-adulation of a famous publishing house. Interesting because printing and selling books involves big risks and needs good business sense. Not for Romantics.

Homage to QWERTYUIOP by Anthony Burgess

Love Burgess. This is British wit as we love it. Intelligent, sharp, cultured. 

Les routages en course et en croisière by Jean-Yves Bernot

Computer aided navigation, Meteorology and Yacht race strategy by one of the most famous “routeurs” of sailing records. Love the books by Bernot for their sheer intelligence. The “Homo Ludens” at his best.

Winner 

Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

Il donnait des baffes à la bonne

  « C'est exactement, l'histoire du chimpanzé de ma mère. Quand elle l'a acheté, il était maigre, il puait la misère, mais je n 'ai jamais vu un singe aussi affectueux. On lui a donné des noix de coco, on l'a gavé de bananes, il est devenu fort comme un Turc, il donnait des baffes à la bonne. Il a fallu appeler les pompiers... »

Topaz / Marcel Pagnol

The famous literary canon compiled by Pierre Boncenne and presented by Bernard Pivot, boasted to list the 2500 best books worth reading in a lifetime. 

In the last pages of “La Bibliothèque Idéale”, the Nobel prize winners were listed according to their nationality.  As the “Bibliothèque” was printed in 1988, the last winner mentioned was the 1987 laureate Joseph Brodsky. 

I was curious to know how many of the future Nobel prize winners Boncenne could predict and till what year his foresight stretched.

I selected all winners since 1988 and checked their names in the glossary with surprising results :

1988: Naguib Mahfouz (Egypt) listed in 1987 as one of the ten best writers from the Maghreb

1989: Camilo Cela (Spain) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from Spain 

1990: Octavio Paz (Mexico) listed in 1987 as one of the ten best writers from Latin America 

1991: Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) missed !

1992: Derek Walcott (St Lucia) missed !

1993: Toni Morrison (USA) missed !

1994: Kenzaburo Oe (Japan) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from Asia 

1995: Seamus Heaney (Ireland) missed !

1996: Wislawa Szymborska (Poland) missed !

1997: Dario Fo (Italy) missed !

1998: Jose Saramago (Portugal) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from Portugal and Brasil 

1999: Gunther Grass (Germany) listed in 1987 as one of the twenty-five best writers from Germany 

2000: Gao Xingjian (China) missed!

2001: Vidiadhar Naipaul (India) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from Asia 

2002: Imre Kertesz (Hungary) missed !

2003: John Coetzee (South Africa) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from England ( British Commenwealth ) 

2004: Elfriede Jelinek (Austria) missed !

2005: Harold Pinter (Britain) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers for theater. 

2006: Orhan Pamuk (Turkey) missed !

2007: Doris Lessing (Britain) listed in 1987 as one of the twenty-five best writers from England 

2008: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (France) in 1987 listed as one of the fifty best writers from France

2009: Herta Muller (Germany) missed !

2010: Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) in 1987 listed as one of the ten best writers from Latin America

2011: Tomas Transtroemer (Sweden) missed !

2012: Mo Yan (China) missed !

2013: Alice Munro (Canada) missed !

2014: Patrick Modiano (France) listed in 1987 as one of the fifty best writers from France 

2015: Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus) missed !

2016: Bob Dylan (USA) missed for obvious reason

2017: Kazuo Ishiguro (Britain) missed

2018: Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) missed !

2019: Peter Handke (Austria) missed !

This means that they predicted Modiano’s reputation 26 years in advance!

Most impressive is Mario Vargas Llosa’s record, of whom in 1987 it was already obvious that he was one of the greatest talents in the Spanish language but who received the price only 22 years later!

The Manifold Destiny of Eddie Vegas by Rick Harsch

I've had the pleasure to be an early reader of Rick Harsch's latest novel "The manifold destiny of Eddie Vegas”. It is a very entertaining book, exceptionally well written and with a theme that will certainly unsettle you with its terrible truths.

While “The Manifold Destiny” is written for the experienced reader of sophisticate taste, Rick Harsch, devoid of the usual authorial arrogance, respects and is kind to his audience. Even if his book is written in an elaborate language and artfully crafted sentences there is always sufficient “story" to pique your curiosity and enough entertaining things unfolding on the pages to keep you reading all along the 700 pages. That and the manageable length of each chapter is a relief from the doorstoppers which seem to be so fashionable nowadays! Unlike the Gaddises, the Wallaces and other Don Dellilo behemoths, Harsch's works come in an acceptable and digestible word - count format. 

In the "Manifold Destiny" two storylines develop parallel to each other. Both narrative arcs are separated by a few hundred years but merge towards each other as the narration reaches the end. One storyline develops in the present and follows two young men on their peregrinations between Europe and the USA, with the occasional flash-back to recent history: Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Both men wrestle with father - issues at the same time their fathers struggle with their own toxic legacy.

The second storyline describes the adventures of the earlier forefathers of the main character, each of them a witness of, and a minor player in those bygone periods of heroic Americana myth: The Mountain Men, the Oregon trail, the Gold rush, the Indian wars, the Boot-legging...

Harsch debunks these historical and heroically chunks of Americana by reminding the reader that what drives these “heroic times” is nothing more than opportunism, greed, violence, racism, genocide and a continent-wide ecocide. The chapters playing out in the "present time" (Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam) do not need to be demythologized as they are remembered in our collective memory as violent moments causing enormous damages to indigenous populations. Still, here too, Harsch digs up lesser known horrific facts to avoid any possible tendency to describe war as heroic: Psychological warfare in Vietnam, Commercial competition of the private military militias in the Iraq, war crimes in Afghanistan and the blind terror of the all-seeing drones.

Harsch is at times funny, sad, angry or serious, but the total world view resulting from all this is bleak. The characters seem to move around on the whim and without clear goals. As already made clear in the witty title of the book, man’s destiny, (if destiny there is), or multiple destinies are largely dependent on the roll of the dice or the shuffle of the cards. 

The metaphor of poker, or gambling in general, is seeping through all chapters.  That one finds himself in an uncomfortable situation is often caused by a random chain of events.

"Fucking Keno" is after all the memorable first and damning opening sentence.

The feature of this novel, most likely to delight even the most blasé reader, is Rick Harsch exciting writing. Harsch is a true word - wizard, a sentence - crafter of rare talent. Cunningly and with a permanent twinkle in the eye he hand-picks words, kneads them to his liking and assemble them in elaborate phrases. His recounting of the history of the American West, using a vast array of highly sophisticated narrative technique has something highly eclectic and comic at the same time. Imagine James Joyce rephrasing the stories of Fennimore Cooper, De Lillo editing the action scenes written by Sebastian Junger or Gaddis correcting Raymond Chandler. Understandably, it is not an easy book, it is after all aimed at the more experienced readers.  Any confidence with the literary techniques of American Pomo or Modernism will help appreciate the skills deployed in the novel. Reading notes are the “rigeur" for those who intend to fully enjoy the read. 

And a great read it is. Harsch shows he is really a Master of the Word. At key moments of the novel, Harsch stops assembling sentences and offers the reader only words. Words in a series of lists; multiple page long lists of seemingly random words, you are likely to skim to proceed for further impatient reading. But these lists, which should be read attentively, preferably viva voce as in a religious litany, contain more than the eye first notices. 

The last list, when it’s terrible secret dawns on you, will certainly shock you.

Rick Harsch has with his "Manifold destiny of Eddy Vegas” written a Masterpiece and as far as I am concerned, as good a candidate for the “Great American Novel” as any other more celebrated book.

You might argue that Harsch is lesser known than his best-selling peers.

That’s my point: 

So was Melville in his days.

Highly recommended !

Lenz by Georg Büchner

In my earlier Danton review I already praised Georg Büchner’s masterful precocity. Deceased at 24, he still managed to write three and a half masterpieces: Dantons Tod, Leonce und Lena, Woyzeck and the unfinished Lenz. The works are considered landmarks in the history of German literature, early precursors of the Modern European roman. They were praised by Zweig, set to music by Alban Berg and burned on celluloid by no one less than Herzog.

I found an older copy of Lenz on the second-hand book market and without hesitation took it home for a quick read. And quick it was! Only 35 pages, but so fast-paced, so modern, so obsessively written that it leaves the reader panting: the story of Jacob Lenz (1751-1792), poet and theater-maker, one of the key representatives of the Sturm und Drang, slipping into insanity. 

Poor Jakob Lenz, delicate and small, the flipside of the Goethe persona, as good a writer as the famous “Wandrer” was, maybe even better, but lacking the stature, the charisma, the social intelligence and the romantic skills. When Lenz became insufferable and a danger to Goethe’s reputation and position, the Master got rid of him. Lenz was banned from the province after a mysterious incident, an unforgivable “foolishness” that happened on the 26 of November 1776.

Büchner’s novel make us follow the interdicted Lenz; his erratic wandering, his despair, his hopeless seeking of solace, his battling bouts of depression, his final tumble into a terrifying madness from which there is no return…

What a nightmare…

Language as a net.

Iris Murdoch’s idea of language as a net cast over the mind, constraining our thoughts according to how its knots and threads land – wrinkled in some places, straight in others. Every language is a different throw of the net. Language sieves and strains reality but never imprisons it. There are always holes for the real world to escape.