Monthly Archives: February 2011
Personal canons (1)
Recently I made a passing remark about how there wasn’t so much a literary canon as canons. A modernist canon; the capital C canon of US academia; the canons of Russian or French literature. Guy Savage commented that what was … Continue reading
Filed under Personal canon, Personal posts
The county courts of this region were very busy.
This didn’t really fit with what I had to say about Roth’s Weights and Measures, but it seemed so apposite to our own times that I felt I had to quote it anyway: The county courts of this region had … Continue reading
Even the dawn looked faded
Weights and Measures, by Joseph Roth Once upon a time in the District of Zlotogrod there lived an Inspector of Weights and Measures whose name was Anselm Eibenschütz. That’s the first sentence of Weights and Measures. Those first four words … Continue reading
Everything must leave some kind of mark.
Remainder, by Tom McCarthy Tom McCarthy couldn’t get Remainder published in the UK at first. He eventually sold it to a French house who marketed it through art galleries rather than bookstores. It proved a critical hit and so was … Continue reading
Filed under English Literature, McCarthy, Tom, Modernist Fiction
Elif Batuman, the LRB and creative writing programmes
Elif Batuman recently wrote a piece in the LRB about creative writing programmes. Ostensibly it was a review of Mark Gurl’s history of such programmes – The Programme Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing. As so often … Continue reading
Filed under Personal posts, Publishing
… the kindness of strangers
Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín Years ago when I read Colm Tóibín’s The Heather Blazing I was blown away by it. It was well plotted and had interesting characters but that wasn’t what really impressed me. It was the writing. The … Continue reading
Filed under Booker, Irish Literature, Tóibín, Colm
He dressed far too well.
Night and the City, by Gerald Kersh There’s been a Patrick Hamilton revival in recent years. It’s well deserved. For many years Hamilton and his stories of life among the English working and lower-middle classes were forgotten. Now Hamilton’s back … Continue reading
Filed under English Literature, Kersh, Gerald, London
