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Mysteries, December 2008–January 2009
Maritime literature, January–March 2009 Melville read-through, part I, Typee—White-Jacket, December 2009–January 2010 Whirlwind tour of Russian literature, February–May 2010 Epistolary literature, July 2009–June 2010
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I’ve been lucky enough in recent weeks to discover deep and genuine attractions to several contemporary writers, that go beyond just a single novel I enjoyed. I did manage to write up Winterson Week, and I’ll be getting to some more Ali Smith as well. But for now, let’s go back to Kirsty Gunn. [...] Tongue is the first novel by South Korean author Kyung-Ran Jo to be translated into English. The protagonist is Ji-won, a cook who’s opened up her own cooking school in the home she shares with her boyfriend, architect Seok-ju. Together they have designed her dream kitchen, where she teaches small groups to make breads [...] I don’t know if it’s just because I first read them both because of the Canongate Myths series, but for whatever reason, there is a close association in my mind between Jeanette Winterson and Ali Smith. They do seem to blurb each other’s books, and I feel like they have a bit in common [...] When updating my 2009 reading list, I always notice its question: will I keep to my plans? I’ve been reluctant to check on this, but let’s have a look-see in anticipation of the year’s halfway mark (coming up dreadfully soon, don’t you think?). First up was the Maritime Theme, which went surprisingly well, though [...] New Englandy literature is an interest of mine, and Boston.com has come out with a list of “100 Essential New England Books”. It is actually interactive in a sort of cool way, too, so go check it out. I’ve read 17 of these, and really, I have to question the New Englandiness of some [...] There’s a great section right before this on literary periodicals, which I must save for later. Here, instead, we have an attack on “anonymity, that shield for every kind of literary scoundrelism”! Do you think Schopenhauer might have gotten some bad anonymous reviews? I don’t actually know, but I feel certain that even if [...] Now that it’s the end of Jeanette Winterson week, it’s time to address some of the bad. I’ll be talking about it in terms of the three novels I’ve discussed, but really this applies to so many books and writers: you like or love something quite well, but then get to a single sentence [...] Ages ago now, Alison asked me in the comments to write about one of the Canongate Myths books I liked (as opposed to the one I didn’t particularly care for), and some 11 months later I deliver, re-reading Weight to round out my Winterson Week. This installment in the series is a retelling of [...] Lighthousekeeping is even more overtly about storytelling than Sexing the Cherry, and also made up of story after story. Silver—the one who’s “part precious metal part pirate”—is orphaned toward the beginning of the novel, and she is eventually taken in by Pew, the lighthousekeeper, as his apprentice. A great part of this apprenticeship is [...] One of Jeanette Winterson’s strengths is in creating fantastical characters so compelling they can light up whole novels (not that they have to, they aren’t alone here). So far the Dog-Woman of Sexing the Cherry may be my favorite. The Dog-Woman is Gargantuan. She trains fighting dogs and cares for the boy she plucked [...] |
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