forty-two: november 2004

11.30.2004 tuesday
 The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson A sweet melodrama of suburban life, 1955. Of great historical interest, especially if you like reading about crises of postwar masculinity –there’s also cool stuff about zoning and school bond issues. Great for those who like a certain kind of sociological novel.
-Brian
 11.29.2004 monday
 The New Saroyan Reader by William Saroyan (edited by Brian Darwent) In poverty a woman steals a cantaloupe and keeps her dignity; two kids create a cornet craze outside Fresno. With the tenderness of Steinbeck in examining the occurrences of everyday, Saroyan recounts stories simply as a moment out of his own life.
-Miriam
 11.28.2004 sunday
 The Dissolution of Nicholas Dee by Matthew Stadler States of consciousness, Proustian in detail, with particular attention to swooning states: sleep, orgasm, death. A Quilty-ian policeman (Clausewitz) sets the chase in motion, but the real drama is Dee’s history of the concept of insurance: how can one insure against loss?
-Diana
 11.27.2004 saturday
 pressure on the spine her spine your spine my spine by Sheila E. Murphy http://www.blazebox.org/sem.pdf Murphy flash freezes the drama of thought's interaction with the world, depicting the reaction of the pre- and post-verbal "I" to the incursions of outside actions. Speech and the "I" are the spine, not the sign, of this "casual madrigal per usual."
-Catherine
 11.26.2004 friday
 A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett A classic story, my guilty pleasure, this book is about a pretty, intelligent, personable, and morally sound girl who remains regal, rich and poor, while living in Victorian London. Child labor and child abuse were never more romanticized or painted more appealingly.
-Eve
 11.25.2004 thursday
 Glass, Irony & God by Anne Carson The reader speeds through Carson's cruel phrases, scoping a traditionalist's post-love-affair walk-on-the-moor, agreeing that classical heroes are striking when seen on TV, reaffirming that evil "has 28 eyes." All this in regular stanzas: familiar, but starkly entertaining.
-Erika
 11.24.2004 wednesday
 Moy Sand and Gravel by Paul Muldoon The man who was said to be able to make 'knife' rhyme with 'fork' now struggles to make 'privet' rhyme with 'rivet.' Elliptical, repetitive, awkward and funny, these poems are far stranger yet more accessible than his earlier work. Small doses only.
-Timothy
 11.23.2004 tuesday
 The World of Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse It is an entire world – small, silly, but complete. Bertie floats like a fetus in amniotic fluid, like Ivan Illych in a boyhood fever. Secure knowing that all problems can be met by that hovering omniscience (Mommy/ Daddy/ Valet) Jeeves. Farce lighter-than-air.
-Brian
 11.22.2004 monday
 Men And Cartoons: Stories by Jonathan Lethem Imagine an aerosol spray that reveals lost things: used on yourself, what comes to light? Exploring despair in the realization that childhood is forever beyond grasp, Lethem writes to quietly astonish with sci-fi, superheroes, and fragile sons of Bedford-Stuyvesant discovering free jazz.
-Miriam
 11.21.2004 sunday
 The Country Under My Skin by Giaconda Belli Attractive bourgeoise turns guerrilla. The best story comes early on: emergence from gloomy matrimony to love, poetry, and revolution. Later, a sameness of incident dulls the book. The writer's fault? Or all those companeros who see her only as ornament and helpmeet?
-Diana
 11.20.2004 saturday
 Astral Sciences of Mesopotamia by David Pingree and Hermann Hunger Here is the earliest history of astrology laid bare, but the pathology of error is an acquired taste. These errors echo through Greek, Islamic and Hindu sciences. Though comprehensive, this book is not introductory. You have already had an introduction to error.
-Marc
 11.19.2004 friday
 Some Other Kind of Mission by Lisa Jarnot Recurring names. Other pieces are in blocks. Her hand on the visuals. Doesn't close? Constellations. Palimpsest enacted, recurring. Recurring names. Other pieces. And more chaotic. Definitive version of text's methods. Arranged. Deny "stop". "To stop" as verb (not verb/noun). And "meticules".
-Erika
 11.18.2004 thursday
 Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth Century America by Richard Rorty
Taut philosophy lectures from 1997, Rorty’s book chastises the liberal left for intellectualizing real-world politics and failing to make social changes since the 1960s. His words echo recent elections: left-leaning candidates, lacking identity and agenda (one other than anti- or non-conservative), lost.
- Eve
 11.17.2004 wednesday
 The Prairie by James Fenimore Cooper The Bush family descends on the West, bringing with them slaves, a total disregard for the environment and some suspect religious beliefs. Not one of Cooper's most enthralling works, but worth a peek for the origins of American mythology Plus ça change....
-Timothy
 11.16.2004 tuesday
 Hex and Gargantuan by Maggie Estep The first two Ruby Murphy mystery novels. Colorful characters having wacky adventures, i.e., realism. You will learn a little about Coney Island history and what hotwalkers do, murders will be solved, and you may come to better understand the horse crazy.
-Brian
 11.15.2004 monday
 A Poethical Wager by Joan Retallack Especially recommendable for essays on “narrativity” in Gertrude Stein and Rosmarie Waldrop and a four-part essay on the poet(h)ics of John Cage, this collection is both playful and weighty, elaborating a new sense of landscape. When will Genre Tallique’s book be released?
-Jen
 11.11.2004 thursday
 The Magician’s Doubts: Nabokov and the Risks of Fiction, by Michael Wood Literary criticism touching on the major works of Vladimir Nabokov, Wood’s elegant analysis posits that VN’s common theme is this: happiness is precious because life is unpredictably cruel. Upon rereading, the book is less lovely than remembered, yet a must-read for "Nabokophiles."
-Eve
 11.10.2004 wednesday
 The Tree House by Kathleen Jamie At the forefront of the new ecopoetry, Jamie's latest volume focuses almost entirely on trees and birds. The poems are far more interesting in their interrelation than individually; in her chameleonic, egoless way, Jamie posits poetry collections as ecosystems of their own.
-Timothy
 11.9.2004 tuesday
 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen Contra the glamour of the gothic, the banality of evil and good; as intense as ever in the minutest gestures. Left unanswered is the question whether reading novels is just silly. Not the best of Jane, but that’s praising with faint damns.
-Brian
 11.8.2004 monday
 Ozark Magic and Folklore by Vance Randolph Randolph takes a somewhat condescending tone toward ‘hillfolk and chicken grannies’ but it was 1947 after all. First published by Columbia University Press, later re-released by Dover, this book will, among other things, teach you how to keep your dog from roaming.
-Jen
 11.7.2004 sunday
 From India to the Planet Mars: A Study of a Case of Somnambulism, with Glossolalia, by Theodore Flournoy Flournoy pores over somnambulist Smith's fantasias: her "Martian romance" and her "Hindoo cycle." He even consults Saussure. He remarks that these hypnotically dictated fragments are without "plot or intrigue." Findings: the unconscious is structured like a novel, but not a good one.
-Diana
 11.6.2004 saturday
 The Art of The Interview by Larry Grobel Too repetitive to be an effective how-to, not quite personal enough to be an effective memoir. The interviews with other interviewers, editors, and even a Grobel self-interview feel like padding. The celebrity gossip is fun. Might have made a compelling magazine article.
-Becky
 11.5.2004 friday
 Park by Cole Swensen Can a park be divided into 17 parts? Can a human eye mirror those incisions, or human feet lace them into something that breathes? Here are the nature(s) of names, of coming to know, of landscape as canvas or as quiet brush.
-Erika
 11.4.2004 thursday
 Election, by Tom Perrotta Playing musical p.o.v., Perrotta weaves amusing intrigue into the story of a school election gone awry. Each character gets a chance to justify his flawed behavior, evoking both annoyance and empathy. (The subsequent MTV movie ended with a stronger, more bitter message.)
-Eve
 11.3.2004 wednesday
 Letters from an American Farmer by J. Hector St John de Crevecoeur Arguably the first work of American literature, Crevecoeur examines the role of religion, slavery, agriculture, opium and snakes in the founding of the American Republic. Delirious, funny and engrossing, these (somewhat fictional) letters set the scene for everyone from Jefferson to Thoreau.
-Timothy
 11.2.2004 tuesday
 Fifth Business by Robertson Davies A rollicking mediation upon fate and character, as demonstrated through the lives of unlicensed saints; also sex, murder, Canadian identity, the role of myth in history -- and its central character only has one leg! Do yourself a favor and read this.
-Brian
 11.1.2004 monday
 The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters by Bernadette Mayer A collection of letters that were never sent. That were never to be sent? Little is more obsessive-seeming than the vocabulary we use to make conversation and explain ourselves. Why we are going to have another baby. Out of repetition comes meaning.
-Jen




back to forty-two