November books and sickness

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Well, this has been the slowest reading month of my adult life.  At the beginning of the month, I came down with a double ear infection and a sinus infection.  These infections were causing havoc with my vision.  Unfortunately, I decided to go to a ‘Minute Clinic’ instead of to my physician.  Bad choice.  I was given limited antibiotics, and the infections came back stronger than ever mid-month.  With a weakened immune system, I contracted pink eye in both eyes and a nasty cough.  It was time to go to the doctor, the real doctor.  I was informed that, in addition to the pink eye, the ear infections, and the raging sinus infection, I now had a pretty serious case of bronchitis.  I’ve been mostly homebound this last week, being looked after by my amazing wife and taking medications.  Finally, I feel like I am on the mend.  For a few weeks, I felt like I was on a circus ride and I just couldn’t get off.  Round and round I went.  All of this has me thinking that a.) I have the most amazing family who take such good care of me and b.) I am extremely fortunate to only be sick with a very treatable illness and to have such ready access to medical care.  This month was nothing more than a “first-world problem.”

And now to the books.  I finally began reading from my selections for the ‘Argentinean Literature of Doom’ reading challenge, which is hosted here (go to the site no matter what, because it is one of the best personal blogs on good literature around).  I will have full reviews (something this page has sorely lacked) of Ernesto Sabato’s The Tunnel and Roberto Bolaño’s Woes of the True Policeman in the next few days, health and energy permitting.  Here is the book list for November:

The Wisdom of Psychopaths  by  Kevin Dutton

Travels with Epicurus  by  Daniel Klein

Woes of the True Policeman  by  Roberto Bolaño

The Tunnel  by  Ernesto Sábato

Tierra del Fuego  by  Francisco Coloane

Javier on his writing

A little clip for you here where Marías reads a few lines (from A Heart So White) and talks about his writing.

Books read in October

Here are the books read this past month.  The end of the year is coming, and I'm toying with a 'Best Books of the Year' post with multiple authors giving short reviews.  More on that to come, and let me know if you would be interested in writing a few words on your favorite book this year.

 

October

The Book of Disquiet  by  Fernando Pessoa

The Man without Qualities (vol.1)  by  Robert Musil

Written Lives  by  Javier Marías

Requiem: a hallucination  by  Antonio Tabucchi

Chicken with Plums  by  Marjane Satrapi

The Good Cripple  by  Rodrigo Rey Rosa

Tales of Moonlight and Rain  by  Akinari Ueda

The Shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains  by  Nicholas Carr

Beach Birds  by  Severo Sarduy

The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira  by  Cesar Aira

If Walls Could Talk: an intimate history of the home  by  Lucy Worsley

The Blind Owl  by  Sadegh Hedayat

My first encounter with Hedayat will not be my last, as Blind Owl was a wonderful book.  The hallucinatory quality paired well with Tabucchi's amusing jaunt and meditation around Lisbon.  The biggest disappointment of the month comes from The Good Cripple, though I suspect much of that has to do with the translation.  While it is important to keep a slight taste of the foreign nature of the original in translation, retaining entire -albeit well known - Spanish phrases for no observable purpose seems ridiculous to me.   Why not use 'friend' instead of 'amigo?'  Why keep 'adios' for 'goodbye' or 'hola' for hello?  The liberal sprinkling of such tripe throughout saturated the work as a whole, making an interesting story come across as told by a Latino stereotype out of central casting.

Happy reading

Javier sticks to his guns

 

Javier Marías has been awarded – and has subsequently rejected - Spain’s national narrative prize for his novel, Los enamoramientos (The Infatuations).  Marías has stated for decades that awards given by governments, especially by his in Spain, come with a level of politics and tainting he cannot stomach, and also objects to prizes where the money is taken from taxes or fees imposed by governments on the people.  On a more personal level, the Spaniard relates that many of his literary heroes and masters, including his father, were ignored for the prize for less worthy recipients, noting that “if they weren’t given it, why should I be given it.”

And Richard Shea on NPR

Well, in a moment of weakness, it seems the good folks at NPR and the Paris Review have decided they like a short story of mine.  Here it is:

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/19/163085920/laces

Javier Marías at the BBC

The BBC World Service's 'World Book Club' recently selected Marías's "A Heart So White" as the book of the month.  Here is a link to the interview wherein the author answers questions from a world-wide audience:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ymn99

And the winner will be...

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Javier Marías should win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

I’m just not sure it will happen this year.

Now that betting agencies have increased wagering on one of the most prestigious prizes in the world, I thought it time to attempt my own prognostications.  Let me put aside my personal favorite and make a prediction (probably a wrong one):

Either Chinua Achebe or Salman Rushdie will be the surprise winner announced in 15 hours out of Stockholm.  You heard it here first.

(Addendum: Chinese writer Mo Yan has this morning been awarded the prize, keeping my streak of horribly inaccurate predictions intact.)