Madinkbeard (Free subscription) | 12/27/2008
Lindon asked me, one day, if I knew what this new literary movement could be called. Back then, I had dodged the question, but now, eighteen years later, I think I can answer it. It took me quite some time, about twenty years of reflection, but I found the answer. The answer is in the [...]
Conversational Reading (Free subscription) | 12/05/2008
With widespread reports of layoffs and restructuring among publishers and bookstores, it's clear by now that this is a tough market in which to sell books. Perhaps to weather the storm, a number of publishers that I regularly check for new releases are having holiday sales. Here's what I've seen so far: Dalkey Archive Press. They're offering 5 books for $35, 10 books for $60, or 20 books for $110,...
Conversational Reading (Free subscription) | 12/04/2008
We've just released the longlist for Three Percent/Open Letter's "Best Translated Book of 2008." The Quarterly Conversation has a number of these under review: The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn (Simon & Schuster) Tranquility by Attila Bartis, translated from the Hungarian by Imre Goldstein (Archipelago) 2666 by Roberto Bolaño, translated...
Conversational Reading (Free subscription) | 12/03/2008
Dalkey Archive editor and Quarterly Conversation contributor Martin Riker has a piece at the Semininary Co-Op Blog about how Dalkey came to publish three Jean-Philippe Toussaint works in the same year. There’s something very exciting about publishing several of an author’s books together. Instead of putting a single work out into the world, you’re putting into the world a whole way of seeing. You’re...
<HTMLGIANT> (Free subscription) | 12/03/2008
Yeah, I know this won’t make up for my being HTMLGIANT’s least useful contributor (by far), but telling you about the ridiculously good Dalkey Archive holiday sale has to count for something. Right? What if I drop a few names? William H. Gass, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Stanley Crawford, Rikki Ducornet, Rainer Maria Rilke, Gert Jonke, Donald Barthelme, David [...]
Conversational Reading (Free subscription) | 11/13/2008
Quarterly Conversation contributor John Lingan writes on Jean-Philippe Toussaint at Splice Today. This is the philosophical thrust of Toussaint’s early work. The books’ aloof protagonists and unadorned language recall The Stranger, but Toussaint makes his larger points stylistically where Camus made his narratively; Meursault’s actions lead him to prison where his best coping mechanism is the resigned...
Conversational Reading (Free subscription) | 10/09/2008
The Complete Review reviews the two new Dalkey books by Jean-Philippe Toussaint. As a reminder, The Bathroom is a reissue of the original English translation of Toussaint's first published novel, and Camera is an original translation of one of Toussaint's earlier novels. I believe Camera was his 3rd, but don't quote me on that. In my opinion, both of these books are worth reading. Though they're short,...
the Literary Saloon (Free subscription) | 10/06/2008
The most recent additions to the complete review are our reviews of two Jean-Philippe Toussaint titles Dalkey Archive Press is bringing out next month (along with Monsieur, which we've had under review for a while): The Bathroom and the newly translated Camera.
Conversational Reading (Free subscription) | 09/02/2008
As we enter our fourth year . . . Here's your TOC. Latin America’s Kafka: What a Sly Argentine Has in Common with a Tubercular Czech Some of the 20th century’s most innovative fiction came out of Prague and Buenos Aires. Scott Esposito argues that there’s a potent link between the plots being written in each. [more] Reading Claude Cahun French gender-bending artist Claude Cahun is generally known as...
Madinkbeard (Free subscription) | 09/01/2008
The latest Quarterly Conversation has an interview with Belgian novelist Jean-Philippe Toussaint, who happens to be one of my favorite contemporary authors (though I seem to have only posted about him once): MR: Critics comment on your interest in the minutiae of daily experience. Do you feel that you have a particular interest in minutiae? JPT: What [...]
Isak (Free subscription) | 08/12/2008
The L Magazine's hilarious and interesting Best of New York City list keeps its good taste in honoring the "Four Best Independent Works of Fiction 2008 (So Far)." Roy Kesey's collection of stories, All Over (Dzanc Books) gets a nod...
Conversational Reading (Free subscription) | 07/28/2008
We have redesigned the site for The Quarterly Conversation. This is a complete redesign from top to bottom, and we've finally been able to implement a lot of things I'd long been wanting to do with the site. Before I go any further, I must stop to say that this redesign would not have been possible, even remotely, without the fantastic work of Jeff Barry and Cecilia Sorochin. These are two people who...
The Elegant Variation (Free subscription) | 06/16/2008
Monsieur By Jean-Philippe Toussaint Translated by John Lambert 102 pp $12.95 GUEST REVIEW BY JIM RULAND Although June 16 is called Bloomsday after the chief protagonist of James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece, you could be forgiven for forgetting about poor old...
Conversational Reading (Free subscription) | 02/22/2008
Were I stranded for a couple months with nothing but Dalkey's spring '08 lineup, I don't think I'd mind. There's really a lot of very-intriguing sounding stuff here. These are my favorites from this strong season. First-off, Dalkey is happily giving me more of two of my favorite non-American authors. First is Jean-Philippe Toussaint, whose short comic novel Television, which reads kind of like a book...
Thumb drives and oven clocks (Free subscription) | 12/06/2007
The Litblog Co-op have announced their Winter 2007 Read This! pick . (Though I'm sad to say that, unless I've missed it, or unless the list is yet to come, it doesn't look like they've posted a list of all the nominated books for the quarter. Which makes me sad since I have generally liked the "runner up" books I've read more than the Read This! titles. Not that I've read everything on every list,...
