When I first heard about the concept for Scott Esposito’s new book The Missing Books, I thought, Damn. I wish I had thought of that. Then I read it and thought, Damn, I wish I had written that. The Missing Books is an ongoing e-book project, “a curated directory of books that do not exist, but should.” The… Continue reading An interview with Scott Esposito, author of The Missing Books
Maybe you saw Garret Keizer on Colbert, or maybe you’ve read his stuff at Harper’s; anyway, his new little book Privacy seems pretty good. I’ve enjoyed all the titles in Picador’s BIG IDEAS // small books so far, and a scan over Privacy suggests another intriguing entry. Full review down the line. Roshi Fernando’s Homesick came out a few… Continue reading Privacy/Homesick (Books Acquired, Some Time Last Week, Both Bearing an Eye)
Biblioklept already busted out our Best Books of 2010 list, selecting ten of our favorite novels of the year. Such limitations help to generate lists, which internet folks love to circulate–you know the ritual–but those limitations can also prohibit a discussion of some of the other important books of 2010. So, without further ado– Jonathan… Continue reading Books of 2010 — Noteworthy, Notorious, and Neglected
I. In this riff, Chapters 94-98 of Moby-Dick. In these chapters, Ishmael (again) describes the business of rendering oil and etcetera from a whale’s corpse. The chapters show again Ishmael’s push-pull narration style, vacillating between the physical/commercial and the metaphysical/philosophical. II. Ch. 94, “A Squeeze of the Hand.” A perfect chapter in a perfectly imperfect… Continue reading Let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness | Moby-Dick reread, riff 25
PREVIOUSLY: Introductions + stories 1956-1959 Stories of 1960 Stories of 1961 Stories of 1962 “The Subliminal Man,” Black Friday, and Consumerism IN THIS RIFF: “The Reptile Enclosure” (1963) “A Question of Re-Entry” (1963) “The Time Tombs” (1963) “Now Wakes the Sea” (1963) “The Venus Hunters” (1963) “End-Game” (1963) “Minus One” (1963) “The Sudden Afternoon” (1963) “The Screen Game” (1963) “Time of Passage” (1964) “Prisoner of… Continue reading The Complete Short Stories of J.G. Ballard (Sixth Riff: 1963-1964)
As a huge fan of Remedios Varo’s art, I was thrilled last year when Wakefield Press published Margaret Carson’s Letters, Dreams and Other Writings. I reached out to Margaret, who was kind enough to talk to me about her translation in detail over a series of emails. In addition to Letters, Dreams and Other Writings Margaret Carson’s… Continue reading An interview with Margaret Carson about translating Remedios Varo’s Letters, Dreams & Other Writings
no thats no way for him has he no manners nor no refinement nor no nothing in his nature slapping us behind like that on my bottom because I didnt call him Hugh the ignoramus that doesnt know poetry from a cabbage thats what you get for not keeping them in their proper place pulling… Continue reading no/Yes.
“William Wilson” by Edgar Allan Poe What say of it? what say of CONSCIENCE grim, That spectre in my path? Chamberlayne’s Pharronida. LET me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation. This has been already too much… Continue reading Read Edgar Allan Poe’s doppelgänger tale “William Wilson”
The second episode of Part II, Ch. 5 of William Gaddis’s 1955 novel The Recognitions returns to the consciousness of sadsack everyman Mr. Pivner. Through milquetoast Mr. Pivner (the long-lost father of poseur-supreme Otto), Gaddis critiques the banal emptiness and rank venality of post-war life in America. In this particular section of The Recognitions, Gaddis reinforces… Continue reading Gaddis Contra Carnegie | How to Win Friends and Influence People in The Recognitions
There are 30 days in April. On 1 April 2018—Easter Sunday and/or April Fool’s Day—I declared on my cursed blog that I would write something on the blog every day this month. I failed to write every day on the blog in the month of April; specifically, I did not post stuff on April 13,… Continue reading Blog about Blog about 3
I’m not really sure what made me pick up Carson McCullers’ 1940 début novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter to read again. Actually, writing that sentence makes me remember: I was purging books, and the edition I have is extremely unattractive; I was considering trading it in. But I started reading it, realizing that I… Continue reading A riff on rereading Carson McCullers’ novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Daniel Green’s The Reading Experience was one of the first sites I started reading regularly when I first started blogging about literature on Biblioklept. If you regularly read literary criticism online, it’s likely you’ve read some of Green’s reviews in publications like The Kenyon Review, 3:AM, Full Stop, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Full Stop, and more. Green’s got a… Continue reading An interview with literary critic Daniel Green about his new book, Beyond the Blurb
“Memoirs of a Madman” by Nikolai Gogol English translation by Claud Field from The Mantle and Other Stories October 3rd. — A strange occurrence has taken place today. I got up fairly late, and when Mawra brought me my clean boots, I asked her how late it was. When I heard it had long… Continue reading “Memoirs of a Madman” — Nikolai Gogol
“An Upheaval” by Anton Chekhov English translation by Constance Garnett MASHENKA PAVLETSKY, a young girl who had only just finished her studies at a boarding school, returning from a walk to the house of the Kushkins, with whom she was living as a governess, found the household in a terrible turmoil. Mihailo, the porter who… Continue reading “An Upheaval,” a short story by Anton Chekhov
“Berenice” by Edgar Allan Poe Dicebant mihi sodales, si sepulchrum amicae visitarem, curas meas aliquantulum forelevatas. —Ebn Zaiat. MISERY is manifold. The wretchedness of earth is multiform. Overreaching the wide horizon as the rainbow, its hues are as various as the hues of that arch—as distinct too, yet as intimately blended. Overreaching the wide horizon… Continue reading “Berenice” — Edgar Allan Poe
“The Powder of Sympathy” from THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE MOST FAMOUS SCIENTIFIC IMPOSSIBILITIES AND THE ATTEMPTS WHICH HAVE BEEN MADE TO SOLVE THEM. To which is Added a Small Budget of Interesting Paradoxes, Illusions, and Marvels. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN PHIN This curious occult method of curing wounds is… Continue reading The Powder of Sympathy
Among the first of my fellow-passengers of whom I took any particular notice was a tall, broad-shouldered, almost gigantic, colored man. His dark-brown face was clean-shaven; he was well-dressed and bore a decidedly distinguished air. In fact, if he was not handsome, he at least compelled admiration for his fine physical proportions. He attracted general… Continue reading Chapter X of James Weldon Johnson’s Masterpiece, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
Biblioklept 