opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

1 - 10 April

1 April: Mrs Dalloway and Saturday | Man Booker International influence ? | Penguin India goes local | Mphahlele's reading | Russia in Paris
2 April: Dr Johnson's Dictionary | Kurkov profile | Facing Death in Cambodia review
3 April: Verse trumps prose ? | Exclusivity ! | Imaginative literary estates ? | Weldon on euphenism | Premier League Reading Stars | Tupolew 134 review
4 April: Fake books in Viet Nam | Turkish authors hoping: America Is Ours | Mishima diary | Third set of interviews with literary webloggers
5 April: Pulitzers | Man Booker International odds | Time of the Writer | Video literary promotion ? | Pope books | Chinese book bans | The Cartier Project review
6 April: Saul Bellow | Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir in Iran | Korean writers in Germany
7 April: Bellow links | Patrick White house saga | Never Let Me Go review
8 April: New Kundera | Eagleton on Casanova | 2005 Diagram Prize | If This Be Treason review | Egyptian Writers Union | Bunin Prize
9 April: The Litblog Co-op | Neil Astley's StAnza lecture | FT lunches with Yu Hua
10 April: Another author does Henry James | Catchy book review headline | Enchantments review

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       Another author does Henry James

       The trend seems unstoppable: now A.N.Wilson has come out with a Henry James-inspired novel, A Jealous Ghost (get your copy from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com). Soon bookstores are going to have to devote a whole section to this genre .....
       In his review of Wilson's book -- nicely titled Another Screw on the loose -- in The Observer today Jason Cowley asks a question even more baffling than why all these James-related novels are being written. He praises the wide-ranging Wilson, but wonders:

As for his novels ... oh dear, who reads them ? Why does he persist in writing fiction at all ?

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Catchy book review headline

       How to grab a readers attention ? A catchy book title sometimes can do the trick -- and if the book you're reviewing doesn't have one, how about a catchy headline for the book review ?
       Neil Johnston certainly offers a hard-to-get-past one in the Belfast Telegraph: Historic ode to nipple-sucking men of Ireland, a review of Simon Young's A.D. 500 (see the Weidenfeld & Nicolson publicity page or get your copy at Amazon.co.uk).
       (The explanation behind that headline is, by the way, even more disturbing than one (or at least we) might imagine.)

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       Enchantments review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Linda Ferri's Enchantments.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       The Litblog Co-op

       As already widely noted and noticed, The Litblog Co-op is now open for business, uniting: "leading literary weblogs for the purpose of drawing attention to the best of contemporary fiction, authors and presses".
       Local barkeep M.A.Orthofer is on board as well, representing the Literary Saloon.
       It sounds like a good idea, doesn't it ?

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       Neil Astley's StAnza lecture

       A couple of week's back Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley gave the 2005 StAnza lecture, Bile, Guile and Dangerous to Poetry, and today The Guardian offers The poets speak -- ten reactions to it. More interesting would have been the responses of the criticised establishment and critics, but it's still some fun.
       As is Astley's few-holds-barred lecture, which argues:

Readers don't have access to the diverse range of poetry being written, not just in Britain, but from around in the world, because much of the poetry establishment -- including many publishers and reviewers -- has become narrowly based, male-dominated, white Anglocentric and skewed by factions and vested interests.

       And, of course, we're dying to know what went into section 5 (deleted here -- "This section removed for legal reasons" is all they'll say).

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       FT lunches with Yu Hua

       Often it's not enough to merely profile or interview an author nowadays; newspapers and magazines have to put a special spin on their coverage -- so the Financial Times with it's truly bizarre "Lunch with the FT"-series. (Is the theory here that all artists are starving, and can be bought off with a meal ?) This week: John Ridding has lunch with Yu Hua (link likely to be very short-lived).
       Still some points of interest -- though we're not sure that, for example:

As the style of Yu Hua’s books has evolved from experimental avant-garde towards more conventional narratives and commercial success, it is tempting to see a parallel with China’s recent evolution.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       New Kundera

       A new book by Milan Kundera is now out -- albeit only in French (the language he now writes in), though it's a sure bet to (eventually) get translated. Le Rideau (get your copy at Amazon.fr) is sub-titled: essai en sept parties and, not surprisingly, sounds worthwhile
       First reviews are out and include:

• Juan Goytisolo's (!) in Le Nouvel Observateur
• Alain Finkielkraut's in Le Figaro
• Daniel Rondeau's in L'Express
• Philippe Lançon's in Libération

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Eagleton on Casanova

       In the current issue of the New Statesman Terry Eagleton reviews Pascale Casanova's The World Republic of Letters.

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       2005 Diagram Prize

       In his column at The Bookseller Horace Bent previews the always entertaining Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year. An early contender this year: Short Walks at Land's End.
       (Bent also offers a Gerard Jones (of Everyone Who's Anyone-fame/notoriety) update.)

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       If This Be Treason review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Gregory Rabassa's memoir of Translation and its Dyscontents, If This Be Treason.
       Eagerly awaited, it doesn't quite offer all one might hope for -- but it will still be hard for anyone interested in translation (or Latin American literature) to resist.

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       Egyptian Writers Union

       In A questionable reincarnation at Al-Ahram Weekly Rania Khallaf discusses the "all-but-dead body of the Egyptian Writers Union".

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Bunin Prize

       In The Moscow Times Victor Sonkin reports on a new Bunin Prize (not the first of its kind -- or at least that name).
       He finds: "The organizers' manifesto suggests a conservative agenda" -- and notes that it's well-endowed:

Offering 20,000 euros for the winner and 1,000 for the other finalists, the Bunin prize may well become the heftiest of Russia's literary awards. By contrast, the Open Russia Booker prize -- lately financed by former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- has given its winners $15,000.

       (We think it's thoughtful of all these prizes to give Russian writers prize money in euros and dollars rather than the actual currency of the nation -- who wants rubles, after all ? -- but it still seems a bit odd.)

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       Bellow links

       More links to obituaries and commentaries re. Saul Bellow's death (updated - 8 April):

• US:
  • D.T.Max in The American Prospect
  • Gail Caldwell in the Boston Globe
  • Roderick Nordell in the Christian Science Monitor
  • Christopher Hitchens at Slate
  • Benjamin Strong in The Village Voice
  • Jeffrey Meyers in the Wall Street Journal
• UK:
  • Daily Telegraph
  • Suzanne Goldenberg in The Guardian
  • Stanley Reynolds in The Guardian
  • Boyd Tonkin in The Independent
  • Andrew Rosenheim in The Independent
  • The Times (1)
  • The Times (2)
• Israel:
  • The Jerusalem Post
• France:
  • Manuel Carcassonne in Le Figaro
  • Libération
  • Lazare Bitoun in Le Monde
• Germany:
  • Paul Ingendaay in the FAZ
  • Alfred Starkmann in Die Welt

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       Patrick White house saga

       We've mentioned the Patrick White house saga before -- and it drags on and on. Patrick White is, of course, the great Australian author (whose fiction, we remind you, is almost all scandalously out of print in the US ...).
       On the one hand they want to preserve the house and honour the writer -- make it a writers' retreat or something of that sort -- but the National Trust doesn't have enough money to buy it, so it went up for auction -- leading to reports such as Tara Ravens' Trust can't afford novelist house. Of course, it's a hard sell (either way) on the basis of the White-connexion if explained as National Trust NSW executive director Elsa Atkin's does:

"He's our Donald Bradman of literature in the way he put Australia on the map of the world and yet the governments, all of them, did not see fit to honour him. If he was a sportsman it might have been different."

       (The three readers of this site familiar with cricket will understand what Atkins means; the rest will have a better idea of why White's fiction is out of print in the US .....)
       So the property was up for auction (at the Woollahra Hotel) -- but things still didn't turn out as hoped: as Tara Ravens now gets to report (with David Crawshaw): Patrick White's home fails to sell. That's right: there was a single bid, way below the reserve price, so it's back to the drawing board.

       We do hope the National Trust do eventually figure out how to get their hands on it -- and they are trying: see, for example, their Ten Reasons to Keep the Patrick White House.
       But if you're interested, check out the Di Jones Real Estate listing -- or even take the virtual tour.

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       Never Let Me Go review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Kazuo Ishiguro's weird Never Let Me Go.
       (See, we do occasionally review books you've heard about and were possibly even thinking of reading .....)
       We wouldn't think it poses very serious competition to Ian McEwan's Saturday for this year's ManBooker -- but remember, these are the folk that gave the prize to McEwan for the weak Amsterdam and didn't give it to him for his best work to date, Atonement.

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       Saul Bellow

       One less contender (and a leading one at that) for the title of best living American author: the great Saul Bellow passed away yesterday.
       First longer assessments (and a lot more will surely follow) include:

• David Kipen's in the San Francisco Chronicle
• Martin Mulligan's in the Financial Times
• Greg Frost at Reuters

       We only have one of his titles under review, the disappointing Ravelstein; we haven't covered the good stuff (and there was a lot of it).
       What we're also interested in: Bellow was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize -- but that prize clearly states that it is for a living author (i.e. Bellow no longer qualifies):

The prize will be awarded once every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English, or generally available in translation in the English language.

       So is he out of contention now or what ?

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir in Iran

       Mehr News Agency report that the Persian version of Coelho’s The Zahir sold out in two weeks:

Persian version of the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir, translated by Arash Hejazi, sold out in two weeks in Iranian bookstores.

A total of 10,000 copies of the book had been released by the Iran’s Karavan Publications in the beginning of the Iranian New Year (March 21).

       Okay, Coelho (see his official site) -- like Dan Brown -- is unstoppable (and his success, like Brown's, unfathomable), even in a theocracy like Iran (and what better demonstration that it's a failed state, if they can't even keep this stuff out ?) -- but what's really noteworthy about this is that Iran is the first country Coelho's O Zahir appeared in.
       Yes, the rights have been sold in 42 languages, but it will only be appearing in the US, for example, this fall -- and even in Brazil (that's where this guy is from) the scheduled publication date was a day after Iran's (see all the dates on this page (scroll down)).

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Korean writers in Germany

       At JoongAngDaily Yoo Kwon-ha reports that Recitals in Germany showcase Korean literature:

Prior to the Frankfurt Book Fair to be held in October this year, distinguished literati from South Korea have been invited by officials in Germany to give book tours and recitals of their work.

Sixteen of South Korea's leading literary giants including Lee Ho-chul, Koh Eun, Lee Moon-youl and Hwang Suk-young are traveling around Germany this month and visiting major cities to give recitals and hold discussions with readers.

       Sounds good -- but we hope they don't forget the rest of the world, i.e. that there's an American tour scheduled too ..... (Yeah, yeah, we're not holding our breaths .....)

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       Pulitzers

       The 2005 Pulitzer prizes have been announced.
       Once again the criticism prize did not go to a literary critic (film man Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal got it).
       As to the actual literary prizes, we had none of the titles under review.
       Open questions include: why does the drama prize get five jurors, while the book-categories only get three apiece ?
       We hope Frank Wilson (general non-fiction juror) will share some insight into the prize-selecting procedure at his Books, Inq. weblog.

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       Man Booker International odds

       A while back we offered our take on the possible odds for the newly-created Man Booker International Prize. Meanwhile, a few bookies have gotten in on the action: odds have been set by Paddy Power (here) and Skybet (here) -- and so far the line isn't too far off where we drew it.
       Compare the current quoted odds:

MBI odds

Author	PP	Sky	CR
Garcia Marquez	8-11	7-4	5-1
Roth	7-2	11-4	11-1
Bellow	5-1	10-1	5-1
Mahfouz	10-1	9-1	14-1
Atwood	14-1	14-1	10-1
Kundera	14-1	25-1	10-1
Updike	14-1	6-1	65-1
Yehoshua	14-1	25-1	12-1
Oe	20-1	10-1	100-1
Grass	25-1	12-1	40-1
Ozick	25-1	66-1	25-1
Spark	25-1	33-1	55-1
Lessing	33-1	20-1	100-1
Kadare	40-1	40-1	100-1
Lem	40-1	40-1	30-1
McEwan	40-1	66-1	100-1
Tabucchi	50-1	50-1	75-1
Martinez	100-1	66-1	1000-1

       (Note that the bookies odds heavily favour the house: our odds add up to 100 per cent, theirs to considerably more (and especially Skybet's top-payout of only 66 to 1 is a poor one -- sorry, but Tomas Eloy Martinez's (and even McEwan's) odds are way below that -- though by now we'd be tempted to punt on the too-little-known in the UK Ozick at those odds).)
       If you are placing a bet (and we wouldn't recommend it) do remember to shop for the best odds.

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       Time of the Writer

       A reader alerts us to an international festival of writers in South Africa, Time of the Writer, running 4-9 April.
       Too bad they couldn't get more writers from outside Africa (Hari Kunzru is among the few to show), but still a pretty decent list of participants.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Video literary promotion ?

       At Wired Daniel Terdiman reports Video Shills for Literary Stars, discussing new online video promotional efforts like those offered by "VidLit™".

With the advent of services like VidLit, which produces short, humorous, animated Flash films about books, authors have a new way to reach online readers. Because of the viral quality of online videos, some writers are finding success at the end of the broadband pipe.

       (VidLit™ is a site requiring both "Flash" (which, like pdf files, we prefer to avoid at all costs) and a broadband connexion (which we do not have), hence about as off-putting and useless as an Internet site can be to us (well, there don't appear to be any pop-ups there, so that's only two out of three possible strikes against it).)
       Some are enthusiastic:

"I think VidLit is such a terrific idea (because) it creates at least 60 seconds of entertainment and information about a book and allows a publisher and author to use that as a calling card for a book in a much more expansive and elaborate way," said novelist M.J. Rose, who is planning a VidLit for her novel, The Halo Effect.

       We hope Rose has more to say about it at her Buzz, Balls & Hype weblog.
       The most recent example of this type of ... whatever this crap is (advert ? preview ? infotainment ?) we came across was this effort from the publishers of Andrey Kurkov's A Matter of Death and Life. We found it enormously irritating: we like our book-information text-based (and also that it actually tell us something about the book in question). Instead we have to wait for this crap to load, and then that is all it is ... ? Who the hell needs that ? (Admittedly it is memorable -- we're still fuming at getting suckered in to click on that pointless crap -- but that can't really be what they had in mind.)

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       Pope books

       As has been widely noted, books about the recently deceased pope are doing phenomenally well -- and publishers apparently believe this will actually carry over for a while (fools, fools). At Reuters Martha Graybow reports Publishers Prepare Avalanche of Pope Books. The fact that: "six books by or about John Paul were included in Amazon's top 25 best-sellers" is apparently enough to greenlight ... well, a whole avalanche of books -- as though anybody will care six months from now.
       Our favourite:

Doubleday said it plans to publish two books about the next pope. One will be a collection of the new pope's writings and the other will be a biography and account of the Vatican's pope selection process.

       We're curious as to how they can be sure of getting the rights to the next pope's writing -- or do they have an exclusive with the Vatican ?

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       Chinese book bans

       More books banned in China -- though they took their time about it: in The Japan Times Ralph Jennings reports China yanks books about ties with Japan.

Two books on Sino-Japanese history and modern political relations have been pulled from shelves in China for undisclosed reasons, after selling about 50,000 copies apiece.

Ambiguity's Neighborhood and Iron and Plough, both by author Yu Jie, disappeared from major bookstores in late December after four months of normal circulation, Yu said this week.

       Interestingly: "Yu said each of his books sold 50,000 legitimate copies and about 200,000 more pirated copies". So how does the ban affect the pirated copies (which are illegal in the first place, not that they ever seem to crack down on this sort of stuff in China) ?

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       The Cartier Project review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Miha Mazzini's The Cartier Project.
       Not widely reviewed, it did receive a rave from Marta Salij in the Detroit Free Press, concluding:

But even better is Mazzini's perfect pitch for dry satire and economical phrasing that describes a world gone so crazy it achieves a kind of sense. The Cartier Project is hard to find -- it's not on bookseller's must-plug lists -- so ask your favorite bookstore to order it for you. It's well worth the effort, and probably the most fascinating novel you will read this year.

       Reportedly the best-selling Slovenian novel of all time, it's entertaining enough -- but "probably the most fascinating novel you will read this year" ? That's an awful big claim to make (though given how few novels most people read annually, she might not even be that far off in many cases) -- we'd be hard-pressed to make such a statement about even the books that have most impressed us.

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       Fake books in Viet Nam

       A couple of weeks ago we mentioned a report that they were having a problem with 'fake books' in China; now Voice of Vietnam report that the problem extends to elsewhere in the region too: Fake books flood the market, publishers cry out loud:

It is easy to see bookstores and mobile bookshops along major streets in Hanoi. They display books on pavements, near schools, and bus stations, even pagodas, cafe bars and restaurants. Fake books are flooding the market.

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       Turkish authors hoping: America Is Ours

       The Daily Star offers the Agence France Presse report, Turkey invades the US: new parody targets best-seller lists. Erdogan Ekmekci and Adem Ozbay are apparently trying to ride the regional anti-American trend with their novel, America Is Ours

A new novel telling the tongue-in-cheek tale of how a group of Turkish nationalists -- and some extra-terrestrial friends -- invade the United States is targeting best-seller lists in Turkey, in the midst of a boom in anti-U.S. books. America Is Ours hit the bookshelves this weekend with its cover depicting the Statue of Liberty sporting a handlebar mustache -- the Turkish macho symbol par excellence -- and the U.S. flag's stars replaced by the triple-crescent symbol of the Turkish far-right.

       More interestingly, the Turkish Daily News offers a tantalizing article-summary that Turkish literary works make international debut:

The General Directorate of Libraries and Publications has launched a project to translate Turkish classics into foreign languages and introduce them to the world

       We look forward to the offerings.

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       Mishima diary

       Mainichi report that Mishima diary reveals character behind 'Confession of a Mask'.
       The diary is on display at the Yukio Mishima Literary Museum, and apparently parts will also go on display at the "Yukio Mishima Dramatic History" exhibition to be held at the Kanagawa Museum on Modern Literature in Yokohama from 23 April to 5 June.

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       Third set of interviews with literary webloggers

       At Emerging Writers Forum Dan Wickett offers yet another set of interviews with some literary webloggers.

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       Verse trumps prose ?

       In Scotland on Sunday Richard Gray writes that Verse broadens the mind, the scientists find. Yes:

Psychologists at Dundee and St Andrews universities claim the work of poets such as Lord Byron exercise the mind more than a novel by Jane Austen.

By monitoring the way different forms of text are read, they found poetry generated far more eye movement which is associated with deeper thought.

       It's worthwhile going back to see how this (well-endowed) research project was originally publicised: check out the original press release -- titled I hate poems ! -- which noted:

Dr Andrew Roberts and Dr Jane Stabler of the English department and Dr Martin Fischer of the psychology department have just secured maximum funding of over £50,000 from the new innovations scheme for experimental research to conduct interdisciplinary research into how we read poetry.

       The AHRC mention of the Innovation Award was a bit less sensationalistic, describing this study of The effects of form and technique on cognition, aesthetic response and evaluation in reading

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       Exclusivity !

       Exclusivity apparently ain't what it used to be..
       In today's issue of The Observer they make something of a big deal about Robert McCrum's interview with Gilead-author Marilynne Robinson, A love letter to lost America. She's: "Talking exclusively" here, the sub-title promises, and then in the text itself McCrum writes:

Speaking exclusively to The Observer at home in Iowa last week, this elegant and disarmingly merry woman of 61, with more than a hint of the classroom and pulpit in her speech and demeanour, described the moment her new novel took shape.

       As we understand it (and we know we're pretty dense, so we might be completely on the wrong track here, once again misunderstanding pretty basic English), this 'exclusive'-talk implies that they were the only ones to talk with her, that this is the only place you'll find her spill her guts.
       So why can we find recent interviews with her not just in today's issue of The Observer but in what seems like every publication that concerns itself with literature ? This isn't some reticent author; she's apparently willing to talk to anyone who bothers getting in touch with her. Really. See, for example, interviews in:

• LA Weekly
• The New Yorker (online)
• The Palm Beach Post
• Religion & Ethics
• Barnes & Noble (Barnes & Noble ! for god's sake !)
• Book-of-the-Month Club
• NPR

       And that's only some of the readily accessible ones on the Internet -- she also gave interviews that are not completely accessible (e.g. Tin House), require subscription (Atlantic Unbound), or aren't accessible online (e.g. The Writer).
       So maybe McCrum reached her on a day when she didn't give any other interviews, but come on, 'exclusive' has got to mean a bit more than this.

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       Imaginative literary estates ?

       In today's issue of The Observer Robert McCrum also writes (exclusively ?) about some "imaginative" literary estates, taking advantage of the value of literary property they control (the creation of which they had nothing to do with) and making loads of money off of it.
       He's fairly sympathetic:

From a larger perspective, Silverfin, and the commissioning of a Peter Pan sequel shows literary estates addressing their responsibilities with rare commercial brio. This is a new development in a world that has, hitherto, enjoyed the tranquillity of the undiscovered tomb.

       Actually, that commercial brio has been around for a while -- and often not to very impressive effect. A few examples of authors' wishes obviously being ignored (and the ethical issues that might raise), as well as some of the terrible authorised sequels, etc. that have resulted from money-grubbing estates trying to rake in as much cash as possible might have also been appropriate.

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       Weldon on euphenism

       In the Sunday Times Fay Weldon writes on Language: Not another euphemism. She argues:

We ourselves, not just our participles, are hanging, dangling, and strangling in verbiage and euphemism.

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       Premier League Reading Stars

       Another round of the Premier League Reading Stars has been announced (see last year's choices here). Press coverage includes:

• Booked: footballers reveal their favourite works to encourage children to read more in The Independent
  
  
• Football stars to promote reading at the BBC

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Tupolew 134 review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Antje Ravic Strubel's critically acclaimed Tupolew 134.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       Dr Johnson's Dictionary

       It definitely sounds like it's worth a look: Henry Hitchings' forthcoming Dr Johnson's Dictionary: The Extraordinary Story of the Book that Defined the World (available in the UK in a week or two; to be published in the US -- as Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (no comment ...) -- by Farrar, Straus and Giroux this fall)
       John Carey's Sunday Times review makes it sound hard to resist:

Henry Hitchings's ingenious and fascinating book shifts the focus back to the indisputably real Johnson by combing through the 42,773 entries in his Dictionary for evidence of his beliefs, prejudices, hang-ups, cultural context and occasional ignorance.

       There are now also several articles by Hitchings on Johnson: An A-Z of English (without the X) in The Guardian today and Alphabet coup in the Financial Times (link likely to be very short-lived).
       See also the publicity pages at John Murray and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.

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       Kurkov profile

       There's a profile (link likely to be very short-lived) of Russian-writing Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov by Toby Moore in the Financial Times (we recently reviewed his A Matter of Death and Life).
       He's internationally successful now, but he began on the streets:

Years spent as a self-publisher and apart from any literary establishment have left an evident self-confidence. He ran off 50,000 copies of one book and sold them all himself, sometimes quite literally. "I made a sandwich poster (board) saying 'I am the author,'" he says, recalling his pitch on a street in Kiev in the early 1990s. "I had two books in my hands and the first time I stood there I was approached immediately by a guy. He was about two metres tall and very wide. And he said: 'What are you doing here, I’m from protection racket.'" Kurkov explained that he wrote the books. "Okay, no problem," the man replied, adding that he should assume himself protected. "I offered to sign a couple of books for him, but he said, 'Thank you, I don’t read them.'"

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       Facing Death in Cambodia review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is our review of Peter Maguire's Facing Death in Cambodia.

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       Mrs Dalloway and Saturday

       At Slate Katie Roiphe wonders Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ?, pointing towards the many similarities between Ian McEwan's Saturday and Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Her comparison is of some interest -- but the piece is also notable for chiding reviewers for having apparently missed it, as she writes, for example:

Given the many parallels, one wonders why so few critics have interested themselves in McEwan's connection to Virginia Woolf. It may be that there is a certain gentle sexism at work: Is it too hard to imagine that a male writer of McEwan's stature might be channeling Virginia Woolf ?

       Readers of the piece -- which doesn't mention any actual reviews or reviewers -- may be led to believe that Roiphe is practically the only one to have made the connexion. (Yes, she writes: "so few critics", implying that some did manage, but surely the impression readers get is that pretty much no one noticed or mentioned this connexion).
       Reading the reviews (conveniently linked-to on our review page) suggests quite a different picture. Consider just these choice quotes:

• "The real model for Saturday, it becomes clear, is Mrs Dalloway, also set over one London day. As in Virginia Woolf’s novel, the juxtaposition of a wealthy insider and a desperate outsider creates a nasty and violent climax; ominously, Perowne finds himself humming "We’ll meet again", and catching flashes of a red BMW in his rear view mirror." - Theo Tait, in the TLS
  
  
• "In fact, Saturday reads like an up-to-the-moment, post-9/11 variation on Woolf's classic 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway." and "Though Saturday is too indebted to Mrs. Dalloway to resonate with the fierce originality of the author's last book, Atonement" - Michiko Kakutani, in The New York Times
  
  
• "Sanity shadowed by unreason is the theme of another novel about a day in London: Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway. Saturday shares other concerns with it, too: preparations for a party, the allure of the city, intimations of ageing and mortality, medical matters and the reverberations of war. These affinities don't seem accidental. With his masterpiece Atonement, which also incorporated parallels and homages to classic novelists, McEwan decisively staked his claim to be part of the great fictional tradition." - Peter Kemp, in the Sunday Times
  
  
• "In the process, he pays homage to Woolf. Like Mrs. Dalloway, Saturday is set in gentrified London; it too focuses on a central bourgeois figure; it employs similar scenes, from an airplane crossing the sky to a brief encounter with the prime minister; and its action is directed toward an evening party." - James Schiff, in the News & Observer
  
  
• "Like Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway before him, Henry is going shopping for a dinner party -- only he's buying fish rather than flowers. His party is also the scene of a reunion" - Yvonne Zipp, in the Christian Science Monitor

       Many reviews fail to mention the similarities, but a very large number at least mention Woolf and her novel; given how little space most reviewers are allowed to discuss a book, the fact that they don't all harp on the similarities is surely excusable.
       Roiphe's piece draws useful comparisons -- but why the reviewer-bashing tucked in it ? And why the accusation (framed as hypothesis) of "a certain gentle sexism" when the evidence (the reviews) suggests her premise isn't very sound ?

       (Updated): We're glad to see that Beatrix also tackled this.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Man Booker International influence ?

       The British reactions to Cynthia Ozick continue to surprise -- largely because of how unfamiliar critics are with her and her work (see our mention yesterday). Also noteworthy: how many reviewers mention that she made the 18-name strong Man Booker International Prize list of contenders.
       The most recent example is Natasha Tripney's review in the New Statesman:

Ozick's inclusion among the contenders for the first Man Booker International Prize is bound to bring her worldwide recognition.

       It's interesting to see that someone believes this prize will bring "worldwide recognition" -- indeed, that it's enough to be in the running for the prize (along with seventeen other authors) to gain such recognition. We think: not.
       The prize has gotten some coverage outside the UK, but it doesn't seem to have made much of an impression -- and certainly seems unlikely to help any of the authors achieve much greater recognition (except, eventually, perhaps the winning one). As far as we can tell, Ozick is also the only one of the eighteen contending authors who anyone has suggested has benefited from making the list -- what of the others ?

       (Updated - 3 April): And yet another mention, Adam Mars-Jones reviewing Ozick's The Bear Boy in The Observer and observing:

Cynthia Ozick is one of the few writers on the list who is less than a household name and might consequently benefit. So it's a shame that her new novel is a rather turgid affair, which won't shorten the odds on her winning.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Penguin India goes local

       The Book Standard reports Penguin Focuses on Indian Market . 'Focuses' seems a bit strong for what they're doing, but still, it's nice to hear that:

Penguin India will publish four Hindi titles in April (.....) It will begin publishing in Marathi and Malayalam later this year, and is planning 25 titles in each of the three languages this year with similar output for the next two to three years. It plans to move into more Indian languages from 2006, and claims it is the first U.K. publisher to publish in regional Indian languages.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Mphahlele's reading

       A reader alerts us to an Es’kia Mphahlele piece in the Mail & Guardian in which he "describes how reading books enriched him as a writer".

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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       Russia in Paris

       Russia was the country of honour at this year's Paris book fair -- the Salon du Livre, and Victor Sonkin offers a brief look at how things went in The Moscow Times.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

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