opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 December 2013

21 December: UK: 'The publishers' year: hits and misses of 2013' | Arab authors' favorites 2013 | Prizes: Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe - Typographical Translation Award | Light and Dark review
22 December: New issues: World Literature Today - Chinese Literature Today | 'Nigerian' literature
23 December: #NBCC20pct | Worst year-end round-up ? | The Literature Express review
24 December: Nobel report | Etisalat Prize for Literature longlist | Irrawaddy Literary Festival 2014 preview
25 December: Cairo International Book Fair preview | The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles review
26 December: Highest-earning authors in China | Fay Weldon Q & A | The Hotel Life review
27 December: Helga M. Novak (1935-2013) | Табернакул | Bookselling in ... Dubai
28 December: Bestselling books in the UK - 2013 | Looking ahead to 2014 | Oscar Peer (1928-2013) | Critics' 2013 round-up
29 December: Spanish best of the year lists | Year in literature in ... Zimbabwe | The Time Regulation Institute review
30 December: Prizes: Athens Prize for Literature - Premio Internacional Alfonso Reyes | Code poetry slam
31 December: Literature in ... Africa (specifically Zimbabwe) | 'Best International Relations Books of 2013' | Year in literature in ... Russia | Foreign Gods, Inc. review

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       Literature in ... Africa (specifically Zimbabwe)

       In The Herald Stanely Mushava has a Q & A with Tinashe Mushakavanhu, African literature reduced to a commodity.
       Mushakavanhu argues:

The problem lies in the fact that African literature is being produced more as a commodity than as a value. The production (editorial, publishing) and consumption (marketing) of African literature is largely in the hands of outsiders. What is known globally as African literature lies outside the hands of its creators and subjects but is in the tight grip of institutions that obviously possess fixed ideas about what African literature should and should not be, and what authentic African characters can or cannot do.

       I don't think that's entirely true -- there is a (still too small but) growing number of African publishers who focus effectively on domestic markets and aren't (as) beholden to these 'fixed ideas', for example -- but certainly there is a still too prevalent notion of/focus on aiming to meet certain foreign expectations. As also elsewhere, foreign success (especially in the US/UK market), rather than local success, is seen as validation -- hardly a recipe for good writing (see also my most recent review ...).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       'Best International Relations Books of 2013'

       'Foreign Affairs' Reviewers Make Their Picks' of the Best International Relations Books of 2013 -- no fiction, but some interesting reading.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Year in literature in ... Russia

       At Russia Beyond the Headlines Dmitriy Romendik and Georgy Manaev look at Open Ending: Russia's literary scene in 2013.

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       Foreign Gods, Inc. review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Okey Ndibe's Foreign Gods, Inc..
       I was disappointed by this -- but (for what it's worth) Janet Maslin, reviewing it in The New York Times yesterday, loved it. (She suggests that: "Only in mimicking a slick American idiom does Mr. Ndibe falter" (and even suggests: "and that’s probably to his credit"), but to me that's just the tip of the faltering iceberg .....)

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       Prize: Athens Prize for Literature

       They've announced the winners of the Athens Prize for Literature, awarded both for best Greek novel, and best translated work; Theodoros Grigoriadis has the run-down at his weblog.
       1Q84 by Murakami Haruki took the foreign prize -- winning in a translated-from-the-English dominated longlist field (six of ten titles) (and beating out what surely had to be the hometown favorite, Aris Fioretos' Den siste greken (see the Hedlund Agency publicity page (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) or the review in the Swedish Book Review). Other longlisted non-English titles were by Martin Walser and Chiara Gamberale, while US titles included The Marriage Plot, by another semi-native son, Jeffrey ('Τζέφρυ') Eugenides.
       More interestingly, the best Greek novel was Πώς τελειώνει ο κόσμος ('How The World Ends') by Maria Xilouri; see the Καλέντης publicity page.
       (See also the full Greek (and foreign) shortlists here.)

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       Prize: Premio Internacional Alfonso Reyes

       They've announced that Palinuro of Mexico-author Fernando del Paso has won the 2013 Premio Internacional Alfonso Reyes (though he'll only get it in 2014 ...); see, for example, the Latin American Herald Tribune report.
       The prize has an impressive list of previous winners, beginning with Jorge Luis Borges and including Alejo Carpentier, André Malraux, Octavio Paz, and George Steiner. Oh, and Harold Bloom. The prize is for authors universally recognized for their work, and whose work has dealt with Mexico in one way or another; I'm not quite sure what qualified Bloom.

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       Code poetry slam

       A pretty interesting piece at the Stanford Report, where Marian Lage finds that the First Stanford code poetry slam reveals the literary side of computer code.
       See also the official Code Poetry Slam 1.1 site, where you can also find the finalists from the inaugural slam.
       Yeah, I'm intrigued.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Spanish best of the year lists

       Some of the major Spanish publications have now published their best-book lists of 2013 -- and the consensus book of the year appears to be Rafael Chirbes' En la orilla; see also the Anagrama foreign rights page, or get your (Spanish) copy at Amazon.com. (Several Chirbes titles are under review at the complete review, but it's been ages since anything of his has been translated; at least English-speaking readers shouldn't have to wait too long for this one -- a great (and well-timed -- rights would surely be far more expensive now) get for New Directions (and, in the UK, Harvill Secker).)

        - El Cultural's (El Mundo's) top ten, Lo mejor de 2013: Libros ficción is topped by the Chirbes. (See also how the individual critics voted, in Las votaciones de nuestros críticos.)

        - The Babelia (El País) top ten, Los 10 mejores libros del año de Babelia also includes works in translation -- but none beat out the Chirbes (though Richard Ford, Alice Munro, and Jean Echenoz's 1914 (see the New Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) are among the top ten).
       The overview-article actually also prints the top 20, and there's a page with the top five in any number of categories, Ganadores por géneros

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Year in literature in ... Zimbabwe

       In The Herald Memory Chirere looks back at the year in literature in Zimbabwe -- and finds that 2013 was a Year of literary intrigues.

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       The Time Regulation Institute review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Turkish author Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar's 1962 classic, The Time Regulation Institute, just out from Penguin Classics.
       It's great to see this book get the Penguin Classics treatment -- but I am shocked that they print even on the back cover (as well as in the publicity material they send out) the claim that this is:

An uproarious tragicomedy of modernization, in its first-ever English translation.

       Huh ?
       Even a basic web search turns up a previous translation -- Ender Gürol's, under the same title, from 2001. Sure, Turko-Tatar Press is so small it barely even registers -- but I've held a copy of their edition in my hands, so it's not that obscure .....
       I'm assuming it's not willful misrepresentation on the part of the Penguin juggernaut -- but it does not speak well for them that they overlooked this, either.

       Still, a nice edition of the book -- and how can one not like a book with quotes such as:

Being a realist does not mean seeing the truth for what it is. It is a question of determining our relationship with the truth in the way that is most beneficial for us.

       Check it out for yourself.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       Bestselling books in the UK - 2013

       In The Guardian they have the list of the Bestselling books of 2013 in the UK (print versions) -- though of course it is only for the: "year ending 15 December" (god forbid anyone would actually wait until the end of the year to get an accurate result ...). Still, since they actually provide units-shifted numbers (as measured by BookScan) this is considerably more useful than the American bestseller lists -- and it's always interesting to see what sells well.
       Last year I had reviewed five titles on the top-100 list, but with the eclipse of the Stieg Larsson trilogy I'm down to one this year -- a repeat from last year's list, Jonas Jonasson' The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, at number 20 (208,403 copies sold).
       In his commentary accompanying the list John Dugdale does note:

The most striking display of indy flair, though, is the performance of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out of a Window and Disappeared (20). Bigger publishers were sniffy about a translated Swedish novel that wasn't crime, by an unknown author with an overlong title; but Hesperus turned it into a sleeper hit that has so far earned almost £1.5m. It even beat the One Direction annual.

       Here's a rare case where I can't complain about the bigger publishers passing this one over: I would have too. But Hesperus is certainly deserving of success and some nice cash flow, so I don't begrudge them this particular success.
       As for the other independents, Dugdale notes:

Smaller, independent houses meanwhile largely struggled, with top indies such as Bloomsbury, Canongate, Faber and Profile either managing only single entries or no-scoring.

       Quercus/Maclehose seems to have been shut out too -- and all in all I'd prefer these smaller publishers to share in some of these big successes too.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Looking ahead to 2014

       The Millions will no doubt soon have their 'Most Anticipated: The Great 2014 Book Preview' up (see their 2013 preview), offering a reasonably thorough overview of at least the major (though not necessarily most interesting ...) releases to look forward to, but there are already a few 2014 previews worth a look:

• Interesting New Books - 2014 at Conversational Reading -- very much a work in progress (so continue to check in in the coming month for additions), but definitely with an eye out for the more intriguing titles
  
  
• 14+ Notable Books Forthcoming in Translation in 2014 at Arabic Literature (in English) -- yeah, just/all translations from the Arabic, but good to know (and I wish others did this for other languages ... hint, hint)
  
  
• Our pick of what's to come in 2014: Books at the BBC, by Rebecca Jones -- just the big names, but of some interest; most of these should be available both in the UK and US
  
  
• Flavorwire's 15 Most Anticipated Books of 2014 by Jason Diamond -- an eclectic selection (but I can't say I'm tempted by much beyond the Lydia Davis and Geoff Dyer (and I have my doubts about the latter -- not a big boat person))
  
  
• [Added - 29 December] Turning the page: the year ahead in books by Arminta Wallace in the Irish Times -- a focus on Irish writers, but also much beyond
  
  
• [Added - 29 December] The best of next year: 2014 book preview by Katy Guest in the Independent on Sunday
  
  
• [Added - 29 December] Reading ahead: 2014 fiction preview by Tim Adams in The Observer (along with Reading ahead: 2014 non-fiction preview by Rachel Cooke)

       Publishers' catalogues are also now out (online, too, if you're willing to hunt them down), and working one's way through those is a lot of fun (and reveals a lot of titles that look good).
       I don't know where to begin with the titles I'm looking forward too -- and I both haven't been looking ahead too much and also have already seen a lot of these (I got my ARC of Jean Echenoz' 1914 in May ... (see the New Press publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk)) -- but among the titles I'm most looking forward to is certainly Andrei Bitov's The Symmetry Teacher (see the Suhrkamp foreign rights page, or pre-order your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Oscar Peer (1928-2013)

       Swiss author Oscar Peer has passed away -- one of the leading Romansh (or rätoromanisch, as it is called in German -- or Rumantsch as it is in ... Rumantsch -- in any case, the least widespread of Switzerland's four national languages) authors; see, for example, the obituary in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
       Limmat Verlag published several of his books in dual-language (Romansh/German) editions (see their publicity page), and his work has also been extensively translated into French and Italian; English ... not so much.

       (Updated - 30 December): See now also the brief swissinfo report, Bilingual writer Oscar Peer dies.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Critics' 2013 round-up

       The Salon round-up, Salon's What to Read Awards: Top critics choose the best books of 2013 has the obligatory top-ten lists, but at least gets the critics to answer a few questions ('What was the strongest debut book of 2013 ?' 'Was there one book, either on your list or off your list, fiction or non-fiction, which seems to best encapsulate America in 2013 ?' 'What was the most unlikable character of the year ?').
       Pretty short on books in translation (Eric Banks gets two in his top three, and Daniel Levin Becker's top choice is a ((good-looking) comic book) in translation, but otherwise ...), but reasonably interesting -- though I'm baffled that Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch comes out as the critics' overall favorite. (Of course, I've read practically none of the others -- though I am still looking forward to and curious about Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries and look forward to someday getting my hands on a copy.)

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       Helga M. Novak (1935-2013)

       German author Helga M. Novak has passed away; see, for example, (German) notices in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
       She has one of the more interesting backgrounds of contemporary German authors -- a longtime GDR connection (she attended the leading East German MFA-equivalent program (the Johannes R. Becher-Institut)), a participant in the (in)famous 1966 Princeton Gruppe 47 meeting, Icelandic citizenship (since the 1960s), Polish residency.
       Not much has been translated into English (but see, for example, this college thesis, consisting of several translated stories) -- and see also her most recent collection, which just came out a few months ago; see the Schöffling foreign rights page.

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       Табернакул

       The Macedonians really know how to time those literay awards for maximum publicity effect: Wednesday night they awarded the Табернакул -- whereby:

The award consists of sculpture made by Goran Stamenkov, €5,000 money prize, golden coin featuring recipient's name and publishing the work of the awarded author in Macedonian language.

       Okay, €5,000 isn't a fortune -- and those Macedonian royalties are going to be a drop in the bucket, too, but still ....
       They have managed pretty well with the prize winners: last year Milan Kundera was one, while this year the prize went to The Museum of Innocence-author (and Nobel laureate) Orhan Pamuk and Good Stalin-author Victor Erofeyev; see, for example, the report: Authors Pamuk and Erofeyev to be presented with "Tabernakul" award.
       Not sure who thought it was a good idea to hand out a prize on Christmas day, but I suppose there is an argument to be made for it -- though not much of one, when all is said, I'd suggest.

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       Bookselling in ... Dubai

       In The National Rym Gazal reports on The Dubai bookshop that is helping to preserve historic Arabic writing -- Dar Al Fadeela.
       Glad to see this sort of thing is still going on.

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       Highest-earning authors in China

       They announced the 2013 'Chinese Writers Rich List' (中国作家富豪榜) a couple of weeks ago; I've been hoping for some better English language-coverage to link to, but none seems forthcoming.
       The best I can find is the obnoxious eleven-page slideshow of the top ten Chinese authors with the highest royalty income in 2013 at People's Daily Online, Ten richest Chinese authors in 2013. Mo Yan does come in second, pulling in 24 million yuan (about US$3,950,000), but narrowly beating him out is ... fantasy writer Jiang Nan.
       See the full top 60 list -- in Chinese -- here.
       Among the additional lists they compile is that of the highest-earning foreign writers, and J.K.Rowling again topped that list, though her Chinese take of 8.5 million yuan is down considerably from the 15 million she raked in in 2012; see the full list -- in Chinese -- here. Murakami Haruki came in second -- and Alice Munro's Nobel win managed to get her up to 15th position, with a take of a million yuan.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Fay Weldon Q & A

       In The Washington Post Carole Burns has a Q & A as Fay Weldon remembers life upstairs and downstairs
       Among the interesting responses:

Why did you return to the historical novel ?

It was a great relief. Contemporary fiction is very difficult to write. Times change so fast, it's hard to get a handle on what's going on. And novels take quite a long time to get out. By the time you've got one done, nobody's interested.

       (Seems to me you're focusing on the wrong things if your novel becomes out of date in the time it takes to get from manuscript to bookstore, but what do I know ?)
       And she's pretty down on the novel-form in general:

It seems to me that the novel has become just entertainment.

       And:

Now we live in a digital age. And it's an age of disambiguity. Art deals with the ambiguous. And I don't think language carries the weight it once did. The resonance and beauty of language is, I think, not particularly understood by readers. So I'm not finding fault with writers, only with readers.

       (Surely writers share some blame if they can't convince readers, no ?)

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       The Hotel Life review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Javier Montes' The Hotel Life -- another recent Spanish novel, just out from new publisher Hispabooks.

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       Cairo International Book Fair preview

       Mohammed Saad reports at ahramonline that Political turmoil won't mar Cairo book fair, vows Magahed, as he previews the Cairo International Book Fair, scheduled to run 22 January through 6 February.
       Among the numbers:

Megahed said 24 countries would participate, 17 Arab and seven non-Arab. There would be 755 publishers, 518 from Egypt, 210 Arab and 27 non-Arab.

       Kuwait is to be guest of honor -- not exactly known as a literary heavy-weight, maybe this will serve as a nice wake-up call ... (?)
       And:

The fair has chosen the dean of the Arabic literature, Taha Hussein, who died forty years ago this year, as its Person of the Year. Megahed stated the GEBO would publish 20 of Hussain's rarest books in celebration.

       That sounds good.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Katherine Pancol's The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles.
       Pancol is, year in and year out , one of the bestselling French novelists in France, and this book -- the first in a trilogy -- has been translated into twenty-nine languages -- before now finally also being made available, sort of, in English. Yes, despite the book's bestselling bona fides (and the decade she spent living in New York, which suggests she can come over and market the hell out of this book) Penguin has only published a version they admit is: "an abridgement of the original French-language work". Apparently what's good enough for the rest of the world -- and sells by the bucketload -- has to be 'fixed' for US/UK readers.
       Books in translation published by Penguin as paperback-originals seem to suffer this fate more than most -- I recall last year's very unhappy experiment with Goce Smilevski's Freud's Sister -- but (radical) editing of books in translation is one of the industry's (many) dirty (and reader unfriendly) little secrets, about which much too little is said. A firm believer in the sanctity of the (original) text (and author's wishes), this kind of meddling drives me nuts -- and, in the case of this book, it appears to have made what was likely a mediocre book one that is just a mess.

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       Nobel report

       Alice Munro couldn't making it to the Nobel ceremonies a couple of weeks ago, but her longtime editor Douglas Gibson made the trip and reports at nice length in the National Post about the proceedings, in Alice Munro country stretches to Stockholm.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Etisalat Prize for Literature longlist

       They've announced the longlist for the Etisalat Prize for Literature, a new "pan-African prize celebrating first time writers of published fiction books".
       Overall, it sounds pretty good -- except for the one dreadful restriction, that entered books have to be: "first published in English". Because, you know, Africans surely can't write in other languages ..... (Indeed, I would think there'd be a strong case to encouraging entries in other languages, if you really want to foster African literature -- and by excluding fiction written in Arabic (and, to a lesser extent, French and Portuguese) you're excluding huge swaths of African fiction (and by excluding all the other languages you're excluding a vast number of smaller swaths).)
       Despite the language limit (which helps explain why five of the nine finalists are Nigerian ...) it looks like a pretty interesting longlist -- and it certainly is great to see new African talent getting this attention (it's a first-book prize, after all, so established writers with more than one under their belts aren't eligible). A nice idea: 1,000 copies of each of the the three shortlisted titles (announced 15 January) will be purchased by Etisalat -- nice support for the publishers of these, and a great way of making sure the books get into some circulation.
       The winner of the £15,000 prize will be announced 23 February.

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       Irrawaddy Literary Festival 2014 preview

       The 2014 Irrawaddy Literary Festival runs 14 to 16 February, and in The Myanmar Times Zon Pann Pwint previews it, in (sigh ...) Not lost in translation.
       As the article notes, the festival venue is the Kuthodaw Pagoda compound -- which contain: "the world's largest books: 729 marble slabs engraved with the Buddhist canon" -- pretty cool.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       #NBCC20pct

       The National Book Critics Circle Award is among the leading American book awards, and has consistently (or at least more consistently than the nearest competition, the (American) National Book Awards and the Pulitzers, in my opinion) picked deserving winners. It also stands apart from the others in considering foreign and even translated works for the award (and, for example, 2666, by Roberto Bolaño, took the 2008 fiction prize).
       I also particularly like this prize because it is basically open to all -- unlike the Pulitzer and National Book Award, which books must officially be submitted for (and have entry fees: the NBA charges an obscene $125 (and only allows publishers to nominate books), the Pulitzers charge $50).
       Not only that:

Any book that receives votes from 20% of the NBCC voting membership is automatically included among the finalists that we announce during the week of January 14, 2013.

       All NBCC members (including myself) have until 8 January to vote for up to five books in each prize-category. (Members should have received an e-mail with the appropriate link; if not, please contact the NBCC so that you too can play along !)
       The 20 per cent hurdle is, of course, a high one -- though it has apparently been reached in the past. But, to help things along, I think a more concerted effort is required, and I think it behooves us to organize a bit better and make more of a concerted effort to vote en masse.
       I suggest NBCC members share the titles they feel most strongly about, which might serve as suggestions for members to vote on. Weblogs -- including the NBCC's own Critical Mass -- are one place to do so; Twitter seems another ideal forum: I'd suggest #NBCC20pct as a hashtag (the more obvious '#NBCC20%' is less ideal because the "%"-sign doesn't register in the hashtag when published on Twitter ...).
       As noted, voting is open until 8 January. I plan to wait until near the deadline, and welcome suggestions I can throw my vote behind. (Recall: there are five categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry).
       I will publish the titles I plan to vote for in the week leading up to the deadline, but for now -- and as a starting point for others -- here the titles I am firmly behind for now:

• Fiction:
  • Tirza, by Arnon Grunberg
    
    
  • Seiobo There Below, by László Krasznahorkai; see the New Directions publicity page
    
    
  • Sandalwood Death by Mo Yan
    
    
  • Where Tigers are at Home, by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès
  
  
• Nonfiction:
  • Global Crisis by Geoffrey Parker; see the Yale University Press publicity page

       As noted: all suggestions welcome -- the more public (tweet: #NBCC20pct !) the better, since a lot of us have to get behind (which begins by knowing about ...) a title for it to make the cut.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Worst year-end round-up ?

       There are an endless number of year-end literary round-ups, some of which are of some interest, and many of which aren't. And then there are the few which are .....
       I hesitate to mention this one, because it's so feeble. And even though a mere blog post, by someone who tends to post very short posts (i.e. he doesn't take the space to explain himself (and justify his nutty opinions) at any length) ... well, it's at a reasonably well-known magazine-site, and I'm sure it gets some traffic, so it seems fair game.
       The post is F.H.Buckley's, at The Spectacle Blog (at The American Spectator) -- claiming it was: Not a Great Year for Books.
       I can live with that claim -- but not with this reasoning.
       Buckley begins:

Not a great year for books, was it ? Still there were standouts. Radley Balko's Rise of the Warrior Cop told us why we shouldn't trust our local police: Because they're liable to kill us (and then get away with it).

       This seems an odd title to choose as a stand-out -- but maybe Balko did a superior job of putting together a book about something that doesn't really sound like news, so ... okay, whatever ....
       But then Buckley continues:

And just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, Charles Murray comes along in Coming Apart (2013 reprint edition) to tell us how the rot has spread throughout the underclass, white and black.

       Never mind the politics at issue here -- as the 'reprint edition'-mention suggests this isn't a particularly new book: Murray came along with it in January, 2012 -- so it's kind of odd to bring this up as an example when you're (supposedly) discussing the year in books, 2013 .....
       Those are his two non-fiction mentions -- so how about the year in fiction ? No discussion of how that went wrong -- but at least:

Of novels, there's the new Michael Connelly Gods of Guilt.

       Should we take his word for it ? Well, there's the slight problem that he admits:

Haven't cracked it, but it's got to be great

       Seriously ? Denounce an entire year in books and then pick, among the few you're willing to say weren't half-bad, one you haven't even looked at ? Way to take this exercise seriously .....
       His other fiction mention ?

And let me not forget cousin Jonathan: Jonathan Buckley's Nostalgia.

       Because there's never enough nepotism in this world, right ? (It probably does his cousin an injustice -- the novel sounds reasonably interesting -- but come on ......)
       [Updated: Further proof that the piece is apparently meant tongue-in-cheek (and to be taken as such) comes from the fact that I have now received an e-mail from said Jonathan Buckley -- who informs me that writer F.H. is: "not a cousin of mine -- until today, I had never heard of him". He assumes the mention is an attempt at humor -- but shares my bafflement; "the humour escapes me".]
       So that's his 'year in review' -- but he doesn't stop there: he has advice, too:

So let me let you in on a secret. The trick to finding books you'd enjoy reading is look for an author you'd like to have a beer or a coffee with.

       I can't imagine worse advice. I guess if you mainly read non-fiction, and you want your whacky world-view affirmed in your reading (personally, I don't -- I like my whacky world-view challenged, but maybe that's just me ...), then it makes a bit of sense. But as far as fiction goes -- god, most of the stuff I love is by people I would pay to avoid, and many of the writers who I think I'd find good company write execrable crap. Writing -- especially creative writing -- and personality have nothing to do with one another.
       I assume some of this is meant as 'humor' -- I'm not a regular reader of The American Spectator, so I have little sense of the 'tone' of the magazine and its contributors -- but I'm damned if I can tell what is and what isn't. Does Buckley want nothing more than to share cocoa with: "preening, smug Jonathan Franzen, the literary equivalent of Pajama Boy" ? I honestly don't know.
       [Updated: The mention of a 'cousin' Buckley who -- see update above -- is not actually his cousin suggests perhaps the whole piece is meant to be pure ... fun ? But some of what he says comes across so seriously ... and I have no idea of what he's making fun of. Very, very bizarre.]

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       The Literature Express review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Lasha Bugadze's The Literature Express.
       It's not the first work of Georgian literature under review at the complete review, but it is the first one that is available in English -- as Dalkey Archive Press are bringing this and several more Georgian titles out.
       (It's also longlisted for the 2014 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award -- dubiously, as I've noted, and not because it was put up for the award by a Georgian library (questionable though that hometown-favoritism is).)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       New issue: World Literature Today

       The January/February 2014 issue of World Literature Today is now out, with a fair amount of the material freely available online.
       NSK Neustadt Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye is, of course, the focus -- but Restless Books-man Ilan Stavans' Should Books Be Sold ? in particular is also worth your while.
       And don't forget that all the reviews are freely accessible, in the World Literature in Review section (always my favorite).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       New issue: Chinese Literature Today

       Volume 3 No. 1 & 2 of Chinese Literature Today is now available, with a limited amount of material (but, sadly, none of the reviews ...) freely accessible online.
       Mo Yan is the featured author, and among the pieces is Howard Goldblatt's on Mo Yan in Translation: One Voice among Many.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       'Nigerian' literature

       In Vanguard Uduma Kalu reports on a recent Association of Nigerian Authors conference, with a focus on Toyin Falola's keynote address -- summing up: 100 year-search for national literature, a failure.
       Falola apparently concluded:

Literary imagination is yet to create a powerful mythology for a common Nigerian nationality.

       And:

He accused the writers of failing, for 100 years, to write a national literature. All they have done all this time, he said, is to write from the regional or ethnic perspectives.

       As someone who finds nationalism the root of much contemporary and historical evil -- and who thinks the concept has been particularly debilitating on the African continent -- I find this to be, by and large, just a good thing. Yes, regional and ethnic perspectives can be equally problematic -- but at least they're smaller scale.
       And surely it also says something that literary imaginations have failed to: "create a powerful mythology for a common Nigerian nationality" -- like maybe that's such an artificial beast that there is no good reason to even bother and try to create a mythology around it.
       (Fundamentally, I support all secessionist impulses: freedom for Biafra ! freedom for Tibet ! Catalonia ! Scotland ! etc. etc. Large-scale nationhood -- especially where artificially created (as in much of Africa) -- is way, way overrated (beyond the great benefits of scale it offers).)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

       UK: 'The publishers' year: hits and misses of 2013'

       As far as year-end round-ups go, The Guardian's The publishers' year: hits and misses of 2013, where publishers also name a book they published that they feel deserved to do better as well as a book they wish they'd published, is among the most interesting.
       The ones they feel did undeservedly poorly are particularly revealing. A Faber creative director writes:

Translated fiction remains difficult in this country, even though publishers are undoubtedly much less reticent about committing to novels in another language. I was dispirited by the lack of attention, and sales, for My Fathers' Ghost is Climbing in the Rain by a young Argentine writer, Patricio Pron.

       A book by a talented writer, I continue to have some reservations about it; too-close-to-true, it might not have been the ideal book with which to introduce the author to English-speaking readers.
       Meanwhile, the Hamish Hamilton publisher says:

César Aira's three "novelitas" in a box didn't receive a single mainstream review, despite there being so much to say about this brilliant, playful, subversive Argentinian writer

       The boxed edition -- consisting of Ghosts, An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, and The Literary Conference -- is pretty neat (get your copy at Amazon.co.uk), but always sounded like a pretty hard sell to me. New Directions seemed to do just fine with selling separate editions of these (and other) Airas, and while I understand the packaging-temptation it clearly was not the way to go.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Arab authors' favorites 2013

       Arabic Literature (in English) helpfully collects the favorites of 'a few acclaimed and award-winning authors', putting together Arab Authors' Favorites of 2013.

       I'd love to see this sort of thing from many more cultures/regions/etc. (There will be some in some larger markets, but not nearly enough.)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Prize: Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde

       They've announced that Parabole du failli, by Lyonel Trouillot, has won this year's Prix Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-Monde, a $5000 prize for Caribbean authors with a solid list of previous winners; see also the (English) Haiti Libre report, and the Actes Sud publicity page for Parabole du failli.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Prize: Typographical Translation Award

       As Aaron Westerman reports, they've determined The 2013 Typographical Translation Award Winner -- and it's The Devil's Workshop, by Jáchym Topol, beating out Tirza by Arnon Grunberg, 137 votes to 107.
       The public voting system -- both for the winner and the shortlist -- makes the award a bit vulnerable to the usual online voting issues -- and I suspect few to none of the voters actually read all the finalists before casting their vote (I haven't, either -- but I didn't vote) -- but the results suggest things didn't go totally off track. The Topol certainly wouldn't have been my choice (nor the make-up of the shortlist, even just selecting from that longlist), but it's certainly defensible.
       And very nice to see that all the polling numbers have been made public.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Light and Dark review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Natsume Sōseki's unfinished magnum opus, Light and Dark, just out in a new translation by John Nathan from Columbia University Press.

       Several authors have taken it upon themselves to complete Sōseki's novel -- Nathan says there have been four full-length sequels -- and the most notable of these is Minae Mizumura's; it hasn't been translated into English yet, but her A True Novel just came out (and certainly makes me eager to see what she did with this story).

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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