opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

       FLIP 2014

       The Brazilian literary festival, Festa Literária Internacional de Paraty, runs today through 3 August.
       Always a good line-up -- including what they're billing as their first Russian visitor (Vladimir Sorokin -- or, as it apparently is in Portuguese, Vladímir Sorókin). And I like how some of the local talent only goes, footballer-like, by a single name (Claudius, Hubert, Jaguar, Reinaldo).

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

---

       Utter 2014

       Yeah, I'm not really sure about that name, but this initiative of the Singapore Writers Festival, Utter 2014, sounds reasonably interesting.
       As they explain:

Utter is a special SWF initiative which showcases the best of Singapore writing and celebrates its potential to be adapted into different media and across languages, giving audiences fresh perspectives and a deeper understanding of our home-grown authors.

       In this case it involves four works that have been adapted into short films, which are being screened today, as well as 3 and 6 August.
       Personally, I like writing best as ... writing, and figure if you have to sell an audience on it by presenting it in cinematic form something has gone slightly/terribly wrong. On the other hand ... alternate interpretations in alternate media ... sure, why not ?
       See also Genevieve Sarah Loh on the Best of Singapore literature - onscreen at Today.

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

---

       The Kills review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Richard House's The Kills.
       Man Booker-longlisted last year in the UK, it is now coming out in the US; I'm curious how it will do. House does have his American connections, and the novel(s) feature many American characters and much of it deals with aspects of the American occupation of Iraq. But do US readers want to be reminded of the tremendous amount that was lost there ? (In terms of: lives, souls, cash, idealism, principles, credibility.)
       Interesting, too, that, after initially being released in a digital version in the UK -- 'digitally augmented' with a variety of video clips -- the US publishers have chosen to focus on The Kills-as-literary/printed-text (i.e. are pretty much ignoring the digital frills and not pointing readers towards them -- though they are available online).

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

       Nazi(-era) Krimis

       A pretty good idea for an anthology: Nazi-era crime fiction -- Krimis, as they're called in German. A French anthology, presented and translated by Vincent Platini, came out a few months ago: Krimi. Une anthologie du récit policier sous le Troisième Reich; see the Anacharsis publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.fr.
       There are also (French) interviews with Platini at BibliObs -- where he notes there were no grand Nazi-heroes in these works: "Il n'y a pas eu de Supernazi" -- and Le Figaro. And John J. Gaynard's Books weblog has a(n English) overview, which helpfully lists the anthologized pieces.
       Like Soviet crime fiction, Nazi-era (1933-1945) stuff is woefully overlooked; an English-language anthology would surely be of some interest, no ?

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

---

       SEA Write Award shortlist

       The 2014 SEA Write Award is for short-stories (prized genres are rotated, year by year), and they've announced the Thai shortlist: as Kaona Pongpipat reports in the Bangkok Post, SEA Write short stories selected.
       Recall that at Asymptote Mui Poopoksakul recently surveyed (a sliver) of the Thai short story scene -- and one of the discussed titles is Uthis Haemamool's shortlisted one, its title translated as 'Base, Basic' by Poopoksakul, and 'Commonly Vicious' by the Bangkok Post.
       Of course, whether any of this makes it into English is ... well, more a closed than open question .....

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

       Zimbabwe International Book Fair

       The Zimbabwe International Book Fair apparently runs 30 July through 2 August, with a theme of 'Indigenous Languages, Literature, Art and Knowledge Systems of Africa' (certainly a worthy one -- and one hopes some word gets out beyond Zimbabwe ...). There's an 'Indaba Conference' leading into it, 28-29 July; see the schedule at Writers International Network Zimbabwe.
       In The Herald Stanley Mushava argues that with ZIBF @ 31: Time for inclusivity, with all sorts of suggestions, criticism (both constructive as well as merely critical), and a good bit of enthusiasm -- as, for example, in suggesting:

ZIBF must be a national buzzword just like the agricultural show and the trade fair, to some extent, because books are the engine that drives development.

       Some, of course, is just wishful thinking:

More outlets must come aboard to stimulate and sustain the reading culture of the country. Bookshops must be frequented at least half as much as fast food outlets to mitigate the cultural malnutrition which threatens the country.

       He does have a point about the lack of a proper web-presence for much of the industry (and ZIBF as well ...) -- colorfully suggesting:

Now that the communication protocols governing the reception of art have vastly changed over the years, committing your work to a publisher who does not operate a website, blog or social network account is as wise as fastening your book on the tail of a crocodile.

       I'm not sure anyone ever put it that way, but he does have a point.

       (Updated - 29 July): Stanely Mushava now also reports on the opening of this "premier literary fiesta", in ZIBF champions mother tongues.

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

---

       Jonathan Gottschall on stories

       An interesting conversation (monologue ?) by Jonathan Gottschall at Edge on The Way We Live Our Lives in Stories, arguing that: "We live in stories all day long", and that most aspects of that haven't really been studied and considered very closely or well.

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

---

       Fan-fiction mania

       Lots of articles all over about the 'fan-fiction' phenomenon, but Julia Lllewellyn Smith's in The Telegraph How Downton's Lady Sibyl met Doctor Who offers a solid, basic introduction.
       It is a fascinating subject, from what folks come up with to the knotty copyright issues, but I have to admit I can't really find the time to dig into it.

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

       Writing in ... Afghanistan

       In Asharq Al Awsat Firouzeh Ramazan Zadeh reports that the Triumph of Afghan writers in exile boosts literary scene at home.
       It would be nice to hear more about the current domestic scene, but at least it's interesting to learn that, for example:

Nahofteh, who authored Imaginary Roles, said Afghan publishers have also learnt from publishers in Iran and Pakistan, adding: "Professional editing found its way into Afghanistan following the migration of Afghans to Iran. Today, the best editors are those who have returned from Iran."

       (Now that's a point/idea I'd love to see explored in greater depth ... you don't often hear about Iran as a training ground for ...editors.)

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

---

       State of the site

       Terribly late in the day (i.e. year), I've finally posted a limited State of the Site - 2013 report -- the delay mainly because tallying up most of the numbers was so depressing.
       On the plus side -- things look better so far this year: more traffic, more review copies pouring in, a (slightly) better sex-ratio, and a slightly better date-written spread (and the average word-length of reviews also continues to increase, though I'm not sure that's a positive ...).

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

       Paul-Celan-Preis

       They've announced that Gerhard Meier will receive (on 9 October) this year's Paul-Celan-Preis, a leading -- and €15,000 -- literary prize for translation-into-German.
       He translates from the French and Turkish, notably the work of Orhan Pamuk, as well as authors including Amin Maalouf, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, and Yaşar Kema.

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

---

       Etisalat Prize judges

       They've announced the panel of judges for the next Etisalat Prize for Literature -- awarded to a first work of fiction, first published in (and hence presumably written in ...) English (sigh) by an African author (with African citizenship). (The official site has it as the 2014 prize; press reports suggest 2015, presumably since that's when they'll be handing out the prize .....)
       Worth a mention, because it's a pretty impressive panel that includes: Jamal Mahjoub, Alain Mabanckou, and Tsitsi Dangarembga.

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

---

       The Madmen of Benghazi review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Gérard de Villiers' 191st SAS/Malko Linge novel -- and the first to appear in English (next week) in about three decades, his timely 2011 novel, The Madmen of Benghazi.
       De Villiers got a nice publicity-boost from the 2013 The New York Times Magazine profile by Robert F. Worth, The Spy Novelist Who Knows Too Much; he passed away later last year, but still, publishing The Madmen of Benghazi in the US was a no-brainer -- this time under imprint Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (of Penguin Random House), rather than, as most of the dozen-plus previous Malko Linge-works to make it into English (mainly in the mid-1970s), from Pinnacle Books.
       Surely the title alone should make for decent sales -- despite the lack of any Hillary Clinton-conspiracy connection ... -- but it's a decent (if on the trashy side) piece of well-informed pulp spy fiction. You can see why the guy was so successful in France (and also why his books might not be quite to American tastes).

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

       Hannah-Arendt-Prize

       They've announced that the €10,000 2014 Hannah-Arendt-Prize for Political Thought, awarded by the City of Bremen and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, will be shared by Pussy Riot-ers Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, and -- as they spell it -- Jury Andruchowytsch (Юрій Андрухович, usually -- so also elsewhere in this press release ... transliterated in English as 'Yuri Andrukhovych'), five of whose works are under review at the complete review, see e.g. Perverzion).
       "The Prize is awarded to people who in their thought and deeds courageously accept the challenge of public intervention" ... well, you get the idea, right ?
       And, this being a German prize (i.e. winners announced way in advance), the prize ceremony will only be held on 5 December.

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

---

       Spring issue of list

       The Spring, 2014 issue of list - Books from Korea is finally out online, with a special section on 'Children's Picture Books' as well as the usual reviews and information-pieces.
       Also of interest: Suh Heewon has a Q & A with The Man Who Loved Moebius Novelist Choi Jae-hoon.

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

       Man Booker Prize 2014 longlist

       They've announced the thirteen-title strong longlist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize -- open to UK-published novels by writers from anywhere (previously: only from the UK, Commonwealth, plus Zimbabwe and the Republic of Ireland) -- i.e. for the first time also by American writers.
       The longlisted titles are:

• The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
• The Dog by Joseph O'Neill
• History of the Rain by Niall Williams
• How to be Both by Ali Smith
• J by Howard Jacobson
• The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
• Orfeo by Richard Powers
• To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
• Us by David Nicholls
• The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

       Several of these haven't even been published in the UK yet, much less in the US; I haven't seen a one of these, save the Ferris, which happened to be available at the library yesterday, so I picked it up. I expect to read/cover several of these when/if I do get copies: the Mitchell, Smith, Jacobson, and -- if it gets a US publisher -- the Mukherjee.
       Notable titles that didn't make the cut: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (suggesting the judging panel has at least a modicum of sense/taste), as well as works by Ian McEwan, Philip Hensher, Nicola Barker, Martin Amis, and Will Self. As usual, however, the Man Booker folks don't even reveal what titles were in the running -- some of these may not even have been submitted by their publishers (though quite a few get automatic byes due to their author's books' past performance) [Judge Sarah Churchwell even tweeted that we should: "bear in mind that what we longlist is defined by what publishers submit to us" -- a valid point, which however does nothing to explain why the Man Booker folk won't let on what books were actually in the running .....]
       Apparently 154 titles were submitted/considered [as I suspected, judge Sarah Churchwell's claim of considering/reading 160 submissions was incorrect and inflated] -- not a terrible increase from last year's 151 -- with entries from the Commonwealth (excluding the UK) down to 31 (versus 43 last year), while: "44 titles were by authors who are now eligible under the new rule changes" (presumably all of whom are US authors). So, yes, as feared US authors 'took' some places from UK and Commonwealth authors -- and quite a few places on the longlist -- but things didn't turn out quite as bad as some feared. Books LIVE has a useful look at the country-of-origin of longlisted authors (debatable though some of these are) since 2001, suggesting the inclusion of American authors has indeed come at the cost of Commonwealth and African authors.
       Among the other observations/criticisms: the gender disparity -- as noted, for example, by Tina Jordan at Entertainment Weekly's Shelf Life weblog, in Really, Man Booker Prize ? 10 male authors, 3 female ? (Again -- and as she also notes --: part of the problem may be what the publishers are submitting. Which is kept secret, for no good reason .....)
       In the UK they're taking bets, of course -- Ladbrokes have Mukherjee as 3/1 favorite, ahead of Mitchell and Smith (6/1) -- and offer 2/1 that an American author wil take the prize. (But remember to compare odds at various betting shops before placing your bets !)

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

---

       Translation from the ... Japanese

       In The Japan Times Reiji Yoshida reports that ¥80 million earmarked to translate Japanese books into English to aid PR drive.
       Having learnt nothing from the catastrophe that was the Japanese Literature Publishing Project -- an incredible amount of money that did help get a lot of books translated (see those under review at the complete review) but to stunningly little effect (it still seems to me the ultimate case-study in how not to foster your literature abroad) -- they have decided:

A panel of seven Japanese intellectuals, including university professors and former government officials, will select candidate books over the next month. The government will then subsidize the translation work and publication costs, the officials said.

       I.e. they'll do exactly what the JLPP did (except they'll apparently only be translating into English -- another big mistake). No doubt these will be worthy 'intellectuals' (hey, "university professors and former government officials" -- what could go wrong ?), but sorry, this is just not the way to go about it. As is already clear from the observation: "Books will be selected to call attention to positive aspects of Japan" -- pretty much a death-knell for them choosing anything that might really work abroad.
       It's real money, however -- almost US$800,000. That's a lot of subsidy. May it not go entirely to waste .....

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

---

       NZ Post Book Awards finalists

       Not fearing competition from that Man Booker Prize, they also announced the finalists for the 2014 New Zealand Post Book Awards.
       Okay, they take things at their own pace down there -- last year's Man Booker winner is a fiction finalist -- but what really struck me is that five of the eight fiction and poetry finalists are published by Victoria University Press. Sounds like a pretty interesting/unusual book market there if that's possible ..... (VUP describes itself as: "New Zealand's leading publisher of new fiction and poetry" -- but also notes that it publishes (only): "on average 25 new titles every year" (which is ... not that much).

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

---

       Lost for Words review

       Appropriately timed with the announcement of the Man Booker Prize longlist (see above), the most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Edward St. Aubyn's Lost for Words -- about which Stuart Kelly wrote (in his review in the Times Literary Supplement, 21 May):

To call this a thinly veiled attack on the Man Booker Prize [...] would be a disservice to veils and how diaphanous they might be.

       This has already/soon will appear in French and German translation, but turns out to be a rather disappointing prize-satire; among the few who really, really seemed to enjoy it was the Kakutani.

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

       'International' Dylan Thomas Prize longlist

       They'll be announcing the longlist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize today and, presumably hoping to cash in on a general longlist excitement, they announced the longlist for the 'International' Dylan Thomas Prize just ahead of that.
       The 'International' Dylan Thomas Prize is a £30,000 prize:

awarded to the best published or produced literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under

       That 'published or produced literary work in the English language' might suggest translations are eligible -- hey, they call themselves 'International', right ? -- but, alas, Rule 3.4 makes clear:

For the avoidance of doubt a translation of a Literary or Performance work originally written in a language or languages other than English is not eligible for entry.

       Since all works not originally written in English -- even for an 'International' award --, are, of course, by their very nature dubious, I guess .....
       (Also: while a prize for young authors -- "aged 39 or under" -- authors are not permitted to be too young either: Rule 3.1 notes that entry is only open to authors: "aged 18 or over". Because ... well, who knows.)
       Still, it's an impressive list of books by English-writing authors -- including last year's Man Booker winner, The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton. None of the fifteen titles are under review at the complete review yet (you know how it is here with that 'international' stuff ...).
       The shortlist will be announced 4 September.

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

---

       Twenty in 20 in South Africa

       At Books LIVE they've unveiled The Twenty in 20 Final List: the Best Short Stories of South Africa's Democracy, "the best South African short fiction published in English during the past two decades of democracy" ('In English' ... sigh .....)


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

---

       Ottilie Mulzet Q & A

       At The Paris Review's weblog Valerie Stivers has Recalcitrant Language: An Interview with Ottilie Mulzet, a Q & A with the Best Translated Book Award-winning Krasznahorkai-translator.

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

---

       Elias review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Flemish author Maurice Gilliams' Elias, or The Struggle with the Nightingales.
       This translation came out from Sun & Moon in 1995, and while the back cover promises: "In upcoming seasons, Sun & Moon Press will publish the other two volumes of Gilliams' great trilogy" they never quite got around to it -- nor did S & M successor Green Integer (who, however, at least published his complete poems; see their publicity page). Perhaps someday .....

       Elias also comes with a great epigraph (by the pretty obscure Francis Jammes):

La poésie que j'ai rêvée gâta toute ma vie.
Ah ! Qui donc m'aimera ?

       Which they translate as:

The poetry I dreamed spoiled my whole life.
Oh ! Who will love me then ?

       Not a bad start (and, yes, quite fitting).

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

       The New Yorker opens up

       In A Note to Our Readers The New Yorker's editors announce all sorts of changes -- most notably: "a summer-long free-for-all" online of all content in the print editions (previously they had kept some of this stuff behind a non-subscriber-paywall), as well as that:

Beginning this week, every story we've published since 2007 will be available on newyorker.com, in the same easy-to-read format as the new work we're publishing.

       Which is pretty cool -- not quite The Spectator's grand archive (which you regularly peruse, no ?), but still offering a hell of a lot of good content, which is why I mention it: something to check out on these lazy summer days.
       Less welcome, of course is that starting:

This week, newyorker.com has a new look. On a desktop, on a tablet, on a phone, the site has become, we believe, much easier to navigate and read, much richer in its offerings, and a great deal more attractive.

       With the usual caveat that I, with the most rudimentary site still running (well, okay, there's always the Handke Scriptmania Portal, whose continued existence always makes me feel a bit better about not getting around to updating the site-look hereabouts ...), surely shouldn't talk/complain ... when I see this shit I just throw up my arms in despair. I realize every site now has to have what is apparently meant to be a tablet-friendly look/functionality, but come on ..... (I do own what can pass for a tablet, but have hard enough a time using it to read 'e-books'; I use the internet on my laptop -- and this new trend is driving me absolutely nuts.)
       Back to The New Yorker-site: apparently:

in the fall, we move to a second phase, implementing an easier-to-use, logical, metered paywall. Subscribers will continue to have access to everything; non-subscribers will be able to read a limited number of pieces -- and then it's up to them to subscribe. You've likely seen this system elsewhere—at the Times, for instance -- and we will do all we can to make it work seamlessly.

       I'd certainly welcome the implementation of a soft paywall of this sort (if they have to bother with any sort of paywall ...): The New York Times' is cookie-dependent, and as someone who flushes his cookies repeatedly throughout the day (as I hope you sensibly do too) I've never come up against paywall-page-limitations .....

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

---

       Uwe-Johnson-Preis

       It's still a couple of weeks until the German Book Prize fun kicks in -- the longlist will be announced 13 August -- and while they (sigh) don't announce the names of the 167 submitted titles (why not ? why the hell not ?), it's pretty safe to assume a lot of the entries were also among the 70+ (also unrevealed, sigh) submissions for the 2014 Uwe-Johnson-Preis (back in 2008 Uwe Tellkamp's Der Turm doubled up, winning both (see here and here)).
       They have now announced the winner of this year's Uwe-Johnson-Preis -- and it's: Kruso by Lutz Seiler. (This being a German prize -- i.e. the winner announced way in advance -- Seiler only gets to pick up his €15,000 prize on 19 September.)
       This one looks fairly likely to also be in the German Book Prize-running; see also the Suhrkamp foreign rights page (and note that rights have already been sold in: France, Italy, Holland, and Denmark -- the US/UK ... not so much (because god forbid they'd jump on the bandwagon before they're sure everyone else is on board -- but I figure their hesitation has already cost them a couple of thousand dollars (the amount the price has presumably gone up with this prize-win, with another step up if/when it is German Book Prize longlisted) ... oh, who am I kidding, they probably can't unload this in the English-language market even under the best of circumstances ...).

       (And I don't have to remind you who Uwe Johnson was, do I ? Author -- among much else that's great -- of Jahrestage (Anniversaries), one of the great German post-war novels (and one of the great New York novels of recent decades), the novel Susan Bernofsky named when asked about: "a Holy Grail book to translate", which New York Review Books is bringing out in Damion Searls' (first complete) translation ... in 2017 or so. One of the US publishing highlights of that year -- absolutely guaranteed.)

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

---

       Chowringhee review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Sankar's 1962 novel, Chowringhee.
       Translated from the Bengali (only !) in 2007, this seems to have been one of Penguin Books India's big in-translation successes -- as I mentioned recently it apparently: "continues to be one of Penguin Book India's most successful crossover hits, selling around 50,000 copies". Atlantic Books brought out a UK edition, which got some review coverage, while in the US ... no one stepped up.
       Sure, you can get the Penguin (or Atlantic) edition (though I only chanced upon my copy at a used-book sale), but seriously, not even this can get a US edition ? What the hell is wrong in the US, where basically no fiction translated from the sub-continental languages (excepting Uday Prakash ...) -- or indeed practically any of the South/East Asian languages -- is getting published ?

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

       Mood Indigo - the film

       The film version of Boris Vian's Froth on the Daydream -- recently re-published as Mood Indigo in a movie-tie-in edition --, directed by Michel Gondry (see the distributor's page) has now also opened in the US -- on all of two screens this past weekend. (Still, with a take of US $12,550 per screen, it did very well.)
       The version screened in the US clocks in at 94 minutes -- despite the fact that the French original was 131 minutes in length ..... Man, I guess maybe I should give American publishers/editors who do horrible things with books-in-translation a break -- not even Knopf would rip that much out of a Murakami .....
       The reviews have been ... interesting. But at least Vian is getting some attention (usually at least -- some reviews fail to mention the source (e.g. The Village Voice)).

       Choice review quotes include:

       In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis is underwhelmed:

Even at its abbreviated length, Mood Indigo soon feels almost desperately interminable, a wearying experience that resembles being locked in a very small room with an exceptionally bright, pathologically self-absorbed child who will not shut up or calm down.

       In The Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan finds:

Wacky, surreal, insanely playful, Mood Indigo is a film that believes that too much is not enough.

       In the Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern suggests:

No one has ever made a movie quite like it. Mr. Gondry's French-language screen version of Boris Vian's widely celebrated, one-of-a-kind novel is feverishly cinematic and wondrously dense; it's also a touching, even haunting, tale of love and loss. Yet there's so much of so many flavors of cleverness -- a surfeit of surfeits -- that sensory overload causes aesthetic suffocation.

       And in New York Bilge Ebiri concludes simply:

Mood Indigo is somehow both unmissable and whisper-thin.

       Among those issuing grades, The Onion's A.A. Dowd gives it a "C"; at Entertainment Weekly Keith Staskiewicz says: "C+".

       I'll probably wait for the DVD version -- hoping for the uncut French version.

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

---

       Victor Hugo exhibit

       The State Library of Victoria (Australia) looks to have a good-looking (if somewhat pricey) exhibit, Victor Hugo: Les Miserables -- From Page to Stage through 9 November.
       In The Age Tim Young reports on the exhibit -- and: How the State Library landed Victor Hugo's 'mythical' Les Miserables manuscript.

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

       Critical and/vs. sales success

       In Raise Your Hand If You've Read Knausgaard at The New York Review of Books' weblog Tim Parks wonders, among other things:

Is there any consistent relationship between a book's quality and its sales ? Or again between the press and critics' response to a work and its sales ? Are these relationships stable over time or do they change ?

       Basically, he seems surprised by what seem to him -- given the press-raptures and (relatively) wall-to-wall coverage -- the rather middling sales figures for the US/UK editions of Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle (see reviews of volumes one and two). UK sales have (according to Bookscan, which doesn't capture the whole picture) "barely topped 22,000 copies", while US sales: "stood at about 32,000". (Those seem like solid numbers for 'literary' stuff of this sort to me, but, hey, I know nothing of this industry and what might count for success, sales or otherwise.)
       Unfortunately, Parks begins his argument with a rather big mistake, claiming, re. Knausgaard:

A search on The Guardian website has ten pages of hits for articles on Knausgaard despite the fact that his work wasn't published in the UK until 2012.

       Obviously, Parks didn't bother looking too closely at those results, or he might have scratched his head why, in that case, Salley Vickers was reviewing a translation of a Knausgaard novel -- A Time To Every Purpose Under Heaven -- on 7 November 2008. Oh, that's right -- because Portobello Books published that in ... 2008.
       [Updated - 22 July: this -- and the misspellings mentioned below -- have now been (quietly, and without admission of previous error) corrected; e.g. the passage now reads: "despite the fact that the first volume of My Struggle wasn’t published in the UK until 2012". Which is at least an improvement (though it still seems worth mentioning that, for example, Knausgaard was hardly an unknown entity in the UK even in 2008).]
       [I know this was a summer weekend post, and presumably the whole NYRB fact-checking crew is out in the Hamptons or something, but come on guys, that's something you catch by checking ... well, anywhere, even just on Amazon ..... Worse yet, in the next paragraph two author-names are misspelled -- it's not 'Jostein Gaardner' (Jostein Gaarder, maybe ?), nor is it 'Stieg Larssen' (Stieg Larsson). Look, I know I probably average at least one typo/slip per post, but I do this by myself, late at night -- and I'm considerably more underpaid for my troubles than even the interns at the NYRB; surely such sloppy copyediting is unacceptable for such a site, and reaching an audience of this size.]
       So, yeah, credibility quickly shot there .....
       Still, Parks does raise some interesting questions -- and does offer some interesting Bookscan-number-reveals (I wouldn't have thought Salman Rushdie's Joseph Anton -- better than any fiction he's published in ages -- would have shifted: "just 7,521 in hardback and only 1,896 in paperback" in the UK).
       I guess what surprises me is Parks': "impression of huge and inevitable success" re. Knausgaard. Despite closely following the often breathless coverage, I have never had this impression. Knausgaard seems to me a specific kind of small-scale but intense success -- see, for example, the video of the line of people waiting for his recent McNally Jackson appearance. Impressive, certainly, but also relatively clearly circumscribed. Surely it's always been hard to see Knausgaard as any sort of potential mainstream-US/UK success -- something that the coverage actually seems to reinforce, as it focuses (near-relentlessly) on a relatively narrow reading-demographic.
       Surely, also, Parks is going overboard with claims such as:

Meantime, since most newspapers have gone online and many have their own online bookshops, a certain confusion seems to be developing between reviewing and sales promotion. Bestseller lists sit beside reviews on every webpage, as if commercial success were an index of quality, while one can often click on a link at the end of a review to buy the book.

       I understand his concern that: "bestsellerdom is rapidly becoming the only measure of achievement that is undeniable" -- consider just The New York Times Book Review's pages and pages of (supposed-)bestseller lists. Still, while I would love to see actual, hard sales numbers (i.e.: copies sold), any sort of reliance on bestseller lists would serve rather little purpose: knowing that the NYTBR list this week has a book by someone named Brad Thor ahead of one by Catherine Coulter, with the ubiquitous co-written James Patterson at number four ... yeah, that doesn't have anything to do with my reading (or, might I suggest, with literary discussion of any sort -- other than of the turnover/sales-figure sort).
       I have to admit to not really caring: there are books I review that I wish would reach more readers, but I think it's pretty clear from what's reviewed at this site (see, for example, the most recent reviews) that sales-success -- potential or actual -- doesn't really figure in what I cover.
       (Updated - 21 July): See now also Scott Esposito's take(-down) of Parks' piece at his Conversational Reading weblog, Yes, Virginia, My Struggle Is a Bestseller.

       (Addendum: of course, sales numbers do matter -- especially to publishers, many of whom care, to varying degrees, predominantly about the bottom line. So it is scary to see 'services' like Next Big Book, which promises to analyze: "social, sales, and marketing signals to help you make smarter, braver decisions" (shivers down my spine !); see Doireann Ní Bhriain on The next big thing in books .....)

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

---

       Pentecost in New York

       There's a PTP/NYC revival of David Edgar's Pentecost -- a play I saw in its original 1994 London production, and which is one of the earlier reviews on the site (now updated with new links and reviews).

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

---

       Global Crisis review-overview

       The most recent addition to the complete review is a review-overview of Geoffrey Parker's landmark study on War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century, Global Crisis, which Yale University Press brought out last year.
       Usually when I resort to just a review-overview (quotes; links; no personal review) it's because I don't have a copy of the book, or I gave it a shot but couldn't get through it. This one, however, is one of those books which I just couldn't figure out how to review in any way usefully -- beyond perhaps basic summary. That's presumably why I don't review much non-fiction, and particularly little history -- I (generally) lack the expertise to evaluate the history on offer. Sure, here there's sort of a broader thesis that's certainly debatable -- and one that, especially in this day and age is worth engaging with -- but I don't have a proper response/reaction (yet ?).
       Nevertheless, there's no question that this is an important book, so I do want to make you aware of it, and of some of the discussion surrounding it. (Whereby I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion yet, both from a strictly historical perspective, as well as from a present-day climate-crisis-facing policy-considering one.)

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

       João Ubaldo Ribeiro (1941-2014)

       2008 Prémio Camões-winning Brazilian author João Ubaldo Ribeiro has passed away -- a major loss, with Vitor Abdala suggesting at BrazzilMag Brazil Loses What Many Consider Its Best Contemporary Novelist.
       Only one of his works is under review at the complete review, House of the Fortunate Buddhas -- perhaps not the place to start, but quite a few of his works are (or have been ...) available in English translation.

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

---

       The next Stoppard

       It's hard to believe that the last Tom Stoppard play premiered almost a decade ago -- Rock 'n' Roll -- but he's delivered the next one to the National Theatre, and, after some delays, it's apparently scheduled to be Nicholas Hytner's parting production, in early 2015. The Daily Mail (of all places ...) has the scoop, revealing (scroll down; third item) the play is apparently called:

'The Hard Problem,' he said, poker faced. 'It's a bit premature to say much about it, to be honest', he said pausing. 'But it's not about erectile dysfunction, anyway.'

       I am not encouraged by Stoppard being reduced to making Viagra®-jokes.

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

---

       Chinese 'National Museum of Classic Books'

       Looks pretty good and fancy: as CCTV reports, China opens first museum of literary classics -- the 'National Museum of Classic Books' (国家典籍博物馆).
       See also, for example, Chinese coverage -- here at Sina.com, where they note that this is sort of a test run for the real thing, which will open in September.

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

       Japanese literary prizes

       They've announced the winners of the latest round of two of the leading Japanese literary awards and, as reported at Mainichi, Shibasaki wins Akutagawa award, Kurokawa wins Naoki Prize.
       Shibasaki Tomoka is fairly well-established -- indeed, this was the fourth time she had been up for the prize; see more about her and some of her books at Books from Japan

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

---

       The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Tanigawa Nagaru's The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya -- the first in a series, which then also spawned a manga version, as well as a popular TV-anime adaptation. (Works fine in prose; not so sure about the cartoon versions in print and on screen (definite personal bias, but ...).)

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

       Hong Kong Book Fair

       The Hong Kong Book Fair runs through 22 July -- and who doesn't love a book fair that comes with its own instruction pages regarding Arrangements for Tropical Cyclone & Black Rainstorm Warning (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) ?
       A lot of enthusiasts are apparently converging on the fair: in the South China Morning Post Brian Yap even reports that Literature lovers camp out overnight as Hong Kong Book Fair begins

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

---

       Zia Haider Rahman Q & A

       At Guernica Jonathan Lee has a lengthy Q & A with In The Light Of What We Know-author Zia Haider Rahman -- worth a look.

       (Updated - 21 July): See also a Q & A in The Hindu.

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

---

       The Foundling Boy review

       The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Michel Déon's 1975 novel, The Foundling Boy, finally available in English, from Gallic Books.
       I've mentioned that the lack of Déon-translations-into-English (there's only been one before this) is ... odd; he's well known (an 'immortel', even, member of the Académie française since 1978 (fauteuil 8)), been around forever (he was born in 1919) -- and he's a fine writer, as this volume certainly demonstrates. Good for Gallic Books (and us) that they're bringing this and the sequel out.
       Maybe Jean Dutourd next ?

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

go to archive

- return to top of the page -

© 2014 the complete review


Main | the New | the Best | the Rest | Review Index | Links