opinionated commentary on literary matters - from the complete review

The Literary Saloon Archive

21 - 31 December

21 December: Short Books profile
22 December: Christmas break | End of year panel | Mahfouz reviews
31 December: Literary quiz | Looking ahead | Coetzee story | UK books of the year roundup

go to weblog

return to main archive

       Literary quiz

       More end of year fun (?) ..... Well, at least it's a bit more creative than most of the year-that-was literary quizzes: the Telegraph offers their "special post-Christmas quiz" Answers overleaf

       (Un-registered (i.e. sensible) readers won't be able to click-through to the answers; use this link instead.)

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Looking ahead

       A variety of 2004-previews (of what's going to be published) have been appearing. Odds and ends of interest, though our eyes tend to glaze over in reading these sorts of things -- so, for example, when perusing Christina Patterson's Preview of 2004: Fiction in The Independent (26 December), which begins with quite a few books long available in the US.
       A bit more interesting: "Suzi Feay casts a jaundiced eye over the publishers' catalogues" in When the proof is in the padding (The Independent, 28 December) -- though the eye doesn't seem very jaundiced to us: "More frequently the hype is justified", she finds. (Hype justified ? She must be kidding.)

       Of antipodean interest: Jane Sullivan "reports on what books might be tempting us in 2004" in 2004: The first chapter (The Age, 27 December) -- not that we'll see a lot of these titles in the US or UK.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Coetzee story

       As previously reported at the Elegant Variation, the story recent Nobel laureate J.M.Coetzee read 20 November at the New York Public Library as the Robert B. Silvers Lecture, As a Woman Grows Older, is printed, appropriately enough, in the current issue (15 January 2004) of the periodical edited by Robert B. Silvers, The New York Review of Books (and is currently available online).

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       UK books of the year roundup

       David Robson looks at Who was the chosen one ? in the Telegraph, surveying "Fleet Street's myriad choices of Books of the Year to see who's been recommending what".

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       Christmas break

       Callously and utterly indifferent to our overworked and underpaid staff and their claims of other obligations (what could be more important ?) we usually plough constantly ahead, come rain or shine, updating the site steadily through weekends and holidays and everything else (bar the occasional regional blackout and similar technical complications).
       Unfortunately, the Christmas season defeats even us -- we just can't keep the lazy bums at it. So it is with heads bowed in great shame that we must apologise for not providing you with any new information, updates, or links for the next week or so.

       Expect the return of regular posting to the Literary Saloon (and new reviews, and updates to the old) around 31 December.

       In the meantime: season's greetings, merry merry, etc., etc. May your Christmases see you receive many fine books, and here's hoping you find time to read some !

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       End of year panel

       Alex Good (of goodreports-fame) organised an end-of-year panel, getting together a few people from a variety of literary sites and weblogs to comment on the year that was. Participants were: Alex Good, Maud Newton, Bookslut-Jessa Crispin, prolific interviewer Robert Birnbaum (who also chronicles a reader's progress), and some guy from the complete review.

       The full transcript is now available here (or also at goodreports.net, here).

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

---

       Mahfouz reviews

       Over 1100 titles under review, of which a large percentage was originally written in foreign languages -- but not a single title under review at the complete review was originally written in Arabic. Until now, that is. We've finally gotten around to tackling some Arabic fiction, and unimaginatively chose the only Arab Nobel literature laureate, Naguib Mahfouz.
       Not a bad choice, it seems -- and we did at least go straight for the magnum opus, The Cairo Trilogy, consisting of:

• Palace Walk
• Palace of Desire
• Sugar Street

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

       Short Books profile

       In today's issue of The Observer, Robert McCrum profiles young British publisher Short Books (and founders Aurea Carpenter and Rebecca Nicolson) in Short and sweet.
       We're fans of the semi-diminutive publisher (and have a couple of their titles under review, notably Gregory Dart's Unrequited Love and Thomas Munch-Petersen's Fatal Error).
       The forthcoming title we're most interested in ? No question: Gilbert Adair does Michael Jackson (the spring catalogue promises the subtitle: "or the Melancholy of Anatomy", while the Amazon.co.uk page (where you can pre-order the book) says it's: "the Anatomy of Disfigurement"), due out in April.

(Posted by: complete review)    - permanent link -

previous entries (11 - 20 December 2003)

archive index

- return to top of the page -

© 2003 the complete review


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