I bought two novels by Ismail Kadare from Barnes & Noble over the weekend, they were impulse purchases, as most of my purchases tend to be, bought along with the current Saint Anne’s Review that’s got a story by the lady who moderates my workshop—but I am now thinking of returning them, not because I [...]
I hesitated some time, not knowing whether to open these memoirs at the beginning or at the end, i. e., whether to start with my birth or with my death. Granted, the usual practice is to begin with one’s birth, but two considerations led me to adopt a different method: the first is that, properly [...]
The thesis behind Natural Novel, the debut novel by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov:
My immodest desire is to mold a novel of beginnings, a novel that keeps starting, promising something, reaching page 17 and then starting again. The idea or nucleus of this kind of novel can be found in classical philosophy, and mostly in the [...]
Sartorialist, I hope I look as good as this lady if you and I ever run into each other in the street.
*
Meanwhile, I’ve added new fiction openers to my Shelf from books that I bought or pilfered from work in the last month: Mariama Bâ, Thomas Bernhard, Roberto Bolaño, Péter Esterházy, Gabriel Josipovici, Georges Perec, Laura Restrepo, and [...]
First sentences from Witold Gombrowicz and Margeurite Yourcenar have been added to my Shelf, as well as a couple of pieces from Franz Kafka’s and Robert Walser’s collections of short prose writings.
My desk at home has been moved to another corner of the room and tidied up. The pile of books to the left are [...]
Just added new first sentences up on my Shelf from works by Paul LaFarge, Nathanael West, and Monique Wittig, as well as more by Italo Calvino and Rainer Maria Rilke.
Enjoy.
. . . of Pär Lagerkvist’s The Dwarf and one of Dashiell Hammett’s stories in The Continental Op are now up on my Shelf.
Have a great weekend!
. . . on my Shelf from Italo Calvino, Eileen Chang, Julien Gracq, Franz Kafka, Lautréamont, Alberto Manguel, Albert Sánchez Piñol, and Rainer Maria Rilke.
Enjoy, read and write well, and see you in the new year.
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is [...]
More links.
And the first few sentences of works by David Albahari, Charles Baudelaire, Edward Carey, Lydia Davis, Ha Jin, Henry James, Pierre Michon, and W. G. Sebald in the Shelf page.
I’ll try to update these pages every weekend, so keep checking in!
A loud solitude occurs at one o'clock in the morning.
E-mail me: loudsolitude (at) gmail (dot) com.
Surprise me: Amazon wish list.
