a travelogue
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08/12/08
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Book:
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The Silent Cry: A Novel by Kenzaburo Oë
I have a feeling that this translation is not the best in the world (though as far as I know it’s the only). Oe gets quite a bit of praise for the poetics of his language, but I didn’t really …continue reading »
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01/31/08
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Book:
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The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
I haven’t had a chance to read much lately, I’ve been busy writing, which is good I guess, but if you don’t read you’ll never be a very good writer. I knew a good Murakami novel would make me drop …continue reading »
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09/09/07
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Book:
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The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You by Frank Stanford
Hands down the best American book of the 20th century. A bold claim I know, but I stand by it. There’s a great little essay on Frank Standford at Alsop Review “It was Lorca who noted that poets have to …continue reading »
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09/09/07
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Book:
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Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
“All forms of colour were dissolved in a pearl-grey haze; there were no contrasts, no shading any more, only flowing transitions with the light throbbing through them, a single blur from which only the most fleeting of visions emerged.” This …continue reading »
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09/09/07
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Book:
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Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
I happen to love Murakami and Dance Dance Dance is a nice intro if you haven’t read him before. It’s fairly straightforward (for Murakami anyway), but still has those quintessential Murakami elements — a disaffected middle-aged man with enough quirks …continue reading »
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09/09/07
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Book:
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Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Probably my favorite Murakami book (though I haven’t read them all)continue reading »
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09/09/07
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Book:
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If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Amazing book that is somehow highly cerebral and yet still gorgeously written and has more soul than some James Brown records. A book within a book within a book… William Burroughs has a short story where a man starts off …continue reading »
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09/09/07
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Book:
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South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
Here’s a nice quote from a review: “In the heightened state of perception that exists just before the fall into adolescence, (for Murakami a place of sexual missteps and dark self-knowledge), where the slant of winter sun and every fiber …continue reading »
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10/15/07
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Book:
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The Cave by José Saramago
Not one of Saramago’s better books, but still enjoyable. Saramago in the Salon review: "We think that this so-called reality we invent is not only the only reality that exists, but the only reality that we want. "continue reading »
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10/15/07
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Book:
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77 Dream Songs by John Berryman
Keats said beauty is truth, but then talking of beauty fell out of fashion and creating the beautiful fell out with it. Perhaps we need to learn how to dream again.continue reading »