Archive | December 2008
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Best First Line In A Film Review
Kenneth Turan’s review of Valkyrie has this great first line. Hollywood and the people who brought you World War II have been making beautiful music together for decades, and “Valkyrie,” the new Tom Cruise vehicle, doesn’t disturb that melody.
Author Interview Shows – El publico lee
I was watching El publico lee on Canal Sur the other day and I began to think about who this show differed from some of the others I’ve seen in the recent past on in the US. For those of you who don’t know, El publico lee is a Spanish author interview show. But it [...]
Bolaño, Enrique Lihn, and Jorge Edwards
I found one review and one story whose discovery were perfectly timed. The first, is a review in Letras Libres of a new book by Jorge Edwards. The second is a short story Meeting with Enrique Lihn by Bolaño in the New Yorker. The two items coincide nicely because the Bolaño story, although not particularly [...]
The Informer – 1935
Each era makes bad films in its own way and with its own conventions that come from accepted styles of acting and writing that when used well still work 70 years latter, but when misused make a film laughable remnant of a time long past. The Informer commits several sins that it make it hard [...]
Munich
I’m not too interested in whether Munich is a good film (in the sense of well shot, well acted it is) but in what way Spielberg questions the use of violence, since throughout the movie his characters express, hesitation, and finally those still living refuse to have anything to do with violence. Particularly, it is [...]
Mataharis
Maybe its as a relation of a PI (a Pinkerton Man) or just someone steeped in noir, I find the reworking of the detective story fascinating. In Icíar Bollaín’s Mataharis the detective is no longer the tough loner, instead she is a searcher, at times disillusioned, but in control, or at least close to controlling, [...]
Micro Fiction or Star Trek Fiction (sp)
I always find it fascinating when Star Trek can inspires literary art that really has nothing to do with sci-fi. A few weeks ago, or was it a month now, La Jornada published this bit of fun. 2.- Su cuerpo llega mal acomodado: debe caminar con las orejas, hablar por las uñas, orinar por la [...]
Horacio Castellanos Moya Interviews
I was on the Talpajocote blog and found links to some interviews with Horacio Castellanos Moya. Each are ten minutes long and worth watching. In the first, from a Spanish TV station, he talks about how he traveled around Central America when he was young, hoping that the country would become democratic and eventually gave [...]
Ana María Matute in El País
Ana María Matute has a new book out and El País has given it a great review. If you have never read her work, she is definitely worth it. Her sparse short stories are excellent. Her name often comes up around Nobel time (although that may just be in Spain). If you are unfamiliar with [...]
Mexico’s Bestsellers for 2008
The LA Times has a list of Bestsellers in Mexico for 2008. Mostly they are are imports from the US (3 different Stefanie Myers books) and histories of Mexican Politics. Only one book really caught my eye and that is Jorge Volpi’s El Jardín Devastado.
Labyrinth of Solitude – 50 Years Latter
As Scott at Conversational Reading noted, there is a long review of the 50th anniversary of the Labyrinth of Solitude in Letras Libres for those of you who can read it, it is worth the time. If you only read English, I’ll give a quick summary. I haven’t read the book since I was in [...]
New New Zealand Writing – Elizabeth Catton
The Outing is just a brief story, no more than 1500 words, but it is a fun read with a dark and sharp humor. The story, in its briefness, naturally leaves much unsaid, but that briefness is just enough to lead the reader into the richest of questions, those that expand the story and are [...]
Amitav Ghosh On The CBC
The Millions points to an Amitav Ghosh interview on the CBC. Considering I have just finished Sea of Poppies, it is well timed.
Tirana Memoria (sp)
Tirana Memoria Horacio Castellanos Moya Tirana Memoria is the latest novel by the El Salvadoran novelest Horacio Castellanos Moya, who also published a translation of his novel Senselessness (Insensatez) in English this year. Tirana Memoria, although fictional, is about the 1944 overthrow of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez and takes place over a month and a [...]
Year in Reading Hermano Cerdo Style
Hermano Cerdo is publishing a year in reading much like the Million’s. It is in Spanish, of course, except the Diaz piece, but the most enteresting thing is how many of the readers mention English language books (not translations), not just Spanish Language books. This is a little different from the Millions and gives it [...]
Castellanos Moya on Words Without Borders
Words Without borders features a blog post by Horacio Castellanos Moya. In the post he describes the death threats he received after the publication of Revulsion: Thomas Bernhard in San Salvador and forced him to stay away from El Salvador for years.
Multi-Dimensional Chinese Poetry
I’m still working my way through fascinating Su Hui poem, but it is an interesting idea.Written to be read left to right, right to left, up and down and diagonally, David Hinton has attempted to not only translate, but recreate the diagrammatic poem in English. This is a case where the translation looses something, not [...]
The Fifty Minute Mermaid – in the TLS
The TLS has a review of Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s book The Fifty Minute Mermaid, which sounds at the same time funny, magical, and yet subversive. It is published in a side by side edition in English and Gaelic and sounds fun. after she had stumbled across the greatest discovery of all – something even more [...]
Kafka’s Workplace Writings
When I think of reading something like Kafka’s workplace writings (he was in the insurance trade; how much more boring could it get) I get the chills and think, thank goodness I’m not a literary scholar. I’m sure it has some value, but I’d rather hear a 30 minute interview give me a survey than [...]
Murray Bail at The Quarterly Conversation
There is a review of Murray Bail at The Quarterly Conversation. I’m always leery of comparisons to Borges because they seldom turn out to be true. The writer always has the intellectual elements, playing with texts, playing with the notions of knowledge, yet they lack the precision and the dedication to the narrative that is [...]
