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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, Oct. 11, 2001; 2 p.m. EDT
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.
Dirda's name appears weekly in The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a fat literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be writing a lighthearted essay about the joys and burdens of living in a house filled with way too many books. Although he holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda is still smart enough to be an unabashed fan of "The Simpsons," noting that "the show's genius derives from its details." He also loves P.G. Wodehouse, intellectual history, children's books and locked-room mysteries – just the sort of range you'd expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner for distinguished criticism.
These days, Dirda says he spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth and daydreaming ("my only real pastime"). Otherwise he just reads books and writes about them, with occasional visits to secondhand bookstores in search of treasures. He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer working on his reviews and Readings columns. "Do not imagine that I regard my taste for literary artifacts as anything but shameless and vulgar," Dirda says, "I have sunk so low as to covet Edward Gorey coffee mugs. I yearn for a bust of Dante to place on a bookcase."
The transcript follows.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Michael Dirda: Welcome, once again, to Dirda on Books. I'm overworked this week, with no let up in sight: Talks on the weekend, freelance assignments to finish, a trip to Lafayette, Louisiana to the Deep South Festival--ah, the literary life!
My colleague--technically boss, but why dwell on that--Marie Arana has just had her memoir, American Chica, nominated for a National Book Award, which is happy news. Less happy is Naipaul winning the Nobel--an unimaginative choice and an unlikeable man. But I admit to having read very little of the man. I do recall that he once told an interviewer that he gave up reviewing books because it made absolutely no difference. He's probably right, but I think people write about books in an almost Gnostic way: Through an excess of love for reading that spills over into writing about books.(The Gnostic creation, if I've got this right, takes place because of "God's" plenitude, which escapes him and spills over to create lesser beings, all the way down to us and below.) ANyway, it's time to look at this week's queries and quibbles.
College Park, Md.:
Michael, I came across a new book, in the London Sunday Times, by Joan Schenkar:"TRULY WILDE; THE UNSETTLING STORY OF DOLLY WILDE, OSCAR'S UNUSUAL NIECE." I'm impressed just by the title but have you (or maybe some of the others on this chat)encountered this new book?
Michael Dirda: I remember the book coming out, and I even think we reviewed it, as part of a WIlde round-up. Maybe Karl BEckson was the reviewer? Wish I could remember for sure. I'm a Wilde fan, though not as devoted as some. I love his letters, wonderfully edited by Rupert Hart-DAvis, and now updated by Merlin Holland (Oscar's grandson).
Washington, D.C.:
Hello Mr. Dirda. Can you tell us about Alan Furst's novel that's just come out in paperback? The title escapes me, I'm afraid.
Michael Dirda: THe Polish Officer--an elegantly written spy thriller set during World War II.
Takoma Park, Md.:
I need something weighty to keep me occupied on a long flight to China. No Amy Tan, please, but is there something appropriate I should take along? I've already got the short novel you recommended a month or so ago, but I need something long, fiction or nonfiction, as well.
And no Pearl Buck, either.
Thanks.
Michael Dirda: How about Jonathan Spence, our leading cultural Sinologist? There are several longer studies that might appeal, including his much admired history of 20th-century China, called, I think, The Gate of Heavenly Peace.
Swim-two-birds:
Michael - For perhaps obvious reasons, I've been thinking about pulling out some Paul Bowles, especially "The Spider's House" or "Let It Come Down," both of which I prefer to "The Sheltering Sky" (though that's awfully good too and has maybe the best title of any novel ever, though "As I Lay Dying" is right up there). Among Bowles' recurring themes, to oversimplify, is the inability of Americans to understand Islamic culture. Have you read much of him? What's your take?
Michael Dirda: ACtually the best title of all time is Persuasion.
I've read a handful of Bowles stories, including the notorious Pages from Cold Point (a son seduces his father) and some of the autobiography, but never read The Sheltering Sky. It all seemed a little too grim for me, at the time. The Bowles I love is Jane: Two Serious Ladies is a wonderfully funny, camp novel. But I should go back to Paul--there is a new Collected STories coming out this fall, so that may give me a chance.
Fellow Nobel Dissenter:
Well, Naipul is an unimaginative choice. But A Bend in the River was well worth reading. I lost interest after that. Having been in India, I'd recommend Narayan instead. Such wisdom AND amusement in the malgudi novels.
Michael Dirda: Thanks. I like Narayan. Always liked to think of him walking around New York, where I gather he spent much of his life.
Lenexa, Kans.:
Mr. Dirda,
Sometimes I try writers who have remained popular for a time. Recently listened to a Sedaris audio -- some funny stuff: Following a friend to Normandy, he reasoned if an infant can gradually pick up French over time, why couldn't he?
Sedaris wound up telling the butcher, "See you again soon yesterday." Once buying calf brains for supper, pointed and asked "Is that the cow's thoughts?" Sedaris was soon "the village idiot."
QUESTION1: Did you begin French in high school or at Oberlin?
QUESTION2: Who had the greater mind: Fichte or Schopenhauer? (Just clowning). Thanks.
Michael Dirda: BEgan French in high school. I tried some of Sedaris and he didn't work for me--but I was in a sour mood at the time and the friend I was with was raving about him, so I doubt I gave him a fair shot.
Schopenhauer, of course. Do you know the little Harper Torchbook of his essays on literature? Wonderful stuff. He writes epigrammatic sentences, rather like Emerson's. Someone told me, though, that an editor put the essays together out of notebook chunks. Don't know if this is true. Still, his essay on style is terrific. He once said that reading books was thinking with someone else's head instead of one's own. He said it more sharply of course.
Clinton, N.Y.:
Michael,
What do you know about the Clarendon Dickens? I have the full set of the Oxford Illustrated Dickens but have my eye on the more scholarly Clarendon edition. What are your thoughts?
Michael Dirda: Would give much to own the Clarendon anything. The C Dickens is the standard scholarly edition now, superbly edited, etc. But the volumes are expensive--I think close to a hundred bucks apiece. I don't like the Oxford Illustrated Dickens--the type is too small and the pages are translucent. I read Bleak House, for instance, in a Riverside Paperack, edited by the Tillotsons, who were THE experts. Kathleen T went on to be a main editor of the Clarendon after Geoffrey died. Geoffrey was a twork on th eOxford History of English LIterautre volume devoted to the mid Victorians; his chapters were later published posthumously. Well, worth reading.
Bethesda, Md.:
What is the current thinking about C.P. Snow?
There was a time when I religiously read through his Strangers and Brothers series and found them very enjoyable, but I'm not sure if it was my age (early 20s), my environment (graduate student in science at an Ivy University), or the era: mid60s to early 70s. Is any thing written still about his two cultures hypothesis?
Michael Dirda: I've never read Snow, excpet for The Two Cultures lecture. I have a feeling that that talk is a cultural monument referred to, but no longer much read. Doubtless the same is true for Snow's novels, though ANthony Burgess found much to admire in them. But then Burgess also loved Sinclair Lewis and Herman Wouk--Anthony was nothing is not wide-ranging in his tastes.
Mount Carmel, Pa.:
What is your honest (haw! haw!) opinion of the New York Times Book Review, its choice of books to review, its chosen reviewers (some with blatant biases for or against books they review), and its apparent political, social and other "unliterary" biases?
Michael Dirda: The TBR is still the book review of record and as such holds a unique position in American letters. You may find it dull or unadventurous, but every author wants to see his book mentioned in its pages. It may have biases, but as a part of a great newspaper it really doesn't indulge them as often as you seem to suggest. By contrast, what could be more idiosyncratic, i.e., personal and biased, than the stuff reviewed on The Washington Post Book World's notorious page 15?
Yonkers, N.Y.:
Mr. Dirda,
Look for your thoughts here. Have you read Blue Angel by Francine Prose? It seems a wicked piece on teaching writing on the college level. I'm wondering if I should start it. What to do you think of Francine Prose?
Michael Dirda: I reviewed Blue Angel. It is a wicked satire of university life, tighter and more concicse than my favorite: The Lecturer's Tale, by James Hynes. I like the book a lot, though I thought it grew obvious in its final pages. Francine Prose is a remarkable novelisst and critic; and a good blurbist too, I might add.
Washington, D.C.:
I just finished the new novel from one of my favorite authors, Martha Grimes. (I loved it!) I was wondering why the Post never reviews her books, given that she lives in our city.
Michael Dirda: I don't know. We used to review them all. But I don't oversee mysteries any more. I'll mention your query to the mysteries editor.
Arlington, Va.:
While browsing for reading material for my 14-year old, whose preferences tilt toward short stories -- the shorter the better -- I was saddened to see that not one of the many bookstores I visited had any Saki in print. Can it be that this master of pith has totally fallen into oblivion?
Michael Dirda: I'd be surprised. I think Dover Dollar Books reprints some Saki. Also Prion Humorous Classics has a nice hardcover selection (published only a year or so back). It's pretty easy to find Saki in second hand stores. There was an old VIking paperback, with stories chosen by Graham Greene. Was it Saki whose last words, jiust before being picked off by a sniper duringing World War I, were supposedly: "Put out that damn cigarette, you fool..."
Takoma Park, Md.:
On the excellent mobylives site (www.mobylives.com) which tracks INTERESTING book and literary news, there's a running count of how many reviews the NYT book review has printed of its own contributors and staffers books. Or maybe it is just NYT contributors not limited to the book review itself. The count is VERY high and the level of puffery rather blatant though not surprising.
Michael Dirda: INteresting. Book World is also lambasted for reviewing, and reviewing prominently, Post staffers. Ah,yes puffery--but what would book reviewing be without it? Bland and innocuous. THat's a joke, sort of.
Mount Carmel, Pa.:
What's to hate about Sinclair Lewis? Too unsubtle? Too down to Earth to suit today's literary/political propagandists with an eye on advancing into public relations, maybe?
Michael Dirda: I like Lewis myself--it's just that he's out of fashion like Snow. "We shall yet make these United States a moral nation." (Elmer Gantry--last line)
Madison, Wis.:
So what are your thoughts on the choice of V.S Naipaul for the Nobel?
A related question: I'm sorry that R.K. Narayan, whom I think was a better writer than Sir Vidia, never was recognized by Stockholm. Do you agree?
Michael Dirda: Yes, see above
Lexington, Ky.:
Hi Michael,
Just got back from London and Ireland, and it was interesting to read the UK and Irish papers take on the terrorist attacks. I have been reading your chats also while abroad and many seem to be looking for something literary and pertinent to read. I would recommend Louis MacNeice's "Autumn Journal," a novella length narrative poem written in 1938 about the gathering war storms throughout Europe, and how one could be concerned and at the same time carry on one's regular life and concerns. It's a wonderful poem that seems very relevant today as it addresses many of our contemporary fears while insisting we must lead "regular" lives.
Out of London's literary season a terrific new novel by Ian McEwan, "An Atonement" about England '35-'45, love, class, war and a great long piece about the evacuation of Dunkirk.
Michael Dirda: Alas, the McEwan has been assigned to someone other than yours truly. I did review Amsterdam a couple years back. Very nice work, if somehow minor.
I adore Autumn Journal--it's one of my favorite books and should be better known. Great quotes in it about teaching Greek, etc. THanks for reminding all of us to take a look at this terrific poem.
Arlington, Va.:
Hi Michael. I am reading Rushdie's Midnight's Children and was wondering what flaws, if any, you thought the book had. Thanks.
Michael Dirda: Obviously, that I didn't write it.
22201:
Hi Michael:
I just finished my last book about half an hour ago and am already itching for a new one. I love the art of writing, so am looking for something original and well written. I was thinking The Blue Flower since it's gotten so much praise on this chat.
Any other suggestions? (Just finished Byatt's Possession, too)
Michael Dirda: Go for Penelope F. Beautiful writing; elliptical novel. Her masterpiece.
Takoma Park, Md.:
Mr. Dirda,
On the subject of children's books, did you ever read Walter R. Brooks "Freddy the Pig" series? I think they're great and they are coming back into print (Overlook Press).
My daughter and I have been doing a lot of reading together while the hubby blasts the news relentlessly (trying to counter the nightmares she's been having).
Michael Dirda: Yes, my 10 year old's been having nightmares too--but I think more because he's been watching horror movies that his older brothers bring home.
I read Freddy the Detective with pleasure and always hoped that my kids would take up the series, but they didn't catch on. Same thing happened with the Oz books--only my youngest has read more than The Wizard and he now seems to have moved beyond them. Two days ago he started The War of the Worlds.
Lenexa, Kans.:
Didn't intend to cast aspersions on Fichte - -admire him. I was trying to follow with an unrelated question -- perhaps a tendency of mine -- mentioned last time. Sorry.
I read Schopenhauer's Studies in Pessimism in high school -- was profoundly affected. I think you once movingly mentioned reading him at the time of your father's death.
Michael Dirda: I did read him while myh father was dying of cancer. IN fact, I could read no one else, apart from some French aphorists (and even there I glommed on to their world-weary and gloomy outlook on life).
Takoma Park, Md.:
Narayan vs Naipaul:
Remember that judges in large groups tend to distrust comedy, despite the fact that comedy is serious and treats serious issues. Sir Vidia is nothing if not solemnly seriously serious you betcha, where Narayan wrapped his deep considerations of everything in a comic shell.
Hence I'd bet that Atwood will never get the prize, despite Handmaid's Tale, because of her (dark) humor.
The Academy Awards suffer fromt the same tendency I think.
Michael Dirda: Sounds spot on to me.
Washington, D.C.:
I've been wading through weighty philosophy lately and tend to get my lowbrow fix elsewhere; could you reccomend some good middlebrow fiction?
Michael Dirda: Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy. Laurie Colwin's short stories.
Bethesda, Md.:
Have you read the new Salman Rushdie ("Fury")? All the reviews I've read have been pretty negative. If you've read it, what did you think?
Michael Dirda: I believed the reveiws and didn't read it.
Alexandria, Va.:
Well, they've awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature again and of course Eudora Welty didn't get it since she has oh so conveniently died before they made their decision. As you can tell, I'm harboring resentment. I do have a couple of things I wanted to ask you, though. One, I've never read Naipaul. The only book of his I have is "Beyond Belief, Islamic Excursions Among the Converted People." Are you familiar with this book and would you recommend it or would another of his works be a better intro?
Two, I saw a list of writers who did not receive the Nobel and it included: Tolstoy, Proust, Hardy, Chekhov, Ibsen, Joyce, Conrad, Kafka and Brecht. Wow! Now, Kafka I can understand because didn't he become well known/read only after his death? But the others? These are giants! So my question is, do you think the people awarding these prizes are a few bricks short?
Michael Dirda: On Naipaul: A House for Mr. Biswas is generally regarded as his masterpiece. Finding the Center may be his best nonfictoin.
No, I've been on committees that give awards and there's always a tendency to avoid the edges, the extremes, and pick someone who's everyone second or third choice and nobody's first. And sometimes the Nobel people can surprise--Beckett, for instance.
Morgantown, W.V.:
I have two questions, Mr. Dirda:
First, I recently finished reading Saul Bellow's Ravelstein. I found it quite enjoyable despite its too-revealing moments. Which Bellow novels would you consider most worth reading?
Second, I'm working on broadening my library, including Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Chamber. I know Fadiman and Major's Lifetime Reading Plan recommends David Hawkes' Story of the Stone; any others of similar (or better) quality?
As with others, you have my thanks for both your weekly column and the Thursday afternoon literary distraction!
Michael Dirda: Bellow: Herzog. Adventures of Augie March.
SEcond, Aren't these different translations of the same book? Or am I misremembering again? Hawkes's is definitely a translator.
As everyone knows, I'm a great admnirer of Arthur Waley's translation of The Tale of GEnji.
Mount Carmel, Pa.:
Sounds as if Sinclair Lewis is far from dated with that line (you quoted) suggesting we have moral mountains to climb. We may not be the only nation so engaged but we are the most powerful, influencial, and potentially constructive -- or destructive. Which path are the polls following at the moment?
Michael Dirda: Lewis was being ironic--Gantry's first sentence is "Elmer Gantry was drunk." The novel chronicles the life of a hypocritical hell-raising preacher. Lots of fun. The one that seems more apposite might be It Can't Happen Here--about a fascist take-over of the American govenment.
Cambridge, Mass.:
Many people, having not read Naipaul, mistake his abrasive personality for his literary tone. That's not the case -- read A Bend in the River or A House For Mr. Biswas.
Nothing wrong with taking a bleak view of post-colonialism. And Naipaul's travel writing is great, consisting of leisurely conversation. Beyond Belief, his journey through the non-Arab Islamic world, is timely and wonderful.
At least they didn't pick another Dario Fo! What a joke ...
Michael Dirda: Thanks. I'm sure you're right.
Washington, D.C.:
When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1886 it was for many years referred to as a "short novella." What's the significance in not calling it a straight out "novel?"
And also, me being the maritime lover that I am, do you think there will be any books coming out about the sinking and NOW raising of the KURSK submarine? If there are any out now, I would like to know.
Thanks.
Michael Dirda: It was too short to be anovel. A novella is a short novel or long short story.
Don't know about the Kursk--I suppose there will be books.
Somewhere, USA:
Estimable Essayist,
If, for example, you had to write a 6 page essay on Emerson (Yes, Emerson in the entire), what would you choose to focus on?
Not that I have a paper to write like this, just curious.
Michael Dirda: I'd write my review of Robert Richardson's biography of Emerson called something like A Mind on Fire. And I'd quote a lot from Emerson--"the more he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons'--and "when we skate on thin ice, our safety lies in our speed."
Washington, D.C.:
Just wanted to throw out a book recommendation -- Motherless Brooklyn. I'm loving it.
Michael Dirda: By Jonathan Lethem. Thanks
College Park, Md. again:
I also wanted to inquire about "DEATH AT THE PRIORY: LOVE, SEX & MURDER IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND" by James Ruddick.
Michael Dirda: Sounds great, but I don't know the book.
Swim-two-birds, again:
Michael - Some months ago, you solicited readers' suggestions for works of art that are good for coping with heartbreak, or something like that. I suspect I speak for more than just myself when I ask whether you checked out any of the stuff suggested, and whether it achieved the desired effect. Of course, if you'd rather not go into it, that's cool, too.
Michael Dirda: I did look at some of the books, or at least made a pile of them by my bedside. Ultimately, I wrote that Readings column--was it for August?--about how books didn't really offer much in the way of solace, that they taught complexity rather than clarity, and weren't finally guides to decision-making at all. What is that Faulkner line? "They survived." That's about all I can say right now. And even about that I sometimes have my doubts. Anway I've decided to turn my gaze outward and write more about matters other than my inner storms.
Alexandria, Va.:
Could you recommend some good spy novels, both fiction and non. The current state of the world has got me thinking about covert operations.
Michael Dirda: Sure. From older to newer:
ERskine Childers, The Riddle of the Sands
Somerset Maugham, Ashenden
E.Phillips Oppenheim, The Great Impersonation
Eric Ambler, Journey into Fear
Graham GReene, The Ministry of Fear
Ian Fleming, From Russia with Love
John Le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier,Spy
Len Deighton, The Ipcress FIle
Charles McCarry, The TEars of Autumn
Crystal City, Va.:
I started reading Peter Ackroyd's biography of Thomas More, but his penchant for quoting contemporaries in the language and spelling they used, including using v for u and vice versa, was off-putting. Is it worth it?
Michael Dirda: I've read a fair amount of Ackroyd and like him as a novelist and biographer--I'd stick with it. But there are other good More bios too: RIchard Marius, R. W Chambers.
17851:
What is meant by "Gravity's Rainbow," and where did its invisible author go?
Michael Dirda: The arc of a V-2 missle. Its author lives in New York and writes, most recently "Mason & Dixon."
Somewhere, USA:
"Man will not only endure but prevail." wasn't it?
Michael Dirda: There's that, from the Nobel speech, but I"m thinking of his comment on Dilsey and the black characters in nhis book. Or am I hallucinating again? It's not fair that I shouldn't be 34 forever.
Another Random Recommendation:
Albion's Seed, David Hackett Fischer.
Fine explanation of the four basic English cultures that were imported here during Colonial times, and how they underly and explain regional differences in America along with much about our national character.
VERY long, but non-gradstudents can skip many of the tables and footnotes and read the resulting 250-pager.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Somewhere, USA:
What are the best of the ancient Rome/Greek classics?
Michael Dirda: Gosh. Why don't you buy or check out from the library The Norton ANthology of Classical LIterature, edtied by Bernard KNox? Or just start with Homer--Fagles, Fitzgerald or Lattimore translations. Or a good book on the pre-socratics: Character is fate.
Michael Dirda: Well, time's up for this week. Thanks for checking in with Dirda on Books. See you next Thursday at this time for more literary chat and chatter. Till then, keep reading!
washingtonpost.com:
That was the last question for today.
In anticipation of the December release of the film "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings," Michael Dirda will be hosting a discussion for each book in Tolkien's Middle-Earth series, starting with "The Hobbit" on Nov. 2 at 2 p.m.
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