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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, Dec. 20, 2001; 2 p.m. EST
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.
Each week Michael Dirda's name appears -- in unmistakably big letters -- on page 15 of The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a hefty literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be turning out one of his idiosyncratic essays or describing his travels to, say, a P.G. Wodehouse Convention. Although he earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain a myopic 12-year-old's passion for reading. He particularly enjoys comic novels, intellectual history, locked-room mysteries, innovative fiction of all sorts -- just the sort of range you'd expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner in criticism (1993).
These days, Dirda says he still spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth, listening to music (Glenn Gould, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, The Tallis Scholars), and daydreaming ("my only real hobby"). He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, working. In the fall of 2000 Indiana University Press published "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments," a selection from Dirda's Book World columns. He hopes to bring out a companion volume soon.
Dirda joined The Post in 1978, having grown up in the working-class steel town of Lorain, Ohio and graduated with highest honors in English from Oberlin College. His favorite writers are Stendhal, Chekhov, Jane Austen, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell and Jack Vance. He thinks the greatest novel of all time is either Murasaki Shikubu's "The Tale of Genji" or Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu." In a just world he would own Watteau's painting "The Embarkation for Cythera." He'd also like to spend six months in Florida writing a book that would become a runaway best seller, a critical success, and the hottest cinematic property of the year. A guy can daydream, right?
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.
San Francisco, Calif.:
How can I bring up Denis Dutton's review of The Skeptical Environmentalist which printed recently?
Thanks
Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! For the next hour, we'll talk about Christmas decorations, holiday travel, .... no, no, just kidding. For the next hour we'll talk about books, reading, reviews, etc. ANd so on with the show!
Bring it up? Make a comment and I'll react.
Bethesda:
Hi there,
I hope you can take my question as I'll be in a meeting at 2 p.m. I took a candlelight Xmas tour at Mount Vernon last week, and the exhibits intrigued me. I'd like to learn more about Washington.
So -- which biography on our first president would you recommend, the one by Thomas Flexner, "George Washington," or "Founding Father" by Richard Brookhiser, or yet another one?
I know there are a number of multi-volume works of Washington, but I'd like to stick to just one book. Thank you very much.
Michael Dirda: EIther of these books would be fine. There's a short paperback by Marcus Cunliffe that I'm fond of--Cunliffe being a litreary man as well as a historian (and an old friend, still much missed by all privileged tohave known him). It's James Thomas Flexner.
Bonn, Germany:
Re: children's books: you mentioned James Marshall last time. We have recently discovered Marshall's "George and Martha" series, and I was excited to find out that there is a collection, "George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends" available. Highly recommended! Our four-year-old would also like to recommend Ian Falconer's "Olivia" -- lots of fun, and beautifully done.
Question: last year I bought Pearce's "Tom's Midnight Garden" because you recommended it. I think I need help with that one, though -- what is it you like about it?
Michael Dirda: I reviewed the George and Martha omnibus back in myh children's book days. I don't know Olivia--and I suspect that I never will, as my youngest is now 11 and a boy.
Tom's Midnight Garden is so beautifully written, and its climax so heartstoppingly wonderful, I find it irresistible. But it is English and it is written for older kids, especially of a poetic nature. None of my older boys read it, or wanted to. It may well be one of those kids books that appeal more to grown ups than to kids. It's a magnificent time travel story, too, a subgenre of which I am inordinately fond. Plays into all my wistfulness, regret about paths not taken and that sort of thing.
New Haven:
Can you tell me about Tristram Shandy?
Michael Dirda: What's to tell? Nearly every modernist and post-modernist experiment with narrative and voice and plot can be found there--it's one of the world's most influential books. NOt to mention that it's funny and exasperating and really quirky and eccentric. I love it, but Dr. Johnson never thought it would last more than a generation because it was so weird.
Downtown D.C.:
I just found out I'm going to Vienna (not the one in Virginia) in February. I like to read books by local authors when I travel, or at least about local subjects. Do you have any recommendations for Austrian authors and books?
Michael Dirda: Sure, you might start with some histories: FIn de Siecle Venna, by Carl Schorske or Wittgenstein's Vienna, by STephen Toulmin and ????. As for writers, you might read Arthur Schnitzler; Joseph Roth; Karl Kraus; Hugo von Hofmansthal, and Thomas Bernhard--all very different.
Mt. Lebanon, Pa.:
Any good music history books making a debut late this season? I'm kind of looking for a Simon Winchester kind of person to write about early music: Tallis, Purcell, Handel, Pergolesi. A real life mystery, discovery, or enigma type of treatment would be great. Not the usual esoteric -- i.e., boring, dustbin collecting sort of thing. Thanks much.
Michael Dirda: Hmm. Here's a niche for some expert on early music. Robert Aubry Davis--are you listening? Or Peter Phillips?
I don't know of any such book--though Robert King did write a biography of Purcell a while back (he's also been recording Purcell's oeuvre over the past several years).
I think that the Grove Encyclopedia did have a little paperback of Renaissance composers at one time--drawn from its pages, of course.
Washington, D.C.:
Any thoughts on the death of John Knowles, author of "A Separate Peace?"
Michael Dirda: No. I liked A Separate Peace. One of the first long reviews I ever wrote was of a Knowles' novel called, I think, A Vein of Riches. It was melodramatic and readable--about a mining family--but otherwise unmemorable. His life must have been sad: To have done one's best work at an early age and be forever burdened with its stellar example.
Arlington, Va.:
After reading Iris Murdoch's The Green Knight, I recommended it to my mom, and we had a great time talking about it -- there were tons of questions to ponder about choices Murdoch made in her writing. I'd like to get my mom another Murdoch novel for Christmas, and since I'd like it to be one that I've read, I'm deciding between A Word Child and The Black Prince. Of those two, which do you recommend?
Thanks
Michael Dirda: Both are good. But you might pick The Black Prince because my colleague Chris Lehmann has chosen it for his January Book Club discussion. There's a brief write-up about the book coming in the January 6 Book World.
Washington, D.C.:
I wanted to thank you for mentioning, in your Christmas Book World column several weeks ago, that a long unavailable Michael Innes mystery (Stop Press) has been republished in Britain. I got it from Amazon UK for my sister and enjoyed the time-honored tradition of reading a gift book first myself. It gave me many chuckles; I'd forgotten how droll Innes was. I'm wondering how you happened to find out that Stop Press is available and whether you know why it, unlike most of his other books, apparently hadn't been published for years.
Michael Dirda: I searched for Stop Press (aka The Spider Strikes) for years, and mentioned on this very website that I hadn't been able to find a copy. One of my auditors--what do you call people who contribute to chats like this?--wrote me about the book, then said he had an extra copy, which I bought for what he paid for it. Yes, I too love Innes, especially Appleby's End, which I think amazingly funny.
Washington, District of Columbia:
Hi Mr. Dirda, comment allez-vous?
I just read a book titled "Embers," which I enjoyed tremondously. I believe a lot of the credit should also be given to the translator as well, brecause I did not once have the feeling I was reading a translation. I think it was orginally in Hungarian. Do you know if the author (Marai, ?) had produced other work, if so what, and are they available in English? I appreciate your time and your willingness to share your goldmine knowledge with us.
Michael Dirda: I reviewed Embers very enthusiasitically, as you may know. In fact, the book was No. 1 on our best seller list for a week, ousting The Corrections. Yes, Marai is Hungarian, and one or two of his books were published in English years ago. But Knopf is now planning to reissue several of Marai's novels, hoping he will be regarded as a master comparanble to Joseph Roth. I think you'll have to wait a while, though, to see anohter of his booksin English.
Kingstowne, Va.:
On the basis of your laudatory review, I picked up a copy of Philip Roth's "The Dying Animal." It was the first Roth book I'd bought since the '80s. Of course I was a fan of "Goodbye, Columbus," "Portnoy's Complaint," "The Breast," "Our Gang," "The Professor Of Desire," "The Ghost Writer," "The Facts," and probably a few others that I've forgotten over the years. But at some point I stopped reading him, believing that the detractors who said he kept writing the same book over and over again were right. But "The Dying Animal" was every bit as powerful, shocking and poignant as you'd written it was. So for that review I thank you. My question now is: Do you recommend any of Roth's other recent works, such as "American Pastoral," "The Human Stain," "Sabbath's Theater," etc.? As David Kepesh said in "The Ghost Writer," this guy really can turn his sentences around. Thanks
Michael Dirda: I'd go for American Pastoral and The Human Stain. Sabbath's Theater may be a bit excessive. Glad you liked The Dyhing Animal: The book really hit me hard.
Kilkenny, Ireland:
De Larrabeiti's cheerfully thuggish Borribles trilogy is being reissued next year in a collected volume. Any opinion on this controversial series of children's books? (I loved them myself.)
Michael Dirda: NOpe, never read them. ANybody else have thoughts?
Washington, D.C.:
OK, I will confess to having distinctly middle-brow taste. In the recent past, I have enjoyed Richard Russo, Penelope Fitzgerald, Richard Ford, Howard Norman, P. Roth, Stegner (Angle of Repose) and am currently reading and very much enjoying Crooked River Burning (Winegardner sp?). I find "artists" like Cormac McCarthy and Don DeLillo (sp?) pompous and insufferably self-conscious, and folks like Joyce simply impenetrable. But then I don't pretend to understand Mark Rothko or Phillip Glass either, and I am too old to care much about this particular deficit in my intellectual inventory. Now that you know a bit about my tastes, have you a new author for me to explore? Once I find a book I like, I tend to work through their collected works. Thanks for these chats; I really do learn things.
Michael Dirda: Hmm. Have you read Robertson Davies? Eudora Welty? Muriel Spark? Evelyn Waugh? All brilliant artists who write for ordinary readers.
Rockville, Md.:
OK, I'm sure you've been asked this before, but I cannot find an answer anywhere. I have a few treatments for books in my head and want to write them, but have no idea if publishers look for samples or whole books. Do they welcome unsolicited manuscripts? Can you recommend a book about this? THANKS!
Michael Dirda: Try the library. There are lots of such books. Really. Or check out The Writer's Center in Bethesda.
Toano, Va,:
I recently read Robert Hellenga's The Sixteen Pleasures, and was looking for suggestions for other "bookish" fiction. I have enjoyed Perez-Reverte, Robertson Davies, Ross King, and others, and wondered if you had any ideas of other writers who capture the appeal and the power of books and literature in their fiction. Thanks for the excellent writing -- Readings is one of my nightstand titles.
Michael Dirda: Let's see: Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler; Eco's Name of the Rose; Julian Rios's Loves that Bind; Iris Murdoch (Word Child; Black Prince; The Sea, the Sea); John Crowley's Aegypt series; Christopher Morley's Parnassus on Wheels; James Hynes's PUblish and Perish and The LEcturer's Tale....
Arlington, Va.:
Has Martin Amis's slightly standoffish personal demeanor compromised his cache in terms of lasting literary fame? He is such a prodigiously gifted writer, but will he be given proper accord when the critics look back on our era?
Michael Dirda: Who can say? He's generally regarded as a terrific writer, if an uneven novelist.
Boston, Mass.:
Not a question, just a fan letter. I love your columns and chats, and especially admire how you appear not to take yourself and your work too seriously. That's rare among you brains!
Michael Dirda: Maybe if I had more brains I"d take myself more seriously. But thank you for the kind words.
College Park, Md.:
Of the three detective writers: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane....whom would you say is the best read?
Michael Dirda: I like Chandler the best, but the world is divided between Hammett fans (lean, laconic, fast-moving prose) and Chandler aficionados(witty, baroque, sometimes hothouse prose). Spillane is fun when you're young--especially those killer surprise endings--but not really in the class of C and H.
Mt. Rainier, Md.:
Hi Michael:
Can you shed some light on author/dramatist Clyde Fitch(1865-1909)? In Fitch's relatively short career one could say he was nearly a male counterpart to Edith Wharton. The two worked together bringing Wharton's "The House of Mirth" to play form. Fitch's only novel "A Way of Life" was published in 1891. The rest of his career was consumed writing drama for the broadway stage -- many seemingly very successful at the turn of the last century. Some popular Fitch titles include the plays: "The Girl With the Green Eyes"(1902), "Barbara Frietchie"(1899) -- a civil war story, "The Girl Who Has Everything"(1906), "The Climbers"(1901).
Also Michael,
(A little correction. In the chats of Dec. 13
you said a good book for a 14-yr-old girl would be Anne of Green Gables by K.M. Peyton. The wonderful Ms. Peyton did not write AoGG. It was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery.)
Michael Dirda: First the correction: Yes, I know--I got bollixed between Flambards (Peyton) and Greengables (Montgomery). Wouldn't have happened if I'd had at least one daughter, as I always hoped, instead of three unruly sons.
I know nothing about Clyde Fitch, though he sounds like a charcter in a Dreiser novel.
D.C.:
Michael,
After a recent trip to Dublin, I'm itching for some good Irish fiction. Beyond "Angela's Ashes" I'm sort of stumped. Any suggestions.
Michael Dirda: Hmm. I'm glad you regard Angela's Ashes as fiction; most memoirs are.
There's lots to read: Frank O'Connor's short stories; Sean O'CAsey's plays; Flann O'Brien's comic novels and nonfiction (try The Best of Myles; SEamus Heaney's poems. ANd BEckett and Joyce and Shaw of course. Among contemporaries, try Edna O'Brien and John Banville.
Downtown D.C.:
I know you have some fondness for science fiction and fantasy, and I'm hoping for some advice -- looking for time travel-themed books for my wife, who loves time travel stories like Jack Finney's but doesn't like futuristic stories (i.e., time traveling from past to present day, present to past -- future need not apply). I've seen a lot of time travel books mentioned but we're both often disappointed by good plots poorly told -- any ideas for books I should look for? Thanks! And enjoy your holidays.
Michael Dirda: I'm not quite clear on what it isn't your wife likes, but you might start with H.G. Well's The Time Machine--a wonderful short novel, as well as a classic. Most of the great time travel fiction is in stories: Robert Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps"; Alfred Bester's "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed"; etc. Jack Finney has written many stories about time travel: A recent collection was called ABout Time. You might also try his novel The Woodrow Wilson Dime.
Ankh-Morpork, Sto:
Follow up to last week's question. I've been hooked on reading the series in order ever since the re-release of the first books in the series (Color of Magic through Mort). I've since somehow landed my hands on both Eric and Moving Pictures. Disaster, though, since there is a two book gap (Reaper Man and Witches Abroad) that I can't find, but am willing to wait a little while for before picking up one of the newer books.
So, what would be a good "break book" from the Discworld series? I've already read through Gaiman's works, and enjoyed them, and I'm a fan of Hitchhiker, but it's been recently that I've reread that series, and Dirk Gently. Is there another author out there that fills into the sort of British sci-fi, humor, fantasy genre? Any American writers that write with a similar feel? Are there releases on the horizon (other than the retooled manuscript found on Douglas Adams computer) that would fall into this kind of category?
Michael Dirda: Tom Holt--look for Expecting Someone Taller, about a nerdy guyh who gets hold of the Ring of the Nibelungs; or Flying Dutch, about the Flying Dutchman; or any of several others, only a few of which are available in the US. You might also go back and look for the early short fiction of Robert Sheckley--a god of humorous, ironic sf.
Washington, D.C.:
I quite enjoy Robertson Davies, and will try the others. "Ordinary readers" of the world unite!
Michael Dirda: thanks
Alexandria, Va.:
Because the holidays are upon us, and many will be traveling, I have a curious question: Can you read on plane flights? If so, what suits you best in mid-air?
Michael Dirda: Sure, I can read almostg anywhere. I usually read whatever I'm about to review, but find that poetry and collections of letters work well on plane flights.
Hopewell, N.J.:
What nonfiction books did you like this
year? In particular: any good reads on
nature and the environment?
Michael Dirda: ANy recommendations? I don't read that much about nature, though I can recommend a couple of books: Barry Lopez's Of Wolves and Men; Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire; Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. But none is exactly recent.
Bethesda:
Hi Mr. Dirda,
Thanks again for taking my question on George Washington biographies (it turns out, my meeting has been canceled). Have you read Anne Tyler's latest, "Back When We Were Grownups"? What did you think of it? For me, it seemed to take a while to get in gear, and then all of a sudden, it ended. Plus there was at least one glaring loose end. I want to like Tyler's work, but I've been slightly (and at least once more than that) disappointed by her work. Perhaps Tyler just isn't my cup of tea.
Michael Dirda: Haven't read this one, and so you may be right. Most people regard Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and The ACcidental Tourist as her two best books.
Re: Rockville Writer:
If the book is non-fiction, you can try querying a potential publisher (check out Writers'Market, has guidelines from a host of book and magazine publishers). Though, I think the best thing to do is to just write the book and find a home for it later. It's hard for an unknown to sell an idea. Most pubs. want to see that you can complete a readible novel.
And no, most publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It's always best to query first with a synopsis and, if available, three chapters (but read the guidelines to be sure). If they want to see more, they'll let you know. Or, send the book to a literary agent, though they are just as picky as publishers these days.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Washington, D.C.:
Hello Michael --
You wrote recently about how a book reviewer such as yourself never receives books as gifts since everyone assumes you can just pick up a review copy. But what about the gifts you give to others? Do you give books to your wife, sons and others as gifts? Or do they always think that's not much of a gift since you probably got them for free?
Anyway, happy holidays!
Michael Dirda: You must have skimmed over my lede, since that's what I said: I can't give books as gifts because people assume I've gotten them for free. But in fact I do give books, from time to time, when I like them a lot or like the person I'm giving them to a lot.
D.C.:
Oops ... referring to Angela's Ashes as fiction was sort of a subconscious slip. But it's true ... did anyone else believe his childhood was THAT miserable?
Michael Dirda: Who's to say? Memoir invites exaggeration and art: We want to make our lives into a good story.
D.C.:
Irish Fiction: The Other Side by Mary Gordon (about an Irish Family in America); and isn't Roddy Doyle? recommended in this chat sometimes.
Time Travel books: Outlander (Galbadona sp?). Not a stupendous book but has time travel to the past and a love story.
Michael Dirda: Thanks
San Diego, Calif.:
I found an old copy of the third book in Daniel Fuchs' Williamsburg Trilogy. Have you read any of these and is it important to read them in order?
Michael Dirda: I haven't read them, but I know John Updike admires Fuchs. I generally think it's good to read books in order, and Fuch's trilogy does show up in paperback. Is it Homage to Blenholt, you have?
Capitol Hts. Md.:
Did you happen to read the story on jailed writer Vanessa Leggett in Saturday's Post? If so what are your opinions on her?
Michael Dirda: NO, I missed the story.
Reston, Va.:
You've made mention of John Crowley's "Little, Big" a number of times ... But I have had no luck finding it. Is this book really worth continuing my search?
Michael Dirda: Yes, it's the best American fantasy novel of our time. It goes in and out of print.
Re: Skeptical Environmentalist:
I found the book applying the same logic of the infamous, "you can fit the entire U.S. population into the state of Texas -- so the U.S. must have plenty of open space" argument to different environmental situations. The book is filled with mindless facts that distort the real issues at stake.
Michael Dirda: Ok. We felt it was an important statement, so played it up: Not everyone here agreed with its premise or the review.
Washington, D.C.:
Hi Michael -- Are you doing any holiday reading, or sticking to books you have to review? If you're doing holiday reading, what books are on your list?
Michael Dirda: If I have a chance I"ll read Michael INnes' Stop Press and Agatha Christie's Cards on the Table. But I've got a number of books I need to read: two reissues by William Gerhardie; a biography of ANthony Blunt; a few other items. But it would be pleasant to read at least one old mystery, just for fun.
SciFiGirl:
If this isn't too late ... for the poster looking for Time Travel fiction, Connie Willis' two books, The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog are terrific time travel fiction. The now is set slightly in the future, but not much. Also: her short story Fire Watch about St. Paul's cathedral, and the Diana Gabladon series Outlander (Romancy, but well researched 18th century Scotland and New World).
Michael Dirda: Yes, thank you: "Fire Watch" is a great time travel story. I've always meant to read OUtlander, having some interest in romance novels. Many people have recommended it to me.
Michael Dirda: WEll, that's our time for this week. Next week I'll be on vacation, so there won't be a chat then. But I'll expect everyone to be back on THursday, January 3 at 2. Till then keep reading and happy holidays!
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