|
Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, Jan. 24, 2002; 2 p.m. EST
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda took your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.
Each week 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.
Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books. Normally, I'd describe the next hour as one given over to the discussion of, well, books--and reading, book reviewing, etc. etc. But today we're all going to talk about floor wax! No, just kidding. Getting myself geared into that manic mood that alternates with my periods of dour despair. Upbeat today, in other words, though my tone may seem a little shrill, even forced. Still dawn always comes after even the darkest night. Anyway, let's turn to your questions and see what we can discuss this week of s biblio nature.
Washington, D.C.:
What are your favorite authors/titles for locked-room mysteries?
Michael Dirda: The greatest locked-room mysteries were written by John Dickson Carr, sometimes under the name Carter Dickson. As Carr, his detective is Dr. Gideon Fell; as Dickson, Sir Henry Merivale. His best books are probably The Three Coffins, The Judas Window, The Crooked Hinge and The Burning Court--this last a more complex book, with a couple of surprises in it. Onelocked room classic--Too Many Magicians, by Randall Garrett--is also a science fiction novel, set in a world where magic works.
Chicago, Ill.:
Do you have a favorite dictionary or other
reference book you'd like to recommend?
Michael Dirda: The American Heritage DIctionary. But I use lots of reference books, and like them. My favorite such though is a very battered copy of Roget's Thesaurus, probably published in the 1940s, that I picked up at a yard sale a zillion years ago for a quarter.
State of disappointment:
Argh! At your recommendation, I spend quite a bit of time trying to track down a copy Rex Stout's League of Frightened Men. I finally find a good quality, affordable paperback (1935 edition I think) only to discover when I receive it in the mail that it is ABRIDGED. Argh! Is it still worth reading? Or should I curse the seller for his cruel deceit?
Michael Dirda: I wouldn't have thought it would be that hard to find--did you try Nelson Freck at SEcond Story Books in Rockville? Frankly, I"d send it back. The book is Stout's longest, and arguably a little too long, but I wouldn't want to read any abridgement of anything.
Arlington, Va.:
I'm looking for very funny literature. In particular, I'm looking for something funnier than "Confederacy of Dunces."
Any suggestions for funny stuff that would not categorized as humor writing?
Thank you
Michael Dirda: Funny stuff not categorized as humor writing? That's tough. Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall; Randall Jarrell's Pictures from an Institution; David Lodge's Small World; Joseph Heller's Catch-22, maybe Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm--all these are very funny, but also "serious' novels. But writers as different as Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Harry Crews, and John Updike can also be very funny, in less than obvious ways.
Atlanta, Ga.:
Mr. Dirda:
You have lately discussed "locked room" mysteries.
Please answer another (to you) painfully obvious question: What exactly is a "police procedural?" Does the term simply imply that the detective is a police officer?
Michael Dirda: Essentially, yes. Police procedurals follow the investigation of a crime, usually murder, from the official police perspective. They are not generally solved by private eyes or amateur sleuths. A classic of the genre is Last Seen Wearing--by Hillary Waugh.
North Tonawanda, N.Y.:
I've read six books by Farley Mowat. Why don't more people know about him? What a wonderful writer!
I'm also reading THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (the new movie version opens this weekend). I read it as a kid many years ago. What are your feelings about Dumas?
Michael Dirda: The Count of Monte Cristo was one of myh favorite books as a boy. As I've written somewhere, it is the great novel about the power of education to transform a life. BEcause of what he learns from Abbe Faria, young Edmond Dantes is able to shake off his provincial ignorance and emerge in middle age as that all-knowing dark avenger, the perfectly self-assured and hypnotic Count of Monte Cristo.
If you love the book as I do, you should look for Alfred Bester's great science fiction variation: The Stars My Destination, as wonderful as the original.
State of Disappointment which is also New York:
Unfortunately, I am rarely in the D.C. metro area. I've searched here in New York City at used stores in general, and those devoted to mysteries in particular, with no luck. Returning it may be a big hassle. Argh!
Michael Dirda: DId you try Otto Penzler's Mysterious Bookshop in the mid 4Os? Or the library?
Arlington, Va.:
What is your opinion of the dying father scene in "Brideshead Revisited?" It is panned by most critics, as is the whole of the second part of the book. I am not convinced that it is as bad as claimed.
Thanks.
Michael Dirda: It works, I think, emotionally, but esthetically it seems more dubious that such a reprobate would convert on his deathbed or that we would be asked not to regard this as merely a kind of moral weakness.
Funny novel suggestion:
I think that Richard Russo is a genious at funny. His novel "Straight Man" (about an english professor caught in the middle of mysterious duck killings on campus while dealing with a kidney stone and his paranoia over his wife's fidelity) is an absolute side-splitter.
Michael Dirda: I keep meaning to read this; everyone seems to love it. Having had a kidney stone--I will not comment on ducks or fidelity--I can certainly identify.
San Diego, Calif.:
I, a regular at these "chin fests" (a term my father used to use), am a real live manic depressive and I just realized something about its effect on my reading. When I'm depressed I read mysteries. When I'm a little manic I tend to read more nonfiction. Not sure what to conclude from that?
Michael Dirda: If you are genuinely manic-depressive, I do hope you have sought counseling. In my case, I usually know why I'm depressed, but sometimes find the situation impossible to resolve. I often find the more literary philosophers--Schopenhauer, Nietzsche--and worldly wise aphorists--La Rochefoucauld, Chamfort--to be consoling. I love nonfiction, and read a lot of it, but I don't really think of it as being as profound as fiction, poetry or philosophy. I don't know what kind of answer this is supposed to be.
Funnier than A Confederacy of Dunces:
This person should make an effort to fin Handling Sin by Michael Malone. By far his best work, and (sadly) out of print.
Michael Dirda: Thanks. I'll make an effort too. All good books tend to be out of print. Dirda's rule.
Washington, D.C.:
Michael:
I just finished Mary Doria Russell's THE SPARROW (1996). I'm guessing that you've read it. I thought it was a brilliant failure. It was certainly no CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ or CASE OF CONSCIENCE. What do you think?
Michael Dirda: Didn't read The Sparrow. Did read the others, which are masterpieces, especially Canticle. It's interesting: Whenver I think about a really good book, I wish I could be reading it again. I think such work carries a kind of comfort aura, so that we long to reimmerse ourselves in it.
San Francisco, Calif. :
Funny -- Jane Smiley (how could she not be?), John Barth, often Joyce Carol Oates.
Michael Dirda: Yes. Oates, though?
Washington, D.C.:
Michael:
With regard to the conversion of Lord Marchmain in BR, Waugh wrote that the whole novel had its genesis in his having witnessed a very similar scene. Truth too strange for fiction?
Michael Dirda: I know the scene from real life--one of those Herberts I believe. Can never remember which one. Auberon? Obviously, there are lots of deathbed conversions. But even this one was, I believe, rather forced upon the poor man by an unrelenting priest.
Washington, D.C.:
Hi Michael -- Just read your bio. I'm a student at GWU, currently reading Remembrance of Things Past (Swann's Way) by Proust. I'm enjoying it, but it's hard reading. Any thoughts about it? Things to look for?
Michael Dirda: Just read it. Surrender to the sentences. When you say Swann's Way I presume you mean just that, and that you've skipped the opening overture to the book. ANyway,think about obsessive love. For in such love, passionate, iunforgiving, filled with jealousy and possessivness, is the very model of Proustian love htroughout the book. How true is this to life? I suppose it depends on the person. BUt I think all of us, if we're lucky (or unlucky), suffer at least one such love affair as this.
Bookland:
I agree with you about Canticle -- both that it's a masterpiece and that it's comfort reading.
I find that I turn to Dick Francis and Georgette Heyer when I'm sick or depressed. Their worlds are so orderly and full of sensible people that they're comforting. Also, Lois McMaster Bujold is like that too, but better.
Michael Dirda: yes, Francis and Heyer for me too. Have never read Bujold, though she's won at least two Hugo novel awards. Always thought she souned to hard-esseffy for me.
Disappointment:
Yup, and nope because the branch I've been to seems to only have contemporary mysteries. I will try the Mysterious Bookshop and also Murder Ink again to see if they have new stock. Thanks again for the recommendation -- I'm sure I'll love the book when I actually find it.
Michael Dirda: It's good. Most people think that STout was his best, though, in his novellas. These are collected in manoy volumes, usually with titles like Trouble in Triplicate. A good guide is Jacques Barzun and WEndell Taylor's Catalogue of Crime, which will point you to the better Stouts. Mysterious Booksho pwould doubtless have a copy you could consult. Or ask Otto.
Sane San Diego, Calif.:
Funny: Wodehouse, anything. Makes me snort coffee up my nose.
Michael Dirda: Wodehouse is my god, and I mention him so often that I now take pains to avoid recommending Leave it to Psmith or The Code of the Woosters yet one more time.
San Diego, Calif. 2 (non manic-depressive):
I agree on The Sparrow, quite brilliant until the end. Try Orson Scott Card's Xenocide for a similar and better work.
Michael Dirda: thanks. Orson Scott Card once dropped to his knees in a crowded elevator to thank me for a review of one of his early books. Nobody believes this. Just as they don't believe I was in Paris during May of 68 or slept in flophouses in Mexico, or spent a mysterious year in Marseille in the early '70s. And why do I own a coat from Kabul, Afghanistan? As for the being shot by my cousin. . . well, I'd better stop. I am not just a bookworm.
Washington, D.C.:
Any thoughts on R.A. Lafferty? I'm just reading Arrive at Easterwine -- it's such a bizarrely inventive book and plays with language so wonderfully I find myself reading the same passages over and over.
Michael Dirda: Love early Lafferty. Later stuff gets almost too strange. Slow Tuesday Night is a gem. Years ago I was on the committee for the World Fantasy awards and suggested Lafferiy for the Lifetime Achievement Award. WHich he got. Quit bragging, Dirda. Very unattractive.
New York, N.Y.:
People often talk about Balzac and the sweep of his work. Any particular titles you might recommend?
Michael Dirda: My favorite is Lost Illusions--it would be, wouldn't it? As it's about a young man who leaves the provinces to be a writer--and ends up a journalist! Much else happens. There's a nearly as good sequel, with the odd title in ENglish of A Harlot High and Low. Oscar Wilde said that he never forgot the death of Lucien de Rubempre, that he remembered it every day, even when he laughted. There's an odd prefiguration there, in fact, of his own end. THe other good books to try, or rather start with are: The Fatal Skin--a gothicky thriller about a magic skin that grants wishes, with dark results; Old Goriot--the one people usually start wiht: Famous ending--Rastignac looking down at Paris and saying "A nous deux"--it's between you and me now. He makes it in the capital, as we learn eventually, but it costs him his soul. Also Cousine Bette--about a middle-aged man who falls in obsessive love and ruins his own and family's life as a result. A cautionary tale.
Washington, DC:
Hi there, In regards to the Brideshead Revisited deathbed scene...obviously you aren't a Catholic. There is a line in that book "twitch on a thread"...meaning you can travel to the ends of the earth and the Church can bring you back with the twitch of the thread...I think Waugh was trying to show that you never really "leave" the Catholic Church. It is always with you. Just a thought.
Michael Dirda: I was raised Catholic. Wanted to be a monk. I do know that twitch upon a thread thing--it's from Chesterton--and I know how powerful the fetters of the Church can be. But I still find that scene a little dubious, artistically.
Terra Bibliofilia:
I face the dilemma of 7000+ volumes and trying to find a new house to fit them (and my family) into. I'm considering paring down the collection. How has it been living with your somewhat diminished library?
Michael Dirda: I still have too manyh books and can't find anything. Occasionally I contemplate getting rid of them all. I've read lots of books. Maybe I don't need to read any more. What has stuck in my mind is enough. Thenk, at other times, I look at my shelves with the kind of love mothers tend to feel for their youngest child.
Takoma Park, Md.:
Dissenting on Jane Smiley: her only really funny book was the first one, Duplicate Keys. Some of the others are marvels of deep emotion with a humorous (gallows humor) undertone. Moo is just plain ponderous, with nearly every other campus comedy out-funnying it. Not worthy to buckle the sandals of Pictures from an Institution or Straight Man for that matter, or Small World, or any of Lodge's campus novels.
Michael Dirda: Thanks. I've heard the dissent on Moo before. I don't know the book myself.
Takoma Park, Md.:
In re: Brideshead and its genesis in reality. As Randall Jarrell said, some people are caryatids and some are not. Some incidents can be translated into fiction, and some are too unbelievable for same.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Washington, D.C:
Hello Michael -- Always wanted to ask this question: what's the best thing about your job at Book World? What's the worst thing? Thanks.
Michael Dirda: WHy this chat, of course. The worst, having to any work whatsoever. Surely, I should simply be a resource, sit in a lounge chair someplace, and read. Be sort of the Mycroft Holmes of the Post. IN truth, I love seeing all the new books, and tend to dislike certain, not to be named, aspects of being an editor.
Washington, D.C.:
Michael -- The question on Balzac reminded me that you speak/read French. Do you still read books in French, or is that impossible with the book-reading schedule you must keep up as a reviewer?
Michael Dirda: I read in French when there's a professional reason. I used to translate Elie Wiesel's reviews for us, for example. And I've written long essays--not for Book world--on Merimee and Maupassant that required me to read their work in Frnech. But in day to day life, I hardly say Bon Jour.
wiredog:
Shot by a cousin? Could have been worse, could have been shot by her husband.
Neitsche as an antidote to depression? Wow, that's some serious blues if his worldview is less bleak.
Michael Dirda: Hell hath no fury. ACtually it was a male cousin who shot me. He later became a copter gunner in Vietnam--and lived.
San Francisco, Calif.:
I think Oate's sense of humor is extremely underrated. Take Zombie, the main character is trying to create a Zombie by following instructions stolen from a medical textbook. Admittedly dark, but nonetheless quite a send up of both the profession of psychiatry and the trendy Goth sensibilities of the time.
Michael Dirda: thanks. I'll take a look sometime. She's an amazinglyh smart and talented writer. Wonderful essays too.
Sane San Diego, Calif.:
You SLEPT in a Mexican flophouse? How disappointing, Michael. You were my last hope for a truly literate libertine.
Michael Dirda: Hmm. Why would sleeping in a flophouse preclude being a literate libertine? Assuming of couse that I am literate. I was 17 at the time. And a wonderful time it was.
Pentagon, Arlington, Va.:
7,000 books!
Do y'all (Michael and the person with 7,000 books) keep every book you have read or just the books you have enjoyed?
Michael Dirda: At least half of my books I've not read. That's why I have them. Some day I hope to read them.
Washington, D.C.:
I am sure you have answered this before, but I was wondering, why is Wodehouse your god?
Michael Dirda: Similes.
Charlotte, N.C.:
It's interesting to see what people read depending on mood (depressed, manic, ...) I've always found that my choices echo the season. I like the Brontes in autumn, Dostoyevsky in winter, Murdoch in spring... Atypical?
Michael Dirda: Not at all. People read Sherlock Holmes during autumn and winter--almost never in summer.
wiredog:
You "tend to dislike certain, not to be named, aspects of being an editor." Well, since authors and editors are natural enemies, and you are also an author, well, no wonder you got depressed.
Cleaned out my bookshelves over the weekend, removing paperbacks that I'd found hardcovers for. This also led to a reorganization of said bookshelves. Found a few books I'd forgotten about.
Michael Dirda: nothing like cleaning house.
A different Takoma Parker:
Read Joseph Epstein's essay on cutting down his library. He moved to an apartment and got rid of tons and tons (literally and figuratively)of books.
I'm doing the same without moving, jettisoning classics that are always at the library, whole areas of former obsession (classical music, now I just listen and don't read about it).
I'm keeping the stuff I know I'll never find again, and a few soul-making items, a thousand volumes of poetry, and some favorites.
Now I CAN BUY MORE BOOKS because there's room.
Michael Dirda: Yes, we are obvious soulmates. I've followed the same formula myself. Epstein cut down to what, a couple of hundred books--assuming you're referring to his most recent essay on this and not the one from 15 or so years ago.
Washington, D.C.:
Ahoy Great Dirda,
As I am finishing my up my lunch, I thought I might ask simply: what do you think of dear old H.P. Lovecraft? and who writing today do you feel best captures his sense of the "Weird" who does not bill himself as a "weird horror" writer like Brian Lumley?
Just finished Ismael Kadare's "Three Elegies for Kosovo" last night, wonderful stuff, what a sense of resigned but hopeful cynicism that man has.
Thanks as always!
ps: try to get your hands on something by J.P. Kauffman, I promise you won't regret it.
Michael Dirda: Lovecraft--once my other god. Albeit, unlike Wodehouse, a far darker god, somebody like Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth. The Weird. I've just read a biography of Algernon Blackwood--do you know his work? The Willows and The Wendigo are famous, but a lot ofhis stuff is very evocative of something beyond the veil of appearances. My other more contemporary favorite horror writer is Robert Aickman. sometimes yhou don't even know what happened in a story, but he leaves you shaken and stirred.
Chicago, Ill.:
Michael, I'm a huge fan of your criticism. I was wondering about your feelings on the rise of "graphic novels" as a legitimate art form. Are you reading any of the work that's being done today by people like Chris Ware (JIMMY CORRIGAN: THE SMARTEST KID ON EARTH), Daniel Clowes (GHOST WORLD, DAVID BORING), Jason Lutes (BERLIN: CITY OF STONES) or Neil Gaiman (SANDMAN)? Thanks, and all best.
Michael Dirda: Only know Sandman. Keep meaning to read more, as years ago I followed The Dark Knight, Frank Miller's Ronin, American Flagg, Love and Rockets. But I can't read eveything all at once. Not with having a job and a minimal personal life.
Herndon, Va.:
You consider CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ comfort reading? I recently read it on your recommendation, and while I thought it very good I would hardly call it comforting.
Michael Dirda: Someone else called it comfort reading. But I did say that remembering favorite books made me yearn to rexexmpericne the comfort that one felt. Yes, the last section in particular is pretty devastating. But the monks do leave in the rocket. Which suggests that there is hope--or that cycles never end.
Terra Bibliofilia:
As Ruskin once said, if a book is worth reading, it's worth owning. Words to live by. (I've always wondered, though, if Ruskin had a financial interest in publishing!)
Michael Dirda: He was independently well to do and could afford whatever he wanted. Nice tohave a successful businessman for a father if one's going to be an esthete.
Charlotte, N.C.:
Although, as a rule, I'm pretty firmly ensconced in the 19th century re: reading choices, I find that when I do emerge into the (now) 21st I go for "fluff" -- Susan Conant, for example, because I have Alaskan Malamutes myself. Yet I find that I'm defensive about it, even that I avoid reading these novels on planes, for example. Is this just a problem of my own perception -- that people will look down on these choices -- or is the world a snobby, snobby place?
(I did my undergraduate work at Wells, and Cornell was our social escape. Did you visit Wells during your Cornell days?)
Michael Dirda: I knew about Wells--had a friend who went there--but never really visited.
You should read whatever you want and pay no attention to matters of class and snobbery. In fact, I loved reading Harlequin romances on the DC Metro.
4,000 Books (est) and growing in Starkville, Miss.:
Any advice for those who have trouble parting with books and can't resist a book sale?
Michael Dirda: Don't go to the book sale. Buy a bigger house. Truthfully, there is no known cure or hope for the conditions you describe.
Long Island, N.Y.:
Mr. Dirda, If you were asked to bring only one book on a deserted island, which book would you choose?
Michael Dirda: A big blank notebook, provided I could have pens.
Missoula, Mont.:
Walter M. Miller's suicide was the greatest tragedy the sf world has experienced since the equally senseless and wasteful death of James Tiptree, Jr./Alice Sheldon. He was a great writer, Catholic or not, sf or not, and CANTICLE is without a doubt one of the greatest novels of the century.
Michael Dirda: Thank you. I once wrote that Sheldon and Cordwainer Smith were Washington's two greatest writers. A perfectly defensible position.
Bombay, India:
Do you think that the new wave of Indian Writing in English is over-rated? I have read Manil Suri's 'Death of Vishnu', Pankas Mishra's 'The Romantics', Ardashir Vakil's 'Beach Boy' to name a few. Its hard to say which is worse. Post Rushdie there really has been more hype than any genuine talent. Hence, I have started reading Indian vernacular in translation. Please comment.
Michael Dirda: Keep us posted on your reading in Indian vernacular. My favorite Indian novel is All About H. Hatterr, by G.V. Desani; my favorite Indian author if Arundhati Roy, who I remain ready to join in Kerala if she calls to me with one of those Indian love calls.
Takoma Park, Md.:
But Michael, do you group all your unread books together on a Hall of Guilt and Shame shelf? I do. Then I go to the library and get something else to read.
It's an addiction. What can I say.
Michael Dirda: Everywhere I go I dwell in a hall of guilt and shame. It's the condition of my life.
Bethesda, Md.:
What's your opinion of Caleb Carr's fiction? I picked up "The Angel of Darkness" recently but made it only through 50 pages before getting fed up with its pedestrian prose and two-dimensional (if that) characters. Does this book get better? Is "The Alienist" more worth the effort?
Michael Dirda: I've heard this about his style. Haven't read any of his books, but Alienoist is suposed to be the best by far.
New York City, N.Y.:
With regard to depression, I find Kierkegaard very consoling, especially The Concluding Unscientific Postscripts to the Philosophic Fragments even though I am not at all religious. The book can be dipped into for nightly reading because of Kierkegaard's ability to explain his points through a myriad of perfect examples. But I have read the whole thing so I don't know what one might think if they didn't know the whole work. In any case, I wanted to say that I resisted Russo's Straight Man for years, but when I finally read it last summer amidst a bit of depression, I really enjoyed it for its veracity and humor.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Swim-two-birds:
Re funny literature: How about some earlier stuff -- Tom Jones, Tristram Shandy, Gulliver's Travels, Vanity Fair? Dickens, fer chrissake! But if we are limited to contemporaries, Michael Chabon is a scream. I also find Bellow very funny in his dry, offhand way.
A second category would be great works of literature that are utterly without comedy. These are hard to find. Even in Othello, Iago make jokes from time to time. Middlemarch might qualify.
Michael Dirda: INteresting comment. Lots of ironies in Middlemarch, if not many belly laughs.
Buffalo, N.Y.:
My favorite police procedurals are Evan Hunter's which he writes under the pseudonym of "Ed McBain." There are about fifty books in the 87th PRECINCT series and they maintain a high standard of quality. The latest volume, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, involves drug smuggling, terrorists, and a woman eaten by lions (there's humor in the books, too).
Michael Dirda: Yes, he is the master.
Takoma park, Md.:
Just finished Percival Everett's Erasure. Best literary novel I've read in months, despite some minor inaccuracies in his D.C. geography (who would walk to McPherson square and then take the metro to the mall and go to the National Gallery?)
The ending was a minor cop-out, but only minor compared to so many novels that begin well and end really badly.
Michael Dirda: Yes,I have a copy and know it looks just my kind of book.
Consumer Alert:
The trade paperback edition of Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon has been remaindered. Copies are available at Olsson’s for seven bucks.
Michael, should a Pynchon newbie start with Mason & Dixon or one of his earlier books?
Michael Dirda: EArlier. probably The Crying... as it's the shortest. Or Gravity's Rainbow as it's the masterwork. M and G is wonderful, but autumnal.
Washington, D.C.:
Love Blackwood, and Arthur Machen more even.
Have you ever read the darkly delighful Gahan Wilson's short story "H.P.L"? or Esther K. Friesner's "Love's Eldritch Ichor" oh they will leave any true Lovecraftian howling with glee.
ps: I once jumped out of a speeding train in Hungary amongst other similar escapes,so I am thrilled to learn of your Cavalier past!
Michael Dirda: thanks. I love the Friesner title.
And that brings us, alas, to the end of another session. obviously, we should arrange with washingtonpost.com to do this for two hours a week. Or possibly every day. But until next time, at 2, keep reading! Sorry if I didn't get to your question this week.
| |
© Copyright 2002 The Washington Post Company | 
