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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Friday, Feb. 1, 2002; 1 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.
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Michael Dirda: WElcome to Dirda on Books, at this week's specail time of 1 PM. on Friday. Now and again, my schedule requires me to be away from my computer here at work, and so I've changed the times for the program. But recently I bought a laptop and so in due course will be able to Answer Questions From Anywhere There's a Phone Jack. At least that's the idea. Anyway, for the next hour we'll talk about books and reading, a good preparation for a quiet weekend.
E-Guy:
I see that your colleague Jabari Asim has a new book out. Is Book World, and the Post for that matter, at all like academia where in addition to your daily duties, you must "publish or perish?"
Michael Dirda: No, we don't practice publish or perish, but the current crop of editors does seem to be more interested in writing books themselves than was the case in the past. I suppose one either comes to feel very leery of contributing another book to the world's plenty, or somewhat cavalier: Hey, I could do that, and probably better too.
Washington, ain't got no state:
Mr. Dirda,
Love these chats. You have almost persuaded me to read some Wodehouse even though the idea a wacky butler makes my skin crawl.
Anyway, I loved The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George Higgins, but didn't like a lot of books that are always mentioned along with it, like The Chill by Ross MacDonald, The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley, or the The Blonde on the Street Corner by David Goodis. The Higgins book seemed to have a little more literary panache. Could you recommend anything else along these lines? Do any other Higgins books measure up?
Also, is there anybody out there writing about the gritty side of DC other than George Pelecanos?
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Michael Dirda: SEveral of Higgins other early books are just as good as Eddie Coyle: Try The Digger's Game or The Rat on Fire.
The other books you didn't like are really first-rate, in my view, though they aren't written in the conversation-driven style of Higgins. The Last Good Kiss just breaks my heart.
As for DC gritty: You might try some of Ross Thomas's thrillers--The Cold War Swap, Twilight at Mac's Place--but these are thrillers, not crime novels. Edward P. Jones writes about black Washington, and Henry Allen, of the Post, wrote a DC thriller some years back called Fools Die.
New York City, N.Y.:
Michael
Last week you recommended some works of Balzac.
The Penguin editions I have--Old Goriot and Cousin Bette--were translated by M. A. Crawford. I wonder if there are any particular translations of Balzac you recommend (I don't speak French-quel domage).
Thanks
Michael Dirda: I don't really know the quality of the translations, as I did read the boks in French. But Penguins are generally pretty good. The poet Kathleen Raine translated Lost Illusions and the novelist Rayner Heppenstall did A Harlot High and Low (Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisans), so those should be pretty good. Robert Baldick and Leonard Tancock translated a lot of French stuff for Penguin and are both very good.
Washington, D.C.:
An acquaintance recently recommened that I read Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (hopefully my spelling is somewhat close). Any comments?
Michael Dirda: Never read it. Helped win Undset the Nobel Prize--and it must be one of the most easy to find second-hand books: Every shop seems to have a copy.
Greenbelt, Md.:
The mention of Walter Miller's "Canticle for Leibowitz" in the discussion last week brought back to mind a question that is a variation on a theme you have no doubt addressed before: how do you deal with the apparent hypocrisy of an author's life with the ideals of a book you love? In Miller's case, I'm thinking of the passionate anti-euthanasia/suicide argument at the end of Canticle, and then my dismay at learning of his own suicide years after I read it. I can't read that book the same way again. But there are others. "Education of Little Tree" was spoiled after finding out the author was a Ku Kluxer. How does one square such circles. Must we completely divorce the book from the author in the end?
Michael Dirda: Yes, this is an issue I've touched on periodically: Artists tend to be miserable human beings, if regarded from a high ethical/moral viewpoint. They drink too much, cheat on their spouses, exploit everyone around them in order to do their work, ignore their children etc. etc. Celine wrote one of the greatest French novels--Journey to the End of Night--and became a pro-Nazi Anti-Semite. Was it Eliot who spoke of the author who creates and the man who suffers? At any event, I think we do need to ignore the author's life while reading his or her book. In my own small case, I often feel I'm at my best, in every way, when seated at a keyboard trying ot compose sentences. I'm able to bring the best of myself to this seemingly minor task. In life itself I am prey to doubts, misjudgments, anxieties, sins, what have you. But who among us can escape such things?
Reston, Va.:
Michael,
Do you consider yourself a hedgehog or a fox?
Michael Dirda: A fox. "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." I find any system, any overriding philosophy of life, suspect at best; and value the sheer splendid variousness of people and things.
San Diego, Calif.:
Hi Michael, Glad to get a dose of you this week. Thanks for the recommendation of Little, Big. It was incredible. But I did tend to read it late and night and I don't quite get the ending. Can you explain it or refer me to a site that can? BTW, you can preorder a new printing of Crowley's 3-novel set on Amazon, comes out in March.
Michael Dirda: Thanks. I think the set is of the ongoing Aegypt series, or possibly three of his ealry novels. Have you looked for a Crowley site? There must be one. I shouldn't discuss the ending here, partly because it would take a lot of time, and might ruin the story for those who haven't read it. Let me know if you do locate a Crowley page. But isn't that ending lovely, about summers never being as beautiful as "once upon a time they were."
Washington, D.C.:
Occasionally you suggest summer reading. How about grey February reading?
Michael Dirda: English ghost stories--Algernon Blackwood (see my review this Sunday); M.R. James; Robert Aickman. Mysteries, Sherlock Holmes. Or you might go the other route and look for sunny books. Maybe now is the time to read The Stranger, or Farewell My Lovely--books where the heat plays a central role. Many years ago I once wrote a column for Th e Writer in which I went through the months of the year and selected a book appropriate to each one. Maybe I'll reprint it in my next book of essays.
Re: Balzac translation:
Yes, but why do translators insist on translating "Le Pere Goriot" as Old Goriot? I'm all for non-literal translation but I think a key idea gets lost there. Would you translate "King Lear" as "Old Lear" or "Father Lear?" I don't think so. (By the way, as a former French major, the Balzac I like best is "Le Colonel Chabert" which was also made into a rather good movie.)
Michael Dirda: Yes, Chabert is a great story--but really just a novella. It's about a soldier, long thought dead in battle, who returns to find his wife remarried and his world changed. I should look for the movie, but they never have these kinds of films at the local Blockbuster.
Reston, Va.:
I just finished "Personal History" by Katharine Graham, and I didn't see one mention of the Book World. Since BW is clearly the finest and most important section of the Post, how can you explain this oversight?
Michael Dirda: Samuel Johnson answered a similar question with the phrase: "Sheer ignorance." At is happens, the book section is a sidestream of Post journalism, where the A section is the place to be. In contrast to his mother, Donald Graham is a great and devoted supporter of Book World.
Chicago, Ill.:
Michael,
I am looking for some really beautiful, really not trite poetry to be read at my wedding? Can you think of some authors or anthologies to look at in particular. I have tried EE Cummings but my fiance thinks it's all too dirty!
Michael Dirda: This is a perennial problem. Love poems tend to be about broken hearts, yearning or sexual matters. I also think many poems are too long or complex for oral recitation. You might look at anthologies of quotations organized by subject to see if yhou can get a lead or two. There's a big anthology by Walter de La Mare called simply Love that might be of use. If you want a really good short piece about love, try the end of Randall Jarrell's "Woman" written to his wife Mary (and included in his Collected and Selected POems): The last half dozen lines start with "But be as you have been, my happiness. . . " It's really moving.
Washington, D.C.:
Mr. Dirda-
I took an amazing (required) class in college called "Core" which was basically a western civilization class based around literature.
Readings included "White Noise" by Don Delillo, "Fountain and Tomb" by Nagib Mahfouz, "White Castle" by Orhan Pamouk, "A Room of One's Own" by Woolf, "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov, "Nervous Conditions" by Tsitsi Dangarembga, as well as readings from the Qur'an, Bible, Lao Tzu, and philosophers like Neitzche, Rousseau and Plato.
What do you think of a class like this and do you have any reading suggestions for someone who really enjoyed this class.
Thank you!
Michael Dirda: VEry interesting course list. I like the global perspective in particular. Personally, though, I think most literature courses should focus on older books--people can read the novels of their own time on their own.
I'm not quite sure what else to recommend exactly, but how aobutLampedusa'"The Leopard"; Italo Svevo's "Confessions of Zeno"; Kafka; Joseph Roth's "The Radetzky March"; Penelope Fitzgerald's "The Blue Flower."
Re: love poems:
Yeats' "Drinking Song"
Michael Dirda: Ok. You could also do The Song of Wandering Aengus--"The golden apples of the sun,/The Silver apples of the Moon." Or Byron's "She walks in beauty like the night"; Anyone else have suggestions for good poems for a wedding?
Re: Fools Die:
Didn't someone tell Henry Allen that that title had already been taken?
Michael Dirda: Can't copyright titles.
re: love poems:
What about Songs of Solomon in the Bible -- that has plenty of love poems for a bride and groom.
Michael Dirda: Yes, but those are fairly traditional and I had a sense she wanted somehting beyond the Bible or "the greatest of all is love" passage from the New Test.
New York, N.Y.:
Re: Translated Titles. I was surprised to learn that the brilliantly titled (in Elnglish) "Open Heart" by Aharon Appelfeld is titled, in the original Hebrew, something like "Travel in India." That's not what it's really called, but it is something mundane like that. Can you think of other examples of translated titles that are better than the original? I think we can all think of translated titles that are worse.
Michael Dirda: Though it's been changed back to a more literal version, Remembrance of Things Past strikes me as more poetic than IN Search of Lost Time.
Towson, Md.:
Finished Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay recently. Loved it. But what's up with the pajamas? They are everywhere, and described in such detail. Do you know? Does anyone else out there have any ideas?
Michael Dirda: Hmm. I don't remember the pajama's obsession. Maybe Chabon just likes pajamas.
Herndon, Va:
Darn you Mr. Dirda...Darn you.
I took your suggestion and checked out a couple of Dickson's locked-room mysteries. I am now addicted. I requested another five from my local library (hopefully, they will get to my itty-bitty branch soon).
Just one more author/genre obsession to try to control.
Keep up the good work.
Michael Dirda: When you say Dickson, I presume you mean Carter Dickson, the major alternate name for John Dickson Carr--and you need to read the mysteries he wrote under his own name as well. They are similar and Dr. GIdeon Fell is a better character than Sir Henry Merrivale.
Winston-Salem, N.C.:
You've mentioned John Sladek in a scifi context, but I ran across a locked room mystery (seems to be one of those great detective pastiches) is it the same fellow?
Also the Crowley quote about summer sunsets reminds me of one of my favorite movie lines, from Burt Lancaster's character in Atlantic City (an it loses something without Lancaster's timbre) "The Atlantic Ocean was something then. Yeah, you should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days."
Michael Dirda: Yes, Sladek wrote two mysteries: Black Aura and Invisible Green. Both are good.
I know the Lancaster quote about the Atlantic Ocean very well. A friend of mine often uses it to refer to her past, though I must say in her case the Atlantic Ocean is still something.
San Francisco, Calif.:
I enjoy reading books where the author uses characterization in such a way that the reader starts thinking about what's real, what's existentially impossible, etc. Some examples are Kundera's Immortality, Martin Amis' London Fields, and there's book by Philip Roth I can't remember right now, where a character starts confronting the author at the end. I hope you've got an idea of what I'm trying to explain, because I'm hoping you can recommend some more books that do this.
Thanks!
Michael Dirda: Such authorial games are pretty common in post-modern literature: Try Nabokov's "Pale Fire"; Flann O'Brien's "At Swim Two-Birds"; John Barth's novels; etc. etc.
Arlington, Va.:
Hi Michael,
My favorite author is Ernest Hemingway. I've thoroughly exhausted the volumes of his that I own. Once I have read all of his novels, can you recommend an author that has a similar sense of style? I’ve attempted reads at many faux-Hemingways and am never satisfied.
Thanks.
Michael Dirda: Dashiell Hammett. James Salter.
re: Wodehouse:
Ah, but the butler isn't "wacky". He is emminently sensible.
I just started reading Wodehouse myself. A particular short story of his was recommended by Connie Willis - although I have yet to find that one!
Michael Dirda: ACtually Jeeves is a valet, a gentelman's personal gentleman. Wodehouse's two greatest short stories are probably "Uncle Fred Flits By"; and "Lord Emsworth and the Girl Friend". I'm very fond of Honeysuckle Cottage and Strychnine in the Soup too.
Re: wedding poetry:
My husband and I used Shakespeare's Sonnet #116 at our wedding...
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Michael Dirda: Yes. a great poem. Also reminds me of the end of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach: "Come my love let us be true to one another. . .
Vienna, Va.:
Are any of Gene Wolfe's other books as good as the New Sun tetralogy?
Michael Dirda: I don't think so. But all are interesting at the least. Maybe his best work is in shorter form: The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories, or SEven American Nights.
wiredog:
I've noticed that many SF writers also do mystery. Asimov did quite a few, and even some SF mysteries (Wendell Urth). Niven does SF police procedurals.
Michael Dirda: Yes, and vice versa: John D. MacDonald wrote Ballroom in the Sky; and Donald Westalke collected his sf in a volume called, maybe, Tomorrow Unlimited (this is probably wrong). Fredric Brown was equally great in sf and mystery.
Richmond, Va.:
For the person looking for love poetry for a wedding -- I suggest checking the Penguin book of Love Poetry. I love it, especially the poem "When you are old" by Yeats is lovely... ("one man loved the pilgrim soul in you" )
Michael Dirda: Yes.
Washington, D.C.:
FYI - Core was not a literature class. It was a required class for freshman in lieu of Western Civilization taught by profs from different departments. I had a History prof. My roommate had an Art prof. It was such a cool class!
Michael Dirda: Any class that students really love is probably worth while.
Washington, D.C. Re: wedding poems:
Try selections from Rainer Maria Rilke's Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties or Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Poem: "You" by Erich Fried
Michael Dirda: thanks
Washington, D.C.:
Michael,
I am a huge literature fan, favorite author has got to be Joyce (though I love many). I got up the courage and persistence to read and study and enjoy Ulysses on my own about a year and a half ago. Now I'm trying to get brave enough for Finnegans Wake. How do you suggest I do that? I've studied lit for a long time, but that book, though I want to tackle and I'm sure I'll enjoy, scares the bejesus out of me.
Michael Dirda: Get a couple of guides, e.g. Annotations to Finnegans Wake, or even Anthony Burgess's abridged edition.
Dirda fan:
Hello Michael. You are handsome, witty, and articulate. Are you single?
Michael Dirda: Hmm. Only handsome, witty and articulate? What about sensitive, intelligent and incredibly sexy?
Towson, Md.:
I want to thank you for leading me to Neil Gaiman. Read American Gods this fall, recently finished Neverwhen, and have read several of the Sandman - out of order, regretably, but still wonderful. I'm tempted to call him the heir to the sadly missed Zelazny. His work has the same sort of charm. But I think Gaiman is better. What do you think?
Michael Dirda: Yes, I see the Zelazny influence, esp. Nine Princes in Amber, but had never thought about it. Good point. I don't know who's better and find such questions hard to answer and beside the point: Why choose? My favorite Roger Z novel is Lord of Light.
New York, N.Y.:
I finally got "Readings" as a Christmas present, and I loved it! Your bit about asking George Will if he identifies with Casaubon was one of the funniest things I have read in a long time -- I laughed so loud I woke up my husband (unfortunately, he has not read Middlemarch so I could not tell him why he had been disturbed from his sleep). So, are you seriously considering another volume of essays?
Michael Dirda: Yep. I've got the material and either Indiana or someone else will I hope publish it. Right now the working title is Excursions: Further Essays and Literary Entertainments. Glad you find me funny. I think I'm funny, but never know what the world thinks. Of course, I'm wistful too. ..
Herndon, Va.:
For ain't got no state, who is turned off reading Wodehouse by the idea of a wacky butler; it's been quite awhile since I've read any of the Jeeves stories, but if I remember correctly, the butler is not the wacky character. He is more the sober, solid guidance for his rather rash, eccentric charge Bertie Wooster.
For grey February reading suggestions: I've been waiting all winter for a snowy night to settle back with a cup of tea and start into Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller.
Michael Dirda: Yes. That great opening: "You are about to start reading Italo Calvino's new novel. . . " Anoghter good title for the poster interested in self-reflective fiction.
Seattle, Wash.:
Wanted to add to the informal funny authors list (Jan. 24). You just cannot beat Donald Westlake's "Baby Would I Lie?" for belly laughs. For those who like to tsk, tsk while they chuckle, try one in Westlake's Dortmunder (a gang that can't shoot straight) series. Plus he also has a hard-boiled criminal series that's good. Finally, why is it mystery writers just get NO RESPECT?
Michael Dirda: I'm a regular cheerleader for Westlake, socan only agree with you. The hard boiled series is under the name Richard Stark, about a thief named Parker. But Westlake's best single novel is, according to him, The Ax. A terrific work of gallows humor and suspense. Mystery writers get no respect because they tend to be prolific and work to a formula--but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It just results more in entertainment than in ground-breaking works of art.
San Diego, Calif.:
I enjoy reading challenging books, many of which you have recommended. However, after 200 pages of Ulysses I don't think that I'm getting what I should out of it. Can you recommend a guide?
Michael Dirda: There are lots of guides and annotations--Allusions in Ulysses, etc. Go to the libary or bookstore and look around. The two classic introductoins are Stuart Gilbert's and Frank Budgen's.
Smithfield, Va.:
I've just finished The Essential Haiku, edited by Robert Hass. It covers Basho, Issa and Buson. The clarity and unexpectedness of the verses continued to surprise me, to the last page. I was unfamiliar with the structured themes of traditional haiku, marked by consistent references to the seasons, but was startled and thrilled how the poets could evoke, say, a picture of a damp fall night on which the author feels heart pangs about an old girlfriend, while a full moon illuminates the wet grass and a leaf stuck to the author's shoe -- all in a few words! (Of course, I made up the above scene).
Question: Why does Ezra Pound get credit for "inventing" the idea of Imagism? Not only did these men write centuries before him, Pound's verse doesn't compare.
Michael Dirda: Well, Pound called it Imagism, whereas the Haiku writers didn't call it anything (that I know of). Pound deserves a lot of credit thgouh: Along with Arthur Waley he really brought a lot of CHinese and Japanese poetry into English literature. His big one volume Translations (New Directions)is a terrific book every poetry lover should have.
All of the above:
Let us roll all our strength and all our sweetness up into one ball, and tear our pleasures with rough strife through the iron gates of life
So, are you single?
Michael Dirda: "Had we but world enough and time. . . " No. But don't stop sending those cards and letters.
Regarding the Man vs the Artist:
I find my response depends upon the sin. I can forgive Menken his anti-semitic comments because I can convince myself he didn't know any better. I cannot bring myself to respect J.J. Rousseau. He knew better.
Michael Dirda: I understand your position, but I still think Rousseau's Confessions is the greatest autobiography ever written and its prose a model of French style. Wasn't it Faulkner who said something like that the Mona Lisa wasworth any number of old ladies. Of course, I never had to deal with Jean Jacques, and can simply admire his sentences, while deploring much of his behavior. I find him a fascinating man.
Washington, D.C.:
How well does one need to know a foreign language in order to enjoy reading literature in that language? Is near-fluency necessary? Do you feel like you get the same enjoyment from the literature that a native speaker would? Thanks!
Michael Dirda: Impossible to know. Certainly it helps to understand, say, a short poem if you can work through the original. But obviously one has to balance effort against understanding. I can sort of read German and Italian, but there's more work involved than I care to make these days. So I tend to read translations. Better to know something of a book than nothing at all.
Anyway, time's up for this week. Sorry if I didn't get to your question, but I do my best to write as fast as possible. Till next Thursday at 2, keep reading!
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