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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, April 24, 2003; 2 p.m. ET
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments Thursday, April 24 at 2 p.m. 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.
Arlington, Va.:
I'm looking for a good book-on-tape/CD for an upcoming trip (Actually, I depart in a couple of hours!). Anyone "heard" anything good lately? This is my first audiobook, so anything goes, however I like mysteries, could stand to catch up on classics, and wouldn't mind hearing a bestseller that I might not read otherwise.
Michael Dirda: Oops, sorry fans of Dirda on Books. Got caught up in actual Book World work and forgot to look at the time. Hope both of you are still with me! Come back from the snack bar! I am online, can you hear me? On with the show!
My recommendation would be a Dick Francis mystery/thriller. Francis writes them with a speaking voice in mind, they are first person, and the crisp, fast-moving pace makes for ideal listening. For classics: I love any of those done by Naxos, abridged but first rate. Try Gibbon or Proust or Joyce, and you'll be mesmerized.
Washington, D.C.:
Dear Michael,
I am looking forward to reading a biography on Winston Churchill and am somewhat overwhelmed by amount of biographies that exist on the topic. My interest was initially peeked with the Jenkin's biography, however I have read mixed reviews on Jenkin's work (e.g. obtuse diction, too verbose, assumes a high degree of technical knowledge about the British Parliamentary system). Some reviews suggest that the Gilbert or Rose biographies offer better, more stimulating portrayals of Churchill. In addition, I understand that that Manchester's Volumes I and II are excellent, but admittedly I am deterred by the lack of the final volume and the desire to read one comprehensive biography instead of multiple volumes. Ideally, I would read all of the works, but if I were to select one, which one would you recommend? I appreciate any insight or advice you may have to offer.
Best.
Michael Dirda: I don't know the answer to this. I'm told that Gilbert can be a bit dry, so you might want to start with Manchester who is lively and after his volume 2 finish with Gilbert. Does anyone else have advice for this poster?
Washington, D.C.:
Re: books you were sorry to finish and/or characters you missed.
Most recently Tuesday Next in the Eyre Affair. This is the first book in quite a while that reminded me of the joys of reading as a child. The plot was much more creative than the average adult book and the characters and dialogue were charming.
Michael Dirda: Hey, don't despair. You can pick up the second Thursday Next adventure in bookstores now--Lost in a Good Book. In fact, you just missed a reading/signing by Jasper Fforde here in Washington a week or so back. I think the reviewer who compared these to Harry Potter for adults struck just the right note.
Charlottesville, Va.:
Mr. Dirda -- I'm wallowing in the world of chick-lit these days and feel slightly dirty. Any advice on funny, quick reads that aren't just so much Bridget Jones retread?
Michael Dirda: Hmm. I presume you mean you're looking for a better brand of chick lit? How about Fay Weldon--say The Life and Times of a She Devil? Or A.S. Byatt's Possession? (Not funny, however.) Arguably the most literately funny book on chicklit themes, and much else, is Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm. And "something nasty in the woodshed" is perfect since you already feel dirty.
Boston, Mass.:
Hi, Michael:
Are there any books you'd recommend reading when young? At 26, I'm trying to acquire wisdom (reality TV is helpful on this one) and relish youth at the same time.
Michael Dirda: REality TV is helpful--how? How? To be honest, by 26 you should be able to read almost anything, though some writers (Henry James, Gibbon) will appeal more as you grow older. There are several good books with reading lists--Clifton Fadiman's Lifetime REading Plans, Harold Bloom's The Western CAnon, even the titles reprinted in the Great Books of the Western World. Personally, I think that the key books to know are what I call patterning works, i.e. those that influenced and formed the imaginations of later writers: The Bible, the Greek myths, Plato's dialogues, The Iliad and Odyssey, the great fairy tales, Dante's Commedia, Shakespeare, Don Quixote. Study these and you'll be formidable.
Crystal City, Va.:
Michael,
I enjoyed your review of "Early Christian Thought." I'm reading Bede's "Ecclesiastical History," and he mentions Gregory's writings (I think it's Gregory the Great). There is no mention of the Anti-Christ comment unfortunately.
Do you have any other suggestions for surveys of early Christian writings? Which Church Fathers' writings should I add to my reading list?
Michael Dirda: The AntiChrist comment is in the middle of the immensely long commentary on Job. In another life, I spent two years reading the Church fathers and medieval literature.
For most people there is only one book you absolutely need to read: Augustine's Confessions. After this I"d recommend On Christian Doctrine (short) and dipping into The City of God. You might also check out some of the standard introductions to medieval thought: The main authors here are R.W. Southern, David Knowles, Gordon Leff, Helen Waddell (the delightful Desert Fathers), M.W. Laistner and perhaps Eileen Duckett. You might also look at a very lively, even pugnacious, account of modern scholarship on the middle ages: Inventing the Middle Ages.
Washington, D.C.:
My deceased aunt was a high school English teacher with a wonderfully developed sense of cynicism. Whenever I would tell her about how wonderful some new popular writer was, say, Tom Wolfe, she would arch and eyebrow and remind me that the concept of what is great and lasting literature ebbs and flows. She would do this with two words that she would intone from on high: "Joseph Hergesheimer." Apparently, he was once considered another Fitzgerald. True? Ever read him? Was he good? What happened?
Michael Dirda: Hergesheimer was just about the most popular writer in American during the 1920s, comparable in appeal to Britain's John Galsworthy, and both have seen their reputations plummet (though the first book of the Forsyte Saga is pretty good) Paul Horgan has an account of Hergesheimer in a book of his reminiscences, and James Thurber used to recommend his short novel Wild Oranges. But he is otherwise pretty much forgotten--like other good pre-war writers such as Clyde Brion Davis and T.S. Stribling.
Must read young:
Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged."
But at 26, you're already pushing the envelope.
Michael Dirda: Yes, I read it at 14 and that's about the perfect age. One might add Thomas Wolfe to that list.
Overwhelming Melancholy:
Not depression, precisely, just a deep sense of sadness at passing time -- the love affairs gone awry, the things I could have done better... seeking either redemption or a gentle salve for today's dreary downtroddeness... literary thoughts?
Michael Dirda: Oh, mon semblable, mon frere! Or perhaps ma soeur! You must read William Empson: "Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills/ The waste remains, the waste remains and kills." Or "Your chemic beauty burned my muscles through. . . My heart pumps yet the poison draught of you." These are in EMpson's collected poems, both are villanelles. This is a good time to read Chekhov short stories, sad, dove-grey--Nabokov's phrase--stories about life's inadequacies. I also recommend French aphorists, e.g. La Rochefoucauld and Chamfort. "In love there is always one who kisses and one who offers the cheek." Or try The Oxford Book of Aphorisms.
More Formative Great Books:
Don't forget the Near Eastern myths -- Gilgamesh, Descent of Inanna and more. After all, these are formative for the Bible among other works.
Michael Dirda: I wouldn't call them formative, so much as analogous. But yes, Gilgamesh--especially in Ferry's poetic modern version--is very readable and appealing. My knowledge of Indian myth must yield to yours. I've read some, but I can't say it's stuck with me.
RE: Atlas Shrugged:
I think back now and think it was one of the most awful books I have ever read. But not at the time of course.
Michael Dirda: Oh, you're not alone--unlike Dagny Taggart's assistant in the middle of the desert when the train pulls away in the night.
Characters to Remember:
Michael -
I do enjoy your chats, although I usually have to
read the transcript. There have been many
memorable characters I was sad to bid farewell
to, but my strongest memory in that area is from
about age 9. I can remember lying in my bed
before falling asleep wishing that if I died in the
night I would wake up and be Nan Bobbsey, and
when that was over I could be Nancy Drew. Their
lives were so much more exciting than mine!
Thanks for all the great books I've picked up to
read from suggestions in these chats.
Michael Dirda: Ah, good choices. I would have been Edmond Dantes, the Count of Monte Cristo. Learned, sophisticated, cynical, immensely rich, scourge of my enemies, etc. etc. All the things I wasn't at 14 and, now that I think of it, still am not.
Great and Lasting Literature:
So who, in your opinion, is going to be the Fitzgerald/Hemingway/Steinbeck of late 20th century U.S. writers?
Michael Dirda: John Crowley, James Salter and Cormac McCarthy. A very idiosyncratic selection, but with a certain parallelism, especially if you sub Faulkner for Steinbeck.
Fairfax, Va.:
Book I was sorry to see end: "Watership Down."
Sequel I was most disappointed to read: "Tales from Watership Down." Sigh.
Signed,
Waiting for Rabscuttle
Michael Dirda: Ah, yes: Sequels--excpet for Don Quixote and Harry Potter, almost always worse.
Boston, Mass.:
I'd advise against the Jenkins biography. In fairness, I reshelved the thing after getting through half of it. It was heavy on tangential anecdotes about secondary political characters, but whisked over Churchill's involvement in events that I would characterize as fairly important. Perhaps I have odd tastes in biographies, but I'd rather read a more extended account of Churchill's experiences in, say, World War I, than make my way through an extended accont of the time Lord Blahdeblah went rambling on at a dinner party.
Michael Dirda: So what do you recommend?
Germantown, Md.:
Could you please explain to me the popularity of Wilbur Smith. I got talked into reading "River God" and I'm about 60 percent through it and am trying to determine how much respect to lose for the recommender.
Michael Dirda: Wilbur SMith is, willy nilly, believe it or not, one of the most popular writers in the world, especially Britain. I'm told he writes a rattling good yarn.
Venus:
Slightly dirty chick-lit: "Diary of a Mad Housewife" by Sue Kaufman. Dry, sardonic, merciless.
Michael Dirda: Ooh, Love those adjectives.
26 again:
I apologize; my question about what to read when young was murky (and the reality TV comment was meant to be a slam on Fox). I'm in the middle of "Women in Love" right now, for example, and find that bits of it -- everyone growing up and trying to find their way and realizing the emptiness of many of their pursuits -- resonate with where I am in this stage in my life. I'm wondering if there are similar books you'd recommend that focus on shedding the silly and (finally) growing up.
Michael Dirda: Don't shed the silly--put off growing up as long as possible. Look what happened to Wendy--got left behind when Peter came back.
You want a grown-up book? Madame Bovary or The Good Soldier.
Iowa City, Iowa:
A friend of mine recently suggested Henry Green. Is there any thing of his you recommend starting with?
Michael Dirda: Ah, I revere Henry Green, a god. The writer's writer's writer. Probably the most appealing is Loving, about carryings on upstairs and downstairs in an Irish castle during World War II, but my favorites are Party Going and Concluding. There are two Penguin omnibuses of his 9 novels, as well as a good biography by Jeremy Treglown. John Updike has written well about him. Green was a favorite author of Eudora Welty and Terry Southern--talk about broad appeal.
On Reading Ayn Rand While Young:
I was about 16 when I read "The Fountainhead" and it blew me away. I can remember broaching the topic with my parents (why?!); I told them what a big impression the book had made on me. They looked at me with worry and asked what I thought of her economic theories. Apparently they were appalled by her ultra-free-market philosophy. I had no clue about the economics aspect of the book. What I was fixed on was her celebration of the individual, the affirmation she gave to those who lived life by their own high standards. That spoke clearly and persuasively to a teenager who felt out of step with his gutter-brained peers. I went so far as to say that I felt like destroying all other copies of the book because I didn't want those creeps reading the book because they wouldn't understand it properly. Ah, to be young and impressionable!
Michael Dirda: Ah, you must read--time for the weekly plug--my forthcoming memoir AN OPEN BOOK, in which I talk about Ayn Rand's impact (among a zillion other things). She is so wonderfully melodramatic that it's hard to resist her. Did you know that her favorite contemporary American writer was Mickey Spillane? Or that her husband came from my hometown, Lorain, Ohio, and that I always figured the steel mill scenes early in ATlas Shrugged were based on National Tube where I worked in the summers, myself a future John Galt or Francisco D'Anconia. Ah, never such innocence again. Or to coin a phrase: "Howard Roark laughed."
Germantown, Md.:
As for books I was sorry to finish and/or characters I missed. I'd have to say Waugh's "The Sword of Honor Trilogy" I would of liked to see a bit of a "Return to America" type of denoument in "The Sheltering Sky."
As for characters I still miss, the narrator from John Lanchester's "Debt to Pleasure" was incredible.
Michael Dirda: Interesting choices. You known there are lots of very good Waugh novels, and his letters and diaries are scathingly funny.
More chick-lit:
Anything by Mary Wesley -- has the aura of proper British fiction about proper British people, who then start to do all sorts of surprising things. Which after a while seem perfectly reasonable within the context of the book.
Also "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith. A simply fabulous book.
And I second the recommendation of "Cold Comfort Farm." One of the funniest books I've ever read, and one of the few whose movie adaptation stands up to comparison.
Michael Dirda: The Dodie Smith is just out in a new paperback, and has been made into a new film. Yes, I bought the movie of CCC too. Have never read Mary Wesley. What should I try? I've been meaning to start on Molly Keane.
Replacing Steinbeck with Faulkner:
I can't possibly agree to that. I like Steinbeck MUCH better. Although I've been thinking about tackling Faulkner again; I don't think 16 was really the right age to read "The Sound and the Fury."
Michael Dirda: Oh, most people would say the triumvirate of that era, at least in current if not contemporayr opinion, was F, H and Faulkner. STeinbeck, aside from Grapes and Mice, is little read these days. I think the last thing I read by him was, alas, when I was in high school: Travels with Charley.
Re: books on tape:
I've recommended this one before: "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Toole, I believe. The book is hilariously funny and the audio version is great.
Michael Dirda: Yea, to that, though I've never heard the audio. I read the first half of Confederacy on my first visit to New Orleans.
Del Ray, Va.:
For the book on tape request -- I really enjoy the Elizabeth George mysteries, read by, I believe, Derek Jacobi. Very enjoyable.
Michael Dirda: Thanks. I do know that Jacobi does the Brother Cadfael books, I presume on tape as well as on celluoid.
I Love Atlas Shrugged:
At age 43, I don't agree with as much of Rand's philosophy as I did at 23. But I still go back and read the actual narrative parts -- the story itself is intriguing, and too close for comfort in some places.
Michael Dirda: Hmmm. I wonder how well Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here holds up--it's about a fascist take-over of the United States.
Takoma Park, Md.:
Taking time off from my reconstructed performance timeline development (huh?) to nominate Angela Carter as something of an evil chick-lit type.
My book group just discussed "Life and Loves of A She-Devil" last night. Consensus: Terrifically well-constructed fun and evil. Rest of Faye Weldon until late 90's also good. "Female Friends," for example.
Michael Dirda: Ah, my poor Angela! I keep her photograph pinned to my board next to where I write these words. What a writer! What a woman! (Details to be reserved to volume three of the Dirda memoirs.) I suggest starting with the novel Nights at the Circus or the stories in The Bloody Chamber, the latter sort of feminist retellings of classic fairy tales.
Bethesda, Md.:
Re: Churchill biographies
There is a recent (last couple of years) biography by someone named West or Quest or Best that has received excellent reviews, particularly in contrast to the Jenkins. I have read the Jenkins and enjoyed it immensely, because the author, as a longstanding Member of Parliament really understands how the institution works and is able to communicate that, as an outsider,even an accomplished historian, might not be able to. That said, I understand that Jenkins is not as reliable or as thorough about other aspects of Churchill's life as he might be, so perhaps Jenkins should be viewed as a supplement rather than a sole source. I found Jenkins's prose style to be wonderful reading; erudite, witty, elegant, rhythmical: he is a much better writer than 95 percent of professional historians. For his style alone, the book is a pleasure to read.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Characters I Miss:
I still find it hard to believe that Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane aren't real people. The first time I went to Oxford, I went looking for Shrewsbury College, even though I knew I would only find the Balliol cricket ground.
Michael Dirda: Oh,yes. Why is it that detectives always seem so real? Holmes, Spade, Archer, Wimsey, et al.
Funny yet poignant chick-lit:
"The Nanny Diaries."
If you've ever lived on the upper east side of Manhattan, you'll laugh and cringe at the same time.
Michael Dirda: Never have lived on the upper east side of Manhattan--and why not, I ask you? If God were just I"d be in a penthouse on 86th street overlooking the park, right this instant.
McLean, Va.:
What is your take on McSweeney's and Dave Eggers, et al? Is that magazine doing something new and innovative for fiction, say, in comparison to The New Yorker? Or, is it new, but not that great? Further, what is the general consensus amongst the literati on McSweeney's? Thank you.
Michael Dirda: Ah, I am but a rank innocent here--have never read Eggers nor even seen McSweeney's. But everyone says the former is, for all the hype, a terrific writer, and I gather the magazine is exciting to those who read it. I'm too old, I guess. I spend my time reading Eca de Queiroz, Thomas Love Peacock, and other giants or curiosities of world literature. Ah, middle age!
Washington, D.C.:
Hi Michael,
Now that I have a toddler, my husband and I are spending a lot more time reading nursery rhymes than we used to, and it occurred to us to wonder whether anyone has done a collection of annotated nursery rhymes (along the lines of what Martin Gardner did for "Alice in Wonderland" in "The Annotated Alice," etc.)?
I know, for example, that "Hey Diddle Diddle" is about the abdication of King James II of England (he threw the Great Seal into the Thames, hence the dish running away with the spoon) and that "Ring Around the Rosie" is about the Great Plague. I'm sure there are stories behind many of the others and I'd love to know what they are. Any ideas?
Michael Dirda: Yes, Iona and Peter Opie have written about nursery rhymes and schoolyard songs and children's tales--there are several different volumes. Maria Tatar has just produced an ANnotated Fairy Tales volume. Ah, I occasionally miss the days of "over in the meadow" and "how many miles to babylon?" (the latter my favorite rhyme, probably because it's so lugubrious).
Chicago, Ill.:
Greetings Mr. Dirda,
I want to congratulate you on an excellent forum.
With thoughts of spring I inevitably turn my mind to plays. Odd as it is, some others may share this "condition;" that is the seasons often dictate the types of material to which I find myself drawn.
Please provide a recommendation of a modern playwright who you believe evokes a pathos similar to Williams and O'Neill.
Just a modest request, no?
Regards.
Michael Dirda: Edward Albee, among Americans. Samuel Beckett, for the rest of the world.
Long Island, N.Y.:
Hi Mike,
What are your two or three favorite books in the area of intellectual history?
Thanks.
Michael Dirda: Hmmm. Hard call on this one. Off the top of my head: E.R. Curtius European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages; W.P. Ker's Epic and Romance; Robert K. Merton's On the Shoulders of Giants; FRances Yates's The Art of Memory; Jean Seznec's The Survival of the Pagan Gods; John Hale's The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance; Peter Brown's Augustine and his other books on late antiquity; the essays of Anthony Grafton; the art scholarship of Kenneth Clark; R.R. Bolgar's Classical Heritage; Mario Praz's The Romantic Agony; oh, and dozens more I'm forgetting.
Arlington, Va.:
Would you say you are a fast reader?
Michael Dirda: NOt at all. I probably read about 500 words a minute, though can crank up to around a thousand, but sometimes need to slow to a few hundred. I can't read anything but a very short novel in a day.
Herndon, Va.:
Mr. Dirda,
I’ve been on a bit of a non-fiction kick for the past 6-months. I’ve read Fast Food Nation, Word Freak, Me Talk Pretty One Day, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, The Professor and the Madman, and I’m now finishing Wittgenstein’s Poker. I’ve enjoyed most of these immensely (AHWOSG has its moments, but overall it’s not that great); do you have any suggestions for additional quality non-fiction? Thanks.
Michael Dirda: Yes, there's a selection from the 11th edition of the Encycopedia Britannica--one of the co-editors is Charles Simmons--called All You Need to KNow. A wonderful book, filled with interesting entries, and all written in elegant, Edwardian (or earlier) prose.
re: Mary Wesley:
Begin at the beginning: I am almost positive that her first book is The Camomile Lawn. I'll be curious to hear what you think. One of the characters from that book pops up either briefly in person or peripherally in almost all of her other books, a nice way of indicating the insularity of a certain level of British society.
I've tried some Molly Keane, but haven't found anything yet to make me read straight through her shelf in the library. Any suggestions?
Michael Dirda: Thanks. I havent' read Keane yet either.
And it's time to stop, as I"m running out of steam. Thanks for sticking with me even though I was late starting. Till next Thursday at 2, keep reading!
washingtonpost.com:
That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the
discussion.
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