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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, May 1, 2003; 2 p.m. ET
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments Thursday, May 1 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.
Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! It's Thursday, rain threatening, and your host is suffering from either a cold or the flu or something like them--at any event, he's feeling run-down, weak, and a bit rheumy (I always love using that word).
Anyway, for the next hour I'll do my best to answer your questions about books, publishing, reading, whatever. On with the show!
Farrugut Square, Washington, D.C.:
Hi Michael,
First off, thank you for giving me something to look forward to on Thursday afternoons! My question: I remember seeing in one of the chats from a few years back a reference you made to a poem (I believe it was by Randall Jarrell) that included a line something like, "let me sleep by you each night like a spoon." Does this ring any bells? Do you know the full name of the poem? I've tried searching online but haven't had any luck.
Thanks again!
Michael Dirda: Yes, the poem is a long one called "Woman"--written to his wife Mary--and it ends with the lines I'm so fond of. They begin "Let me sleep beside you each night like a spoon" and end with a comparison between the beloved's eyes and the sun. You'll find the poem in Jarrell's Collected or Selected Poems, and I think in the invidifual collection called The Lost World.
Arlington, Va.:
Hi Michael,
Are you familiar with any of the following
Canadian authors and, if so, can you
recommend any of the following books?
Hubert Aquin -- Prochain Episode
Wayne Johnston -- The Colony of
Unrequited Dreams
Paul Hiebert -- Sarah Binks
Helen Humphrey -- The Last Garden
Are there any other books by these
authors that you would recommend?
Many thanks.
Michael Dirda: Alas, I don't know any of these authors or their books. The last Canadian book I read with excitement was Mercy Among the Children.
Pentagon, Arlington, Va.:
Two comments from last week's show.
For the chatter from Herndon who wanted to know what to follow up Fast Food Nation and Professor and the Madman with. Seabiscuit by Laura Hilenbrand. Fabulous non-fiction in the vein of the other titles listed. Also, Washington Goes to War by David Brinkley. (Out of print but easy to find in used book stores in D.C.)
Second, Possession by AS Byatt as chick-lit. Pulease! (At least one man I recommended it to added it to his list of favorite books.)
Michael Dirda: Thanks for the recommendations. I reviewed Possession and it's a terrific book, in all sorts of ways, but you can still make the case that it's a romance novel. A.S. Byatt later told me that she much admired Georgette Heyer in her youth.
Toronto, Canada:
Hi Michael,
really enjoy your chats. I'm fascinated by fiction written in the guise of a diary, having just recently read William Boyd's Any Human Heart. Do you have any other suggestions of books in this vein?
Michael Dirda: Lots of 19th century fiction follows this format: Gogol's Diary of a Madman; Maupassant's The Horla, Twain's Diary of Adam and Eve. For some reason the form does attract writers of fantasy and horror: See Robert Aickman's fine story Pages from a Young Girl's Diary.
Takoma Park, Md.:
Just wanted to share a discovery: B.S. Johnson. Mordantly funny "experimental" writer whose amazingly structured novels actually work.
I've just finished Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry, funny indeed. A few actions depicted that would now seem questionable in the light of our new concerns with terrorism, but in 1965 or whenever they were pure fantasy.
Michael Dirda: Yes, I'm very fond of Christie Malry--I learned about the book from Gilbert Sorrentino--another experimental writer who is funny, though most experimental writers tend to be either funny or erotic (I suppose as compensation for the narrative difficulties). I now own the paperback I read, an American hard cover and a first edition. I'm told that House Mother Normal is also good. Johnson also wrote a novel, which I've not seen, consisting of pages that you could shuffle like cards.
Nashville, Tenn.:
In answer to the Canadian book question, I read and like The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. It's based on a real person, truish, about a prime minister of Newfoundland. New territory for me, but I liked it a lot.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Silver Spring, Md.:
Posession is atypical of Byatt's work; most is sharper and deeper.
And I loved Bosco as a child, but that doesn't invalidate my later enjoyment and production of sophisticated dark chocolate stuff.
Michael Dirda: I don't understand the gist of your comment. I thought the argument was just whether Possession could be judged as chick lit. Of course, we never really got around to defining our terms. But I think of chick lit as a novel about a young woman looking for love, with lots of missteps, and either a certain amount of sentimentality or edgy humor.
Diary novels:
Diary of Felix Krull, by Thomas Mann. Unforgettable though a bit heavy.
Michael Dirda: Not heavy at all, and it's not exactly a diary: Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man. It's very funny--in fact, just about the only funny thing that Mann wrote. All about phonies and inauthenticity, though the seduction of Felix by the countess or marquise in the Paris hotel is very sexy--esepcially as the work of an 80 year-old repressed homosexual.
Washington, D.C.:
Hi Michael,
Many thanks for doing these chats! I'm looking foward to reading your next book.
I've just begun reading one of your favorite novelists, Jane Austen. I began with, and loved, Pride and Prejudice. It's a good thing, because if I'd started with Sense and Sensibility I'm not sure I would have continued beyond the first quarter of the book, or onto the rest of her books. But I was eventually drawn in by S&S and, by the end, even agreed with the narrator's assessment that Marianne was born to an "extraordinary fate!"
Austen's wit and humor, and penetrating intelligence in observing human nature and personalities, drew me in like everyone else. But for me the most thrilling aspect of her books -- and I never expected, before reading her, to find Jane Austen thrilling! -- is the act of gaining self-knowledge depicted therein. I also think she excels at depicting rapid changes in emotional states -- e.g., from confident to embarrassed in the course of a sentence.
I plan to read the rest of her oeuvre. Is there some particular order in which you suggest I read Emma, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion, to better appreciate her art? Should I read Northanger Abbey?
Many thanks.
Michael Dirda: You could read them in chronological order, since you're going to read them all. Besides P and P, her greatest works are Emma and Persuasion.
Mother's Day, Father's Day Gifts:
I just bought books for my mom and dad, even though neither of them are big readers.
You recommended Joseph Mitchell's "Up at the Old Hotel" collection last year for my dad, and although I've often picked it up with the intent of purchasing it, it always gets supplanted by another title before I make it to the cash register. Last year I bought my dad Paul Auster's "Timbuktu," which I thought he might enjoy, given that it's about a dog. But as I feared, he bailed on the book, calling it too "artsy fartsy."
This year I think I found a winner: the new Simon Wincester book about volcanoes! Some science, mixed with explosions. Maybe he'll read it.
For my mom, I just couldn't find anything I thought she'd enjoy. Today's fiction aimed at women seems to be from the "Bridget Jones' Diary" school, not appropriate for a 60-year-old. So I settled on Harold Bloom's "How to Read a Book," which I hope might prove inspirational, and hopefully not condescending. Since it was overstocked, only $7 for the hardback at Olsson's, I also grabbed a poetry anthology edited by Bill Moyers. I don't care for Moyers, but my mom has always spoken highly of him. She's not into poetry, but perhaps the Moyers connection will do the trick.
So, did I do well?
Michael Dirda: Sure, you did fine. Though at least one reader I know of hte new Winchester found his style a tissue of platitudes and cliches.
Up in the Old Hotel isn't obviously literary at all--it's about grifters, gypsies, bums, prodigies, carnies, riff-raff, and holy men. And as it's mostly about the '30s it might appeal to your dad. It's my favorite work of American nonfiction.
Providence, R.I.:
Sorry you're feeling unwell. The weather is rotten here too!
What do you think of audio books as a medium? I am trying out my first one this week to mitigate my long and boring commute. I'm really enjoying it as an experience, although I occasionally have to stop and rewind the tape after a tricky bit of traffic. My guinea pig book is "Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer, the account of the 1996 Everest expedition which went horribly wrong. He narrates, which makes an already compelling story even more so. Any recommendations for my next selection from you or the members?
Michael Dirda: I think mysteries work very well on tape. Try a Dick Francis. I also like to listen to favorite books: Jeremy Irons reading Lolita (incomparable), the Naxos abridgement of Gibbon, John Gielgud reading Shakespeare sonnets and soliloquies. The important factor is the quality of the reder/narrator--if his or her voice can generate a feeling of enchantment, you'll listen to anything.
Washington, D.C.:
I'm heading to China this summer, and I wonder if you'd recommend anything in particular either about the country, or by a Chinese author. I've read Wild Swans and a book by Peace Corps volunteer Peter Hessler. Any ideas?
Michael Dirda: Jonathan Spence, The Gate of Heavenly Peace--a history of modern China by our greatest authority and a brisk stylist. You might also look at his essays in The Cham's Great Continent. Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Mistress is a charming love story set during the cultural revolutoin and has proven very popular with readers--it's still on our best seller list.
Jane Austen:
The single edition of the complete works includes them in chronological order. For those new to Jane Austen, I have discovered that many Austen readers are fond of an exercise that a friend and I regularly practice: deducing insights into a person's inner workings by identifying their favorite Austen heroine. Please report back on yours when you have finished Persuasion!
Michael Dirda: I finished Persuasion long ago. But now I don't know if I want to tell you my favorite character. Actually, Elizabeth Bennet is my favorite character, as she is almost everyone's. Not even Darcy deserves her. She should have waited for me.
Annandale, Va.:
You have often recommended the writings of P.G. Wodehouse to your readers, but I don't recall you mentioning that his stories are also quite appropriate for your readers' children as well. Over the course of about 9 months, I have read most of the Jeeves stories to my two daughters, ages 10 and 11, just before bedtime.
After they got the hang of the language, they couldn't get enough of Bertie, and would bounce around shreiking with delight at his misfortunes. The quality of the writing has been such that they have been inspired to try to imitate it themselves, with sometimes inadvertently humorous results. It has been a great change from the 4th - 6th grade literature that they had been otherwise reading.
Michael Dirda: Wow! I love the stories too, but I never thought they'd work for kids that young. On the other hand, I found my 12 year old engrossed in watching my DVD of North by Northwestk, which he loved. His older brothers wouldn't have looked twice at any movie that didn't have a major conflagration or some badass kick-boxing within the first five minutes. I watched a bit of it with him, and had forgotten how sexy and suggestive "Eve Kendall's" conversation is on the train. My favorite Wodehouse stories, though, are those about Blandings Castle and those known as the Mulliner stories, especially "Honeysuckle Cottage."
Cambridge, Mass.:
Who are the great contemporary short story writers? (aside from Alice Munro, whose flat prose I dislike.)
Michael Dirda: Hmmm. Lorrie Moore. James Salter. Lucius Shepard. John Updike. But this is a harder question than it looks. Right now, I don't think we have a dominant short-story master--in the '50s it was John Cheever, the '60s and early '70s it was Donald Barthelme, and then came Raymond Carver in the '80s. Since then, the title is up for grabs.
Bethesda, Md.:
If you're looking for a novel that plays with the conceits of "false diary" narrative, why not start at the top: Lolita. The delights of this one book -- linguistic, intellectual, and parodic -- are worthy of a hundred others.
Michael Dirda: But it's not a diary. It's the Confessions of a White Widowed Male, an apologia written after the fact in prison. Not that it isn't sort of like a diary. "I am thinking of aurochs and angels. . ."
B.S. Johnson:
The shuffling pieces novel is out of print, and sells in the neighborhood of $100 at best. He also has an autobiography called something like "Aren't You too Young To be Writing an Autobiography?". Excerpts are on the Web, as it is thoroughly out of print.
This is Johnson's centenary, and an omnibus edition of his most readable novels is about to come out in England and maybe here too.
Michael Dirda: Hey, that would be swell. I'd love to write about that. But there are so many books that never seem to get to these shores from Britain: Larkin's Unrequired Writing, for instance, or John Betjeman's letters, or the recent biography of the legendary Julian Maclaren-Ross, famous as writer and bohemian character of the '40s, and the model for Widmerpol in Powell's Dance to the Music of Time.
Arlington, Va.:
Are you knowledgeable about Kipling? My son and I were reading "The Crab Who Played With the Sea" at bedtime last night. When finished (it was the last Just-So story we needed to read), he said "what an awesome guy -- he wrote this AND the Jungle book." I want to take advantage of this enthusiasm, but don't know enough about what other Kipling would appeal to a 9-year old. Suggestions?
Michael Dirda: Well, you can read the other Just-So Stories and the SEcond Jungle Book (if you haven't already). There are lots of collections of Kipling stories and everyone has his favorites--I think he's the greatest short story writer in English. Still, I've never read PUck of Pook's Hill and REwards and Fairies that are sort of intended for kids, so those might work. Otherwise you might consider some of the funnier stories, like The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat, or the uplifignt poems (such as "If") and a couple novels: Captains Courageous, about the rich kid taken up by poor fishermen, and his masterpiece, Kim, the story of a boy who helps the English cause in India, but a great panoramic view of the country too. And thrilling: "Here begins the Great Game. . . "
For the reader seeking quality chick lit:
Try Kate Atkinson (I think that is the name). She wrote Behind the Scenes at the Museum and Emotionally Weird, both phenomenal books -- funny, playful, heartbreaking, brilliant -- I cannot say enough good things about them. Emotionally Weird had the benefit of being meta, too, in a very funny way.
Michael Dirda: THanks. These do sound like fun.
Re: Jane Austen:
Sorry, the comment on finishing Persuasion was directed to the person who wrote in, not you!
Your preference for Elizabeth Bennett doesn't surprise me, given your love of P&P. But I wouldn't say she is "almost everybody's", at least not by my unscientific polls. Lots of people have claimed Emma (love the book, can't stand her), and a few rogues cite have even strayed into Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey! Since you 'fessed up, I will too: Anne Elliot is mine. Elizabeth is my ideal in many ways, but Anne hits a lot closer to home.
Michael Dirda: Well, Anne is a wonderful character, but perhaps a little too serious for me. She's rather like Jane Bennet, isn't she? Albeit smarter. But Persuasion is Austen's most perfect achievement.
Books that never get here from Britain:
Or almost the entire publication list of Virago, featuring great female writers of Britain and beyond.
Grumble.
Michael Dirda: INdeed. Virago used to publish here 15 years ago. I wonder why they stopped.
Takoma Park, Md.:
LAURIE COLWIN! Probably the best short story writer of the 80s/90s. Her novels are okay, but the stories are glorious. How I wish she had lived longer (almost as much as I wish Jane Austen had lived longer).
Grace Paley ain't bad, but she is a specialized taste somewhat.
Michael Dirda: I was going to mention Grace Paley, but I had completely forgotten the wonderful Colwin. I concur. The first thing I ever read by her was in Playboy, "My Mistress." I am tickled when I think that my good friend Alice Turner was the fiction editor of Playboy for 20 years.
Annandale, Va.:
Recently posted about reading Wodehouse to my kids--then saw the comment about Jane Austin. Having finished off the Jeeves and Wooster series, I read Sense and Sensibility to them. It was a very good experience, even though the language was rather difficult.
In the beginning, I had to stop every paragraph or two and summarize what had happened, and my younger daughter (age 10) had a piece of paper on which she wrote down the cast of characters (three of whom were named John). By about thirty pages into the book, the summary explanations tapered off, and they were able to keep track of the story quite well. It was very enjoyable to watch them get so into the story and listen to their outraged comments about the behavior of the characters. I'm about a quarter of the way through Pride and Prejudice now, and again, they can't get enough of it.
Michael Dirda: Wow. You have some daughters. Austen would approve of htem.
Lexington, Ky.:
Hi Michael, B S Johnson's 'shuffle' book is "The Unfortunates" and is printed in loose chapters (27), of which the first and last must be read in order, the others being shuffled. Reprinted recently in the UK. About a sports journalist on assignment and reliving his past thru his consciousness. By the way, Jonathan Coe is finishing a bio of Johsnon.
Michael Dirda: Glad to know this. Coe seems an appropriate biographer. I think Johnson was a rather difficult man--or am I imagining this?
You be the judge:
Pat Conroy: Insightful probing into dysfunctional families or melodramatic schlock? My memory of "The Prince of Tides" is that parts of it veered towards the latter, and I am currently contemplating "The Great Santini." Your thoughts?
Michael Dirda: Never read a word of his work. I figured it was classy best seller stuff. Maybe I was wrong.
Tyson's Corner, Va.:
Are you, by chance, familiar with the writing of Robert Warshow? He wrote cultural criticism in the 1940s, and his work was recently republished in an anthology, "The Immediate Experience."
I bought the book but am having a hard time engaging the writing. Some of the pop culture references are lost on me, but I was hoping to find other things to appreciate in his opinion writing. Do you have any advice for me?
Michael Dirda: I read Warshow years ago--he had a famous essay on the gangster as an American hero (it's reprinted in The Immediate Experience, I think). But I can't remember much about him or his work, though both are highly regarded by cinephiles. Persevere. My film critic was James Agee.
Independence, Mo.:
Michael, enjoying your chat. Are there any contemporary poets you'd recomend? Also, I've read two books by Lucy Grealy. Autobiography of a Face, and As Seen on TV, which is mostly essay. I understand she origionaly wrote poetry, however I have been unable to find any of it. Any suggestions?
Michael Dirda: Poetry is so wide a genre it's hard to recommend any one. You may like free verse and I prefer fixed forms, you may go for philosophy, while I go for wit. In fact, those are myh preferences and so I'll point you to Anthony Hecht, first of all. If you want a major poet who's really sumptuous and difficult, try Geoffrey Hill. For a touching accessible poet,who died too young, try Jane Kenyon.
For Short Story Writers, from Washington, D.C.:
Some great contemporary ones include '90s faves DFW and Barry Hannah. More recently, I enjoyed Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son immensely, but above all I think George Saunders should be counted among the top contemporary short story writers.
Michael Dirda: Ok. Those seem like good choices, though I know Saunders only by rep.
Richmond, Va.:
Speaking of Simon Winchester -- I love dictionaries -- but I absolutely could not make it through the Professor and the Madman -- in spite of the fascinating subject matter. Winchester never met a subordinate clause that he couldn't jam into an already overfull sentence.
Michael Dirda: Yes, and he wrote a perfectly lousy essay on Roget for the Atlantic. And he blurbed a rather lackluster bio of H.W. Fowler (though it had fascinating stuff in it).
Lenexa, Kan.:
We shouldn't forget Cheever. Thanks.
Michael Dirda: I mentioned Cheever, didn't I?
Reading Jane Austen:
Once you read Emma and Persuasion and P&P you'll WANT to read the other two. Reverse the order and you might miss the three Big Gems.
Michael Dirda: Other three.
Ballston, Va.:
I confess, I nearly ALWAYS peek at endings of books. I don't read too carefully; generally, I scan to see which characters are left. I have been known not to finish a book if it appears that a character I like is not mentioned. Other times, I am so intrigued by what seems to be happening, I continue just to figure it out.
What is your stance on peeking?
Michael Dirda: Mixed. If I know I'm not going to read the book, I'll look to see how it comes out, who lives, who dies, who marries whom. But if I'm going to spend a few hours with a novel, I want the experience to be as pure as possible.
Arlington, Va.:
I've recently rediscovered my love for Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Any suggestions on similiar quality detective tales?
Michael Dirda: Sure. G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories are the second best set of detective stories in the language. After that you can go in several directions: There are several collections of 1890s detectives with titles like The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (some of these edited by Graham's brother,Hugh Greene). Perhaps the best of these are those by R. Austin Freeman about Dr. Thorndyke. The great American avatars of Holmes and Watson are Nero Wolfe and ARchie Goodwin in Rex Stout's breezy, witty books. Those of the '30s and '40s are the best. For later mysteries I recommend John Dickson Carr's locked room classics from the 1930s.
Opinions, Please:
Have you read Jonathan Franzen's book How to be Alone? What did you think of it? I open it up to others as well.
Michael Dirda: Didn't read it.
Richmond, Va.:
It's not quite me reading aloud, but my daughters (11 and 12) are loving their intro to Georgette Heyer on audiotape. We listen to a bit everytime we get in the car to go anywhere, no matter how short the trip.
Michael Dirda: Great!
Kensington, Md.:
Hi there --
I'm a 15-year-old girl and I'm looking for something interesting and original to read. Fiction or nonfiction, anything, really. I'd appreciate your suggestions. Thanks!
Michael Dirda: I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith. Just out in a new paperback edition. You'll love it.
Woodbridge, Va.:
After finishing Eothen, I looked through my books to see if I had any more recent travel accounts that I could read to compare the experience. I found two accounts that overlapped with part of Kinglake's journey: Paul Thereaux's Pillars of Hercules about a circuit of the Mediterranean, and and Robert Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts. Do you or other posters have any comments on these two books? I didn't find anything in my stash about journeys in Syria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan -- the bulk of Kinglake's journeys. Do you have any suggestions?
Michael Dirda: People out there? ANy help?
Toronto, Canada:
To: Arlington -- Ah, you've been following Canada's recent Canada Reads promotion,one of those One Country, One Book things. Those were the five books nominated (Next Episode won). For Wayne Johnston, I'd recommend his latest novel, The Navigator of New York. Looks at the early growth of Manhattan and also the race to the North Pole between Cook and Peary.
Michael Dirda: thanks
Fairfax, Va.:
Hello Mr. Dirda,
I was curious about your thoughts on the work of local crimewriter George Pelecanos. Having read most of his stuff so far, I've noticed significant development in his work and feel he has hit a remarkable stride with the current Strange-Quinn series ("Hell To Pay" just won an L.A. Times Book Award). Is it going to take an Elmore Leonard-esque back catalog before this guy gets the national notoriety he deserves or what?
Michael Dirda: Hard to say. George may be too gritty for some tastes. Leonard's early books were edgier, but he only got really poular when he lightened up a bit.
Drowning in chick-lit, part 2:
Thanks for all the advice last week on intelligent chick lit. I read "The Nanny Diaries" and laughed and emphathized, and "Possession" is truly a treasure. It certainly reconnected me with my English-major roots. Thank you again.
Michael Dirda: You're welcome.
Arlington, Va.:
Hi Michael:
I am totally addicted to books. I would love to find a publication or Web site where I can find out when books are being published and info about book tours. What do you recommend?
Michael Dirda: Publishers Weekly. It's the trade journal of the field. There must be a web site.
Arlington, Va.:
How old were you when you first read Austen? I ask, because I am inspired by Annandale reading S&S and P&P to her/his daughters. Wondering if you think it would work for a literate boy (of Kipling interest, above). Never having been a boy, I hesitate to violate some rule of "girl book" contamination/condemnation.
Michael Dirda: I tried P and P when I was 12 or 13 and didn't like it, being a shallow boy looking mainly for adventure stories. Austen really only worked for me when I was in my early twenties. It was the same time I discovered Proust and Henry James--wit, manners, human sympathy.
Arlington, Va.:
You've recommended Chesterton on a number of occasions. Where should one start with his non-fiction? The Victorian Age in literature? The Biblical stuff?
Michael Dirda: Victorian AGe is terrific. I'd try one of the many anthologies. The most famous of the "religious" books is Orthodoxy.
Dream City:
What other film critics do you read? Agee has his place, but I always responded more to Dwight MacDonald or Stanley Kaufmann. If we ever want to open up a discussion on the literary merits of film criticism, I'd advance Pauline Kael as an innovator on per with Hemingway.
Michael Dirda: Oh, I loved Kael--read her when I lived in Marseille. But I am terribly conflicted about movies--there was a time I contemplated becoming a film critic instead of a book critic. But I decided that there weren't ever going to be enough really good movies to satisfy me, whereas there seems to be no end of good books.
washingtonpost.com:
Publishers Weekly Web site
Michael Dirda: thanks
Silver Spring, Md.:
Franzen essays: a few were good, but generally too self-absorbed and trivial (beyond the currently elevated norm for personal essays).
Michael Dirda: thanks.
Fairfax, Va.:
Anne Beatie is another very good short story writer. I don't like her novels much. Her story "Snow" is a classic I think. (She does kind of repeat her self a lot thou) Burning House and Where You'll Find Me are the best I think.
Michael Dirda: Yes. I should have remembered Beattie. She's certainly a major figure.
Front Royal, Va.:
Michael,
So many great reading suggestions from this chat! Without it I'd be stumbling around blindly in the library, using the lottery system to find something to read.
I've read All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian, (thanks to you!) what do you recommend next by McCarthy? Maybe something that takes place in the South such as Child of God or Suttree?
Thanks for the insight!
Michael Dirda: Well, there are only--what--four novels set in the South, and I think almost any of them would do: Suttree is probalby the one to start with.
My Goodness, Me:
Tuesday was Robert Gottleib's birthday. Here is a partial description of him from The Writer's Almanac. I get a headache just thinking about this prodigious reading:
Growing up, he did almost nothing but read. He read three to four books a day after school, and could read for sixteen hours at a time. As a teenager he read War and Peace in one day, and while attending Columbia University, he read Marcel Proust's six volume Remembrance of Things Past in seven days.
Michael Dirda: I don't know if this is really such a good thing. The real issue isn't how many books we get through but how many books get through us.
I've "read" thousands of books, but I've also only read maybe a dozen, if that.
Washington, D.C.:
Do the responses to chats and our questions to you influence what you write in print and in the BOOKWORLD occasionally?
Michael Dirda: Hmm. When I was writing my Readings essays--at least temporarily on vacation--I would sometimes be inspired by notions from these chats. But what I enjoy about them is the chance to hear from readers about books they enjoy and, to be completely honest, to show off at least a little of my own knowledge of books. In truth, I've always been a kind of teacher at heart in almost all my writing, trying to make books seem appealing and worthwhile. Now, as I've grown older, I find I'd actually like to be a teacher. The path not taken.
Anyway, time's up for this week. Sorry if I didn't get to your question. Till next Thursday at 2--keep reading!
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