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Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, May 29, 2003; 2 p.m. ET
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor Michael Dirda took your questions and comments Thursday, May 29 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.
Alexandria, Va.:
I am working my way through Beowulf and trying to learn Old English grammar and vocabulary as I go along.
Are there any other Old English works besides Beowulf that have literary merit?
Assuming that some day I am able to read Old English will there be anything else in that language that is worth reading?
Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books. I'm writing from home because I'm pretty ill--no details--but figured this discussion would be a break from all the bed time I've been putting in.
Anyway, for the next hour we'll talk books, reading, reviewing, etc. Please show some forbearance because this home computer tends to be somewhat slower than the Post's.
Yes, there are a number of first-rate poems besides Beowulf--none is very long: The Wanderer and The Sea Farer, in particular. But the corpus of Old English literature is relatively small--there are lots of commentaries on Biblical subjects, some aphoristic writing, etc. If you look for a volume called The Exteter Book you will find the bulk of what's appealing to modern readers. Not that the religious stuff doesn't have its charms, but only to certain people.
Alexandria, Va.:
Thank you for taking our questions -- I always learn so much from these chats. My dad is in the hospital and I need to bring him some books. He has read all of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasan, Baldacci, Martini, etc. Didn't like Robert Parker. Can you recommend anything that might fit the bill?
Thanks!
Michael Dirda: Sure. Ross Thomas's thrillers are being reissued in trade paperback--these are first rate. Donald Westlake's humorous Dortmunder capers or his more brutal novels about the thief Parker written under the name Richard Stark. He might also like Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer mysteries or those of James Crumley. You should look at our Monday thriller reviews, done by Patrick Anderson--he's found a number of really good recent ones.
Lexington, Ky.:
Hi Michael,
Cold and drizzly in Lexington today -- a perfect day for staying inside and reading. Did you know a "new" Wodehouse, "A Prince For Hire," has just been published in the UK by a small press, Galahad Books. Apparently while in Hollywood he rewrote "Smith Journalist" from scratch for the U.S. market, serializing it in an Amercian magazine (but never published in book form before). Incidentally, if you love Victoriana you should try Michel Faber's "The Crimson Petal and the White," a wonderful recreation of the "Dickens novel" that attempts to recreate Victorian society from low to high, authentic from language to details, and a great complicated, Victorian plot.
Michael Dirda: Many thanks for the rec of Faber. The editor Tony Ring sent me a copy of A Prince for Hire--apparently not prime Wodehouse, but still worth having and reading, I'm sure. It's been raining in DC for weeks. My grass is a foot high.
College Park, Md.:
Can someone please tell me what was the central point of The Old Man and the Sea?
Michael Dirda: Is this for a late term paper? I haven't read the book recently, but my sense of it is that it shows the futility of human effort, that most things end badly. Most of Hemingway carries this message.
Washington, D.C.:
Have you picked up TO CONQUER THE AIR about the Wright Brothers and early flight? This being the centennial of flight. A lot of newspapers promoting this work. Most biographical books about the Wrights are good reads. I just picked this up. Your ops.
Michael Dirda: Thanks for the lead. I've read one biography of the Wright brothers and, for me, one is I think enough. But there are other people who will gobble this up.
Bryn Mawr, Pa.:
Hi Michael,
I just graduated from one of the Seven Sisters and I was wondering if you knew the name of the author who set a bunch of her novels at a women's college in the '20s. Any clue? I think she wrote about Vassar.
Michael Dirda: Mary McCarthy wrote about Vassar, but slightly later than the 20s, more the 30s and 40s. The poet Elizabeth BIshop also went to Vassar. Hope this helps.
Lewisville, Tex.:
Hi Michael,
I just finished reading my first John Dickson Carr last night (The Crooked Hinge). I was a tad disappointed by the ending -– it lacked the elegant simplicity of an Agatha Christie conclusion, which I adore. Are somewhat convoluted endings typical of Carr or is it just this one book?
Michael Dirda: The Crooked Hinge is a particularly egregious example, but yes in general his endings are incredibly elaborate--utterly improbable even. Still, what I enjoy is the atmosphere of the apparent supernatural, and the ingenuity of it all. You might try The Burning Court next; it's ending is a doozy.
Pale Fire:
Michael,
You wrote this last week: But you haven't read Lolita?! I am shocked, shocked. Nor Pale Fire -- the greatest book of our time! (Sort of).
Please elaborate on your sort of! I read Pale Fire in a freshman English class at Hamilton College four years ago. The visiting professor said his colleagues gave him flak, saying, "Freshman won't "get" it." Well, this former freshman thinks he got it. What brillant commentary on commentary!
Michael Dirda: Don't know what you're talking about. I've read Lolita many times, and Pale Fire too-I am known, wide and far, for my admiration of these books. I've reviewed Vn's letters, two volume biography, lectures on literature etc. Can't imagine how I conveyed this distorted impression. I typically recommend Jeremy Irons audio book of L, for those who like listening to novels.
But did you get Pale Fire? There's a lot of discussion, not to say uncertainty, about that narration. It's not so simple as Kinbote was crazy or that Kinbote was an escaped prince. Could Shade have written both parts?
Charlotte, N.C.:
Re: Old English. There're always the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as well as the poetry.
Michael Dirda: Yes. But my sense is that only professional medievalists deal with texts like that. Old English isn't easy. But you can manage to work your way with a glossary through a couple of poems. Borges spent his last blind years "reading" Old English.
Fairfax, Va.:
Other than Calvino and Eco, are there any modern Italian writers that you can recommend?
Michael Dirda: I reviewed a well received younger writer named Ammaniti--author of I'm Not Scared. Among the classics of Italian lit you should read two that are kind of tangential to it (because of dialects) but are masterworks of world literature: Lampedusa's The Leopard and Svevo's Confessions of Zeno, aka Zeno's Conscience. Oh, one other writer--Leonardo Sciascia, who writes thrillers, of sorts, about SIcily and the Mafia.
Lewisville, Tex.:
Michael,
Here's to your speedy recovery.
Have you read "The manuscript found in Saragossa" by Potoki? Do you know of any other books (other than The Arabian Nights) that have a similar story-within-story format?
Michael Dirda: Yes, in fact I reviewed the fuller edition edited and translated by, I think, Ian Maclean. I've included the piece in the tentative list of pieces I hope to include in a big collection for next spring.
There are lots of books with these techniques--if you like the narrative trickiness you might try the Decameron, Norfolk's Lempriere's Dictionary, Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, Gides The Counterfeiters, Gaddis's A FRolic of His Own.
Speaking of Wodehouse:
I just read my first -- Uncle Fred in the Springtime -- and really, really enjoyed it. Wodehouse is a perfect read for summer (if it ever comes). Since he's written so many, though, I don't know where to go next. Can you direct me to some of the best?
Also, right now I'm about halfway through The Quiet American and am just riveted. I was pretty lukewarm about A Burnt-Out Case, though. Can you direct me to some of the more stellar Greene?
Thanks, and I hope you feel better.
Michael Dirda: Oh, I must answer this question every other week, so I hope other posters aren't bored: Leave it to Psmith, Right Ho Jeeves, The Mating Game. YOu should also read the short stories--some people prefer them--which are available in numerous collections. Favorites--"Honeysuckle Cottage," "Lord Emsworth and the Girlfriend," "The Great Serimon Handicap," "Strychnine in the Soup."
Arlington, Va.:
I think the Lolita person was quoting something you wrote to someone last week -- in other words you were expressing your shock at a reader who hadn't read Lolita.
Michael Dirda: Oh, that makes sense.
Omaha, Neb.:
What do you think of the use of pseudonyms? I'd like to shop around a story I've written, but I'm quite consertative in real life and feel that people who know me would be scandalized over the theme/content of what I've written, if it actually ever did get published. Is that cowardly of me?
Michael Dirda: I don't know how well publishers like such ideas, but people do write under pen names all the time. Matters get a little tricky if you're story is popular or people want to meet you, etc.
The Concrete Pavilion:
Hello Michael,
In search of a summer reading challenge, I've decided to tackle Shibuki's "The Tale of Genji." Seeing it mentioned at the beginning of your chat every week lured me in, plus I found a nice new edition with illustrations and notes at my local bookstore. I'm about 90 pages in and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Even though there are copious notes, I feel as if so much of it is flying over my head. I'm enjoying it, however. The style of writing is beautiful and I've always wanted to learn more about Japanese culture. Can you give me any advice on how to approach this book? I really don't want to get halfway through, and then quit and have to settle for beach reads the rest of the summer. Thanks!
Michael Dirda: Yes, the new translation has been well received but my heart belongs to the old version by Arthur Waley--sounds like Proust dealing with Heian culture.
YOu should read The World of the Shining Prince, by Ivan Morris--will tell you all about Heian Japan. There are also a couple of little handbooks around. Or the chapter on the novel in Donald Keene's history of Japanese literature.
Takoma Park, Md.:
For narrative trickiness don't forget Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier.
Michael Dirda: Yes, another favorite book. I taught it a few years ago.
Arlington, Va.:
I have finished reading 100 pages of the Tale of Genji this past week-end. I looked forward to reading this novel because of your recommendation and also because a dear friend has read and reread it. He is unable to tell me what is so compelling about this novel. I am hoping that maybe you can. I am not certain that I wish to read another 900 pages.
Michael Dirda: Read my old essay in Readings or I suppose accessible through the Post online called "Heian Holiday."
Takoma Park, Md.:
Marianne Moore also went to Vassar, I believe.
And Maud Hart Lovelace set Carney's House Party partly at Vassar and partly in Minnesota. A delightful book.
Michael Dirda: Don't know this book.
New York, N.Y.:
Do you have any thoughts on "The Pickwick Papers" by Dickens? It looks much less serious than, say, "Great Expectations," but how does it stack up?
Michael Dirda: It is supposed to be funny, and it is. "I wants to make your flesh creep."
Narrative Trickery:
Michael, I can't believe you left out of your list At Swim-Two-Birds. "A book within a book" isn't the half of it!
Michael Dirda: Hey, I am sick. I have a piece on Flann in that proposed collection too. And on his American disciple Gilbert Sorrentino of Mulligan Stew.
South of the border:
Great Sunday pieces the past several weeks, old man! I just read Power of Silence by Castenada, read a trilogy 10 years back. I have to admit to being intrigued, or somewhat provoked even though I am not a 'new agearian,' if i can coin one. It seems to me like there is something there, but I'm not sure if I 'get it.' Maybe that's the hook. I'd like to hear your opinion of the man. Readers? If nothing else, don Juan clearly espoused some decent pyschological philosophy -- if there is such a field? Many thanks
Michael Dirda: There's a memoir of Castaneda coming out this summer, by a disciple/girlfriend. I've never read any of the Teachings books. I'm fairly critical of New Age thought.
Elkinstadt:
Hi Mr Dirda,
There's a long review of Edward Whittemore's Jerusalem Quartet in the latest Harper's. The review speaks highly of it, and it sounds interesting, and it has just been reissued. I consider myself quite knowledgable about comtemporary American fiction since 1960, yet I confess I've never heard of Whittemore or his quartet. What can you tell me about it, and what do you think about it? Thanks....
Michael Dirda: It was reissued by a small press located in Baltimore, and comes with memoir/introductions. Whittemore was CIA, crazed, and an interesting somewhat gonzo novelist.
Indianapolis, Ind.:
I'm in the middle of reading Atonement, by Ian McEwan. I truly enjoy reading his writing. I was wondering what you thought of his writing, and what other books of his would you recommend? Also, any other contemporary writers who write this well?
Michael Dirda: He's a terrific writer and you should just read more of his books--Amsterdam is witty and won the Booker Prize.
Palookaville:
I don't know Carney's House Party either but Maud Hart Lovelace wrote the Betsy-Tacy books, which my daughters all loved when they were young. And she was married to the guy who wrote King Kong!
Michael Dirda: Thanks
Richmond, Va.:
Last week you wrote that you wrote that you were shocked I hadn't read Lolita -- not that you hadn't.
Not to worry -- the omission is being rectified -- I probably avoided it before because i am the mother of two daughters and the subject matter has the "ick" factor for me. I also picked up Nabokov's short stories (I love short stories) -- any favorites there?
Michael Dirda: Well, maybe you would prefer Pale Fire.
Arlington, Va.:
Have you ever watched the adaptations of Wodehouse -- "Wodehouse Playhouse," starring Pauline Collins and John Alderton? They are from London Weekend Television (I think) and have just been reissued in VHS and DVD. Mostly the Mulliner stories as well as some golf stories.
They were originally broadcast on PBS in the late 70's, and inspired me to seek out the poem from "Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court" to recite at school. The poem begins:
When cares attack, and Life seems black,
How sweet it is to pot a Yak --
Michael Dirda: Thanks for the information.
Pentagon, Arlington, Va.:
You have banned discussion of Jane Austen for the time being, maybe we add Wodehouse to the list?
Michael Dirda: Good move. Ok no more Plum.
New York, N.Y.:
Mr. Dirda --
Good afternoon. Regarding Montaigne, where would you suggest starting off? Also, are there any other essayists and/or collections you would suggest? I am not looking for any particular topic, as I am just beginning to explore the world of essays.
Thank you and hope you feel better.
Michael Dirda: His greatest essay is called On Experience--its the last one in the book.
Philip Lopate has compiled a wonderful collection of essays from around the world--well worth looking for.
And now, alas, I need to ring off, so to speak. I started earlier than I realized and am now tired out. I hope that next week I'll be back in better shape. Till then, Keep Reading!
washingtonpost.com:
Heian Holiday (Post, April 21, 1996)
washingtonpost.com:
That wraps up
today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the
discussion.
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