The sun is out! I’ve been delighting the neighbourhood with my neon teal garden lounger, and some bright yellow short shorts. Summer clearly brings out the classy in me.
Hope you’re having a good weekend, and here’s a book, a blog post, and a link to help you along the way.
1) The book – I love Fitzcarraldo’s non-fiction – which I only specify because I haven’t read any of their fiction. Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton sounds like a wonderful addition to the series: it is about Barton’s time living in Japan, ‘an exceptional debut about the quietly revolutionary act of learning, speaking, and living in another language’.
2) The blog post – is really a link, I suppose, but Lucy Scholes’ ‘Re-Covered’ column for the Paris Review feels like a blog. In this column, she talks about the wonderful Barbara Comyns – including her own history of reading Comyns, and the fact that she is always on the brink of being rediscovered again.
3) The link – I was late to the fan club for Janet Malcolm, but my goodness she is extraordinary. After her recent passing, the Guardian published Helen Garner’s wonderful tribute to her.
I think it was Kaggsy’s blog where I first heard about Fifty Sounds – such a fascinating idea. Happy reading on your neon teal sun lounger Simon!
Try J. Cohen The Netanyahus if you want to read a blue Fitzcarraldo (I’ve never read a white one so there we are). It’s a bit more demanding than most of the midcenturys Lady writers (that’s at least my impression) but it seems worthwile. Nevertheless I’m currently on page 49 only so consider this advice with care.
Fifty Sounds is great, Simon. As for Janet Malcolm, that book on Gertrude and Alice is shouting at me from the recent arrivals pile!!!!
Love the idea of the yellow/teal combo! I’m sure the neighborhood does as well!
I, too, first learned of the Barton book from Kaggsy’s blog. Although I’ve not read it (I have some white Fitzcarraldos but — gasp! — they’re unread as yet) I have read one of Barton’s translations, “Where the Wild Ladies Are,” Aoko Matsuda’s short story collection. Barton’s translation was wonderful. I really must check out “Fifty Sounds.”
Thanks so much for the link to the Barbara Comyns article. I’ve never read any of her work but I’ve vowed that will change in the next year (at the very least, I’m going for “Our Spoons Came From Woolworth’s”)
I saw the Guardian article on Malcolm (a favorite of yours, correct?). If you’re interested, the New Yorker also did a tribute, with links to several of the pieces she work for it.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/janet-malcolm-in-the-new-yorker
Enjoy the weekend. My eyes have been on Fifty Sounds for a while. Thanks for reminding me of it
I really enjoyed Lucy’s column (Mary sent me the link) and have ordered a copy of A Touch of Mistletoe. Something tells me it won’t quite be a cosy Christmas read but I’m definitely looking forward to it!
And how wonderful of you to brighten up the neighbourhood, Simon. Your neighbours might not agree but here’s to a long summer!
Helen Garner on Janet Malcolm was breathtaking, wasn’t it? I worship Garner, of course, and her admiration of Malcolm is so touching and beautiful. She writes about Malcolm in her essay collection Everywhere I Look, if you’re interested to check that out – it’s one of my all-time favourites (especially the audiobook, narrated by Garner herself)
Oo thank you for the recommendation