Nathan "N.R."’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2012)

Nathan "N.R."’s comments from the Completists' Club group.

Chamber Music (poems, 1907)
Dubliners (short-story collection, 1914)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (novel, 1916)
Exiles (play, 1918)
Ulysses (novel, 1922)
Pomes Penyeach (poems, 1927)
Collected Poems (poems, 1936)
Finnegans Wake (novel, 1939)


Posthumous publications

Stephen Hero (precursor to A Portrait; written 1904–06, published 1944)
Giacomo Joyce (written 1907, published 1968)
Letters of James Joyce Vol. 1 (Ed. Stuart Gilbert, 1957)
The Critical Writings of James Joyce (Eds. Ellsworth Mason and Richard Ellman, 1959)
The Cat and the Devil (London: Faber and Faber, 1965)
Letters of James Joyce Vol. 2 (Ed. Richard Ellman, 1966)
Letters of James Joyce Vol. 3 (Ed. Richard Ellman, 1966)
Selected Letters of James Joyce (Ed. Richard Ellman, 1975)
The Cats of Copenhagen (Ithys Press, 2012)

I believe Ellman's Biography ought also be included:
James Joyce

Rakhi wrote: "those by Immanuel Kant. "

: ) <--From Here to Eternity.

Should you desire, you needn't be intimidated by the rather smart Gold-Bug. Galatea 2.2 is my next Powers and it'll be close to being a make-r-break.

mark wrote: "thanks NR!"

Barth repeats himself a lot, but the books you've mentioned are, indeed, quite diverse.

mark wrote: "Floating Opera and Chimera, long ago. mixed feelings.

i have Giles Goat-Boy & Lost in the Funhouse on the bookshelf and have been eyeing them dubiously for years."

Funhouse won't make you happy if you weren't all aglow about Chimera, but it could. Floating Opera is of the early twins, and Giles is nothing like any of those you've mentioned. I'd say, give Giles a go for a piece.

Tom wrote: "The book really makes the case for considering Churchill a war criminal. "

Okay, I'm in. The 800 pages of History may be tolerable.

Tom wrote: "Ahh good to know... what are Theroux's political disagreements, do you know?"

The following thoughts have the status of internet rumor

Publishing politics--something to do with how the books would be shaped, changed or not changed, reformatted, edited--something like that. That's the rumor that's reached my ear. I don't believe it a matter of national politics or the like. I think it may have had something to do with Steven Moore's falling out with dalkey in the mid-90's.

Meanwhile, we have a friendly comic book publisher in Seattle that doesn't interfere with his manuscripts and prints lots and lots of typos!! ; )

This has been an internet rumor

[Correct, please, any of my ignorant notions, please, anyone.]

Tom wrote: "That is too bad, maybe the Dalkey will step up and reissue some more of his titles. I was shocked to see this largely true of A. Theroux as well."

Theroux has had some political disagreements with Dalkey, is my understanding. I'm not convinced yet that Mano is entirely Dalkey material. Take Five certainly is, but the others haven't been quite as inventively interesting. Still worth reading, so far.

MJ wrote: "Shortness assists the completion. Human Smoke is 800pp, I believe."

Okay. {gulp.}

Tom wrote: "Nathan you have convinced me to give Mano a shot; I just picked up Take 5, which I will read...some day. It looks amazing though. I imagine much of his stuff is out of print?"

Nearly all of it is out of print. Dalkey carries Take Five, and I believe that both Topless and Fergus can be obtained directly from amazon. The other stuff is all abebooks. You'll likely never find him in the average used bookstore. I don't think any of his books ever sold very well.

I haven't made up my mind whether I'll complete it. But that list looks doable. I'll have to depend on cheap paperbacks. My only complaint about him is that his books are too short. . . I've only got two of his tic'd off. I believe I started The Fermata and got distracted with The Royal Family which I finished before I got back to The Fermata. High quality porn just doesn't hold one's attention like one would think it would.

MJ wrote: "Wow, an extremely slim biblio that is. I should think the humour books would tarnish the completism somewhat."

The Doctor books are just stupid. But, why not stupid? He took a number of years off in order to become a failed screenwriter, and thus my inclusion of War, Inc., the only thing that made it to the screen. (Or, should include War, Inc.)

MJ wrote: "At Swim is your metafictional megalith, Third Policeman your everlasting classic. Poor Mouth is simply one of the best parodies ever written."

Those first two will be my first two. I haven't gotten much of a reputation concerning the other yet, but they'll be tic'd off one day too.

In addition to Tom's wonderful suggestions:

Historical Fiction -- The Ice-Shirt (If you intend to read the Dream series in chronological order, but you needn't).

Pynchonianisms and Broom of the System Twin -- You Bright and Risen Angels.

Noir -- The Royal Family

One day, once I get started, I seem to be already committed to his five novels. Not likely more than that, but I know I've missed something having no O'Brien in my life.

Mark wrote: "Funhouse and Sot-Weed are two of my all-time favorites, but for some reason I've always been a bit intimidated by Giles. Is it worth it? "

If you've already done Sot-Weed, there's no need for intimidation in the face of Giles. They be twins. If you've already made it this far into the House of Barth, allow me to recommend his first two essay books. And once you've done Giles, you can go for the truly intimidating Barth--LETTERS, in which are recycled the characters from his first six books.

Mark wrote: "Oh how I'd love to have the time to get to more Barth. Of the 17 fictions I've only read 7. Gotten get back to him."

Which seven? I'd like to get to Tidewater soon in order to rest my brain, but other brain-crunching books keep putting themselves at the head of the line.

"Huge fan" is good. An Adultery is indeed an odd book for an A. Theroux. If you liked the Gorey book, you might like the Estonia book. I'm really looking forward to his tear into Rock lyrics. And I have high expectations for Three Wogs. I have fairly low expectations for the Color books, for no particular reason.

MJ wrote: "Fantastic. (Though he won't get more readers). "

Thus I'm safe from doing any more work than listing books on time-wasting threads about authors no one reads. ; )

MJ wrote: "Only eight novels? Seems like a reasonable target."

I'll will be supplementing that with a mad and pointless search for his journalism. B0nnie's already fixed me up with several gigabytes of Playboy and National Review. If Mano gets more readers, I'll be in the process of bibliography more of his stuff.