The BURIED Book Club discussion
May I ADD please?
Sean wrote: "Hmm...I believe that Monica link should point here."Yeah that's the link, thanks.
hello, got another New Zealand author here, Sylvia Ashton-Warner, who "broke new ground in New Zealand literature, opening up the worlds of imagination and emotion as legitimate subjects."(quote from the Oxford compainion to NZ lit, http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/Writers...)She has 228 ratings and 31 reviews on goodreads, but 171 and 19 of these are for her non fiction book about education, her novels are very under read(many have no reviews at all). I read one recently and it was quite good, very psychological and had some cool imagery.
Thomas wrote: "hello, got another New Zealand author here, Sylvia Ashton-Warner, who "broke new ground in New Zealand literature, opening up the worlds of imagination and emotion as legitimate sub..."If she is good as you say she is, she's totally BURIED! ADD please!
And I see that her Spinster got made into a Shirley MacLaine movie.
I'm on the app, so I might be getting false results, but I came across (and bought) a Grove Press book from the '60's called The Spanish Inn by Jean-Louis Bergonzo - and I swear he's not on GR, and I'm not getting the typical Wikipedia hit from Google. He's supposed to write in the Nouveau Roman style.Kirkus review:
"Alienation, rejection, the eroding, narrowing vocabulary of love as love seeps away part and parcel of the narrator's present predicament incarceration in an insane sytum. Remembering imagining he continues an agonizing replay of his relationship with his wife, Lucile/Cecile, his ""lost Spain,"" the woman who had cheated and abandoned him. His fantasies. . . grotesque burlesque, find them in emasculating sexual situations and again in a bizarre triangle as he wins her away from a Negro circus boxer only to learn that he is not the sole recipient of her favors. The final (true?) image leaves him as the husband cuckolded by his best friend who remarks dispassionately ""she is much more a fiancee and a mistress than she is wife."" The loss and disillusionment here are tapered and tempered by irony. And the author's intricate images, projections, have an excellent translator in Helen R. Lane."
Ronald wrote: " I came across (and bought) a Grove Press book from the '60's called The Spanish Inn by Jean-Louis Bergonzo - and I swear he's not on GR, and I'm not getting the typical Wikipedia hit from Google. "TOTALLY BURY'd! ADD please!
Has anyone heard of an Euquadorian writer named Demetrio Aguilera Malta? Someone I vaguely know mentioned one of his books (Babelandia) quite positively, and he seems to be almost entirely buried. Wikipedia says he started off as part of the Guayaquil Group, who used social realism, and he later used magical realism in his masterpiece Seven Serpents & Seven Moons. The few reviews of that one compare it to Marquez. His books look hard to find though, and I don't think i'll come across any anytime soon, but someone might be better positioned to investigate, perhaps?
Thomas wrote: "Has anyone heard of an Euquadorian writer named Demetrio Aguilera Malta?"I have now! ADD please!
I just scooped up an hd of Seven Serpents & Seven Moons ; right down my alley. Both hd and pb are available for a penny from both amazon and abe.
Her much more restrained 1978 first novel is the only one translated, but I think a few of you will be interested in Marianne Fritz. Here's the typescript from her unfinished last work, which keeps an even keel for about 300 pages before veering into typographic abandon rivalling Maurice Roche and Arno Schmidt: http://www.mariannefritz.at/
Nate D wrote: "Her much more restrained 1978 first novel is the only one translated, but I think a few of you will be interested in Marianne Fritz. Here's the typescript from her unfinished last work, which keeps..."Very much so! And so much so we have a thread for her! ::
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Nathan, is it okay to add a thread for Margery Latimer? I don't see one for her. I was able to acquire a copy of her essay/manifesto 'The New Freedom' (described in this Joy Castro essay but the embedded Dropbox link to the Latimer essay is a dead end). Anyway, I thought I'd transcribe it here since it's a short and worthy read.
any Canadians in here? George Payerle sounds interesting: "He rejects conventional narrative methods in favour of an approach which might be described as a mixture of James Joyce and Mad Magazine, in order to create an atmo- sphere of nightmare in which "normal" standards of conduct are quite irrelevant. The dislocation of ordinary logic allows for some extraordinary effects, such as the pretended suicide by someone called B. who dismembers himself and puts the various pieces into individual brooch- boxes marked with the Birks monogram. The book is at its best in such moments as this; Mr. Payerle's sense of the gro- tesque gives his comedy a savage bite, and helps him to convey his sense of a world where sane and insane are no longer distinguishable." (from http://canlit.legacy.arts.ubc.ca/revi...)someone's selling one for a whole 30 cents on amazon it looks like.
Thomas wrote: "any Canadians in here? George Payerle sounds interesting: "He rejects conventional narrative methods in favour of an approach which might be described as a mixture of James Joyce a..."ADD please!
and for more Canadian stuff :
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Sounds fascinating, and yes, I immediately wondered if this was an Anansi author. I see he's picked up a full 3 ratings since I made that list of the first 11 Anansi books, which is an incomparable infinite-percent-increase in attention.
Does Bernard Share belong round these parts, or no? I've forgotten what constitutes too-newness. But anyway, yeah, he has published as recently as a few years ago, and our buddy MJ Nichols trashed that book in his review. But what is perhaps his main literary contribution, Inish, was published in 1966.As for attention, he seems rather buriedish. A total of 11 ratings for what could be his only notable novel, and for all 17 of his published works in the database, including slang dictionaries and collections of quotations, he's gotten 40 ratings in total.
He had no Wikipedia page until I added one about thirty minutes ago. Before that, his name redirected to The Irish Times, and the insulting part is that that page didn't even mention him, whatever his contribution to that rag may have been. ("They call all these local rags the Times.")
The important thing is that Inish is rather Wow.
Zadignose wrote: "The important thing is that Inish is rather Wow. "This is good to know, it's at eye level on one of my shelves so I frequently contemplate reading it.
This is good to know, it's at eye level on one of my shelves so I frequently contemplate reading it."Ditto.
Zadignose wrote: "Does Bernard Share belong round these parts, or no?"Yes. Inish qualifies. ADD please!
How do we feel about Claude Houghton? I read I Am Jonathan Scrivener after seeing it in Jonathan's feed, and have just started my second of his books, which promises to be equally enthralling. He has a total of 86 ratings and 18 reviews for 12 books, which strikes me as very few given the quality of the writing. I poked around the group and didn't find a thread for him.
Nicole wrote: "How do we feel about Claude Houghton? I read I Am Jonathan Scrivener after seeing it in Jonathan's feed, and have just started my second of his books, which promises ..."Yes! ADD please!
May I add Nathaniel Mackey's From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate: Bedouin Hornbook, Djbot Baghostus's Run, Atet A.D.? He himself has a great deal of accolades for his poetry, but his fiction is rarely read (this collection has fewer than 50 ratings, and all the individual volumes themselves have fewer than 50 with almost no reviews), and it's an ongoing series he's been writing since '86 with four volumes so far. I saw him read tonight and the person introducing him said if one wanted to find the great overlooked "american novel," it was this ongoing series—figured I had to bring it to our little group over here. I haven't read any of it yet but I am snoopin out a copy right now!
Griffin wrote: "May I add Nathaniel Mackey's From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate: Bedouin Hornbook, Djbot Baghostus's Run, Atet A.D.? He himself has a great deal of accolades for hi..."Sounds about right. ADD Pleazzze!!!
Nathan "N.R." wrote: "Griffin wrote: "May I add Nathaniel Mackey's From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate: Bedouin Hornbook, Djbot Baghostus's Run, Atet A.D.? He himself has a great deal of ..."Wonderful books. I wrote about Bedouin Hornbook in My Man and Other Critical Fictions.
i'm thinking of adding Kojo Laing, who is a Ghanaian poet turned novelist, because I'm reading Woman of the Aeroplanes at the moment. The only possible issue is that he's quite recent, with his first novel published in 1986(although I think he's been active as a poet since the 70s). that first novel was reissued by McSweeney's a few years ago, but not many people seem to have read it even then. Here is a nice quote about him:"This closed intertextuality is situated moreover in a universe of discourse that even to the casual Ghanaian reader is almost hermetic, even though entirely public, because it presumes an intimate knowledge of very many details of southern Ghanaian life and speech, and their recall in contexts that at first may seem highly unusual.
...
Indeed, a thoroughly informed reading of any of Laing's novels would seem to require annotation on a massive scale, at least as extensive as has been devoted to Finnegan's Wake. "
Thomas wrote: "i'm thinking of adding Kojo Laing, who is a Ghanaian poet turned novelist, because I'm reading Woman of the Aeroplanes at the moment. The only possible issue is that..."YES!!! ADD pleaze! [I've got a stack of African books stacking up for '17=reading ;; will have to peel my eyes for this delicious sounding morsel. THanks. ]
Yes! I have Search Sweet Country sat on my shelf for reading soon
How about Enrique Anderson Imbert? Notoriously low ratings, even in his native Spanish. I found him through Anti-Story: An Anthology of Experimental Fiction. He is best known (as can be noted for his contribution to the above anthology) for his microcuentos, or microstories. There seem to be two collections in English: Other Side of the Mirror, and Woven on the Loom of Time: Stories by Enrique Anderson-Imbert.Here is an example of his work:
Taboo
His guardian angel whispered to Fabian, behind his shoulder:
"Careful, Fabian! It is decreed that you will die the minute you
pronounce the word doyen.”
"Doyen?" asks Fabian, intrigued.
And he dies.
Griffin wrote: "How about Enrique Anderson Imbert? Notoriously low ratings, even in his native Spanish. I found him through Anti-Story: An Anthology of Experimental Fiction. He is bes..."YESSSS! ADD Pleazee!
As befits the buried, just picked up both of Imbert's short story collections and his history of Latin American Lit off of ABE for a total of $11.50, shipping included.
What happened to unBURIED authors U-Z? Was there ever a section for these authors? I went to add an author but realized the alphabetic organization stopped at T.
Jimmy wrote: "What happened to unBURIED authors U-Z? Was there ever a section for these authors? I went to add an author but realized the alphabetic organization stopped at T."Ya gotta click on "Discussion Board" on the top or "More Discussions" at the bottoms. Folders get hidden if nothing's been added to them in a long time...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...
or, the whole kit-n-kaboodle :
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/list_...
Helen Weinzweig - (1915–2010) only wrote 2 novels, one of which Basic Black with Pearls won the Toronto Book Award in 1981. I can't find much information about her other novel. There's also a short story collection out there.
OH I just did a search on amazon and apparently Basic with Black Pearls will be re-released on NYRB in April of 2018, so it won't be buried long: https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Black-Pe...
Currently on GR she has 46 ratings and 7 reviews spread over 4 distinct books.
Jimmy wrote: "Helen Weinzweig - (1915–2010) only wrote 2 novels, one of which Basic Black with Pearls won the Toronto Book Award in 1981. I can't find much information about her other novel. The..."
YES!! ADD pleaze!
If ever an author was condemned to obscurity by nominative determinism, that author must be Norman Hidden. When I first looked, none of his works was on GR - except a poetry anthology he edited for schools. Yet he was a poet (founder and editor of New Poetry), short story writer, and author of autobiographical works. I think he self-published many of his books, which would account for their obscurity. I have added a few to GR, but a couple are so well buried I can find out nothing about them except their titles...and we are not talking Victoriana, but paperbacks published this side of the millennium.Norman Hidden is one of the "fellow travellers" treated in Amongst Those Left: The British Experimental Novel 1940-1980, which is where I came across him. I have duly read his autobiographical collage with the splendid title Dr. Kink & His Old-Style Boarding School which I would like to report is a wonderful discovery - but sadly isn't. At least, not for me. Not as odd as I had hoped, I suppose. Review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Now he won't be so hidden. He will be Norman Unhidden.
Such is the power of the BURIED Book Club...
Venezuelan writer Teresa de la Parra... I'm reading her now, and REALLY enjoying it. Both her major works have been translated into English (and available at the university library I frequent), so I was surprised to see that among her English editions, there were only 5 reviews and 31 ratings over 2 books. Her Spanish readership is higher, but not that much higher.In any case, I think she's sufficiently buried and sufficiently awesome to be added.
Jimmy wrote: "Venezuelan writer Teresa de la Parra... I'm reading her now, and REALLY enjoying it. Both her major works have been translated into English (and available at the university library I frequent), so ..."She sounds interesting - which of the two major works are you currently reading?
John Sanford, the blacklisted communist author of around 20 books, including 4 novels, several works of biography and some meditative interpretations of American history, is buried. He has virtually no reviews on goodreads and no one seems to read him anywhere else either. "Sanford, who was born Julian Shapiro in Harlem and trained as a lawyer, may have been the most neglected of serious 20th century American writers. His books are a stunning fusion of formal experimentation and supple, lyric prose. There is nothing like them anywhere in American letters. Though he sometimes was compared to the young John Dos Passos, Sanford's work was so original that it confounded critics and their categories -- probably to his professional detriment."
I'm going to read a volume of his experimental autobiography once I finish one of my present books.
Thomas wrote: "John Sanford, the blacklisted communist author of around 20 books, including 4 novels, several works of biography and some meditative interpretations of American history, is buried..."ADD please!!
Ali wrote: "From what I remember, you're not much of a short fiction kind of guy, but how about Christopher Middleton and Reinhard Lettau? Middleton is primarily known as a tran..."ah hell yeah. ADD pleeze!
[good to hear for you again, Ali!]
I present to you Norah Lange (1905-1972) an Argentine author, associated with the Buenos Aires avant garde of the 1920s and 1930s. A member of the Florida group, which also included figures such as Oliverio Girondo (whom she married in 1943) and Jorge Luis Borges (who dedicated an article to her in his first book of prose, Inquisiciones). From one of her book's blurbs: "Too long viewed as Borges’s muse, Lange is today recognized in the Spanish-speaking world as a great writer and is here translated into English for the first time, to be read alongside Virginia Woolf, Clarice Lispector and Marguerite Duras." (not sure how true that is or how much that is just namedrop marketing)She's written a few novels and a few books of poetry, only one (maybe? can someone find evidence of others?) has been translated to English. She has 6 reviews (only 2 in English) over 9 distinct works. Here's the book I found in English:
People in the Room is a novel. "A deathly scene from a wax museum come to life, in a closed, feminine world" -- César Aira (not sure if that's praise or what, but it sounds interesting haha, and I love Aira, so anything he blurbs is at least noteworthy)
YES! By all means. ADD pleeze!
Ahmed Bouanani -- 1938-2011 -- Moroccan film director and author -- 14 ratings and 2 reviews over 4 distinct works. His book The Hospital has recently been translated into English by New Directions:"Like Sadegh Hedayat’s The Blind Owl, the works of Franz Kafka—or perhaps like Mann’s The Magic Mountain thrown into a meat-grinder—The Hospital is a nosedive into the realms of the imagination, in which a journey to nowhere in particular leads to the most shocking places."
The BURIED Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The House Without Windows and Eepersip's Life There (other topics)The Hospital (other topics)
People in the Room (other topics)
Amongst Those Left: The British Experimental Novel 1940-1980 (other topics)
Dr. Kink & His Old-Style Boarding School (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Maxwell Bodenheim (other topics)Barbara Newhall Follett (other topics)
Ahmed Bouanani (other topics)
Norah Lange (other topics)
César Aira (other topics)
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Yes! ADD please!