The Adversary (2024) by Michael Crumney

 Book Review

The Adversary (2024)

by Michael Crumney

   Every year for the past decade I've spent about a week in coastal Maine.  It is an absolutely great place to vacation, because even at the very height of tourist season it feels less crowded than any Southern California city on a Monday afternoon at 3 PM.   The yearly visits have helped me realized just how much of Maine there is, and beyond that, Newfoundland and the "Atlantic Provinces," which are even more thinly populated than Maine and go on forever.  I leapt at the chance to check out this The Adversary by Michael Crumney as a library Audiobook, if only to hear the wacky Newfoundland accents- in fact, the New York Times actually published a stand-alone review for the Audiobook of this title- something they only started doing this year. 

   Set in Mockbeggar, a fictional coastal town in Newfoundland, during the early 19th century, The Adversary is mostly about the conflict between siblings, he, a profound ruffian who lords over the population by virtue of his inheritance and position as justice of the peace in the small, isolated community; and she, his older sister, who manages to marry and bury the second wealthiest trader in the community, allowing her to live her live as "the widow," dressing as a man and running her business.  It is a dark and gory business- almost shockingly so at times.  Some of the incidents left me breathless.  Crumney buffs out the cast of characters to include the brother's main supporter, the town Beedle, the brother's crew of prostitutes that he imports to the town and sundry others.  The sister has the support of the men and families of those who work for her, and the general sympathy of the townfolk, who think her brother is a royal asshole. 

   One thing that The Adversary lacks is any scenery besides the rocky Newfoundland close.  Whether by design or accident, by the end of The Adversary I was ready to leave these shores and make my way to greener pastures.

Paul Auster Died!

 Paul Auster Died!

  RIP to Paul Auster!  I thought I would compile a post with all of my reviews of his novels- I read all of them in the course of the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list, where he was (IMO) dramatically over-represented in the first edition.  As anyone could gather from my reviews, I'm not a huge fan- I never have been, probably because I've never been one of those young, white, well-educated guys who thought he would move to NYC.  I distinctly remember being in NYC on my own (well, with friends anyway) in college and saying things like, "People who move here are idiots, you should only move to NYC AFTER you have some money or if you ALREADY have money."  Thirty years later I stand behind my college-age assessment, NYC is for suckers and it will eat you alive.

  My sense is that his status as a canonical author will basically be reduced to the New York Trilogy.  He began publishing at at time when the world wasn't particularly concerned with new or distinct voices and thus his relevance was never questioned while he was writing.  There is, however, no denying his status as the first Apostle of Hipster Brooklyn- whether that is a good or bad thing is a question best left for others, but on a recent visit earlier this year- my first where I actually stayed in Brooklyn,  I thought the Brooklyn that Auster and his ilk have wrought was a pretty fun place. 

  How many people were inspired by Auster to relocate to Brooklyn?  I think that is his ultimate legacy- as a progenitor of hipster Brooklyn.

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster remains relevant and in print- pictured above is an Art Speigelman drawn cover sequence for a recent re-print.

Published 5/2/17
The New York Trilogy (1987)
by Paul Auster

  The New York Trilogy is a collection of three "post-modern detective fiction" novellas, originally written and published separately in 1985 and 1986.  There is a limited overlap of characters, but the three novellas are not three separate stories about the same detective, a la Sherlock Holmes.  Rather they are three novellas that are thematically similar in that they blend elements of detective fiction with elements of the post-modern philosophical novel that is more often associated with French and German authors in this time period.  In any time period, ha ha.

  Although Auster was never part of my literary experience, I recognize that The New York Trilogy was and is popular, but I didn't find The New York Trilogy to be earth shattering work.  It may not even be the best book about an existentialist influenced detective to be published in 1987, because that is the same year that Douglas Adams published Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

   I'm sure these would have made a bigger impression if I'd read them closer to the original publication date, but 30 years later it just seems like one of any number of self consciously existentialist detective novels. 

Published 7/10/17
The Music of Chance (1990)
by Paul Auster

    Paul Auster is balls deep on the first edition of the 1001 Books list.  I was thinking about Auster while recently reading a book about the formation and maintenance of canons (called Canons), published around the same time as this novel.  The trend, in those days, was to oppose canons and critique the process of canon formation, often in the key of "dead, white men."  Ultimately, this critique foundered on the realities of institutional pedagogy: One has to teach something in freshman English, but it is this time period which gives us the concepts and vocabulary to accurately describe the canon forming process in the same way that I am attempting to describe it via the 1001 Books project.

  Most of the disparate essays in Canons deal with 19th century poetry, but one interesting essay on canon formation for American fiction between 1960 and 1975 makes some interesting empirical observations about what is essentially the current canon forming process.  The author's hypothesis is that the best place to start is the best seller list, and that you then overlay the best seller list with critical response- he doesn't differentiate between critical response before best seller status.

  If you want to apply this quick and dirty method to say, the current New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list, you see quick results.  Of the 15 titles on this list, nearly half are automatically disqualified because the best-selling author has no critical audience.  These are titles by: David Baldacci, Nora Roberts, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Janet Evanovich, Dean Koontz and John Grisham.   To the extent that any of these writers are likely to sneak onto any literary canon, it will be with a single, early novel.   Almost every other author on the New York Times Hardcover Top 15 Bestseller list can be excluded with a single Google Search:  Elin Hilderbrand (writer of summer beach read novels according to her wikipedia page), Paula Hawkins (thrillers), Adriana Trigiani (YA fiction), Don Winslow (Police procedurals), Lee Child (Jack Reacher books).

  This leaves us with two possibilities:

1.  The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
2.  Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe

  Since the list is rolling, you have to imagine doing this  maybe 30-40 times over the course of a year, and then toting up points at the end, that would give you your best canonical candidates for fiction.   Looking at these two, Arundhati Roy, who ticks all the serious lit boxes AND doesn't write fiction very often, seems like the obvious choice.   If you were looking for one book to maintain literary relevance over the summer, it would be the Roy novel, and if you were going to bet on one book from this time period, it would be that one.

  Which all goes to say that the inclusion of so many Paul Auster titles on the first 1001 Books list represents another manifestation of this best seller/critical appeal overlay.  Auster sells books and he appeals to critics, this makes each of his books, even the non best-selling titles, candidates for canonical inclusion.  He, like other artists writing in the "present" benefit from the easy access to pre-canonical "best of" lists, typically organized by year.

  The Music of Chance is an interesting novel, like other of his books it blends dark action and European style philosophical musings, with a firm understanding of the role of genre in serious fiction.  His books are recognizable but slightly askew, they go down easy, but stay with you over time.

Published 10/25/17
Mr. Vertigo (1994)
by Paul Auster

  Man, Paul Auster just never stops churning out books combining existentialism, whimsy and memorable characters.  Mr. Vertigo is the first Auster joint I've seen that is set in the past- his current book 4 3 2 1 has portions that are set in the past, and this book has a narrator "looking back" from the present, but most of it takes place in the late 20's and early 30's. Walter Rawley is a motherless street urchin living in St. Louis.  He randomly meets Master Yehudi, the son of a Hungarian Rabbi, who promises Rawley that he can teach him to fly.  Yehudi and Rawley decamp to an isolated farm in Kansas, and a coming of age story ensues.

 Again, as you might expect from a Paul Auster novel, Mr. Vertigo is the least whimsical book to revolve around magic that one could possibly imagine.  Like all of his books before 4 3 2 1, Mr. Vertigo is short- under 300 pages.  It makes for a comically compressed third act, basically all of Rawley's life between the late 1930's and the present, covered in the course of 50 pages.   It practically invites the reader to skim, knowing that not much can happen in what remains of the book.

 Like other books from this portion of the 1001 Books list, Mr. Vertigo is, at best, a marginal selection. Sure, it's fun- a fun read for an afternoon sitting in an airport departure lobby, but the whole enterprise seems truncated.  I think I've made this observation before, but it often feels like Auster isn't trying particularly hard. I don't have a problem with it, but it seems like a consideration that would impact his canonical status, and the extent to which is represented within said canon.  I mean one Auster novel a decade, that makes sense to me. 

Published 1/19/18

Timbuktu (1999)
 by Paul Auster

  Timbuktu is the book Paul Auster wrote from the POV of a dog,  Mr. Bones, the faithful companion of a colorful hobo who calls himself Willy G. Christmas, despite being the child of Jewish holocaust survivors.  Like every Auster novel except 4 3 2 1, Timbuktu is read and done in a blink- under 150 pages, I believe.   Timbuktu is one of the first books I've read with a major homeless character portrayed in a complex and sympathetic way.  Christmas is no stereotypical hobo.  During the course of Timbuktu it is revealed that he was once a promising Columbia University undergraduate, a roommate, in fact, of a writer named Paul Auster.  Experimentation with drugs leads to a psychotic break and a life time of wandering, interspersed with winters spent at the home of his long-suffering mother.

   It is hard to imagine this as a canonical title- any canon- since Auster is so prolific and already well represented due to his combination of Americanness, commercial viability and critical success.   No surprise that Timbuktu was dropped from the 2008 revision of 1001 Books.

Published 4/5/18
The Book of Illusions (2002)
by Paul Auster

  This was an audiobook narrated by the author himself.  I'm surprised that doesn't happen more often. I wanted to quote this from the Wikipedia page about the book:

The Book of Illusions revisits a number of plot elements seen in Auster's first major work, The New York Trilogy.
These include:
The protagonist driving himself into isolation
Extended focus on a character's (fictional) body of work
Writers as characters
A character disappearing, only to resurface years later, having spent some of the intervening years wandering and doing odd jobs
Parallels drawn between a work of Nathaniel Hawthorne and the plot itself
Notebooks (also in Oracle Night)
A meta-referential ending that places the protagonist as the author of the book itself

     I'm sure I'd recommend this audiobook edition, read by the author himself, over the print copy.   Auster is one of the most over-represented authors in the original 1001 Books list- up there with Coetzee, like they just didn't have enough non-white men to fill up the end of the book, or they got lazy towards the end.  

Published 9/30/17
4 3 2 1 (2017)
by Paul Auster

    Is Paul Auster a great American novelist?  Sure, that is a loaded question in 2017, does such a thing even exist in 2017?  Isn't the whole idea of the great American novelist and the great American novel itself problematic in so much as it invokes the specter of white male class and privilege? Up until the publication of 4 3 2 1 in January of this year, you could argue that Auster himself agreed that there was no point in writing the great American novel- simply judging by his books, which are typically short and elliptical, consciously eschewing the kind of length and solidity that typically coincide with books judged to have a shot at fulfilling the manifest destiny of the great American novel.

    If you look at Auster's career up to this point- what have you got?  Does he have an Audience- certainly, popular and critical.  He's had best sellers, all his books get the full review treatment and he's dabbled in successful films. On the other hand, he's near 30 years into his career as a well regarded novelist and he has yet to back a first level literary prize- No Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, no National Book Award (that seems pretty amazing considering some of the books which have won in the past 30 years).   He doesn't even appear in the long odds section of the Ladbrook's 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature betting table.

   He's also got a reputation for writing literary genre fiction and a thematic obsession with the vagaries of fate and existentialism- all traits that have helped secure book sales in the English speaking world, but neither of those characteristics have endeared him to the people who hand out major literary prizes. 

  And as I was saying earlier, before the publication of 4 3 2 1 you could say that Paul Auster hasn't won a major literary award because he isn't trying to win a major award.  He just didn't give a fuck, wasn't trying, and was content with his lot as a top selling "serious" author in late 20th and early 21st century America.  After all, that's not a bad place to be for a writer of serious fiction.

   But 4 3 2 1 changes that analysis, because here he has a written a book that begs to be considered for major literary prizes, and in fact, it has made the 2017 Booker Prize short-list.  The current Ladbrook's betting chart has him second to last place at 5/1.  The inclusion of 4 3 2 1 on the shortlist was itself the biggest surprise of the 2017 shortlist announcement.   It was a surprise because 4 3 2 1 hasn't been particularly well received by critics, and at a very solid 850 pages it is not a light read. It's hard to imagine any casual readers dipping into 4 3 2 1 unless they are die hard Auster fans or they've been told that this is "the" book of the season/year, or a contender for that status.   Before the Booker Shortlist announcement, I was of the opinion that 4 3 2 1 was a ridiculously self-indulgent flop by an author who has blown his chance at long-term canonical status.

  After reading 4 3 2 1, I want to hail it as a major work- partially because I read the damn 850 pages and saying it is a great book justifies the investment of time.  I think an aspect of this book which makes it difficult to judge is the unabashedly retro bildungsroman story of a non-religious  male Jew growing up in the New York City in the mid to late 20th century.   The meta fictional device that somewhat obscures the retro feel is that Auster tells four different versions of the same life, from birth through young adulthood.  Each version is different as it relates the narrator and his personal life, but the "outside world" remains the same in each version.  For example, the student unrest at Columbia around the time of the Vietnam War, and the Vietnam War itself, and all major historical events from the time period depicted remain true to "life."

  Any cursory survey of the reviews of 4 3 2 1 make it clear that the narrator is a stand in for Auster himself.  One important plot point, the sudden death of a friend at summer camp when he was a young adolescent- occurs both in the real life of Paul Auster and in 4 3 2 1.   Auster manages to spell the overwhelming white/maleness by making his narrator gay/bisexual in some of his timelines.  But still- 4 3 2 1 bears a strong resemblance to the work of Phillip Roth and Saul Bellow.  He's moved forward a few decades in time (from Saul Bellow, at least), but the story of a hyper-literate Jewish American growing up in the New York area in the mid to late 20th century is one of the most traversed literary pathways of 20th century literature.

  4 3 2 1 is a book written to win literary prizes, so it's ultimate value is likely to be judged by it's ability to bring home said prizes.  At least a National Book Award.

Event Preview: Mvtant Releases New Track from Forthcoming LP Electric Body Horror

 Event Preview:

Mvtant Releases New Track From Forthcoming LP 

Electric Body Horror

"Kanashibari"

   Mario was working with Joseph Mvtant before I was back in the picture with Dream Recordings, but I heartily approve of the man and his music- he tours as a one piece, he tours A LOT and he's got a positive attitude about posting on social media.  His streaming numbers have been the issue.  We released his compilation record back in April of 2021 and his Spotify monthly number was under 2000.   Already at this point, we knew he was touring, that he had toured, that people liked the live show etc.  So we were surprised and alarmed when, after that release, his streaming number didn't move. 

   At the time, we chalked it up to the ongoing COVID issues surrounding touring, the idea being that he couldn't really go out and play shows like he wanted to, and was capable of doing.  So, my specific reaction to that situation- this is like- 2022 or so, was to suggest that we do a tape only covers album that would allow us to put another LP worth of material onto Spotify and associate him with the acts that he covers- that being one of algorithmical principles of streaming: Like attracts like.   So I had that idea in 2022 and then the tape was released in July of 2023.  I think that was the right move because it got him above 2000 monthly listeners and then eventually to 3000 monthly listeners before we released the first single from this LP, his first, original songs LP that isn't a compilation. 

   We released the first single two weeks ago, which was a bit of a rush job from the label perspective but was a function of the artist looking at it from his own perspective (understandably)- that he wanted merch for his upcoming tour, that everything was taking too long (common complaint with artists and the vinyl production process no matter how much you may caution them about potential production issues.)  But, my conversations with Mario have been, "Well, do what you want and what he wants."  An artist who has less than 5000 monthly listeners, it's more a goal to simply credibly release the record- the vinyl record, the distribution to DSP's and some level of marketing- these days you don't really need "PR" at the lower levels of the industry because social media can get you to the same place (i.e. not very far).

  If you release a record for an Artist with 5000 monthly listeners and you end up multiplying the number ten fold, say, to 50,000, that's going to be more a function of those 5000 listeners actually LIKING the songs and LISTENING to them more than once.  Spotify is the ultimate truthteller in that regard, because if you have some amount of fans- a measurable amount, and you tour, and you put out your record in a physical format, and at the end of the year or whatever cycle you have, the number hasn't increased... that means that the people who ALREADY listen to your music don't like your songs very much.  It means they haven't been listening to your music month after month, or obsessively within the same month, and they haven't been telling their friends about you, or playing your music for your friends. 

   However, if you put out an actual record, you have an additional data point, which is whether the actual record sells or not.  There are plenty of artists out there who haven negligible Spotify streaming numbers but are capable of selling hundreds if not thousands of vinyl records.  Similarly, there are plenty of (mostly older) artists who can sell dozens, hundred and thousands of concert tickets without the commensurate streaming numbers, and vice versa to all those metrics.  The point being that you have to do all these things to be able to measure the results, and if you don't have multiple points of measurement, success on a single data point can be deceptive or false. 

  Specifically, streaming numbers are easily increased via manipulation.  Paying for the use of a "streaming farm" or a service that contracts with a streaming farm is easy enough and although I haven't looked into it, I'd bet it is pretty affordable- i.e. I'm sure you could obtain measurable results with under 500 dollars a month.  My sense is that is a route 100% embraced by artists as a means to essentially trick the different parts of the music industry: labels, booking agents, managers, or it's something that artists and managers work on together.  My sense is that the labels don't do this directly but that perhaps they don't put a stop to it if the artist is doing it on their own account. 

  Generally speaking, you can presume that monthly streaming numbers under a hundred thousand are legit, beyond that, there is reason to interrogate any artist that shows a monthly streaming figure above five million listeners a month.  At that point, it likely pays to spend the money in terms of how it increases your ability to book bigger venues etc.  It also increases the likelihood of exposure, such as when one of these sort of artists books an arena tour and it flops.  That happens all the time, particularly in hip hop.   My sense is that the practice is endemic in the world of hip hop, that it happens often in the world of non-US genres- K-Pop, Afrobeat, etc and that it is less prevalent in the world of rock, indie, folk etc, because those folks aren't familiar with the underlying scamming strategies.   Any Top 200 Billboard artist is potentially suspect.

   The thing I have learned about Mvtant over the past few years is that he does sell records- -plenty of them- no worries there.  I've learned that he tours like a literally demon- that box is very much checked.  I know that his Spotify streaming numbers are of concern to his booking agent, and his low number limits his fee when he tours, and therefore it is in everyone's interest to move that number up.  And I know that in the last week he has finally moved above 4000- 4379 as of today, but it represents upward movement after the release of a single from a forthcoming record.   From my perspective, that of the label, the data looks promising.  I'm sure there will be poachers soon enough, which is how you know you've succeeded it at my level of the business:  When the poachers show up to take your artists. 

  

Kairos (2023) by Jenny Erpenbeck

German author Jenny Erpenbeck

Book Review

Kairos (2023)

by Jenny Erpenbeck

  German author Jenny Erpenbeck is one of those non-English language authors who seemingly emerges into the Anglo literary sphere overnight, only for readers to learn that she's been doing it for years and is, in fact, a contender for the Nobel Prize.  It all came as news to me!  First, Kairos showed up on my radar when it was nominated for the Booker International Prize.  I checked out the Ebook from the library, looked at the summary, "Much younger woman and much older man have affair during the collapse of East Germany", and let the check out lapse.  Then, Kairos got nominated for the Booker International shortlist and I sighed and checked the still-available Ebook out from the library and read the book.

   I think I've said before- and recently, that the "Much younger woman, much older man" literary plot is one of my least favorite- just behind "Wealthy and well educated urban American couple gets divorced", and "well educated American man or woman has a crisis involving their values."  Who are these older men obsessed with banging women just out of their teens- or in this case- a 19 year old?  I'm convinced that is men who didn't actually have sex with 19 year olds WHEN THEY WERE THAT AGE, and then spend the rest of their lives trying to make up for it.  It's sad, really, male desire.   At least, these days, the book is more likely to be written by a woman than a man.

    Kairos does gets points for depicting the East Germany landscape of the pre-collapse era- I love me some 80's Communist country milieu, but I didn't share the love that reviewers have felt for the story.  I'm going to feel dumb about this review in ten years when Erpenbeck wins the Nobel.