Abyss (2023) by Pilar Quintana

 Book Review

Abyss (2023)

by Pilar Quintana

translation by Lisa Dillman

  Strong year for the finalists in the National Book Award for Translated Literature.  You've got the second novel by David Diop, a disturbing book of short stories by Bora Chung (Korean lit is so hot rn!)  Abyss, by Colombian author Pilar Quintana, who was nominated in 2020 in the same category for The Bitch, is another strong contender on the theory that multiple nominations for major literary awards increase the author's chance of winning each time.  Abyss is a familiar tale, told from a newish perspective, about the impact a parent's lives have on the inner life of their daughter, eight and a half, narrated by that daughter. This is an example of a child narrator for a work of adult fiction- nothing about Abyss is YA or children's lit. 

   The struggles of Claudia's parents, particularly her mother, who spends her days in bed reading celebrity gossip magazines, is hardly novel, but the location, Cali Colombia.  The time isn't specified but the gossip references in Claudia's mothers magazines: The death of Karen Carpenter, in particular, happens during the course of the novel.  The real star of Abyss, is Cali Colombia itself, which seems a quasi-idyllic place in the eyes of eight year old Claudia.  1983 was before the rise of the Cali cartel, and Abyss includes a distinct locations- a modernist vacation home built onto the side of the cliff.  This location proves significant in the development of the plot and gives the book its name. 

  Abyss doesn't feel like a prize winner to me- there isn't anything here that wasn't in What Maisie Knew in 1897, but the place and time of the book made it an interesting read, and I do like Quintana and her general style.  I'd like to see a bigger book from her, but I know that shorter pieces are all the rage these days, so I'm pretty sure she doesn't care about going big. Still, Cali...Colombia...historical fiction... lotta material there to mine.

Hangman (2023) by Maya Binyam

Author Maya Binyam

 

Book Review

Hangman (2023)

by Maya Binyam

  I checked the Audiobook version out of the library after seeing a couple of reviews of this book by Ethiopian-American author Maya Binyam- it's a debut novel, written by a woman and- surprise- it isn't about being a mom, not being a mom, being single, not being single etc.  That is pretty much an automatic read for me- a book written by a woman that isn't about motherhood or the travails of being an educated, upper-class white woman who lives in a city in NYC, LA, SF or London.  I'm looking for a breath of fresh air, in other words, and Hangman, an intriguing tale about an expatriate who returns to his unnamed country of origin because he believes his brother is dying, is precisely that, a book, written by a young, American author that isn't just about a stand in for the author complaining about her life for three hundred pages.

    Hangman was great- even though the country is unnamed I noticed similarities to Africa and Ethiopia.  The narrator of the Audiobook had such a distinct African accent that it seemed like a tacit admission that the book is set in Africa.  At times the writing reminded me of Kafka, Naipaul and Coetzee- a book filled with lower case p politics but also with intriguing narrative development and memorable supporting characters and locations.  Hangman has much to recommend it, and I recommend it highly!

The Vaster Wilds (2023) by Lauren Groff

 Book Review
The Vaster Wilds (2023)

by Lauren Groff

     I'm a big fan of American author Lauren Groff.  The first book I read by her was her short story collection, Florida (2018)-  I thought it was very interesting, particularly the texture she gave to the environment of Florida itself- which- you don't see portrayed much in literary fiction.  Most of the Florida books I've read have been detective fiction- namely Elmore Leonard's Florida era.  After Florida I went back and read Fates and Furies (2015)- which was nominated for the National Book Award.  I didn't love Fates and Furies, but it is impossible to argue with a National Book Award nomination.  I read Matrix- her very cool novel about life in a medieval Nunnery in England when it was released in 2021 and loved it.   I actually bought the hardback edition.  For The Vaster Wilds I checked out the Audiobook because the description, "girl escapes foundering American colony in the New World to fend for herself in pre-lapsarian North America"; sounded like a good Audiobook listen.

    Readers, I am here to say that The Vaster Wilds is a bit of a dud. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the listening experience, but Groff's minimalist attention to plot left me wanting more and less at the same time.  One of the issues here is that if you strand a pubescent, uneducated 17th century servant girl in the wilderness she isn't going to have many memories to reflect upon over the course of the book.  Groff keeps her isolated from the Native Americans, which cuts off another plausible path for narrative development.

   The narrator's flashbacks (she is unnamed in the book) to life in England don't feel revelatory or even particularly nuanced- life for a foundling servant child in 17th century London wasn't fun, we all know that and aside from the odd rape she seemed to have emerged from that portion of her experience with fewer scars than many other characters from the era.  We glimpse some true horror when the flashbacks take her through her life in the Virginia colony before her escape at the beginning of the books- some of the details there reminded me of the some of the grimmest moments of The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.  Overall, her survival narrative is almost frighteningly dull- she escapes the colony, travels far enough to evade capture and then settles down for a decade.  Basically Groff gets her settled then presses fast forward to the end. 

  It make for an excellent Audiobook since it's a single voice adventure story- I enjoyed the experience, just didn't think it was Lauren Groff's best work.  Certainly a let down after the subtly nuanced Nuns of Matrix. 

The Devil of the Provinces (2023) by Juan Cardenas

 Book Review

The Devil of the Provinces (2023)

by Juan Cardenas

Translated by Lizzie Davis

   The Devil of the Provinces by Colombian author Juan Cardenas is the fourth book from the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature I've read.  It's also the second book by Juan Cardenas I've tackled- the first was Ornamental (2020).  This book was produced by the same publishes, Coffee House Press, and the same interpreter, Lizzie Davis and generally speaking covers the same literary territory as Ornamental, about a medical researcher who returns from abroad and is recruited to work on a shadowy pharmaceutical project sponsored by either the government, a private corporation or a drug cartel- the lack of clarity is kind of the central thing going on in Ornamental.

  Here, the returning narrator is a biologist, not a chemist, but the plot follows a broadly similar path- the narrator is approached by an ex-girlfriend to work on a problem with the palm fields- which he knows are a highly destructive crop in terms of their environmental impact on their surroundings.  The question becomes, will he take the job or won't he.  Like Ornamental(175 pages), The Devil of the Provinces is brief.  The audiobook version I heard was a little over three hours long. 

   It doesn't seem to me like The Devil of the Provinces is a potential National Book Award winner.  Maybe a finalist?  It seems unlikely.   Once again, I was delighted to see that there was in Audiobook version- too often Translated Literature is book format only, when the delights of a translated Audiobook come in hearing the characters speak with the English language accents of their translated languages.  It doesn't make any sense, if you stop and think about it- characters speaking in translation would have the voice of the translator, not the voice of the original characters. kind of the reverse of the way subtitles vs dubbed audio works in films. 

   The Devil of the Provinces is also a reminder that a character who might be totally insufferable if he was an American can be an interesting fellow in another country.  Impossible to imagine the same plot happening in the USA or Western Europe, let alone what this character WOULD be getting up to in USA/Western Europe that anyone would want to read about.

Beyond the Door of No Return (2023) by David Diop

 

Book Review

Beyond the Door of No Return (2023)

by David Diop

  I really enjoyed French novelist David Diop's first book, At Night All Blood is Black.  It won the Students Prix Goncourt in France, the 2020 LA Times Fiction Book Prize and the 2021 International Booker Prize.  Also, I genuinely enjoyed it- a novel about the experience of an African volunteer in the French army during World War I.   His new book, about the experience of a French naturalist in early 19th century Senegal- then a quasi-French territory but a weak one with many local rulers- was nominated for the National Book Award for Translated Literature (they need to work shop the name of that award!) and I'm sure it will be nominated for the International Booker next year. 

  Diop's 19th century Franco-phone Africa is a nuanced portrayal- we are a century past Conrad and his Heart of Darkness, and Diop's Senegal reflects the more nuanced view of the colonial experience that has percolated through academia in recent decades.  This early in the 19th century, the slave trade was still going full tilt- the first French ban on slavery (within France) didn't come till 1818, and slavery was abolished in French territories in 1845.

  I sensed that the narrator- the French naturalist, isn't really the focus of the book, which consists of a kind of post-mortem revelation of his past to his daughter, years after the experiences described; rather it is Senegal and the rich historical tapestry of the early 19th century at the center of Beyond the Door of No Return.  Presumably, the title of the book refers to the actual Door of No Return in Benin, which is a monument to the experience of the enslaved as they leave Africa for the last time.

  I tore through the book- I just so enjoyed turning each page (figuratively speaking because I read the eBook copy from the Los Angeles Public Library), that I didn't want it to end. I wish it was 500 pages long!

2023 Booker Prize Shortlist Announced

 2023 Booker Prize Shortlist Announced

Sarah Bernstein, “Study for Obedience”
Jonathan Escoffery, “If I Survive You”
Paul Harding, “This Other Eden”
Paul Lynch, “Prophet Song”
Chetna Maroo’s “Western Lane”
Paul Murray, “The Bee Sting”

  The 2023 Booker Prize Shortlist dropped earlier this week.  I've read three of the books already: This Other Ede, The Bee Sting and Western Lane. I tried the Audiobook of If I Survive You but didn't enjoy it and only made it about 10 percent of the way through before abandoning the attempt.  Prophet Song isn't out yet in the United States. Study for Obedience is the one title on the shortlist I don't know anything about.  I'm surprised that Old God's Time didn't make the cut. 

  If I was handicapping I would bet on The Bee Sting or Western Lane for the win.

The Fraud (2023) by Zadie Smith

 Book Review

The Fraud (2023)

by Zadie Smith

    I haven't read much Zadie Smith- just On Beauty which was one of the last books from the original 1001 Books list.  The Fraud is her sixth novel, and I was intrigued by previews that indicated it was a work of historical fiction partially set in the mid 19th century milieu of literary London, with characters including Charles Dickens, George Cruikshank and a starring role for now-forgotten English novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, who actually out-sold Charles Dickens at certain points in his lengthy career but is now forgotten.  I knew from On Beauty that I could expect The Fraud to be well researched and clever, and I was not disappointed.    The narrator is Eilza Touchet, the cousin and sometimes lover of Ainsworth.

  Touchet is a classic Zadie Smith protagonist, multi-faceted and complex, determined to live her own life after the untimely, early death of her husband.  Much of the plot concerns Touchet's interest in the Tichborne Case, a cause celebre in 1860's and 70's London.  The Tichborne case involved a man who returned from Australia to claim that he was the long lost and previously thought deceased claimant to an English title.  Smith also develops the character of Andrew Bogle, the Jamaican born servant of one of the Tichborne's and a supporter of the Tichborne claimant. The relationship between Touchet and Bogle is well developed but to little impact- there is a hint of the possibility of any interracial relationship but it doesn't go anywhere.

   I gather the reviews have only been so-so, but if you actually are a fan of the literature of mid 19th century England- Dickens et al, then you can hardly afford to skip reading The Fraud.  Also worth noting- I checked out the Audiobook from the library and Zadie Smith herself narrates, which is a very mid 19th century author type of thing to do- Dickens loved giving public readings and doing the voices of his characters. 

Remote Sympathy (2022) by Catherine Chidgey

 Book Review

Remote Sympathy (2022)

by Catherine Chidgey

     The Guardian called this is an example of the newish genre of "Holocaust Literature."  I am a fan of the genre- unabashed, in the only the way a solo reader could be- hard to imagine plugging into a community of similar interested readers.  By my making, the foundational text of this genre- which are works of fiction written from the perspective of Nazi's, rather than works of fiction written about the Nazi's where the characters are either victims or onlookers- is The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littrell, published in French in 2006 and reviewed in its English translation by the New York Times in 2009.   The next major work in the genre is HHhH by French prankster Laurent Binet- that book got an English translation in 2010.  Since then there have been more- as witness the 2022 Guardian review of this book, which references it as a genre. 

    Remote Sympathy is itself an impressive achievement in the genre.  Chidgey takes a polyphonic approach- rotating perspectives- the Camp Commandant, who is being interviewed from prison in the 1950's, his cancer-stricken wife, whose voice is conveyed by her "imaginary diary" and Leonard Weber, an eighth-Jewish doctor with unconventional ideas about treating cancer with electricity (which is the source of the title).  Hahn, the camp commandant at Buchenwald, which was the concentration camp the Nazi's put in Weimar, reads about Weber's abandoned research, and has him transferred from the Eastern front to Buchenwald in order that he may treat Hahn's wife. 

   Chidgey stops well short of Littrell's relentless lack of humanity and is no where near as funny/clever as Binet (who is?) but I did find Remote Sympathy a compelling entry on the Holocaust Literature shelf.  Be warned- it clocks in at over 500 pages so it is not a light read. 

2023 National Book Award Longlist For Fiction/Translated Literature

   The Booker Prize announces it's shortlist tomorrow, which reminded me that I haven't posted the two National Book Award longlists I take seriously: Fiction and Translated Literature.   I was unfamiliar with almost all the titles on both lists, to the point where it's easier to talk about the books I know.  In Fiction I tried but didn't finish Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kame Adjei-Brenyan- I think that was a situation where I checked out the Audiobook and should have just read the Ebook, but I didn't care for it- even though it's a dystopian genre/literature cross-over which should be right up my alley.  This Other Eden by Paul Harding seems like a strong shortlist candidate.  Night Watch by Jaune Anne Philips was released today,  Blackouts by Justin Torres doesn't come out until October.  bois strong representation from African-American authors (Chain-Gang, Temple Folk, Holler, Child).  Ponyboy has a trans protagonist and there are two books with Native American themes, Drum Time and A Council of Dolls.   Loot, Night Watch and This Other Eden are all historical fiction of one type or another. 

   As one might expect, Romantic languages dominate the longlist for Translated Literature, Spanish (3), French (2) and Portuguese (1) comprise 60% of the list.    I already read This is Not Miami- which doesn't seem like a prize winner for me.  I'm excited to read Diop's new book- I loved his first one and I've got the other two Spanish language titles checked out from the Los Angeles Public Library.  Seems like an unadventurous list if you ask me- the only language that comes close to being exotic is the one Arabic language title.  I think the action in this area is bringing in new languages, not continuing to read books translated from Spanish, French and German.  No idea how to handicap either longlist given my present lack of familiarity with the books on both lists.

2023 Longlist for the National Book Award for Fiction:

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Chain-Gang All-Stars
Aaliyah Bilal, Temple Folk
Eliot Duncan, Ponyboy
Paul Harding, This Other Eden
Tania James, Loot
Jayne Anne Phillips, Night Watch
Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls
Hanna Pylväinen, The End of Drum-Time
Justin Torres, Blackouts
LaToya Watkins, Holler, Child

2023 Longlist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature:

Juan Cárdenas, The Devil of the Provinces
Translated from the Spanish by Lizzie Davis
Bora Chung, Cursed Bunny
Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur
David Diop, Beyond the Door of No Return
Translated from the French by Sam Taylor
Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos
Translated from the German by Michael Hofmann
Stênio Gardel, The Words That Remain
Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato
Khaled Khalifa, No One Prayed Over Their Graves
Translated from the Arabic by Leri Price
Fernanda Melchor, This Is Not Miami
Translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes
Pilar Quintana, Abyss
Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman
Astrid Roemer, On a Woman’s Madness
Translated from the Dutch by Lucy Scott
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, The Most Secret Memory of Men
Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud

Cosmic Scholar (2023) by John Szwed

 Book Review

Cosmic Scholar:

 The Life and Times of Harry Smith (2023)

by John Szwed

  It may be hard to imagine, but once upon a time, being cool took work.  As it turned out, I was one of the last people to grow up without access to the internet- I remember seeing the internet work for the first time in my freshman college dorm room.  I finished college and law school without possessing a lap top computer (I had a desktop computer in law school).  Back when I was a lad, discovering the counter-culture required physically travelling to bookshops- I went to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley and later, City Lights Book Store in San Francisco.  Learning about new music meant going to Amoeba and Rasputin Records in Berkeley.  These days, it's almost impossible to imagine the lengths I had to go to in order to learn about non-mainstream culture.

   How timely then that author John Szwed had written this biography of Harry Smith, best known for his Anthology of American Folk Music, generally credited with inspiring Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and literally the entire 60's music explosion.   Smith was known as an icon of the downtown New York art scene though it was unclear what, exactly, he was up to at any given moment.   The Anthology of American Folk Music was released in 1952 and it was created from Smith's amazing collection of 78 records, which he had begun collecting in the 1940's in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Smith's biography is more interesting than any fiction, reading Cosmic Scholar is more interesting than reading a dozen works of contemporary literary fiction.

   Each chapter is a different adventure: Smith starts in the Pacific Northwest, making field recordings of Native American songs before he had graduated high school.  Next he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he became a trailblazer in the world of be-bop jazz and experimental cinema.  Following San Francisco he relocated to NYC where he was an inspirational figure to the entire downtown art world through the 1960's and 1970's.   During this period he was mostly focused on elaborately insane art films, a chapter which reaches its apogee with his attempt to make an "animated" version of the Wizard of Oz (never completed). 

   He started doing drugs in the Bay Area- where he was smoking marijuana and taking amphetamines in the 1940's.  In New York he graduated to the hard stuff- by the 70's and 80's he became a regular user of cocaine and methamphetamine.  As Szwed points out repeatedly (you could call it the story of Smith's life) he was his own worst enemy and managed to burn through friends and patrons via a mixture of extremely uncouth behavior (frequent tantrums) and constant need for people to give him money (he never, ever had a job).  Szwed and others mention again and again that one of the marvels of Harry Smith's life is how he managed to even exist for decades in New York- making art and scenes, while never having a visible means of support.

   Frankly, he sounds like a trust funder, but Szwed provides enough information(like the fact that he never had a bank account) to rule this out as a possibility.   As an avowed experimental artist, much of what Szwed was trying to accomplish, artistically speaking, sounds ridiculous but his inspiration status can't be questioned.  How else to explain that his primary supporters at the end of his life were Allen Ginsburg and Jerry Garcia and that his papers were purchased by the Bob Dylan archive?