Fatale by Jean-Patrick Manchette

TITLE: Fatale
AUTHOR: Jean-Patrick Manchette
READ: October
THOUGHTS: Picked this up on a whim at the library because I had seen the cover before and because I trust NYRB. Also wanted to read something a little different re: the stuff I usually read (this being a crime-noir-femme-fatale type thing). Expected more out of it. I enjoyed reading it throughout, but I sort of was hoping that it was going to be uhhh 'heftier'? More insipred? I don't know. I thought most of it was well written, with the exception of some slighty-verging-on-ridiculous and/or implaussable scenes (since this book is presenting itself as a realist noir I don't feel bad holding it to those standards (!), etc.). Glad I read it, will most likely completely forget I ever read this book in about a year.

The Zone by Sergei Dovlatov

TITLE: The Zone
AUTHOR: Sergei Dovlatov
READ: October
THOUGHTS: Liked this one a lot, though not as much as 'The Suitcase.' Again the Dovlatov voice being the thing that really holds it all together, along w/ the moral relativity that is rendered very movingly, interestingly, funnily, etc. A few scenes stand out much stronger than the rest. Think I might take a break w/ Dovlatov but I will probably end up reading all of his other stuff, too.

The Leviathan by Joseph Roth

TITLE: The Leviathan
AUTHOR: Joseph Roth
READ: October
THOUGHTS: Can't think of any other word to describe this book other than 'delightful.' Roth's prose, pacing, and story has a very whimsical characteristic to it, though there is also slight traces of irony/playfulness, other stuff, etc. I think the movement of the text -- using a sort of 'cursory' fairy-tale kind of set-up to keep it going pretty quickly, pausing slightly here and there for little morsels/details -- is the most interesting thing about this book. I really enjoyed it, and want to read more Roth, whom I like more than other Roths I think, heee heee. Very nice.

The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel) by Macedonio Fernández

TITLE: The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)
AUTHOR: Macedonio Fernández 
READ: Sept-Oct
THOUGHTS: Was really really excited to read this. Hooked me w/ concept alone: novel with 50+ prologues plus main novel about "characters" living in a place called "La Novela" (nyuck). The playfulness in this book is a bit out of control, though it can be very appealing/funny/interesting. I think this might be one of those "more interesting to think/talk about than read" kind of things ultimately, because getting through this whole book was pretty difficult at times; a large portion of it is Fernández talking about being vs. nothingness, his ideas on fiction, love, phenomenology, etc. Still way ahead of its time (mostly written in 30's/40's) and a very interesting example of a novel with an overwhelmingly metafictional aesthetic attempting to address very important (though conventional) questions about life and shit. A very inspirational book, really would like to read more about his life/other works. (Also wonder if anything has been lost on me due to my lack of knowledge re: Argentine literary scene during the 30's and 40's).

Patriotism by Yukio Mishima

TITLE: Patriotism
AUTHOR: Yukio Mishima
READ: October
THOUGHTS: I thought this book was incredibly powerful; I really loved it. I haven't read Mishima in probably years now, and I had completly forgotten how he wrote, really. While I am never a fan of flowerlyness/sustained elevated diction, I found his writing here to be incredibly apt/forceful re: the emotional crux of the text, which is ritual suicide. The way that he subsumes the nexus of sex, pain, duty, humiliation, despair, etc under the idealogy of Japanese nationalism/patriotism is super intense, and almost mystifying -- I sort of felt like I was floating through a bizare folk tale the entire time. Really made me want to read (and reread) some more Mishima.

Montano's Malady by Enrique Vila-Matas

TITLE: Montano's Malady
AUTHOR: Enrique Vila-Matas
READ: October
THOUGHTS: I have been delaying writing on here mostly because of this book -- I don't really know what to say about it besides that I really loved it and that it was very powerful/moving for me, because Vila-Matas' conception of literature, and what/how literature 'can be' is very close to my own (of course comparatively incipient) ideas/feelings. I feel like anything that I say about this book will be stupid in comparison to its actual brilliance -- like, for example, I feel like this book understands the 'conceit' of metafiction not as something 'simply' signalling its own self-concsioussness/irony, but as using that self-consciousness as a catapult for engaging in the spectre of history and tradition in an incredible (-ly hilarious, heartfelt, deft, learned) way. I wish I was more fluent in Spanish because I would go out and read everything he has written.

Eat When You Feel Sad by Zachary German

TITLE: Eat When You Feel Sad
AUTHOR: Zachary German
READ: October
THOUGHTS: I really enjoyed this book. Probably one of my favorite uses of the ultra concrete/literal/minimal style that is used commonly today. Since I read this book in one sitting (also: I am sick) and the sentences repeat a similar grammatical structure (subject-verb-object or something), the sentences started to feel kind of strange and alienating, despite the appearance of being salient and/or translucent. I guess that kind of reminded me of Grillet. I think the quick/continual movement of events in the text had this slow sort of emotional impact that I didn't expect. On the back of the book it says that Tao Lin calls it strangely avant-garde and accessible at the same time, I would agree. Coooool.

Spent by Joe Matt

TITLE: Spent
AUTHOR: Joe Matt
READ: October
THOUGHTS: The prospect of reading a graphic novel about a 30-something loser who watches porn all day was very appealing to me but I don't think I liked this that much. A lot of shitty dialog/heavy-handed exposition kind of thing. I liked the last section a bit more (it was uhh 'meta'). I would like to read more about masturbation/porn addicts/creeps and how they hate themselves or something.

Hurt Others by Sam Pink

TITLE: Hurt Others
AUTHOR: Sam Pink
READ: September
THOUGHTS: Enjoyed this one a bunch, too. I would say maybe about 30%-40% of the stories in here were sort of forgettable, or felt like 'Sam Pink exercises,' while the rest I really liked, which I think for a short story collection is a good ratio. The memorable ones here deal with everyday weirdness re: something 'specific' (babysitting, playing a boardgame w/ your soon to be ex-gf naked, getting drunk at a party and hating yourself, etc.) in strange and funny ways. The more I read Sam Pink the more his style seems to me like a more absurd/concrete/literal Midwest Thomas Bernhard, except with all of the scorn and anxiety either directed toward the narrator himself or to nothing in particular, I guess just 'the world.' Maybe Bernhard isn't really that accurate, I dunno!