A Momentary Taste of Being

Tun-Huang reviewed via Books Inq.

Shelf Love discovers Michael Innes Highlights of his work (for me) consist of Hamlet, Revenge!, Lament for a Maker, Hare Sitting Up , and Silence Observed --although all of them are quite good in a quiet, English, golden-age way.

"December" Thomas Caulfield Irwin

Cat Stevens on Fatwas etc. Certainly makes you think twice about  one's former allegiance to the singer.

Yet more of the Hamill translations of prominent Japanese poets.

Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics

Concluding my recent excursion into absurdism, I took up Rhinoceros .  "La Cantatrice Chauve" (for some reason I love the French title) has long been one of my favorite plays with such lines as, "We've had a lovely cartesian quarter of an hour,"  and "What about the Bald Soprano"  [The Title of the play in English].  "I love the way she wears her hair."  And so on.  Ionesco, absurdist though he was, was instrumental in helping me form the surreal vision of life that has long been my bulwark and shield. However some of the mechanical absurdity of Rhinoceros doed not wear well. There are moments that work and that are lasting, but the central thesis the central alogicity of the momentum of the play, are relics of a time and a place--largely 1950s and 1960s France and colonial holdings.  From these we have Beckett, Ionesco, Sartre, and Camus, to name four who leap to mind instantly.  Combine atheistic existentialism with the long hard road af...

Don't expect deep, respectful, lambent, and glowing analyses of Ishiguro's writing or of this book, or for that matter any book in particular.  For me the first and most important criterion for evaluating a book is "Did I enjoy it?"  In the case of Nocturnes , the answer is an emphatic YES! But first, before I get into why, some quibbles and some whining.  And, let me tell you, these are earth-shattering points.  First and most important, Ishiguro, a writer living in England manages to misuse the word "nauseous."  The British are renowned for being the only ones who use it correctly to mean, "causing nausea."  Ishiguro uses it to mean "nauseated."  5 points off (or maybe not, depending on the dictionary you use.)  Secondly, some, if not many of the characters are whiny, pussilanimous, petty, self-centered, auto-trouble-makers, who end up making the world a lot less enjoyable for everyone. (We don't know any real people like that.) ...