Interesting; I've never wittingly heard of Trevor Joyce or Frederick Seidel
(let alone Gary Edward Polster) ~ but here in Krautland I'm rather cut off,
and the TLS, NYRB etc don't deign to discuss them either. I shall check them
out on the web forthwith.
My reading is extremely desultory, this summer more than ever,
directionless, and as ever I hop butterfly-like from one t'other; who knows
when I shall ever finish these books. In fact I'm also (re-) reading
Beckett's Trilogy, Eliz. Bishop's letters etc, but this has been going on
for ages.
Albert Manguel: A History of Reading
J. Bate: The Song of the Earth
Fréderic Pajak: Le Chagrin d'Amour (Gallimard; I must comment on this: it's
a beautifully & suggestively illustrated text woven of biographical
documents & commentary on Guillaume Apollinaire; a sort of highbrow comic,
which avoids explainerism; of course I look at A.'s poetry from time to
time!)
René Girard: Je vois Satan tomber comme l'éclair (a compellingly reasoned
apologia for the Christian message, which naturally turns out to be what all
G.'s anthropological & literary inquiries have been telling us all along)
Saul Bellow: The Adventures of Augie March (it's never too late)
Marion Woodman: The Pregnant Virgin (Jungian & full of poetry; found it
remaindered)
David Mitchell: Ghostwritten (recommended to me as a kind of grown-ups'
Pullman, but I can't really get into it)
The New Penguin Book of English Verse (lots I've missed)
Adam Zagajewski: Mystik für Anfänger (trans. Karl Dedecius, brilliant)
Patrick O'Brian: The Reverse of the Medal
Pretty chaotic, what? In fact I've omitted one book, which I picked up as a
remainder, pure schlock & I shan't tell you, so there.
This is more like a seedy apothecary than a medecine cabinet, Candice.
Martin
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