One of the things that may surface from time to time amid this variegated babble
is people's current reading lists. We haven't had one for a while (I think Cris'
was the last), so here's what's littering the shelf above my bed and the floor
around....
Susan Gevirtz: NARRATIVE'S JOURNEY - her book on Dorothy Richardson, which
includes a lot on Richardson's writing about film which I didn't know about.
Lydia Davis: THE END OF THE STORY and BREAK IT DOWN - a liking for prose fiction
probably makes me an oddity on this list, but I've long thought Lydia Davis was
ace, and it's good to see her paperbacked by Serpent's Tale, whose books I
always think I'm going to like but rarely do. BREAK IT DOWN is actually almost a
reprint of her early 80s collection published by The Figures, STORY AND OTHER
STORIES. THE END OF THE STORY is a novel about a relationship which ends up
probing the paradoxes of personal identity and narrative itself. Fastidious but
inventive prose.
Iain Sinclair: LIGHTS OUT FOR THE TERRITORY - I can take only so much of Iain's
mythologising of London, and his regard for Aidan Dun is a mystery, but there's
a great deal in this book that's terrific, including some virtuoso interweaving
around Rachel Whiteread's _House_. And then there's Jeffrey Archer....
CHAIN / 3 VOL 1 - I think Cris cited this (edited by Jena Osman and Juliana
Spahr) as the poetry mag of the moment, & I wouldn't disagree. This huge issue
is all about genre-bending & hybridity and there's still part 2 to come.
RADDLE MOON 15 - but this ain't bad either. A more anglo-centric issue of this
Canadian mag than usual, with Denise Riley and Fiona Templeton making strong
showings. The true identity of "Edgar Allen Poe"(sic) who reviews Prynne's
_Not-You_ in authentically Prynnean cadences is undisclosed but I have my
suspicions. Edited by Lisa Robertson and Susan Clark.
Caroline Bergvall: ECLAT - best thing I've seen from her yet, recommended...
and I'm about to get stuck into Ric Caddel's LARKSONG SIGNAL and Billy Mills'
FIVE EASY PIECES, recently received from Tony Fraser, and also Nicole Brossard's
novel MAUVE DESERT.
Love, Ken
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