Posted in Uncategorized, tagged david mitchell, entymology, Hiroshi Teshigahara, kobo abe, penguin modern classics, pitfall, the face of another, the ruined map, the woman in the dunes, Toru Takemitsu, woman of the dunes on August 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Woman in the Dunes (1962) Suna no Onna
By Kobo Abe
Penguin Modern Classics, 240pp
With an Introduction by David Mitchell
My first introduction to the work of Japanese author Kobo Abe was through the films of Hiroshi Teshigahara – who collaborated with Abe and composer Toru Takemitsu four times, on Pitfall (1962), Woman in the Dunes [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Chhokrapur, EM Forster, Hindoo Holiday, India, J R Ackerley on August 26, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Hindoo Holiday: An Indian Journal (1932)
by J.R. Ackerley
Revised 1952
Forthcoming in Penguin Modern Classics (2009)
Reviewed from Chatto & Windus Edition 1952, 276pp
The first thing to strike a modern reader is that curious spelling. The double O, not U as is accepted. The double O takes us to another time and place, to a view of [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged democracy, Edith Wharton, esther, Frances Compton Snow, henry adams, john adams, John La Farge, john quincy adams, John Randolph, million books project, Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, New England Federalism, project gutenberg, The Education of Henry Adams, The History of the United States During the Administrat, The Life of Albert Gallatin on August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Esther (1884)
by Henry Brooks Adams
Penguin Classics, 208pp, Out of Print
Henry Brooks Adams was a preeminent historian, great-grandson of John Adams, the second President of the United States of America, and grandson John Quincy Adams, the sixth President. He wrote only two novels – Democracy (1880) and Esther (1884) – the first of which was [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Alphabetical Africa, Bernhard Schlink, Christa Wolf, Das Bleibt, Duel Site, Germany, How German Is It, Jean-Luc Godard, Rachel Seiffert, Red Army Faction, The Dark Room, The Reader, Walter Abish on August 13, 2008 | 3 Comments »
How German Is It (1979)
by Walter Abish
Penguin Modern Classics, 252pp
Literary trickster, Walter Abish, was a late bloomer. His first novel, Duel Site (1970), did not appear until Abish was turning forty. His second novel, Alphabetical Africa (1974), cemented his reputation. Each chapter of that book played pseudo-alliterative rules: the first chapter began with each [...]
