basic recon: May 2023 pt. 2
Moten, Clune, Bromwich, Yezierska, Kenny "The Jet" Smith, Özlü, et al.
(If you want to read extremely good long-form criticism, check out Cleveland Review of Books, the magazine I publish and work on with a “dedicated and brilliant” staff.)
Part 2, as promised. I will be MORE CURATORIAL next month. Every book I’ve previewed this month is def noteworthy and piqued my interest but I’ll narrow it down some more in June.
Tezer Özlü. Cold Nights of Childhood. Transit Books. Translated by Maureen Freely. / Turkish novel. Sexy publisher (Fosse’s). Mental health, ECT, sex, patriarchy, pitched as similar to The Bell Jar.
Steven D.Spalding. Minuit. Dalkey Archive. / From the publisher: “An investigation into the formation of French literary culture through the lens of publishing house Editions de Minuit, responsible for the "New Novel" and "école de Minuit" which catapulted its authors to international status.”
Fred Moten. perennial fashion presence falling. Wave. / New Moten poetry collection!! 🚨🚨🚨
Édouard Louis. Who Killed my Father. New Directions. / Nonfiction. From the publisher: “Who Killed My Father rips into France’s long neglect of the working class and its overt contempt for the poor, accusing the complacent French—at the minimum—of negligent homicide.” Pretty poignant given the subway murder that just went down. The book is also a love letter to his father. ND did bill Louis as a “young superstar” which turns me off, but I guess it’s worth finding out. I probably would’ve bought the book no questions asked by now if it didn’t say “young superstar” lol.
Lesley Harrison. Kitchen Music. New Directions. / Poetry collection described as a “cosmology of place".”
Kim Hyesoon. Phantom Pain Wings. New Directions. Translated by Don Mee Choi. / Described as a “transnational collision of shamanism, Modernism, and feminism.” Poetry collection.
Mieko Kanai. Mild Vertigo. New Directions. Translated by Polly Barton. / This book is definitely picking up steam. Steam-of-consciousness, themes of marriage, motherhood, and being trapped in the house, on some Charlotte Perkins Gilman shit. The book’s cover is yellow paper after all.
Brianne Cohen. Don’t Look Away: Art, Nonviolence, and Preventive Publics in Contemporary Europe. Duke. / Sexy Duke title on art and politics.
Eileen Chang. Written on Water. Translated by Andrew F. Jones, Edited by Andrew F. Jones and Nicole Huang. / Love anything by Chang. I think this is her first essay collection released in English, at least by NYRB? Musings on art, literature, urban life, being a woman in China, etc.
Amanda Wasielewski. Computational Learning: Art History and Machine Learning. MIT. / (Common Voice) “with AI.” I’ve become invested in this topic because of my friend Dean Kissick’s running commentary on AI and contemporary artistic production.
Emily Wells. A Matter of Appearance. Seven Stories. / Elaine Scarry type memoir.
Anne Kaun and Fredrik Stiernstedt. Prison Media: Incarceration and the Infrastructures of Work and Technology. MIT.
Guy de Pourtales. Nietzsche in Italy. Pushkin Press. Translated by Will Stone. / Another Nietzsche book out this month.
Kenny Smith. Talk of Champions: Stories of the People Who Made Me. Doubleday. / If you know me you know I’m an NBA guy. I’m more just giving Kenny some love, rather than making a rec.
Sebastiano Brandolini. The House at Capo d’Orso. MIT. / Architecture, childhood, attachment to place etc.
Michael Lind. Hell to Pay: How the Suppression of Wages is Destroying America. Portfolio. / Oldhead political commentator back at it.
Aurora Venturini. Cousins. Soft Skull. Translated by Kit Maude. / The only Soft Skull book I’m remotely aware of this year.
Anzia Yezierska. Bread Givers. Penguin Classics. Translated by Deborah Feldman. / Continue to be interested in what feels like a new iteration of Penguin Classics. Their editorial decisions have as bit an impact on what becomes the canon (or rather, kind of is a canon) than any other publishing imprint. This is a New York book about a LES girl challenging her Orthodox parents on their views on femininity.
Kathryn Bromwich. At the Edge of the Woods. Two Dollar Radio. / Everything 2DR does is top-tier.
Isabel Zapata. In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation. Coffee House Press. Translated by Robin Myers. / One press that consistently does “creative non-fiction” and the “public-facing monograph” the right way.
Jennifer Grotz. Stil Farming. Graywolf. Graywolf poetry collections almost always hit.
Max Porter. Shy. Graywolf. New novel that’s been getting hyped up. “A shoutout to lost boys everywhere.” Troubled teenage boy at an institution.
Michael Clune. White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin. McNally Editions. / One of the best Cleveland-area writers, let alone the country, at this point. Harper’s cover story last year. Now McNally is reprinting his fascinating book about quitting Heroin and the “two paths”: anesthetization or the painful but beautiful road toward clarity and, indeed, sobriety.
Ursula Parrott. Ex-Wife. McNally Editions. / Flappers, 20s, Jazz Age, sexual experimentation and impropriety.
Dominique Fabre. My Life as Edgar. Archipelago. Translated by Anna Lehmann.
Phillipe Delerm. Second Star. Archipelago. Translated by Jody Gladding
Cheon Myeong-kwan. Whale. Archipelago. Translated by Chi-Young Kim
Augusta Higa Oshiro. The Enlightenment of Katsuo Nakamatsu. Archipelago. Translated by Jennifer Shyue. Archipelago is really dope. They just publish so many books it’s hard to keep track.
Deborah Dundas. On Class. Biblioasis. Interesting series that they do, these “Field Notes” essays.
Thomas Melle. The World at my Back. Biblioasis. Translated by Luise von Flotow.
Ok I’ve spent like 10 hours working on this two-part series and I’m officially burned out. I’ll see you in June, if not sooner. Might write some short reviews / do some highlights of hidden gem classics.
xx
Billy