Arts Fuse Editor

World Books Review: An Adventure Through Literary Time

April 23, 2009
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An assured novel that celebrates, with considerable stylistic facility, an extraordinary engagement with the history of literature. Rex by Jose Manuel Prieto Translated from Spanish by Esther Allen. Grove Press, 288 pages Reviewed by Alexander Nemser Jose Manuel Prieto’s “Rex” is an adventure through time: not historical time, or physical time, so much as literary…

World Books Review: Come, See, Conquer, Rinse, Repeat

April 12, 2009
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This ambitious Norwegian novel works overtime to turn conventional notions of cause and effect topsy-turvy. The Conqueror By Jan Kjærstad Translated from the Norwegian by Barbara Haveland. Open Letter, 481 pages, $17.95 Reviewed by Tommy Wallach Riddle me this: if a man finds out his wife has been cheating on him for years, then kills…

World Books Review: “The Loving Specter of Yiddish”

April 12, 2009
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The handsomely produced bilingual volume reflects a committed and passionate marriage of an exacting poet-translator and Yiddish poetry. With Everything We’ve Got: A Personal Anthology of Yiddish Poetry Edited and translated by Richard J. Fein. Host Publications, 218 pages. Reviewed by Anna Razumnaya Fortuitously, just before the publication of Richard Fein’s new anthology With Everything…

World Books Review: Allons’y, Alonzo

April 7, 2009
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Two French writers take on the notion of would-be writers on the run. Only one gets away with it. Julien Parme By Florian Zeller Translated from the French by Christopher Moncrieff. Pushkin Press, 246 pages. Tokyo Fiancee by Amélie Northomb Translated from the French by Alison Anderson. Europa Editions, 152 pages. Reviewed by Tommy Wallach…

Book Feature: Roberto Bolaño and the Half-Hearted Hoax

January 31, 2009
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Does it matter that posthumous literary darling Roberto Bolaño fibbed about his past? by Tommy Wallach My World Books review of “2666” A couple days ago, “The New York Times” published an article suggesting that Chilean novelist and posthumous literary darling Roberto Bolaño may have fictionalized aspects of his own biography. In question are two…

Book Review: La Fontaine’s Beasts Still Know Best

December 5, 2008
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Norman R. Shapiro took on the Herculean task of translating the 17th century French poet’s work—some 240 poems in all—in increments of fifties. He has performed the difficult task with wit and panache.

Fuse Flash: Anybody See the Fat Lady? Pollock Matter Affair Still Gropes for that Final Act

January 10, 2008
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Just over a month ago, conventional wisdom had it that the long-running Pollock Matter Affair, one of the most contentious art controversies in living memory (see past posts in Arts Fuse and Anonymous Sources), had finally ground to a halt. Oops. As predicted in The Arts Fuse in November, the debate has found some more…

Composer Steve Reich, Or The More Less the Better

December 21, 2007
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By William Webster New Yorker music critic Alex Ross’ recent positive review of a concert featuring the compositions of Steve Reich at New York’s Carnegie Hall made me look forward to the presentation of the same program at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music late last month. Reich has garnered considerable attention and respect as…

Fuse Flash: Cabal? What Cabal? Pollock Experts Move in Small Circles

December 9, 2007
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Only months ago, developments in the Pollock Matter controversies made news around the world (See past Fuse Flash and Anonymous Sources). But the Nov. 28 International Foundation for Art Research [IFAR] symposium, “Are They Pollocks? What Science Tells Us About the Matter Paintings,” drew relatively scant media notice, even though it had been billed by…

Fuse Flash: The Sun Sheds More Light on “Suspenseful, Comic, Odd” Pollock Event

November 30, 2007
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The New York Sun’s Kate Taylor sheds more light on the Nov. 29 symposium, “Are They Pollocks? What Science Tells Us About the Matter Paintings,” sponsored by the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR). Perhaps less pressed by deadlines, Taylor’s Nov. 30 article provides a more complete summary of the event than reporter Randy Kennedy…

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