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Open-Letter

January Short Fuses — Materia Critica

Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Short Fuses Tagged: Assembly Row, Cambodia, Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation, Drifting, ECM, Elieen Myles, Erato, Grove-Press, insanity, John Nelsons, Mark Favermann, Mette Henriette, Michael Spyres, Nick Seaver, Open-Letter, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Pathetic Literature, Roosters Crow Dogs Cry, The Conversation, University of Chicago Press, Wojciech Tochman

Book Review: Marguerite Duras’ “Abahn Sabana David” — A Rush Job

Did Marguerite Duras, who had worked in the French résistance during the war, feel guilty about not having been sufficiently concerned about the Shoah?

By: John Taylor Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review, World Books Tagged: Abahn Sabana David, Kazim Ali, Marguerite Duras, Open-Letter, Shoah

Book Review: Antoine Volodine’s “Bardo or Not Bardo” — Seriously Spoofing the Afterlife

One reads this strangely engaging book, like Volodine’s others, with a sort of knitted-brow amusement.

By: John Taylor Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review, World Books Tagged: Antoine Volodine, Bardo or Not Bardo, french fiction, Open-Letter, translation

Fuse Book Review: The Novels of Mathias Énard — Probing the Intersection of Politics and Conscience

Although Street of Thieves is less accomplished than Zone, it once again displays how Mathias Énard is seeking new ways to talk political issues in precise, often gripping prose.

By: John Taylor Filed Under: Books, Featured, Review, World Books Tagged: Charlotte Mandell, Contemporary French Literature, Mathias Énard, Open-Letter, Street of Thieves, Zone

Book Review: Can the iPad Save the Short Story?

Two inviting collections of short short stories in translation — Catalan writer Quim Monzó sees fiction as an exhilarating if ingenious prison, Israeli writer Alex Epstein pens dreamy micro-yarns that free the imagination.

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, World Books Tagged: Alex Epstein, Becka Mara McKay. Clockroot Bookss, Guadalajara, Lunar Savings Time, Open-Letter, Peter Bush, Quim Monzó.

World Books Review: Criminal Neglect

A novel about sexual obsession, inspired by “Lolita,” stretches the limits of credulity. Rupert: A Confession By Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Translated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison, Open Letter, $12.95, 131 pages Reviewed by Tommy Wallach I consider myself something of an expert in the seldom studied theme of impotence in film and literature. Most […]

By: Arts Fuse Editor Filed Under: Books, World Books Tagged: Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Open-Letter, Rupert: A Confession, Tommy-Wallach

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

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 […]

By: Arts Fuse Editor Filed Under: Books, Featured, World Books Tagged: Barbara-Haveland, Books, Featured, Jan-Kjærstad, Open-Letter, The-Conqueror, The-Discoverer, The-Seducer, Tommy-Wallach, World Books

Dubravka Ugresic Writes a Book That Dares to Bicker

By Bill Marx Novelist and critic Dubravka Ugresic On this week’s World Books podcast I talk to novelist and cultural critic Dubravka Ugresic about her latest volume of trenchant essays and commentaries, “Nobody’s Home” (Translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac). My conversation with Ugresic circles around her contention that, despite European enthusiasm for culture, […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, Podcast, World Books Tagged: Books, Duvravka-Ugresic, Featured, Nobodys-Home, Open-Letter, Persona Non Grata, Podcast, World Books

Book Commentary: The Three Percent Solution

By Bill Marx Fiction in translation deserves all the notice it can get, but it doesn’t do anyone any good to patronize writers and readers by duplicating the happy talk that is turning people off of blurb-ridden book reviews in the mainstream media. My friend Chad Post, formerly at Dalkey Archive Press, has begun a […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured Tagged: Books, fiction-in-translation, international-literature, Open-Letter, Persona Non Grata, Reading-the-World, Three-Percent

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