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Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

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Tag: New Directions

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The Literary Conference

January 13, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: After solving a centuries-old puzzle and recovering a lost pirate treasure, author/translator (and Mad Scientist) César Aira sets out to put in motion a plan to dominate the world. Things go awry. The Review: In some ways, this is the most digestible Aira novel I have read so far. In his embracing of B-movie aesthetics, which are (I now realize) delightfully well-suited to his “flight forward” style of just inventing and inventing and inventing, he’s created something […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, César Aira, Fiction, Horror, Katherine Silver, Literature, Literature in Translation, New Directions, review, Reviews, Surrealism, The Literary Conference, Translation

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The Last Samurai

August 19, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: After a one-night stand, Sibylla – an American first studying at Oxford and then surviving on odd jobs in London – finds herself raising Ludo, a precocious young boy with a hunger for knowledge. She turns to the classics (languages, works of fiction and non-fiction, and Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai) to craft his education and by age 11, he is beyond ready to find his father. So he sets out to do so. The Review: The Last Samurai has developed […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Classics, Fiction, Film, Helen DeWitt, Literature, London, New Directions, Philosophy, Reviews, Seven Samurai, The Last Samurai

1

Conversations

July 22, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A man lays awake at night replaying a conversation he had with a friend earlier in the day, about a movie the two of them had seen and their wildly differing conceptions of it – all spinning off the sight of an incongruous Rolex on the wrist of a lowly goatherd… The Review: Have you ever been talking with a friend – a friend you respect and admire and have known for a while – when they […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, César Aira, Conversations, Fiction, Katherine Silver, Literature, Literature in Translation, New Directions, Philosophy, Reviews, TNBBC, Translation

2

The Seamstress and the Wind

April 14, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: When César Aira was a boy, a seamstress lived in his town and had a son about his age. When she believes that the son has disappeared, she jumps in a cab and tears off into the Argentinian countryside with a hilarious and fantastical set of pursuers that include her husband, an angry bride-to-be, the wind, and maybe even the author himself… The Review: After falling under Aira’s spell with An Episode in the Life of a Landscape […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Argentina, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, César Aira, Fantastical, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Magical Realism, Metafiction, New Directions, Reviews, Rosalie Knecht, Surrealism, The Seamstress and the Wind, TNBBC, Translation, Writing

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An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter

March 30, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: An Episode… recounts the story of one Johann Mortiz Rugendas, a German landscape painter who traveled to Argentina twice during his life. On that first trip, as he strives to capture something new, an accident changes and mars him for life – but also, perhaps, provides the door he had been seeking… The Review: When is a biography not a biography? Presumably when it makes up facts – but what is the line between what is made up […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Argentina, Art, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, César Aira, Fiction, Johann Moritz Rugendas, Latin America, Literature, New Directions, Painting, Reviews, TNBBC

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Oreo

February 10, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Christine Schwartz (nicknamed Oreo) is born in Philadelphia to a Jewish father and an African-American mother. Her father left when she was only a few years old and when she comes of age, her mother sends her off to find him, beginning a hilarious journey to New York armed with her wit, charm, and some bad-ass martial arts. The Review: Fran Ross is one of those authors who, without the attentions of a savvy publisher like New Directions, […]

Categories: Fiction, Humor, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Fran Ross, Humor, Literature, Mythology, New Directions, New York City, Oreo, Philadelphia, Reviews, Satire, The Tournament of Books 2016, Theseus

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The Naked Eye

February 3, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: On a state-sponsored trip to East Germany, a young Vietnamese woman is kidnapped and taken to the other side of the Wall. So begins a strange journey that will take her to Paris and through various iterations of life, as well as see her develop an obsession with the films of Catherine Deneuve. But the films may have more of an impact on real life than first meets the eye… The Review: What is it about our favorite […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Catherine Deneuve, Fiction, Literature, New Directions, Paris, Reviews, The Naked Eye, TNBBC, Yoko Tawada

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  • Hey! It’s been a while! Just wanted to let you all know that if you’re missing me thinking in text about books/read… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 year ago
  • RT @JoeSudbay: Collins Maine office numbers: Portland: (207) 780-3575 Lewiston: (207) 784-6969 Bangor: (207) 945-0417 Augusta: (207) 622-8… 2 years ago
  • RT @drewsof: How about a #summerreading giveaway? A finished copy of Rebecca Makkai's "The Great Believers," a random ARC, & some SMDB swag… 2 years ago
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