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Dec. 19th, 2009 03:37 pmMy wife was genuinely, beamingly happy when she woke up, and for the first time in I can't remember how long, and my response to this was to fall asleep for three hours, many knots having undone themselves. When I woke up she promptly fell asleep for probably similar reasons. So I read more Calvino.
I've been reading Calvino almost exclusively and have nearly run out of him, at least fiction-wise, though detouring briefly back into Borges last week:
52. The Humbling
53. The Path to the Spiders' Nests
Good, not great novel. Very first-novel. Earns your affection though.
54. Marcovaldo
Wonderful book; Calvino thought of it as for kids.
55. Borges' Selected Poems (1923-1967)
56. 24 Conversations with Borges
57. Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges
The latter, with Richard Burgin, I'd read before, but now realize Bloom got his "living labyrinth" phrase from there (first conversation). Though of course Borges may have also used it elsewhere that I also forgot about.
58. Difficult Loves (US)
Probably mentioned earlier that there's some publishing insanity going on with Calvino's stories of the '40s and '50s--the British editions have several the American ones don't and vice versa, and they're all hashed up among several volumes with content order only vaguely alluding to those of the original Italian ones. There's also about ten stories that were simply never translated--maybe Calvino's whim? but none of this looks very planned. Two of the volumes share the same title, too: Difficult Loves (UK) has only a little bit of content overlap with DL (US), while including a few stories it lacks, like the great "Adventures of the Married Couple" which I love, and the novella A Plunge into Real Estate which I'll get to shortly.
These stories are great, and a lot of them you need to read. The '40s ones are sometimes so good as much from the exciting period they're dealing with as what their young author does with them, but by the '50s Calvino is already firmly world class. Particularly amazing are the "Adventures of..." series of stories, which are tied together by method to some extent, but disparate subject matter of which may have prevented their getting the attention they deserve.
I loved most of all the Adventures of a Traveler, of a Reader, of a Near-Sighted Man. Bather I've long admired, and Clerk is wonderful too (as is its variant Wife in the UK volume). Photographer I'll have to reread, and Soldier since I was falling asleep at the time. Poet was just okay, but I may have been missing something there too. The UK volume retitles Transit Bed from the US one as Adventure of a Crook, despite it not really fitting the pattern. That story is amusing but little more.
Of the '40s stories Julie loved best Theft in a Pastry Shop, Big Fish Little Fish and Lazy Sons, and I agree, especially about the latter. I'd add Adam One Afternoon and the Enchanted Garden, lovely communist fables prefiguring Argentine Ant to some degree. One of the Three is Still Alive is the best of his war stories, worthy of Tolstoy but deeply Calvinian.
As for the others, Animal Woods, The Crow Comes Last, Dollars & the Demimondaine and Desire in November are all very fun. Crow in particular has some pretty amazing narrative momentum. Sleeping Like Dogs is another great insomnia story.
Fear on the Footpath, Hunger at Bevera, & Going to Headquarters are all good and exciting partisan stories, up with the better moments of Path to the Nest of Spiders. Mine Field is good too. A Goatherd at Luncheon was after some political subtlety that eluded me (self-castigation? Leaving Again Shortly, in one of the equivalent UK volumes, seems to be that, to which Lazy Sons is a sublime self-defensive rejoinder). A Ship Loaded with Crabs seemed to be just out for pointless fun. The House of the Beehives I didn't get either, but it was interesting and anticipated one of his late-phase narrative modes.
I've been reading Calvino almost exclusively and have nearly run out of him, at least fiction-wise, though detouring briefly back into Borges last week:
52. The Humbling
53. The Path to the Spiders' Nests
Good, not great novel. Very first-novel. Earns your affection though.
54. Marcovaldo
Wonderful book; Calvino thought of it as for kids.
55. Borges' Selected Poems (1923-1967)
56. 24 Conversations with Borges
57. Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges
The latter, with Richard Burgin, I'd read before, but now realize Bloom got his "living labyrinth" phrase from there (first conversation). Though of course Borges may have also used it elsewhere that I also forgot about.
58. Difficult Loves (US)
Probably mentioned earlier that there's some publishing insanity going on with Calvino's stories of the '40s and '50s--the British editions have several the American ones don't and vice versa, and they're all hashed up among several volumes with content order only vaguely alluding to those of the original Italian ones. There's also about ten stories that were simply never translated--maybe Calvino's whim? but none of this looks very planned. Two of the volumes share the same title, too: Difficult Loves (UK) has only a little bit of content overlap with DL (US), while including a few stories it lacks, like the great "Adventures of the Married Couple" which I love, and the novella A Plunge into Real Estate which I'll get to shortly.
These stories are great, and a lot of them you need to read. The '40s ones are sometimes so good as much from the exciting period they're dealing with as what their young author does with them, but by the '50s Calvino is already firmly world class. Particularly amazing are the "Adventures of..." series of stories, which are tied together by method to some extent, but disparate subject matter of which may have prevented their getting the attention they deserve.
I loved most of all the Adventures of a Traveler, of a Reader, of a Near-Sighted Man. Bather I've long admired, and Clerk is wonderful too (as is its variant Wife in the UK volume). Photographer I'll have to reread, and Soldier since I was falling asleep at the time. Poet was just okay, but I may have been missing something there too. The UK volume retitles Transit Bed from the US one as Adventure of a Crook, despite it not really fitting the pattern. That story is amusing but little more.
Of the '40s stories Julie loved best Theft in a Pastry Shop, Big Fish Little Fish and Lazy Sons, and I agree, especially about the latter. I'd add Adam One Afternoon and the Enchanted Garden, lovely communist fables prefiguring Argentine Ant to some degree. One of the Three is Still Alive is the best of his war stories, worthy of Tolstoy but deeply Calvinian.
As for the others, Animal Woods, The Crow Comes Last, Dollars & the Demimondaine and Desire in November are all very fun. Crow in particular has some pretty amazing narrative momentum. Sleeping Like Dogs is another great insomnia story.
Fear on the Footpath, Hunger at Bevera, & Going to Headquarters are all good and exciting partisan stories, up with the better moments of Path to the Nest of Spiders. Mine Field is good too. A Goatherd at Luncheon was after some political subtlety that eluded me (self-castigation? Leaving Again Shortly, in one of the equivalent UK volumes, seems to be that, to which Lazy Sons is a sublime self-defensive rejoinder). A Ship Loaded with Crabs seemed to be just out for pointless fun. The House of the Beehives I didn't get either, but it was interesting and anticipated one of his late-phase narrative modes.
