Easter weekend purchases… Joy Williams has a new collection of short stories! Curious about the new Lerner all-male triangle of fatherhood and rivalry. My boy Kraszna’s acceptance speech. Mishima’s “gang of highly philosophical teenage boys.” Sampling Middlemarch’s prelude left me gasping for air.

I had not seen this piece. Thanks for sharing.
We have some work ahead of us, Kim. We need to inject some serious amount of Bessette into the algorithm to make the rest of her work available in English!

Can’t wait for Twenty Minutes of Silence. Hopefully the rest of her work will get translated, too.

Thank you, Kim! I can’t wait for that Bessette book, too. I hope her other novels will follow.

In a recent episode of the podcast The Mookse and the Gripes I referred to Hélène Bessette’s outstanding novel Lili is Crying (1953) as “Clarice Lispector on acid, Hilda Hilst on mushrooms, and Ann Quin on molly.” 👀 If you enjoy experimental literature, don’t miss this one.

It was a pleasure talking to both of you. Had a wonderful time. Thanks again for having me.

They’ve published 50 so far. About 7-8 in the pipeline. Such an incredible catalog.

I thought they did that for redesigns, except for the 4 ones that I have. Those only came out with the jacket.

I haven’t read most of these, James. Thinking about turning it into a reading project for next year.

The band they have been doing for the second run, except for the 4 titles on the top row. Those came out only in that format.

They do, indeed!

I’m 6’1”, with long arms and long legs. 😏

McNally Editions... Gotta catch ‘em all!

Happy Birthday, Frances! 🎉

Thank you, Frances! This is, hands down, my favorite DD.

I upgraded my old copy of Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis (his best work, imo) with a signed one. A masterful novel about a single day in the life of a young Manhattanite billionaire riding in the back of a stretch limo on his way to get the perfect haircut. Outrageous and unrivaled.

Years ago, while dining with Michael Silverblatt, Orhan Pamuk came up as a topic. He said, “You know, I was supposed to have dinner with him tonight.” “Why didn’t you?” I asked. “I had already made plans with you,” he said. “You’re nuts!” I yelled.
Dear Michael, I will miss you.

I thought about including that one as well, but I re-read it recently. Thanks for the suggestion.

So excited about this reading project. 2026 will be The Year of the Faustian Bargain for me and these are the books I’ll read, except my own novel (it’s in the picture because it features a Faustian bargain, a topic I’m passionate about and one I hope to revisit someday).

This 3rd volume, as you may remember, consists of 2 parts. Each one represents exactly half of the book. With the first one I struggled a bit because there are about 300 pages of pure gossip and became somewhat tedious, but he redeemed himself on the second half. I still thought it was so worth it.

😂 I struggled a bit with the first half of the book, but I’ve been told that volume 4 is outstanding. Won’t find out until January of next year. Just push through.

It doesn’t until page 421. The fist 100 pages are slow, and then you’ll get over 300 pages of pure gossip (I’m not exaggerating). The second part of the novel is where he shines.

Done with The Guermantes Way. Another jewel, although not as beautiful as volumes 1 and 2, but the 47 pages (425-471) in which the Narrator describes his grandmother falling ill and eventually passing contain some of the most beautiful and heartbreaking passages I’ve ever read.

Oh. That’s. A good thing. Love when that happens. That little, 60-page Jaeggy book renewed my interest in Keats (haven’t read any of his poetry in 2 decades!) and Marcel Schwob, too, whom I adore.

I knew about De Quincey, just didn’t get to him. It was a masterful biographical sketch by Fleur Jaeggy in this book that led me to the sudden interest in De Quincey. I’ll check out the book you mentioned. Not familiar with Dillon’s work yet.

I know I’m rather late to the Thomas De Quincey party, but I’ve arrived.

That is one fine specimen!

“Stellar” doesn’t even begin to describe today’s book mail. Finally, John Cowper Powys is in my house. I know a new edition of A Glastonbury Romance is coming out fairly soon, but I couldn’t resist owning the one featuring Jan Provoost’s work on the cover.

Both of those publishers had impressive catalogs! ☹️

In January of 2024 I read Swann’s Way and since then I set out to read one volume of In Search of Lost Time every January, so it’s time for The Guermantes Way. While reading Proust I like to picture everything as if it belonged in an impressionist painting, which makes it even more beautiful.