What are you currently reading?

[CD]

Hi Corey - whats yr opinion on Kafka - the only story ive read is The Trial - wow what a weird and claustrophobic book that is -like being in a strange dream world - what are the other stories like 

Actually, I own all his major works (except Amerika) but haven't read either of his most famous novels (The Trial and The Castle) for whatever reason. I've read most of his stories at least once, and several more than once. They are at once hilarious and terrifying, and definitely benefit from multiple readings.

[canninator]

Actually, I own all his major works (except Amerika) but haven't read either of his most famous novels (The Trial and The Castle) for whatever reason. I've read most of his stories at least once, and several more than once. They are at once hilarious and terrifying, and definitely benefit from multiple readings.

I think the edition from the photo you showed was a Muir translation. You should definitely read The Trial but not the Muir translation, the one by Breon Mitchell is far superior. It is like stepping into a dream world .

[CD]

I think the edition from the photo you showed was a Muir translation. You should definitely read The Trial but not the Muir translation, the one by Breon Mitchell is far superior. It is like stepping into a dream world .

The edition of the stories I have is the short stories only (Metamorphosis, Description of a Struggle, and dozens of shorter works and fragments). Some of the stories are indeed translated by the Muirs, but not all of them. I'm not sure if my edition of the Trial is a Muir translation, but judging from their translations of Broch, I wouldn't be too worried if it was.

[canninator]

The edition of the stories I have is the short stories only (Metamorphosis, Description of a Struggle, and dozens of shorter works and fragments). Some of the stories are indeed translated by the Muirs, but not all of them. I'm not sure if my edition of the Trial is a Muir translation, but judging from their translations of Broch, I wouldn't be too worried if it was.

The problem is not necessarily with the translation but the edition of the book on which the translation is based. The Muir translation is based upon the text as heavily edited by Max Brod (chapters re-ordered, some material deleted, reintroduced High German punctuation, and normalized spelling). This editing is removed in the restored text of the German critical edition (Fischer, 1990) and is used as the basis for the Mitchell translation (Schocken, 1998). Some of what is restored is idiomatic to German and doesn't translate but this edition is far superior to the Muirs. It's not perfect, however, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.

Interesting what you say about Broch. I have only read the Untermeyer translation of Virgil so can't reliably comment on its quality other then going by what others say. I wasn't aware the Muirs translated Virgil but I think they did The Sleepwalkers. Is that what you are referring to? What other translations have you read of this to compare, I'm interested in an opinion on one of their translations outside of their groundbreaking work on Kafka?

[CD]

You are obviously more familiar than myself. I can't read German.

I honestly can't speak on the translation itself. As long as the text is clear and understandable I have no qualms. The Muirs also did the translations for the editions I own of The Unknown Quantity and The Guiltless. I haven't come to Death of Virgil yet.

If you haven't already, you should read The Sleepwalkers.

[canninator]

You are obviously more familiar than myself. I can't read German.

I honestly can't speak on the translation itself. As long as the text is clear and understandable I have no qualms. The Muirs also did the translations for the editions I own of The Unknown Quantity and The Guiltless. I haven't come to Death of Virgil yet.

If you haven't already, you should read The Sleepwalkers.

I've only read Death of Virgil and that was one hard nut to crack. I've heard good things about The Sleepwalkers so I'll add it to the list.

[Brian]

[DavidRoss]

A Land So Strange:  The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (2009) by Andre Resendez - 

Sounds great--a fascinating story and an extraordinary man!

Blink, Malcolm Gladwell.  An entertaining read.  Both anecdotal and research summaries of inquiries into the virtues of "intuitive" information processing versus "analysis paralysis."  Stuff that everyone should know but too few do.

[Lilas Pastia]

Trying to catch up on this thread  .  I have set aside for the moment Borislav Pekic's The Golden Fleece. I know I'm in for quite a journey with this work (tome I/ 7, each presumably 400-600 pages long). I got the hang of Pekic' s narrative, slowly entering into the characters' collective mind. It's the saga of an ethnic balkan minority family and their voyage through time (many centuries) and space (all over Central Europe). The subject certainly rings a chord here. It's amazing to find how much of a people's soul is retained through tribulations big and small. One would think that implacable darwinian anthropologic rules should swiftly wipe out ethnic minorities, especially those denied sovereignty over land. But I digress. Pekic's writing is alive with incident and from the vantage point I've reached (some 200 pages in), it's obvious that this is just the mise en bouche (appetizer) for the main course that lies ahead. I'll catch up later with the Njegovan family.

Right now reading Palmer's medical thriller The First Patient. Palmer is a multi-million book best-selling author. Although I relish a good thriller as much as anyone else, its interruption of Pekic's saga clashes rather disagreeably. Flagrant writing errors, gaucheries and other sub-par writing instances are there all right. Maybe that's just what I needed to make me want to go back to Pekic's work.

I've read with interest the various posts about Chekhov's short stories. I've been a huge fan of his many nouvelles (French for 'short story') ever since adolescence. Indeed, I kept hovering between Chekhov and Maupassant as the best writers of short stories. Re-reading both many years later, I found Chekhov's stories more intemporal, more 'of their space' than 'of their time' (same feeling with Cholokov's mammoth Quiet Flows the Don - is it a russian thing?). Conversely, Maupassant's were so much of their time AND space that they reeked of the terroir they portrayed. A pictorial parallel might be drawn between Chekhov and the contemporaneous paintings from the Tretyakov Gallery, and between Maupassant and those of Manet and Courbet.

[karlhenning]

Just finished Philip Norman's bio of John Lennon.

Overall, a B- IMO

Do I need the book on my own shelf? No.

(Though I do have some B- books on my shelf.)

[Haffner]

The Cosima Wagner Diaries Pt. 1

About halfway through.

[Bu]

Had to stop The Foundation Pit after the rather dull and plodding start by Platonov. (Or maybe it's just that the translators suck?)  Will definitely return to it when I'm in the mood but in the meantime.......I returned to something terse and direct by the poet laureate of winos, Charles Bukowski. Typical loony stuff so far.

Also, in between stories, trying to dig into Celine's Journey to the End of the Night (which just happened to be one of Bukowski's great literary inspirations). After a few chapters I can certainly see the influence in Charlie's work.

[CD]

William James - Pragmatism

[MN Dave]

One story in and yes it's good.

[CD]

[ChamberNut]

In the early goings, 30 pages of swimming against the current.  The story seems interesting, but I'm just having difficulty with the writing style! 

Crime & Punishment - Fyodor Dostoesky

[CD]

Really? I had trouble putting that down.

[MN Dave]

Really? I had trouble putting that down.

Me too.

[Florestan]

Just finished Julien Benda's The Treason of The Intellectuals. Excellent, so true and, sadly, so fresh!

[secondwind]

Just finished:
It reminded me why I like Irving.