tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47459726509477621552024-03-13T23:49:24.017-04:00David Cooper: Poet, Literary Translator, and Book CriticMostly a links blog with occasional commentary on the linked articles (since 2010 mostly my book reviews) and infrequent personal updates.
I am a 64 year old married writer. See <a href="http://davidfcooper.com">my website</a> for my current writing projects and to download my ebooks; my <a href="https://about.me/davidfcooper">about me page</a> has links to my various web 2.0 venues.David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.comBlogger813125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-5148051651838555312022-01-27T19:47:00.000-05:002022-01-27T19:47:33.160-05:002021 National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalists<p>A week ago National Book Critics Circle announced its 2021 nominees in multiple categories (see link below). For the second year in a row I am a judge of the John Leonard Prize for a first book, and I have known which titles are finalists for that prize for several weeks but was not at liberty to share that information until a week ago. Last year there were seven finalists of which I had already read all five fiction titles and knew which of those I thought was superior to the others (reading the non-fiction titles did not change my estimation), and in the end my fellow judges agreed and awarded the 2020 Leonard Prize to Luster by Raven Leilani.</p>
<p><br>The 2021 John Leonard Prize finalists are</br>
<br>Ashley C. Ford, Somebody’s Daughter (Flatiron Books)</br>
<br>Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, My Monticello (Henry Holt)</br>
<br>Torrey Peters, Detransition, Baby (One World)</br>
<br>Larissa Pham, Pop Song (Catapult)</br>
<br>Anthony Veasna So, Afterparties (Ecco)</br>
<br>Devon Walker-Figueroa, Philomath (Milkweed Editions)</br></p>
<p>and it will be a far more difficult decision. Going in I had read two of the six titles, and now that I have read five and am reading the sixth, I find that I will have to reread some of them to decide which will get my vote. So for now I recommend adding all six to your TBR lists. Of the finalists in the other categories the only one I've read is Second Place by Rachel Cusk, which I also recommend.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bookcritics.org/2022/01/20/announcing-the-finalists-for-the-national-book-critics-circle-awards/">2021 National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalists</a></p>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-41626232871205996382021-08-15T15:26:00.000-04:002021-08-15T15:26:47.371-04:00Brandon Taylor on D.H. Lawrence & moral fiction<p>Brandon Taylor: <a href="https://blgtylr.substack.com/p/a-dark-room-on-the-other-side-of">On D.H. Lawrence & moral fiction</a></p>
<p>"It all sounds very abstract, I know. But for me, it comes down to this: moral fiction is not fiction that affirms your ideology about power systems and oppression. It does not make you feel like a good and righteous person. It may have no lessons for you to tweet about or put on Instagram or explain readily, wittily at dinner parties. You can’t wear it like a hair shirt and you can’t always articulate its particular force or power upon you. Moral art is, I think, hard to describe. Instable. It is art that implicates and complicates your notions of good and bad. Moral art may call you a liar to your face. It reveals the shallowness of your thought. It challenges you, but not in the way of an all-fiber diet. In the way gravity challenges you. In the way the thin air at the top of a mountain challenges you. In the way the pressure of the deep seas challenges you. Moral does not mean good or lawful. Moral means true. Moral means you take your finger off the scale.</p>
<p>"To make moral art, moral fiction, is to get out of the way. To make moral art is to admit one’s humble place in the order of things. I think moral fiction is less about signaling to the reader that you voted for the right people or that you are able to listen to people who would have you destroyed. Moral fiction does not signal. That is propaganda. That is social work. Not that these are unimportant things, but they are not art. And they are not moral."</p>
<p>#moral fiction #brandon taylor #d.h. lawrence #moral art</p>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-40317453995224306292021-06-08T14:46:00.000-04:002021-06-08T14:46:14.533-04:00Catullus Sails to China, Four Poems by John Yau<a href="https://bigother.com/2021/06/05/from-the-archives-four-poems-by-john-yau-2/?fbclid=IwAR2vRY4t73mhTTS0P181F17YLQ-yaMeAihE94IlBpugjs235HI0XPZAmj88" target="_blank">Catullus Sails to China, Four Poems by John Yau</a> (thanks to John Madera who published them in Big Other in 2019 and posted this link in Small Press News on the poet's birthday) David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-18391357431055603372021-05-27T19:44:00.007-04:002021-06-08T14:47:54.203-04:00From Pogroms to Philip Roth: A Conversation with Steven J. ZippersteinFascinating conversation with the author of the forthcoming short Roth biography in the Yale Jewish Lives series:
<p><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/5vUgvPrzUI0" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>#PhilipRoth</p> <p>#literarybiography</p>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-70028052345459553552021-05-11T18:20:00.000-04:002021-05-11T18:20:23.269-04:002020 NBCC Winners <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oI_okRrptVc/YJsBf1z-oxI/AAAAAAAABjQ/mlOITKAPRmcASCzUqfLIpRWaoLwQ6Uc9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Lusterbookcover.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="260" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oI_okRrptVc/YJsBf1z-oxI/AAAAAAAABjQ/mlOITKAPRmcASCzUqfLIpRWaoLwQ6Uc9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Lusterbookcover.jpg"/></a></div>
<p>This past winter I was one of 30 judges of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for a first book. In March NBCC announced that the book I voted for, Luster by Raven Leilani, won the Leonard Prize. One of my fellow judges, Natalie Bakopoulos says, “On behalf of the NBCC membership, we are honored and delighted to present the John Leonard Prize to Raven Leilani for her brilliant novel, Luster. Luster’s artistry, wit, and narrative surprises make it a tremendous achievement, and its tender and raucous prose mirrors the narrator’s tender and raucous self.” Leonard judge Adam Dalva adds, “Luster is a compulsive book—compulsive to read, with compulsive, complex characters—that brilliantly captures the essence of its lead, Edie. She is a wonderfully depicted swirl of painting, video games, and longing.”</p>
<p>Other 2020 NBCC winners include Nicole R. Fleetwood, who won the criticism award for Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Harvard Univ. Press). Committee chair J. Howard Rosier calls the book “Profoundly revisionist,” as it “identifies the conditions under which incarcerated persons create art and taxonomizes its making.”</p>
<p>francine j. harris was awarded the poetry prize for Here Is the Sweet Hand (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which, judge Megan Labrise says, gives the reader a “gentle caress, a gut punch, a come-hither curved finger, a rib-tickler, and a stop-sign palm,” sometimes “all five at once.” By “exploring femininity, blackness, queerness, nature, and institutions (political, academic, and disciplinary),” Labrise says, these poems “have the power to move.”</p>
<p>Cathy Park Hong won the prize in autobiography for Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (One World). Committee chair Marion Winik says, “Hong’s endlessly interesting blend of personal storytelling and cultural criticism digs into the personal to find the political, untangling the knots of privilege, envy, dissatisfaction, humiliation, and difference.”
The winner in the fiction category is Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (Knopf), in which the author imagines Shakespeare’s son Hamnet’s death from bubonic plague, lonely and agonizing yet marked by courage. O’Farrell “brings the boy so vividly to life the reader is stricken by his loss,” says judge Colette Bancroft.</p>
<p>The biography prize went to Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World by Amy Stanley (Scribner). “Through the life of one persistent, defiant woman, Amy Stanley reveals the sweep of 19th century Japan, how the tiny fishing village of Edo became the global city Tokyo,” says committee chair Elizabeth Taylor.</p>
<p>Nonfiction recipient Tom Zoellner’s Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire (Harvard Univ. Press) “engagingly excavates shrouded history,” says judge Carlin Romano, to show how “heroic Jamaican freedom fighters catalyzed the end of slavery in the British Empire,” and in the process “restores these martyrs to their rightful place in the pantheon of justice.”</p>
<p>The recipient of the 2020 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, given to an NBCC member for exceptional critical work, was Jo Livingstone, culture staff writer at the New Republic, where they primarily contribute book criticism in addition to film and music coverage. Their writing has also recently appeared in the New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and Bookforum. Committee chair Colette Bancroft says, “Livingstone submitted a collection of three reviews of books that ranged from Samantha Irby’s earthy and hilarious personal essays to Christopher Chitty’s deeply researched history of the relationship between sexuality and capital, with a bounce into the thorny autofiction of the latest Martin Amis novel. In each case Livingstone brought to bear keen intelligence, wide-ranging knowledge, surprising perceptions and beautiful writing.”</p>
<p>The recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award was The Feminist Press. For 50 years, the Feminist Press has been at the forefront of activism for women’s equality. The Feminist Press started by publishing influential works that had been out of print, including, crucially, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wall-Paper, now widely considered a classic of American literature. Over the years, they’ve published books by Anita Hill, Grace Paley, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Pussy Riot. They also publish Women’s Studies Quarterly, the influential journal that was established by the press in 1972. They remain on the vanguard of the feminist movement, and continue to publish essential works of American and international literature, including recent critically acclaimed books by Emily Hashimoto and Juliana Delgado Lopera, an unearthed classic by Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West, and one of this year’s finalists in the NBCC’s criticism category, Grieving by Cristina Rivera Garza. Committee chair Michael Schaub says: “[The Press’s] mission statement reads, ‘Celebrating our legacy, we lift up insurgent and marginalized voices from around the world to build a more just future,’ and that’s exactly what they’ve done. Their literature over the past five decades has made the world a better place for everyone.”</p>
<p>All 2020 NBCC prize winners are listed here: https://www.bookcritics.org/awards/ #Bookcritics.org #leonardprize</p>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-88507051342985380142021-01-25T19:34:00.000-05:002021-01-25T19:34:05.318-05:002020 John Leonard Prize FinalistsIt turns out only one of the six books I nominated for the 2020 National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize for a first book is a finalist (some years none of my nominees make it to the next round), and that book is <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51541496.Luster">Luster</a> by Raven Leilani. This year there are seven finalists for Leonard Prize; Luster and the other six are listed in the following link as are the other <a href="https://www.bookcritics.org/2021/01/24/announcing-the-finalists-for-the-2020-nbcc-awards/">2020 NBCC awards finalists</a>: This year I am a judge for the Leonard Prize and have read six of the seven finalists and am 2/3 through the seventh. I have until the beginning of March to decide which title will get my vote. #nationalbookcriticscircle Bookcritics.org #bookawards #johnleonardprizeDavid Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-82565281878081823902021-01-10T14:50:00.000-05:002021-01-10T14:50:56.615-05:00My 2020 first book nominees<p>13 days ago as a National Book Critics Circle voting member I submitted my ballot on which I nominated six first books for NBCC's John Leonard Prize for a First Book. Any book published in 2020 that is its author's first published book is eligible. This year I read 36 first books of varying genres, but all six books I nominated are debut novels (in previous years I've also nominated poetry, short story, essay collections and memoirs for the Leonard Prize). Here are my picks in alphabetical order by author's surname:</p>
<p>These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card</p>
<p>Little Gods by Meng Jin</p>
<p>Luster by Raven Leilani</p>
<p>Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey</p>
<p>Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq<p>
<p>The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata</p>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-5196208711479492682019-12-03T18:08:00.000-05:002019-12-03T18:53:16.230-05:00Best 2019 debut fiction books (IMHO)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As a voting National Book Critics Circle member I cast my ballot (electronically) last week nominating five 2019 first books for the John Leonard Prize. Any eligible 2019 first book that gets 20% of the member votes will become a finalist. My five include two debut short story collections and three debut novels:<br />
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The two debut short story collections are about young adults from marginalized communities: black, Latinx, and/or lgbtq Houston residentss in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40749395.Lot" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Lot by Bryan Washington">Lot</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9532429.Bryan_Washington" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Bryan Washington">Bryan Washington</a>, and Indian, Indian-American, and/or lgbtq characters in America and India both in the present day and earlier eras in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39607580.White_Dancing_Elephants" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="White Dancing Elephants by Chaya Bhuvaneswar">White Dancing Elephants</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17879880.Chaya_Bhuvaneswar" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Chaya Bhuvaneswar">Chaya Bhuvaneswar</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/search/search?q=%20Ay%C5%9Feg%C3%BCl%20Sava%C5%9F" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title=" Ayşegül Savaş">Ayşegül Savaş</a>'s debut novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37655491.Walking_on_the_Ceiling" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Walking on the Ceiling by Aysegül Savas">Walking on the Ceiling</a> features its first person narrator's interior monologue set mostly in Paris where she moves following her mother's passing but also in her native Istanbul from which she grows increasingly distant and disconnected the longer she lives in Paris, and as the political situation at home makes a return risky.<br />
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The other two debut novels also feature young women who run away as a response to grief for a parent. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15226081.Madhuri_Vijay" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Madhuri Vijay">Madhuri Vijay</a>'s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40642323.The_Far_Field" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay">The Far Field</a> a young Bangalore woman with a post-graduate degree and a coveted job in a technology company leaves all that (and her father) behind to travel to the Indian part of Kashmir that is under martial law hoping to find the Kashmiri door to door salesman whom her late mother befriended. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6898338.Amanda_Goldblatt" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Amanda Goldblatt">Amanda Goldblatt</a>'s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45024107.Hard_Mouth" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Hard Mouth by Amanda Goldblatt">Hard Mouth</a> the first person narrator is a lab technician in the Washington, DC suburbs who overcome by her terminally ill father's final illness flees to a remote mountaintop cabin, and the novel's most engaging section becomes a wilderness survival story.<br />
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Lot and The Far Field have decent chances of becoming finalists. The other three books probably are not on enough of my fellow critics' radars.<br />
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All previous Leonard Prize winners have been works of prose fiction. Other 2019 debut fiction books I recommend include:<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40539166.Such_Good_Work" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Such Good Work by Johannes Lichtman">Such Good Work</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7033601.Johannes_Lichtman" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Johannes Lichtman">Johannes Lichtman</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40060700.The_Old_Drift" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell">The Old Drift</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6895960.Namwali_Serpell" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Namwali Serpell">Namwali Serpell</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38532221.The_Falconer" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="The Falconer by Dana Czapnik">The Falconer</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17118007.Dana_Czapnik" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Dana Czapnik">Dana Czapnik</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40236964.Sabrina___Corina_Stories" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Sabrina & Corina Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine">Sabrina & Corina</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15302163.Kali_Fajardo_Anstine" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Kali Fajardo-Anstine">Kali Fajardo-Anstine</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40663183.To_Keep_the_Sun_Alive" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah Ghaffari">To Keep the Sun Alive</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18160882.Rabeah_Ghaffari" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Rabeah Ghaffari">Rabeah Ghaffari</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36172787.Willa___Hesper" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Willa & Hesper by Amy Feltman">Willa & Hesper</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17139018.Amy_Feltman" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Amy Feltman">Amy Feltman</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121973.The_Unpassing" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin">The Unpassing</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17525275.Chia_Chia_Lin" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Chia-Chia Lin">Chia-Chia Lin</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42779071.The_Expectations" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="The Expectations by Alexander Tilney">The Expectations</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17525347.Alexander_Tilney" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Alexander Tilney">Alexander Tilney</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36586697.Queenie" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams">Queenie</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17323922.Candice_Carty_Williams" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Candice Carty-Williams">Candice Carty-Williams</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40308310.Bangkok_Wakes_to_Rain" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad">Bangkok Wakes to Rain</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18078713.Pitchaya_Sudbanthad" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Pitchaya Sudbanthad">Pitchaya Sudbanthad</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40127349.Golden_Child" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Golden Child by Claire Adam">Golden Child</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7213534.Claire_Adam" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Claire Adam">Claire Adam</a><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41880602.Fleishman_Is_in_Trouble" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner">Fleishman Is In Trouble</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7235807.Taffy_Brodesser_Akner" rel="nofollow" style="color: #00635d; text-decoration: none;" title="Taffy Brodesser-Akner">Taffy Brodesser-Akner</a></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-77714824513298506262019-06-28T14:29:00.000-04:002019-06-28T14:29:39.040-04:00Davar Torah on my brother Robert's yahrzeit<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kdTFMOytAWhBOFcvnq1yHzE1B5n45THL/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">This is a Davar Torah or sermon</a> (click on link) I gave at <a href="http://psjc.org/" target="_blank">Park Slope Jewish Center</a> during Shabbat morning services on June 22, 2019, which was my brother Robert's 26th yahrzeit (death anniversary) on the Jewish calendar. I gave a shorter version of the same talk at <a href="http://altshul.org/" target="_blank">AltShul</a> two weeks earlier.<br />
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David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-69963235085113506002019-06-17T13:47:00.000-04:002019-06-17T14:08:54.163-04:00Travelogues by Poets<!-- wp:paragraph -->
The Diaries of Lea Goldberg translated by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tsipi.keller.5?__tn__=K-R&eid=ARA2zyypDOhRGwl3srtKUO6YYqBfY3y_tN0iGXjPv0NgNX_1o0CqWmOPYN-9iOwh5TplRPOPez9ns352&fref=mentions&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBG21O7gvxtz9s_k4xgGJTZzMTou5MjLV6qMI1O2JKzPsb03_FukI87hO7Ijq3imX-_qOhSus6iC_gjR84q_BvDLld5M3Cuk0n-8jd5CVediQMf7EEu3uJDqiaKszxJDr2PDlV_HXgE6MHSZ9G8DRvB2bsxm8yfFiY79IGHja9LNcjOlvnPYV5WgA8Dz9Yw8rU_QjsrrqOJdkCj8ycPZjH61TZnDAp2UoFWwvBBI8vNg_jhtKz2PKWNFA78uI2rBLP3OyZOVhW7M_1xo2otr5lyxKuqAt47I-o8YlWm4UYLWpGLgWBqQtD91iken5yow3ms1uudt_nY-EguGNxqC2DaxA">Tsipi Keller</a>. The Hebrew poet's<br />
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<a href="https://www.europenowjournal.org/2019/06/10/the-diaries-of-lea-goldberg/">travelogue of her 1937 trip to Italy</a><br />
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If you like travel blogs by poets try <a href="https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/94568618">this one</a> by National Poetry Series<br />
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winner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Swenson" target="_blank">Karen Swenson</a>.<br />
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-39987990768289126432019-04-17T15:58:00.001-04:002019-04-23T13:51:30.388-04:00Brief review: The Rabbi of Lud by Stanley ElkinI'm taking a break from reading and reviewing new books to catch up with some old ones on my TBR list. I'm also trying to improve my Hebrew and am currently reading and enjoying the Hebrew edition of Ya'akov Shabtai's unfinished last novel סוף דבר (published in English as Past Perfect).<br />
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In circumstances when I cannot read with my eyes I read with my ears. I just finished listening to the audiobook of The Rabbi of Lud by Stanley Elkin, a writer of whom I became aware while reading his friend William H. Gass while preparing to review The William H. Gass Reader. My <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2783972352" target="_blank">brief review</a> of The Rabbi of Lud appears on Goodreads.<br />
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David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-56219162808013133312019-01-24T17:14:00.001-05:002019-01-24T17:14:37.088-05:00Book review: Muck by Dror Burstein<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“... readers will enjoy this funny, imaginative, and handsomely crafted novel first and foremost as a memorable work of literature, and as such it deserves to reach a wide audience.” -- From <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/muck-novel">my review</a> of <i>Muck</i> by Dror Burstein in <i>New York Journal of Books</i>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-12049407574554010182018-11-07T13:41:00.000-05:002018-11-07T13:41:14.899-05:00Book review: The William H. Gass Reader<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: dsr, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">According to Gass a total aesthete reduces everything to style; the centrality of moral and ethical issues in his writing proves that Gass is not merely an aesthete. Whether or not they agree with him his readers will never be cognitively malnourished, and his poetic prose is a joy to read even when its vision is pessimistic." -- From <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/william-h-gass-reader" target="_blank"><b>my review</b></a> of <i>The William H. Gass Reader</i> in <i>New York Journal of Books</i></span>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-51357337782057228472018-06-04T15:30:00.000-04:002018-06-04T15:30:33.138-04:00Book review: The Mandela Plot by Kenneth Bonert"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: dsr, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">South African born Jewish-Canadian author Kenneth Bonert’s sophomore effort </span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: dsr, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Mandela Plot</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: dsr, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> is a sequel to his multiple awards winning debut novel </span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: dsr, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lion Seeker</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: dsr, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> (also reviewed on NYJB) that continues the Helger family saga begun in the earlier volume in a rather dark combination coming of age story and political thriller. A concluding epilogue in the final fifth of the novel includes commentary on post-Apartheid South Africa in general and the predicament of its Jewish citizens in particular." -- From <b><a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/mandela" target="_blank">my review</a></b> of <i>The Mandela Plot</i> by Kenneth Bonert in <i>New York Journal of Books </i></span><br />
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David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-80645385987938098722018-05-11T16:23:00.000-04:002018-11-01T19:00:52.729-04:00Book review: Late Beauty: Poems by Tuvia Ruebner<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"Readers who devoured <i>In the Illuminated Dark</i> will welcome the additional poems in <i>Late Beauty</i>, and for readers unacquainted with Ruebner’s poetry <i>Late Beauty</i> provides a portal." -- From <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/late-beauty-poems-tuvia-ruebner" target="_blank"><b>my review</b></a> of <i>Late Beauty: Selected Poems of Tuvia Ruebner</i> translated from the Hebrew by Lisa Katz and Shahar Bram in <i>New York Journal of Books</i>. </span><br />
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David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-84848370488512471882018-03-21T13:54:00.000-04:002018-03-21T17:11:50.979-04:00Book review: The Diamond Setter by Moshe Sakal"well written, masterfully translated by Jessica Cohen, and rewards rereading." -- From <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/diamond"><b>my review</b></a> of <i>The Diamond Setter</i> by Moshe Sakal in <i>New York Journal of Books</i><br />
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<i><br /></i>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-46315567105615583502018-03-07T13:24:00.000-05:002018-03-07T13:24:52.073-05:00Book review: Empty Set by Veronica Gerber Bicecci<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;">"Veronica Gerber Bicecci’s debut novel, second book and her first translated into English, Empty Set (Conjunto vacío), has multiple dualities—the verbal and the visual, the analytic and the emotional, autobiography and fiction—that aspire to convey ineffable sums greater than their constituent parts." -- From </span><a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/empty" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: large;">my review</span></b></a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"> of </span><span style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Empty Set</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px;"> by Veronica Gerber Bicecci in </span><span style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.74902); font-family: Georgia, "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">New York Journal of Books</span></span><br />
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David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-28412922293886371402018-02-07T13:16:00.001-05:002018-02-07T13:18:21.936-05:00Book Review: Petty Business by Yirmi Pinkus"Petty Business, the second of Yirmi Pinkus’ five novels and the first to be published in English, satirically portrays the life of a family of Tel Aviv store owners with both fondness and humor over one year—1989, a time in which neighborhood mom and pop stores were being put out of business by larger chain and department stores, just as the latter are now under pressure from Internet vendors.
<p>"... The novel’s title in the original Hebrew edition is the Aramaic phrase Bi’zer Anpin, which means 'on a small scale, in miniature,' and this family and their enterprises are a microcosm of a lower-middle class retail subculture at the end of an era.</p>
<p>"Overseas Pinkus is better known as cartoonist, and his book cover illustration of bathers in the waterpark swimming pool provides a preview of his satirical take on that subculture whose narrative portrait is also poignant. Pinkus’ mastery of language is every bit equal to that of his visual medium, and translators Evan Fallenberg and Yardena Greenspan do a fine job of conveying his varied prose into English." -- from <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/petty-business"><b>my review</b></a> of <i>Petty Business</i> by Yirmi Pinkus in <i>New York Journal of Books</I></p>
<img alt="description" height="500" src="https://www.thedeborahharrisagency.com/files/files/petty%20business.jpg" width="350" />David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-2083232779302365922018-02-04T15:04:00.000-05:002018-02-04T15:04:03.201-05:00Book review: The Ruined House by Ruby Namdar<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.74902); font-family: "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 20px;">"One of the lessons this complicated book conveys is how difficult it is to achieve the golden mean, balancing a serious writer’s need for solitude to reduce distractions with the need to stay connected and involved with one’s family and loved ones on the one hand, and integrating knowledge and appreciation for global culture with an intimate involvement with one’s particular tradition and civilization on the other. If the consequences of failing to achieve those balances are not as dire for most of us as they are for Andrew, nonetheless many of us would benefit from a closer examination and recalibration. Extending the metaphor on a national and international scale to include the 9/11 attack may seem like a stretch, or is it?" -- From </span><a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/ruined-house" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: #827be9; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><span style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">my review</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.74902); font-family: "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 20px;"> of </span><span style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.74902); font-family: "georgia" , "source serif pro" , serif; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Ruined House</span><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.74902); font-family: "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 20px;"> by Ruby Namdar in </span><span style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.74902); font-family: "georgia" , "source serif pro" , serif; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Journal of Books</span><br />
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<img alt="The Ruined House book cover" height="500" src="https://i.harperapps.com/covers/9780062467492/y450-293.jpg" width="350" />David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-88659936581602943512017-12-22T15:09:00.000-05:002017-12-22T15:09:38.068-05:00Book Review: North Station by Bae Suah<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"One way to view these stories is as philosophical essays in fictional form that address some of the same philosophical, psychological, spiritual, aesthetic, cultural, and societal topics and concerns that are found in Bae’s longer fiction. But by devoting each story to only two or three of those topics and freed from a longer work’s overarching narrative the stories address those issues in even greater depth and convey them with poetic prose of comparable beauty to that foun</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">d in her previous books in English translation. Compared to them this book has an even higher degree of difficulty—with abrupt linguistic changes in voice, number, and/or gender and multiple starting, stopping, and resuming narrative threads—that demand highly focused concentration but like them reward rereading." -- From <a href="http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/north-station" target="_blank"><b>my review</b></a> of <i>North Station</i> by Bae Suah in <i>New York Journal of Books</i></span>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-17489654032164084722017-11-09T19:01:00.001-05:002017-11-09T19:01:37.949-05:00Book review: Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali"Seventy-four years ago, nine years before the publication of The Second Sex and 20 years before The Feminine Mystique, a male Turkish communist novelist created a fictional feminist character who is the heroine of a love story that suggests an egalitarian heterosexual courtship can be based on honesty, candor, and mutual respect.
<p>"Three quarters of a century after it was written Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali feels both dated and timeless; dated because strong, inde<span class="text_exposed_show">pendent women are no longer a rarity and contemporary gender roles are more fluid, and timeless as the ideal of a love without ulterior motives, the theme of missed opportunities, and the psychology of the principle characters—all of which are conveyed in crisp contemporary English by translators Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe." -- From <a href="http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/madonna-fur-coat" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>my review</strong></a> of <em>Madonna in a Fur Coat</em> in <em>New York Journal of Books</em> </span></p>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5328" src="https://davidfcooper.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/madonna-in-a-fur-coat-book-cover.jpg" alt="Madonna in a Fur Coat book cover" width="333" height="500" />David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-13249787963730652402017-11-07T17:02:00.000-05:002017-11-07T17:02:22.444-05:00Book review: Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss<img alt="forestdarkbookcover" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5313" height="500" src="https://davidfcooper.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/forestdarkbookcover.jpg" width="333" />"In writing her way out of a personal trial Krauss has expanded her range." -- from <strong><a href="http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/forest-dark" rel="noopener" target="_blank">my review</a></strong> of <em>Forest Dark</em> by Nicole Krauss in <em>New York Journal of Books</em>David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-47122408574445781632017-10-26T14:24:00.002-04:002017-10-26T14:24:52.917-04:00Book Review: Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander<img src="https://davidfcooper.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/dinneratthecenteroftheearthbookcover.jpg" alt="dinneratthecenteroftheearthbookcover" width="190" height="285" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5306"/>
"In the book’s acknowledgements Englander thanks his editor for extracting the text of the novel from a much longer manuscript. The salvage operation feels uneven as a work of literature, but its ideas are worth engaging." -- from <a href="http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/dinner-center">my review</a> in New York Journal of Books David Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-72508682429113884852017-10-26T13:47:00.000-04:002017-10-26T13:47:55.598-04:00Book Review: An Egyptian Novel by Orly Castel-Bloom<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5300" src="https://davidfcooper.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/anegyptiannovelbookcover.jpg" alt="anegyptiannovelbookcover" width="324" height="499" />
"A recurring theme is how and to what extent characters recover from setbacks, displacement, and disappointments. Tel-Aviv, particularly north Tel-Aviv (an established affluent neighborhood in the later chapters/stories but new construction in the early ones) where the Kastil brothers and their families live, gives the book a sense of place." -- from <a href="http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/egyptian-novel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">my review</a> of <em>An Egyptian Novel</em> by Orly Castel-Bloom in New York Journal of BooksDavid Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02372664923767246694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4745972650947762155.post-80367910656882315802017-08-20T15:21:00.001-04:002017-08-20T15:21:55.750-04:00Book review: How to Behave in a Crowd by Camille Bordas<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"</span><em style="border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How to Behave in a Crowd</em><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"> will resonate with readers who grew up in large intellectual families, but it should also appeal to fiction readers interested not only in families but in learning how to find fulfillment by balancing the life of the mind with life among others in the world outside oneself." -- from <a href="http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/behave" target="_blank">my review</a> in <i>New York Journal of Books</i> </span>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is so much more I could have said about this book, but revealing spoilers would diminish the pleasure I hope readers will find unraveling its details on their own.</span><br />
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