November News and Highlights

Letter from Hudson Street November 2017 Dear Readers, Is everyone ready for the storm of holiday mayhem to come? Would you rather just sit it all out, maybe read as many books as you can before the end of the year instead? We feel the same way. If you need some ideas, our wonderful staff has come together to share books that have left an impression on them. There are lots of readings coming up in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, and elsewhere, too. Not a bad way to pass the time: among fellow book lovers. If you can't or won't just let the holiday season blow over, though, may we suggest checking out our [Children's Book Club]( for the littlest readers on your gift-giving list? There are subscriptions for young fans of adventure, whimsy, fantasy, heroines, classics, and more. It's easy and most importantly, it's bookish. Until next month, The NYRB Staff P.S. New York Review Comics will be exhibiting at [Comic Arts Brooklyn]( 2017 on Saturday, November 11, at the Pratt Institute. Stop by table B6 to see the latest NYR Comics titles and chat with NYR Comics editors and staff. Staff Recs: Memorable Scenes There are some moments in books that you just can't forget. Below, our staff shares some of their favorites from the NYRB Classics series. [Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg]( "Natalia Ginzburg’s [Family Lexicon]( is full of scenes that linger in the mind, but one scene, in which Ginzburg describes her friend, the poet and writer Cesar Pavese, is especially poignant. Ginzburg writes, 'That spring Pavese often arrived at our place eating cherries. From the window, we’d see him appear at the end of the street, tall, with his swift stride, eating cherries and spitting the pits against the walls, his shots lightning-fast and exact. For me, the fall of France would forever be associated with those cherries which, when Pavese arrived, he made us all try, pulling them one by one from his pocket with his parsimonious and grumpy hand.'" —Hilary [The Mad and the Bad by Jean-Patrick Manchette]( "I can't do justice to my favorite chase scene in Manchette's [The Mad and The Bad]( so I'll let the mayhem speak for itself: 'With stunning speed the store was transformed into a madhouse. More and more people began to run. A wake of detritus marked Julie's trajectory through the aisles. Women were screaming. Several shopgirls had started ringing the little handbells they usually rang to attract a supervisor when they needed change or to check the identity of a customer wishing to pay by check. Above the hullabaloo, by way of background, floated the sweet yet cannonading tones of an old Joan Baez hit, piped in through the speakers. The place was a bear garden.'" —Lucas [Fair Play by Tove Jansson]( "One of my favorite scenes in any of the NYRB Classics shows the Bohemian receptivity of the two central characters of Tove Jansson’s [Fair Play](. In the chapter 'The Great City of Phoenix,' the two middle-aged European travellers, closely based on Jansson and her partner Tuulikki Pietilä, befriend Verity, their motel chambermaid, who is a 'perfectionist and at the same time a conspicuous free spirit.' They become semi-regulars at Annie’s Bar, frequented otherwise by pool-playing men in Stetsons. There they drink the Annie Special (a banana drink) and toast Finland with a round of vodka shots as 'A Horse with No Name' plays in the background. You get the feeling that these two women might happily trade in their Helsinki apartments and private archipelago island for a life in Arizona—at least for a few months." —Sara [The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing]( “I want to order a highball at that thirty-foot neon bar in Kenneth Fearing's [The Big Clock]( with the bric-a-brac museum where you try to stump the bartender, Gil.” —Patrick [The Little Town Where Time Stood Still by Bohumil Hrabal]( “Who wouldn’t remember the scene in Hrabal's [The Little Town Where Time Stood Still]( when Maryška takes her pigs to the butcher? Mr. Myclík, the butcher, has a couple glasses of rum while he makes the sausages, and decides it would be fun to smear Maryška's face with pig’s blood. One thing leads to the next and suddenly her husband, Francin, interrupts the fun, followed by the management board of the brewery where he works. Maryška, never one to leave others out, invites them all to the slaughtering party and with many bottles of beer and uncased sausages eaten with spoons the party goes on till late.” —Nick [Loving by Henry Green]( “One of my favorite sentences is in an early scene from Henry Green’s [Loving](. Raunce, the head footman in an Irish country house, is looking at Edith, a recent hire: ‘He seemed to appraise the dark eyes she sported which were warm yet caught the light like plums dipped in cold water.’” —Max [The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns]( “It's hardly even a scene, but I often find myself thinking about that moment in Barbara Comyns's novel [The Vet's Daughter]( when said daughter, Alice, levitates in front of a boy she wants to impress. I can see it so clearly: Alice just lies down on a hay stack, hovers above it for a few seconds, and then plops back down. Suffice it to say, the boy is more freaked than impressed." —Abigail "An American version of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona..." This month, on November 27, the [NYRB Classics Bookclub at Books are Magic]( in Brooklyn will be discussing Dorothy Baker's novel [Cassandra at the Wedding](. David Jelinek, an art teacher and scholar of Baker's work, will be moderating. Jelinek's admiration for Baker's writing goes beyond scholarship, however. Her novels changed his life. Jelinek was kind enough to write a bit about his experience. Just click through for more: I owe a lot to the NYRB Classics, not the least of which is my marriage to Denise. She and I met ten years ago in the lunchroom of the school where we both teach; we were also married, though obviously not to one another. We shared favorite authors: Proust and Wilde. In the summer of our first year teaching together, the school conveniently asked us both to chaperone students on a European expedition, and the Fates seated us together on the airplane over. At the time, I was reading Stephan Zweig’s The Post-Office Girl. Denise asked if she could read along from my copy. I said yes. On the way back, we did the same with Cassandra at the Wedding. Neither novel is particularly happy, but sometimes hope is born from inopportune circumstances, such as being married to the wrong person. We kept reading. [(Click here for more.)]( Fall Highlights Even though the fall events season isn't over yet, we thought we'd share some highlights from a handful of the readings that have happened over the past few months. Laura Marris reads from her translation of Louis Guilloux's [Blood Dark]( at Molasses Books in Brooklyn as part of the [Us & Them]( reading series. Megan Abbott and Sarah Weinman discuss Dorothy B. Hughes's novel [In a Lonely Place]( at the [Mysterious Bookshop]( in Lower Manhattan. Paul Eprile reads from and discusses his translation of Jean Giono's work, most recently Giono's novel [Melville](, at [City of Asylum]( in Pittsburgh, PA. Darryl Pinckney, editor of [The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick](, Susan Minot, and Saskia Hamilton discuss Hardwick's life and writing at Barnard College in NYC, where Hardwick taught for many years. Paul Gravett interviewed New York Review Comics authors Yvan Alagbé (center) and Ulli Lust (right) at The House of Illustration in London. Lust's graphic novel [Voices in the Dark]( was published in October and Alagbé's [Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures]( will publish in Spring 2018. Photo © [@etiennephotography](. Upcoming Events Saturday, November 11, 11am, and Sunday, November 12, 3pm at the [Pisa Book Festival](, Congress Palace, Pisa, Italy: Eugene Ostashevsky reads from his collection The Pirate Who Does Not Know the Value of Pi. Thursday, November 16, 6pm, at [Seminary Co-op Bookstore](, Chicago, IL: a celebration of Other Men's Daughters by Richard Stern, with Alane Rollings, Wendy Doniger, and Richard Strier. Sunday, November 19, 11am, at the [92nd Street Y](, NYC: Darryl Pinckney, editor of The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick, delivers a talk on the life and work of his friend and mentor Hardwick. Friday, November 24, 3:30pm, [The Children's Bookshow]( at Europe House, London, UK: Eugene Ostashevsky, translator of The Fire Horse, joins a panel about classic and contemporary children's literature with Alexis Deacon, Timo Parvela, and Sasha Dugdale. Friday, November 24, 7pm, at [Waterstone's](, Trafalgar Square, London, UK: Eugene Ostashevsky in conversation with Sasha Dugdale. Also part of The Children's Bookshow. Tuesday, November 28, 7pm, at [City Lights Booksellers](, San Francisco, CA: A.J. Lees discusses his book Mentored by a Madman: The William Burroughs Experiment. Peter Bush on Tour Join Peter Bush, translator of Catalan writer Joan Sales's novel [Uncertain Glory](, for these special events around the US. All events co-sponsored by NYRB and the [Institut Ramon Llull](. Thursday, November 9, 6pm, at Casa Hispanica, Columbia University, NYC, with Mara Faye Lethem Friday, November 10, 7:30pm, at [McNally Jackson Bookstore](, NYC, with Mary Ann Newman Sunday, November 12, 3pm, at [Amherst Books](, Amherst, MA, with Jim Hicks Tuesday, November 14, 6pm, at [Pardee School of Global Studies](, Boston University, with Alicia Borinsky Wednesday, November 15, 6:30pm, at Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ. Will be held in the Student Center, Room #419 Friday, November 17, 6pm, at [Seminary Co-op Bookstore](, Chicago, IL, with Amaia Gabantxo November Books [PLF Life in Letters]( [PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR: A LIFE IN LETTERS]( selected and edited by Adam Sisman [In Tearing Haste]( [IN TEARING HASTE]( LETTERS BETWEEN DEBORAH DEVONSHIRE AND PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR [Balcony in the Forest]( [BALCONY IN THE FOREST]( by Julien Gracq [Our Life Grows]( [OUR LIFE GROWS]( by Ryszard Krynicki [The Green Hand and Other Stories]( [THE GREEN HAND AND OTHER STORIES]( by Nicole Claveloux [Jim at the Corner]( [JIM AT THE CORNER]( by Eleanor Farjeon [Balcony in the Forest]( is the November selection for the [NYRB Classics Book Club](. If you join the club by November 15, Balcony in the Forest will be your first selection. In the Press "Magda Szabó’s moving novel Katalin Street explores the way the past is alive in the present, still shaping life in mysterious ways that are hard to understand.... Eliciting a bittersweet beauty, Katalin Street is a powerful novel about life, death and humanity’s elusive sense of place and purpose." —Scott Neuffer, [Shelf Awareness]( "A masterpiece in faded hues, expressionistic pen strokes, and panels laid out to amplify a painful story." —Boris Kachka, [Vulture.com]( (New York Magazine), on Voices in the Dark by Ulli Lust "If Little Red Riding Hood were to get a feminist makeover, it might look something like this. " —[What to Read to Your Kids](, on Polly and the Wolf by Catherine Storr "In Hardwick’s criticism, we discover nothing of the professor with her ax to grind or the peacock with her feathers to flaunt. We encounter an uncondescending intelligence, a humane sensibility, and a forthright independence of mind for which we, in our scatterbrained era, cannot be grateful enough." —Alex Andriesse, [The Millions](, on The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick "Melville [by Jean Giono] is a unique compliment from one great writer to another, and worth reading for its compass-spinning oddity alone." —Peter Beech, [The Guardian]( Another "Genius" Reads NYRB Classics Someone spotted a copy of Jean Genet's [Prisoner of Love]( on the desk of playwright and recent MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Annie Baker (above). The book appears in a [short video]( about Baker's work. This isn't the first time an NYRB Classic has appeared alongside a new MacArthur Fellow: last year, playwright [Branden Jacobs-Jenkins]( was pictured reading Sir Thomas Browne's [Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall](. So geniuses do read NYRB Classics—at least genius playwrights. Image at top of newsletter: Father Demo Square in NYC's West Village, November 2017. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( New York Review Books 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 [Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe](