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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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June 21, 2009

FIRST FATHER'S DAY

My wife asked me how I wanted to mark my first Father's Day.  I normally love going out - brunch is a favorite - but I'm not quite ready to take Clara out into the world, so I opted for a simple, homebound request.  A pizza and a James Bond movie.  That seemed appropriately dad-like.  The pizza came from Lamonica's, which I recently stumbled into and found surprisingly good.  The Bond, this time, was Thunderball.  I knew it had to be a Connery film, preferably one I hadn't watched in a while.  (My first choice was You Only Live Twice, but my copy of that DVD is defective.  A replacement has been ordered.)

So it's been a day of pizza, Bond, and especially catching up on lost sleep.  But there's an undeniably bittersweet air to the day, coming almost exactly three months to the day since my father died.  As we had our breakfast this morning, I remembered a Father's Day moment from about fifteen years ago.

I was spending Father's Day weekend in Big Sur with my best friend at a favorite inn of ours.   We were sitting in the dining room, enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning breakfast, when a lady entered and addressed the only other people present, a young couple at the next table.  "Are those your children out front?" she asked.  The couple nodded.  "They're lovely.  You must be very proud.  Happy Father's Day."  At the sound of those last words, I leapt out of my chair as though it had just kicked me, and raced from the room.  I found the pay phone in the lobby (these were pre-cell days, and anyway, I think there's still no reception in Big Sur), and called my father (collect, I fear) to wish him Happy Father's Day.  I returned sheepishly to breakfast, where the couple grinned at me.  "Did you reach your Dad?" they asked.  I did, and I thanked them for reminding me.

My greatest sorrow at the loss of my father is that he didn't get to meet his granddaughter.  This saddened him, too, and he told me he was sorry he would not see her.  I am not at all inclined to mystical thinking, but my mother informs me that my father had an unconscious habit of placing his thumb between his index and middle finger - apparently, an obscene gesture in Russia.  Whatever its meaning, Clara appears to do the same thing.  (Though I'll advise her to cool it if we ever visit Moscow.)

Finally, I share the absolutely perfect present Mrs. TEV gave me today.  If only I had one of these growing up ... Literary hijinks resume tomorrow.

Posted by TEV at 06:40 PM in Personal | | Comments (2)

June 05, 2009

PERSISTENCE

Harry 

Today's mail - eight loaves of Harry's Brioche Tranchée, delivered fresh from Paris via London.

Nearly two years ago, I wrote about my love for a certain variety of French supermarket bread - Harry's brioche tranchée - and bemoaned the impossiblity of having it shipped overseas in an age when you can buy everything from prescription drugs to diapers online.  I am, however, nothing if not dogged ... or compulsive, depending on whom you ask.  Either way, they are handy traits for bloggers and novelists alike.  (Incidentally, the name of the bread has no bearing whatsoever on my protagonist - happy coincidence.)

With the arrival of my lovely daughter, I realized there'd be no Paris trip this year, and so the lack of Harry's became a matter of critical importance, and I returned for another search of the web.  My years of efforts were finally rewarded when I stumbled on to French Click, a UK concern that exists primarily to provide French supermarket treats to Francophile Brits.  For a truly exorbitant shipping fee, however, they will ship to the United States, and as of today my freezer is happily filled with eight loaves of the stuff.  I have, however, hidden the invoice from Mrs. TEV, telling her only that it's cheaper than a trip to Paris.

Of course, as with the end of all great quests, I'm now left feeling vaguely adrift - but I'm sure it won't be long before another quixotic obsession presents itself.  Until then, the Bonne Maman Sables Tout Chocolat are looking pretty good ...

(Friday giveaway will return next week.)

UPDATE: By the way, if you're a fan of things Parisian, you'll want to check out Vanina Marsot's Skylight reading this Wednesday.  Her nove, Foreign Tongue, hits so many of our favorite Paris locales ...

Posted by TEV at 02:39 PM in Personal | | Comments (6)

May 22, 2009

OUR NEWEST READER

Photo 

Please welcome my daughter and TEV's newest reader, Clara Grace Sarvas. (DoTEV, Baby TEV, something will be figured out.) She was born on Thursday afternoon, already appears to be a Banville fan, and mother and daughter are doing well.  All in all, a pretty good reason to skip BEA, eh?

Posted by TEV at 07:50 PM in Personal | | Comments (57)

May 17, 2009

WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN'

Yikes.  Definitely felt that ...

Posted by TEV at 08:41 PM in Personal | | Comments (2)

March 30, 2009

IN MEMORIAM

Td

Father and Sons: My father, Michael Sarvas, behind the wheel of his beloved 1950 MG-TD, circa 1992.

My father passed away peacefully on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 10:34 p.m. He had decided nine days earlier to end the dialysis that had kept him alive for the last 13 years. He was blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, and had a pacemaker. He was lucid, serene and surrounded by his family almost until the very last moment. He was free of pain, and had ample time to say everything that needed to be said. To say goodbye to a parent and to leave no unfinished business is no small thing. He was born in Budapest in 1927. He was 81.

Continue reading "IN MEMORIAM" »

Posted by TEV at 07:15 PM in Personal | | Comments (89)

March 23, 2009

BRIEF HIATUS

My dear readers, I am still in New York dealing with a family emergency, which is likely to occupy my attentions all week.  I ask your leave for some temporary downtime until then.  If you haven't checked out the new issue of Bookforum, it's entirely online (as always) and should just about keep you occupied until my return.  (Also worth your attention is Garth Risk Hallberg's latest essay.)

Thank you for your patience.   Updates as circumstances permit.

Posted by TEV at 09:34 AM in Personal | | Comments (7)

March 18, 2009

OFFLINE

I have to head back east for a few days for personal reasons, so it's going to be quiet around here.  I'll get things moving again next week but in the interim I encourage you to visit the fine sites blogrolled at left.  Look for me around Tuesday.

Posted by TEV at 09:18 PM in Personal | | Comments (0)

March 07, 2009

AU REVOIR, LIBRAIRIE DE FRANCE

As promised, I braved some nasty New York winter cold last Friday and headed up to Rockefeller Center to pay last respects to my beloved Librairie de France, which is closing this year after 73 years.  (The store's rent has skyrocketed from $360,000 a year to $1,000,000.)

Ldf

Regular TEV readers will already know that it was a longtime family tradition during my childhood that on each birthday, my mother would take me into Manhattan to add a new Tintin title to my collection.  My first Tintin adventure - Destination Moon - was given to me for my tenth birthday, and bought from LdF.  (It's a two-parter, incidentally, with a cliffhanger ending, and I was left to wait a year to find out what happened.  Agony.)

It was quite sad to wander the denuded shelves, the remaining books marked to fire sale prices.  Several shelves were labelled "Do Not Touch - Not Priced Yet", books that are sure to come on sale before the doors close in September. 

Of course, I bought a number of books, and my farewell collection is pictured below:

Livres

The Tintin book is a French edition of my favorite of the series, known in English as The Calculus Affair; it seemed an essential purchase.  The middle row of books are bilingual editions, which I've always enjoyed using as study and practice guides.  And the bottom row consists of some French-only sentimental favorites.

Something I'd forgotten, but was reminded of by a display of special books for sale on the first floor, was that the bookstore actually published a number of French authors during World War II, when they were unable to be published under the Occupation - Saint-Exupery among them.

If you're a devotee of French literature, or if you just find yourself up around Rockefeller Center, do try to stop in and say au revoir and merci before September ...

Posted by TEV at 02:10 PM in Personal | | Comments (3)

January 20, 2009

MARKING HISTORY

No posts today, as we pause to spend the day reflecting on this remarkable nation's infinite capacity for renewal of promise. 

We also think with sorrow about those who didn't make it to witness this moment.

Back with more of the usual tomorrow.

Posted by TEV at 07:56 AM in Personal | | Comments (2)

January 02, 2009

TRISTESSE

The Literary Saloon lays me low with the sad news that the Librairie de France, the French bookstore in Rockefeller Center, will be closing.

Regular readers know I'm a Tintin devotee since childhood.  What they might not know is that after I got my first Tintin volume - Destination Moon - my mother would celebrate each of my subsequent birthdays by taking me to the Librairie de France to select another Tintin adventure to add to my collection.

I will be sure to stop by and say Au revoir when I'm in New York in February ...

Posted by TEV at 01:50 PM in Personal | | Comments (3)

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THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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