The Elegant Variation

TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS

We participated happily in last year's Tournament of Books over at the Morning News, and they're back for the second year with a bigger, better version.  Keep an eye on the site and follow the fun.

The following 16 books were selected by the most arbitrary process we could devise. A few of us (a very few) got together and tried to compile a list of the best books we read this year. Then we asked a couple other people, some of whom don’t even read that much. Then we included a few books that received a ton of hype even though none of us had actually read them. And then we asked TMN readers—perhaps the wisest advisors of all—for their picks. This list then is imperfect—fatally flawed even—but we needed 16 books and these are the ones we stand by.

GLORY WEEK AT LBC

We're a bit snowed in here just now, but we're happy to direct you to the LBC, where Elizabeth Crane's All This Heavenly Glory gets the full court press this week.  Do check out the fun today, and we'll be back here with updates first thing tomorrow.

L.A. EVENT - FARNOOSH MOSHIRI

Iranian novelist Farnoosh Moshiri will be at Dutton's Brentwood on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to read from her latest novel, Against Gravity.

From PW:

“Iranian-born Moshiri's poignant, semiautobiographical third novel (after 2003's The Bathhouse) carefully observes the effects of loss on three people in 1980s Houston. Ric Cardinal is a devoted social worker; his former client, Madison Kirby, is a bitter former philosophy professor stricken by AIDS; Madison's neighbor, Roya, is an Iranian political refugee with a young daughter. Each protagonist narrates a story, and it is Roya's tale, which bears some resemblance to Moshiri's own, that most compels….Roya simmers with complexity and nuance. As Ric tries to counsel the increasingly difficult Madison and contend with his own schizophrenic teenage son, Roya recounts her days of wandering through the Middle East ("I didn't mention my dark thoughts-despair, dread of the unknown future, and the constant presence of death, real or imagined, in my dreams and wakefulness. Madness at times''). Her unlikely journey to Houston proves just as alienating, and Moshiri deftly conveys Roya's plight-and ultimately her courage-which are the novel's greatest strengths.”

AT LONG LAST - SANTA MONICA PUBLIC LIBRARY

Have we mentioned how much we enjoy weekends around here?  We know we have.  Well, it's weekend time again, and although we're looking forward to getting back in the saddle and clocking some serious cycling mileage, we've also got visiting the long-delayed, finally-opened Santa Monica Public Library high on our To Do List.

If you haven't checked out this enviromentally friendly (LEED silver certified) building, you're missing out.  There are a whole host of special events going on, one nearly every day of the week ... there's some terrific children's programming for you parental types ... in fact, this weekend features the Waves of Tales Storytelling Festival ...  Best of all, it's six blocks away from Chez TEV.

For a full rundown on all the features offered in this marvelous new space - auditorium space, a cafe, study rooms, computer access and, of course, loads of books (many donated by TEV) - check out the detailed plan.

Enjoy your weekend and we'll see you back here for more of the same on Monday.

L.A. EVENTS - PAUL LA FARGE AT MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY **HIGHLY RECOMMENDED**

A writer we dig is appearing Friday, January 27 at 7:00 p.m. at a location we dig courtesy of the McSweeney's gang:

The Facts of Winter and Paul La Farge at The Museum of Jurassic Technology

Paul La Farge will read from his translation of The Facts of Winter, a collection of fictitious dreams which Poissel wrote in 1905. Although he is best known as the author of phonetic exercises for students of French, Paul Poissel (1848-1922) was also a poet and novelist. La Farge will discuss Poissel’s life and work, especially during the years 1901-04, when the poet struggled with an addiction to sleep. There will be slides, and a rare recording of Poissel reading from his own work.

McSweeney's is very pleased to have the opportunity to present this event at the leading institution in explorations of the real, The Museum of Jurassic Technology. The Museum of Jurassic Technology is located at 9341 Venice Boulevard, Culver City This event is free. RSVP required. Please RSVP to [email protected]

Paul La Farge has translated (from the original French) The Facts of Winter, a collection of dreams—funny, haunting, enigmatic—all dreamed by people in and around Paris in 1881. La Farge’s afterword investigates the creation of these Facts, uncovering startling revelations, unknown truths, and new falsehoods. La Farge is a frequent contributor to McSweeney’s and is the author of Haussmann, or the Distinction, a New York Times Notable Book, and The Artist of the Missing, winner of the California Book Award. He is also a leading scholar on the work of Paul Poissel, one of the least known of the little-known French “tiny metaphysician” writers of the late 19th century. “La Farge is a master storyteller with cleverness and inventiveness to spare.” —Philadelphia Inquirer “La Farge conjures sinuous, melancholic otherworlds that feel wholly tangible.” —Village Voice “La Farge designs worlds—splendid, elegant edifices built on the rubble of our dreams and history.” —Colson Whitehead

BECAUSE ONCE YOU'VE BURNED YOUR ASSHOLE IN THE NEW YORKER, THERE'S REALLY NOTHING LEFT TO ACCOMPLISH

Gabriel Garcia Marquez announces he's hanging it up. (Annoying pop-up alert.)

Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 78, winner of the 1982 Nobel literature prize, said in an interview published in part by a Spanish newspaper Wednesday that he has stopped writing, at least for the time being.

'The year 2005 was the first in my life when I did not write a single line,' the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude said in the interview conducted in Mexico, advance extracts of which were published in the Barcelona-based daily La Vanguardia.

The Independent characterizes it as "writer's block."

PRIZES BIG AND SMALL

The University of Illinois journal Ninth Letter has just won the "Best New Literary Journal" award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals - which might not be quite as stunning as the £60,000 prize being offered to young writers by the Welsh in honor of Dylan Thomas - but probably has them feeling quite chuffed nonetheless.

Veteran and new talent are being published in Ninth Letter, including Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Olen Butler; Dave Eggers – an Illinois alumnus and New York Times best-selling author; and Ann Beattie. The magazine’s editorial staff members are affiliated with the English department’s creative writing programs, and the design team comprises faculty and students in the School of Art and Design.

According to Stanley, the magazine’s “defining principle” remains the same today as it was at its founding: “We believe that literature and art reflect an ongoing dialogue; nothing is created in a void, and therefore, stories, poems, essays, visual arts and other forms of expression all speak to one another, reflect one another in some way.”

HUNGARIAN QUARTERLY PROFILED

The English language Budapest Sun offers a lengthy write up of the English language Hungarian Quarterly, which delights and fascinates us since our Hungarian is, well, you remember the whole mondavcsinalt saga ...

Recent issues include such delectables as an interview with János György Szilágyi, former head of the department of classical antiquities at the Museum of Fine Arts; an excerpt from a memoir about growing up Roma by István Kalányos, articles about Hungarian history by István Deák and John Lukacs, an article explaining with great clarity the history of political attitudes in Budapest; and several reviews of books, music, theater, film, and art (including an article about a Munkácsy exhibit). Not your typical journalism, by a long shot!

The magazine was founded in 1936, but put to sleep in 1941, when Hungary entered WWII. In its current form, it was reincarnated in 1960. Zsófia Zachar, the quarterly's current editor, explained that Iván Boldizsár persuaded the government of János Kádár that the magazine would be a "very good opening toward the West, following the reprisals of the 1956 revolution, and Hungary's isolation then." It would be "an indication that Hungary wants contact with the western world," she said.

OF COURSE JOYCE WAS DRUNK AND PROUST KEPT HOGGING THE COOKIES

We are absolutely, totally, utterly suckers for this kind of story:

On 18 May 1922, at the luxurious Majestic hotel in the Avenue Kléber in Paris, Proust, Joyce, Picasso, Stravinsky and Diaghilev sat down to dinner together for the first and last time. They had been gathered there by the British writer Sydney Schiff and his wife Violet, ostensibly to mark the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet Le Renard, performed by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. But, as Richard Davenport-Hines reveals in his new book, A Night at the Majestic, the gathering was much more than an "after party" - it came to represent the high point of European Modernism, and one of Paris's defining moments as a cultural capital.

OVER AT LBC

LBC-nominated author Ander Monson is holding court today, chatting with readers, and an interesting comments thread is building.

Hello everyone. Thanks for the thoughtful commentary so far. It's interesting to see Perec come up in the discussion as a possible influence on OE, as he's not someone I read before very recently (not sure why, since he seems like such an obvious fit with several strands of my work). Only in the last month or so have I started to enter his world, and I've become very enamored of his work, particularly Species of Spaces and Other Pieces. There's a sensibility--all that order, the formal structure pressurizing and guiding the content, one among many ways to order experience, place, the world--that I am rapidly falling in love with.