Stuffing Stockers

2009 is practically over, but before it’s done with, we’ve got Christmas to take care of! I thought to list down some books and music that I’ve enjoyed in the past year just as a quick sort of summary, but also as a source of last-minute gift suggestions. Five each (plus bonuses), and I tried to keep them to recent releases, which is much easier for music than it is for books, considering my reading patterns.

This is also by no means a best-of list, especially considering how my tastes can sometimes be rather esoteric. It’s more of a review of things that I’ve enjoyed in the past year. I hope that you and yours can too.

So, if you’re running short of ideas and running short on time, consider giving these a shot. Alternatively, give yourself a little Christmas treat after a long year.

Books

2666
Roberto Bolaño

For a period of time after reading 2666, I couldn’t read anything else without feeling underwhelmed. Bolaño’s opus is a towering achievement, at turns absurdly funny and hopelessly dark, at once irreverent, unabashed, sprawling and intense. While it is true that one’s mileage may vary with regards to certain portions of the text, the quality of Bolaño’s prose never slips, which ought to be a remarkable achievement except for how it is overshadowed by the book’s immense ambition and spectacular beauty. It is works like these that inspire the very sort of hope that we should have in art, where imagination is vested with powers incomparable and the written word has the ability to intone, inspire, crush and create. It is works like these that remind you the importance of art, as well as its limitless nature.

[You can get this in a couple of humongous hardcover editions, a new one-volume paperback, or the box set that split it up into three books. I liked the one I have the best, which is the three-book edition.]

All-Star Superman
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely with Jamie Grant

Grant Morrison is my favourite comic book writer, and sometimes one of my favourite living writers. I say sometimes because in the multitude of his ambitions, he quite frequently (if I dare say) falls somewhat short. But on the good days, when it all comes together, Morrison is able to take the comic book medium to quite incredible heights. All-Star Superman sees Morrison in some of his best form, reimagining the Superman story in a manner both bold and brilliant. It all comes together (with Quitely’s art and Grant’s inks) in a package that makes you realise the things that all things are possible in the comic medium.

[You can get the collected edition in two volumes, which are available in hardcover and (I think) paperback. I'm not sure if you'll have too much luck hunting down the individual issues.]

Death At Intervals
José Saramago

Of Saramago’s many otherworldly talents, one of them appears to be the ability to make the most absurd plots function. In Death At Intervals, he tells the fable of a country in which everyone, one day, just stops dying. At the hands of a lesser writer, this would probably have drowned in some unspectacular, but Saramago somehow manages to pull it off. What emerges is (as one would expect from a Saramago novel) a bleak exploration of human nature. Every celebration is simply a secret waiting to reveal its cost.

What I didn’t expect, however, was just how humorous the whole thing was. In these pages, Saramago finds the perfect balance between the more piercing perspectives into human beahaviour and the somewhat irreverent and unexpected jokes. It’s a brilliant thing to see. (He wryly lampoons everything from the government, the mob, and even the editors.)

The second half of the novel takes an even more unexpected turn and I am well aware that this will probably not succeed as well as the first half of it. Within it, Saramago decides to personify death, and his characterisation of her is arguably less likely to be as convincing as the remarkable first half of the novel. Nevertheless, I liked it, because it surprised me how it had a certain type of sweetness that I wouldn’t have expected to see outside of the very best children’s fiction.

[This is available in paperback in a variety of covers. There was a black hardcover a while back, but if you ask me, the purple Vintage edition with the cute comic art cover is probably the best representation of its contents.]

Pandora In The Congo
Albert Sánchez Piñol

At the heart of Pandora In The Congo is a writer who writes the tale of a certain Marcus Garvey. It begins by caricaturising the adventure novel, and then bursts into one of its own in the tradition of Conrad and Rider Haggard.

Piñol seizes you from the get-go with his startling imagination and boundless energy, and leads you through a novel like the architect of a good rollercoaster ride. It has thrills, spills, blood, wit, candour, altruism, hearts of darkness, romance and discourses on human nature. It asks difficult questions! It enthralls and excites! It has murder! It has villains! It has ugly humans doing ugly things! It has frightening underground humanoids! It has romance in the trees! What’s not to like?

[I've only ever seen a paperback edition of this.]

The Way Through Doors
Jesse Ball

Jesse Ball’s book is in essence a variation of The Arabian Nights. It is a scheme of things that appeals to us, I think, because of our inherent desire to believe in the power of stories. In order to prevent Mora Klein from slipping into slumber (and thus causing her dreadful harm), Selah Morse, our wonderfully unreliable narrator, has to tell her stories. It is a celebration of the artform in a manner both earnest and sweet, albeit slightly challenging because of its charming oddness and unusual form.

This was a happy accident for me. I picked it up not knowing what I was getting into. I ended up delighted and rather mesmerised. There is a purity and beauty to this that reminds us that perhaps the best parts of our lives are reserved for those unafraid to dream.

[I got this on paperback. I don't know if it comes in any other form, but that Vintage edition was put together in the most lovely fashion.]

Bonus Mention

Your Inner Fish
Neil Shubin

Here’s one additional book I thought I ought to mention. Unlike the rest of the books here, it’s a non-fiction book that essentially deals with the theory that we’ve all evolved from fish. It’s written with great clarity and much enthusiasm, and I’m sure this will win Natural History more than a few new students.

Music

Abbey Road [2009 Remaster]
The Beatles

The Beatles return with their entire catalogue remastered, and I am of the opinion that they are quite remarkable. Nowhere is this more welcome (well, to me, anyway) than with Abbey Road. The differences between the remaster and the original will probably not be as pronounced on Abbey Road as compared to some of the other albums, but it’s these differences that reinvigorate the album and give it a new dimension. The percussion pulsates in She Came In Through The Bathroom Window. The bass drives The End forwards in a way I could never have dreamed. Like I said, it’s not that the differences are night and day, but what differences they are.

Funny feeling, this. It’s 2009, and the Beatles rock again.

[This is available as a single album release and, if it's a special someone who happens to be a Beatles nut, as part of The Beatles Stereo Box.]

The Hazards Of Love
The Decemberists

The Decemberists returned this year with a gigantic rock suite telling the story of a pair of star-crossed lovers, an evil child-killing fellow, a jealous mother, a forest and a river. I suppose if there was anything characteristically Decemberist, it would be something like this.

The band has probably not sounded better (so far), with top-notch production (just listen to the opener) and some of the best musicianship they’ve yet exhibited (all around, though Chris Funk’s electric guitar and Jenny Conlee’s organ will be the most immediately impressive). And really, who wouldn’t want to see the grand, operatic ambition of telling a story like that with excellent music? The album’s massive ambition is a thing to admire, although it sometimes does end up being the album’s greatest fault. It feels every now and then as if they haven’t got enough material to sustain the suite; and sometimes slips into a sort of Disney phase (the romantic sides of the album, in particular). Nevertheless, there’s plenty of good music here, and it’s a spectacle that you really shouldn’t miss.

[The album is available at the Decemberists store, among other places, but I wanted to note that if you get it there now, you will also get a DVD of the animated feature that they put together to accompany the album.]

Humbug
Arctic Monkeys

Humbug is a carnival with a dark twist, a biting poison and the occasional moment of sweetness. Unlike the first two endeavours of the Arctic Monkeys, it is a quite successful attempt at making an album as a cohesive whole. It definitely feels as if they don’t feel the need to impress so immediately anymore (most notably in the very controlled and cheekily vulgar opener, My Propeller), and that shows in the care that has been taken in crafting some of this music. There are fewer hooks, fewer catchy singles, fewer overt displays of showmanship, but definitely a marked maturity to their musicianship. It’s an excellent album by an excellent band that’s showing signs of moving in the right direction.

[All major record stores, and probably most minor ones too.]

Middle Cyclone
Neko Case

Nature and the need for love frame Neko Case’s latest album, and in this balance we find something pleasant, bittersweet, and ultimately sweeping. There is a cinematic quality to this album as it moves from country to noir to rock and even to the spiritual. The range of it alone is impressive, and is made even more impressive by her incredible voice. And while it is one of the very best voices in the business, demanding your attention at every turn, credit should go too to the band for managing to produce a Walden-esque aesthetic within the confines of the album.

Resembling a midsummer night’s dream of forests and fireflies, of rain on the fields and creaking cicadas in the dark nights, tinged with more than a hint of heartbreak, the album turns out to be a thoughtful endeavour that I found thoroughly enjoyable.

[It's really not anything like the cover.]

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix

Early Phoenix stuff has always somehow struck me as promising and yet lacking in some way. That wasn’t at all the case with this cleverly titled album. It’s an album that tries to deal with the grandiose themes of love and angst and disappointments and living in frame of their now-mature sense for pop-rock. In doing so, Phoenix abandons their sophisticated and excessive arrangements for something more urgent, something that breathes. It understands loneliness. It understands hurt. It asks that you pull your socks up. It asks that you step on the gas and ride into the sunset. By somehow drawing upon Mozart, Liszt, Brain Eno and Daft Punk, Phoenix has produced a work of youth and hope that burns as brighter than anything I’ve heard this year (and many others).

Bonus Mentions

It’s Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Together Through Life
Bob Dylan

Two more albums that I didn’t have space for. I wanted to say that even not being the biggest fan of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I really enjoyed It’s Blitz!. Together Through Life, on the other hand, sees Dylan put out music that’s perhaps more… ‘grounded’? I don’t know if that’s the word for it. I have a terrible vocabulary. It certainly has a far less epic feel than the preceding albums in his discography, and doesn’t carry the same sense of importance about it, but it features Dylan in a somewhat more relaxed mood, delivering some very clever lyrics and supported by impeccable performances. Excellent stuff.

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Romantic Dogs, Retro Ditties

The Romantic Dogs

Yesterday, I read Roberto Bolaño’s The Romantic Dogs. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and while I tend to think I have unhealthily narrow tastes in poetry, it seemed to push all the right buttons for me. I think I can easily consider it one of my favourite collections.

And now I have to pick another book.

Unfriendly

There is an unusual sense that the individual subjects that I’m doing this semester aren’t particularly bad, and yet, when taken together, might prove fatal. The weeks go by very slowly, and yet too quickly. It’s a funny feeling. The deadlines are starting to come in, and the work is beginning to take on the countenance of a mountain, but I reckon you could simply say that it comes with the job.

Starman

For no particular reason, here’s David Bowie with Starman.

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These Are My Twisted Words

New Music

Radiohead have yet another new song, this one called These Are My Twisted Words. [via dead air space] They have put it up for free here.

Shopping

Yesterday, I made a couple of small purchases, including Distant Star by Bolaño.I now have three Bolaño books in my book queue (Distant Star, Last Evenings On Earth and The Romantic Dogs).

Long Weekend Too Short

So my weekend starts here on this Friday morning, but I have plenty of things to sort out over the weekend, so I’ve a feeling it’ll all go by too quickly. Primarily, I want to figure out the Thermodynamics assignment, start on my lab report, and sort out the things for a surgeon consultation. It’s not actually a lot of work, but they’re tricky and potentially take a lot of time. Besides, there are other commitments that I’ve got to attend to as well.

The NLB Sale

The NLB is having a book sale over the weekend. The details are:

Date: Saturday, 22 Aug 2009 to Sunday, 23 Aug 2009
Time: 9.30am – 8pm
Venue: Singapore Expo Hall 6A
Free Admission

Price of books:
Books in all four official languages will be on sale.

* English and Chinese books will cost $2 per copy;
* Malay and Tamil books will cost $1 per copy;
* English and Chinese magazines will cost $5 for a pack of 10 issues; and
* Malay and Tamil magazines will cost $5 for a pack of 20 issues.

Limit of purchase:
Each customer can buy up to a maximum of 60 items (a pack of 10 or 20 issues of magazines is considered as one item).

[via National Library Board Singapore] (Thanks, Jolie!)

I want to go, but I have things to do and it’s so far away.

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Money Matters

So you spend it.

Here’s the loot report for yesterday, or in other words, the books joining my little library:

1. Seeing by José Saramago
2. All-Star Superman Vol. 2 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
3. The Odyssey by Homer (Translated by Robert Fitzgerald)
4. The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
5. Pandora In The Congo by Albert Sanchez Piñol (Translated by Mara Faye Lethem)
6. The 4 Major Plays by Anton Chekhov (Translated by Curt Columbus)
7. Last Evenings On Earth by Roberto Bolaño (Translated by Chris Andrews)

Not quite the mix I was expecting, with a shortage of science and poetry. I think I’ll pop by for another book tomorrow if I happen to be passing by, though that’ll likely be a recent novel than anything else. In fact, it might even be in Chinese.

I’m happiest about my Pandora In The Congo buy, actually, because it’s not something I would normally read, and I’ve only heard good things about it.

I had a bunch of other books I was intending to get, including the new Kazuo Ishiguro Nocturnes and In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin, but I suspect I’m going pocket paperback for those, if they ever appear. Otherwise I’ll just get them as they are. There was also a science book that’s in a gigantic hardcover and I was at first slightly tempted, but what the hey, I’m a poor student without a job.

I’m sure there’ll be another before school reopens, since there’s the Great Singapore Sale somewhere along these couple of months, so there’s certainly ample time to stock up on my new semester reading.

Today…

I think I’ll be working on a query for The River. I just want some space from Bukit Merah for now, in case I burn out prematurely. I figure that if I can’t tell how long it’s going to be (since I am making it up as I go along), then I run the risk of either writing it too short (rushing it) or too long (dragging it). Some distance, temporal or otherwise, from it might help, so I reckon I won’t be back at it until Monday, depending on how the weekend works out.

Hmm.

Results in a week. Wonder what I’ll see. There’s something nerve-wracking about getting your results reported to you by your computer. A click of the mouse and poof it’s there. And as if it wants to mess with your head a bit more, it doesn’t appear instantly. No, it just lags a bit and hangs around and tries its best to surprise you. Then it shows up like a magic trick, and you’re struggling to contain the dread in the first couple of seconds as you try to make sense of it all.

Then it makes sense. And it’s like dust, taking ages to settle.

Next week. Friday, I think.

2.8

The WordPress 2.8 beta has got up and going. [via WordPress.org]

TRICO

Team ICO’s next project has an alleged trailer. [via Kotaku]

Looks great. I like the giant beast.

9

New trailer for 9. [via YouTube]

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Monday Link List

Last week of school! And we start the week off with a bunch of random things.

Coetzee Cover

Here’s the cover to J.M. Coetzee’s upcoming book, Summertime. [via The Elegant Variation]

Neuroscience!

The neuroscience behind Yorick’s Ghost and related optical illusions. [via Scientific American]

Weepy Doctor

An interview with David Tennant as he prepares to hand over the steering wheel to Matt Smith. [via BBC]

Geeky Ideas To Save The Book

I watched this rather intriguing presentation on Friday. [via The New Yorker]

There are some really great points that he raises. In particular, I think the last idea he raises is something I’d really like to see.

It also reminded me that I have a half-ambition to have my own tiny bookstore far in the future…

Small Updates

Brr, last week of school! This week, I have a test on Friday with too much material to realistically cover. I also have a test on Monday. Then it’s off and away for the exams.

Not been writing, though I have a fairly good idea of what I want to do.

I did get my hands on the video for Series 4 of Doctor Who (too many spoilers on the interwebs), and I got started on it yesterday. I thought the opening was not bad, though not exactly fantastic. I really didn’t like the idea, but the characters managed to sustain it for me. The curveball right at the end certainly helped too. I’ll probably comment a little on it as I make my way through Series 4.

Starting on my final book before school ends today, and it’s Roberto Bolaño’s By Night In Chile. It’ll be the last book I’ll be reading purely for entertainment for a while, I think, because I’m diving into a new run through Ulysses during the break.

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2666

At the risk of sounding like I’m jumping on the bandwagon, I’m just going to very quickly say that 2666 is brilliant. At this point in time, I’m sure you have heard all you’ve needed to hear about it, so anything I say is probably not going to mean very much. I wasn’t ever very good at effective hyperbole anyway.

But I’ll say this: 2666 reads like the sprawling novel and towering achievement that you expect it to be. At times, it is wry and funny; at times, it is gruesome and grisly; at times, it is dramatic and crushing; and at times, there is only darkness. It is an enormous poem in disguise, and it cruises along under Bolaño’s assured mastery; and that’s what I think surprised me, that it all went down so easily. It is after all a massive tome, and that it went down like good wine in two weeks was a minor testament to its power.

Sometimes a science fiction book, sometimes a news report, sometimes an exercise in vaudeville, it is a thing of remarkable deftness and ambition. From page to page, Bolaño weaves magic with momentum and lyricism, always defiant and unflinching, and in doing so, crafts a true masterpiece for our time.

And to end off, a quote:

“It was raining in the quadrangle, and the quadrangular sky looked like the grimace of a robot or a god made in our own likeness. The oblique drops of rain slid down the blades of grass in the part, but it would have made no difference if they had slid up. Then the oblique (drops) turned round (drops), swallowed up by the earth underpinning the grass, and the grass and the earth seemed to talk, no, not talk, argue, their incomprehensible words like crystallized spiderwebs or the briefest crystallized vomitings, a barely audible rustling, as if instead of drinking tea that afternoon, Norton had drunk a steaming cup of peyote.

“But the truth is that she had only had tea to drink and she felt overwhelmed, as if a voice were repeating a terrible prayer in her ear, the words of which blurred as she walked away from the college, and the rain wetted her gray skirt and bony knees and pretty ankles and little else, because before Liz Norton went running through the park, she hadn’t forgotten to pick up her umbrella.”

That’s extremely early in the book, and I still remember it vividly now.

I know the sort of feeling where you think you shouldn’t join in the chorus, that you should avoid the mob mentality, that you should stay away from everyone’s current favourite writer. But sometimes, the bandwagon is worth jumping on.

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New Loot

Dropped by at Kinokuniya, got a couple of presents for a couple of people, and also added to my library. Here’s what came in through the window:

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
Mark Haddon

I’ve read this before, actually, but I just had to add it to my library. It was also a long time ago since I read it, so I thought it would be a good time to make the purchase. It’s a book I remember being tremendously amused with, actually, and I’m very fond of it.

Waiting For Godot
Samuel Beckett

I have no theatre on my shelves, and I figured that that grievance had to be addressed. Something I know and love to begin with.

By Night In Chile
Roberto Bolaño

I’m devouring 2666 rather happily (more on that some other time), and so far the one affirmation I’ve had from it is that Bolaño is a magnificent writer. I’m keen to explore a bit more, so I’m starting with this.

Your Inner Fish
Neil Shubin

This volume is a natural history book exploring the evolution of the human body. I’ve had my eye on it for quite a while now, and now that the paperback is out, I’m happy to see my first science book in quite a bit. (I think the last Science book I bought was a Feynman, and that was the middle of last year, if memory serves.)

Selected Poems
T.S. Eliot

Eliot is one of the most important of writers to me, so it’ll probably seem more than a bit strange if I told you now that I gave away or sold all of my Eliot. A recent quote invoked by a friend of mine reminded me that it was high-time I restored Eliot to my shelf, and so here he is, in a lovely ff edition.

Murder In The Cathedral
T.S. Eliot

As a combination of the two previous points on Eliot and theatre, I also got my hands on an Eliot play. I’ve never read this before, and now’s as good a time as any, though that’s just a euphemism of a sort, since it’ll be a while before I get to it.

All in all, it went slightly over my budget, and I got a gift for someone whom I probably shouldn’t have got a gift for, but I think we’re doing well, especially with the return of science, the restoration of Eliot and the first seeds of theatre. All very good.

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So the Songbird sings.

City 17

I have reinstalled Half-Life 2 to relive some of my best memories. Nothing quite like feeling like the saviour of the world against a remarkably effective rendition of a dystopian police force while wearing the good old HEV suit.

No More, I Swear!

I got quite frustrated with iTunes yesterday. I’ve basically been putting up with all the tiny faults because it was convenient in a way since it went with my iPod. You might know of course that I’ve been having issues. Well, recently, it’s become a bit more erratic, and after the recent update, I lost complete albums. It appears that they were completely corrupted because I couldn’t play the files in other media players either. (Thankfully they were albums that I had backed up and it was convenient to restore them. I didn’t have to dig out CDs or anything like that.)

There have a few other varieties of splicing corruption, but I’m too lazy to talk about it here.

Yesterday, a random error sprang up and kept springing up and refused to go away. I read a bit about the problem after a Google, but realised that a line had been crossed.

So I decided to give Songbird a spin and quickly went to download it. [via Songbird] So far it seems reasonably functional, with a few problems here and there. It lacks a couple of things I feel like I should see but don’t, although that must surely be attributed to its youth. After spending an hour or two with it, though, I’m reasonably happy. It runs faster (of course), is more well-organised, and hopefully won’t be giving me any of the headaches of iTunes.

A few quibbles, though: I noticed first of all that some songs (that play completely okay in other media players) end up with some awful distortion. I also was unable to navigate within a few tracks; I tried jumping some twenty seconds and the whole song became silence. There were rare occasions of skipping and noise, and it wasn’t as if I was doing anything memory-intensive. And it starts up slow sometimes, but that’ll probably be a memory issue on my computer’s part.

I haven’t done much else but play a few tracks, so I can’t comment much. I’ll be trying to load up my iPod with it soon, and will mess around with the library management too.

In any case, we’ll see where this goes. I’m sure I’ve had enough of iTunes, though, and am lucky that I’m using the non-Touch iPod, which is syncable in Songbird.

Kuwata!

Keisuke Kuwata performing Clapton’s Change The World. [via YouTube]

Lists

2666 has been named as TIME‘s book of the year. [via TIME]

Just so you don’t have to click through the whole fiction list…

1. 2666, Roberto Bolaño
2. Lush Life, Richard Price
3. American Wife, Curtis Sittenfeld
4. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
5. Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
6. Personal Days, Ed Park (which has a cute cover that I thought was difficult to read)
7. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
8. When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson
9. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
10. The Widows Of Eastwick, John Updike

I’ll definitely be picking up 2666, and if I can fit it in to my tiny budget, The Graveyard Book.

I was also a bit surprised not to see The Dark Knight on the movies list considering the hype and the fact that the film was actually relatively competent. It was good to see Synecdoche, New York at No. 2 since I intend to watch that as soon as I can get my hands on it.

On another note, 30Rock and The Colbert Report both made the list for TV Episodes (at 8 and 7 respectively). Elsewhere, Vampire Weekend made it to the Top Albums list at 5.

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For Your Consideration: Christmas Gift Suggestions 2008

Still trying to figure out what presents to get a friend or a family member? Here’s a convenient list that I dreamt up made entirely out of books old and new that have at some time caught my attention during the course of the year. I don’t own them all, and it should be obvious which I do and which I don’t, but if I don’t, it’s simply because they’ve been generating a good buzz and are proving to be hot books for the holidays.

Prices and links are taken directly from Amazon (obviously). They’re merely for convenience. Prices are in US Dollars, and are there to give you a rough idea of how much each book costs. I’m sure you can find better prices if you poke around. Also note that prices will change. Offers and exchange rates and stuff.

Where available, I’ve included local prices from Kinokuniya. Local prices. In Singapore Dollars. Before any sort of promotional discount they might be having. Some of those where I don’t list the prices are just not in stock and will probably be in if you check at a different time. And I’m sure if you’re a local shopper there are a few other bookstores you can be looking around at too.

They are not in any particular order because I thought it would be more exciting this way. Included are coffeetable books, comic books, fiction and non-fiction.

Here we go:

The Savage Detectives
Roberto Bolaño

The best contemporary book I’ve read all year. A visceral, semi-autobiographical epic of two modern-day Quixotes and their upstart literary movement, this is quite simply a gem of a book.

[USD10.20 from Amazon]
SGD27.70 from Kinokuniya

2666
Roberto Bolaño

And while we’re on the subject of Bolaño, I hear that his latest (and last) may be the best book since the turn of the century. Based on the evidence of The Savage Detectives, I think that might not be an exaggeration. Bolaño’s magnum opus is described as “a landmark in what’s possible for the novel as a form in our increasingly, and terrifyingly, post-national world” by Jonathan Lethem.

It comes in two editions, a hardcover and a three-volume paperback set. (Personally, I should be getting the three-volume boxed set.)

[Hardcover, USD18.00 from Amazon]
[3-volume paperback set, USD18.00 from Amazon]
Both SGD53.95 from Kinokuniya

The Road
Cormac McCarthy

The movie is coming out during the winter, so I guess it’s a great time for folks to pick up on McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic tale. This slender novel features a father and son in their sturggles to survive in the wasteland, and with remarkable poeticism and precision, serves as a testament to the goodness of Man. While the condition of my copy (yellowed, slightly battered) might not reflect it, this is a book I love a lot.

If you’re the sort who looks out for prizes (and I know a few), this won the Pulitzer and was on Oprah.

Edit to say that I just learnt the film got pushed back a second time. Still a great time to get the book.

[USD10.17 from Amazon]
Film tie-in edition, SGD17.07 from Kinokuniya

The Rest Is Noise
Alex Ross

The New Yorker‘s music critic Alex Ross’s acclaimed twentieth-century music history book sees a paperback edition, just in time for the season. I’ve not read it (it’s one of the many books that put my Roth Winter plan to sleep) but I’ve only heard good things.

[Paperback, USD12.24 from Amazon]
SGD30.43 from Kinokuniya

A Mercy
Toni Morrison

Morrison’s latest has been garnering praise in every imaginable way. Described as a powerful, tragic fable that explores the early slave trade and the nature of mercy, I’m sure this is one of the biggest books of the season.

[USD14.37 from Amazon]
SGD34.94 from Kinokuniya

The Dead Fish Museum
Charles D’Ambrosio

The best contemporary short fiction anthology I’ve read, and definitely one of my favourite books of all. Remarkably, D’Ambrosio works purely with characters and somehow manages to pull off what one would call a consummate performance.

[USD11.16 from Amazon]
SGD24.61 from Kinokuniya

All-Star Superman
Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Jamie Grant

I always think of Grant Morrison’s work as hit-or-miss. When he misses, it tends to be because his ambition overtakes him. But when he scores a hit, it’s usually something quite extraordinary, and I think this take on Supes is probably deserving of that superlative. It’s helped in no small part by Frank Quitely’s magnificent art. A remarkable mythic reimagining that stands as one of the very best representatives of the comic book form.

The first half has been released as a trade paperback, with the second volume to turn up later.

[Volume 1, paperback, USD10.39 from Amazon]
SGD17.41 from Kinokuniya

Acme Novelty Library
Chris Ware

Chris Ware’s excellent series continues with Rusty Brown. The latest volume is the hardcover volume 19. If you’re not sure of what it is, I think the wiki is clearer than I’ll ever be:

Acme Novelty Library is a singular and artistically adventurous comic book created by Chicago cartoonist Chris Ware and published first by Fantagraphics Books, then Drawn & Quarterly. It is considered a significant work in alternative comics.

Issues are printed in different sizes and formats, sometimes a small paperback, sometimes a standard comic book, and sometimes a large “poster book” measuring 17 inches on a side. Each issue is typically composed of multiple stories with their own style and recurring characters, suggesting a compilation of strips, although all the work is done by Ware. A meticulous attention to detail is evident in every issue, making each volume a unique artistic work, with virtually nothing in common with traditional comic books.

[via wikipedia]

[Volume 19, USD10.85 from Amazon]
Not listed in Kinokuniya’s database, but other volumes might still be available there

How Fiction Works
James Wood

When I tried James Wood’s recent book earlier this year, I found it engaging, accessible and erudite, and it’ll definitely make a good gift for anyone interested in the nature of the form.

[Hardcover, USD16.32 from Amazon]
Hardcover, SGD42.02 from Kinokuniya, and I think the paperback goes for about SGD35

Diary Of A Bad Year
J.M. Coetzee

Now available in paperback!

Coetzee’s latest is described as such in wikipedia:

The protagonist, called Señor C. by the other characters, is an aging South African writer living in Australia. The novel is composed of essays and musings by the writer, in addition to diary entries by both Señor C. and Anya, a neighbor whom he has asked to type his essays. The essays, which take up the larger part of each page, deal mostly with contemporary issues like George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Guantanamo Bay, and terrorism. The diary entries appear beneath them and reflect the relationship that develops between the two characters.

[via wikipedia]

[Paperback, USD11.20 from Amazon]
SGD17.12 from Kinokuniya

Death With Interruptions
José Saramago

Saramago’s latest is about a time where everyone just stops dying. Ron Charles of the Washington Post says:

If this sounds campy, it is, but Saramago is always ten steps ahead of us, subverting cliches, interjecting ancient philosophical concerns into his gags and scattering grenades of bitterness among the laughs…This is a story that can’t possibly work or affect us, but it does, deeply, sweetly. It’s a novel to die for.

Sounds good to me.

[Hardcover, USD15.57 from Amazon]
At the time of writing, not available at Kinokuniya, but I saw it at Borders once

The Absolute Sandman
Neil Gaiman

Pamper the Sandman fan in your life with these luxurious remastered editions. I have them. All thirty kilograms (or something). The recoloured pages are quite glorious (particularly the early issues). And your Sandman fan friend will adore you for this.

[Volume 1, USD77.62 from Amazon]
SGD132.58 from Kinokuniya
[Volume 2, USD62.37 from Amazon]
SGD128.50 from Kinokuniya
[Volume 3, USD62.37 from Amazon]
SGD132.58 from Kinokuniya
[Volume 4, USD62.37 from Amazon]
SGD132.58 from Kinokuniya

Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004
Richard Avedon (Editor: Michael Juul Holm)

As far as coffeetable books go, I’m going to recommend a few, and this, coming from one of my favourite photographers, looks like a sure-bet.

[USD44.10 from Amazon]
SGD126.48 from Kinokuniya

The Americans
Robert Frank

Robert Frank’s masterpiece has been re-released by Steidl for its 50th anniversary. A cultural touchstone and a photography classic, I’ve no doubt this makes a good gift.

[USD26.37 from Amazon]
It sold out at Kinokuniya, it seems.

Leaves Of Grass
Walt Whitman

Recently, I bought myself a copy of Leaves Of Grass to add to my library. It had been quite a while since I first read it, and I took the chance to explore it once more. I think the one thing that didn’t change between my first reading and the recent one is the recognition that I was a really tiny man standing in the tall shadow of a genius.

In his introduction to the 150th anniversary edition, Harold Bloom describes Whitman’s most famous work as a thing of beauty comparable to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel work; and I suppose it would be fair to say that that a work of art of such magnitude would always make a great gift.

[150th anniversary edition, 1855 version, Harold Bloom introduction, USD10.20 from Amazon]
SGD23.49 from Kinokuniya

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Haruki Murakami

For the Murakami fan(s) in your life, this volume is a collection of essays by the Japanese author. Currently available in hardcover.

[USD14.28 from Amazon]
One of the editions is SGD 32.95 from Kinokuniya

Netherland
Joseph O’Neill

Joseph O’Neill’s third novel is about a Dutchman in post-9/11 America. It’s been generating a tremendous amount of buzz and has been likened to a more fiery The Great Gatsby. Siri Hustvedt of The Washington Post says:

Always sensitive and intelligent, Netherland tells the fragmented story of a man in exile — from home, family and, most poignantly, from himself.

[USD16.29 from Amazon]
SGD42.95 from Kinokuniya

Maus
Art Spiegelman

It probably isn’t the brightest idea to celebrate Christmas with a book on the Holocaust, but Art Spiegelman’s classic is at its heart a profoundly moving tale about a son and father and the difficult relationship that they share.

There’s a cheaper paperback edition available in two volumes too, but I’m listing the one-volume hardback.

[Complete collected edition, hardcover, USD23.10 from Amazon]
SGD58.22 from Kinokuniya

It’s A Bird!
Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen

This is a Superman comic that isn’t about Superman. It’s about the writer’s struggle with mortality, framed against the invincibility of Clark Kent. It’s about life, death, and the forces that good literature tries to wrestle with. One of my very favourite Superman books.

[Paperback, USD14.39 from Amazon]
SGD23.36 from Kinokuniya

American Music
Annie Leibovitz

The last book I’m going to recommend marries my love of photography with my love of music. No matter your opinion of Leibovitz’s work, I think this is a lovely book that will delight anyone with an interest in either field, and certainly those who have a passion for both.

[USD29.67 from Amazon]
Not in stock at time of writing in Kinokuniya

And that’s it. I hope it proves helpful.

Give the gift of art. It’s a good gift.

d

Book Recommendation: The Savage Detectives

In Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives, we read about Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano, two members of the visceral realist literary movement. Never once do we step into their minds. Instead, we can only watch from the eyes of others as the two youths, the two savage detectives hurl caution to the wind in the pursuit of their dreams. They are poets, that much must be taken seriously. Yet, the measure of their talents is never clear. It is not supposed to be. We are never meant to step into their shoes, know their thoughts, hear their internal voices.

The semi-autobiographical novel (in the sense that Arturo Belano’s life does in fact parallel Bolaño’s own) proceeds to cover the years from the Seventies to the Nineties, switching between a diary style and an interview or testimonial style that involves a cast of a dozen or two. The technical mastery here is evident. Not only is it an exercise in precision (given such a large cast of characters), the general tone is also a thing of beauty. It is often colloquial and undecorated, never at any moment perched at some lofty literary level and yet a marvellous thing to read.

It is through the masterful employment of tonal devices that Bolaño manages to conjure an epic tale that is at once humorous and sad. It is a tale of the brashness and stubbornness of youth, but also of its fragility and beauty. Is it about poetry? Is it about art? Perhaps, but more importantly, it is through art that we see these human aspects. It is youth that drives Lima and Belano, destroys them, and makes them again.

That it so closely mirrors Bolaño’s life delivers perhaps the novel’s most powerful image. Bolaño (and thus Belano)  presumably looked at the prose form with some measure of disdain. In the end, the writer and his character, poets to the death, end up writing stories. Yet it is an extraordinary story, this, vast and proud and poignant.

In the end, The Savage Detectives is at the same time a novel that is a very human and affecting affair, and yet also a sprawling and tragic heroic epic.

I enjoyed myself tremendously reading the book over the week, and thought that you might want to give it a shot too, if you haven’t already. You might want to note that the work is pretty long, but it certainly goes down easily with the fantastic translation by Natasha Wimmer. I don’t think there’s a reason to be intimidated by its size.

As I closed the book on the bus yesterday, having watched the strange quest of Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano unfold with such interest over days, it occurred to me that, in spite of the great number of perspectives, we never actually see the world through the eyes of the titular detectives. Yet, detectives are watchers, observers, witnesses of the grand and awful truths oblivious to the rest of us; and as the world watches Lima and Belano, they too watch the world. One can only wonder, then, where that grand and awful truth lies.

d