Dousing Tolstoy with Dr. Pepper? Outrageous.
Like a small boat on a storm tossed sea, Paul Auster’s TRAVELS IN THE SCRIPTORIUM arrived at my door. This is my first Auster experience, and I read the opening pages thinking of Jose Sarramago rather than Kafka, although Franz might dig the setup. The book is published by Henry Holt and Company. Holt always seems to have great catalogues full of interesting titles, but sometimes they are overshadowed by their other siblings in the Holzbrinck group.
Holt stepped out of the low profile last summer with Jed Rubenfeld’s INTERPRETATION OF MURDER. I don’t know how that book fared in the marketplace, but it was a dense story and I caved after several chapters. I lack several attributes in reading books that feature historical figures. I’m a fan of realism. My modernist sensibilities are more Rocky and Bullwinkle than Barth and Barthelme.
I give a big yes to all Latin American writers. I enjoy them more than Anglo-American writers. This contradicts my first assertion, my dedication to realism. My cultural perfect storm would be reading Vargas-Llosa during a Rocky and Bullwinkle Retrospective. That’s full disclosure.
I’d like to apologize to Leo Tolstoy. It was wrong to douse his beard with Dr. Pepper. This is why blogs will never be taken seriously by the Mainstream Media. Mea culpa.
November 27th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Douse away and here’s to Litbloggers giving a great big noogy to the heads of MSM!
November 27th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Steve, I can only hope that Leo will return for a followup interview.