The Red Thread: Twenty Years of NYRB Classics

by Edwin Frank (Editor)

In Greek mythology, Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of red thread to guide him through the labyrinth, and The Red Thread offers a path through and a way to explore the ins and outs and twists and turns of the celebrated NYRB Classics series, now twenty years old. The collection brings together twenty-five pieces drawn from the more than five hundred books that have come out as NYRB Classics over the last twenty years. Stories, essays, interviews, poems, along with chapters from novels and memoirs and other longer narratives have been selected by Edwin Frank, the series editor, to chart a distinctive, entertaining, and thought-provoking course across the expansive and varied terrain of the Classics series.

Genres: Fiction, Anthologies

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 2019

Reviews

[Andrew Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm an NYRB enthusiast, and this was a "sampler" thrown in with the monthly bookclub (well worth the cost in this time of quarantine, and with the USPS on a last leg). It's something of an Edwin Frank mixtape – 25 excerpts, short stories, interviews, outtakes from the twenty year publishing history of NYRB, and faithful to the press's missions of rediscovery of works lacking an original "commercial thrust" and bringing new translations to readers of international writers who avoided the vogues of their times (and often still, this one).

The "red thread" Frank evokes in the preface refers to a Chinese "metaphor for a binding tie that exists among people unknown to each other" that he deploys as a figure or agency of literature, but rather than a social binding, the feeling I got reading the collection linearly was one of a loneliness that verged on pessimism at times. Many of the chosen works are first-person accounts of the interred, the stuck, the lost, the waiting, the incarcerated. Occasionally the juxtapositions are brutal. One of the darkest passages of Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz – the slaughterhouse section – is adjacent to two portraits of Helen and Billie Holiday, which felt portentous and perhaps unnecessarily reductive. It left me needing more of the air and sociality found in the Babitz and Tove Jannson excerpts in the book.

But still, this is a fine quick take on the ambitious scope of NYRB since Y2K. I'd love to see more from Africa and Latin American in the coming decade. Discoveries for me here were Simon Leys' essay from The Hall of Uselessness and David R Bunch's eccentric sci-fi from Moderan –I want to read further into both. I also appreciate the inclusion of Hardwick's original version of the Holiday essay. It has her wild independent style, but doesn't shy from her grating and presumptuous voice. It feels both uncomfortably seeing and untimely – a tendency throughout the career of this press.

[Kenneth Cardenas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid collection, and a great way to learn of new authors--as with the rest of the NYRB Classics.

Five stars for:
"The Camel", Andrey Platonov
"A Passion in the Desert", Honore de Balzac
"Ethics and Aesthetics", Simon Leys
"Quadraturin", Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
"Yerevan", Vasily Grossman

a few others likely deserve the same praise, but I will need a reread.

[nkp]

So maybe I don’t understand short stories at all

[rita ✴︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

saw this book in bmv queen st. and did not stop thinking about it until i could go back to toronto to get it. some books are very fateful and you should read anything that sticks with you after you leave the bookstore without it.

what a lovely collection!!! reminded me that art is always in conversation with each other, across time and space. loved the connections between each story- created a lovely flow/chain of themes that really spoke to me (red thread!!). also quite a bit of nonfiction in here which was a nice surprise!! lots of these pieces were quite hilarious- all were very, very good works. reminded me to really try and read broadly- very fitting given my recent complaints about how i feel incapable of reading books that aren’t lit fiction. loved!

my favourites
- notes of a crocodile by shui ling
- the short days of winter by henry david thoreau
- ethics and aesthetics (the chinese lesson) by simon leys
- helen by rachel bespaloff
- yerevan by vasily grossman
- in the great city of phoenix by tove jansson
- the flesh man from far wide by david r. bunch
- the earthgod and the fox by kenji miyazawa
- i’m waiting for the ferry by kabir
- a talk with george jackson by jessica mitford


honestly would’ve been shorter to list the ones that didn’t stick with me … can you tell i love settings!!! so many wonderful sentences about cities and streets and streams and trees. loved this collection. maybe the first time i enjoyed a short story i sought out myself!! very interested in reading the full works for many of these (notes of a crocodile i’m looking @ u). nyrb abt to get so much of my money

[Taylor Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous treasure chest of discoveries, each a little window into its own beautiful vista. Edwin Frank’s organization of these stories and selections overlays the subtlest scent of structure onto this little book, delightful in its own way to intuit, a pleasure to play out, with eyes closed, and feel between the fingers the woven thread of this book’s texture. An insightful introduction, miniature biographies, and a chronological catalogue of NYRB’s published material bookend this wonderful collection of vignettes.

[Joe Stinnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the excerpts were great; some, not so much. the essay by Frank recapping the history of the press was excellent, as was the year by year checklist of books published.

[pennedby_kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

picked this up as an nyrb enthusiast and got very excited reading the foreword. i'm not sure how much of my rating is carried by the vibes and beautiful cover though. nonetheless i found myself engaged, notably by these selections:

a talk with george jackson -jessica mitford (interviewing author of soledad brother in jail, he discusses his writing process and inspirations)

ethics and aesthetics: the chinese lesson -simon leys (an notable quote: "in calligraphy, it is not pleasing that is difficult; what is difficult is not seeking please. the desire to please makes the writing trite, its absence renders it ingenious and true" p87

billie holiday -elizabeth hardwick (an impressionistic account of billie holiday's voice, her fragility, and the way her suffering and restraint shaped her artistry).

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like browsing a bookstore and picking up 20 books to read the first few pages to see what you think, except instead of just starting on the first page, someone recommends the best page to start on. Also instead of picking 20 random books, that same someone also recommends the books. Also that someone is the longtime editorial director of your favorite indie book publisher and has impeccable taste. What a wonderful combination.

[John W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of extracts from NYRB volumes. The first is a short passage from Andrey Platnov's The Camel, which is a remarkable picture in three pages of the desolation of the desert.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for a lot of the stories
A great way to get back into reading classics. The type of stories you wish you had the chance to discuss with a group.