Sam’s Comments (group member since Nov 09, 2023)

Sam’s comments from the NYRB Classics group.

I am loving The Palm House at 50%. I am soon starting Great Granny Webster and Warlock, so it will be a good month of NYRB's for me. The Flanagan trilogy has been calling to me and I hadn't yet considered Basic Black with Pearls. So many good books to read.

You are welcome. Looking forward to your book!

I think everyone has been busy like myself with summer, vacations, and other priorities.

I imagine that is the case with Emily, since her new book Queen Mab comes out in the U.S. and Canada 8/4/2026 if I am correct and a little later in the U.K. Farrar, Straus and Giroux publish in America and Pushkin in U.K. So allow to to digress for a moment to give her book a plug. It's got some great blurbs, a star from Kirkus Reviews and I am looking forward to it. Also on Brilliant Audio in U.S.

Coming back to Memed, My Hawk, what I am carrying away from this novel in my thoughts is the concept of vengeance, the generational perpetuation of injustices, and the brutality towards women the novel portrayed. Each of those thoughts could be expanded but I haven't gone beyond the mulling stage. some time in the future I will be comparing examples from other works from other cultures and trying to organize those thoughts. But for now, I feel it is important not to just judge by the distaste I feel based on my cultural upbringing, but to gain some sense of empathy for the cultural heritage different cultures have and endure.

The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley has been listed for the 2026 Booker Prize. NYRB published the U.S. edition and I'll be starting this today.

I also just finished today. The prose was a little choppy and episodic but that could be a problem with the translation. The big plus for me was the cultural differences that came out in the story.

I had mentioned trying to generate even more variety in our reading habit by stimulating new group reads both in genre, author, and recent publication.
Examples of the first are mostly in nonfiction, like A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor, one of the author's several travel books or The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka, combining philosophy with ideas on the practice of farming, one of NYRB's best sellers. I am hoping to get more of these selections into our group reads along with our usual novels because simply, there are some great books to be read.

The next thought is to experiment with NYRB Classics' authors that NYRB has deemed worthy by their publishing multiple books by the authors, but have been neglected by us for various reasons, including they may not be the best or to our particular tastes, Examples are Amit Chaudhuri, Vladimir Sorokin, Victor Serge, or Henry Green, and obviously Georges Simenon. Simenon brings up another consideration because NYRB Classics is no longer publishing him despite their having published 20 or so books. I feel books once published by NYRB should be eligible for selection despite no longer being in print.

And last are recently published books. I expect to opt for us to nominate books published in the last one or two years at least one month or two out of the year. This is to help get us to attempt these books and to support the publisher's recent offerings. And there are good books coming, like Blood Money by Anna Seghers mentioned by Emmeline, The Statuary Gardens by Jacques Abeille, and The Kingdom of Agamemnon by Vladimir Sharov all due later this year, hopefully.

Last I want to note that NYRB Classic has publishing rights to Dorothy, Archipelago, and others and hope to see some of these in our future nominations.

Emmeline was hoping to see Prisoner of Love by Jean Genet included in our nominations for October and I am all for making that book our October selection unless there is argument against this from members. So please respond if you have a comment concerning our October selection or on any of these thoughts in general. I kind of fell into reading NYRB Classics with all of you and it is one of my favorite monthly reading activities. I'm excited by the number of good books we have read and hope to continue along. Thanks to everyone that has contributed.

Emmeline wrote: "Sam wrote: "The poll has been won by Balcony in the Forest by Julien Gracq."

Great! Shall we keep Prisoner of Love over for October's, since it did well?"

It will if we do an open selection month. I'm also weighing October for longer classic nominations instead of January. I'll put up a post on other considerations in a few days. One thing I would like to inspire is for us to read books and authors out of our zone. There are a number of authors that I would like to try even if they aren't that good, just for the experience of reading them. And I especially would like to get to some of the marvelous NYRB Classics nonfiction literature. Another hope is to cover at least one or two classics recently published per year, because although reading the older published classics is fun, I feel I'm not paying enough attention to newly released classics. So I am going to put a post up to get some thoughts from other members before the end of the month.
If we do open selection, it will be included.

The poll has been won by Balcony in the Forest by Julien Gracq.

I am almost to the half and moving along nicely in this adventure book.

Last day to vote for September's book of the month.

Reviews (may be paywalled):

https://bosphorusreview.com/why-you-s...

https://www.nytimes.com/1961/06/11/ar...

https://www.dailysabah.com/books/2015...

There is also a 1984 film directed by and starring Peter Ustinov that you may find. Here is a trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFoS2...

Welcome to our July discussion for Memed, My Hawk by Yaşar Kemal, Edouard Roditi (Translator) First published January 1, 1955 372pp

A tale of high adventure and lyrical celebration, tenderness and violence, generosity and ruthlessness, Memed, My Hawk is the defining achievement of one of the greatest and most beloved of living writers, Yashar Kemal. It is reissued here with a new introduction by the author on the fiftieth anniversary of its first publication.

Memed, a high-spirited, kindhearted boy, grows up in a desperately poor mountain village whose inhabitants are kept in virtual slavery by the local landlord. Determined to escape from the life of toil and humiliation to which he has been born, he flees but is caught, tortured, and nearly killed. When at last he does get away, it is to set up as a roving brigand, celebrated in song, who could be a liberator to his people—unless, like the thistles that cover the mountain slopes of his native region, his character has taken an irremediably harsh and unforgiving form.

I'm looking forward to this and think it a perfect adventure read for the summer. The discussion can have spoilers and I suggest you proceed cautiously in case. For members posting, please be courteous of others and give a hint if your post has spoilers coming.

Our topic will remain open but I am moving on to Memed, My Hawk and will be changing it to the book of the month. I enjoyed The Corner that Held Them but without a reread, I don't feel I could add much to the conversation, which is fine with me. I feel that at a certain level as we move from children to adults we sometimes lose the ability to read books for the pleasure of the reading experience without having to fully understand a meaning, or without feeling a need to analyze. Once we do that it seems we need the rest of of life to try and get back to that place.

Last day for nominations. Great nominations so far!

I am asking for nominations a bit earlier this month to get a little more time between poll results and actual reads to help people plan and get books. So we are now looking to September. Let's leave the topic wide open once more with all books published by NYRB elegible including Dorothy and Archipelago imprints published in the U.S. A Balcony in the Forest will be an automatic candidate since it did well in the polls. Nominations will go through June 30 followed by the poll on July 1st. If we don't get many nominations I will make up difference to give us 4-5 choices.

I suggest listening to the Backlisted podcast episode after finishing for mor thoughts and a enthusiastic response to the novel. Nothing like hearing others pleasure in reading something you have just read to get your feelings pumped. I have only listened to the first half but am liking the episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4s_v...

Emmeline wrote: "Are they?"

Just a guess, what does everyone else think? An accepted date for the start of the Renaissance used to be 1350. Are novel is ending close to the end of 1300.

Emmeline wrote: "It also occurs to me that there's a thread running through the book about the importance of art, or maybe creative expression, something that transcends the mundane and gives it meaning or structur..."

I wondered if was to reflect the coming of the Renaissance since the dates are close.

Warlock has w0n the poll by a good margin with Balcony in the Forest coming second and drawing enough votes to give it a spot in next month's poll.

As I said in an earlier post, this was my first read of the author and I would need another read of the book and probably a read of another book of hers to offer anything of critical worth. Janet describes it accurately as a novel of place and I would add of time. The novel most reminded me of Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford which had the same structure and minimal plot seeming almost a history with comic incidents and commentary. More recently, Muriel Spark's The Abbess of Crewe and Lauren Groff's Matrix are similar but the first more satirical and the second more character driven. Then we have Follett's The Pillars of the Earth which has a similar plot but is completely plot driven.

The novel is also definitely a novel of women and while men are present, they seem a little cartoonish in their inclusion. I don't have much to add on why that was important because I only really realized this at the end but some of you may have thoughts.

I think I'll be best at listening to what others have to say on everything else. I enjoyed the book and look forward to more Townsend-Warner and a reread of this.

I haven't read the Andric so I had no comment on the similarity.