NYRB Classics discussion

I'd like to request that NYRB add a NEW RELEASES folder and then add the new books to it each month.
This would be a great way for us fans to keep up with new titles

Guy (and Abigail), I am happy to help out here. I keep track of them all, including any shifting dates. If NYRB can add the folder, I can help make sure it stays populated with upcoming releases.

What kind of information would you like to include; what's the preferred set up?

It would be fun to stoke the fire of anticipation.

Release date, short blurb. Cover photo. Sometimes I miss new releases and this would be a good place for it, I think.

I can do all of that, and will gladly. However, I don't think I can create a folder. If NYRB Classics can create one, I will get to work (I simply need to port over from my database).

Adding to this, is it possible to add another folder for Prior Releases (or some better title). The root post in each could be the same stuff Guy requests for the new releases, and I'd put it all together. Then we'd maybe inspire discussion about old titles too, other than the book club picks. When an upcoming release becomes a past release, we can maybe move the thread. I'm not sure if all of that is possible on Goodreads, but if it is, I think it might be fun.

A test post. I think it might be nice, if possible, to have an Upcoming Releases folder and posts kind of like this starting the thread. Then we can talk about which we are excited for, etc. When they are released, maybe we could transfer the thread to another folder (is that possible?).

Let me know if there's anything else that you'd like on these.

The Skin



Publication Date: November 5, 2013
Pages: 360
Introduction by Rachel Kushner.
Translated from the Italian by David Moore.
Originally published in 1949.

Initial NYRB Classics blurb:

“It is a shameful thing to win a war.” The reliably unorthodox Curzio Malaparte’s own service as an Italian liaison officer with the Allies during the invasion of Italy was the basis for this searing and surreal novel, in which the contradictions inherent in any attempt to simultaneously conquer and liberate a people beset the triumphant but ingenuous American forces as they make their way up the peninsula.

Malaparte’s account begins in occupied Naples, where veterans of the disbanded and humiliated Italian army beg for work, and ceremonial dinners for high Allied officers or important politicians feature the last remaining sea creatures in the city’s famous aquarium. He leads the American Fifth Army along the Via Appia Antica into Rome, where the celebrations of a vast, joy-maddened crowd are only temporarily interrupted when one well-wisher slips beneath the tread of a Sherman tank. As the Allied advance continues north to Florence and Milan, the civil war intensifies, provoking in the author equal abhorrence for killing fellow Italians and for the “heroes of tomorrow,” those who will come out of hiding to shout “Long live liberty” as soon as the Germans are chased away.

Like Céline, another anarchic satirist and disillusioned veteran of two world wars, Malaparte paints his compatriots as in a fun-house mirror that yet speaks the truth, creating terrifying, grotesque, and often darkly comic scenes that will not soon be forgotten. Unlike the French writer however, he does so in the characteristically sophisticated, lush, yet unsentimental prose that was as responsible for his fame as was his surprising political trajectory. The Skin was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, and placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

Current NYRB Classics blurb:

This is the first unexpurgated English edition of Curzio Malaparte’s legendary work The Skin. The book begins in 1943, with Allied forces cementing their grip on the devastated city of Naples. The sometime Fascist and ever-resourceful Curzio Malaparte is working with the Americans as a liaison officer. He looks after Colonel Jack Hamilton, “a Christian gentleman … an American in the noblest sense of the word,” who speaks French and cites the classics and holds his nose as the two men tour the squalid streets of a city in ruins where liberation is only another word for desperation. Veterans of the disbanded Italian army beg for work. A rare specimen from the city’s famous aquarium is served up at a ceremonial dinner for high Allied officers. Prostitution is rampant. The smell of death is everywhere.

Subtle, cynical, evasive, manipulative, unnerving, always astonishing, Malaparte is a supreme artist of the unreliable, both the product and the prophet of a world gone rotten to the core.

Yes a folder would be great, so let's hope we get one. And the post looks good--just the sort of thing I'd like. It would be excellent to be kept abreast of the new releases and then old ones to be discussed if and when appropriate.

Titles from NYRB don't exactly age, so it's not the usual 'new releases' scenario--released today and forgotten tomorrow.

Hi Trevor and Guy,

Abigail here. Just so I am clear: you'd simply like us to create a folder titled, say, "Forthcoming Releases" or "Forthcoming Classics" (though that last sounds a bit paradoxical) and then you will create a thread for each book you'd like to discuss or potentially discuss. Correct? I'm not sure that you can reassign a post to a different discussion folder, by the way. I can look into it, but my gut says no.

As for an "everything else" or "prior releases" folder, I'm happy to make one--it's easy enough--but let me talk to my colleagues here about a better title. Feel free to chime in on the naming front, too!

-Abigail

Thanks Abigail. Yes, that's what I have in mind at least. I am excited about the prospect of discussing forthcoming titles (and other titles) with other obsessed people.

I think "Forthcoming Releases" or "Upcoming Releases" is appropriately clear. As for the other, maybe something as simple as Book Discussions or, dang, I don't know, maybe something along those lines (I don't want to confuse it with Book Choice Discussions).

As for transferring threads from one folder to another, I was wandering around the Goodreads tools for moderators and it says you can: "To move a topic from one folder to another, click on the topic then click on 'edit' next to the topic title." I hope it's really that simple :-) .

Echoing Trevor: yes forthcoming releases or upcoming releases would be a helpful folder. Sometimes I miss releases and only find them when I am looking at other NYRB editions on Amazon and then see other suggestions.

Thanks

Hey Guy and Trevor,

I've added both a "Forthcoming Releases" folder and a "Book Discussions (general)" folder for everything else. I went ahead and made a post for THE SKIN in Forthcoming Releases to get you started. Of course, feel free to follow whatever format you like to begin these threads from here on out.

Trevor: on moving topics to other folders--of course! It should indeed be that easy. I don't know why I assumed it wasn't. Thanks for looking into it.

Please let me know if you have other suggestions for these threads.

Happy discussing!

-Abigail

Thanks Abigail. I'll get started! Obviously, you have the right to make the root post look as you'd like it to, so while I'll try to get the leg work done, feel free to edit away.

I think I have all of the upcoming releases posted (as they appear on the NYRB Classics webpage). Abigail, I don't see the "Book Discussions (general)" folder. I may be blind. Is it there? I will start the longer process of getting it populated, if that's what people want. It will look a bit full and potentially cumbersome, but I think it will be valuable as people venture into the catalog on their own. I will do my best to make it something we can navigate by adding a main post that indexes all of the books -- eventually.

Abigail (and others), here's a thought on how to make the discussions of prior releases more manageable. What if we break them down by year. So, "2013 Releases," "2012 Releases," etc. That would mean each discussion folder would have 25 to 35 books rather than one folder with 380ish. I see on the board that some people like to organize their collection in the order in which you published them, so maybe a double bonus.

wonderful

My feeling about organizing by release year is that it isn't a way that most people conceive of books. I wouldn't think most people (even ones interested in these particular books) know what year a given book came out (and so to locate one you'd need to cross reference it). Doing so could even discourage participation in the discussion.

It reminds me of the infuriating way some Very Serious video stores would organize their movies by director. What about by subject matter, author last name, or something else more user friendly?

I'm putting all in the one folder but including a few indexes so people can look for them in any way they see fit.

Abigail, do you think you could create another folder for the index posts? I have the ones I've created in the Book Discussion (general) thread, but I'm afraid that as I add more to that thread the index of titles will be pushed so low they won't be useful.

Thanks!

Woo! I finished posting threads for all of NYRB Classics' books. If you see errors (typos, dates, pages, anything at all, including typographical or formatting snafoos) please feel free to let me know. Otherwise, I am excited to talk about the books!

Bravo that man!

A tweet from NYRB Classic today gives further glimpse at forthcoming books:

Spring 2015 launch mtg was today. Highlights include Renata Adler, Sasha Sokolov, Natalia Ginzburg, Eileen Chang & Linda Rosenkratz's 'Talk'

I'm closing this thread now to keep things tidy. All upcoming releases are in the "Forthcoming Releases" folder here.