NYRB Classics discussion

While we wait for our book club discussion to start in January, tell us what NYRB Classic you are reading now.

I'm reading Compulsory Games. Some stories are wowing me, and others just leave me confused. I also find it difficult to read any particular story in bits. Each story is better read if I can do it in one sitting. I suppose that is true of most short story collections but even moreso with Robert Aickman's. He demands your full attention.

What are you reading?

I will most likely finish Compulsory Games tonight so I'm looking for a short read to squeeze in before our January pick. Looking at my shelves, shorter novels that I have include No Tomorrow, Late Fame and Niki: The Story of a Dog. Which to choose, that is the question.

My most recent was the outstanding The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.

I'm currently reading The World as I Found It, by Bruce Duffy. I believe he categorizes the novel as "non-fiction fiction". It follows the life of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, along with Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore. It's very well done, but I wonder if someone without a background in philosophy would get as much enjoyment out of it.

Edit to add that the novel is not overly focused on the philosophy of these gentlemen (in fact, the philosophy is somewhat in the background).

In November, my book group read Barbara Comyns The Juniper Tree This novel was a retelling of one of the darkest of Grimms fairy tales. Highly discussable, and Comyns is such an original, quirky writer. I have her The Vet's Daughter and Our Spoons Came from Woolworths on my TBR pile

I have wanted Our Spoons Came from Woolworths for awhile. I liked The Vet's Daughter a lot!

WndyJW wrote: "I have wanted Our Spoons Came from Woolworths for awhile!"

I'd also really like to read this (had it shelved on GR for over 5 years). Comyns' other books don't appeal to me so much but this sort of kitchen-sink realism from that era does.

WndyJW wrote: "My most recent was the outstanding The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne."

Exceptional book!

Wasn’t it, Toni? I loved it, my mother, who being born in 1938 still felt the influence of her Victorian era grandmother in the expectations for women of the middle, merchants class really loved it.

I like those sort of book as well, Anto.

I recently read My Dog Tulip for IRL bookclub's meeting a week ago, and am getting ready to start The Kremlin Ball.

I’m reading Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg.

sisilia wrote: "I recently read My Dog Tulip for IRL bookclub's meeting a week ago, and am getting ready to start The Kremlin Ball."

I just read this. What did you book club think of it?

Louise wrote: "sisilia wrote: "I recently read My Dog Tulip for IRL bookclub's meeting a week ago, and am getting ready to start The Kremlin Ball."

I just read this. What did you book club think of it?"

We love JR. Ackerley and plan to read his memoir My Father and Myself some time this year. My Dog Tulip is a must-read for dog lovers, and we all agreed that this book makes an excellent Christmas present.

Currently taking a break from Inhuman Land with Caroline Blackwood's Corrigan, which has been terrific so far.

Just finished J. L. Carr's A Month in the Country. What an excellent short novel. Very reflective and bittersweet, but not in a cloying, obvious way. This may actually be my favorite book of the year so far.

Bryan wrote: "Just finished J. L. Carr's A Month in the Country. What an excellent short novel. Very reflective and bittersweet, but not in a cloying, obvious way. This may actually be my favorite b..."
I loved that one. Also read The Battle Of Pollocks Crossing which was very interesting and often funny (it is set in rural South Dakota, and it caricatures Carr's own experiences teaching there for a year in the late 30s), if not quite as good as A Month in the Country.

Hugh wrote: "I loved that one. Also read The Battle Of Pollocks Crossing which was very interesting and often funny (it is set in rural South Dakota, and it caricatures Carr's own experiences teaching there for a year in the late 30s), if not quite as good as A Month in the Country. ..."

I'll be looking for all of Carr's work from now on. Good to hear that he had other successes too.

I would love to read A Month in the Country as a group read here. It will be one of my nominations for our May book (nominations start tomorrow!)

I think it would be a great choice.

Agree. My IRL book group read it years ago and we had a terrific discussion.

Resurrecting this thread to say that Janos Szekely's Temptation is a stunner. Great coming-of-age novel set in Hungary between the World Wars.

I have just finished Our Philosopher by Gert Hofmann translated by Eric Mace-Tessler and introduction by Michael Hofmann. The novel relates a story of Nazi Jewish persecution from the interesting point of view of a German doctor's young son and is told in carefully rendered prose that captures the horror, irony, and indifference the boy observes. Five stars for me.

I have just ordered Our Philosopher because of Sam's review.

Cynthia wrote: "I have just ordered Our Philosopher because of Sam's review."

I do hope you like it! My taste is eclectic and often is brought into question by other readers, but with this I have some support. The book is longlisted for the 2024 National Book Critic's Circle Barrios award for works in translation. I will be rooting for this book!

I'm sure I will.

I have been shadow reading and enjoying the #NYRBWomen24 reading list compiled by Kim McNeill for her reading group this year and mentioned earlier by Wendy in a different post.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The selection for March 1st is Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman by Hannah Arendt and I invite any that are interested to join along. The variety in the texts Kim chose is vast and not everything will be to everyone's taste, but I enjoyed my first three selections and look forward to this as well. Here is a link to Kim's website once again.

https://www.joiedevivre9.com/nyrbwome...

That sounds like an interesting book, but I am over committed as it is!

I have finished Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman and found it much better than the three stars I planned on awarding it so I upped it to four, but want to advise that I think this book fits more of a niche audience and may leave others bored. This is a nonstandard biography, more experimental, philosophical, and analytical than in a traditional approach. Arendt spends much of the time on the Jewish question and the limited role of a Jewish woman of Varnhagen's talents in the period she lived. It is well written and worth reading but unless interested in the specifics I mentioned, I suggest a later Arendt for enjoyment.

I recently finished The People Immortal by Vassily Grossman, and now am on to Troubles by J G Farrell.

Only 30 pages into Troubles and it's already packed in a lot of different elements, from great humour to tragic reflections. Loving it so far.

I've just finished Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze. Blimey, what a novel! Highly recommended, review to follow in the next few days.

The #nyrbwomen25 books this month are A House and Its Head and Angel. I have Angel and I’ve ordered A House and it’s Head. I’m so sorry to not be reading A Lonely Place, which sounds like an excellent noir novel, especially since Sam goes the extra mile to make the reads even more interesting, but A Lonely Place is just too dark for me right now and 20th century British women authors are my comfort read.

I completed Beware of Pity which i enjoyed immensely. I believe there's a film coming out that is transforming the narrative into a love story. LOL.

I've been reading Moderan by David R. Bunch. What a great find!

I'm having a whole load of fun reading Warlock by Oakley Hall

I’m reading Mourning a Breast

Isbah wrote: "I’m reading Mourning a Breast"

How are you finding it? I have not gotten to it yet.

Butcher's Crossing - John Williams.

Rob wrote: "Butcher's Crossing - John Williams."

That one I have read and a big thumbs up!

great

I'm reading Henri Cole's "Orphic Paris," sort of in the same league as Andre Breton's "Nadja." This book is published by NYRB, but not in its Classics category.

I loved Butcher's Crossing and, as expected, the book is much better than the movie.

I’m reading Paris Stories, starting with “Speck’s Idea.”

I’m reading another story from Paris Stories, “The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street” and I am officially a Mavis Gallant fan and want to read everything she wrote. I hope nyrb published more of Gallant.

WndyJW wrote: "I’m reading another story from Paris Stories, “The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street” and I am officially a Mavis Gallant fan and want to read everything she wrote. I hope nyrb publish..."

Love, love, love that story. The ending is so beautiful.

Oh good, then you can explain it to me. I loved this story too, again Gallant provides a novel’s worth of back stories with simple gestures and sentences, my favorite being, “She seemed dressed in going-away presents.” I have ideas about the ending, but maybe that’s what Gallant intended, for the ending to be open to interpretation.

I think maybe Peter and Agnes shared a real moment, something it doesn’t seem he shared with Sheilah, who didn’t understand the meaning of the first snow.

What do you think it meant?

I’m going to continue to dip into Gallant’s Paris Stories and I’m now starting Wish Her Safe at Home.

WndyJW wrote: "I’m going to continue to dip into Gallant’s Paris Stories and I’m now starting Wish Her Safe at Home."

That looks interesting Wendy. Please share your thoughts when you have read it.

I kept seeing it on Instagram and it sounded like my kind of comfort read. I was right. My first thought is a sexist one: it feels like a woman authored book since it’s told in first person by a woman in her 40s, but the author is a man. Not that a man doesn’t know what it is to be mildly disappointed with his life and excited about the chance to rebuild his life, but it feels like an Elizabeth Taylor novel.

I liked Wish Her Safe at Home. It’s much like Angel: a delusional woman whose situation is vastly improved and who wants to right a book, but Rachel in Wish Her Safe is slowly losing her mind, not merely completely un-self aware (self unaware? Unaware of her self?) I can’t give every nyrb 5 stars or 5 stars will be meaningless and I think Angel was better although this was entertaining, so I gave it 3 stars.

Thanks Wendy.

I’m finally getting to In a Lonely Place and enjoying the atmosphere (though I’m regretting my choice to buy the cheaper Penguin Classics version; it’s just not the same without the NYRB treatment)