Derek Bartholomew > Recent Status Updates

A nice compilation: With the exception of some of the moderns and Jose Marti, I have never read these poets.

Some of the translators are quite surprising: I’ve already come across translations from Samuel Beckett and Ursula K. Le Guin.

I have started this book a few times over the years, and because I have been ill with heat sickness, I have begun again.

I’ll confess: Without M.A. Screech’s introduction to chapters and copious footnotes, I’d find this book indecipherable: The humor requires historical context.

I’m now having fun reading it: I can see why so many authors cite it as an influence.

I started this months ago, reading Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen (an indispensable book) side-by-side. The narratives couldn’t be more different: Hugh Brogan (an Englishman) seems timid to critique the “founding fathers.”

After finishing Indigenous Continent, I read Grandin’s America, America. Both are necessary correctives to Brogan’s account.

This isn’t just one novel: it’s seven. One downside is the extremely tiny font.

I’ve only finished the first, The Snow of the Admiral, a slow burn.

Marqoll the Gaviero (the Lookout) is not only an adventurer; he’s an existential philosopher.

The prose style is ponderous; it flows slowly. I am hesitant to make this comparison, but he reminds me of Thomas Mann.

It may take me a year to read this.

Most of Silvina Campo’s stories are less than 5 pages— with the exception of “The Imposter,” which is a short novella and my favorite of this collection so far.

Her stories are speculative, fantastical, and cruel: Indeed, she asked her English translator to compile this anthology of her most cruel stories.

Ocampo was married to Adolfo Bioy Casares — author of The Invention of Morel, a modern classic.

To the friends that I have just added on here,

I apologize for the spam on your feeds. I started a new profile because I was locked out of my old one. I thought I had found a way to prevent each book I entered from showing up in your feeds: I failed. This app is not user friendly, unfortunately.

Thankfully I have completed that task, so hopefully you will be seeing a lot less of me in your feeds.


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