Yawn Despite my unease about making Book of th…
Yawn
Despite my unease about making Book of the Year type judgements, I�m going to anyway because someone might decide to read one, and perhaps go on to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of newsworthy books. Only the second was released this year, but they�re all new to you, aren�t they?
First, Wallace Stevens� Letters, as selected and edited by his daughter. Over 900 pages, we follow the trajectory of the poet�s life. Not much happens, yet this is one of the most moving books I have ever read. Stevens died in 1955, so this book isn�t exactly new, but there was a new edition recently.
Second, Haase and Large�s introduction to Maurice Blanchot in the Routledge Critical Thinkers series. Blanchot is the bee�s knees, and this short book does him justice.
Third, I read Bernhard�s memoirs Gathering Evidence for the first time in years, and it was like an ecstatic self-disembowelling. Like Stevens� letters, it suggests that happiness, even joy, lies very close to its opposite. This justifies mentioning it too often, as I do. Sorry.
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Blanchot Obit.
- Old orations of the cold
- Against Oblivion It�s not often a book of liter…
- End of year chat
- Critical Thinkers x4
