Tuesday 31 December 2019

Happy New Year

Traunsee, Gmunden, Austria by Margret Asmund


May the new year bring you peace and joy, my dear blog readers!

image by our daughter Margret Asmund
- taken 29/12/2019 by Traunsee, Gmunden, Austria



Thursday 19 December 2019

№ 22 reading list: Christmas 2019

My № 22 reading list · Lisa Stefan


Here it is, the reading list I have been promising for some time. It's almost two in one, as I meant to post one in October and one before Christmas. Life just got rather hectic. At some point on this term when trying to balance school and family life I thought of lines in Joan Didion's book, The Year of Magical Thinking, which became my mantra: 'In time of trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information was control.' Once I looked them up, I knew I had to reread it yet again. Didion's book about grief and everything life can throw at you was my reward during study breaks. Didion grounded me. She kept me studying. Information was control. I need to thank two publishers for books on the list: Eland Books for So It Goes and Fitzcarraldo Editions for I Remain in Darkness. Both are translations that I will be reviewing in the New Year.

№ 22 reading list:
1  Year of the Monkey  by Patti Smith
2  So It Goes  by Nicolas Bouvier
3  I Remain in Darkness  by Annie Ernaux
4  Genius and Ink: Virginia Woolf on How to Read
5  Life with Picasso  by Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake
6  Look Homeward, Angel  by Thomas Wolfe
7  Essays in Disguise  by Wilfrid Sheed
8  Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction  by Jonathan Culler
9  The Year of Magical Thinking  by Joan Didion [rereading]

Translated by: 2) So It Goes: Robyn Marsack; 3) I Remain in Darkness: Tanya Leslie.

These past months, when I have found time, I have been reading some of the books on the list and have already finished Life with Picasso and I Remain in Darkness. It was time to include Wilfrid Sheed on a reading list. A long time ago I bought a used copy of this essay collection, after hearing John Williams at the New York Times Book Review praise it on their podcast. Every other week the staff talks about the books they are reading in their spare time and Williams's taste in books comes close to mine, and I usually agree with his views.

This year I'm breaking tradition and not rereading a classic over the holidays. I will, however, be reading Louisa May Alcott's Little Women into the New Year, a tradition I started in Scotland. Last Friday I listened to editor David Remnick's interview with Greta Gerwig on The New Yorker Radio Hour and now I cannot wait to see her film adaptation.



Saturday 14 December 2019

Sleepless Nights · Elizabeth Hardwick

The cover of Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick (Faber) · Books & Latte


I have fallen so hard for Elizabeth Hardwick since reading a collection of her essays released in 2017. I had already put Sleepless Nights (1979) on my to-read list when Faber & Faber released this new edition last summer, which they describe as 'a kaleidoscopic scrapbook of one woman’s memories; a collage of fiction and memoir, letters and essays, portraits and dreams, and one of the greatest New York novels of all time.'

Cover image: © Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation
Cover design: Faber

Simultaneously, Faber also released her essay collection Seduction and Betrayal (1974), which you will find on a reading list one day. Another book I have added to my wish list is the newly published, in the US, The Dolphin Letters, 1970-1979: Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell, and Their Circle, edited by Saskia Hamilton (FSG).

Sleepless Nights
By Elizabeth Hardwick
Paperback, 144 pages
ISBN: 9780571346998
Faber & Faber



Thursday 12 December 2019

Reading journal 2017: Didion, Sontag, Hitchens ...

Notes from my reading journal: Didion, Sontag, Hitchens ... · Lisa Stefan


Reading journal 2017 ... yes, you read correctly. Honestly, I don't know why it has taken me so long to share my view on some books that appeared on a reading list in October 2017. Well, I always allow time to pass between sharing a list and posting a reading journal entry related to it, but this time I probably set a new record in procrastination. If you have read any of these I would love to hear your opinion, even if you disagree with mine.

Reading journal, № 12 reading list, 4 of 9:

· South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion. The keyword here is a notebook. I ran to the bookshop to buy this one when walking would have sufficed. This is a slim volume, about 130 pages with a large font, and probably directed towards the hardcore fans. Starting in New Orleans in 1970, these notes taken on a road trip are mainly about the South. Didion is a keen observer and what struck me was how some of her observations still felt relevant in 2017.
The isolation of these people from the currents of American life in 1970 was startling and bewildering to behold. All their information was fifth-hand, and mythicized in the handing down.
I would not recommend this book to those new to Didion. To get the right impression of her as a writer, choose The White Album, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, or The Year of Magical Thinking. As a fan of Didion, it almost breaks my heart to say that it feels as if this publication was a way of cashing in on her fame. That it was made available the same year as the documentary was released, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (2017) by actor Griffin Dunne (the nephew of Didion's late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne). Writers also have to make a living but I think many who bought the book expected something more substantial. By the way, I love that documentary.

· Autumn by Ali Smith. This one has beautiful prose. It's one of those meditative novels without a plot. It's about the bond between Elisabeth and Daniel, a friendship that starts when she, as a little girl, interviews him, then just an old neighbour, for a school project. Unfortunately, this novel has gotten a Brexit tag, it's referred to as the first post-Brexit novel, and people seem to think it's political. It's not. The outcome of the referendum is there in the background but in no way does it drive the story, which is filled with life and art.

· Hitch-22: A Memoir by Christopher Hitchens. I say this with great respect for the memory of Hitchens, but this book put me off anything Hitchens for good. I remember standing in Waterstones with a collection of his old articles in my hands and spotting the memoir, which had escaped me, feeling sure I was in for a treat. I enjoyed reading the story of his mother - he calls her Yvonne, not mother - who hid the fact that she was Jewish (he finds out in his forties). He hardly writes anything about his wife and children, which left a gap in the narrative and felt egocentric. Unsurprisingly, this book is all about politics, and in it many stories about people who perhaps only a few have heard of but get so much space. Sometimes when Hitchens was ranting about people he didn't agree with I began rolling my eyes. Clearly, he was not a fan of Bill Clinton and when it's already fully established to the reader how much he dislikes him, Hitchens uses every opportunity to rub it in. It comes off as childish. Honestly, I often thought about tossing the book but read on so I could at least express my opinion. When he described becoming an American citizen and expressed his support for the Bush administration and the Iraq War he had completely lost me. Obviously, Hitchens led a remarkable life that brought him all over the world, but to me, he wasn't the right person to write that story. And given his status, I'm guessing either no one edited this book or had the guts to point out its flaws before publication. How this book ended up number 5 on the NYT critics' list of 'The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years' is beyond my understanding. (If you are interested in a book review that covers the politics I would recommend the one by David Runciman for the London Review of Books.)

· Against Interpretation and Other Essays by Susan Sontag. I wasn't sure whether I should say something about this classic, but it gave me a chance to end with a quote that still feels relevant. These essays were written in the Sixties, between 1961 and 1965, and many of them feel outdated. I cannot say that I would recommend this book to anyone except students and fans of Sontag. The only part that I have reread is Part I, the first 36 pages that consist of the essays 'Against Interpretation' and 'On Style'. In the former, she observes: 'What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more.'

[Please visit separate blog entries for these two from the list: Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo, Travels in a Dervish Cloak by Isambard Wilkinson.]

image by me, appeared on Instagram 10/09/2017



Friday 6 December 2019

Life with Picasso · Françoise Gilot

The cover of Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake (NYRB) · Books & Latte


The term has finished and I have a study break until January. This morning I watched two episodes of Kiljan, a weekly literary TV program in Iceland, read the first pages of Patti Smith's new book, Year of the Monkey, and caught up with books podcasts, which I haven't had time for since mid-October. In the coming weeks I intend to enjoy days like these to the fullest.

When I last signed in I had some ideas about how to keep my blog alive during my studies, for example with a new category about beautiful book covers, and nothing happened. This is the cover I wanted to feature first, a new edition of the memoir Life with Picasso (1964) by Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake, which was published by New York Review Books last summer.

Cover image: Françoise Gilot, Self-Portrait, 1953
Cover design: Katy Homans

Françoise Gilot, So Far, So Near, 2016, oil on canvas (The Elkon Gallery) · Books & Latte
Françoise Gilot, So Far, So Near, 2016

In 1943, Gilot was just over twenty when she met Picasso, then 61 years old. They never married but their relationship lasted ten years and they had two children. The book will be on my next reading list, which I meant to share in October, and I can recommend it to anyone interested in art. The sections of the book containing her and Picasso's conversations about art are a joyful read.

Life with Picasso
By Françoise Gilot and Carlton Lake
Paperback, 384 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 9781681373195
New York Review Books
Life with Picasso by Françoise Gilot (NYRB) · Lisa Stefan


bottom image by me, appeared on Instagram 03/07/2019 | Françoise Gilot painting via The Elkon Gallery