Several Months

Matters have lapsed. All my insights go to goodreads these days. New Pynchon will also mean that samizdatshould boogie again: even if it is a solo act.

Cue the Billy Idol.

Javier Marias remains the man. Steven Moore's alternative history of the novel manages to inspire and irritate.

To Floss

The most misspent day in any life is the one when you've failed to laugh." - Chamfort

My days have been prudent and rife with mirth. Here's four novels I really liked.

Where Tigers Are at Home byJean-Marie Blas de Roblès

Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me by Javier Marías

Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry

Hourglass by Danilo Kiš


How about a favorable view of The Last Stand? The director Kim Ji-woon is a hero of mine. As bonus, how often do you see Luis Guzman as an action hero?

Visegrad

It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others. - Julian Barnes

I read essays from Mr. Barnes upon arrival in Belgrade, that one day when I had yet adjust. Such was benign in itself. I awoke before dawn and walked through the slumbering city. I read at every stop waiting to change money, ingest espresso.

It isn't day, or year for that matter, when I travel to a new country. So it was last week when I went to Bosnia.  Sarajevo and Visegrad were the two stops. There is much to ponder, marvel and mourn about each.

March

Time is cruel these days. A good friend is dying. Aside from my wife and futball, I've lodged inside reading as an escape. I've surrounded myself with Balkan novels and then lately read Frankenstein and Hunger. Shirley Jackson has held my hand this weekend.

The Difference Between Misfortune and Calamity

If Mr. Gladstone were to fall into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, it would be a calamity.  -- Benjamin Disraeli

Scale

Only by  concealing a theme can you approach its total description. --Adam Thirlwell on Danilo Kis

This Sucks

There's either a pesky bug or my blog has been hacked. I hate that, though I wasn't exactly exhausting the creative possibilities within.

my favorite album for 2012 was Beth Orton's Sugaring Season. My favorite films were Le Havre, Margin Call and Coriolanus.

A top ten for literature would involve The Leopard, A Naked Singularity, The Rachel Papers and The Road To Wigan Pier. My discoveries for the year were Goncalo Tavares and the Narratives of Empire series by Gore Vidal. I hope that isn't too pedestrian.