Thursday, May 10, 2007

Other people on some book stuff

Ellis Sharp reviews another Philip K. Dick novel, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.

Noting Tom McCarthy's top ten European Modernists list, Steve Mitchelmore agrees with five and adds five more of his own. In reply to a comment asking whether this kind of categorising isn't irrelevant, Steve says:
Yes.

But I was bored and it's a bit of fun and someone like me 20 years ago would have used it to explore the library rather than picking up the latest "The Adjective of Noun" novel by Sophie Wannabe-Newsnight-Review-panellist.
Excellent.

Mr. Waggish comes up with an Antifesto I can get behind (and for the most part already follow).

And, Steamboats are Ruining Everything, a blog that is new to me (and whose title makes me inordinately happy), in a great post compares and contrasts three translations of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. I read and enjoyed Fathers and Sons earlier this year, in yet a fourth translation (by Rosemary Edmonds). Aside from being a fine read in its own right, this post seals the deal for me on Constance Garnett's translation of War and Peace, which I have a nice hardcover Modern Library edition of. I'd heard enough grumbling about her translations to wonder if it was so bad I should try a different one. Bud Parr's recent post about the upcoming Pevear/Volokhonsky translation just added another possible option. But I think I'll stick with the Garnett.

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