CruelestMonth.com

Happy Happy!

Hey!  I hope everyone's enjoying the holidays.  I've been coming to terms with my burgeoning alcoholism.  Seriously, my hands are shaking.  And why not, today, December 29th, marks the year anniversary of the Cruelest Month.  Yup.  People have standed this imbalanced effort of my own for a whole year.  Thanks.  Sorry.  And your welcome.

Better still, tomorrow is the birthday of Paul Bowles, author of The Sheltering Sky.  I finished not long ago Their Heads Are Green and Their Hands Are Blue, a marvelous travel book that explores the cultural wilds of Morrocco.  The Olive Reader has an essay by our very own Dan Halpern and an excerpt from The Sheltering Sky.

The Prolific and the Devourer by W.H. Auden

I came across an edition of this and have been quite struck. I would like to share at least one enthusiasm before the holidays claim us all.

"[The Prolific and the Devourer] is a book of aphorisms and reflections written in the summer--and abandoned in the autumn--of 1939.  It reflects Auden's attitudes in his first months in America, at a moment of transition between his equivocal Marxism in the 1930s and after.  One reason he abandoned the book (probably before it was finished) was his discontent with its mandarin style.  More important perhaps, was his total renunciation in the first weeks of the Second World War of the optimistic predictions he makes in Part IV about the moral improvement of mankind.  At the same time he also renounced the pacifist position he espouses in the book." -- Edward Mendelson

The full text, Parts I-IV, first appeared in Antaeus in 1981 then again from Ecco in 1996.  It is out of print in all editions, and I could find information on the paperback only.  It looks as though it sold 496 copies and forgot itself (according to Bookscan...well, maybe not that last bit).  Still, I recall an independent bookseller saying this week that there is no such thing as a rare book anymore, so if you put your mind to it, or browser to Abebooks.com, I'm sure you can dig this up.  I recommend that you do.  In order to convince you of this, I've lovingly described the first few passages below.  Behold!

The Metaxu Mixer

"Don't drink the punch!" Bud cried right before he guzzled the compromised fruit juice, spilling dark rivulets down his cheeks and onto his technicolored poncho.

That didn't happen.  I was going to start a whole lie, but, really, I had too nice of a time.  Bud of MetaxuCafe recounts more than I will here and promises pictures.

A big, jolly shot out to all the peeps who wrote in for the giveaway.  The response was resounding...ding...ding.  The books will arrive after the holidays, most likely.

- MS

Robert Birnbaum interviews PLOTUS Donald Hall.

Holiday Giveaway!

Yup.  It's basically next Christmas already, and I've already blown it this year.  I think I gave my mother something I found in the glove compartment of her Ford Windstar.  "Here, Ma!  I wanted you to have this manual.  Now be safe."  In order to combat the pending disappointment of others, I wanted to involve all of you, the reader[s], in a little gift-giving scheme.  To be honest, there's not much to it, I'm just going to list a few books (with links!), and all you'll have to do is send an e-mail to [email protected] with your name and mailing address.  Once you've done that, I'll read your e-mail, decipher you address, and send you these books:

My Sentence Was a Thousand Years of Joy by Robert Bly

Second Space by Czeslaw Milosz, translated by the author and Robert Hass

Worshipful Company of Fletchers by James Tate (which won the 1994 National Book Award)

There is no limit to how many packages I'll send out, but there is a deadline, which is Wednesday, December 20th at 12:00 AM (Eastern).  These are all trade paperback editions.  There will be more giveaways, and even an interview, coming soon.  Happy Holidays!

- MS

San Francisco Chronicle's "Best of the Year"

Four Ecco books made The San Francisco Chronicle's "Best of the Year" list:

• Adverbs by Daniel Handler
• Brief Encounters with Che Guevera by Ben Fountain
• High Lonesome: Selected Stories 1966-2006 by Joyce Carol Oates
• The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic

- MS

"Glitter and Doom"

Do you remember this movie?  I do.  At one point, some Egyptian child weighs his heart on a scale in hopes of joining his parents as stars in the night sky.  Also, it had to be explained to Cookie Monster that he could not eat Cezanne's apples.  The whole thing has really stuck with me.  I only mention this memory because, this past Saturday, I visited the Met for the first time at night.  I won't go into how wonderfully spooky the Greek statues or hieroglyphs made me feel, but I will suggest that you pay a visit to "Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s".  It is a diabolical feast of caricatures with Otto Dix ferociously carving his fellow citizens into their most deprave forms.  A host of other artists, members of the "New Objectivity" play along and make for a shocking exhibit.  My boy, Georg Scholz, makes only a brief appearance with a self-portrait--far on the tame end--but I was duly compensated.  Max Beckmann, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Karl Hubbuch, Ludwig Meidner, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz, and Gert H. Wollheim all feature.  Go!  The accompanying book is a fine object.  Click here for information on essays contained therein.

- MS

"I hope [blank] wears a helmet while riding his beloved Ducati; it would be intolerable to see this great strange brain spilled."  Find out whose brain here.

- MS

The Singer on the Shore

Gabriel Josipovici, author of Goldberg: Variations (the U.S. edition is forthcoming from Ecco in March '07), has had his essay collection, The Singer on the Shore: 1991-2004 (Carcanet), mentioned as one of 2006's most underrated books.  David Herman said The Singer on the Shore is a "superb collection of essays by one of the greatest critics of the last 30 years.  Worth it just for the first essay on the Bible." 

- MS