Dirda on Books

Michael Dirda (The Washington Post)

Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda took your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.

Each week Dirda's name appears -- in unmistakably big letters -- on page 15 of The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a hefty literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be turning out one of his idiosyncratic essays or rediscovering some minor Victorian classic. Although he earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain a myopic 12-year-old's passion for reading. He particularly enjoys comic novels, intellectual history, locked-room mysteries, innovative fiction of all sorts.

These days, Dirda says he still spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth, listening to music (Glenn Gould, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, The Tallis Scholars), and daydreaming ("my only real hobby"). He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, working. His most recent books include "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments" (Indiana hardcover, 2000; Norton paperback, 2003) and his self-portrait of the reader as a young man, "An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland" (Norton, 2003). In the fall of 2004 Norton will bring out a new collection of his essays and reviews. He is currently working on several other book projects, all shrouded in the most complete secrecy.

Dirda joined The Post in 1978, having grown up in the working-class steel town of Lorain, Ohio, and graduated with highest honors in English from Oberlin College. His favorite writers are Stendhal, Chekhov, Jane Austen, Montaigne, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell, P.G. Wodehouse and Jack Vance. He thinks the greatest novel of all time is either Murasaki Shikubu's "The Tale of Genji" or Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu." In a just world he would own Watteau's painting "The Embarkation for Cythera." He is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, The Ghost Story Society and The Wodehouse Society. He enjoys teaching and was once a visiting professor in the Honors College at the University of Central Florida, which he misses to this day.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Charlottesville, Va.: I just want to say Thank You for hosting this chat. Because of it, I have learned about many wonderful books that I might never have known about. Most recently, I've read "Little, Big", "Neverwhere" and "Small Gods" ahd have a couple of other recommended books in a stack waiting to be read.

This is the week of the Virginia Festival of the Book here, and tomorrow I have the pleasure of joining some of my book group friends and attending a luncheon where we'll hear Alexander McCall Smith. I heard him speak last year at a free talk and he is delightful. He also spoke on Medical Ethics and Law at the Medical School, so his talents go beyond fiction.

Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! The weather is sunny, if crisp, and there seems to be the possibility of spring in the offing--perhaps next week? In the meantime, I"m on break from McDaniel College, working on a book, thinking great and noble thoughts, and setting down immortal words. Personally, I believe that "the" and "a" will be with us for a long, long time. I'm not sure about my other words.
At any event, it's time for another hour's worth of book talk. I keep thinking of developing a more shizoid personality, so that I can have a partner in this madness, like the Car Talk guys or the actual Book Talk guys (Allen Stypeck and Mike Cuthbert).
But, like Whitman, I contain multitudes--as well as much silliness--and so will manage.
Clearly, Dirda is on one his happier mood swings. I suppose because the weather is improved and I seem to see how I might actually be able to write this new book.
But on to the show!

I attended the Virginia Festival last year and had a wonderful time, hanging out, in particular, with the bibliographical and textual scholars. I've read a little of Smith--Portuguese Irregular Verbs--but that book didn't work for me. Still, everyone says he is very enjoyable and obviously a dynamo of industry.

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Kalamazoo, Mich.: What do you think about Graham Greene? I'm a fan. But are there any writers currently working who you think are comparable?

Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Well, you could read writers that Greene admired: Brian Moore, who died a few years back, wrote a great many novels that combined the thriller and serious, often religious speculation. I'm particularly fond of a late one called The Statement.
Greene also admired R.K. Narayan, the great Indian novelist and short-story writer.
If you like the thriller side of Greene, you should read his great compeer Eric Ambler.

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Washington, D.C.: Mr. Dirda,

I just wanted to tell you what a pleasure it was to hear you speak at Politics & Prose last Monday evening, and that it was very exciting for me to get to exchange a few words with you when you signed my copy of "Bound to Please."

Reading your work always makes me want to return to the classics, especially the ones I managed to miss on my way through high school & college. I finished "Crime & Punishment" just days before attending your reading, and am now a little ways into "Great Expectations" (which I am finding hilarious!;).

As a recommendation to fellow chatters, I've also just read "The Geographer's Library", a new release that got a favourable review in the Post -- I loved it, it is the perfect lightly academic adventure for the dreary end of winter. It does a nice job of evoking the mysteries of the Balkans and the former Soviet bloc countries in Central Asia; I was just about ready to buy the next ticket to Tallinn (Estonia) when I closed the book!;

Cheers -

Michael Dirda: Many thanks for the kind words. I must look for The Geographer's Library. I do wish people would stop writing the sort of books that I wish I were writing. . . .

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Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Dirda: I've been rereading "Nights at the Circus" and "Wise Children" and looking at some of the literary criticism of Angela Carter's work. Gina Wisker writes that "the bulk of criticism which has established her reputation took place after her death in 1992." Prior to that some of her early work was out of print, a situation seemingly similar to Faulkner's before the Malcolm Cowley watershed.

Rushdie wrote a March 1992 NYTBR tribute: "A Very Good Wizard, A Very Good Friend." Highly favorable studies and whole conferences dedicated to her followed. QUESTION: In your last conversations with her, did you have a sense that she approached the grave confident of her eventual high regard? Thanks much.

Michael Dirda: Well, in our last conversations, she didn't talk about death at all. And I never brought it up.
But I would say that she was, throughout her career, a fairly hot author--always read, always a bit controversial, much admired. I reviewed Nights for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Wise Children for Book World--and both those ran on the front pages. She was known. The Sadeian Woman was much debated and The Bloody Chamber retellings of Grimm were high up on any feminist reading list. Science fiction anf fantasy fans had long talked about The War of Dreams and the other early novels.
In short, Carter had a lot of momentum behind her when she died. There was a period when more academic theses were written about her (at least in England) than any other 20th century author. Or something like that. I read this in The Spectator.
It's now that I'm a little worried. A writer starts to fade a few years after his or her death and if he or she doesn't get through that limbo will tend to be forgotten. Or at least half forgotten.

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Eagle Rock, Calif.: Michael,
I'm always jotting down recommendations from the chat and I had to ask you this. I requested Blaylock's Homonculous from the library and when it arrived it had the absolute worst cover I've ever seen. OK, one of the worst. Since it comes with your imprimatur, I'm not put off (though my wife can't understand why I'm going to read a book featuring a Lilliputian under glass on its front).

So my question: Does the cover ever discourage you from reading a book?

Michael Dirda: No. But then I like to epater le bourgeois--ie. shock the middle class. So I used to carry Harlequin romances around on the subway one week, and tomes like Kenneth Burke's Attitudes Toward History the next. Personally I wish they had pictures of leggy blondes on all dust jackets. (Okay, Venus and SciFI girl--don't attack me.)

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Elgin, S.C.: What's the most challenging book you've ever reviewed -- one that was so obscure or incredibly difficult you weren't really super-sure you even got the point, and it maybe took a lot of re-reading to get to the essence of the book or at least boil down your thoughts?

I ask this because I recently read Faulkner's "Go Down, Moses," which is not an easy read -- the geneology is extremely tangled, several characters have the same name, and critics to this day are still arguing about exactly what happens in the fourth section of "The Bear." And then there's the prose, which is, well, that kind of high-octane Faulkner prose where you have to proceed with caution. I don't doubt all this will become clearer when I re-read it.

But it's one of those books -- like "Ulysses" -- where you almost find yourself pitying the first critics who had to somehow carry the news of this new thing to the reading public.

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. I think Julian Rios's Larva was probably the most daunting book I ever reviewed (the piece is included in Bound to Please). Note that it's by no means the best book. A runner up would be Harold Brodkey's The Runaway Soul, which I found terribly boring in places. But I wrote a really superb essay on it. I don't know why I didn't include it in BTP--oh yes , I do. Because that book has only positive reviews.

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Bethesda, Md.: I'm about halfway through Ha Jin's 'The Crazed', and it seems quite remarkable, so far. Have you read his novels?

Michael Dirda: Nope. Should have, haven't.

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Silver spring, Md.: Nelson Algren and James Leo Herlihy, two of this country's finest writers in the past century, seem to have fallen into literary oblivion. Do you ever see a mention of either any more? What would your opinion be of their ranking.

Michael Dirda: Herlihy is utterly forgotten. Algren remains alive because his titles are catch phrases: A Walk on the Wild Side, The Man with the Golden Arm. A movie of the latter helps too. And, of course, his having been--mirabile dictu--the lover of Simone de Beauvoir.
I talked to Algren at the end of his life; he was living in a boarding house and writing a book about Hurricane Carter.
When I was a boy traveling to Mexico, for some reason I took along Conversations with Nelson Algren to read. Can't imagine why.

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Chamblee, Ga.: FYI from earlier discussions: Zeami Motokiyo, listed several weeks ago but not recognized, was an early Japanese playwright of the Noh tradition, and "Cities of Salt," mentioned last week, was the first of a five-novel series by the late MidEast novelist Munif.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. Of course, you could be making all this up and we'd never know. But I'm a trusting soul and believe you. I do like the title Cities of Salt.

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Los Angeles, Calif.: I absolutely love this chat: it's directed me to some stellar reading selections. One of my favorite books of 2004 was Robin McKinley's book, Sunshine. My question is if you've read it, and if so, could you direct me to other books similar in genre or subject?

Michael Dirda: Haven't read Sunshine. Is this a kid's book? McKinley is best known as a YA fantasy novelist--e.g. The Hero and the Crown. She's a very good writer, a Newbery winner in fact.
Hmm. This makes two books in a row I didn't know about. Clearly I need to spend more time reading and less time sleeping and eating.

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Middlefield, N.Y.: You mention Anna Karenina as one of your top works of fiction. Is there a commonly accepted "best" translation? Is there one you prefer? How about for War and Peace?

Michael Dirda: The longtime standard translations for Tolstoy were those by Louise and Aylmer Maude. These are the ones I've read. But Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are the hot Russian translators these days and they've done an Anna K (along with many other Russian novels), but not yet W and P.
You might look for an old edition of the latter with an intro by Clifton Fadiman in some kind of special series he did--it comes with maps and charts and genealogies.

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Dayton, Ohio: Michael, just want to second the recommendation from last week for Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog". Great big time-travel archaelogy adventure meets Victorian comedy of errors meets campus farce.

Michael Dirda: I'm still looking for it, and may have to actually ORDER a copy from someone.

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College Park, Md.: Good afternoon, Michael --

A couple of weeks ago, you seconded a poster's recommendation of Richard Adams' The Girl in a Swing. I know Watership Down is still well regarded; do Adams' other books--The Plague Dogs, Traveler, Maia, etc.--still hold up?

Thanks!

Michael Dirda: I don't know. My guess is that aside from Watership, Shardik (the bear novel), and Girl, he's not that widely read. But these have strong advocates who keep them around.

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Washington, D.C.: I have a reading question rather than a book question: I am a slow reader -- do you have any hints for increasing reading speed without sacrificing comprehension?

Michael Dirda: You might just try to put on a little speed and see what happens. I like to read slowly. As Thoreau said, it's not how many books you get through as how many get through you.
Of course, there must still be speed reading systems and classes. I once took a course in speed reading in high school and remember reading a Ray Bradbury colelction in 40 minutes. But really: Just enjoy one book at a time and don't worry about the next one.

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Long Beach-On-Pacific: I was curious as to your position in regards to the "authorship question" of the plays and sonnets of "William Shakespeare".
Are you an "Oxfordian" or a "Stratfordian"?
I personally find it odd to have the greatest contributor to our language being the son of an illiterate, the husband of an illiterate, and the father of two daughters, neither of whom could read, with one of them being able to sign her name only.
YOUR OPINION? Was it the glover's son from Stratford, or Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford?

Michael Dirda: I'm the son of a steelworker who never read a book in his life. No one, before me, in my extended family ever went to college. There are moments I'm not entirely sure my own children aren't illiterate. Need I say more?
Genius can spring up anywhere--and I'm not talking about myself.
Besides, most of the people you allude to were women, whose educational opportunities were fairly restricted in those days. And nobody ever said Shakespeare was a good family man.

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Boston, Mass.: Michael,

What can you tell me about William T. Vollman, specifically his "Seven Dreams" series? I have just finished reading a biography on Captain John Smith and the founding of Jamestown and while doing some Internet research I noticed that Vollman has written a novel about Jamestown entitled "Argall." It looks interesting but I know very little about the author. What are your thoughts, if any?

Michael Dirda: Vollmann possesses some kind of genius, if only logorrheic. He writes enormously long novels, half of which are historical in some fashion, half of which are about prostitutes and low lifes. He's also written a seven volume work on violence and war. The amazing thing: He's really a superb writer, with an instinctual flair for prose poetry. But you have to be devoted to keep up with his work.

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Atlanta, Ga.: I haven't been able to catch the chats for the last two weeks, unfortunately, but I enthusiastically support the views of the person who said to get Connie Willis' "To Say Nothing of the Dog". It is superb, especially if you have a background in 19th century Britain. I hadn't read "Three Men in a Boat" before I read TSNOTD, but you really don't need to. It goes off on its own. Also, re Alexander McCall Smith, I too read the Portugeuse Irregular Verbs book and didn't care for it. But the earlier five books set in Botswana with Precious Ramotswe are much much better. Try "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" some day when you want light reading. It is charming.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. My wife has read Smith and really enjoyed him.

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Arlington, Va.: I wrote a few weeks ago about wanting to read Infinite Jest this year. Well, that book is approximately 1000 pages long, and I have now worked my way through about 2 percent of it. I also peeked ahead a few pages, just to confirm that the current paragraph does eventually end.

Michael Dirda: Sail on!

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Iowa City, Iowa: Congratulations for being shortlisted for a book prize, not sure which one it was but think it had something to do with Los Angeles. I tried to submit this late last week but missed the deadline. I am going to Columbus, Ohio for work for the next month and wonder if you had any regional suggestions besides your memoir... Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Bound to Please is short-listed for a Los Angeles Times Book Award in Current Affairs. (I presume they don't have an essay or criticism category.) This is very gratifying--not least because it will allow me to go to Los Angeles for a weekend and hobnob with friends there, among them Les Klinger, author of the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes.
Columbus, Ohio means James Thurber. Read My Life and Hard Times.

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Los Angeles, Calif. -- Sunshine: McKinley's Sunshine is an adult novel set in a post-Voodoo wars world: where human cities have been decimated, and vampires control 1/5 of the world's capital.

It's a fantastic read. Another thing that got me to read it was Neil Gaiman's endorsement on the cover - "Pretty much perfect."

Michael Dirda: Neil is a good guy, and a friend of mine, but he does endorse a lot of books. I admire the kindness and generosity of spirit, but it's now hard to find a fantasy novel without his name on it. Stephen King used to be this way too. They're both nice guys. As Virgil Thomson once said, contrasting the composers Lukas Foss and Aaron Copland, "When Aaron got to the top, at least he sent the elevator downstairs again."

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Washington, D.C.: I'm looking for a biography of Thomas Jefferson that includes a discussion of his political views and ideas. The ones I have found so far often focus on his life or house, and not a lot about his political philosophy. Any recommendations? Thank you.

Michael Dirda: Hmmmm. The five volume Dumas Malone set on Jefferson should be an obvious starting point.

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Plano, Tex.: Michael, I just started reading Doctor Dogbody's Leg by James Norman Hall (co-author of the Bounty trilogy) and enjoying it so far. An old British naval surgeon tells how he lost his leg while reminiscing in a seaside pub. However, it's not one story since this raconteur tells several amazing versions of the story -- all completely different. Regulars at the pub encourage Dogbody to tell another story to any newcomers. The stories are set around events during the Napoleanic wars. The book is sort of a mix of Hornblower and Jorkens. Doctor Dogbody's Leg was reissued a few years ago. Have you ever read the book? Thanks

Michael Dirda: No, I haven't read it, but I used to own--probably still have somewhere--a copy of the book. Was it Heart of Oak classics that reissued it? Something like that. I picked up that it was a series of tall tales, but never quite found the leisure to sit down with the book. ONe of these days.. . .

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Baton Rouge, La.: How do you know if a book you are writing is too contreversial for anyone to touch?
Say about Walmart from inside the stores?

Michael Dirda: Well, you might send your book proposal to an agent and see what he or she said. A friend of mine was going to write a book about Walmart once, and got a job there, but quit after two days because it was so boring.
In general, publishers welcome a certain amount of controversy--so long as the reporting and the facts are accurate and well supported.

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Fairfax, Va.: I've recently finsihed reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. This was a great time, and has really piqued my interest in many of the main characters, especially the Royal Society members. Can you recommend any good books on Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren, or especially Robert Hooke?
Thanks! Love the chat!

Michael Dirda: I. Bernard Cohen is the man for Newton; Lisa Jardine for Christopher Wren; and Hooke appears in various 17th-century studies, but I can't recall a particular book. Doubtless there is one, however.
If you liked Stephenson's cycle,you might enjoy Iain Pears long, complex mystery An Instance of the Fingerpost, which is set against this world of 17th century science and philosophy.

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Not Telling, USA: You mentioned your wife above. I have a question (and a veiled personal complaint but please let that go unremarked upon): Does your wife like to hear about the books you're reading? And do you need to talk about the things you read or does the writing about them satisfy that urge? I've...heard about marriages in which that is not the case.

Anyway, any thoughts you care to share?

Michael Dirda: I never talk about what I'm reading with anyone. I will sometimes suggest a book to Marian if I think she'd like it. Her favorite authors are Jane Austen, Dorothy Sayers, Dick Francis and Tolstoy.
I do talk about what I've read in reviews, courses and this chat, but I would never belong to a book club. For me reading is, if I may so so, a solitary vice. I feed my soul with it. I am, by nature, a loner, though I can be charming enough when giving talks or attending cocktail parties.

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Washington, D.C.: Michael -- I'm a 40 year old man who somehow has never gotten around to reading Jane Austen. A friend gave me a copy of Emma, which I haven't yet begun. Is this a good place to start? I haven't read that much 19th century fiction. Thanks.

Michael Dirda: No. Read Pride and Prejudice first. Indeed, you might even watch the very fine BBC film of P and P before starting the book--with Colin Firth as Darcy.

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Ashcroft, BC: Bearing in mind that not every book, no matter how popular in its day, is destined to live forever and be universally known, perhaps that's where specialised fans come in, keeping a writer's work (or part of it) alive. Usually this is only for other enthusiasts, but occasionally it brings the writer back to more widespread attention: look at August Derleth and Donald Wandrei's championing of Lovecraft back in the 1930s, and the recent LoA volume of Lovecraft's works. Even if the devotion of admirers doesn't result in such a spectacular resurrection, it does at least ensure an author isn't completely forgotten.

And perhaps it's as well that it's readers who decide what, if anything, of an author's works will go on to lasting fame following the author's death; if Conan Doyle had had his way, Sherlock Holmes would be forgotten now, whereas 'The White Company' would be on every bookshelf.

Michael Dirda: Who's Sherlock Holmes?

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Arlington, Va.: Ian Pear's "An Instance of the Fingerpost": I tried to get through this, but the 4 different viewpoints eventually bogged me down. Was I just not getting the post-modern nature of it, or is the book overrated? Thanks

Michael Dirda: Well, since I praised it mightily in a review, I can hardly call it overrated. But it is a complex tale, complexly told. Think The Woman in White or The Good Soldier. It's not a thirller you speed read.

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For Iowa: You can also read the big rambling multi-generational "... And Ladies of the Club", set in a fictionalized Xenia, approx 1 hour west of Columbus.

Michael Dirda: You can if you really must.

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Arlington, Va.: An earlier commenter described: "An old British naval surgeon tells how he lost his leg while reminiscing in a seaside pub."

He lost his leg while reminiscing in a pub? Those places are dangerous!;

Michael Dirda: Happens all the time.

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Minnetonka, Minn.: Michael,
Are you a member of any bibliophilic society? Does the Washington, D.C. area have any clubs like New York's Groliers or Chicago's Caxton? Also what is your opinion of Book Arts? Do you have any books that you consider art objects? Finally, do you have an opinion about Fine Press books?

Michael Dirda: I"ve addressed the Caxton Club and was given a very handsome leather volume signed by all its members.
There is a group called the Baltimore Bibliophiles, which I'd also talked to, but I don't think there's a Washington group--though I could be wrong on this. At any event, I'm a member of no book groups.
I'm very interested in the book arts, having written CAring for Your Books long ago in my youth. I studied bookbinding for a year with the now retired chief rare books conservator of the Library of Congress, owned all but one issue of Fine Print magazine, and occasionally buy fine press books--I have a Nonesuch Jeremy Taylor that I had bound by Tom Albro (the guy who taught me binding). I also have books like the Grenfell Press Bowmen of Shu, by Guy Davenport and Davenport's Wo Es War by the Finial Press. But in general I don't collect fine press books. In fact, I can't say I collect books at all. I just buy books that I think are either cool or look as if they'll be fun to read.

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Anonymous: I just looked up Alexander McCall Smith and read: "Over the past twenty years, Smith has written more than fifty books, including specialist academic titles, short story collections, and a number of immensely popular children's books."

I see that and immediately decide not to read this author. Is it really possible for anyone to write 50 books in 20 years that are worth anything at all? That is how Stephen Ambrose, for one, got into trouble - by having a team of researchers compile books under his name.

Michael Dirda: Well, the novels are fairly short. What's hardest to take is that SMith has also had a day job as auniversity professor.

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Austin, Tex.: Hi Michael,

Have you ordered books from The Folio Society, and if so, have you been happy with its production and selection of works? I'm tempted to sign up for membership, but am a little daunted by the high price tag of most of the books listed.

Michael Dirda: I do own a score of so of the Folio editions, and many of them are quite handsome, well printed, etc. They aren't really fine press books--partly because Folio does reprint things. But I"ve never belonged to the actual society: I've either bought the books second-hand--they are easy enough to find in used bookstores and online--or through a friend who is a member. In fact, said friend has a couple of Folio Books for me right now.

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Chamblee, Ga.: Any word on Amiri Baraka? I've been looking at his 1964 play "Dutchman." Really something.

Michael Dirda: Amiri got into a lot of trouble as the New Jersey poet laureate when he wrote about the Twin Towers and offended a lot of people. Most readers agree that he was at his best as LeRoi Jones, and that after he became Amiri Baraka his work grew increasingly polemical and programmatic.

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Riverdale Park, Md.: Dear Mr. Dirda,
I'm looking for a good book about wine to better educate myself. Would you be so kind as to recommend one that is both informative and well-written?

Thanks in advance!

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. Oz Clarke, Robert Parker, Hugh Johnson, and Andre Simon, and Robert Parker are the big names in wine guides. I'd ask for advice at the shop where you're going to buy your wine. There's a charming old anthology of stories and articles about wine called Dionysus, edited by Clifton Fadiman.

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Washington, D.C.: Micahel -- Re: Alexander McCall Smith -- there are people who can do lots of things well, including writing lots of great books. I think of Jane Yolen in the children's book world, for example. I think you once referred to your wife as a polymath, and I think that's what McCall Smith is as well.

Michael Dirda: Good point. And with that it's time to end this week's program. I'm sorry that I didn't get to all the questions. But do try next week.
Until next Wednesday at 2: Keep Reading!

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