Dirda on Books

Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michael Dirda takes 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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Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! It's already hot, muggy, and overgrown here in Washington--and it's still only May. The 17 year cicadas are about to emerge in force, and for the next month or two we'll be suffering their constant background din, while large repulsive insects cover trees and grass and crunch under your feet. THink Biblical plague.
Anyway, I'm here and for an hour we'll escape--partially--into the world of books. As it happens, I am trying desperately to finish a half dozen writing projects before going away to Switzerland and Italy next week. I hope to conduct the discussions from there next Wednesday and the Wednesday after that, but I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to. WE'll see. Just y'all come back now, if I'm gone for two weeks.
Anyway, let's look at the queries and quandaries of today.

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Cubeville, Md.: Can you recommend one or two good comic novels for someone who likes PG Wodehouse (have read them all), Lucia and Mapp and Arthur Conan Doyle's Gerard stories. I ask for help even though you have a wonderful list in Readings but it's so long I don't know which to choose first or second or third. Thanks!

Michael Dirda: You've read all of Wodehouse--no one has read all of Wodehouse. Be that as it may, you should try Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm, August Carp. Esq, by Himself, and Expecting Someone Taller by Tom Holt (who wrote two fine sequels to Mapp and Lucia), and probably Terry Pratchett, probably Mort. There's a start.

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Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Dirda: I really enjoyed Christina Stead's 1940 novel, "The Man Who Loved Children." I found it a really unique reading experience. I know you listed it in "An Open Book." What are your thoughts on the novel? Thanks much.

Michael Dirda: In fact, what I say is Randall Jarrell praises The Man Who Loved Children, indeed helped the novel to be reprinted. But it's sat on my shelf for years now and I still mean to read it. Jarrell claims it was the best portrait of family life he knew.
More recently, Tim Parks wrote an introduction to Stead's Letty Fox, when it was reissued by NYRB Books, and again praised her artistry.
Sadly, I even have that book as well as three or four others by Stead, but just haven't gotten round to reading her. Sigh.

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Minnetonka, Minn.: Do you have any thoughts about auctions of literary archives? Conan Doyle material is being sold by Christie's and many think the material belongs in a public institution instead of going to private collectors. Associated with the auction was the tragic suicidal death of a Conan Doyle scholar who thought the material would be unavailable.

Michael Dirda: I haven't seen the Christie's catalogue, though I do know about the sudden death you mention (shoule we not say his name?). I'm of two minds about this: On the one hand, yes, this sort of material does belong in a great public institution where it can be consulted by scholars. That's my big, right hand, by the way. My tiny, left hand, however, says this: Collectors need a shot at great material, they often build up libraries and archives and care for them in ways that official institutions never do, and it keeps the book world vital. My only regret is when a private owner acquires important material and then restricts or forbids access to it.

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Arlington, Va.: One question... or maybe several related questions: How do you do it?

When I read these chats, I am, over and over again, astounded by the breadth and depth of your knowledge of books in many different areas (e,g., history, literature, religion; reference sources). And, I'm amazed by your ability to remember what you've read.

Do you keep journals about what you read to help you retain content and your reactions? Do you read systematically (e.g., several biographies about a particular person or all of Faulkner) to help create a "package" of knowledge in particular areas or about particular authors?

Of course, I know reading and writing about books has been your job, but, still, it's awfully impressive. Would like to hear your responses to these questions and would also be interested in hearing from others about reading patterns, ways of remembering, whether they or you think remembering is important, any other comments about experiences or strategies as a reader.

Thanks very much.

Michael Dirda: I think your larger question--about reading habits and patterns--would make a good theme for our next discussion. Oh wait, let's make it for the first discussion after I get back from Europe. So remind me about this. THings are a bit iffy while I'm away.
As for little moi: I'm probably less well read than you imagine. At least I feel that I am--I know all the books I would like to have read, should have read, haven't yet read, and probably never will read. (See previous posting about Christina Stead.)
That said, I don't keep notebooks, other than a commonplace book for favorite passages and quotations (and this doesn't have more than a couple hundred or so entries in it--I'm selective.) I do pay close attention while I read and having to write something semi-intelligent about a book does further focus one's mind. But since I like books so much, they are constantly buzzing about in my brain--an event will to mind a quote, one book will remind me of another, etc etc. Moreover, I live surrounded by books of all sorts, see them everyday, pick them up, glance at a page or two, think about them.
I do like to read, though I like to write even more (when I'm given the chance). So I guess I'm bookish, though I don't regard myself as a milquetoasty Mr. Peepish sort of guy. I like music, travel, drink and women nearly as much as I like books. In fact, one of those I like even more than books.
Hope that helps. Everything is a matter of attention, of focus.

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Ashcroft, B.C., Canada: For the reader looking for good comic novels in the style of Wodehouse and Benson: try any of Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon's novels from the same time period: "No Bed For Bacon," "A Bullet in the Ballet," "Don't Mr Disraeli," etc. Great fun. And if you read "No Bed For Bacon," tick off all the plot elements which were used in the film "Shakespeare in Love;" there are quite a few, although the screenwriters claimed it wasn't an influence.

Michael Dirda: Ah, you keep reminding me that I used to own nice hardback edition of No Bed for Bacon in a jacket--but where is it now? I remember that it and A Bullet in the BAllet were reissued in paperback about 20 years ago, but don't think I've ever seen the Disraeli book. At the time I owned Bacon, I read a few pages and felt the humor was somewhat strained. At any event, it didn't make me keep reading at that time--but I was doubtless a callow, ignorant youth. Pity, though, that I no longer have the book, now that I've entered my years of maturity and wisdom.

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Rockville, Md.: As my children grow older, I clear out the books they have "outgrown" (a term I use loosely, because my 15-year-old has been found happily browsing through her Eric Carle collection). Most of the books I hand on to friends and relatives with children who will enjoy them. But some are treasured volumes that I want to keep for the next generation.

My problem is that I am running out of shelf space to store books that aren't used regularly. What is a good way to store the books so that in 10 or 15 or 20 years, they will be in good shape for my putative grandchildren?

Thanks for your advice.

Michael Dirda: You should seek out my elusive Opus 1--a paperback called "Caring for Your Books" published long ago by the Book of the Month Club as a free dividend. In general, you should store oversized children's books flat (so the spines don't warp), keep them in a cool area, where the temperature and humidity are relatively constant (and reasonable), and keep the sun away from them too. Mold is your chief enemy, so be wary of dank, wet basements. The attic is better, but can bake materials a bit. The sun will brown them. Oh, and insects devour the glue in the spine.
Perhaps you can make up a carton or two and store them at an aged relative's--someone with a spare room.

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Washington, D.C.: Good day! I recently wrote to convey my fascination and satisfaction with the author Robertson Davies. I continue to devour it all and perk up every time I see you mention or address his works. Might you please give a sentence or two on why you always cite "Bred in the Bone" as Davies' "masterpiece?" -- I disagree; my best description would be that "The Rebel Angels" and "The Lyre of Morpheus" are superior, and perhaps, this trilogy could be considered his "masterpiece." What quality is inherent, or not as evident in Davies' other works, for you to consider "Bred in the Bone," the superior? Thanks!

Michael Dirda: Okay. The Deptford Trilogy--Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders--is usually cited as Davies masterwork, and it is certainly very, very good, especially Fifth Business (which much influenced a recent novel by John Irving). I like What's Bred in the Bone because of its range--several generations of a family, a huge cast of characters, questions of art, society and culture, gothicky effects, and brilliant writing. I love The Rebel Angels as a fine academic or campus novel, but it has a more restricted canvas and a quirkier denouement. The Lyre of Morpheus seems to move to lumber a bit, and move too slowly, and just doesn't have the panache of Bone.
But DAvies last book, The Cunning Man, seemed to me a surprisingly good one, better I think than Lyre (and certainly better than Murther and Walking Spirits).
Do you know his essays? A Voice from the ATtic, The Enthusiasms of RD, and a couple of posthumous collections--they're well worth reading and you get a sense of Davies's gusto for books, life and learning. I must say, though, that the supposed humor of his Samuel Marchbanks books escapes me. They seem forced and cutesy and sometimes disagreeable.

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Arlington, Va.: You still there?

Michael Dirda: yes

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Niagara Falls, N.Y.: I'm reading Harriet Rubin's "Dante in Love" which is a guide book to "The Divine Comedy." Rubin includes a dozen different translations of the cantos. The ones by W. S. Merwin seemed superior to me. Do you have a favorite translation of Dante's masterpiece?

Michael Dirda: No. Merwin's a very good poet, but I think he only translated the Purgatorio. I believe Robert Pinsky did the Inferno.
I suppose that I would turn to Singleton, even if he's not very poetic: He's the great American Dante scholar. In my youth I read Charles Eliot Norton's prose version, John Ciardi's poetic version, and one or two others. I keep the CArlyle-Wicksteed Inferno by my bedstead because it has the Italian on facing pages and was the version used by T.S. Eliot.

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Dublin, Ireland: Can you recommend some intelligent works of criticism regarding Stendhal? Thanks

Michael Dirda: Well, obviously the finest work on his autobiographical La Vie de Henry Brulard is the Cornell dissertation titled "On Beyle's Strand: A Study in Autobiobraphy"--you, being in Ireland, will pick up the pun in the main title (ie. Yeats's "On Baile's Strand"). Oh, the author? Someone named Michael Dirda.
In general, you should just read around Stendhal's personal writings--I'm assuming you're coming to him from the novels. But there are good books by Robert Alther, Michael Wood, Robert M. Adams, and Victor Brombert in English. In French you should look for anything by Victor Del Litto. Paul Leautaud wrote some fine essays and diary entries on Stendhal.

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Elsewhere: Hi Michael,

I'm usually just a lurker, but since I'm writing, I'd like to say thanks -- I've picked up a lot of tips on good reads from these chats!

Right now I'm reading a book about the history of Algeria, and I'm wondering if you could suggest some good authors from the region? I've read the obvious -- "L'Etranger" by Camus -- so I am wondering if you could recommend other works by Camus, or other good writers from the Maghreb in general?

Thanks!

Michael Dirda: You should read CAmus's "Noces" et "L'ete" (Wedding and Summer) for an evocation of Algerian sunshine. You might try his superb notebooks too.
Alas, I know that there are lots of Francophone authors now at work, many of them from North Africa, but I'm too far out of that loop to name them. I need to go back to Marseille for a while.

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War books: I have always had trouble reading books written about wars, about combat, about torture. Otherwise I am widely read. Would you consider this a shortcoming in my readings on the human condition?

p.s. I am a fairly young woman

Michael Dirda: I don't like such material myself, and have avoided most graphic depictions of violence in fiction and reporting when I could. There are some books, though, that you need to try nonetheless. For instance, you mention the human condition, and you should certainly read Malraux's great novel of that name (called Man's Fate in English).
Still, I think you can be cultivated and educated and never have read The Killing Fields or Storm of Steel or In Cold Blood. But all three of these are worth a try, when you feel up for it.

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Used book store finds: Michael,

I picked up Friedrick Heer's "The Medieval World" for $1.35. Is that a bargain?

I also found Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy." The back blurb mentions it was a favorite of James Joyce. Is it similar to "Ulysses?"

Michael Dirda: Yes, Tristram--along with Rabelais--is probably as close to proto-Joyce as you will find. But still very different. It's a great book. All fiction comes out of Don Quixote and Tristram Shandy.

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St. Louis, Mo.: Michael,
I am reading "The Lockwood Concern" by John O'Hara. I found it in a second hand bookstore and it looked fun and tawdry in a 1950's/1960's sort of way (I typically read classics). While the plot is interesting -- I find the writing devoid of subtlety. There is far too much dialogue and the characters all sound (talk) the same. Am I just being too critical? What do you think of his work?

Michael Dirda: My old friend George V. Higgins always felt that O'Hara never got his due as a great American novelist, and a master of capturing speech. In my own case, I remember liking and being moved by Ten North Frederick and many of the short stories. Still, the novel I read first, and that O'Hara wrote first, is still probably his best: Appointment in Samarra. That is almost a classic, a book on the high second tier of American literature, with, say, Miss Lonelyhearts and Winesburg, Ohio.

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Annapolis, Md.: For storing books, I buy the under the bed see thru platic storage units and store them under the beds in my house. I type a list of what is in the storage units and tape it inside the lid so I am able to see the list of what is in the particular unit. I hope this helps.

Michael Dirda: Good idea. I have art in folders under the bed.

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Smyrna, Del.: Hi Michael,

Which translation of "The Illiad" would you recommend?

Thank you!

Michael Dirda: There are several good ones: The oldest, and a great poem in its own right is the translation into heroic couplets by Alexander Pope. For a long time the standard was that by Richmond Lattimore, and several commentaries are pegged to that version. More recently, Robert Fagles Iliad and Odyssey have established themselves as the versions for our time. Rumor has it that Fagles is at work on an Aeneid, thus going head to head with the other great translator, Robert Fitzgerald, whose Odyssey was long standard and whose Aeneid was much acclaimed when it appeared.

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Venus: Hi Michael. Switzerland and Italy, eh? Nice.

I'm wondering whether you read the NYT book review of a new novel called "The Jane Austen Book Club." It's about a group of six people who've formed a book club to discuss Jane's novels, and it sounded quite charming. I've ordered a copy for myself and will devour it as soon as I can.

Also the new Alexander Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow looks really good as well. Do you have plans to read that?

Thanks.

washingtonpost.com: Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton, (Live Online, May 10)

Michael Dirda: Haven't read the Chernow and probably won't. As it happens--let me break this to you gently--I enthusiastically reviewed Karen Joy Fowler's novel in Book World. It is a terrific summer book, ideal for Austen fans and anyone who likes intelligent wit, touching situtations, and excellent writing.

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Ashcroft, B.C., Canada: For the person in Rockville asking about how to store children's books: excellent advice from you (of course), but don't forget the mylar covers for anything with dustjackets; they help prevent against tears and creases while the books are stored (although the jackets are best removed altogether while the children are actually reading them). And while I don't know what the schools around Rockville are like, if they're like the ones in these parts then they might well appreciate any books (in decent shape!) you're getting rid of which don't fit any of your friends' and relatives' children.

Michael Dirda: Very good advice, indeed. And yes, mylar covers are important if your children's books are first editions, or you value the dust jackets.

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Springfield, Va.: Hi Michael, Here's one you probably haven't been asked before: What is your favorite time and place to read? I picture you sitting in a big leather chair in a wood paneled room with a roaring fire during the winter and in the spring sitting under a large shade tree in a meadow.

Michael Dirda: Dream on, buddy. I picture myself in those places too, but never get beyond daydreaming.
I do a lot of reading propped up uncomfortably in bed. My favorite place to read is in a barber shop or a quiet diner. Or library. I don't have a reading chair, don't even have a proper desk. I have children instead. I am attempted, at times, to add: Alas.

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Art under the bed: Books that have been read under the bed seems reasonable. Although just looking at books on shelves can be a pleasure, it seems a lesser pleasure than looking at art. Granted, wall space is limited, especially if one has a lot of bookshelves, but I hope you take that art out to look at it fairly often or rotate what you have on the walls and under the bed from time to time.

Michael Dirda: I do. My wife, after all, is a professional art conservator, a specialist in prints and drawings, employed by the National Gallery of Art.

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Washington, D.C. Again: Your answer to my Davies query - Thank you. I did read "Enthuiasms", have read all the fiction I'm aware of except "The Cunning Man" (can't wait), and was halfway through the compiled "Marchbanks" and apparently left it on a bus! I'm considering roughing a couple of his plays; what else can I do? Thanks again!

Michael Dirda: There's that gigantic biography by Judith Skelton Grant called Man of Myth. And don't miss Davies' half humorous/half M.R. Jamesian ghost stories in "High Spirits."

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Annandale, Va.: What do you plan to read while you are in Europe?

Michael Dirda: Alas, books I have to review as soon as I get back. I had hoped to read William Dean Howell's Indian Summer, about a middle-aged man who goes to Italy and finds himself torn between a beautiful middle-aged woman and a beautiful young woman. I also thought of taking my friend John Auchard's edition of Henry James's Italian Hours. Someday, I dream, I will be able to read gratuitously, for pleasure alone. But I'm always on deadline, even now.

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War books: If you want to understand civilization (how it is advanced, protected, or destroyed), or human behavior (in committing, or responding to, organized killing), you need to have an understanding of war. Thucydides is still one of the best analysts of motives and consequences of states' actions in war, and Eugene Sledge's memoir about fighting on Peleliu and Okinawa, With the Old Breed, is the best book I've read about combat, sensitive to the brutalization, boredom, strain and horror young men undergo perennially, without being cynical, cold, or the least bit sentimental.

Michael Dirda: I won't disagree, though I don't know Sledge's memoir. I would add--and it might be a gentler introduction--John Keegan's early masterowrk, The Face of Battle, in which he describes land warfare at three different battles, all of which took place at roughly the same place: Agincourt, Waterloo, and one of the disasters of WWI that escapes me now.

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Arlington, Va.: Have you thought of having an assistant distill these chats so as to make the many recommendations (e.g., for comic novels, for detective novels, whatever) available to readers? Idea would be something like "What Readers Know and Want to Know." Not a great title, but it captures the idea that the distillation could capture both questions and answers from you and chat participants.

Michael Dirda: Can you please forward this notion to my agent and editor, along with the assurances that people would buy such a book?

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Washington, D.C.: Aren't children better than having your own reading chair?

Michael Dirda: I find that you can sit on them just so long, then they begin to squirm.

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Oxford, U.K.: Have you read any David Lodge and what do you think?

Michael Dirda: Yes. Changing Places and Small World are classics of academic comedy. They are much loved in academe itself, in part for the portrait of Morris Zapp (widely believed to be based on Stanley Fish). I thought Paradise News was a bit diffuse, though still good, and Thinks... a little bit unfocused as well, though funny and touching. He's a very enjoyable writer.

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Anonymous: I was "a fairly young woman" when I read In Cold Blood and it terrified me so that I couldn't sleep at night for weeks!;

Michael Dirda: Well, who could blame you?

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Front Royal, Va.: Michael, I just finished reading "An Open Book" (amazed that our little library had a copy) and I wanted to thank you for the beautiful feelings of nostalgia it gave me for my own college days. To live the life of academia, the life of the mind! Is that what you will be doing after you leave us at the end of the year?

My question for you: do you ever read the same books as your wife? I'll be getting married this summer, and while we both love to read, our tastes in books differ greatly. Is there some way to bridge this difference, or should I resign myself to the notion that while we may sit and read together, we'll never really be able to discuss our reading?

Or should I just rejoice in finding a beautiful leggy blonde who likes to read as much as I do?

Michael Dirda: Hmm. Marian reads for pleasure and so sometimes our books overlap--ie. she loves Tolstoy and Austen, and so do I. But I give her lots of books that I know I won't read and she read some and not others. When we were younger we discussed books more than we do now. Now we just fight about household chores, children, finances, etc. etc. On the other hand, she's more outgoing, friendly and community oriented than I am, and so does tend to talk books with her friends.
You have a beautiful leggy blonde who likes to read. Yes, you should just rejoice.

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Arnold Town, Calif.: Michael, I think I enjoy your humor almost as much as your bookishness!

Michael Dirda: So do I, so do I.

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Upstate New York: Hi Michael, love these chats.

I just wanted to share a list created by SDSU professor Larry McCaffery called The 20th Centrury's Greatest Hits: 100 English Language Books of Fiction. Although pretty post-modern leaning his descriptions make fascinating reading and have turned me on the authors and books I probably wouldn't have read.

Michael Dirda: Oh, that sounds good. I'll need to look for it. I remember that McCaffrey compiled two good books of interviews with contemporary writers.

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Sacramento, Calif.: Dear Mr. Dirda:

I cannot claim to have read all the short fiction of P.G. Wodehouse but, at least in the late 1970's, the University of Iowa had what appeared to be (after checking standard bibliographies) all the Wodehouse novels in book form -- including some very obscure ones. (e.g. Cricket/School stories published pre 1915) And I read them all, needing diversion in a not good time in my life. Even the early non-comic novels were interesting once you knew enough to look for signs of the later Plum. All in all, it was a mad thing to do.

But, considering how much of the serialized early materials have probably never hit book form, you are probably right that no one has ever read them all. (A few academic specialists perhaps?)

Michael Dirda: Not a mad thing at all. There can be few more harmless and enjoyable occupations in life than reading P.G. Wodehouse. You should join the P.G. Wodehouse Society.

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Lithicum, Md.: (follow-up from a couple weeks ago) June Thomson writes solid, straightforward police procedurals featuring Chief Inspector Finch/Mudd, his assistant, Detective Boyce, and an regular cast of characters. She's no P. D. James or Ruth Rendall, but the series is quite good. Her characters do develop over time, but mostly she sticks to the police work and is a good pick if you don't want a lot of extra frills and subplots. She wrote regularly in the 1970's and 1980's, less so recently as, like the rest of us, she must be getting older. Her last is "The Unquiet Grave," which came out a few years ago.

I still consider Elizabeth George's first book, "A Great Deliverance," one of the best mysteries I've ever read, but I haven't even read her last few, which I consider mysteries/potboilers that should be edited down by a couple hundred pages, at least. And Reginald Hill's last Dalziel/Pascoe mystery is 800 pp. long! I'm sure it's brilliant, and I do intend to read it, but it's not the sort of book you can toss in your tote when you head off on vacation, unless it's a long, very leisurely vacation.

Michael Dirda: Thanks.

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Cleveland, Ohio: I recently started "The Chill" by Ross Macdonald and am enoying it greatly. It's the first Archer book I've read, and I noticed it comes in about the middle of the series. Is the Archer of "The Chill" significantly different from the one of earlier books?

Michael Dirda: He's a bit more introspective perhaps. But the early books are less Freudian and mannered than the later ones. The Chill is my favorite MacDonald.

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Arlington, Va.: Nightshade Books is publishing the Collect Jorkens, various tales by Lord Dunsany in three volumes. I have already received volume 1 and volume 2 is supposed to be printed this month with the third due by the end of year. It surprises me that Dunsany had falled into the out-of-print category and I am glad that his work is back to being available.

Michael Dirda: So am I. I'm supposed to be writing an essay about the Jorkens stories, ideally before I leave for Europe. We'll see. All I need is the time.

And I see that we've reached the end of our time for this week. Anyway, stay in touch. The next couple of weeks will be a bit iffy, but I hope to be here for you.
Till then or whenever, keep reading! And, oh yes, I"m sorry for all the questions I never got to. Send them again.

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