Dirda on Books

Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Columnist
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 2:00 PM

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

Each week Michael Dirda's name appears -- in attractively large type -- in The Post's Book World section, where he writes about new novels, neglected classics, fat biographies, European literature, fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, poetry, works of scholarship, the occasional children's book, almost anything under the rubric of "arts and letters." Although he earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain, well into middle age, a myopic 12-year-old's exuberant passion for reading.

As he has for the past 40 years, Dirda says he still spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth, listening to music (classical, jazz, oldies, country and western), and daydreaming ("my only real hobby"). He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, writing. His most recent books include "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments" (Indiana hardcover, 2000; Norton paperback, 2003), his self-portrait of the reader as a young man, "An Open Book" (Norton, 2003) and a collection of his essays and reviews titled "Bound to Please" (Norton, 2005) Last year he brought out "Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life" (Henry Holt, 2006) and this fall Harcourt will publish "Classics for Pleasure."

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." Dirda is a member of several literary associations, including the Baker Street Irregulars and The Ghost Story Society. Despite a penchant for quiet and solitude, he enjoys giving talks, teaching, and traveling. People tell him that he can be pretty funny for a guy who usually has his nose in a book.

(He also thinks he can be pretty funny at times...)

An archive of his reviews is available here.

An archive of his discussions is available here.

Dirda was online Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 2 p.m.

A transcript follows.

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Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! It's a drizzly day here in Washington, and I feel in just that mood. Last night I finished an essay for Book World that took a lot of energy, and earlier this morning was on the Diane Rehm show talking about Dracula with far more knowledgeable people than I am. I also joined Facebook on a whim to check out a friend's site -- and possibly my own children's. Is it my imagination that Facebook is mainly a place for young people to go through the tentative stages of dating? What do you like? What do you read? What do you look like? Etc. Maybe, though, there's more to it. I don't know. I make these periodic attempts to be more au courant but end up feeling more like a fogey than I think I am.

Well, enough. If I'm not careful, I'll end up sounding as curmudgeonly and bitter as V.S. Naipaul.

So, let's change the mood. I'll just step away for a moment to put on my clown suit.

There, that's better.

On to this week's questions!

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Lenexa, Kan.: I saw a moving thing the other night -- the elderly scholar, translator, and poet Willis Barnstone (says he's two years older than Anne Frank would be if she'd survived) reading at Rockhurst. He read a poem about his father and talked about his own son and then when reading his translation of "The Prodigal Son" broke down totally, deeply into tears, reading the redemption part.

Dickens called it the world's greatest plot. With a different take, Shirley Temple in a movie with Guy Kibbee said the one who fared the worst in the story was the fatted calf. Anyway, wondering if you know Barnstone's work and what are your favorite Bible stories? Thanks as always.

Michael Dirda: I know Barnstone as one of our best poet/translators. In my essay on Cavafy in "Classics for Pleasure" I quote the Aliki and Willis Barnstone translations.

My favorite Bible stories? Many are those involved with love. The story of Abishag, the Shunnamite ("Now King David was old and though they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. . . "). Ruth and Boaz. All of Genesis. Christ on the mountaintop being tempted by Satan with all the treasures of the earth. The various parables. "He who is exalted shall be humbled, and he who is humbled shall be exalted."

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Friendship Heights, Washington, D.C.: Hello Mr. Dirda,

Hope you, family, and Seamus are well.

"Classics for Pleasure" finally arrived in my mailbox! I've been enjoying it so much. I loved your essays on "Kim" and "The Secret Garden" -- I like re-reading both of those books, too.

I haven't read anything by Italo Calvino (featured in your book, too). Should I start with "If on a winter's night"?

Thank you very much.

Michael Dirda: "If on a winter's night" is my favorite Calvino and that's probably the place to start. But as he says at the beginning of that book, he is an author known for refusing to repeat himself, for each book being different. If you like beautiful imagery, you should look for "Invisible Cities." "Cosmicomic" is quite funny at times.

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Baltimore: Just wanted to write in and thank you for your movie recommendation "Stone Reader"! I finally got around to watching it and ended up loving the entire premise. Did you ever read "The Stones of Summer" and do you have any obscure "one-hit wonder" novels that you recommend?

Michael Dirda: Glad you enjoyed "Stone Reader" -- I think it's quite wonderful. I did meet Mossman once, and have his book around here somewhere, but I'm ashamed to say I haven't read it. (Strikes breast three times, while murmuring mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa -- which reminds me: I have a Nissan Maxima and have long thought to acquire a vanity licence plate that says Culpa. That way I could refer to Mea Maxima . . . Culpa.)

One-hit wonders? Do you mean a writer who has only written a single good book? John Hadfield's "Love on a Branch Line" -- out of print and hard to find -- is a delightful comic novel and his only book, so far as I'm aware. Hasek's "The Good Soldier Schweik" is also a singleton classic. There are, of course, many authors who are remembered only for one book.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: I've never read much in the travel essay genre, but lately I've been reading a series of books by John Lloyd Stephens on his travels around Central America in the 1840s. They're absolutely enthralling, which now makes me want to read more travel literature. Are there any authors you would particularly recommend? My experience in this genre hasn't gone much beyond these books and Bill Bryson.

Michael Dirda: You might look for a couple of anthologies of travel writing, "The Norton Book of TW" and "The Oxford Book of TW." One is edited by Eric Newby, the other possibly by John Julian Norwich.

The English seem to be the real masters of this genre: The sandy-haired young Brit traveling into the remote outposts of empire. The classic Middle Eastern travelogue is Alexander Kinglake's funny "Eothen"; its successors include Peter Fleming's "Brazilian Adventure," the four early travel books of Evelyn Waugh (now bound together in a Modern Library edition), Robert Byron's "The Road to Oxiana" (about which I write in "Classics for Pleasure"), Auden and Macleish's "Letters from Iceland," Eric Newby's "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush," and the more recent books of Redmond O'Hanlon, Colin Thubron and many others.

Many used bookstores keep a shelf devoted to classical travel literature -- it's a much collected genre.

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Arlington, Va.: In the last year I have been devouring books by Christopher Moore. In my opinion, "Lamb" is probably his best work but so many of his books are just laugh out loud funny and they are very clever and imaginative. Have you read any of his books and if so what is your opinion of his writing?

Michael Dirda: I know that Ashcroft loves Moore's work, as do other friends of mine. But I read the first half of "The Stupidest Angel" and it just didn't work as well for me as I expected. Some pages were very funny, though. Maybe I was in a bad mood or I happened upon one of his less successful efforts.

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Dallas: So far I'm really enjoying "Classics for Pleasure." I did notice that the same blurb from Guy Davenport on "Bound to Please" is on the new book's cover ... you need to tell your publishers to come up with something new.

I'm looking for books in a similar vein to "The Lunar Men" and "The Professor and the Madman." Any suggestions?

Michael Dirda: Don't blame them about Guy. A couple of the blurbs are repeated from book to book. But Davenport was my favorite essayist -- scholarly, funny, incredibly learned, knowledgeable in ways I can only dream about -- and I feel honored to have him associated with anything I've written. The blurbs from John Clute -- our greatest authority on fantasy and science fiction -- and Michael Kinsley are spanking new, however.

Let's see. John Brewer's "The Pleasures of the Imagination" (on 18th century); Michael Levey's "Early Renaissance" and "Later Renaissance"; the books of Ruth Brandon (especially the one on the Surrealists); "The Five of Hearts" about the Henry Adams circle; The Metaphysical Club (James, Pierce et al).

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NY, NY: Just finished reading "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. Found it quite interesting and gives one second thoughts about dining out. Have you or any of your readers read this book. I would like to know what their impressions were.

Michael Dirda: No, but I've read George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London," which opens with a description of restaurant work in Paris. It's better you don't know what goes on.

I've seen Bourdain on TV and read smaller chunks of him, and he was quite funny and fun.

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Minnetonka, Minn.: Michael,

Your article on Langdale Pike appeared in the new (updated font and printing) Canadian Holmes. Perhaps that will stimulate more subscriptions.

I am reading Gore Vidal's second book of autobiography, "Point to Point Navigation." He is like my father-in-law who would tell the same stories over and over. There is some new stories that are charming, surprising and even a little bitchy. Each memory triggers another recollection. Have you read it? What is your favorite memoir?

Michael Dirda: I have "Point to Point Navigation"; actually bought it at the bookstore because of its opening sentence: "As I make my way, gracefully I hope, toward the door marked Exit. . ." But it remains for me to get back to it and read further. I do enjoy Vidal, though. He has the prose equivalent of perfect comic timing.

My favorite memoir is Stendhal's "The Life of Henry Brulard." Brulard is the name he calls himself, but the book is essentially a true memoir, as it stops when Stendhal is 19. It's the secret model for "An Open Book."

Among modern memoirs I'm a great admirer of Alison Lurie's first publication, the sixty page memoir of her friend V.R. Lang. It's really a portrait of a remarkable set of friends in the 1950s at Harvard, including Edward Gorey and several celebrated poets.

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Knoxville, Tenn.: I just read Calvino's "Cosmicomics" and loved it; this, after not really liking some of his other stuff. So I recommend that as a place to start -- of course, could be that I'm older now and have better taste.

Also, you're on Facebook? This automatically makes you the hippest book writer in America. I'll friend you, if you won't be freaked out. And you're partially right in your estimation of it, but only partially. I'm always constantly amazed by the humor and wit people display on there -- I think you'd appreciate it.

Michael Dirda: Am I on Facebook? I signed up, filled out as little information as I could, and have never actually done anything more. I just thought I'd go check the thing out. Don't know if I'll do anything more than that. Still, I do like the sound of that -- "hippest book writer in America." Dave Eggers will be soooo jealous.

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Richmond Hill, Ga.: Last weekend I read Hadfield's "Love on a Branch Line," which I had heard about on these chats. I loved it, from the names, like Arkady and Miss Tidy, who does just that at the end, to the arc of the story, from Jasper the bore going there to Jasper the non-bore leaving. I'd really like to read something else by Hadfield, but when I looked on Amazon all I saw were the titles of anthologies he had edited. Of course, it's had to improve on perfection, but did he write any other fiction? It would brighten up this dark and drizzly day here to learn that he did.

Michael Dirda: Nope -- he didn't. Not that I know of, anyway. The Saturday Book, which he did edit for many years, is a hardback magazine, full of essays, poems, pictures by famous writers. It's the kind of book you'd find in the guest room at Chatsworth.

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Reston, Va.: I was feeling pretty good about myself, reading "1491," but managed to come home from the bookstore with a copy of "Mr. Knightly's Diary." Is there any hope for me?

Michael Dirda: Worry not: You've done the right thing.

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New Lenox, Ill.: Re: Request for books about books/reading: Two of the Godine publisher's titles are: "Reading in Bed" selected and edited by Steven Gilbar and "Where Books Fall Open" (Paintings by Bascove).

Apropos request for bookstores: Bookman's Alley in Evanston is a terrific used-book store (what ambiance); I've bought scads of books from Roger Carlson, who was mentioned in the novel, "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger. If the poster traveling to Chicago decides to make the trip to Evanston, Amaranth Books on 828 Davis Street is a clean, well-lit, reasonably priced used-book shop, where I've purchased many volumes. Also, for a traditional independent bookstore in Chicago, Brent Books, which is run by Adam Brent, son of legendary Chicago bookman, Stuart Brent (author of "The Seven Stairs"), at 309 W. Washington St, which is in the Loop (downtown). If the poster goes to Women and Children First, an independent bookstore on 5233 N. Clark St. (between Foster and Bryn Mawr Aves), they have the best selection in the city of titles for, by, and about women, and a very good gay/lesbian stock (the staffers are all teachers, storytellers, political activists, etc). It's in what we call Andersonville (a historic area), located in the Edgewater community on the north side of Chicago, my old stomping grounds. If you'd like a bite to eat, stop in for breakfast or lunch at Ann Sathers, right down the street (cinnamon rolls, yummy). Printer's Row Fine and Rare Books is an antiquarian bookshop near Sears Tower at 715 South Dearborn Street (John LaPine is the proprietor). It has the appearance of a fine Victorian bookshop, lined with 19th century stained glass bookcases and a fireplace, and it's a centerpiece of the historic Printer's Row District in Chicago. (Their stock includes modern first editions, fine press editions and leather-bound sets, children's illustrated books, books on books, Rockwell Kent, antiquarian, etc.)

Re: Lexington's request to think of other collections of short stories "that are meant to be read as a whole and the reading of the stories together enriches the experience:" Alice Munro -- such as, "The Beggar Maid."

For general information: The two-volume, sixth (print) edition of the "Shorter Oxford English Dictionary" (includes CD-ROM, which I have installed on my laptop) was recently released.

I finished reading the newly translated "Other Colors: Essays and a Story" by Orhan Pamuk. He talks about how for "thirty years I've spent an average of ten hours a day alone in a room, sitting at my desk," and about his library of twelve thousand books "in a country that views the nonreader as the norm and the reader as somehow defective." Some of my favorites were the political "The Anger of the Damned;" the essay on Nabokov - how the afterword for Lolita took Nabokov "a month to write, though it is only ten lines," "his flair for le mot juste, Flaubert's term for this brilliant selectivity," and Pamuk depicts Nabokov's "prose, as beautiful as the fluttering wings of a butterfly." Somehow one thinks that this depiction might have brought a smile to Nabokov's face.

Lastly, in "My Father's Suitcase: The Nobel Lecture," he says, "As you know, the question we writers are asked most often, the favorite question, is: Why do you write? I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can't do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I want others, all of us, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live, in Istanbul, in Turkey. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone...I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because every one expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life's beauties and riches into words..."

Michael Dirda: What a wonderful posting! I want all you slackers out there to take inspiration from New Lenox. This is what I was promised when I took on this job: I would just sit back, learn interesting things about books and publishing, and enjoy the knowledge and wit of others. . .

In truth, many thanks for the wonderful information, especially about the Chicago bookstores. I have the new Shorter OED -- I'm kind of an Oxford author having contributed to the Oxford American Writers Thesaurus -- but haven't installed the CD on my laptop. I've got the previous edition of the SOED on it, and am not sure I need the new yet.

Wonderful quotes from Pahmuk. Again, many, many thanks.

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Washington, D.C.: I was mildly surprised that over the past two weeks no chatter has mentioned the names Doris Lessing or Anne Enright, even though those writers had just won the Nobel and Booker prizes, respectively. I wonder if this is just another indication of the slide to irrelevance of these prizes.

Michael Dirda: Timing is everything, and I suspect that Lessing has passed so utterly into the realm of the Irrelevant Grande Old Dame that people just don't care one way or another about her Nobel prize. Just as she doesn't herself.

As for Enright: I suspect the reason for such quiet is that not many people have read her novel. People do prefer more popular, better known Booker winners -- e.g. Ian McEwan.

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Ashcroft, BC (CR): John Hadfield:

Although "Love On a Branch Line" was, to my knowledge, John Hadfield's only novel, he was well known as an editor and anthologist.

His first book, A BOOK OF BEAUTY; AN ANTHOLOGY OF WORDS AND PICTURES (1952) was so popular that its proceeds enabled him to purchase the 16th century Barham Manor. For fans of the supernatural, he edited the anthology A CHAMBER OF HORRORS, which can still be found, and is always worth a read.

Other works included: EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY: IMAGES OF VICTORIAN LIFE; THE SHELL BOOK OF ENGLISH VILLAGES; VICTORIAN DELIGHTS: REFLECTIONS ON TASTE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; and COWARDY CUSTARD: THE WORLD OF NOEL COWARD.

Hadfield was editor of THE SATURDAY BOOK for many years, and also set up his own publishing house, Cupid Press, which specialised in finely bound limited edition anthologies of poetry and engravings.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks, Ashcroft. I do have "A Book of Beauty," but not these others, several of which sound very interesting. Pity he never wrote any more fiction.

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Indianapolis: Is "To Kill a Mockingbird" possibly the most infamous of an author as a one-book wonder?

(Mind you, I love the book.)

Michael Dirda: Infamous may not be the mot juste, but yes, among modern books, it is almost certainly the best known, best loved one book wonder.

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Washington, D.C.: Hello,

Orhan Pamuk is coming to Georgetown Univ. on Monday, if you are interested.

Dear Georgetown Community,

President DeGioia and Provost O'Donnell are pleased to announce that on Monday, October 29th, Georgetown University will welcome back to campus Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel Prize winner for literature, to confer upon him an honorary degree. The event will take place at 5:00 pm in Gaston Hall. On this occasion, Orhan Pamuk will speak about his writing from the same stage where in 2002 he talked about his novel My Name is Red to the incoming first-year class. This is an extraordinary event that will offer all of us the rare insight into his world, the world of daydreams, that as he says "help us, from the moment we enter them, forget the tedious world we long to escape."

Mr. Pamuk will hold a book signing in Gaston Hall, immediately following the honorary degree ceremony. Please bring your own book to be signed. We will not be selling books at the event.

Seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

For security reasons, please have available your Georgetown University GoCard

or government-issued photo identification. No bags, backpacks, or purses will be permitted in the venue.

This message posted by Andrew Pingrey for Meghan Hogge under the authority of the University Registrar and Assistant Provost.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. It should be a wonderful occasion.

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Ashcroft, B.C. (BR): They're not quite one-book wonders, but J. Meade Falkner and Norton Juster come to mind: Falkner only wrote three novels, all of which are classics of their kind (my favourite being the wonderful "The Nebuly Coat"), while Juster wrote the brilliant "The Phantom Tollbooth" and not, I think, much else, at least fiction-wise. Still, if you've only got a book or two in you, these are great ones to have written.

Regarding Christopher Moore: I do like what I've read of his, but supernatural comedy is hard to pull off, and what makes one person kill herself laughing will make another roll his eyes. I must admit to liking "The Stupidest Angel" a good deal more than you did; the combination of zombies and "It's a Wonderful Life" just appealed greatly. As they say about cars, your mileage may (and obviously did) vary.

Michael Dirda: Juster did write a couple of other books -- one a kind of YA quest novel and a clever little book called something like "The Point and the Line." I've read all of them, but "The Phantom Tollbooth" really is a modern classic.

Well, Ashcroft, you make "The Stupidest Angel" sound very appealing -- even if I failed to measure up to it.

My favorite zombie line: Homer Simpson, after having just shot Flanders, "That was the zombie Flanders?" Something like that.

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Mockingbird: Hello and thanks for the chats!

Speaking of "To Kill a Mockingbird" have you read Charles Shields' biography of Harper Lee? She sounds like she had a rather unhappy life.

Michael Dirda: Nope, but I wouldn't be surprised.

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Bleak House: I consider myself a good reader, and like Dickens' other works, but have been slogging through "Bleak House." I'm nearly at the halfway point, but am having a hard time finding motivation to keep going. Is it worth pushing through, or should I pick up something else from my "to-be-read" pile?

Michael Dirda: I think the sections told by the simpering heroine can be hard slogging, but I found many of the other chapters and characters quite wonderful. Plus, it's a kind of sensation novel, a thriller even. But if it doesn't work for you, try something else. You're not being tested on any of this, right?

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Takoma Park, Md.: Moore is very uneven, sadly.

"Lamb" and his earliest several ("Practical Demonkeeping," "Coyote Blue," and the first one about the vampires) are the best by far. Outside that it is premise-plus-hijinks-ensue, which is what you get a lot from high concept humor anyway.

There aren't enough Pratchetts, darn it!

Michael Dirda: Hear, hear!

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Washington, D.C.: I read Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" mostly because I was a cook all though college and part of the way through grad school. He is kind of a blow hard (and we weren't doing anywhere near that much drugs in the kitchens I worked in), but he really does make clear what a tough job it is and the perverse pride you develop in your burns and cuts and your ability to work fast despite them and under enormous pressure. Whenever junior faculty moan about the difficulty of teaching and publishing, I tell them they have no idea what a genuinely difficult job is like.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. And when I've taught I tell them they have no idea how easy their lives are, compared to 1) deadline journalism, or, if I'm feeling really annoyed with them, 2) working in a steel mill, hauling slag in a tunnel that runs beneath the railroad tracks upon which molten ingots travel to the rolling mill: You're in the half dark, the air is full of particles, you wear green asbestos clothing, a hardhat and a respirator . . .

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Memphis, Tenn.: Please share your thoughts on the current controversy surrounding the efforts to publish earlier (more expansive) versions of some of Raymond Carver's stories.

Michael Dirda: I think Carver's first versions of his stories should appear, in some form, probably a scholarly edition. But no matter how good they are, their moment has passed. It's only the versions in "Will You Please Be Quiet Please," "Cathedral" and "What We Talk About It When We Talk About Love" that matter now. If Carver had felt strongly about this, I suspect he would have had the stories republished in his lifetime -- he did a good deal of work with small presses.

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Monterey, Va.: Hi, Michael,

Last week, "Clouds", by Aristophanes was mentioned. My favorite Greek comedy is "Acharnians," whose lovable protagonist, Dikaiou (Just Citizen), announces to the chorus that he "comes no more to the marketplace, where the cry is always 'Buy, Haggle, and Fleece.' " That's one for my literary occurrence book.

If you want to listen to another of the Audiopartners recordings of Wodehouse, I advise against "How Right You Are, Jeeves."

The reading (by Ian Carmichael) isn't as charming, and the story just isn't as good. The bloom was off the rose.

My library just got in a copy of "Beowulf," retold by Nicky Raven and illustrated by John Howe. It's quite gripping.

I was peeking ahead in my "Classics for Pleasure" (which I'm enjoying immensely) to see what you had to say about one of my favorites, Georgette Heyer. Besides appealing to my inner Miniver Cheevy, she really is a gem of an author. She actually considered herself an historian.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. Yes, though I refer to Regency romances in talking about Heyer, I make a point of calling her a historical novelist, and a very witty one at that. Do you know the absolutely terrific "World of GH," by Jane Aiken Hodge?

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Jakarta, Indonesia: For the person a few weeks ago who was interested in Rock 'n' Roll books, the great Nick Hornby -- in whose books music figures prominently and who was also for a time the New Yorker Magazine's rock music critic -- picked "Mystery Train" by Greil Marcus as one of his five most important books. He said it was the first book about music that he read that wasn't ephemeral and he pronounced it "very inspiring."

I would also recommend Nick Hornby's classic "High Fidelity" for anyone interested in rock music.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. We mentioned Greil Marcus last time, but not "Mystery Train" by name. I think the book must be in something like a fourth edition.

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NY, NY: Concerning "The Leopard" (1958, Lampedusa), have you seen the 1963 movie?

If so, how do you feel about the movie vs. the novel?

Michael Dirda: I have seen the movie -- on the big screen at the Kennedy Center -- and thought it was magnificent. It skips the last chapter of the novel, but suggests the Prince's death by having him walk away into the night. The movie is, as movie critics used to say, a visual feast.

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You're in the half dark, the air is full of particles, you wear green asbestos clothing, a hardhat and a respirator . . . : Or they could be fighting wildfires in Southern California, too.

Michael Dirda: Yep. But I haven't done that.

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Boston: Hi Michael:

Love the chat. I am currently reading "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris and have already read his other book "Theodore Rex" (I read them out of order). Just wondering if you know when the third book in the trilogy is due out. These are fascinating and well written books and I am looking forward to the third one. Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Sorry, I don't. But I've been on panels with Morris and he can quote TR on any subject that comes up in conversation.

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Lexington: Michael, You may have missed this recent news item concerning Cormac McCarthy. An English teacher in Texas has been put on paid leave and is being investigated for distributing harmful material to a minor, after a student picked McCarthy's "Child of God" from a non-required reading list for pre-AP students compiled by all of the English teachers.

The parents went not to the principal but to the police to complain which is why it is being treated as a criminal matter. Now that book is obviously not for most ninth graders but the intention was to list mature books for those wanting to try them from an AP list.

I remember trying Faulkner about that age, I think it was "The Bear." In my southern town in the late '50s you would need your parents to check out such material from the University library (the city library was careful not to carry much Lawrence and no Henry Miller ). The town's only popular bookstore wouldn't carry questionable books either, but there was a small specialty store, mostly local history and horses, and the owner would get such books for you and bring them out from the back of the store in a brown wrapper.

Incidentally, two of the most banned books for being unsuited for this age group are Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and "The Bluest Eye".

Michael Dirda: Ah yes: Books -- write them, read them -- nothing but trouble. In my boyhood I couldn't check out "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" from the public library without written permission from my parents. Everyone knew that James Joyce was pretty smutty at times.

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Fire Country, Calif.: On a recommendation from a respected source I am reading "With" by Donald Harington. It's unlike just about any fiction I've read before. A good comparison, I think, would be to outsider art. Do you know his work? If so, where would you place it?

Michael Dirda: Harington has been called the best unknown writer in the country. I've read pages of his books but no more: He seems really good to me. I've got "Ekaterina" on my Nabokov shelves -- it's a retelling, sort of, of "Lolita" with sexes reversed.

There are more questions, folks, but I've suddenly run out of steam. Until next Wednesday at 2 -- keep reading!

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