| | Dirda on Books
Hosted by Michael Dirda
Washington Post Book World Senior Editor
Thursday, June 05, 2003; 1:00 p.m ET Washington Post Book World Senior Editor 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 describing his travels to, say, a P.G. Wodehouse Convention. 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 -- just the sort of range you'd expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner in criticism (1993). 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. In the fall of 2000 Indiana University Press published "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments," a selection from Dirda's Book World columns. He hopes to bring out a companion volume soon. 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, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell 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'd also like to spend six months in Florida writing a book that would become a runaway best seller, a critical success, and the hottest cinematic property of the year. A guy can daydream, right? The transcript follows. 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. 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.
| Hemmingway's Choice, Ohio:
Catching up on recent chats, I noticed the question regarding Hemmingway's favorite drink. Saw some answers/suggestions, but not the correct one: his favorite drink, esp. in the Key West years, was the daiquiri (and not the frozen variety). Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! One hour early this week because I need to go up to the Library of Congress to be on a panel at a conference for big name librarians from around the world.
Anyway, for the next hour, we can discuss the world of books, reading, etc. etc.
Today, by the bye, the sun is shining in Washington, I'm on the mend from my illness of last week, and I've cleaned up my desk and environs. At my side is a bowl of rainy day ham and bean soup. I'm relaxed as I'm going to get, considering my Type A personality (do not be fooled by the laid back persona I present in print), so let's go.
Actually, one or two posters did say that daiquiri's were Papa's favorite, but thanks to be reminded.
________________________________________________ Chevy Chase, Md.: Thank you for hosting the session. Could you make some book/author recommendations? In general, I enjoy books by Fitzgerald, Somerset Maugham, and occasionally Virginia Woolf, and am open to more modern authors. Some of my favorite books include "The Hours," "Moveable Feast," and "The Razor's Edge" -- all because of their tight but original writing style as well as their eloquent portrayal of human emotions and behavior. On the other hand, I'm not crazy about mysteries or one of those modern novels that dwell too much on dysfunctional families/childhood (I feel like this topic is overused.) I also don't do well with books that are written on the subconscious level, e.g., "Sound and Fury" and "Mrs. Dalloway." So, given these preferences, do you have any book/author recommendations? Thanks much! Michael Dirda: Well, I do, but what you should be doing is reading the book review sections, including Book World, and keeping an eye out for new titles that sound appealing. Or even some old ones--I've frequently written about "classics" of one sort and another. Of the writers you like you could probably go on and read a lot more Maugham, for instance: Do you know his tight and witty novel about the literary life, Cakes and Ale? Or his travel books like The Gentleman in the Parlour? Or his wonderful short stories--"Rain," "The Bookbag" "Red" or all those on espionage themes collected in Ashenden.
Have you read Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night? Or Woolf's essays?
Of recent novels you might try Ian McEwan's Atonement.
But really, you should visit a library, poke around, read a page or two and just plunge! ________________________________________________ Washington, D.C.: Could you please recommend a novel or two set in the Bronze Age? For some reason I am drawn to this time period. Thanks! Michael Dirda: I am waiting for a question like Will you recommend a novel about a red-haired woman who likes to wear plaid and goes by the name of Alison?
The Bronze Age, hmmm. We're talking Homeric times and therabouts, right? How about some Mary Renault? Or is she too late? Probably. Robert Graves's Watch the North Wind Rise imagines a kind of bronze age culture of the future. How about the Mabinogion? Or its retelling by Evangeline Walton? There must be novels about Icarus and Dedalus? Isn't there one by Michael Ayrton?
As you can tell, I'm at a bit of a loss here. Anyone out there have some help to offer? ________________________________________________ Springfield, Md.: Hi, Maybe this is too much in the way of popular fiction for you, but I'm wondering if you read The DaVinci Code and, if so, what you thought of it. Personally I thought it was a heck of a good read with some fascinating background on art and icons and religious history. I'd like to learn more about the basis for the book. If you read it, I'm wondering if you can recommend some nonfiction books that might give me some more insight into the surely controversial ideas that Dan Brown put forth. Personally, I didn't find them farfetched at all - - certainly no more than the version of Christian history that endures today. Thank you. Michael Dirda: My admired colleague Pat Anderson loved the book, and I trust his judgment. But I read the opening chapter--the murder of the curator--and thought it a bit hokey. I suspect that some of the ideas in the book are drawn from all these theories about a secret society protecting the Holy Grail--one was called something like Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Also Foucault's Pendulum deals with some of the same themes. There's also an old book on some of these, and related themes, The Morning of the Magicians, by a couple of Frenchman (it's translated). There's something in human nature that yearns to believe that there are secret masters out there running the show. ________________________________________________ Somewhere, USA: Michael, I am dire need of a book about a red-haired woman who likes to wear plaid and goes by the name of Alison? Any tips? Michael Dirda: Hmm. There's Alisoun in Chaucer's Miller's Tale? Close enough. But I'm not sure they'd even invented plaid by then.
________________________________________________ Venus: Hello Michael. Have you read Fay Weldon's new auto-bio "Auto Da Fay?" Also, the New York Times review alluded to a triple-pun in the title but I can't see it. Can you? Michael Dirda: Jon Yardley reviews it this Sunday and I review a new life of Sonia Orwell. Auto da Fay--well, autobiography of Fay; Auto da fe, in the Inquisition sense, as for a third, I'd have to stretch--Is she crazy about cars? ________________________________________________ Comment: I didn't like Charlotte Allen's review this weekend. She just used it as an excuse to bash Walker Percy. If she wants to write a piece of criticism on Percy, that's fine but this seemed kind of underhanded. I disagree with her too, she says that Percy isn't a good storyteller (which I dispute), but there's more to literature than storytelling, -- (Why is Dostoevsky better than Margaret Mitchell?) and Percy's certainly the most profound of the bunch Allen discusses. Please don't use her again . washingtonpost.com: The Searchers (Post, June 1) Michael Dirda: Sorry, I like Charlotte Allen's writing in general, and she knows religion very well. I think a certain amount of personal feeling gives a review a certain spice. Yes, there's more to literature than storytelling, but as Forster used to say, "Oh, yes, the novel tells a story." ________________________________________________ Lewisville, Tex.: Hi Michael,
Believe it or not, I only just started browsing through 'Readings' and I'm blown away. You are a superb writer. So, while I wait for 'An Open Book' to come out, can you suggest other collections of essays, on books or otherwise, that are close to your own writing style and spirit? Thanks.
Michael Dirda: Blown away! You could be a little more enthusiastic, don't you think? In the preface to that book I mention some of the writers who inspired me--from Clifton Fadiman to Cyril Connolly to M.F.K. Fisher to Janet Flannet et al. Check 'em out.
I've also submitted a fat collection of my more critical essays for possible publication next spring. ________________________________________________ For Bronze Age: How about works written in rather than about? Beowulf? Maybe the Eddas? Michael Dirda: Yes, good choices, but are they still the bronze age? Which reminds me that the poster should look for W.P. Ker's great study Epic and Romance, or his little book The Dark Ages. ________________________________________________ Montclair, N.J.: Okay, shamefully enough I hadn't read Crime and Punishment until now, but I just finished it. I'm interested in your view of its religious undercurrents. I felt like some scenes were Biblical allegories (correct use of that word?), for instance the early one with Marmeladov in the pub, while he pours out his awful story and you just want to punch him, but Raskolnikov is a good Christian and thus puts the reader to shame. And also Marmeladov's dying scene, when his wife says awful things but makes his death as comfortable as possible. Anyway, your thoughts? Michael Dirda: Well, Dostoevsky is many things as a writer, but he's always a religious one, in some sense. Sonia represents the true Christian spirit in the novel, Raskolnikov, the errant sheep who still yearns, despite himself, for the sheepfold, etc etc. But I think his conversion in the end the weakest part of the book. What I think D does so well is get inside a troubled conscience--and we all have troubled consciences of one sort or another. I have an essay on the book, geared to the new translation, in which I compare R to a contemporary black kid, who yearns to make it but can't quite manage to make ends meet and so . . . C and P is one of those books that grips you from the first page and just won't let go. ________________________________________________ Woodbridge, Va.: Have you ever met Jeanne Marie Laskas, who writes the Significant Others column in the magazine for your paper? I picked up her book "Fifty Acres and a Poodle" because the story tells of her move from the South Side of Pittsburgh to a farm in southern Pennsylvania. I come from Pittsburgh. I grew up in Pittsburgh and "moving to the country" books vicariously fulfill a lifelong fantasy. Parts of the book were hilarious, much funnier than her column. Michael Dirda: Never met her, but she's obviously a very good familiar essayist and, from your testimony, memoirist too. ________________________________________________ Fairfax, Va.: I am a perennial beginner when it comes to learning Latin, so it has only recently dawned on me how appealing the poetry sounds when it is recited or sung aloud (EX: "alleluia, resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia"). I don't know if it's all those x's and c's, but it is so masculine (I'm female, but as a tenor I sing with the fellows in a schola). I recall a poem about the martyrdoms of St. Peter and Paul, also full of x's (lex and rex were in there). Are you at all a fan of Latin? Michael Dirda: Yes, a fan, but only a shaky Latinist, not having studied the language until college. Among my daydreams is the one where I take off a year and plunge into reading a lot of Latin literature. As it is, I can make my way through lyric poems with a trot. ________________________________________________ Bladensburg, Md.: Hi Michael, I'm looking for your opinions. Most book authors and/or playwrights, in all the history of movies and later TV, never agree with visual interpretations of their work. Perhaps Eugene O'Neill is the only one so far as I know. He approved strongly of the silent film version of his play Anna Christie. But I look at it like this. If Tolstoy was living in the late 1960s and saw the faithful 12 hour Russian movie adaptation of War and Peace, he would've undoubtedly found things that he wouldn't have liked. It's just the way writers are! Michael Dirda: Well, yes. Films and books are two different media--in a movie you generally have two hours to tell a story that might be 600 pages long, you give a specific face to every figure in the book (with attendant limitations), and you have to appeal to a wide audience. In a book you can slow down, speed up, as seems appropriate (whether as writer or reader) and the imagination plays a far more important role. And that's even before we talk about the thing I care for most: style. ________________________________________________ Lancaster, Pa.: Picked up Leslie Fiedler's "What Was Literature" again this weekend; talk about a critic who's roaringly and pugnaciously drunk on his own literary mead; reminds me how much we miss him in our current critical scene. So the question, where do Fiedler and Alfred Kazin fit into your own firmament of literary critics? Michael Dirda: Oh, I though Fiedler was a hoot from the moment I saw his title "Come back again to the raft, Huck honey." He was, as you say, nothing if not grandiose--Uncle Tom's Cabin, Birth of a Nation, Gone with the Wind and Roots were his picks for the great American epics. And you can see how he's right in a way.
Kazin I admire--especially in his autobiographies--but his literary histories always struck me as too sedate for my taste: They were intelligent, insightful and all, but I rather doubt he'll be much read in the future. On the other hand, one can say this about Fiedler too, and nearly all other critics. It's not a profession in which to aspire to immortality. ________________________________________________ Washington, D.C.: Folks are often asking about books for their kids and I thought I'd pass a suggestion on. I just finished Sandra Day O'Connors autobiography/History of the Southwest and ranching, Lazy B. As I was reading it, I kept thinking how I would have really enjoyed the book in my early teen years -- not that I didn't enjoy now. The chapters were short, writing style straight forward, and the topic was one I would really enjoyed as a youngster. Michael Dirda: Thanks ________________________________________________ Lewisville, Tex.: Have you ever thought of writing The Dirda Lifetime Reading Plan? Michael Dirda: Well, there's a kind of mini version in An Open Book--that is I talk about the books that shaped me and my editor made me include a list--drawn from my notebooks of the time--in which I listed the classics I'd read by age 16. It's a pretentious seeming list, but accurate.
I could do such a book, with pleasure, but I'm not sure it would differ all that much from Fadiman's original. ________________________________________________ re: Bronze Age: You're right to recommend Mary Renault. She's simply the best. Try "The Mask of Apollo," my favorite. Michael Dirda: Thanks. ________________________________________________ Fairfax, Va.: Last week someone was looking for good essay collections. I remember enjoying essays by George Orwell.
Speaking of essays, does Muriel Spark write essays? Are they literary analyses? I love her novels,but haven't read her other works. Michael Dirda: Yes, Orwell's a great essayist.
Spark has written nonfiction--a biography of Bramwell Bronte I think and maybe one on Mary Shelley--or am I hallucinating these? But I don't think she writes essays much. ________________________________________________ Washington, D.C.: What version (or translation) of the Bible would your recommend to Eenglish speaking readers and why? Thanks! Michael Dirda: I'd still go for the Authorized Version, aka King James, or the Revised Standard Version, which keeps 90 percent of the AV language, but corrects mistakes, factual and otherwise. ________________________________________________ SciFiGirl: I don't know if this will qualify as Bronze Age, but Firebrand by Marian Zimmer Bradley is about the Trojan War -- the main character is Cassandra. It's probably her best book (Mists of Avalon notwithstanding). But otherwise most stuff seems set more during the Peloponnesian War and after -- sort of the Golden Age of Athens. Mary Renault, though, is wonderful, and triggered my love for the ancient world. Last of the Wine and the Praise Singer are two of my favorites by her. Michael Dirda: Thanks too. ________________________________________________ Loma Portal. Calif.: Michael, I just ordered a book about Jane and Thomas Carlyle, my interest provoked by an article in the Times of London.
As I don't know the works of Carlyle, and will probably want to read something of his after the bio, what could you recommend? Michael Dirda: Carlyle wrote tons, but much of it tends to be in essay form. You should probably look for a Selected Writings and go with that. The French Revolution is available in an old Modern Library Giant; On Heroes and Hero Worship has nice short chapters; and then there's the famous Sartor Resartus, which is fairly concise. Those are probably the books to start with. His letters and reminiscences are also appealing. You have to be in the right mood to take Carlyle, who is given to the bombastic as well as the brilliant. ________________________________________________ Oxford, UK : I read a column by someone recently claiming that the minor tussle over the PSAT grammar question in Maryland shows some deep problem with American education, mostly because the sentence in question lauds Toni Morrison. I happen to think Toni Morrison the best living writer and one of the best ever, certainly in America. She captures a centrally important part of America, namely that American necessarily means White, and Race is an invented concept to encode a certain history. In any case, the quality of her prose is enough by itself to make her great. What's the problem with that columnist? Michael Dirda: I don't really know what point the columnist was making. There now seems to be agreement that the sentence is grammatically fuzzy at best. No one seriously doubts that Toni Morrison isn't an important writer, but I suspect she's now entered the period when there will be more and more criticism directed at her work, after too many years of mere encomia.
________________________________________________ Missouri: Michael,
Do you read much true crime? If so, what makes such a book pop for you? Michael Dirda: Not much contemporary true crime. I do like the older guys, for their winey, literary flavor: e.g. William Roughead, Edmund Pearson, William Bolitho. I wouldn't want to read about serial murders and their ghoulish practices. ________________________________________________ Somewhere, USA: Set about 500 years after the end of the Bronze age, but Gates of Fire is magnificent. Michael Dirda: ok ________________________________________________ Mystery fan: You often mention John Dickson Carr. I've tried looking in new and used bookstores for his work, but have come up empty. I'm thinking of ordering online. What are some good books to start with? Thanks. Michael Dirda: Have you tried a good mystery bookstore? Or online? His best books are The Three Coffins, The Crooked Hinge, The Judas Window, The Burning Court, and The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey (the last nonfiction). Some of these books are written under the name Carter Dickson. I think it's time we put a moratorium on talking about Carr, who now joins Austen and Wodehouse. ________________________________________________ Bethesda, Md.: Hello, I'm in the process of reading Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain. It's fascinating but very different from what I expected. If you've read it, what did you think of it? And can you recommend any other works of Chinese literature? I'm traveling to China soon, and would appreciate any advice. Right now I have a book by Ha Jin (Crazed) on my shelf, along with some nonfiction accounts of living in China. Thanks! Michael Dirda: The only contemporary novel I'd suggest is the lovely one by Dai Sijie: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. ________________________________________________ Alexandria, Va.: I am going to Italy (Tuscany) at the end of the month and was hoping you could give me some recommendations for some books set in the area to read while I am there. Thanks for any help. Michael Dirda: You might read Iris Origo, or the ghost stories of Vernon Lee, or some of Henry James tales set in Italy or William Dean Howell's Indian Summer or going back in time Vasari's Lives of the Artists or even Burckhardt's wonderful Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. ________________________________________________ Boston, Mass.: Who are the modern heirs of Chekhov when it comes to short stories sad, subtle and profound? Michael Dirda: V.S.Pritchett, William Trevor, Elizabeth Bowen, John Cheever, John Updike. ________________________________________________ Oxford, UK: What does 'encomia' mean? Thanks. Michael Dirda: praise (plural) ________________________________________________ Bible Translations: While doing some art history research last year I worked with a Douay-Rheims Bible; I found its language to be exalted, very beautiful. However, I don't know how it stands in comparison to modern translations, nor if it is easily available (my copy was about 50 years old). A great deal of art gets lost in most modern translations, although accuracy is paramount for most readers, I suspect. Michael Dirda: The Douai Rheims is the standard Catholic translation of the Bible--it's the one I first read as a boy. If you can find an unrevised Douai it is very close to Jerome's Latin vulgate. The Bible is such a book that any translation that respects its grandeur is good. Most of the modern versions don't. ________________________________________________ Washington, D.C.: Any suggestions for non-cheesy wedding ceremony readings? We're generally avoiding the Bible, although the Song of Songs might come in handy. Michael Dirda: I always recommend the ending of Randall Jarrell's long poem "Woman": But be as you have been, my happiness....
Also Shakespeare's sonnet: "Love alters not where it alteration finds"
________________________________________________ Cube 2212, Md.: Awhile back, Tim Page had an article in the Sunday Post which was basically a list of about 30 works he recommended as introduction to classical music/works one ought to hear. Have you ever done/thought of doing the equivalent for world literature (in addition, of course, to the great list of humorous works in Readings)? Can you give us any hints of who would be on your list? Thanks Michael Dirda: I once did a piece for Outlook on the 12 most important literary stylists in English of the 20th century (I included Hemingway, Faulkner, Firbank, Dunsany, Lovecraft, Perelman, Heyer, Chandler, Salinger, Dick and a couple of others). But I might do such a piece if there was interest--it would be fun. There was a period I used to daydream and just make up such 10 bests etc. Best food--pirogue, best muscle car--1964 GTO, etc etc.
I did do a list of best sf and fantasy for Weekend a zillion years ago. I hope to reprint that in this forthcoming book of essays. ________________________________________________ Wedding readings, non-Biblical: My husband likes to quote from Martin Mull's "History of White People In America," which has Californians pledging to stay married "as long as this union remains mutually nutritious." Michael Dirda: That reminds me of the New Yorker cartoon, the aspirant young man murmuring to his beloved: Will you be my first wife? ________________________________________________ Oxford, UK: So you think there's been too much praise for Toni Morrison? What are your criticisms? Michael Dirda: I didn't quite say that. I said that she was entering the period in a writer's career when the critics will start to sharpen their knives a bit more. On the other hand, I also think that it's impossible for any generation to have an accurate take of its writers. The 1920s thought that its two greatest writers, in Britain and America, were John Galsworthy and Joseph Hergesheimer. ________________________________________________ Woodbridge, Va.: Re: the Bible translation thread -- I agree with you, Michael, about the grandeur of the language of the older translations, but some of the newer ones are supposed to be more accurate. In addition, many of the newer editions are filled with maps, explanatory notes, etc. -- geared toward the Sunday school student, perhaps, but interesting and informative nonetheless. Michael Dirda: Yes, I know, which is why I recommend the Revised Standard Version. There used to be a nice edition from Oxford. Its general editor for the Old Testament was my Old Testament teacher. ________________________________________________ Washington, D.C.: Have you read Red Poppies by Alai? I just picked it up the other day. I was wondering if you had any thoughts. Michael Dirda: Nope ________________________________________________ Wedding Readings: Richard Wilbur's "For C" -- one of the finest poems in praise of marriage I ever heard of. Michael Dirda: Oh yes. Thanks ________________________________________________ For Tuscan Traveler: Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes Michael Dirda: Yes, but I resisted naming it, just as I might pause before suggesting Peter Mayle to someone going to Provence. Such books are too suffocating for the first time traveler. ________________________________________________ Fairbanks, Alaska: What poets or novels do you turn to in difficult times? Thanks Michael Dirda: Difficult times means a lot of things--grief, confusion, broken heart?
In general, I think The Oxford Book of Aphorisms or The Viking Book of Aphorisms is a good bet--words of wisdom, in pithy form, for many occasions. Sometimes with opposite approaches to the same issue. "In love there is always one who kisses and one who offers the cheek."
If you are a believer, read the Bible. Or any work that will transport you to another place in your head--though I think that serious times in life generally call for serious books: Shakespeare, Proust, Montaigne, Thoreau. ________________________________________________ that New Yorker cartoon: My husband introduces me as his "current wife".
Michael Dirda: Cute. ________________________________________________ Re: Henry James in Italy: Michael would you recommend "Daisy Miller"? Michael Dirda: Great novella, regardless of whether one is on the way to Italy. ________________________________________________ Oxford, UK: Okay, John Galsworthy was great. Not the best (by a heck of a long way), but great. Anyway, about Morrison, I think the critics have been, if not aggressive, certainly attentive. Where do you see more criticism coming from? Michael Dirda: I suspect that The Bluest Eye will be regarded as by far her best book, and the others will gradually drop down several notches. But that's just a guess. You do know that Toni and I come from the same hometown, Lorain, Ohio? ________________________________________________ Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Dirda: While I've always admired the Hegels, Lacans, and Levi-Strausses (those trying to put it together), I'm intellectually persuaded the Derridas, Baudrillards, and Lyotards are more likely right. However, when it comes to literature, I'm less convinced the deconstructionists/postmodernists win out (a steady diet would exhaust us, wouldn't it?). Your thoughts? Also, how would you compare Gilbert Sorrentino to David Foster Wallace? Thanks. Michael Dirda: Alas, no thoughts. I think Sorrentino is funnier and a better writer, but there are similarities.
And that brings us to the end of another session of Dirda on Books. I must be off to hobnob with librarians. Till next Thursday at 2, keep reading! ________________________________________________ Washington, D.C.: What's a good read by Vicente Blasco Ibanez?
Michael Dirda: Isn't there only one The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse? ________________________________________________ © Copyright 2003 The Washington Post Company | 
