Dirda on Books – Transcript Michael Dirda Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 22, 1999

Michael Dirda The Washington Post

Michael Dirda's name appears weekly in The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a fat literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be writing a lighthearted essay about the joys and burdens of living in a house filled with way too many books. Although he holds a PhD in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda is still smart enough to be an unabashed fan of "The Simpsons," noting that "the show's genius derives from its details." He also loves P.G. Wodehouse, intellectual history, children's books and locked-room mysteries – just the sort of range you'd expect from a Pulitzer Prize winner for distinguished criticism.

These days, Dirda says he spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth and daydreaming ("my only real pastime"). Otherwise he just reads books and writes about them, with occasional visits to secondhand bookstores in search of treasures. He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer working on his reviews and Readings columns. "Do not imagine that I regard my taste for literary artifacts as anything but shameless and vulgar," Dirda says, "I have sunk so low as to covet Edward Gorey coffee mugs. I yearn for a bust of Dante to place on a bookcase."

dupont cirlce, dc: Michael,

I love going to book signings if nothing else than to hear the new authors share their work. Often, though, I find out about the even too late. Are you aware of any websites that list booksignings-readings coming up in the dc area? Where else would you suggest looking?

Michael Dirda: Welcome to my weekly chat. Sorry that last week's hurricane closed the university of central florida, so I was unable to go online. We'll try to make it up this week. But before I do I want to alert everyone a "reader rant"that my colleague James Hill has started; it's devoted to good places to read, especially in the Washington area. A few weeks back we had lots of discussion about this arcane subject, so James has asked various Book World staffers to give their ideas and asks for contributions from anyone else who cares to join in. Click here.
Should be lively.

Alas, the only way I learn about booksignings is through the weekly listing in Book world, or through the handouts and promotional flyers given away by the area bookshops. If you find yourself consistently going to a couple of the same shops, you might ask to be placed on their mailing lists for future talks.

Bethesda, Maryland: I've just begun to read James Salter, most recently Light Years. While he is truly a master of metaphor and simile, his characters seem to be unrealistically introspective and self-aware. The novel seems steeped in European sensibilities and a bit unreal as a story about suburban New Yorkers. And the solemnity! Is this what happens to American novelists who choose to live in Paris? -e.g., Ward Just-. I'm about to start Salter's memoirs - perhaps it will all come clear. But you are correct, he can write a line that is to die for.

Michael Dirda: Well, each writer has his or her strengths, and we don't go to Jane Austen for macho thrills. Salter is a serious man, the nature of heroism being one of his obsessive topics, but his prose is what matters. A sport and a pastime is one of the modern masterpieces of eroticism, too.

WDC: Mr. Dirda-- This question got lost somewhere in the midst of the hurricane last week. I am trying to maintain the remnants of my Spanish language skills by reading novels in Spanish whenever possible. I've read Laura Esquivel's "Como Agua Para Chocolate -Like Water for Chocolate-" and Isabel Allende's "Paula," and I'm now working on Allende's "Casa de los Espiritus -House of the Spirits-." I know that there are many fantastic Spanish-language novels out there, so I'm hoping you might be able to direct my reading. I realize that you may not have read the books in Spanish, but if you read the translation and thought it was great, I'd love to hear about it. One book I've heard a lot about is Garcia Marquez's "100 Years of Solitude." Can you think of any other books originally written in Spanish--whether by a Latin American or Spanish author-- that you would put near the top of a must-read list? Thanks for your input!

Michael Dirda: Certainly, the Garcia-Marquez masterpiece, along with a selection of his short stories. I'd also suggest Borges's short fiction and nonfiction; Cela's The Family of Pascual Duarte, Cortazar's short stories and perhaps Hopscotch; Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo; and perhaps Cabrera Infante's Three Trapped Tigers--though the English version, done in collaboration withthe author, may be just as good as the Spanish original.

Washington DC: I am from Korea and currently working as an intern in dc.
As it's first time to be in USA, I would like to learn more about America while i am here for 1 year.
Which book is most recommendable to grasp the sense of culture and history of America.
The content should not be so heavy, light story, easy to understand.
Please give me advice.

Thanks in advance.

Lynn K. Kim

Michael Dirda: Since you say, "light story" I presume you mean a work of fiction, rather than history. There are a handful of classic American novels you should probably try, the most accessible and beloved being F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I'd also recommend, if you don't know it already, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison. Add Thoreau's Walden--a nonfiction account of a couple years spent living by a pond--and you'd have four good compass points for the America's sense of itself.

Billings, MT: How're classes going for you? Enjoying still?

Michael Dirda: As some of you now, I'm spending the fall semester in Orlando at the University of Central Florida, teaching a couple of classes. I think these are going reasonably well--I have a session with my honors course on Lolita in two hours--but I suspect that the gods were kind when they led me into journalism. Despite their eagerness and intelligence, young people know so little and I get tired of having to explain every literary reference I make. Of course, I'm drenched in bookishness, but at least my current job allows me to use that expertise with a little flair. Still, I think the kids like me, as I do them. My REadings column for October 3 addresses some of your question, so youo might want to look for it.

Silver Spring, MD: Floyd's coming. You can only keep three or four books from getting wet - and probably ruined. Which ones?

Can you suggest some good novels with natural disasters as major plot devices?

And is there a good critical biography of Rimbaud? I'll bet you've thought of quitting teaching and spending your life reading and running guns -at least once in your life- ...

Michael Dirda: I guess I'd go for the big-ticket items: My signed first of Morrison's The Bluest Eye; my mint first of All the King's Men; perhaps my signed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas--Inscribed "To Mike, thanks for getting the drugs in Boston, Hunter"--and my signed Underworld, with my favorite inscription: "To Michael Dirda, Co-Conspirator, Don DeLillo."

Natural disasters--Bulwer-Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii comes to mind. OneHundred Years of Solitude ends with a great tornado or storm. But on the whole I'm blanking on this theme. Any help out there?

Enid Starkie's was the standard life; Rimbaud in AByssynia, by Charles Nicholl, doesn't just focus on the African years and is entertaining.

I lived in Marseille for a year--and it is a period of my life over which I draw a veil. Enough said.

Hilton Head Island, SC: This question depends on how old you are. Do you ever feel frustrated when you realize you may not have enough time left in your life to read all the wonderful books waiting for you? And the ones yet to be published? How do you make your selections every day? From Mimi-getting up there-

Michael Dirda: I'm older than I care to be. As a kid I wanted to read all the world's great books, and I've made a fairly good dent in them, but I now want to go back and reread a good many of them. So there's no real hope here. WE all die with unread books on our nightstands. The books I do read are the ones I need to review--so I make sure I choose writers or titles that interest me. And I do a lot of biographies because that allows me to read work by great writers of the past.

Washington, DC: Have you read any of Joyce Carol Oates voluminous output, and, if so, how would you assess her writing skills and weaknesses? Is she a truly major talent, or just a compulsive prosaist?

Michael Dirda: Alas, I've only read her nonfiction, and she's a superb essayist. I suspect that she's really an excellent fiction writer, but her productivity is such that no one can keep up with her. Especially if there are also trying to keep up with Stephen King and Danielle Steel. But she is clearly a compulsive writer--I don't think she has or wants to have any other life but that of the desk.

Arlington, VA: Gee, Mike, isn't it too bad that these 20-year-olds haven't spent their entire lives getting paid to read the complete works of Flaubert or Wodehouse? Or that, at this stage in their lives, they probably have other majors and interests besides comp. lit? Kids today. I swear.

Michael Dirda: No one paid me to read Flaubert or Wodehouse. I had lots of interests when I was young other than books. My point is simply that, for me, these kids are shamefully cut off from the literature and culture of the past. Read my column on October 3. I'm hardly the old fogey you suggest I am. Perhaps you're thinking of my colleague Jon Yardley (sorry, Jon, couldn't resist: just a joke).

Wash DC: What 1 or 2 books do you always search for -but never find-at used book stores and fairs?

Michael Dirda: The works of Lord Dunsany--I have many but not all--and Robert Aickman's autobiography The Attempted Rescue.

Washington, DC: Any comments on the controversy reported in today's Post and elsewhere surrounding the mix of fact and fiction in Edmund Morris's book on Reagan? When will the Post review the book?

Michael Dirda: Being here in Florida, I'm somewhat out of the loop. In general, though, I hate the mix of fact and fiction--it ruined Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines for me. Of course, I believe all memoirs are fiction, no matter what protestations of truthfulness emerge from their authors.

Schallodenbach, Germany: Mr. Dirda,

Having lived in Germany the last 4 1-2 years, I haven't been able to read you as frequently as I once did. You very well may have reviewed the book I am currently reading, "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire". If you have not, however, I recommend it highly as a superb evocation of the 18th century and a fascinating women, Georgiana Spencer. This book won the Whitbread Biography of the Year Award in 1998. It's popularity, I believe, is not only a result of the superb writing and fascinating life of Georgiana, but also her similarities to Pricess Diana, who was also a Spencer.

It is the finest biography of an 18th century Brit since Bate's biography of Dr. Johnson.

Can you recommend other histories or biographies of this period?

Regards,

Donald Insley

Michael Dirda: I remember my old friend Eve Auchincloss reviewing a book about Georgiana perhaps 20 years ago. I will certainly keep an eye out for it. Stella Tillyard's Aristocrats was very well received and deals with 18th-century women. I'd also recommend Richard Holmes's Dr. Johnson and Mr. Savage; Peter Quennell's life of Alexander Pope (Mack's is the standard life, but immensely long and not as sprightly); Quennell wrote about many 18th-century figures, always well; I'm also fond of George Saintsbury's old classic, The Peace of of the Augustans. And oh yes, John Brewer's The Pleasures of the Imagination covers this period with expertise and good anecdotes.

Arlington: Were you and Hunter hanging in Marseille for a year? Come on, Michael. Isn't the statute of limitations past? You can tell us ... are these Hemmingway-in-Paris excursions or something?

Michael Dirda: You'll have to wait for my memoirs. But I was in Paris in May of '68 too.

Washington, D.C.: What do you think of the Harry Potter books? Are you going to review any of them? On a related subject, I notice that they are the top three best sellers on Amazon.com, but not listed at all in Book World on September 19. Are they not selling well in Washington, or as children's books are they excluded from consideration?

Michael Dirda: I reviewed the first two Harry Potter books. They're terrific children's books, though the second somewhat repeats the pattern of the first. And I don't think they're as remarkable as the world seems to believe. My favorite recent children's fantasies are Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife--these are masterpieces and everyone who knows them is waiting eagerly for the concluding volume of the trilogy.
As for the best seller list, no they wouldn't be excluded and I don't know why they're not on our list. Seems strange to me too.

Bethesda, Maryland: Many years ago I read two books by Herbert Muller, the Uses of the Past and The Loom of History, which focused on Asia Minor and combined history, archeology, religion and philosophy in a way new and enthralling to me. Both are occasionally available in used book stores. Are you familiar with them, and-or do you know similar works which blend so many disciplines?

Michael Dirda: I own a copy of The Uses of the Past, but have never gotten around to reading it. Do you know Robert Grave's cranky, but enthralling The White Goddess? Or Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic? Or Frances yates's The Art of Memory? Or Frazer's old classic The Golden Bough? These are all worth checking out.

Centreville, VA: Back to the young man from Korea - I would have to recommend Steinbeck for anyone wanting a feel for what America is like. Not Grapes of Wrath but something light hearted like Cannery Row. How about something like O Pioneers or Death Comes for the Archbishop to get a real feeling for the vastness of the Great Plains.

Michael Dirda: Good suggestions. My favorite Cather, though, is A Lost Lady, but its scope is more narrow than the books you suggest. And, of course, there's Faulkner, but that might be pretty hard slogging.

Arlington, VA: Can you recommend biographies of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I?

Michael Dirda: J.E. Neale wrote the standard life of Elizabeth, and I think Carolly Erickson ahs a good one of Henry VII.

ada, oklahoma: i've just finished reading nabokov's ADA and found myself subject of a very curious phenomenon; anonymous people assailing me all the time -unfortunately i am forced to do my alot of my reading in public- with a sympathetic nod and saying somethhing like "alas, not his best". i'm sure you're familiar with this. now for time's sake, let's skip the discussion on this nudnik behavior in general -other titles it happens with? THE CRYING OF LOT 49, ALL THE PRETTY HORSES -somebody always prefers BLOOD MERIDIAN-, both of which are pretty good books, right?- and address why ADA is held in this almost unanymously -and boisterously- low regard. It's a pretty good book, too. obscure and indulgent? A little. But many writers -Pynchon, for instance- get away with alot more without offering the same degree of compensation in terms of those rarest commodities, those throbs of aesthetic bliss.

i recall, also, that it was reviewed very positively when it was first issued. updike -well, that's no suprise- mooned over it in the new yorker. is the phenomenon we're dealing with here a special instance of what i take to be a growing unwillingness to exert effort in reading a novel these days? and what does this mean -more importantly- for me?!

Michael Dirda: Lovely message. Are you really in Ada, Oklahoma? Sometimes people give the generic response--they know that a book like Ada is somewhat self-indulgent, andit allows them to comment on a novel they probably haven't read. By the way, i prefer Blood Meridian too.
My guess is that people want to read a writer's best books, and tend to give those with even a few problems a miss. So everyone goes for Lolita, Pale Fire, Speak Memory and possibly Pnin--and then probably stops. So they miss out on--one of my own favorites--The Real Life of Sebastian Knight.
But yes, how many people finished The Name of the Rose--a good, if not great book, despite its apparent difficulty--or Mason & Dixon--a far better book than mostpeople imagine.

Charlottesville, VA: About the Korean reader...I know a lot of people read the Little House on the Prairie series as children, but if you're looking for a quick, simply written, yet detailed account of the Mid-west pioneer life, she's hard to beat.

Michael Dirda: Thanks.

vienna,va: I really enjoy the novels of JP Marquand and John O'Hara. I have managed to locate a couple of good Marquand biographies but haven't come across anything on O'Hara yet. -My research has been limited to the Fairfax Public Library-. Any suggestions?

Michael Dirda: There's a biography by, I think, Matthew Bruccoli of O'Hara. I know there is one.

Cleveland, Ohio: Curious to whether you've read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kenndy Toole and what you thought. Also, and I apologize if this type of question has been answered before -I'm new to this page-, but outside of trying to land the right agent, what other avenues are open to an aspiring novelist with a completed manuscript?

- Marc.

Michael Dirda: You know, I'm going to New Orleans this weekend and will probably take Confederacy along. I've never read it, though I did assign the book for review when it was first published 20 years ago. Everyone tells me it's hilarious, so it should be a treat.
Re: manuscript. Find a published writer who can recommend you to his agent.

Dwontown DC: I just pulled a long-ago gift book from my shelves called "The Vice of Fools," by H. something Chatfield-Taylor, published 1907. It's delightful! Kind of Henry James-meets-Oscar Wilde, only not as good as either of those two. Lots of keen character observations and ladies and gentlemen dropping bon mots, set in turn-of-the-century Washington society. It's fun to read about Sen. So-and-so's wife knowing that to truly make her mark, she has to build a house in Dupont Circle. And it sure beats DeLillo's "White Noise," which I just finished and hated. Have you every heard of Mr. Chatfield-Taylor or this book? Any other ideas for Washington books of this sort?
Thanks for the chat!

Michael Dirda: Nope, he's news to me, but sounds good. There's a recent nonfiction book--The Five of Hearts--about the Henry Adams circle that should appeal to you. Can't recall the author.

Arlington, VA: I noticed you didn't list any female authors when you suggested the great American novels to the person from Korea. Any particular reason?

Michael Dirda: We did add Cather. Who would you add to Gatsby, Invisible Man, Huck Finn and Walden? Perhaps Emily Dickinson, but she hardly gives a sense of the American experience. There are lots of women writers I admire, but none seemed quite right to answer this question.

Georgetown: Neale? I found Allison Weir's "Life of Elizabeth I" much more engaging. I could understand if you'd recommended Erickson's Elizabeth, though. I think Weir's done an excellent job with all her books on the Tudors.

Michael Dirda: Glad to have another point of view. I can't say I keep up with all the Elizabeth biographies.

Michael Dirda: Well, I have to dash off a few minutes early this week. I'm due at an assembly here for new faculty at 3. So Untilnext week, keep reading!

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