Dirda on Books – Transcript Michael Dirda Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 23, 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."

washington dc: hi -
Love the chat and columns. What are the funniest books you've read? Any side-splitters?

Michael Dirda: Too many to list: Favorites include most of P.G. Wodehouse, early Evelyn Waugh, Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, the old Dobie Gillis stories of Max Shulman, Cold Comfort Farm, the Mapp and Lucia novels of E.F. BEnson, Catch-22, lots of others.

Arnold, MD: I just read "Blue Belle" by Andrew Vachhs, and I'm wondering where the critics find his body of PI fiction: hardboiled, over-easy or over-done? Any other authors come to mind with the same mixture of noir-urban-erotica?

Michael Dirda: I reviewed Flood, Vachss's first novel in the series, and I thought it wonderfully far-fetched fun. It edged near the top, and I suspect that some of his later books probably have gone over the top. One can only read so often about child abuse and exploitation. But as a comic book for grown-ups, with a good message, the novels are fun. You might try WIlliam Hjortsberg's classic, Falling Angel--demonic and sexy p.i. novel.

Washington, D.C.: I loved your column in last Sunday's Post about what you would say if you were invited to give a commencement address! If those quotations-comments are your guidelines, I have only one question: How can I become your pal?

Michael Dirda: Actually, I gave the substance of that column as an actual commencement address at The Bullis School. Glad you liked the piece. Not sure, you'd really want to become my pal--I'm moody, overworked, and very bookish. I need my own advice to keep me on an even keel.

Washington, DC : Some of my favorite writers fall into that category of British literary-aristocrats who recount an era of philosophical dinner conversations and the occasional exotic vacation. Are there any lesser-known authors that I can place on my bookshelf next to Woolf and Forster?

Michael Dirda: Not sure what you mean by your first sentence, but there is a whole line of witty British fiction built around philosophical dinner conversations. The two best known examples are Thomas Love Peacock--try Nightmare Abbey, Crotchet Castle and Gryll Grange--and Aldous Huxley--try Crome Yellow, Antic Hay and THose Barren Leaves. Huxley, of course, is a rough contemporary of Woolf and Forster. He also wrote some excellent trvel books--and never went anywhere without a volume of the Encylopedia britannica for light reading.

Wash,DC: Hey, what books are you anticipating?

Michael Dirda: Coming this fall: a biography of the Renaissance mathematician and astrologer Girolamo Cardano by Anthony Grafton. Cardano's autobiography--its arranged thematically rather than chrnologically--is one of the most admusing such books in the world. There's also a new novel by Michael Frayn (who wrote the play "Noises Off"), a couple of new biographies of Colette, a new Steven Millhauser called Enchanted Night, and I don't know what else. I don't do a lot of advance planning, since I like to be surprised by new books I wasn't expecting.

Gaithersburg, Maryland: I enjoy your column immensely, although I liked it better when you focused on essays -ludicrous as it may be to criticize a Book World critic for writing reviews-. Have you written any books yourself? Secondly, what do you think of the essayist Lewis Thomas? There is a quality in his writing that reminds me of yours.

Dyanne Tsai

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. Nearly everybody seems to like my Readings essays better than my straight reviews--I do myself. But I've never concentrated on them: I write about one a month. If I were able to convince my masters I'd write an essay every week. Still, I put a lot more work into the reviews--perhaps that's the problem???? Why do you like the essays better than the reviews?
Only read a little of Lewis Thomas, but clearly should look into his books more.

Washington DC: Hi Michael. I enjoy your writing and especially the joy of reading a wide variety of stuff your essays express. Anyway, I'm interested in learning more about folk tales and fairy tales but I don't know where to start or what would be especially worth reading. Any help? Thanks so much.

Michael Dirda: There are lots of anthologies of folktales and fairy tales. I'd just pick up a few of these at your favorite bookstore or library and start reading. For criticism, you might look for the books of Iona and Peter Opie--they were the great ENglish specialists on children's lore and literature. Other classics include: Vladimir Propp's famous Morphology of the Folktale; Stith Thompson's The Folktale; Claude Levi STrauss's very iluminating anthropological books, and especially the essay, The Structural Study of Myth, and Marina Warner's recent From the Beast to the Blonde.

Gaithersburg, MD: WOW! What a Book World -6-27-...Hemingway on the cover and two excellent columns by Dirda and Streitfield! I am sorry to learn David is heading West, but his column urged me to start purging my own library. Or at least it had until I read your column -yes, it lasted merely as long as it took me to turn the page!-. Now all I want do is read, read, read! Though columns like yours on 6-27 are a dime a dozen in May-June, I got quite a bit out of yours. I am tempted to come up with my own list, but I will definitely adopt the baker's dozen to "read the classics". Having just wasted a week on "White Oleander", I am more than willing to chuck contemporary fiction and head for the classics. Thanks for the timely article and all the good advice. I'm going to tuck it away for my nieces' graduations in four years!

Michael Dirda: Columns like mine on 6/27 are not a dime a dozen. I'd want at least a dollar. But glad you liked the issue--I think it was a particularly good one myself, especially since I assigned the Hemingway piece. And yes, read, read, read.

Leesburg, Virginny: I don't want to become your pal, but I do indeed appreciate the fact that you grew up in working class environs in Lorain, Ohio. Moreover, thanks for offering yourself to the POST readership for live dialogue.
A fellow Buckeye

Michael Dirda: Sorry you don't want to be my pal. Now I'm feeling all alone and depressed. IN truth, glad you like the online chats.

Washington DC: Hello Michael. This may seem silly, but I'm interested in how people read. How do you read? Do you take notes as you read? Do you write in books? Things like that. Do you skim parts of stuff you read? When I read a biography of a writer I like, I hope to find out about their reading habits--how they read, but also what they read, how often, what do they re-read, things like that--, but I've always been disappointed. Thanks for the chat!

Michael Dirda: I once wrote a column about this--sometimes I think I've written a column about just about everything. I read with a pencil in my hand, very slowly. IN fact, I move my lips while I read--I was the despair of elementary school teachers--but I think it important to sound the words out, to feel the vocables and rhythms. I usually make a line in the margin next to important points or quoatations, and sometimes make a few comments in the upper or lower margins as well. I correct typos and mistakes in the book when I see them. I never skim. I read every word. AFter I've read the book I often go back and copy quotations into a notebook, interspersing these with my own reflections on the novel, biography etc. Then I read all this handwritten material over, let it simmer a bit, and sit down to write my review. This takes anywhere from 3-6 hours, followed by a cooling off period of aday or so, which then leads to an hour of final polishing. If this doesn't sound too for my prose.

Bethesda MD: Michael

What is your take on Walker Percy? Any favorite books of his? Also, what is your experience with The Riverside Shakespeare? Is it still in print?

Thanks.

Michael Dirda: I think there's a new edition of the Riverside out in the last couple of years. Norton also published a good new edition recently of the collected S. Uncertain about Walker Percy--I read The Last Moviegoer with pleasure, but failed to be as excited by it as most of the rest of the world. But I hope to read a bunch of Southern AMerican literature this fall, so I'll try a bit more Percy and my judgement may change.

Arlington, VA: Any merit to the theory that Thomas Pynchon and J.D. Salinger are one-in-the-same? Do you hold to any similar theories -Cervantes & Shakespeare, etc.- or is such musing really just literary distraction?

Michael Dirda: Literary distraction. At a low level, it can be amusing; but I tend to be very traditional: Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. People who believe the author of the plays was really the Earl of Oxford, or Bacon or the Rosicrucians usually have some kind of secret parti pris.

Washington, DC: Regarding funny novels, I realize he-she didn't ask me, but "Lucky Jim" caused me to laugh out loud more than anything else I have ever read. Have you read it?

Michael Dirda: Yes, it's very funny--especially the end, from the Merrie England speech onto the race to rescue the girl. I remember Jim wondering when the locusts would attack--everything else seemed to have happened to slow him down. But it's not the funniest book I've ever read. Small World, a similar academic comedy by David Lodge, is much funnier to me. And serious too.

Gaithersburg, Maryland: My personal preference is your essays, as opposed to your reviews, because I feel there is an elusive quality of...I suppose lightheartedness would do...unique to your essays. Perhaps other readers share my sentiments? Also, are you working on a book? I would be delighted to buy it if-when it comes out.

Michael Dirda: I'm supposed to be working on a book--if I can ever get just the right subject and tone worked out. I've always wanted to collect my columns--all columnists do--but I'd like to do a Read Book first. But I mauy change my tune, if Knopf calls up with an offer of a quarter million for a volume of my essays. If I do ever publish a book, I'll count on at least one sale in Gaithersburg.

silver spring, md: What are some good translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad? -By the way, I have your little book about caring for books and it came in handy the other day.-

Michael Dirda: Iliad--Richmond Lattimore is the classic in versem, as is Robert Fitzgerald's version of The Odyssey. Robert Fagles recent versions of both books are also excellent. Did you know that T.E. Lawrence--Lawrence of ARabia--did a very good prose translation of The Iliad?

Arlington, VA: I have read Ellman's Joyce -and have a copy of his Wilde for future reading-. In your view, what are the best biographies of literary authors? I'm more inclined towards readable, single-volume accounts, rather than the current trend of exhaustive, multiple volume works -e.g. the five volume Hemingway, and Boyd's three or four volume Nabokov-.
Thanks for responding, and thanks also for sharing your time with us hungry readers.

Michael Dirda: Boyd's is only two volumes, but they are big and long volumes. Besides the two Ellmanns, you might try George Painter's Proust, Leon Edel's James (originallly five volumes, but later reduced to one), Walter Jackson Bate's Samuel Johnson ( a wonderfulaccount of Grub street), Richard Holmes's Coleridge (two vols), Judith Thurman's Isak Dinesen. I'm also very fond of three odd biographies: Rupert Hart-Davis's Hugh Walpole--a wonderfully evocative account of a young Edwardian novelist on the make, beautifully written (see RHD's annotated letters of Oscar WIlde and his wonderful correspondence with his old teacher, The RHD-George Lyttelton Letters); A.J. A Symon's The Quest for Corvo--a young litteateur recounts how he researches the biography of a maddening 1890s writer (best known for the novel Hadrian the Seventh); and then Julian Symons's life of A.J.A Symons, who was his brother. AJA founded the first editions club, the wine and food society, and much else--he was a magnficent clubman.

Annapolis, MD: Speaking of the Rosicurians, anything new expected out of Umberto Eco. Foucault's Pendulum was a maze, but still a great book, I'm wondering if a more informed reader -such as yourself- gains more from the text when they understand at least 60 percent of the allusions, as compared to my lowly 10 percent. Still, it can be distracting -- Name of the Rose was much less so, and focused more on plot and monastic culture. Thoughts?

Michael Dirda: Nothing new that I know of. The last Eco, The Island of the Day Before, struck me as turgid and somewhat dull. If you like these kinds of antiquarian romances, you should try Lawrence NOrfolk's Lempriere's Dictionary, Iain Pears's AN INstance of the Fingerpost; and ARturo Perez-Reverte's The Club Dumas. These are all wonderful conspiracy novels--that is some secret society or other seems to be controlling historical events.

Wash, DC: What do you think of children authors?

Michael Dirda: Other than my own children, whose compositions are priceless, the only one I've ever cared for is Daisy Ashford, author of The Young Visiters. A hoot. She wrote the book when she was 9, and it's still in print 75 years later.

Gaithersburg, Maryland: Could you clarify what "little book about caring for books" Silver Spring was referring to? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: A dozen or so years back I wrote a paperback for the Book of the Month Club called Caring for Your Books. It was a free dividend. I happen to know a lot about the book arts, my wife is a paper conservator, and we both have lots of friends who are binders, callkigraphers, etc. So I was able to draw on lots of expert advice. Don't know if BOMC still gives the book away, but they apparently printed hundreds of thousands. I've never seen one in a bookstore, however. Despite the dry sounding subject matter, the style is bright and unacademic, somewhat like that of my Readings essays.

Boston,MA : The genre of Indian -asia- literature is alive and flourishing in Europe - why is it dead in the US?

Michael Dirda: There are Indian-Asian writers in this country: Shashi Tharoor, Amy Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Bharati Mukherjee, etc. What's wonderful is that people no longer restrict their reading to their own literature: We now live in a library without walls.

Arlington, VA: What do you think of Evelyn Waugh's World War II trilogy? I've read the satires and enjoyed them, but am a little wary of the WWII books.

Michael Dirda: I tend to prefer the earlier books myself, but many critics view the trilogy as the major British fiction about World War II, the equivalent--roughly--of Ford Madox Ford's tetralogy about World War I, Parade's End. But Waugh is always fun to read--sometimes I think my favorite of his books are his letters. Or possibly his essays. Or his diaries. Of the later books I especially like The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold.

Washington, DC: For some reason I can never get through an entire Grisham novel. Aside from repetition, it just turns me off. Any thoughts?

Michael Dirda: I've never read any, though my wife checked THe Street Lawyer out from the library this weekend. Naturally I berated her for slumming, but she ignored me as usual. I then noticed that she was reading the book without stopping and has doubtless finished by now. So I don't know what to say: Maybe Grisham can be good. But I'm still suspicious.

Gaithersburg, Maryland: I admire your columns immensely, especially your marvelous essays. I was terribly disappointed when you replaced your Readings with book reviews. Do you have any plans for writing a book yourself? Secondly, what is your opinion on Lewis Thomas? I have always enjoyed his writing style, which is similar to yours.

Dyanne Tsai

Michael Dirda: DIdn't we answer this earlier? At any event, I've always written three or so reviews for every Readings essay.

Michael Dirda: Well, I seem to have gleaned your teeming brains this week. I do hope that all of you have planned your vacation reading for this summer: Take old paperbacks, take twice as many books as you think you'll read, take an author you know you like and at least one you've always wanted to try; bring a volume of poetry. Do not bring Gibbon or Proust. Always pack a P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie, along with a good collection of classic ghost stories. Until next week at this time, Wednesay, 2PM, keep reading!