Dirda on Books – Transcript Michael Dirda Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 25, 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."

Sterling, VA: How do I contact someone for the purpose of letting them know that the new bookclub -for which I have recently signed up- is promoting for its first book -The Old Forest and Other Stories- something that is unavailable from every place I have tried--I have it on back order finally, from Amazon.com, but heard from other places -eg, Barnes & Noble- that the publisher says it is out of stock and not likely to be restocked any time soon. I would REALLY like to READ the books that are being used, but what is one to do?
Also, I spent over half an hour scouring this site for what appeared to be a more appropriate place to ask this simple question--I fear this is really not the best location, but I notice there is no built-in way to send queries or comments to your book pages, indeed, scarcely to do so at all to the Washington Post. Plus, in your weekly Book World, I was unable to find -though it might be there- a phone number. I'd really love to participate in your club, but this is getting frustrating. Help!

Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on books, coming to you from sunny Orlando. On to the questions.


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Washington, DC: Hi Michael. I just started reading David Halberstam's "The Children." I have been looking online for reviews of the work. I was able to find a couple, but unfortunately most online publications charge you a fee to read their archived reviews. Anyway, I was wondering if you reviewed-read this book and what you thought. Are there other books on the Civil Rights Movement you would recommend, perhaps more than Halberstam's? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: Oops--didn't mean to hit that send key. Let me answer the question about the book club. You should call Book World directly at 202--334-7882 and make your observations/complaints about the Book Club. If you look at an issue of Book World with a letters to the editor page, you will also find an e-mail address to which you can address your thoughts. I'd give this to you directly, but being in Orlando I just don't have my usual resources around me.

Orange, VA: Two questions loaded with pessimism, Michael: With so much emphasis by the major publishers today on the commercial bottom-line, where do you think tomorrow's "Catcher in the Rye," "All the King's Men" and "The Sun Also Rises" are going to come from? When future college students are reading the "great" literature of the late 20th Century, what do you think they will be reading?

Michael Dirda: Sorry again--to show you that this is a very human show, I didn't mean to send that message off either. But I happened to drop my pen in my shirtpocket three minutes before the program and it leaked all over my front--the classic nerd accident--and I'm having trouble focusing since I'm now sitting in a soaking wet shirt and my efforts to absorb the ink have come to pretty much nought.
So please, resend that second question.
In fact, I think modern publishers still bring out good books and I believe--perhaps naively--that good books will always find a publisher. That writers like Steven Millhauser, James Salter, Arundhati Roy, and any number of others are available is encouragement enough for me. But you must look beyond the best seller list sometimes. Talk to fellow readers, bookstore owners, etc.
As for the great books of the late 20th century--well, I think that these are likely candidates: Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian, Don DeLillo, Underworld, Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker, Georges Perec, Life A User's Manual, Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia, Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveler, Robertson Davies, Fifth Business, the short stories of Donald Barthelme and Raymond Carver, the stories of Angela Carter, and any number of other people.

Ojo Caliente, NM: Dear Michael:

Have you staged this little forum for one solitary week without being asked to recommend a comic novel? Something to make us all a little happy?

I can't dispute the authors you recommend -I haven't read any of them-, but I am slightly baffled by the omission of Stanley Elkin from the ranks -or did you mention his once?-. What do you think of his work?

Michael Dirda: I love Stanley Elkin who is both very funny and darkly serious. I reviewed his last novel, Mrs. Ted Bliss, which I thought was a masterpiece; I also reviewed The MacGuffin, which seemed to me flawed and confused. But The Dick Gibson Show--about a radio disc jockey and talk-show host--offers an almost Chaucerian gallery of comic characters. It is immensely funny. As are large parts of The Living End, though it gets serious and Job-like at moments. But what an ear Elkin had! I miss having him around.

Bethesda, Maryland: I am an avid reader and buyer of books. Unfortunately, my house is now overstuffed with books. Do you have any good suggestions on how one should go about weeding out a collection -to make room for living space as well as for more books- so that one does not regret later parting with a particular book?

Michael Dirda: There is no easy answer here--or at least none that I've ever come up with. But here are a few strategies: 1) You might keep only books you haven't read and mean to; 2) you might keep only books you've read once and mean to read again; 3) you might keep only the books you can't easily buy or find in the library; 4) you might insist that all your books fit on your current shelves so that you have to get rid of an old book if you want to add a new one. 5) You might keep only the valuable collectable books, the first editions etc. But really there is no easy way to prune a library. On the other hand, whenever I've managed to do even a little culling, I've always felt lighter and satisfied, seldom missed the book, and enjoyed being without the clutter for a few weeks.

Washington, DC: Resending the second question:

Hi Michael. I just started reading David Halberstam's "The Children." I have been looking online for reviews of the work. I was able to find a couple, but unfortunately most online publications charge you a fee to read their archived reviews. Anyway, I was wondering if you reviewed-read this book and what you thought. Are there other books on the Civil Rights Movement you would recommend, perhaps more than Halberstam's? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: No, I didn't review this book. The work on the Civil Rights Movement is enormous in volume and quality. You might start with the standard life of martin luther king or look at the work of the Post's Juan Williams. Your best bet is to visit the library and talk to a librarian about just what interests you most.

Centreville, VA: Last week someone was asking about ghost stories and mentioned the previous movie version of The Haunting. Mention should be made of the Shirley Jackson novel The Haunting of Hill House on which both movies are based. It was truly scary without being explicitly gory or bloody. Also Saki wrote some nicely creepy short stories.

Michael Dirda: Yes, I love The Haunting of Hill House--one of Stephen King's four favorite horror novels, by the way. How's that first line go? Something about whatever walked in Hill House walked alone? Jackson is, in general, a neglected author; We have Always Lived in the Castle is even more chilling than Hill House in some ways. She's best known for a handful of stories--esp The Lottery--but she deserves a good omnibus edition of her best work. One can sometimes find an old collection called The magic of Shirley jackson, which does include much of her best stuff, including her humorous classic Life Among the Savages. Her husband Stanley Edgar Hyman was an interesting and lively critic, also now forgotten. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Fairfax, Virginia: How's the teaching going? Can we expect to read all about your road not taken in the Post after you're back?

Michael Dirda: Teaching has just begun, so I'll defer any final judgment, but I'm sure the fall's experiences will make it into print at some point. Maybe I should do an interim report. It's about time to do a Readings essay and I'm casting about for a subject.

sci-fi girl, va: I'm interested in reading some hardboiled fiction. Can you recommend a best Hammet-Chandler or overlooked writer who would be a good entry. I don't know if Jim Thompson's "Pop. 1280" counts or not -or Jonathem Lethem's hysterical "Gun, With Occasional Music," which started me on this kick in the first place!-

Michael Dirda: Lucky you! The Library of America has a volume devoted to classic American hard-boiled fiction. I'm not sure anymore of the contents, but you should probably try Horace McCoy's They Kill Horses, Don't They; Paul Cain's Fast One; Edward Anderson's Thieves Like Us, and any books by Charles Willeford. You can also find various paperback anthologies, such as The Black Mask Boys or The Hard-Boiled Omnibus. Have fun going down those mean streets!

Washington, D.C.: I found this interesting H.L. Mencken quotation today and thought that I should share it with and the others:

"There are some people who read too much: The bibliobibuli. I know some
who are constantly drunk on books, as others are drunk on whiskey or
religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds
in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing."

What do you make of the quotation? Do you know any bibliobibuli?

Michael Dirda: REminds me of Schopenhauer who said that reading was thinking with other people's minds instead of your own. Certainly it is more important to read a few books well than to read a lot of them. And of course the world--that is love, friends, family, travel etc--is more important than books. Nobody wants to be a Mr. Peepers. But one should pack a lot of experience into life and reading is one way to do that. You can't be everything or go everywhere, but you can learn about anything through books. Let me tell you a story though. As a bookish teenager, I happened to read Zorba the Greek and came upon this sentence, written by the repressed young Englishman who becomes Zorba's friend: "I had fallen so low that if I had had to choose between falling in love with a woman and reading a book about love, I should have chosen the book." I read that and the next week went out on my first date.

DC: Two writers whose novels I have enjoyed very much are rather reclusive. I hope this means they are busy writing. <G> However, it also means it's hard to know what they're up to. Can you give us an update on what Charles Frazier -Cold Mountain- and Norman Rush -Mating- are working on? Could they be hiding out with Thomas Pynchon avoiding the world somewhere?

Thanks, I love these chats!!

Michael Dirda: Wish I knew what they were up to, but I suspect that we shall see new books one of these days. Pynchon remains reclusive, but apparently now lives in New York and regularly takes his young son to school.

Cleveland, Ohio: I have read -several times- and loved Calvino's Baron of the Trees and If On A Winter's Night A Traveler. What else can you recommend by him and by others with a similar style? Also, have you read much by Will Self, and if so, what would you recommend -or not-? Thanks.

Michael Dirda: There's a new book of Calvino essays--I've just written about it, and the review will be out soon--coming next month. My favorite Calvinos besides If on a winter's night a traveler are The Castle of Crossed Destinies, Invisible Cities and the essays in Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Castle is based on the Tarot deck; Cities is a series of prose poems, descriptions of imaginary places, told by Marco Polo to Kubla Khan; Six Memos lists the qualities Calvino admired in prose: lightness, quickness, etc. Haven't read Will Self. If you like Calvino you might also try Angela Carter, especially Nights at the Circus.

Washington, DC: Underworld one of the greatest works of the late 20th century? I thought it was 800 pages trying to settle on a theme, the worst example of an author trying to be grand and visionary in an effort to win awards and acclaim. I was horribly, horribly disappointed in it. In fact, I can't remember the last book I read that let me down as much. Please share with us why you found it so wondrous. I'll probably try to read it again someday and I want to know why I should <G>.

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. I'll agree that the end somewhat falls apart, but I read every page with delight and rapture. Maybe I'm too easy to please, but style and voice go a long way for me and DeLillo's worked. But Underworld didn't win any awards, so you may well be right in your judgment. I also loved Mason & Dixon--thought it an autumnal masterpiece--and nobody else seems to have felt that. Above all, though, I think it important for writers to try over-ambitious projects, that it is daring to go too far that keeps literature vital. I love perfect miniatures and short novels--no one bows lower before Evelyn Waugh than I do--but I think literature needs visionaries and madmen more than it requires perfect craftsmen.

Philadelphia, PA: To the person asking about hard-boiled fiction, I am a big Dashiell Hammett fan and learned last week that two new books will be coming out in the near future, including a collection of stories that have been out of print for decades -including stories featuring Sam Spade and the Continental Op- and a Library of America collection of Hammett's novels. The best Hammett, of course, is The Maltese Falcon, though I also love Red Harvest.

Michael Dirda: I think the anthology is mostly second-rate stuff, but still it will be nice to have. The Library of American has already enshrined Chandler, so Hammett certainly deserves a volume too. Still, I think one should read these people in grubby paperbacks, with slinky blondes on the covers, not in well-bound volumes printed on bible paper. I think The Thin Man is underrated--a wonderfully amusing book. I once spent a very happy 10 hour bus trip reading The Continental Op stories in The Big Knockover.

alexandria: michael, i thoroughly enjoy your book chat - it's a great office stress buster! in your international travels, please tell us about your most favorite book "shops", "stalls", and small independent booksellers. thanks.

Michael Dirda: Wish I could be doing some international travel. Well, I do plan to report on a conference in New Orleans next month, so I may have some bookstore stuff there.

Arlington, VA: In your discussion of comic books over the last few weeks I've never seen anyone suggest "Three Men and A Boat -To Say Nothing of the Dog-" by Jerome K. Jerome. I read this book over the summer and roared with laughter. Even though it's a hundred years old -literally-, the writing puts you right there on this ill-fated sculling trip down the Thames.

Michael Dirda: I like the book too--have an American first edition--and find its tone extremely modern and almost post-modern. I do think it tends to drag a bit in the second half. My favorite unknown comic novel is Augustus Carp, Esq, by Himself--the sole novel written by a judge named Bashford. For a while you could find it in Penguin paperback.

Washington, DC: What do you think of literary Web sites like Arts & Letters Daily -www.cybereditions.com-aldaily-? Do they complement or compete with book reviews like Washington Post Book World?

Michael Dirda: I'm of the let a thousand blossoms flower school, and welcome any club, site or activity that encourages reading. But I'm afraid I hardly use the Web, except to do occasional research. Time being limited, one can either surf the web or read books, and I prefer the latter.

Madison WI: What critic or critics do you find have literary taste most similar to yours--that is, you like what they like and you don't like what they don't?

Michael Dirda: Randall Jarrell, Cyril Connolly, Joseph Epstein, John Updike, Robertson Davies--I pretty much find my own tastes reflected in their writing. Not that I don't disagree with them from time to time. Epstein is too conservative in certain cultural ways; Davies too harrumphingly Waspy. But Jarrell had perfect taste in poetry, and Cyril Connolly is the kind of aesthete I've always admired and wished I could emulate--he lived for good wine, travel, first editions, love affairs, etc. And he wrote almost perfect English prose.

Minneapolis, Minnesota: How do you rate the novels and autobiographical works of Paul Auster? He's one of the pure delights of my reading diet the last couple years.

Michael Dirda: Very high. The City of Glass trilogy--pastiches of detective novels and experimental fiction--is wonderfully readable, as is Moon Palace. I haven't read most of the later novels, but friends who have assure me that he's still got that magic.

Silver Spring, MD: Not a question, a thank you for recognizing and recommending librarians as a resource to help people of all ages find the types of books they'd enjoy reading. -An Angela Thirkell type sentence, I know, but they're fun to read and write in small doses.-

Michael Dirda: In a just society librarians and elementary school teachers would be the two highest paid professions.

sci-fi girl, va: Thanks for the Hardboiled suggestions. What do you think of Neal Stephenson? I think Cryptonomicon is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I feel that he's raised the bar for cyberpunk writers with this and Snowcrash.

Michael Dirda: That's what I hear too, but I haven't read Cryptonomicon yet. Have just finished the new William Gibson, though, which is extremely enjoyable as always (wihtout breaking any new ground). It's coming in October--All Tomorrow's Parties.

Manassas, VA: Are you familiar with the Baron Corvo-Fr. Rolfe-Frederick Rolfe, said by Auden to be "one of the masters of vituperation"? If so: 1.I would be curious to read your opinion-recommendations.

2. Would you know of any conspiracy to return his works -any of them- to print?

Thanks,

Malcolm Lawrence

Michael Dirda: Hadrian the Seventh is one of my favorite novels--about a defrocked priest who becomes pope. You can find old paperbacks pretty readily in used bookstores. There's an old Modern Library edition of The History of the Borgias, by Corvo too. The classic biography--filled with factual errors, but immensely entertaining--is Quest for Corvo by A.J.A. Symons; there are more accurate lives by Donald Weeks and Miriam J. BEnkowitz. You should try used bookstores--Corvo's collectible. I have most of his books in various reprints--he's always being rediscovered--but I doubt whether anything except hadrian will ever be easy to find.

Michael Dirda: Well, that's the time for this week. Sorry if I didn't get to your question. Try me again next Wednesday at 2. In the meantime, wish me luck in getting the ink out of my shirt pocket, and keep reading!