Wake up New York Times

July 25, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: About books, book news, New York Times bestseller 

It’s Sunday. Sunday mornings I read my New York Times. And I read my New York Times Book Review. Every Sunday. New York Times Book Review is an institution. And most likely I will continue to read it every Sunday. Like many, many others.

The reason I read it is that I like books. I assume that’s the reason most people read it. And I like to be informed about good books. And assume that New York Times Book Review will do that – inform me of new, good books.

But perhaps I read it out of habit? Perhaps I shouldn’t be reading it? Perhaps I am wasting my time? Perhaps I should go elsewhere?

The US of A has less than a tenth of the population of the world. And, perhaps – if you want to be nice to America and the New York Times Book Review – 15% of the writers of the world. Then, in addition there are a few writers in the UK.  Even so, in today’s New York Times Book Review, there is not a single review of a foreign book from the world outside the US and the UK! Not one! And, what’s more, there are no advertisements for foreign (translated) books either. So, 85% of the world’s literature is not covered.

So, what is wrong, New York Times Book Review? Are you ignorant? Are you incompetent? Are you blind? Are your eyes shut? Is quality literature – fiction, crime fiction, non-fiction – produced only inside the US and on rare occasions the UK? What about the rest of the world? Don’t you see it? Have you at least heard about it? Or do you only suspect it might exist, but have no real proof that it does?

Or do you really mean that there are no good writers that US readers ought to be informed about from Latin America? From Asia? From Africa? From Australia? Or from continental Europe – Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, the Scandinavian countries or other countries in Europe? That there is nothing worthwhile going on in those countries, in the rest of the world? Despite the fact that most Nobel prizes in literature are from countries other than the US and the UK? How strange! Are you lacking in knowledge or is it so hard to admit that there is more to the world than what goes on inside the US?

Has New York Times Book Review and the American publishing industry closed its eyes to the rest of the world? That’s what I think is the case. It is very, very sad! And it is obviously not American readers that have closed their minds – after all, Stieg Larsson is on all the bestseller lists in that very same New York Times Book Review. And he is not from the US or the UK. Even so, he “owns the bestseller lists, as one blogger put it. So American readers are more than willing to read good fiction from outside the US/UK.

I will probably continue to read the New York Times Book Review. It is, after all, an institution. Sadly, Americans tend to believe it is a quality publication. I am not so sure. I’ve doubted it for a long time. To my mind, you simply can’t produce a high quality magazine about books if your mind is closed. Or, as in the case of the New York Times Review of Books – when the mind is limited by geographic boundaries – lines on a map.

Even so, I’ll continue to read New York Times Book Review. And hope. Probably against hope.

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This Quiet Dust, and Other Writings, by William Styron

July 10, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Fiction, Short stories, William Styron 

There is no doubt that This Quiet Dust, William StyronWilliam Styron is one of America’s greatest contemporary writers. He wonderful writing can also be witnessed in this collection of short pieces; even though it is perhaps a little stiffer than usual in his writings. The stories cover a wide range of topics and contain his views and reflections, his observations on the state of the world and the ways of the world as he sees it.

This interesting collection includes considerations of Scott Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and others, as well as a re-evaluation of Thomas Wolfe, a review of Malcolm Cowley’s ”A Second Flowering”, as well as a piece on James Jones. It also contains articles about the battlefields of Vietnam and about Auschwitz. A wide range of writings written by a man with a wide range of interests, and who is engaged in the world he lives in and has spent a lot of time pondering a range of diverse topics. Styron was a writer who was willing to confront significant moral questions.

This is a collection you should read if you are interested in learning more about William Styron and his views. It is not a book you should start with if you have not read any of Styron’s novels yet. In that case, I would rather recommend The Confessions of Nat Turner or the magnificent Sophie’s Choice.

Praise for This Quiet Dust:

“Styron is pre-eminent…in his instinct for tragedy and in his respect for the sheer force of human feeling.” — Alfred Kazin

“[Styron is] the most accomplished craftsman, and one of the most penetrating witnesses of our life.” — Associated Press — Review

Links to books by William Styron at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Amazon CAN.

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The Confederation Handbook, by Peter F. Hamilton

July 5, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Peter F. Hamilton, Science Fiction 

This is a handbook – a book of “facts”, The Confederation Handbook, Peter F. Hamilton not a science fiction story. The Confederation Handbook is a companion volume to Hamilton’s massive Night’s Dawn Trilogy, which was a trilogy in Britain, but not in the USA. It lays out the history and technology of the major cultures, discusses the planets on which the action of the trilogy occurs, and fills in a little background information.

In this galactic almanac Peter F.  Hamilton reveals the true potential of his brilliantly realized epic. Expanding on its concepts and complexities, The Confederation Handbook explores the 600-year history of more than 21,500 inhabited worlds, asteroids, and bitek habitats. You can discover how Edenist space colonies are grown; the real story of the Kulu Kings and the exiled Lord of Ruin; why Adamist religions caused the human schism by rejecting Affinity;  the tragic legacy of Rubra, the Edenist rebel who created Valisk;  learn about Voidhawk breeding and Tyrathca mating rituals, and much more!

The Confederation Handbook covering geology, politics, technology, weaponry, and alien life forms, and is a must read for Peter Hamilton’s legion of fans.

To some extent it is also a book of spoilers. Much of Night’s Dawn consists of going through a long series of adventures to find out the quirks of Hamilton’s galaxy. It is the wealth and appeal of his background, and the daring of his conceit – science fiction that overtly tackles all the issues usually left to religion – that make Night’s Dawn so popular.

With this book you get in neat summary the information that would otherwise require you to read thousands of pages of the trilogy itself. Indeed, if you read the first volume of Reality Dysfunction& and would like to know where the story goes, you have only to read this book, skip the next four and a half volumes, and read the last 100 pages of Naked God, and you will have the plot. On the other hand, readers who have read and learned all the information provided in the trilogy will find little new here.

Links to Peter F. Hamilton’s books: amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

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