August 2024 Dispatch
Last month, I spent a fair amount of time on the beach. So within my reading list there are of course a few classic murder mysteries. No surprise there. There were also a few deeply emotional selections, which altogether suits my end-of-summer feelings of melancholy. Is it an active choice to be melancholy end of summer? I don’t think so…I think certain events in my life have just led me to a sincere place of reflection during the last two weeks of August in particular. So, instead of fighting it madly I have come instead to embrace it.
I also close out this dispatch with a brief list of the poetry I read this month for my now-annual attempts at participation in The Sealey Challenge.
Hot Milk — Deborah Levy: I do love Deborah Levy’s writing, her three part memoir most especially. This novel was extremely summer appropriate. Also appropriate for anyone who has ever had a demanding relative, proximity to ailments and jellyfish stings.
Elsewhere — Yan Ge: This collection was really brilliant. Ok, to be fair, the very last story in the book kind of lost me a bit but I would still recommend this for anyone who loves short story compilations. Work in translation.
Parade — Rachel Cusk: Oh. This book. I feel extremely late to the Cusk parade as it were. I read a few of her books last summer and enjoyed them immensely. This one has a unique structure and experience of time and character building. But some of the passages…you know when you read a book and it feels like the author has managed to spend some time in your head? The end of this book especially resonated significantly with me.
Baumgartner — Paul Auster: Another author I know is much, much beloved the world over and who I have only just read recently. And by recently, I mean last month. Auster sadly passed away this spring, this being the book he was working on before his death. This book does have a side effect of making you think about life beyond the point your beloved is no longer with you. I mean, you read this book, you can’t help but have your mind go there. But beyond grief, it is a beautiful reflection on what it means to love, to be in partnership, to experience memory. For me personally, there were a number of parallels which, while reading the book in bed, made me look over at my husband a bit misty-eyed. Auster’s wife Siri Hustvedt is also an incredible writer and I highly recommend her work as well. I look forward to reading more written work from each of them in the coming months.
A Termination — Honor Moore: I enjoyed this, as much as one could enjoy a book on this topic. I also enjoyed the frankness with which Moore confronts her privilege, alongside what is a simultaneously painful and liberating highly personal narrative.
What I’d Rather Not Think About — Jente Posthuma: Part way through the book I started thinking to myself, yes, perhaps this is exactly the sort of things I would rather not think about (in relation to my own personhood/lived experience). However, that idea — however uncomfortable — certainly can motivate a person to consider that this in fact is the type of thing they should be thinking about. I understand that is cryptic. I will say only this — the book delves deeply into what it is that we hang on to and what we find when we have suffered the most heartbreaking of losses. Work in translation.
Kappa — Ryunosuke Akutagawa: Short fictional work, very imaginative. If you like sci-fi this would probably cross into that realm a bit as the whole story is both sobering and fantastical (undertones of stark commentary of humanity and mental health). Work in translation.
Paul Celan and the Trans-Tibetan Angel — Yoko Tawada: One of my favorite writers. Maybe not my favorite work by her, I think maybe the heat of summer made me feel a bit slower to comprehend it all, but that’s entirely my fault. Work in translation.
Murder in a Heatwave — ed. Cecily Gayford: Nice compilation of short stories; perfect oceanside companion!
The Little Sparrow Murders — Seishi Yokomizo: Every summer for the last few years, Pushkin Press has come out with a new translation of his work. Something about the protagonist of this series is compelling — he’s a bit all over the place. Very intelligent but not a polished individual. Still, people let their guard down around him and he works to uncover the truth of murders. Gruesome, sure — but the descriptions of some of scenery of the various settings around Japan may have you eager to book a trip all the same. A new translation I look forward to each year now!
Telemorphosis — Jean Baudrillard: Mmmm…the academic work in the mix. This one was short and thus I read it in its entirety and am therefore including it herein. Baudrillard is (I believe) someone that should be more widely read these days. This was a solid intro to his work. The first essay in the book was relevant to my PhD dissertation which is how I came to be reading this book. My dissertation you ask? How is it going? Slowly.
The Hypocrite — Jo Hamya: This book takes place partially in Sicily so I certainly appreciated that element. While I do think this is rather the point, the characters were…not the most likable. I found that the conclusion of the book redeemed the prior parts of the novel where I was scratching my head a bit. Solid summer read if you like family chaos and theatre.
The Mill House Murders — Yukito Ayatsuji: A new author for me. I quite liked it! The end did have me surprised. I was so absorbed in this I forgot to reapply sunscreen for too long a period on the beach. I arrived home that evening a bit more flushed than I would have preferred but no serious harm done! Work in translation.
Poetry
As noted, the month of August has “The Sealey Challenge.” This year I endeavored to read 15 books (you are supposed to read 1x day, but I had a busy first half the month that I knew would make that tough). I go to 12, so not bad considering I knew I would be tight on time. Listing them off here; maybe at year end I’ll share some more eloquent thoughts on poetry I’ve read this year? Until then, I leave you with this succint enumeration.
- Fish Carcass — Vi Khi Nao
- Bathhouse and Other Tanka — Tatsuhiko Ishii
- Anondyne — Khadijah Queen
- Tressing Motions at the Edge of Mistakes — Imane Boukaila
- Children in Tactical Gear — Peter Mishlar
- Mandible Wishbone Solvent — Asiya Wadud
- The Span of a Small Forever — April Gibson
- Together and By Ourselves — Alex Dimitrov
- Blood Orange — Yaffa AS
- Obit — Victoria Chang
- Quiet — Victoria Adukwei Bulley
- Makeshift Altar — Amy M. Alvarez
