Books I Read September 19th, 2021

Autumn is slowly arriving in LA—yes we have autumn, seasons are different all over the world you halfwit parochial bastard. Would you fucking someone in Delhi that monsoon season isn't a thing? Eat shit. Anyway it's getting darker here earlier and there's this nice little crispness in the air which reminds me of all the other times the air has been crisp in my life, you know how memory does. Anyway I read these books the last two weeks.

Names on the Land by George R. Steward – A history of North American place names. Framing the settling of the continent along these lines offers a fascinating insight into how humans think about land, ownership and community, and a lot of the throw away stories are entertaining in their own right. It drags a bit after Manifest Destiny wraps up but you can't really blame it for that.

The Heat's On by Chester Himes – Saw this on a stoop and figured I'd take any opportunity to re-read part of Hime's magnificent decalogue chronicling the investigations of two black detectives responsible for keeping peace in Harlem. As always, Himes' swirling panorama of black New York is more interesting than the actual investigation but that's more advertisement than knock.

A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary 1939–1940 by Iris Origo – An American ex-pat chronicles the approach of WWII from her peculiar position as madam of a farm in rural southern Italy. It made me want to read the one she's more famous for writing, so I guess that's a rec.

The David Story translated by Robert Alter – I was largely unfamiliar with Samuel and found reading Alter's once again magnificent translation to be an enormously engaging and valuable experience (and during holy week, no less!) The attempts of the ancient Israelites to reconcile the brutal realities of existence with their dream of a theodical world are potent and fascinating, and as you begin to grasp it (aided by Alter's notes) the style of the narrative becomes engrossing. I liked this so much I'm thinking about breaking down and buying the complete text, which is excessively unlike me these days.

Inspector Cadaver by Simenon – Detective Maigret something something something. The plots of these are kind of pointless but it does have that charming feel of a good sitcom where you're hanging out with a dude you like, even if that dude in this case is an phlegmatic Parisian pipe-smoking giant.

Talk by Linda Rosenkrantz – In the early 60s Linda Rosenkrantz went to the Hamptons and recorded her friends saying things and then worked them into this narrative. It's a clever idea and makes for an interesting and entertaining read. My main takeaways are 1) it's crazy that people ever took Freudian analysis seriously, I mean more appalling than crazy really, and 2) Linda Rosenkrantz knew some shallow fucking people.

Brotherhood by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr – Citizens of a fictionalized West African city start a revolutionary journal in opposition to the occupying Islamist regime. Uneven but valuable.