Reading is not the Challenge: February 2020 Reading

Saturday, February 29, 2020

February 2020 Reading

I'm feeling lazy on Leap Day so I'm not sorting these much. The books are grouped somewhat in the order of my reading satisfaction with the three duds at the bottom. (I'm not mentioning the two I returned to the library unread.)

The Neighborhood by Tavares, Gonçalo M. This sent me Googling to refresh my memory of the authors I already knew and learning (see below) a lot about one who was new to me.

Jerusalem by Tavares, Gonçalo M.This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers by Sharlet, Jeff
Death in Her Hands by Moshfegh, Ottessa I went to the library and checked out two more books by her
American Fictionary by Ugrešić, Dubravka
A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth: Stories by Mason, Daniel

Run Me to Earth by Yoon, Paul

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Kiernan, Denise
Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Dery, Mark
Condé Nast: The Man and His Empire -- A Biography by Ronald, Susan

A Long Petal of the Sea by Allende, Isabel
Blue Flowers by Saavedra, Carola

Naked Earth by Chang, Eileen (books like this are what made me drop my NYRB subscription)

House of Trelawney by Rothschild, Hannah
Creatures by Van Meter, Crissy
Physical Intelligence: How the Brain Guides the Body Through the Physical World by Grafton, Scott. Disappointing. too much of the author's personal experience--too much "I...."

Online reading (including Gutenberg finds):

Five Poems by Henri Michaux, translated from the French by George Dillon
    Response in Unhappiness
    A Girl of Budapest
    On the Road to Death
    But You, When Will You Come?
    Destiny

Ma Vie
   In the original French with a translation into English by Valerie Smith and James Bushnik

Un homme paisible
   In the original French with a translation into English by Pier Morton

More of Pier Morton's translations of Michaux: Les Nuits de Michaux’s Nights
This includes several pieces, plus commentary by Morton, several photographs, an audio recording of the poem Le Grand Combat (in French, there is an English text provided), some short videos (one, in German, is a tour of an exhibition of Michaux's art*), a biography, and other material.
*Henri Michaux (7. September – 24. November 2013) Kunst Museum Winterthur | Beim Stadthaus

The Tate has a couple of Michaux artworks online plus a delightful portrait of Michaux by Jean Dubuffet: Monsieur Plume with Creases in his Trousers (Portrait of Henri Michaux) (1947)

MoMA has twenty Michaux works online.

In August 2001 The Guardian published Journeys into the abyss

"Can hallucinogenic drugs lead to profound spiritual experiences? In an article published for the first time in the UK, the Nobel prizewinner Octavio Paz reflects on experiments with mescaline undertaken in the 1950s by the French poet and artist Henri Michau."

"This is an edited extract from Octavio Paz's 1967 introduction to the Miserable Miracle by Henri Michaux [translated by Helen R Lane] published in a new edition this month by New York Review Books"

One thing leads to another. a search for "Michaux" on Gutenberg brought something totally unrelated (except a shared surname).