In our afternoon reading: interviews with Rebecca van Laer and Claudia Rowe, pondering horror films, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Rebecca van Laer Interviewed, Damon Krukowski’s Latest, Garth Risk Hallberg on László Krasznahorkai, and More
Morning Bites: László Krasznahorkai’s Nobel, Revisiting “Orlanda,” Dan Chaon’s Latest, and More
In our morning reading: thoughts on a certain Nobel win, Grand Central gets arty, and more.
Morning Bites: Revisiting Scott McClanahan, Bhanu Kapil on Poetry, Karl Kesel on Comics, and More
In our morning reading: thoughts on a reissued book by Scott McClanahan, interviews with Bhanu Kapil and Karl Kesel, and more.
Morning Bites: László Krasznahorkai’s Latest, National Book Award Longlists, Brian Evenson on Horror, and More
In our morning reading: exploring László Krasznahorkai’s new book, Brian Evenson on horror, and more.
Morning Bites: Cristina Rivera Garza’s Books, K-Ming Chang Fiction, Budi Darma Revisited, and More
In our morning readinng: thoughts on Cristina Rivera Garza’s writings, a story by K-Ming Chang, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Ariana Harwicz’s Fiction, Catriona Ward on Horror, Nicky Beer’s Poetry, and More
In our afternoon reading: thoughts on Ariana Harwicz’s fiction, interviews with Catriona Ward and Clark Coolidge, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Ella Baxter’s Fiction, Edgar Gomez on Memoirs, Steve Gunn’s Latest, and More
In our afternoon reading: thoughts on Ella Baxter’s novel, an interview with Edgar Gomez, and more.
A Flight of Three Fine Hungarian Sours: László Krasznahorkai’s “The Last Wolf & Herman”
The Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai is a trickster, a jester entertaining an unhappy court, his sentences elongated to the point of absurdity, and absurdity is very much the man’s point. In The Last Wolf & Herman, published in English by New Directions Press in 2017 (the translators are George Szirtes and John Batki), the first tale is a long story/short novella, The Last Wolf (published in Hungary in 2009). It unfurls over a single sentence covering seventy pages and conjures thoughts of one of Krasznahorkai’s heroes, the Austrian master Thomas Bernhard. The philosophizing in The Last Wolf recalls not just the tar-black humor of Bernhard but also a more ebullient and insuppressible Thomas Mann. Krasznahorkai is a joker but not a quipster or aphorist.