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Journey to the End of the Night (1932), by Louis-Ferdinand Céline
In the black heart of the Great Depression, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler rose to power, Louis-Ferdinand Cèline set the French literary scene afire with Journey to the End of the...
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The Last Estate by Conor Bowman
The Last Estate by Conor Bowman is a rare miniature treat. The book, little over 160 pages, contains multitudes. It focuses on the story of Christian Aragon, the last surviving son of a Provençal...
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What I’m Reading 2012 and Other Business
What I’m Reading 2012 Overview: I’m currently reading five books. Each poses certain challenges (in some cases, self-imposed challenges) to me as a reader, reviewer, critic, historian, and aesthete....
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Translation Tuesdays: The Investigation, by Philippe Claudel
A series dedicated to literature in translation whether classic or contemporary. Originally published as L’Enquête Translated from the French by John Cullen Nan A. Talese | Doubleday A balding...
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CCLaP Fridays: On Being Human: The Trilogy, by Samuel Beckett
This week in the CCLaP series “On Being Human,” I analyse Samuel Beckett’s groundbreaking “Trilogy,” where the famed avant-garde writer sought the essence of what it is to be human by stripping away...
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The NSFW Files: The Story of the Eye, by Georges Bataille
In this week’s installment of CCLaP’s “The NSFW Files,” Karl Wolff investigates the 1928 Georges Bataille shocker, “Story of the Eye,” a very early precursor to bizarro fiction.
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The NSFW Files: “Our Lady of the Flowers,” by Jean Genet
This week at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, I review Our Lady of the Flowers, by Jean Genet, about a drag queen hanging around with criminals and murderers in pre-World War 2...
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Commonplace Book: Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett
VLADIMIR: But you can’t go barefoot! ESTRAGON: Christ did. VLADIMIR: Christ! What has Christ to do with it? You’re not going to compare yourself to Christ! ESTRAGON: All my life I’ve compared myself to...
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The NSFW Files: Story of O, by Pauline Reage
This week I continue my ongoing essay series, The NSFW Files, with the controversial classic, The Story of O, by Pauline Reage, about a woman who desires to be dominated.
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The NSFW Files: The Image, by Jean de Berg
This week in my ongoing essay series, I take a look at The Image, by Jean de Berg, a work of minimalist eroticism.
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Translation Tuesdays: Louis XXX, by Georges Bataille
Louis XXX, by Georges Bataille The Little One and The Tomb of Louis XXX Translated and with Commentary by Stuart Kendall Equus Press Earlier this year, over at the Chicago Center for Literature and...
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CCLaP Fridays: Cries of the Lost, by Chris Knopf
This week Karl Wolff reviews Cries of the Lost, by Chris Knopf, a smart thriller that reads like equal parts Elmore Leonard and Roberto Bolano.
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CCLaP Fridays: A Taste for Intrigue: the Multiple Lives of Francois...
This week Karl Wolff reviews A Taste for Intrigue: the Multiple Lives of Francois Mitterrand, by Philip Short, a political biography of France’s longest-serving Socialist President.
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Translation Tuesdays: 4 Non-English Works About Drag Queens
It’s MP Johnson Week at The Driftless Area Review. To celebrate the release of Dungeons & Drag Queens by Eraserhead Press, I’m devoting a week to all that is MP Johnson and the glory that is drag....
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Twenty-One Days of a Neurasthenic, by Octave Mirbeau @ NYJB
What’s the best cure for a man who hates the mountains? Send him to the mountains. What’s the best cure for a misanthrope? Send him to live with other people. Thus begins Twenty-One Days of a...
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Horizontal Collaboration: The Erotic World of Paris, 1920–1946, by Mel Gordon...
Horizontal Collaboration, by Mel Gordon is “an illuminating linguistic, cartographic, and historical exploration of Parisian lusts.”
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American Odd: Conspiranoia!: the Mother of All Conspiracy Theories, by Devon...
This week I continue my American Odd essay series with a look at Conspiranoia!: the Mother of All Conspiracy Theories, by Devon Jackson. It’s the essay the UFO nazi Bilderbergers don’t want you to...
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Translation Tuesdays: H, by Philippe Sollers
A series dedicated to literature in translation whether classic or contemporary. Originally published as H Translated from the French by Veronika Stankovianska and David Vichnar Equus Press (2015) At...
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Forgotten Classics: Life in the Folds, by Henri Michaux @ NYJB
An infrequent feature on classic books forgotten to the mists of time. Life in the Folds by Henri Michaux is “a masterpiece of concision and pain. . . . a literary achievement . . .”
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Translation Tuesdays: One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michele Audin
Michèle Audin’s debut novel One Hundred Twenty-One Days is a story about mathematics and love.
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