Thank you so much for the book recommendations - I always enjoy them! And I’m also one of those who hasn’t read anything by Anna Kavan so far so that will be the next book I’m getting!
In your talk tonite you mentioned something about a book you read decades ago, but couldn't remember having read it before. I've had an exact reading experience: I've read Hemingway's "Moveable Feast" 4 times already and each time I've picked up the book, it was like reading it for the first time. What is it about books? Lots of lovelove, Gerard
For anyone interested in Anni Ernaux, I just read a piece online in the August 19 issue of The New Yorker by Ernaux called “ON CANCER AND DESIRE:
Images from a complicated year.”
The piece includes photos that I think Patti and most everyone here would appreciate. The excerpt comes from “The Use of Photography,” available for preorder, due out October 2024. Here is a small excerpt having to do with the photographs:
“I don’t know how to use the language of feelings while ‘believing’ it. When I try, it seems fake to me. I know only the language of things, of material traces, visible evidence. (Although I never stop trying to transmute it into words and ideas.)”
Thank you so much Patti for introducing Anna Kavan. I don't know if there are any French translations of her work. I'll look into it.
And thanks for mentioning Annie Ernaux and Patrick Modiano. Their work is indeed fantastic.
A pianist friend and I currently perform in bookshops and libraries : I read Annie Ernaux's “Regarde les lumières mon amour” (a very short and little-known book), and Denis illustrates certain extracts on the piano. People really enjoy that and have fun too. When travelling to NYC, we'll try to perform this somewhere ;)
As far as Patrick Modiano is concerned, I recommend reading his book “Pedigree” first, which sheds light on the whole of his work.
I agree that “Pedigree” sheds light on Modiano’s work. I don’t know how much of Anna Kavan is translated into French but I found “Neige” on Amazon which I assume is a translation of her “Ice.” In case you want to get it, here is the link:
Hi Patti, thank you for the ramble - in the best sense of the word - through some great books, poems, lines, the moon, your desk, your memory, popcorn. I'm re-reading a novel I published 34 years ago, A Curious Child (transgender narrator when that was rare.) The publisher of my new book wants to re-publish A Curious Child alongside the new one so as I haven't read it for 34 years, I thought I'd better. The new book is called Highlife and My Other Lives. Highlife is Ghanaian music I used to listen and jiggle to with my parents and their Ghanaian and international friends at the Ambassador Hotel in Accra where I went to primary school. Fela Kuti acknowledges Highlife as an inspiration, a foundation stone for Afrobeat. I saw Fela perform at the Shrine in Lagos when I worked there in the late 80s. I'm currently living in Oxford where I'll see you perform Patti on 17 September. If you have time around then, we could share thoughts, books, music, random things face to face over tea or wine or water. My latest reading - new to me if not you - is the New York writer, Diane Williams very short, short story collection. I Hear You're Rich. Oblique prose of the highest polish. My favorite runner in the Olympics men's 100m final in Paris was the Jamaican Oblique Seville, what a name! I wanted him to win for his name alone. Would he be the same world class sprinter if he was called John Smith?
Hi Patti. Im very late to the party here but wanted to say again just how much I enjoy every visit, even when you claim to have nothing to say. My wife's favorite book as a child was Silver Pennies which she still has, and she has read these poems to me over the years (we've been together for almost 40 year!) with such joy and fond memories, just like you! also, I saw your instagram post about the Elizabeth Street Garden.. I hope you prevail against the people would destroy such a treasure. bye for now.
Thank you, Patti, as always for sharing. So many books are waiting to be read! (I finally finished 'The Death of Virgil' after several months--it is a deep, deep well of musical prose and wisdom that I recommend to any who like a challenge.) I almost always buy my books secondhand, so I often have to wait particular for works to present themselves (as the above-mentioned one did); I will keep these authors in mind the next time I'm treasure hunting!
The moon has been such an object of fascination for our species and, despite now knowing that is but a ball of rock and dust, has lost none of its mystical charm. It's been a recurring symbol in my own work, such as here (http://www.hagenmusic.net/2021/03/a-finger-pointing-to-moon-essay-on.html) and here (https://soundcloud.com/hagen-music/enkephalin-into-my-head). The latter is a song I wrote following my trip to Ghana, about my beachside epiphany in which the moon played a substantial part. The former, a memoir of a moment, came a few years later on very different shores. The presence of the full moon remains a powerful object of focus that threads me back to these moments. Here I am again ...
With gratitude as always, thank you for pulling on threads!
how wonderful to receive the reading suggestions you offer us, taking them from what you are currently reading, and how wonderful to see the same books held by your hands for our eyes and for our great enjoyment. And what a sweet and lovely feeling that comes from listening to your voice reading for us so many beautiful texts loved by you, guarded and recalled, perhaps, from the treasure chest where you left them perhaps many years ago or, even, from childhood.
Thank you for all this that for all of us, I am sure, has great value.
Unfortunately, I am very sad these days because our dear uncle, who is almost 95 years old and is our mother's younger brother, fell at home and hurt himself badly. Yesterday morning he was successfully operated on. We are praying for his good recovery.
I hug you with much affection and with you all the dear friends of this beautiful and beloved community 🤗 🥰.
Hi Patti - one of Anna Kavan's biographers - D.A.Callard lived in Hebden Bridge (near where I live and where I believe you once played). Hebden Bridge, as you know, is very near to Heptonstall where Sylvia Plath is buried. D.A.Callard once spent a day with Allen Ginsberg on a visit to Wordsworth's cottage and grave, in the Lake district in 1979. I just wanted to share these sweet connections!
About to embark on Anna Kavan's Ice.
You always make me feel better. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the book recommendations - I always enjoy them! And I’m also one of those who hasn’t read anything by Anna Kavan so far so that will be the next book I’m getting!
i like that color on you miss patti! and your words. always. ❤️
Re the MOON....I just Howl!! at it..because I'm a ^..^
How about "Held" by Annie Michaels???^^
Hi Patti,
In your talk tonite you mentioned something about a book you read decades ago, but couldn't remember having read it before. I've had an exact reading experience: I've read Hemingway's "Moveable Feast" 4 times already and each time I've picked up the book, it was like reading it for the first time. What is it about books? Lots of lovelove, Gerard
Hi All,
For anyone interested in Anni Ernaux, I just read a piece online in the August 19 issue of The New Yorker by Ernaux called “ON CANCER AND DESIRE:
Images from a complicated year.”
The piece includes photos that I think Patti and most everyone here would appreciate. The excerpt comes from “The Use of Photography,” available for preorder, due out October 2024. Here is a small excerpt having to do with the photographs:
“I don’t know how to use the language of feelings while ‘believing’ it. When I try, it seems fake to me. I know only the language of things, of material traces, visible evidence. (Although I never stop trying to transmute it into words and ideas.)”
Wishing everyone a happy Sunday.
As ever,
Robin
Thanks, Robin. I haven't read any of her work so this will be my chance. As always, wishing you all the best.
Thank you so much Patti for introducing Anna Kavan. I don't know if there are any French translations of her work. I'll look into it.
And thanks for mentioning Annie Ernaux and Patrick Modiano. Their work is indeed fantastic.
A pianist friend and I currently perform in bookshops and libraries : I read Annie Ernaux's “Regarde les lumières mon amour” (a very short and little-known book), and Denis illustrates certain extracts on the piano. People really enjoy that and have fun too. When travelling to NYC, we'll try to perform this somewhere ;)
As far as Patrick Modiano is concerned, I recommend reading his book “Pedigree” first, which sheds light on the whole of his work.
All the best to everyone, and happy Sunday!
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Dear Martheen,
I agree that “Pedigree” sheds light on Modiano’s work. I don’t know how much of Anna Kavan is translated into French but I found “Neige” on Amazon which I assume is a translation of her “Ice.” In case you want to get it, here is the link:
https://www.amazon.com/Neige-Anna-Kavan/dp/2366246242?dplnkId=c6aadf4d-1f2f-46ec-ba60-5322de37fc0e&nodl=1
All the best to you, Martheen, and wishes for a happy Sunday to everyone,
Robin
If I may say so myself
KICK OUT THE JAM MOTHERFUCKERS!
Hi Patti, thank you for the ramble - in the best sense of the word - through some great books, poems, lines, the moon, your desk, your memory, popcorn. I'm re-reading a novel I published 34 years ago, A Curious Child (transgender narrator when that was rare.) The publisher of my new book wants to re-publish A Curious Child alongside the new one so as I haven't read it for 34 years, I thought I'd better. The new book is called Highlife and My Other Lives. Highlife is Ghanaian music I used to listen and jiggle to with my parents and their Ghanaian and international friends at the Ambassador Hotel in Accra where I went to primary school. Fela Kuti acknowledges Highlife as an inspiration, a foundation stone for Afrobeat. I saw Fela perform at the Shrine in Lagos when I worked there in the late 80s. I'm currently living in Oxford where I'll see you perform Patti on 17 September. If you have time around then, we could share thoughts, books, music, random things face to face over tea or wine or water. My latest reading - new to me if not you - is the New York writer, Diane Williams very short, short story collection. I Hear You're Rich. Oblique prose of the highest polish. My favorite runner in the Olympics men's 100m final in Paris was the Jamaican Oblique Seville, what a name! I wanted him to win for his name alone. Would he be the same world class sprinter if he was called John Smith?
Hi Patti. Im very late to the party here but wanted to say again just how much I enjoy every visit, even when you claim to have nothing to say. My wife's favorite book as a child was Silver Pennies which she still has, and she has read these poems to me over the years (we've been together for almost 40 year!) with such joy and fond memories, just like you! also, I saw your instagram post about the Elizabeth Street Garden.. I hope you prevail against the people would destroy such a treasure. bye for now.
Thank you, Patti, as always for sharing. So many books are waiting to be read! (I finally finished 'The Death of Virgil' after several months--it is a deep, deep well of musical prose and wisdom that I recommend to any who like a challenge.) I almost always buy my books secondhand, so I often have to wait particular for works to present themselves (as the above-mentioned one did); I will keep these authors in mind the next time I'm treasure hunting!
The moon has been such an object of fascination for our species and, despite now knowing that is but a ball of rock and dust, has lost none of its mystical charm. It's been a recurring symbol in my own work, such as here (http://www.hagenmusic.net/2021/03/a-finger-pointing-to-moon-essay-on.html) and here (https://soundcloud.com/hagen-music/enkephalin-into-my-head). The latter is a song I wrote following my trip to Ghana, about my beachside epiphany in which the moon played a substantial part. The former, a memoir of a moment, came a few years later on very different shores. The presence of the full moon remains a powerful object of focus that threads me back to these moments. Here I am again ...
With gratitude as always, thank you for pulling on threads!
Dear Patti,
how wonderful to receive the reading suggestions you offer us, taking them from what you are currently reading, and how wonderful to see the same books held by your hands for our eyes and for our great enjoyment. And what a sweet and lovely feeling that comes from listening to your voice reading for us so many beautiful texts loved by you, guarded and recalled, perhaps, from the treasure chest where you left them perhaps many years ago or, even, from childhood.
Thank you for all this that for all of us, I am sure, has great value.
Unfortunately, I am very sad these days because our dear uncle, who is almost 95 years old and is our mother's younger brother, fell at home and hurt himself badly. Yesterday morning he was successfully operated on. We are praying for his good recovery.
I hug you with much affection and with you all the dear friends of this beautiful and beloved community 🤗 🥰.
Luca 🌸❤️☮️❤️🌸
I loved that moon poem. Your book recommendations are something I take particular note of. Thank you for sharing them with us
Hi Patti - one of Anna Kavan's biographers - D.A.Callard lived in Hebden Bridge (near where I live and where I believe you once played). Hebden Bridge, as you know, is very near to Heptonstall where Sylvia Plath is buried. D.A.Callard once spent a day with Allen Ginsberg on a visit to Wordsworth's cottage and grave, in the Lake district in 1979. I just wanted to share these sweet connections!