Dear readers,
If autumn is “the season of mists and soft fertility” (as Keats told Keatsily), then late August is the season of steam and exhausting heat.
Here are two novels to cool anyone’s temperature. The first is cool; the second completely frozen.
Brrr,
Molly
I’m tempted to just type out a list of quotes from this book and call it a day, just adding “BUY IT NOW!” button below — but I will be a responsible correspondent and write a proper endorsement.
One of my favorite games is to read an unknown novel without knowing what year it was published and then try to guess the year. Mostly it was a boring game and I came within 24 months of the pub date; most books provide themselves. Not this one! You could have knocked me down with cat hair if you had told me the year was 1929.
The subjects aren’t fresh — sex, love, marriage, infidelity, and work have been fiction fodder since the birth of novels — but the technique, which feels too advanced even for now. How did Ursula Parrott do it? We couldn’t ask him because he died in 1957 of cancer in a charity ward in New York City. We must conclude that he possessed supernatural gifts of insight, as well as a talent for acid aphorisms and peppery dialogue. (And an instinct for self-protection: the book was scandalous enough that he chose to release it anonymously.)
The story concerns Patricia, a sexy dullard whose life in New York City circa Prohibition revolves around writing ad copy, drinking rivers of Scotch and settling into life as an ex-wife in sad old age of 24. This edition features a wonderful introduction by Alissa Bennett. You can also split the price of one copy between five friends because this book will definitely end up in friend circulation.
A quote from the book, because I couldn’t resist: “The only use for advice is to put it in your pocket and save it until, just in case, you want to take it.”
Read if you like: Being mean, shopping, breakfast for dinner, bearing anxiety with dignity,” by Elizabeth Jane Howard.The Cazalet Chronicles”
Available from: McNally Editions
“Two Serious Women,” by Jane Bowles
Fiction, 1943
The serious women of the title are Miss Goering and Mrs. Copperfield, acquaintances from a poorly sketched East Coast social scene. They meet at the beginning and end of the novel; otherwise they will continue their own adventures — the wealthy and scheming Miss Goering pondering sin and salvation with two maids across much of New York City while Mrs.
This is Jane Bowles’ only novel and it wasn’t popular at the time of publication — based on the details above, can you guess why? — but it has collected a cult following as a futuristic literary oddity. It reads like it was written by an extraterrestrial who spent five minutes on Earth and became strangely determined to write a comedy of manners. The plot has almost no momentum and the dialogue sounds like Georges Bataille wrote fortune cookies. Defies explanation.
You know those bumper stickers that say “KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD”? If you need to “CONTINUE [insert your name here] WEIRD” you just have to lock yourself in the room for six hours with this novel.
Read if you like: André Gide, Ivy Compton-Burnett, port city, cockamamie schemes, Francis Bacon (the painter not the empiricist)
Available from: A good bookstore or library (or borrow online for free)
Why do not you…
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Copy a figure to “The Bathysphere Book” and name your TOY PODLE “Psyche”?
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Show no doubt about the print of the wonderful Becca Rothfeld essay about beauty and absorbs it into a BATHTUB FULL OF SCENTED OILwhere do I believe it was meant to be read?
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Having fun with garden of medieval thought with Johan Huizinga, whose book on play I recommended a few centuries ago? There is one newer translation of this tome with great pictures but it costs about $70. If you decide to use the 1996 version, which I liked, be prepared to supplement the plates with many images on Google. One benefit of the 1996 translation was this available for free onlineeven your eyes may turn to wasabi peas within its 400 pages.
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