Just a brief head's up for those who might be interested: starting shortly and spanning the rest of the year, I plan on engaging in two long-term reading/reviewing projects. The first dovetails with my renewed study of the Serbian language. About three years ago, one of my favorite writers, Zoran Živković, was so gracious as to send me copies of virtually all of his books then in print in the original Serbian, as he had heard that I planned on one day learning his native language. Although I was delayed these past few years, I have resumed my studies and roughly every two weeks or so, I plan on reading the books he sent me in Serbian, compare them to the English translations that I have, and write reviews for the books that I have not yet reviewed over the past six years. It's the least I could do, even if I had delays in doing so.
The second reading/reviewing project will debut likely this week first on Gogol's Overcoat and then later in the year here. I plan on re-reading and reviewing the fiction of Flannery O'Connor, with a single short story or novel most of the remaining weeks in 2013. Last year's Faulkner reviews, which I did pause in completing after 15 installments and plan on resuming at some point in the future, were some of my favorites to write and they helped me in my development as a critical reviewer. Since I rate O'Connor very close to Faulkner in terms of quality (not to mention she provides another view of my beloved/sometimes-hated native American South), hopefully these reviews will expose more readers to her excellent fictions.
Of course, all things are subject to change, but I shall do my best to cover as many of their works this year as possible. Combined, they're only a little over 40 reviews that involve reading in most cases less than 150 pages per review, so it shouldn't be too much of a strain.
The second reading/reviewing project will debut likely this week first on Gogol's Overcoat and then later in the year here. I plan on re-reading and reviewing the fiction of Flannery O'Connor, with a single short story or novel most of the remaining weeks in 2013. Last year's Faulkner reviews, which I did pause in completing after 15 installments and plan on resuming at some point in the future, were some of my favorites to write and they helped me in my development as a critical reviewer. Since I rate O'Connor very close to Faulkner in terms of quality (not to mention she provides another view of my beloved/sometimes-hated native American South), hopefully these reviews will expose more readers to her excellent fictions.
Of course, all things are subject to change, but I shall do my best to cover as many of their works this year as possible. Combined, they're only a little over 40 reviews that involve reading in most cases less than 150 pages per review, so it shouldn't be too much of a strain.
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7 comments:
Larry, a somewhat random question for you. Did you post a review for last year's Helprin book? You had mentioned that you intended to do so, but I can't seem to find it.
No, I haven't yet, but I'll try to write something by mid-February, as I thought it was a beautiful read.
So there's a chance you might actually be doing that post on The Sound and the Fury?
Yes, but it might be a while. Hard to say when I'll have the time and readiness to tackle that one, since I planned for that to be the last novel of his that I review.
Ah well, at least there's still hope, then. ;) In the meantime, I'll be looking to your posts on Flannery O'Connor, as that is an author I am not at all familiar with beyond the name and some vague idea of what her works are about.
I posted a schedule on GO (where the weekly reviews will go first, before I collect them here later in the year) that goes through mid-August, so maybe right after then I'll resume the Faulkner reviews?
I do have vague plans to do regular reviews of writers from my native American South over there for the next few years, as I think Southern Literature is a rich field that deserves greater exposure.
Very much agreed, although I do not have any immediate connection to it (being German and all), I have always been fascinated by rural America and the South in particular, starting with Faulkner who was one of my first great loves in literary fiction.
I remember you made a reading plan exactly like that for Faulkner, so excuse if I'll be taking it with a grain of salt, but will be very interested in the posts, I have been wanting to read something by Flannery O'Connor for quite a while now, and hopefully your posts will provide me with that extra bit of motivation to get me to actually go and do it. ;)
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