Zacappa -your Guide to the World of Fiction

On Guard: Meta Top 10 link

Zacappa — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:32:58 +0000

The Guardian shares Zacappa’s fetish for top 10 lists of must reads -preferably exotic in nature- varying from underground welsh scribblings to unputdownable Chinese masterworks to favorable literary stepmothers to unbeatable boxing books to LA Noir Novels to a seamless endless collection of collections. As a meta masterpiece they have collected a top 1000 of must reads, divided in a few not-so-spectacular categories. Praise, praise.

The Museum of Innocence

Schot — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:53:28 +0000

In 1999, writer Orhan Pamuk bought a three story building in Istanbul to interact as a museum with his new novel, “Museum of Innocence,” a first of this kind of hybrid application… He hired an architect, Ihsan Bilgin, before he started the novel to transform the building into a museum where the novel and the museum criss cross each other in a love story between Kemal and Fusun, the main characters. In an autobiographical story, Kemal obsessively collects every object Fusun touches, in remembrance of their complex history into the Museum he builts… After nine years, both Book (Turkish and German print at this time) and the Museum are available.

Foe: an Exercise in Modesty

Zacappa — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:40:01 +0000

Retelling a classic story in your own style is a classic way of learning how te become a Great Writer. J.M. Coetzee has nothing left to prove in that area, with a Nobel prize and two Booker in his prize cabinet. Still, Coetzee rewrote the well known Crusoe story (after winning his 1st Booker prize) resulting in the novel ‘Foe’. Why? One suggestion (backed by many reviewers craving for a political message) is that Coetzee used the story as an analogy for the situation in his home country South Africa at the time. Another explanation could be that this is Coetzee’s exercise in modesty. By accounts of friends, fellow writers (like Dorfman ) and (scarce) interview Coetzee comes accross as a modest man, humble almost. Retelling the story of Crusoe might just be his way of reminding himself of that he was not a Great Writer yet, even if he had already won the Booker Prize. It’s hard to improve on a classic story, and you need at least an original mind and an abundance of stylistic refinement to succeed, two qualities that Coetzee possesses.

Too gentle for (t)his World

Zacappa — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:45:45 +0000

In the legendary movie ‘Down by law’ by Jim Jarmush three refugees (Roberto benigni, Tom Waits and John Lurie) ride a small boat in unkown territory. When they reach a familiar location, one of them exclaims: “We Keep Going in Circles”. At this exact moment the boat begins to sink. And so it is with destructive habits and vices we are unable -or even unwilling- to shake off. One way to have your personal shortcoming(s) in focus everyday is to have it tattoed on your wrist, like a permanent peeking note that surviced high school. Italian writer Sandro Veronesi did exacly that. In an interview with european newspaper NRC he explained that he had the word ‘No’ tattooed on his right wrist to remind him of the fact that he should say No more often.

Eco über Brown

Zacappa — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:25:31 +0000

“Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is an intentional attempt to dumb down for a mass audience Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum.” Exactly my thoughts while attempting to read TDVC. Steve Sailor treats us to an elegant comparison review of the two, ending with a Borghesian discovery.

Style über Message

Zacappa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:24:44 +0000

If you would have to divide serious literary writing in two broad categories, style versus message would be a good one, the talented word magicians (Nabokov, Marquez, Flaubert) versus the socially committed (Hugo, Tolstoj, Allende), the writers’ writers versus the mass favorites. If you prefer the first over the latter, like the Zac, you have to admire the Tzumprize. The Tzumprize hands out a yearly award for the most eloquent sentence produced that year in the Dutch world of fiction. The prize is worth the number of words in euros. Last year was a record, with a winning sentence by Jeroen Brouwers .

Everything is Promising

Zacappa — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 08:56:48 +0000

I prefer to read books way after the first appearance, after the review dust has settled, the hype or literary fatwa has faded and -if lucky- the book is nothing more than a sparkling dot on a starry night. If it is still worth reading in this (final) habitat, it’s a good book. If it’s (still) able to stir your perspective on your personal universe, it’s great.
Everything is illuminated was loudly applauded at it’s appearance in 2002, but is it still a good book in August 2008? As mentioned in other reviews, the parallel with the Borat character of Sacha Baron Cohen was hard to ignore (as mentioned in a very subtle, personal review by Bridget). For me, Borat was much funnier. Safran Foer, of course, is far more subtle and eloquent.
Clearly, Foer is a very gifted writer and his debut is full of ambition and urgency. The characters, the complex and intertwining narratives are all impressive and playful. Great! However, the freshness and sparkle of the first half fade out towards the end. The book does not need 276 pages. In my humble opinion 180 or 200 pages would have sufficed, especially regarding composition and balance.
So… a great book? No. A good book then? Yes, but even more a book with a promise of great talent with the potential of writing a great book.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close appeared in 2005. Next year would be safe enough for the next Search for Greatness.

What we talk about when we talk about Love

Zacappa — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:11:20 +0000

Carver had been up all night reviewing Lish’s severe editorial cuts wo stories had been slashed by nearly seventy per cent, many by almost half; many descriptions and digressions were gone; endings had been truncated or rewritten and he was unnerved to the point of desperation

More on Raymond Carver’s relationship with his friend and editor Gordon Lish at The New Yorker

On the Verge of a Simple Solution

Zacappa — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:54:40 +0000

“He seemed to be quite unexpectedly (for human despair seldom leads to great truths) on the verge of a simple solution of the universe but was interrupted by an urgent request.” Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin.

According to the Literary Encyclopedia, Pnin is the most accessible of Nabokovs novels. I personally found it rather boring, but even in his less interesting works (again, a subjective matter) little beauties can be found.

Antonio Lobo Antunes

Jotta — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:19:21 +0000

When fellow Portuguese writer, Jose Saramago, won the Nobel prize in 1998, many people called to congratulate him, after they had called Lobo Antunes to tell him that the prize should have gone to him instead.

It is hard to find anything worthwhile in English on the Portugese writer Antonio Lobo Antunes. Luckily the writer Gonzalo Bar made up for this great loss on his own blog; Gonzalo Bar, all rights reserved