Susanne Kippenberger translated by Damion Searls J&L Books ($34.95) by Erika Stevens In 2011, Martin Kippenberger’s installation Wenn’s anfängt durch die Decke zu tropfen (When the ceiling begins to leak) —a work of art worth more than a million dollars—was cleaned by a very thorough Putzfrau(cleaning lady). She saw a dirty residue in a rubber basin below a […]
Slavoj Žižek Verso Books ($69.99) by Jim Kozubek GWF Hegel (1770-1831), the pre-eminent German idealist, changed political discourse by staking the claim that “antimonies” or inconsistencies were persistent to any thesis, thus a system would be perpetually besieged by antithesis, and subject to transition into a synthesis. In his churning 1000-page new tome, Slovenian philosopher […]
Brian Mooney Thorogood Publishing ($24.95) by John Toren During the summer of 2010, retired Reuters correspondent Brian Mooney stepped out the front door of his home in Essex, rucksack on his back, and set off for Rome—on foot. This 1,400-mile journey took him seventy-five days. The title of his retelling of the experience, A Long Way […]
Mary Johnson Spiegel & Grau ($27) by Chris Beal The less we think of ourselves, the more God thinks of us. —Mother Teresa, as quoted by Mary Johnson Nineteenth-century novelists may have thrived on the theme of forbidden sex and its consequences, but in the modern era, there are few contexts in which sex is […]
The Secret Violence of Henry Miller Studies In American Literature And Culture Katy Masuga Camden House ($70) Henry Miller and How He Got That Way Katy Masuga Edinburgh University Press ($59.99) by Greg Bachar In his essay “Writers Lost In The Distance,” Roberto Bolaño describes “remembering the writers who were important to us in our […]
Adilifu Nama University of Texas Press ($24.95) by Isaac Butler One Christmas, Bill, my brother, seven years my senior, bequeathed me his comics collection. Although born out of necessity—he had run out of available funds before it came time to buy me anything—it was the best Christmas present I’d ever received. I spent the next […]
Fitz Hugh Ludlow Theophania Publishing ($17.99) by Gregory Stephenson After enjoying a flourish of notoriety following its first publication 155 years ago, The Hasheesh Eater (1857) by Fitz Hugh Ludlow soon declined into obscurity and from thence descended to oblivion where it remained for a hundred years. It was summoned back from the netherworld of lost and […]
Evan S. Connell Penguin Modern Classics (UK £8.99) Counterpoint (US $14.95) by Malcolm Forbes In “The Promotion,” a 1966 short story by Evan S. Connell, a woman chides her man for being lily-livered and dithering over leaving his wife. “You disgust me,” Sylvie tells Lester, during one harsh outburst. When poor Lester finally finds his […]
Luke Geddes Chômu Press ($14) by Stephen Delaney Losing myself in my room as a kid, I’d often sense that the ever-strewn toys surrounding me—my one-armed teddy bear, twin Yodas, and red-suited Bionic Man, to name a few—had warm and complex thoughts. And it seemed quite likely that, say, when my Archie comics weren’t open, the rompish […]
Carlos Fuentes translated by E. Shaskan Bumas and Alejandro Branger Dalkey Archive ($17.95) by Vladislav Davidzon It’s not easy being a Vlad in the West. Trust me, I know. Eastern Europe remains trapped in age-old feuds, economic dysfunction, and social morass. Occasionally one is forced to flee depreciating currencies, pitchfork wielding mobs, or communists. In […]