The first week on the new job is behind me, and my Smallfish Clover head is empty. Yes, the books appeared on my doorstep on time, and yes, I have placed them in local bookshops. A friend on mine feels strongly that I should organize a Release Party, for the simple reason that I can sell books without having to give up the 40% commission charged at shops. I think she's right, but I'm too busy -- the whole summer scene here in Northern Michigan is such a madhouse of activities and events, that maybe I'll wait until fall.
Anyway, what has struck my fancy this last week is the incoming fiction to ForeWord Magazine. Poor fiction writers -- so many titles, so little space. Like most publishers, our coverage is over 4 to 1 in favor of nonfiction. So, I thought I'd mention a few of the titles that caught my eye:
Foremost, there's Mandarins: Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
The professor picked up the fan and raised his head, but his face bore a very different and most complex expression. Somewhat theatrically overplayed, it reflected pious circumspection at a sight he ought not to have witnessed, mixed with satisfaction at his own awareness of the same. (from The Handkerchief)
Another is Steps Through the Mist, also a collection of stories, connected, by Serbian Zoran Zivkovic. (Aio Publishing) For adult readers of literary fantasy/science fiction (think Isamov, even Bruno Schultz) these aren't going to knock your socks off. However, for young adults, they're a wonderful introduction both to the genre and to foreign literature.
I was so hoping that Boy, by Takeshi Kitano (Vertical) was going to be fantastic. Kitano is an award-winning film-maker -- great films, not so great writing. First of all, there's the first of all. Look at these first two paragraphs:
It had been two years since I'd last seen my brother.
For most of the year, he was out of Japan on business, but since we'd reached our thirties and started families of our own, we'd found ourselves wanting to catch up with each other once in a while. I don't remember who had suggested it first, but we decided to go for drinks at my friend's restaurant in Yotsuya.
Nope. Not good. Not the least bit interesting. Flat use of language. Stringy sentences. Why not just start in the restaurant and catch the reader up little by little? And yes, I did read on -- when they got to the restaurant -- but then they talked trivially about golf. Maybe the rest of the book is fantastic, but there are "so many titles, so little space" in my day as well.
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