Author Archives: george

BILLY JOEL LIVE AT SHEA STADIUM: THE CONCERT [DVD]

 Billy Joel performed two concerts at Shea Stadium in New York City on July 16 and 18 of 2008. This DVD version was released on March 8, 2011. The film was produced by Jon Small, Joel’s former bandmate in the 1960s groups The Hassles and Attila. The film aired on PBS as part of Great Performances.

The two concerts were the last performed at Shea Stadium before it was demolished to make way for Citi Field. This DVD features guest appearances by Tony BennettGarth BrooksJohn MayerSteven TylerRoger DaltreyJohn MellencampMark Wood, and Paul McCartney.

Usually I’m not a fan of concert videos–many feature bad sound–but this DVD delivers crisp footage and clear sound. Worth a look and a listen. Are you a Billy Joel fan? GRADE: B+

TRACKLIST:

Billy JoelPrelude / Angry Young Man
Billy JoelMy Life
Billy JoelSummer, Highland Falls
Billy JoelEverybody Loves You Now
Billy JoelZanzibar
Billy Joel With Tony BennettNew York State Of Mind
Billy JoelAllentown
Billy JoelThe Ballad Of Billy The Kid
Billy JoelShe’s Always A Woman
Billy JoelGoodnight Saigon
Billy JoelMiami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)
Billy Joel With Garth BrooksShameless
Billy Joel With John MayerThis Is The Time
Billy JoelKeeping The Faith
Billy JoelCaptain Jack
Billy JoelLullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)
The River Of Dreams / A Hard Days Night
Billy JoelThe River Of Dreams
Billy JoelA Hard Day’s Night
Billy JoelWe Didn’t Start The Fire
Billy JoelYou May Be Right
Billy JoelScenes From An Italian Restaurant
Billy JoelOnly The Good Die Young
Billy Joel With Paul McCartneyI Saw Her Standing There
Billy JoelTake Me Out To The Ballgame
Billy JoelPiano Man
Billy Joel With Paul McCartneyLet It Be
Bonus Performances
Billy Joel With Steven TylerWalk This Way
Billy Joel With Roger DaltreyMy Generation
Billy Joel With John Mellencamp*–Pink Houses

COMFORTS OF THE ABYSS: THE ART OF PERSONA WRITING By Philip Schultz

Philip Schultz won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with a book called Failure. Comforts of the Abyss presents Schultz’s method of persona writing. I would call it memoir but apparently that’s an out-mode term. Here’s Schultz writing about the books that most affected him as a kid:

“…I’d go around pretending I was Jack Barnes In The Sun Also Rises and Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, and even old Huck Finn in Adventurers of Huckleberry Finn. Their opinions and attitudes became mine and I would even try to talk and act the way I imagined they did. Which wasn’t an easy feat for a dyslexic.” (p. 1)

Schultz struggled in school because of his undiagnosed dyslexia. He thought he was dumb. Finally Schultz was diagnosed with dyslexia. He didn’t learn to read until he was 11…but he made up for lost time fast.

Much of Comforts of the Abyss chronicles Schultz’s interactions with famous writers: Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, Elizabeth Bishop, Joan Didon, etc. Those sections are buffered by the poems and poets that affected Schultz’s career as a teacher at Kalamazoo College. Schultz’s favorite contemporary poet is Elizabeth Bishop so he devotes multiple sections of this book to analyzing her work.

If you’d like to see how a poet lives his life, both ups and downs, what famous people he meets, what books and poems most affect him, Comforts of the Abyss reveals much of what made Philip Schultz a good poet. Do you read much poetry? GRADE: B

Table of Contents:

The Mind’s First Freedom 1

The Shitbird, Named and Unnamed 6

I Never Wanted to Be Me, I Don’t Think 13

Pity and Fear 23

My Two Libraries 32

The Poet and the Fiction Writer; Conduits of Revelation 48

Our Most Curious Artifact 62

Somebody Loves Us All 75

Penurious Arrogance 86

A Magic Act 98

Indian Wrestling 107

Which Side Are You On? 119

Voices Veiled and Unveiled 132

The Socratic Method 144

In the Nature of a Test 151

The Map of the World 160

Gussie 168

I Came, I Saw, I Suffered 176

In the Manner of Poetry 184

A New City of Words 193

Anger and Shame 202

The Argument and the Lullaby 211

What We Want 220

Acknowledgments 223

Credits 227

GETTING LOST By Annie Ernaux

I decided to read a book by Annie Ernaux, winner of the Nobel Prize for 2022. Getting Lost, a diary from 1988 to 1990, shows Ernaux’s obsession with a married Soviet diplomat in Paris.

I confess I’m baffled by Ernaux’s obsession with this guy. Ernaux calls him “S” and he shows up at her door drunk most of the time. During sex, S talks about Stalin. S is younger than Ernaux–who is 48 at the beginning of this affair–so there’s a Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin vibe.

“11:45 P.M. He came and stayed five hours. It had been a long time since I’d experienced such perfection, and since we’d been so attuned to each other. Made love, four times, in different ways. (Bedroom, anal sex after many long and slow caresses—downstairs, sofa, missionary very tender too–bedroom, so moving: ‘I’m going to put my sperm on your belly’–the sofa, doggy style, so perfectly in tune.) An infinite need for the other’s body, his presence.” (p. 109)

And Annie Ernaux can be unintentionally funny. “I realized that I’d lost a contact lens,” Ernaux writes. “I found it on his penis.” (p. 33)

Even after a long sex session, Ernaux immediately starts fantasizing about their next encounter. From the minimal facts Ernaux reveals about her lover, he seems like a creep. Not a lot of long conversations between these two: it’s “Let’s Get It On” time whenever they’re together.

Getting Lost is a far cry from one of Deb’s romance novels. It’s almost clinical in the description of the sexual encounters.

The picture I get from reading Annie Ernaux’s diary of these years shows a woman trying to deal with the aging process by engaging in a relationship with a dubious fellow (he could be K.G.B. but Ernaux doesn’t seem to mind) like a compulsive cougar on the prowl.

Annie Ernaux refers to her son, her ex-husband, and her writing career. But, Getting Lost mostly centers around Ernaux getting lost with her Soviet sex toy. GRADE: C

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3

Mild spoiler: Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3 appears to be the final chapter of this configuration of the Guardians in the Marcel Cinematic Universe. One reason is that Director James Gunn, who both wrote and directed this film (and the other two Guardians of the Galaxy movies), is now the co-CEO of DC studios over at Warner Brothers so this is his Marvel swan song.

The focus of the film is on Rocket Raccoon, the snide genius rodent voiced by Bradley Cooper. It tells Rocket’s origin story as a cruel lab experiment conducted by High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Isuji) whose quest for “Perfection” leads to a lot of death and destruction.

Chris Pratt returns as Peter Quill (aka, Star Lord) and Zoe Saldana returns in a different format as Peter’s love interest, Gamora. Like the previous two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, the music playlist fills the action with mostly songs from the 1990s and a few from the 1980s and 2000s.

Along with Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (Vin Diesel) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Gunn introduces a new superhero, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter). My favorite character is Nebula (Karen Gillian) who deserves her own movie.

If you’re looking for plenty of action, wacky plotting, and irreverent humor you’ll enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3. GRADE: B

FRIDAY’S FORGOTTEN BOOKS #740: THREE ACES: THE GILDED HIDEAWAY By Peter Twist, IN AT THE KILL By Emmett McDowell, and HEAT LIGHTNING By Wilene Shaw

I fell in love with ACE Doubles at an early age in the Sixties. As I walked to school when I was 12 years old, I passed a local drug store with a prominently displayed spinner rack (remember them?) with plenty of paperbacks. But the ones that seduced me were ACE Doubles with their cool double covers in tête-bêche format. I bought Science Fiction ACE Doubles in those early days, but sometime in my late teens I broadened my buying to include ACE Doubles featuring mysteries and Westerns. I ended up donated dozens of ACE Doubles to the Special Collections at the State University at Buffalo as part of the 30,000 volume George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection.

Stark House just published THREE ACES, A Trio of ACE Books with a wonderful Introduction by Richard Krauss, editor and publisher of The Digest Enthusiast. Richard Krauss’s informative and enlightening description of ACE Doubles and Singles from that era highlights the editorial strategy and the changing public tastes of that time. Richard was kind enough to invite me to add some of my fond memories of ACE Doubles and they’re included in the Introduction, too!

The Gilded Hideaway (ACE Single S-107) by Peter Twist (a pseudonym of C. P. Hewitt) was published in 1955. Robert West has success and a wife and friends, but none of that brings him happiness. So West steals $100,000 and flees to Mexico to start a new Life. But West learns money doesn’t solve all problems especially when it comes to the beautiful woman named Mercedes. GRADE: B

In at the Kill by Emmett McDowell (aka, Robert Emmett McDowell) was half of ACE Double D-445 (the other half was McDowell’s Bloodline to Murder), published in 1960. In at the Kill concerns a scheme to locate some rare stamps, but leads to more valuable photos and blackmail. GRADE: B+

Heat Lightning (ACE Single S-74) by Wilene Shaw (pseudonym of Virgina M. Harrison), published in 1954, delivers a hot love triangle in the Kentucky hills. Holly Reed, while attracted to local bootlegger Brandy Elliot, finds herself drawn to a stranger in town: city-bred Larry Carter. Carter turns out to be a man of mystery…and violence. GRADE: A-

If you have three aces, you’re likely to win. Stark House’s Three Aces omnibus is a winner for sure! Don’t miss this one!

RETRO 80s, Volume 1

This 1980s compilation includes some artists and groups you don’t hear much of anymore. When’s the last time you heard China Crisis (other than in reference to Taiwan). Or Strange Advance?

On the flip side, there are some very well known artists and groups represented here. Love Kate Bush’s “Running Up that Hill,” Blondie’s “Call Me,” and Naked Eyes’s “Always Something There to Remind Me.”

Do you remember these songs from the Eighties? Any favorites? GRADE: B

TRACKLIST:

1Naked EyesAlways Something There To Remind Me3:40
2Talk TalkIt’s My Life3:52
3China CrisisWorking With Fire & Steel3:59
4Duran DuranGirls On Film3:31
5BlondieCall Me3:30
6Billy IdolDancing With Myself3:18
7The Power StationSome Like It Hot5:05
8Kate BushRunning Up That Hill (12″ Mix)5:43
9Simple MindsPromised You A Miracle (Special Extended Version)6:14
10Spandau BalletTo Cut A Long Story Short3:20
11Strange AdvanceWe Run3:56
12EndgamesFirst, Last For Everything (Club Version)4:36
13R.E.M.The One I Love3:17
14UltravoxDancing With Tears In My Eyes4:09
15Killing JokeLove Like Blood6:42
16Simple MindsLove Song (Philadelphia Bluntz Remix)Remix – Philadelphia Bluntz6:39

WEDNESDAY’S SHORT STORIES #123: ARCADIAN DAYS: GODS, WOMEN, AND MEN FROM GREEK MYTHS By John Spurling

As a kid, I loved Greek Myths. And I read Homer when I was around 10 years old (and have reread Homer over the decades). So John Spurling’s ARCADIAN DAYS: GODS, WOMEN, AND MEN FROM GREEK MYTHS was a must-read book for me.

John Spurling is a gifted writer and captures the unique world of Greek Gods and Goddesses who influence humans. Spurling’s choice of five myths starts with Prometheus and Pandora, and continues with Jason and the sorceress Medea, Oedipus and his daughter Antigone, Achilles and his mother Thetis, and Odysseus and Penelope.

My favorite myth in ARCADIAN DAYS is Jason and his Argonauts who seek the Golden Fleece and find the assistance of Medea the sorceress brings unanticipated consequences. If you enjoy classic stories with astounding plots and colossal events, you’ll love ARCADIAN DAYS: GODS, WOMEN, AND MEN FROM GREEK MYTHS. Highly recommended! Do you have a favorite Greek Myth? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Notes — xi

Introduction — 1

PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA

  1. Fat and Fire — 3
  2. Wife and Gift — 11
  3. Eagle and Chains — 19
  4. Rain and Waves — 22

JASON AND MEDEA

  1. The Man With One Sandal — 28
  2. The Departure — 34
  3. Lemnos, Hellespont, Arkton — 37
  4. The Sea of Marmora — 42
  5. The Black Sea — 49
  6. Colchis — 54
  7. The Return — 68
  8. Corinth — 75

OEDIPUS AND ANTIGONE

  1. Dragon’s Teeth — 81
  2. Investigation — 86
  3. Accusation — 91
  4. Murder — 95
  5. First Shepherd — 97
  6. Second Shepard — 100
  7. Punishment — 103
  8. Colonos — 105
  9. Seven Against Seven — 112
  10. Burial — 116
  11. Sophocles or Euripides?

ACHILLES AND THETIS

  1. The Parents — 128
  2. The Beloved Son — 131
  3. The Siege of Troy — 136
  4. Death and Vengeance — 154
  5. A Surprise Visit — 173
  6. Last Days — 178

ODYSSEUS AND PENELOPE

  1. Ithaka — 187
  2. Troy — 198
  3. Africa — 208
  4. Cyclops — 210
  5. Alolia — 218
  6. Laistrygones — 220
  7. Circe — 221
  8. Hades — 232
  9. Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis — 238
  10. Thrinakia — 240
  11. Calypso — 245
  12. Phaeacians — 253
  13. Return — 267
  14. Seconding — 286

Glossary of Names — 305

SIX: THE MUSICAL

Diane and I travelled into Buffalo to Shea’s Performing Arts Center to watch Six: The Musical. We had seen Six on Broadway a couple years ago (you can read my review of that production here) and Diane wanted to see it again.

This musical retelling of the stories of the six wives of Henry VIII with pop music fired up the Sold-Out crowd. Catherine of Aragon, the first and longest-lasting of King Henry’s wives, takes on the musical style of Beyonce and Shakira. The last wife, Catherine Parr, performs her songs in the style of Alicia Keyes. Jane Seymour, who claims she’s the wife Henry “truly loved,” does a great Adele impression with “Heart of Stone.” Anna of Cleves, the German wife who Henry married because he fell in love with Han Holbein’s portrait of her, does a great mix of Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. You get the idea.

We enjoyed Six: The Musical as much the second time around as we did the first. If this touring company shows up in your neighborhood, don’t miss it! GRADE: A

Musical numbers:

  • “Ex-Wives” – Company
  • “Ex-Wives (Reprise)” – Company †
  • “No Way” – Catherine of Aragon and Company
  • “Don’t Lose Ur Head” – Anne Boleyn and Company
  • “Heart of Stone” – Jane Seymour and Company
  • “Haus of Holbein” – Company
  • “Get Down” – Anna of Cleves and Company
  • “All You Wanna Do” – Katherine Howard and Company
  • “I Don’t Need Your Love” – Catherine Parr
  • “I Don’t Need Your Love (Remix)” – Catherine Parr and Company ††
  • “Six” – Company
  • “The Megasix (Encore)” – Company †

THE 100 BEST NOVELS IN TRANSLATION Selected by Boyd Tonkin

I’m a sucker for books like Boyd Tonkin’s fascinating The 100 Best Novels in Translation. I’ve read a fair number of novels in translation and sometimes they read well…and sometimes they don’t. Boyd Tonkin introduces each novel, writes about the author, and then makes observations about the various translations available. Finally, Tonkin explains why the translation he’s selected is better than the others.

If you’re looking for a guide to novels in translation, Boyd Tonkin’s book checks all the boxes: well written, knowledgeable, and useful.

How many of these novels in translation have you read? Are there any here you would like to read? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION — 11

Works Cited — 25

A Note on the Entries –26

Acknowledgements — 27

THE ENTRIES: — 29

  1. Don Quixote (1605 and 1615) by Miguel de Cervantes. Translated by Edith Grossman — 29
  2. The Princesse de Cleves (1678) by Madame de Lafayette. Translated by Robin Buss –32
  3. Candide, or Optimism (1759) by Voltaire. Translated by Theo Cuffe — 34
  4. Dangerous Liaisons (1782) by Choderlos de Laclos. Translated by Douglas Parmee — 37
  5. The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — 40
  6. Dream of the Red Chamber (1792) by Cao Xuequin. Translated by David Hawkes & John Minford — 43
  7. Jacque the Fatalist (1796) by Denis Diderot. Translated by David Coward — 46
  8. Corinne, or Italy (1807) by Madame de Stael. Translated by Sylvia Raphael — 48
  9. Michael Kohlhaas (1810) by Heinrich von Kleist. Translated by David Luke — 51
  10. The Betrothed (1827; revised 1842) by Alexandre Manzoni. Translated by Bruce Penman — 54
  11. The Red and the Black (1830) by Stendhal. Translated by Roger Gard — 57
  12. IndianaT (1832) by George Sand. Translated by Sylvia Raphael — 60
  13. Old Goriot (1835) by Honore de Balzac. Translated by Olivia McCannon — 62
  14. A Hero of Our Time (1840) by Mikhail Lermonlov. Translated by Natasha Randall — 63
  15. Dead Souls (1842/1855) by Nikola Gogol. Translated by Donald Rayfield — 68
  16. Madame Bovary (1857) by Gustave Flaubert. Translated by Adam Thorpe — 71
  17. Les Miserables (1862) by Victor Hugo. Translated by Julie Rose — 74
  18. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev. Translated by Peter Carson — 77
  19. War and Peace (1869) by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Anthony Briggs — 79
  20. The Crime of Father Amaro: Scenes From the Religious Life (1875; revised 1880) by Era de Quieroz. Translated by Margaret Hull Costa. — 83
  21. Epitaph of a Small Winner (1880) by Machado de Assis. Translated by William L. Grossman –85
  22. Niels Lyhne (1880) by Jens Peter Jacobsen. Translated by Tiina Nunnally — 88
  23. The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Richard Paver & Larissa Volokhonsky — 90
  24. Germinal (1885) by Emile Zola. Translated by Roger Pearson — 93
  25. Hunger (1890) by Knut Hamsun. Translated by Sverre Lyngstad –96
  26. The Duel (1891) by Anton Chekhov. Translated by Richard Paver & Larissa Volokhonsky — 98
  27. The Murderess (1903) by Alexandros Papadiamatis. Translated by Peter Levi — 101
  28. The Gate (1910) by Natsume Soseki. Translated by William F. Sibley — 103
  29. The Notebooks of Malte Laurrids Brigge (1910) by Rainer Maria Rilke. Translated by Michael Hulse — 106
  30. In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927) by Marcel Proust. Translated by CK Scott Moncrieff, Andreas Mayor, and Terence Kilmartin, revised by DJ Enright –108
  31. Reeds in the Wind (1913) by Grazia Deledda. Translated by Martha King — 112
  32. Petersburg (1916; revised 1922) by Andrei Bely. Translated by John Elsworth –114
  33. Home and the World (1916) by Rabindranath Tagore. Translated by Sreejata Guha — 117
  34. Kristin Lavransdatter (The Wreath; The Wife; The Cross) (1920-1922) by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally — 119
  35. Cheri/The Last of Cheri (1920; 1926) by Colette. Translated by Roger Senhouse –122
  36. Zeno’s Conscience (1923) by Italo Svevo. Translated by William Weaver — 125
  37. The Good Soldier Svejk (1923) by Jaroslave Hasek. Translated by Cecil Parrott — 127
  38. The Magic Mountain (1924) by Thomas Mann. Translated by John E. Woods –130
  39. The Trial (1914-1915; published 1925) by Franz Kafka. Translated by Mike Mitchell –133
  40. Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) by Alfred Doblin. Translated by Michael Hoffman — 136
  41. The Seven Madmen (1929) by Roberto Arit. Translated by Nick Caistor — 138
  42. The Man Without Qualities (1930-1933) By Robert Musil. Translated by Sophie Wilkins & Burton Pike — 141
  43. The Foundation Pit (1930; published 1973) by Anthony Platonov. Translated by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler, and Olga Meerson — 144
  44. Journey to the End of the Night (1932) by Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Translated by Ralph Manheim — 147
  45. The Radetzky March (1932) by Joseph Roth. Translated by Michael Hofmann — 149
  46. Independent People (1934-1935) by Halidor Laxness. Translated by JA Thompson — 152
  47. Journey By Moonlight (1937) by Antal Szerb. Translated by Len Rix — 155
  48. The Gift (1938; 1952) by Vladimir Nabokov. Translated by Michael Scammell, Dmitri Nabokov, and Vladimir Nabokov — 157
  49. Nausea (1938) by Jean-Paul Sartre. Translated by Robert Baldick — 160
  50. The Invention of Morel (1940) by Adolfo Bioy Casares. Translated by Ruth L. C. Simms — 163
  51. The Tartar Steppe (1940) by Dino Buzzati. Translated by Stuart Hood — 165
  52. The Master and Margarita (1928-1940; published in full 1973) by Mikhail Bulgakov. Translated by Hugh Aplin — 168
  53. The Outsider (1942) by Albert Camus. Translated by Sandra Smith — 171
  54. Suite Franchise (1942; published 2004) by Irene Nemirovsky. Translated by Sandra Smith — 173
  55. Near to the Wild Heart (1943) by Clarice Lispector. Translated by Alison Entrekin — 176
  56. The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric. Translated by Lovett F. Edwards –179
  57. Only Yesterday (1945) by SY Agnon. Translated by Barbara Harshav — 181
  58. The Makioka Sisters (1946-1948) by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki. Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker– 174
  59. Fortress Besieged (1947) by Qian Zhongshu. Translated by Jeanne Kelly & Nathan K. Mao –187
  60. Dirty Snow (1948) by Georges Simenon. Translated by Marc Romano & Louise Varese — 190
  61. The Moon and the Bonfires (1950) by Cesare Pavese. Translated by RW Flint — 192
  62. Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable (1951-1953) by Samuel Beckett. Translated by Samuel Beckett & Patrick Bowles — 195
  63. The Hive (1946; published 1951) by Camilo Jose Cela. Translated by JM Cohen — 197
  64. Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) by Marguerite Yourcenar. Translated by Grace Frick — 200
  65. Pedro Paramo (1955) by Juan Rulfo. Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden — 203
  66. The Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street) (1956-1957) Naguib Mahfouz. Translated by William Maynard Hutchins, Olive E. Kenny, Lorne A Kenny & Angele Boors Samaan –205
  67. That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana (1946- 1957) by Carol Emilio Gadda. Translated by William Weaver — 208
  68. The Leopard (1948) by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Translated by Archibald Colquhoun — 210
  69. The Tin Drum (1959) by Gunter Grass. Translated by Breon Mitchell — 213
  70. Life and Fate (1959; published 1980) by Vasily Grossman. Translated by Robert Chandler — 216
  71. Solaris (1961) by Stanisław Lem. Translated by Bill Johnston –219
  72. The Time Regulation Institute (1962) by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar. Translated by Maureen Freely & Alexander Dawe — 222
  73. The Garden of the Finzi-Contints (1962) by Giorgio Bassani. Translated by Jamie McKendrick — 225
  74. The Slave (1962) by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Translated by Isaac Bashevis Singer & Cecil Hemley — 227
  75. The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962) by Carlos Fuentes. Translated by Alfred McAdam –230
  76. Hopscotch (1963) by Julio Cortazar. Translated by Gregory Rabassa — 233
  77. Three Trapped Tigers (1965) by Guillermo Cabrera Infante. Translated by Suzanne Jill Levine & Donald Gardner — 235
  78. Season of Migration to the North (1960) by Tayeb Salih. Translated by Denys Johnson-Davies — 238
  79. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Translated by Gregory Rabassa –241
  80. The Quest for Christa T. (1968) by Christa Wolf. Translated by Christopher Middleton –244
  81. I Served the King of England (1971) by Bohumil Hrabal. Translated by Paul Wilson –246
  82. Chronicle in Stone (1971; revised 1997) by Ismail Kadare. Translated by Arshi Pipa– 249
  83. The Bridge of Beyond ( 1972) by Simon Schwartz-Bart. Translated by Barbara Bray — 251
  84. Correction (1975) by Thomas Bernhard. Translated by Sophie Wilkins — 254
  85. Life: A user’s Manual (1978) by Georges Perec. Translated by David Bellos –257
  86. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1978) by Milan Kundera. Translated by Michael Henry Helm –260
  87. If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller (1979) by Italo Calvino. Translated by William Weaver — 262
  88. Basti (1979) by Intizar Husain. Translated by Frances W. Pritchett –265
  89. So Long a Letter ((1979) by Mariama Ba. Translated by Modupe Bode-Thomas — 267
  90. Buru Quartet (This Earth of Mankind; Child of All Nations; Footsteps; House of Glass) (1980-1988) by Pramodeya Ananda Toer. Translated by Max Lane — 270
  91. The True Deceiver (1982) by Tove Jansson. Translated by Thomas Teal — 273
  92. The Lover (1984) by Marguerite Duras. Translated by Barbara Bray — 276
  93. The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1984) by Jose Saramago. Translated by Giovanni Pontiero — 278
  94. Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of the World (1985) by Haruki Murakami. Translated by Alfred Birnbaum — 281
  95. See Under: LOVE (1986) by David Grossman. Translated by Betsy Rosenberg — 284
  96. The Black Book (1990) by Orhan Pamuk. Translated by Maureen Freely — 287
  97. The Emigrants (1992) by WG Seabald. Translated by Michael Hulse — 289
  98. The Land of Green Plums (1993) by Herta Muller. Translated by Michael Hoffmann –292
  99. A Dictionary of Maqiao (1996) by Han Shaogong. Translated by Julia Lovell — 295
  100. The Feast of the Goat (2000) by Mario Vargas Liosa. Translated by Edith Grossman — 297

INDEX OF AUTHORS — 301

2023 NFL DRAFT

For the first time in 40 years, the Buffalo Bills drafted a Tight End in the First Round of the NFL Draft. Dalton Kincaid has “elite” catching ability–something that appealed to the Bills after coming in second to Green Bay with the most dropped passes last season. The Bills then added to Josh Allen’s protection by picking O’Cyrus Torrence (aka, “Cyborg”)–a 6’5″ 330 lb. offensive lineman who had the rare talent not to have given up a sack last year…and did not have any penalties, either!

How did your favorite NFL do in the 2023 Draft?

Buffalo Bills Draft Picks by Round in 2023

  • Round 1, Pick 25 (From NYG via JAX) Dalton Kincaid, TE, Utah.
  • Round 2, Pick 59. O’Cyrus Torrence, G, Florida.
  • Round 3, Pick 91. Dorian Williams, LB, Tulane.
  • Round 5, Pick 150 (from ARI) Justin Shorter, WR, Florida.
  • Round 7, Pick 230. Nick Broeker, OG, Ole Miss.
  • Round 7, Pick 252, Alex Austin, CB, Oregon St.