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Good day to all. Did April showers bring any May flowers in your neighborhood? Lots in bloom around me; I'm most delighted with the lilacs.



Have a great week, everyone. Here are some links and stuff...



-- The Guardian brings us news of , Real Estate.

From the LiteraryHub archives, related to this week's literary history (including birthdays):

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-- Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was published this week in 1927.

-- Here's an easy, quick quiz: .

-- And you'll find this week's Literary Birthdays here.

Awaiting a storm from the west, its very windy but bone dry, though heavy rain expected....

Reading going well, the following books being enjoyed:

YellowThread St by David Marshall (1975) Novel
The Praetorians by Jean Larteguy (1963) Novel
Antisemitism by Hermann Bahr (1893) Essays
Father and Son by Edmund Goose (1907) Childhood Memoir

Australians and other knowledgeables - any takes on this?

Our father was Blue Bones on account of he had red hair when young so they called him Blue meaning red. That is a general rule to go by if you come from OVERSEAS. In Australia everything is the opposite of what it seems to mean. E.G. I was SLOW BONES because I moved so rapid, it was my way of moving they referred to.

Greatly enjoying Peter Carey’s 2006 novel Theft: A Love Story so far, 50 pages in.
The story is narrated, in complementary ways, by “Slow Bones��, who, we learn (though not from himself) is also called slow on account of his understanding, but proves amazingly perceptive in his parts of the narrative, and by his brother “Butcher Bones��, who, of course, cannot be a butcher after the above explanation, but is in fact a painter.
The two brothers�� narratives, so far, are a brilliant jigsaw of different takes of the same story, such as Slow Bones pointing out the lonely genius painter myth as not quite right, as he helps Butcher with lots of things, after all.
Love the descriptions of colours and the craft and not least the piss-taking of marketing in the art world by wry “Butcher��. Both brothers have a grim sense of humour and various chips on their shoulders. The frequent foreshadowing indicates that things which are not too good are bound to happen. We are told, in the first sentences of the book, that

I don't know if my story is grand enough to be a tragedy, although a lot of shitty stuff did happen. It is certainly a love story but that did not begin until midway through the shitty stuff […].

Really excited to learn what will happen next.


Thank you very much, LL, for providing this space and links, too!
I, too, like watching the blossoms. Lots more to come - it is still a bit cold around here.

A response to last week's thread:

@ Hushpuppy: Thank you so much for the Guardian news, which is more than I expected. I am intrigued and will certainly keep my fingers crossed. And thanks to you, MrsC, for asking, too... Would not have wanted to miss this information.

The recent book exchange over at the Guardian was lovely and bittersweet to read and, as others wrote, demonstrated an overwhelming response and interest. Many thanks to Fran for pointing me to it. I upticked where I could... it would be great if it were of some use.

I think I could live with such a reader response thread sandwiched into the Lifestyle section, if the response continued to attract so many and diverse people (as well as lure back those from TL&S we lost in the transit and due to the setup here...).
In any case, I would like Sam Jordison to continue the good work, I think he really deserves it for what he built up with TL&S and the Reading Group, if I may say so as very much a latecomer to both.

Jennifer Crusie:

There are good reasons to cancel a book. It’s racist (hello, Dr. Seuss), sexist, homophobic, etc. in a way that endangers those groups (you don’t yell “DISCRIMINATE AND ABUSE�� in a crowded bookstore). Or it’s plagiarized. Or it’s inaccurate, misleading, based on lies presented as truth. That is, there is something intrinsically wrong with the content, not a difference of opinion but something that makes it morally wrong to publish it.

But “The author is a predatory creep and therefore whatever he/she/they writes should be banned�� is a very, very bad idea.

It is in the Bible re Sunday: you must not work, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. Poor Mum.

Ha. Actually, this quote (which is from Peter Carey’s Theft) would not read wrong in the Fay Weldon novel I finished reading yesterday, The Cloning of Joanna May.
As Magrat put it (#41 last week): “The thing is, you've got to be in the mood for her, meaning feeling fed up with bloody men!��
Thanks for this great way of putting it, that made me chuckle. What can I say? It appears that currently not fed up enough�� So here is my sort-of review:

This novel interweaves, cleverly, shades of Frankenstein, the Tchernobyl disaster and its PR (CEO greed), child abuse and its consequences, debates on cloning and what technical advances might mean for integrity and identity with a wide range of limited (and self-limiting) options for its female protagonists trying to make something of themselves - or, as also happens, trying to get men to transport them to better lives. It is brimful of sharply-outlined characters and revealing inner monologues (frequently, painfully so).

As Magrat wrote, Weldon certainly is “entertaining, witty rather than whining��. I also like that, although she is firmly placed “in the canon of second wave feminist literature�� (again quoting Magrat), Weldon does not fall into the for-this-wave frequent trap of believing females, in essence (��), to be better human beings. I can see why she would have lots of detractors. She can't have made it easy for others invested in feminist debates by shirking various established pathways and not minding treading on various toes.

In The Cloning of Joanna May, there are many funny remarks and some funny scenes, as well as brilliant flashes of insight and touching observations (e.g. on a child's inner life). However, or so it felt to me, despite mostly successful satire, there are quite a number of lengths, mostly due to being treated extensively, as a reader, to the consciousness of various main characters (self-important, self-pitying, whingeing, in any case, losing it...) more than I would have liked. Also, the way the endings were resolved, to me, was quite meh.

I can’t shake the feeling that this is not her strongest work (although it was adapted to film, as I just found out).
I would like to give her another try, also keeping in mind the “need to be fed up with bloody men�� bit, and trying to find the right moment for my next attempt!

Might give Praxis a try, which Jediperson/Tam mentioned as her favourite in #39 last week (like you, Tam, not keen on revenge either, though I think it much more 'forgiveable', ha, in fiction than in life as lived).
LL, if you read The Heart of the Country, will you give us a shout?

As an aside:
On reading the book, I was reminded of Caryl Churchill's brilliant play A Number, . Would certainly like to see it produced again!
If I recall correctly, Churchill was also great in picturing 80s corporate greed.

Children of the Dead End by Patrick MacGill.
In 1914 when this was first published novels about the working classes were largely ignored; if they were referred to, it was usually written from a more educated social standing. This therefore, was radically different, and immediately successful because of it.
Although fiction, it is based heavily on the author’s own experiences,

it must be said that nearly all the incidents of the book have come under the observation of the writer, that such incidents should take place makes the tragedy of the story.

Dermod Flynn (MacGill) leaves Ireland at 12 years old, and is largely alone on the Scottish roads, sleeping rough, often not eating for days, taking work when he can. Such was the life of travelling Irish navvies.
Descriptions are precise and completely believable, details of such incidents as the death of a railway worker, are graphic and gruesome.
Flynn ends up at Kinlochleven, where indeed I am tonight, working to build the hydroelectric scheme; a huge engineering venture which included Blackwater Reservoir, a 6 kilometre aqueduct and an aluminium smelting plant. He works mainly up at the reservoir, 5 rough miles from the town, where life indeed is brutal.
I came across this book in Patrick Baker’s The Unremembered Places: Exploring Scotland's Wild Histories. He hikes up to the reservoir and is haunted by the ruins of the community and its graveyard. The chapter was so inspiring I am heading up there tomorrow to see it for myself.

Andy wrote: "Children of the Dead End by Patrick MacGill.
In 1914 when this was first published novels about the working classes were la..."

i read this about 20 years ago but have forgotten most of it, did you realise the book would feature somewhere you were visiting?
Its blowing a gale and heavy rain down here, hope its more clement up there!

i must re-read this some time

AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Children of the Dead End by Patrick MacGill.
In 1914 when this was first published novels about the working cl..."

Yes I did AB.
I’m going to try to get to a few places mentioned in Baker’s book, a very remote clearance village above Ardnamurchan for example.
The MacGill was in Baker’s bibliography, that’s how I came across it, and found a cheap secondhand copy.

The only time I've seen a firefly was during a late-August visit to NYC. Friends and I were dining at a bistro with sidewalk seating when one very lonely, possibly stunned firefly landed on our table.

The Great Smoky Mountains are now on my 'bucket list'.

Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Children of the Dead End by Patrick MacGill.
In 1914 when this was first published novels about t..."

good stuff Andy, glad you are on the move and up and down the hills and dales of the world....normal service resumed (domestic for now ofc)

anyone seen Mach...he has gone very quiet?

Also..where is glad?

Lljones wrote: "Are there fireflies in UK? Europe?

The only time I've seen a firefly was during a late-August visit to NYC. Friends and I were dining at a bistro with sidewalk seating when one very lonely, possib..."

i am not sure...we get glo-worms but i dont think fireflies

AB76 wrote: "anyone seen Mach...he has gone very quiet?

Also..where is glad?"

Thanks AB. Been successively busy and then unwell (now still recovering from a bad reaction to the vaccine). Mach said he'd be busy for a while and not to worry. He's dropped in last week, and also commented 10 days ago on Poem of The Week on The G, so all is well I think.

Hushpuppy wrote: "...still recovering from a bad reaction to the vaccine..."

I hope you get over it soon - it took me 3-4 days to clear the brain fog, after my second dose last week.

Lljones wrote: "Are there fireflies in UK? Europe?"

Not that I've ever seen. When I took Sean back to see my family in NYC at 2 years old, he went nuts when he first saw fireflies.

Hushpuppy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "anyone seen Mach...he has gone very quiet?

Also..where is glad?"

Thanks AB. Been successively busy and then unwell (now still recovering from a bad reaction to the vaccine). Mach sai..."

gosh, these vaccine reactions are so random, my parents and middle brother, like me, had no reaction at all but like you, many friends had sweaty feverish nights

covid's randomness is its scariest characteristic, how different bodys react, clearly with the vaccine the introduction of a similar virus to peoples systems is doing the same thing, though much less fatally

In The Praetorians, the May 1958 coup has happened, the army has revolted against the Fourth Republic and the plans to instal De Gaulle have been put into motion

Larteguy presents a broad tableau of Algiers in this momentous month, the restful settler population arming themselves and dreaming of fighting with the army. The countless plots in motion within the White City (Algiers) and the tensions between the native Algerians over the expectations of tentative peace deals or the continuation of war

Boisfeuras, a captain, is the beating heart of the novel, like in the previous volume in the triology. A quarter chinese, cynical and detached but the voice of reason, harsh, un-flinching reason amid plots, vainglory and the terrible loss of Indochina that stains the paratroop mentality

De Gaulle is seen as something from the past but as a military man, he is respected by the army. His percieved attitude towards the Pieds Noirs (white algerians) and the natives is less favourable. There is the added dimension that settler Algeria was on Petains side in WW2 for 18 months and the old Marcehel is still popular amid the white settlers

Gripping stuff but so much more than a "war" novel, about 5% of the novel is action, the rest is discussion and musing on the nature of war

The Passenger �� Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz (1939, republished in Germany 2018, US 2021)

This is a novel by a young writer, a German Jew born in 1915, who fled the country in 1935, who was later interned in England, and who in 1942 was lost at sea, torpedoed. It describes the plight of a German Jew who failed to get out in time. It is 1938, in the days after Kristallnacht. The SA come banging on the front door of the apartment of businessman Otto Silbermann. He is a patriot and a war veteran. His wife Elfriede is Aryan. None of this is a protection. While he escapes down the back stairs, they smash the place up. From now on he is taking one train after another, trying to find a way out of the country. But to the Jews, Germany has become like one entire concentration camp. No more on the actual plot.

A pithy review in the UK last year described it accurately as a cross between Franz Kafka and John Buchan. It is Kafkaesque because suddenly normal rules and standards do not apply. Silbermann does not immediately understand that contractual obligations and legal remedies no longer count. We see him learning that, whichever way he turns, a hostile authority will bar his path. The difference is that he knows what he is accused of: being a Jew. Before long he comes to see himself as cast out. In his own words, he has lost the right to be an ordinary human being.

It is Buchanesque because he is on the run, everyone he meets seeming to eye him suspiciously, and because the writing style is generally straightforward and pacey, in the manner of a 1930s British thriller. One episode that would not be found in Buchan is a long, sinuous, romantic, only-connect conversation with a female stranger, the two of them alone in a compartment.

In the face of such enormity, is it worthy to rate the book as a book? The fear, the not-knowing, the friends who turn away, the rising panic, a society given over to “Heil Hitler�� every time a person enters a room �� all this is horribly evoked, and the near-contemporary picture that Boschwitz creates seems as close to the reality as anyone is likely to get. The true-to-life believability is enhanced by his making Silbermann not entirely likeable. If for this reader the narrative at times lacked tension, and the conclusion was too designed, we must remember that the author himself recognized that improvements could be made. All his revisions have been lost. This edition is a professionally edited version of the original typescript. As it stands, it feels important to have read it.

Lljones wrote: "Are there fireflies in UK? Europe?

The only time I've seen a firefly was during a late-August visit to NYC. Friends and I were dining at a bistro with sidewalk seating when one very lonely, possib..."

Llj - you reminded me that I have not heard a cricket chirp at night since I landed here in western WA oh so many years ago. I may be nostalgic now, but I was not when trying to get to sleep in late summer/fall in VA.

Back in March I mentioned that I had read a book called Cold Tuscan Stone set in Volterra and Tam kindly replied that it was well worth a visit. Well, I have just booked a holiday for September 2022 😀 - 3 days in Florence and 4 days in......Volterra!

I've also changed (again) my Rhone cruise booked in July to a week in the Dolomites in June 2022. Well it gives me something to look forward to in these strange times!

Russell wrote: "The Passenger �� Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz (1939, republished in Germany 2018, US 2021)

This is a novel by a young writer, a German Jew born in 1915, who fled the country in 1935, who was later in..."

This book was first published in Germany in 2018. Probably due to the fact that, as you said, the authors plans cum notes to substantially rework it were lost when he perished.
After reading your post I read a handful of reviews in the German press which I found (for a change) worth reading.

None used the word kafkaesk. Rightly so. What happened in Kristallnacht was the culmination of something that had built up (or rather: been built up) for well over a decade, that had been cemented into laws for five years: hatred of Jews. It was there for everybody to see. In plain daylight. For everybody who didn't squeeze their eyes tight shut.

And that is what makes the protagonist so interesting. And so tragic. Because he was, obviously, somebody in denial. Like so many other German Jews, war veterans, patriots. Like turkeys voting for Christmas many of them supported more or less antisemitic parties during the Weimar Republic, even the NSDAP had quite a few Jewish supporters.

Thanks for the interesting review. I hope I can convince my library to acquire it.

MK wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Llj - you reminded me that I have not heard a cricket chirp at night since I landed here in western WA oh so many years ago...."

There are a number of cricket species in western WA and OR. I remember them from my childhood in small-town OR and also from Port Townsend. Don't remember hearing any here in Seattle, either this stay or previously, but that might be urban noise drowning them out.

SInce my post I googled and learned that there are one or two species of fireflies found in western WA and OR, but they don't glow! One must ask: What's the point?

Lljones wrote: "MK wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Llj - you reminded me that I have not heard a cricket chirp at night since I landed here in western WA oh so many years ago...."

There are a number of cricket species in..."

Or why they are even called 'fireflies'. Plus, google tells me that crickets are fond of heat (and some level of humidity) - which thankfully, are not frequent visitors to the Seattle area.

giveusaclue wrote: "Back in March I mentioned that I had read a book called Cold Tuscan Stone set in Volterra and Tam kindly replied that it was well worth a visit. Well, I have just booked a holiday for September 202..."

Oh I do hope you enjoy it. Just remember to book anything you want to see in advance in Florence as the queues to get into the galleries etc. are very crowded. Might be worth looking up a bit of Etruscan history before you go... There are an awful lot of tombs to behold!... I think the best stuff ended up in the Vatican museum... to hardly any one's surprise...

MK wrote: "Or why they are even called 'fireflies'."

The firefly's essence
Is bioluminescence.

giveusaclue wrote: "Back in March I mentioned that I had read a book called Cold Tuscan Stone set in Volterra and Tam kindly replied that it was well worth a visit. Well, I have just booked a holiday for September 202..."

About river cruises - In early August 2015 I was in Regensburg where two river cruise ships were tied up as the river was too low. People who had expected river travel were being bussed from place to place. What a disappointment for them.

Bill wrote: "MK wrote: "Or why they are even called 'fireflies'."

The firefly's essence
Is bioluminescence."

😊

Georg wrote: "Russell wrote: "The Passenger �� Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz (1939, republished in Germany 2018, US 2021)

This is a novel by a young writer, a German Jew born in 1915, who fled the country in 1935, ..."

any german literature is worth reading, this great nation has so much literature being translated in last decade (Fallada especially) and this looks like a very interesting novel Russell...thanks for the review

What a co-incidence, as well as reading Gosse Father And Son, i'm also reading Croatian feminist author Vedrena Rudan's Mothers and Daughters



Written in 2010, this is a rare modern novel on my list, published by Dalkey. Its a novel of that uneasy time where your parents are reaching end of life care, hardly an upbeat topic but one i have experience with in my volunteering with old people at day centres.

The narrative starts exploring the world of care homes, the cost and the dignity of end of life, although the narrators mother merely seems addicted to morphine patches and is in withdrawal but dementia could be there too

Tam wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Back in March I mentioned that I had read a book called Cold Tuscan Stone set in Volterra and Tam kindly replied that it was well worth a visit. Well, I have just booked a holid..."

Thank you Tam, I will take your advice and do some research.

Georg wrote: "Russell wrote: The Passenger..."

Thanks, Georg, interesting. Whoever had the idea of bringing it out again in 2018 deserves huge credit.

Our library here �� we’re not a city, just a village in rural America �� had ordered a copy even before I suggested it, so it should be an easy decision for a library in Germany.

Incidentally, you’ve mentioned once or twice that you are not a native English speaker, but you do write excellent idiomatic English.

by Philippe Claudel - in English...

This is a short book and a slight story. M. Linh and his granddaughter are forced to flee their homeland in a boat with other refugees. They arrive in another country, where they are placed in a dormitory. Despite their lack of a common language, M. Linh becomes friends with a M. Bark... I can't say more about the plot without including spoilers.

I quite liked it, up to a point - the writing style is decent (but not outstanding) and the tale has a certain charm. My reservations have to do with the lack of realism in the settings, which detract from my ability to get properly involved with the characters. I suppose we can assume that M. Linh left Vietnam - the 'boat people' fled in their thousands - see: - but the country that receives the refugees is never identified, and so feels 'unreal'. No doubt M. Claudel didn't set out to write a gritty realistic tale, but to consider the emotions associated with exile, friendship and loss... unfortunately, for me such emotions can best be understood in a setting I can believe in wholeheartedly.

The story has a twist at the end, which should come as no great surprise if the reader has been paying attention.

M. Claudel seems to be quite a prolific author, and indeed by coincidence we saw a film written and directed by a 'Philippe Claudel' just after I started the book - it is the same person, and he has written eight screenplays and directed six movies. The film also was quite decent without being outstanding - Avant l'hiver (Before the Winter Chill), starring Daniel Auteuil and Kristin Scott Thomas. Again, it was a worthy effort, but seemed a bit contrived. M. Claudel, on the basis of these two works, would appear to belong to that middle band of artists - not brilliant, but not too bad either - IMO, of course.

London Fields is one of the ‘big three London novels�� Martin Amis wrote, which a fan could justifiably call the best book of the three. The novel moves between four protagonists: Samson Young, whose sections are in first-person, and who is ostensibly writing the narrative; Guy Clinch, married father of a malevolent toddler; Keith Talent, a professional cheat and darting fanatic; and Nicola Six, who manipulates others for her own obscure reasons. The writing covers what Amis does best, depicting London at its glorious worst in the way of weather, traffic, litter, and pigeons. The title is ironic, as Amis foreshadows potential man-made catastrophe. What I dislike about the novel, without wanting to sound a prude, is some of the sex writing, which I find a bit heavy-handed. The awful character names appear to be left in for a gag (Samson Young’s editor tells him she dislikes the names, and he says that he had been planning to change them anyway). I didn’t take to London Fields early on, I found the work garish and unappealing. But in the end I really enjoyed this novel. Now that I’ve read the big three I’ll either try one of the shorter Amis novels or his memoir Experience.
Now turning to Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis.

SydneyH wrote: "London Fields is one of the ‘big three London novels�� Martin Amis wrote, which a fan could justifiably call the best book of the three. The novel moves between four protagonists: Samson Young, whos..."
Ahh, good. I'm looking forward to reading it sooner rather than later. I agree that Amis takes a bit of time in order to ease into his narrative lane

SydneyH wrote: ".I didn’t take to London Fields early on, I found the work garish and unappealing. But in the end I really enjoyed this novel.

Interesting. My reaction is summed up by your first sentence - but not the second. I have never read another Amis - nor do I intend to do so.

Paul wrote: "I'm looking forward to reading it sooner rather than later. "

I hope you like it - I was struck by the coincidence that you marked it as a 'want to read' when I had it lined up. It's funny, even though I feel like he didn't quite nail his best novels, I've still felt like reading him consistently since I read Money a year or two ago.

200 years of the Manchester Guardian!

As a reader since 1992, i salute the paper but would love them to restore our TLS

To quote the legendary poet Mark Knopfler and Sting:
I want my, i want my
I want my TLS...

@giveusaclue
If you don't know them, I think you would like the Oliver von Bodenstein and Pia Kirchhoff crime series by Nele Neuhaus. They are set in the region near Frankfurt. The first one is Snow White Must Die.
I've just read Vent de sang which comes in the middle of the series.

AB76 wrote: "200 years of the Manchester Guardian..."

It's fun to look at the annotated first edition


and a Posy Simmonds cartoon

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "200 years of the Manchester Guardian..."

It's fun to look at the annotated first edition
..."

yes, those early broadsheets were forbidding slabs of text, i wonder how long it would take to read the first Guardian from 1821, cover to cover!
Hope the owner claimed that black newfoundland bitch (a dog...a dog...its a dog, before the wokerati get me, phew, this isnt Guardian TLS...so that wont happen)

also found a detailed table of manchester schools by religious grouping, loving this.....

Gpfr wrote: "AB76 wrote: "200 years of the Manchester Guardian..."

It's fun to look at the annotated first edition
..."

Nice Posy cartoon - thanks for the link!

Russell wrote(32): "Georg wrote: "Russell wrote: The Passenger..."

Thanks, Georg, interesting. Whoever had the idea of bringing it out again in 2018 deserves huge credit.

Our library here �� we’re not a city, just a ..."

How the book came to be published in German 80 years after it was written is a story in itself. Apparently his niece had, for 30 years, tried to find a publisher in Israel, where she lives. Strangely enough nobody was interested. Eventually a literary critic from "Haaretz" brought her into contact with Peter Graf, the German publisher.
Graf got the typoscript from the archives of the Frankfurt National Library and (with some trepidation) did something he had never done before: edit a book without being able to communicate with the author.

What I found remarkable: Boschwitz' first book, set in Weimar Berlin, was published in Sweden in 1937. He arrived in England in 1939. The Passenger was published there in the same year. At 24, an unknown German author in exile, he already had two books published in translation. An extraordinary achievment.

I cannot help being moved by his fate. After his odyssey through 6 counties within 5 years I imagine he felt hope for the future. That he had found a haven where he could live and work. A hope soon to be cruelly crushed when he was interned on the Isle of Man and then deported to an Australian internment camp. And....

Btw: think I was wrong by outrightly dismissing the "kafkaesk" attribute. I suspect my "definition" (if that word can be used for something ill-defined) is just narrower than others'.

And: thank you for the compliment

Discovered a very unusual Le Corbusier book last week and it arrived in the post today, published by Hatje Cantz, in german and english, its entitled Poesie sur Alger describing the great architects ideas for urban planning in the city of Algiers

With sketches and line drawings, albeit in a very small book, it should be a fascinating read...when i work out where it lies on my mount everest TBR pile

AB76 wrote: "Discovered a very unusual Le Corbusier book last week and it arrived in the post today, published by Hatje Cantz, in german and english, its entitled Poesie sur Alger describing the great architec..."

I'd be interested in your thoughts on Le Corbusier, when you get around to reading it. He is a polarising figure in the world of 'Art History' and Architecture to many. My 'History of Art' tutor really took against me for wanting to study his work... I curiously am happy to look at the ideas without having to judge the man or woman who had them. I still end up with an opinion on them though, its just that I don't let that side of them wholly define their legacy...

Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Discovered a very unusual Le Corbusier book last week and it arrived in the post today, published by Hatje Cantz, in german and english, its entitled Poesie sur Alger describing the gr..."

i read a book he published in the 1920s a few years back, i thought it was very interesting as he was somewhat of an intellectual architect and alongside Frank Lloyd Wright and Niemeyer one of my faves , in the way he links thought, art and design.

AB76 wrote: ... in the way he links thought, art and design.

He!?
Just a shame that for every thousand people who know the name Le Corbusier there are probably only a handful who know the names Charlotte Perriand (ok, she was a woman...), let alone Pierre Jeanneret.

Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote: ... in the way he links thought, art and design.

He!?
Just a shame that for every thousand people who know the name Le Corbusier there are probably only a handful who know the names Ch..."

the brains behind Le Corbusier?

The Passenger - Georg wrote: “How the book came to be published in Germany 80 years after it was written is a story in itself��.��

Yes, indeed. A lesson in how an important book can be at risk of becoming lost entirely.

I didn’t mention that the book as published here is an American translation. I don’t know if the UK publication last year was the same. So there are some definite Americanisms (“bawling out�� - “the bills in his pocket book�� �� “they might sic the SA on us�� - etc). It’s not a problem when you know to expect it. But I wonder if the version published in the UK in 1939 might have felt closer to the spirit of the original.

AB76 wrote: the brains behind Le Corbusier?

Nah. Mere dogsbodies serving the great master