Nabokov and Edmund White

 I want to correct something I said last night.  Nabokov did not say "Nocturnes for the Kind of Naples" was the best book he'd read that year (Nabokov died in 1977).  He said that about White's first novel "Forgetting Elena."  Edmund White and Nabokov never met in person but they had phone conversations.  

Happy National Poetry Month!

A few months ago, I signed up for Poem-a-Day, a free service from the Academy of American Poets that disseminates contemporary poetry. Each e-mail also offers a podcast option so you can hear the poets read their work. While I'm no expert, I'd say the site's daily offerings maintain a high standard, and even the relatively few poems that don't resonate with me are still worth reading. 

I particularly appreciate the opportunity to sample the output of lots of writers I'd never known about before, such as Cyrus Cassells. There was nothing obviously gay about his "How Many Lives Have We Lived in Paris?" but let's just say I got a vibe, which was borne out when I read more of his work. He's published eight poetry collections, so I plan to keep him in mind as a candidate for a future BookMen reading list.

Moffie, the Movie

A film adaptation of Andre Carl van der Merwe's 2006 novel, Moffie, is now available on streaming devices; here is the Metro Weekly review. Our friend Ernie Raskauskas reminds me that he has nominated the book for our reading list three times--most recently, last year. Maybe seeing it on screen will generate more votes for the book next time? 😀

The Talented Ms. Highsmith

As we approach the 22nd anniversary of our founding (May 11, 1999), I've been spending some time perusing the long list of "Books We Have Read" (scroll down on the blog homepage for that). For example, I see that we read two novels by Patricia Highsmith in our early days: The Talented Mr. Ripley in 2000 and The Price of Salt in 2005. Over the past several months, the New York Times' T Book Club has run three essays about those novels and their film adaptations that those of you who enjoy her work should check out. In reverse chronological order, they are:

April 8: Kerry Manders considered the question, "Do Patricia Highsmith Novels Make Good Films?" 

March 24: Edmund White finds in The Talented Mr. Ripley a "Shape-Shifting Protagonist Who's Up to No Good." (Among the many things I learned is that the novel is just the first in a series of five!)

Nov. 12, 2020: Megan O'Grady explains how that novel "foretold our age of grifting."

Last but not least, in January Richard Bradford published a  biography of the novelist: Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires: The Life of Patricia Highsmith. Here's Wendy Smith's review in the Post.

Goreymania!

Following up on our highly enjoyable April 7 discussion of Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey, Mark Dery's biography of the inimitable artist and writer, Octavio Roca kindly sent me the link to the Gorey Store. There, you can purchase the entire Gashleycrumb Tinies fridge magnet collection, among many other treasures. After all, you certainly don't want to end up like poor Neville!

Some D.C.-based LGBTQ books worth considering

Back on March 4, the Washington Post Weekend section featured "18 books that capture the spirit and essence of living in D.C." That compilation included two titles of special interest to our demographic: George Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo (which I would have nominated for our current reading list if we hadn't already had lots of choices) and Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, whose cover asks, "What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?" It sounds like a hoot, so I've ordered a copy. 

Two weeks later, the Post did a follow-up based on reader feedback that includes a book our group read during its first year (October 1999): Jeb and Dash: A Diary of Gay Life, 1918-1945, edited by Ina Russell, and two we haven't (yet): Florence King's Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady: A Memoir, and Gore Vidal's Lincoln. I read Jeb and Dash on my own and highly recommend it. 

Frying Francis' Bacon

Francis Bacon: Revelations, by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, a new biography of the flamboyant English painter, lives up to the promise of its title--at least judging from the reviews in the Washington Post and New York Times. (The Amazon page quotes several similarly laudatory reviews from the other side of the pond.) Several Bookmen have already suggested we consider it for our next reading list despite its heft (880 pages/more than three pounds!), and I certainly think it's worth considering. We could handle it the way we did John Lahr's similarly lengthy biography, Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, which we split up between two sessions back in 2016.