Inkstand with A Madman Distilling His Brains. Italian, probably Urbino, ca. 1600. Tin-glazed earthenware. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: Eric Darton

REMARKABLE READS:
     Reviews of Remarkable Books

Dear Reader,
Perhaps you might remember when you could visit someone's house and head for their bookshelf to see what they were reading.  A delicious conversation ensued.  You are reading Saramago, the Portugese Nobel laureate?      
          Yes.  It's been years.
          Ngugi wa Thing'o should have gotten that prize! And do you know how much writing in his mother tongue changed the way he wrote a novel?
         James Baldwin—yes, so mythic, yet so misread.
          Marguerite Yourcenar?
          Do you know they just rediscovered a most interesting author—I know I'm going to mispronounce his name, Krz—uh, Krzhizhanovski...
          How I miss those discussions!
          Herein we offer a look at writing that we believe is of inspiration to writers—most probably works that are not best sellers, "two thumbs up" (or down), homecoming queens or kings of the literary world.  What we seek instead are examples of fine craft, whether of this century, the last, new or old, or work that prompts discussion of some aspect of what serious writers actually do. Works that matter.
          Without further ado, we invite you to proceed:

THIS ISSUE:                         
         It's a Mad Mad World… on Felipe Alfau's Locos: A Comedy of Gestures, by Bronwyn Mills
        The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea, Bandi, Trans. Deborah Smith, by Hardy Griffin