Wandering Joe

An hour ago I'd not heard of Joseph Roth. But I was looking for something or other at Half-Price Books . . . as if I needed another book, right? . . . when I spotted this

And I mean, really . . . if you want me not to buy a book, then don't put shit like 'MY SOLITUDE is immense UNBEARABLE' on the fuckin' cover, man. Sheesh. 

For one thing, I have been thinking about anchorites pretty much non-stop for the past several months. And yep, even started writing THAT novel. Just a nip here and there, because I am not really wanting to do that. I want to get back to Flies and Bees. But The Anchorite Novel keeps knocking at the door. I may have to open the door, let 'em in. I think I am going to need to live another twenty or twenty five years, God. Is that okay with You?

Ahem. The book. 

I did try to stay away from it. Especially since it (all the copies) was wrapped in plastic, so there was no way to peek without breaking the hymen. And I am not a hymen breaker. I put it back on the shelf and WaLKeD aWaY.  

And then I walked back. Googled. Read sample pages from Amazon. Noted that the price they offered it for was twice the Half-Price price. Heh. Well, that works, doesn't it. I liked the sample. I went to the LFPL to see if they had ever heard of this book. They hadn't.

So I bought it.

Here's the line from the first chapter (De Sample, Boss, De Sample!) which put it over the top for me:

Mr. Marks is describing his first reading of Joseph Roth's The Radetzky March, which he declares to be one of the masterpieces of modern German fiction, and he says, 

"Its opening paragraphs promised a stirring narrative of the end of empire. Then for the next 300 pages it systematically broke that promise."

I mean, come on . . . I had to have the rest of that story.

Plus there was a map at the front of the book (Sample!) which showed that the author had travelled through Hungary in search of Joseph Roth, and you know how THAT had to go, right?

I'm also thinking that I'm going to need to read this The Radetzky March, don't you? Mmm-hmm. This is how it starts, man. This is how I ended up with a house full of books. 

More news as it happens.