"Evil exists in order to awaken good.... "
MARROW AND BONE
by
WALTER KEMPOWSKI
Well...if that's true, Good ought to be Good & Woke now.
I don't remember when I first happened upon New York Review Books books, but I do know that it was love at first sight. In part it was the idea that this publisher was preserving books which the world seemed to have forgotten. In part it was because the covers so captivated me. The design--a square with the title and author and translator names set smack in the middle of an interesting illustration, like so
* In fact, if memory serves me--and it rarely does so without spilling hot soup on my balls--it was Central European University Press which led me to New York Review Books. I know for sure that I happened upon CEU Press whilst searching for László Krasznahorkai in the stacks of a bookstore in Burlington, Vermont **, when I happened upon Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi...a book which impressed me so much that I sought out everything else I could find (which wasn't much) by Kosztolányi, and who has become one of my all time favorite writers. And that search is, what, I think, led me to New York Review Books, since they also published an edition of Skylark. And the rest is history.
** They didn't have any László, by the way, in case your breath was bated.
I don't remember when I first happened upon New York Review Books books, but I do know that it was love at first sight. In part it was the idea that this publisher was preserving books which the world seemed to have forgotten. In part it was because the covers so captivated me. The design--a square with the title and author and translator names set smack in the middle of an interesting illustration, like so
really pulled me in. I found myself wanting to read all of their books. That's not how I usually feel about publishers. In fact, with only two other exceptions--Central European University Press, which seems very much like a Central European version of NYRB Classics *, and Hard Case Crime, which has the best covers of all time. Such as
(And I love the writing style as well--that hard boiled attitude always did rub me the right way.)
And occasionally I go to the New York Review Books website to see what's new or what I've missed previously...and there's always something which I want to have a look at. Fortunately, the LFPL sometimes has these books...and even more fortunately in the Covid-19 Days, it has some of them in e-format. Sometimes I have to settle for an Amazon Free Preview. Which at least lets me know if I want to shell out the bucks for the whole thing.
Which is how I happened upon Walter Kempowski. And after reading the sample of Marrow and Bone, I most definitely would like some more of this book.
So many books. So little time.
* In fact, if memory serves me--and it rarely does so without spilling hot soup on my balls--it was Central European University Press which led me to New York Review Books. I know for sure that I happened upon CEU Press whilst searching for László Krasznahorkai in the stacks of a bookstore in Burlington, Vermont **, when I happened upon Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi...a book which impressed me so much that I sought out everything else I could find (which wasn't much) by Kosztolányi, and who has become one of my all time favorite writers. And that search is, what, I think, led me to New York Review Books, since they also published an edition of Skylark. And the rest is history.
** They didn't have any László, by the way, in case your breath was bated.
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