DANIEL MEDIN鈥橲 BTBA FAVORITES: FALL 2014
Daniel Medin teaches at the , where he helps direct the and is Associate Series Editor of .
Can Xue: , trans. from Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen, Yale/Margellos
The strangest and by far most original work I read this summer was Can Xue鈥檚 The Last Lover. How refreshing it is to encounter fiction that so resolutely disregards conventions of character and plot! The protagonists of this book do not develop鈥攖hey transform, as do their relationships to one another, from one scene to the next. And they do so unpredictably, in ways that surprise and delight. As in much of Can Xue鈥檚 fiction, the prose is comic and disturbing at one and the same time. John Darnielle had in mind when he pointed to the 鈥済rammar of dreams鈥 that underpins that volume of stories: 鈥渟ituations in which a general meowing sound throughout a hospital provokes not the question 鈥榳hat’s going on?鈥 but instead 鈥榳here are the catmen hiding?鈥欌 A similar grammar is present in The Last Lover, her most ambitious鈥攁nd perhaps most radical鈥攏ovel to date.
Faris al-Shidyaq: , trans. from Arabic by Humphrey Davies, NYU
I wrote about the charms of this novel last winter, when the first two volumes were eligible for the prize. It should come as no surprise that the other two are now contenders as well. This chapter from volume three appeared in the 2014 translation issue of London鈥檚 . It鈥檚 preceded by a concise introduction by Humphrey Davies, whose translation of Shidyaq remains among the most gymnastic and resourceful amongst this year鈥檚 competition.
Elena Ferrante: , trans. from Italian by Ann Goldstein, Europa
There鈥檚 no denying the force of Ferrante鈥檚 writing. I discovered volume 2 of the Neapolitan Novels last spring when it made our longlist. (Such are the privileges of judging for BTBA; you have to read the 25 titles selected to this list, and thereby profit directly from the enthusiasms of others.) I devoured it whole, then did the same to . Ferrante inspires that rare thing, rarer still among contemporary writers: the compulsion to read everything she鈥檚 ever published. Like its predecessors, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay bristles with intelligence and is executed with startling clarity. And like the other books in this series, it is all-absorbing. Here鈥檚 Ariel Starling in a recent review for 鈥淪ubtle as the plot may be, it would do the work a grave disservice not to note that Ferrante is, in her own way, a master of suspense. Reading these novels, one becomes so immersed in the world of the characters that even an offhand comment from a minor acquaintance can (and often does) carry the force of revelation鈥攖he books are nearly impossible to put down.鈥
Hilda Hilst: , trans. from Portuguese by Adam Morris, Melville House
I鈥檝e already posted on Letters from a Seducer which had been scheduled for 2013 release but entered the world on the wrong side of January 1. Goes without saying that this title and its extraordinary translation by John Keene has not weakened in the slightest since my initial encounter. Hilst deserves to be in the mix when winter arrives and we begin to draft lists. The question then is likely to be: which horse to back? The answer鈥檚 not immediately obvious, to the great credit of Hilst鈥檚 translators and editors. With My Dog Eyes was as exhilarating to read as the Letter and . Hilst has been blessed with a generation of astute translators who are now introducing her work to an Anglophone readership. With My Dog Eyes struck me as the most aphoristic of the three novels. It begins unforgettably: 鈥淕od? A surface of ice anchored to laughter.鈥 Adam Levy wrote a canny essay for Music & Literature about this year鈥檚 eligible Hilst titles; read it .
I鈥檝e little doubt concerning the importance of the above works for their respective languages. Those without Chinese or Italian or Portuguese have Annelise Finegan Wasmoen, Ann Goldstein, and Adam Morris to thank for ensuring that their greatness has been preserved in the face of formidable challenges. I鈥檇 like to mention briefly the names of a few more translators whose work has impressed over these first few months of reading. They succeed at communicating the vitality of the voices translated, but also for their accomplished prose in English. They are, in no particular order, Jason Grunebaum from the Hindi of by Uday Prakash; Daniel Hahn from the Portuguese (Brazil) of by Paolo Scott; Chris Andrews from the Spanish (Guatemala) of by Rodrigo Rey Rosa; and Karen Emmerich from the Greek of by Amanda Michalopoulou, whose passages about the bewilderments of adolescent sexuality rank鈥攁longside volume three of by Karl Ove Knausgaard鈥攁mong the funniest things I鈥檝e encountered so far.
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