If I didn’t spend every morning writing about things that bug me, I’d have more time to write about new books . . . Which, in the end, is probably more interesting and useful. So here are three more September titles:<\/p>\n
We’re going to be running a review of this title in the near future, but instead of describing the book, I want to point out Danish Accent<\/a> Fogtdal’s excellent blog that includes some info about The Tsar’s Dwarf.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n The Tsar’s Dwarf<\/i> is the story of a Danish dwarf who is given to the Russian Tsar Peter The Great as a gift. She is brought to the Russian court where she falls in love, is humiliated, and treated like a toy. It’s a funny but gruesome story about human dignity. At least, that’s what it says on the cover, so it must be true.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Also on his blog is an excerpt from the book,<\/a> and a sweet rant about the Olympics that includes making fun of Americans for not getting badminton (one of the sports I wish NBC<\/span> had covered better, along with table tennis and team handball) and this bit about Michael Phelps:<\/p>\n What’s wrong with Michael Phelps? I worry about him. Sure, he has won eight gold medals, but what’s up with the greed? Can’t you get enough, Michael? Aren’t you aware that you’ve won eight times as many medals as fucking India? India is a continent, Michael. It’s not a dump in Michigan. Have a little respect.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I wouldn’t say Ann Arbor is a dump, and I don’t think India is its own continent, but still, this gave me a chuckle. <\/p>\n Although their book production has changed a bit (compare one of the new titles to Unger’s The Maimed<\/i> and you’ll know what I mean), Twisted Spoon Press still produces some fine looking books from some very interesting European authors. We have a couple TSP<\/span> reviews coming in the near future, and this sounds like a book we should take a closer look at as well: <\/p>\n Taking its cue both from Joyce’s Ulysses<\/i> and Hrabal’s freely associating stream of anecdote, Of Kids & Parents<\/i> is about a father and son taking a walk through Prague, over the course of which, and in the pubs and bars they stop into, their personal lives are revealed as entwined with the past sixty years of upheaval in their corner of Europe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And this Boyd Tonkin quote doesn’t hurt: “Anyone who has ever crawled from pub to pub in Prague \u2014 or anyone who wants to \u2014 should read this utterly beguiling novel of uproarious surfaces and melancholy depths.”<\/p>\n\n
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