{"id":298606,"date":"2014-07-08T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2014\/07\/08\/all-set-for-the-semifinals-world-cup-of-literature\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T15:12:36","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T15:12:36","slug":"all-set-for-the-semifinals-world-cup-of-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2014\/07\/08\/all-set-for-the-semifinals-world-cup-of-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"All Set for the Semifinals [World Cup of Literature]"},"content":{"rendered":"

And with Germany’s defeat of BiH<\/a> the semifinals for the World Cup of Literature are all set.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You can download a PDF<\/span> version here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a bit of a breakdown on these two match ups:<\/p>\n

Chile<\/b><\/p>\n

By Night in Chile<\/em><\/a> by Roberto Bola\u00f1o, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews<\/p>\n

Originally published in 2000—making it just barely<\/em> eligible for our competition—By Night in Chile<\/i> is best described by Richard Eder of the New York Times<\/em> as “a 130-page rant—part confession, part justification, part delirium—by a dying man, representative of an intellectual class that the author depicts as alternately tugging its leash and licking it.” <\/p>\n

Bola\u00f1o is one of the authors that literary hipsters love most, although many seem to prefer 2666<\/em> or The Savage Detectives<\/em>. By Night in Chile<\/em> is more condensed and precise though (and more about Chile<\/em> the country Bola\u00f1o chose to represent in this competition), and that might help him out against Sebald’s longer, more erudite Austerlitz<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Also worth pointing out that Columbia University Press is brining out Roberto Bola\u00f1o’s Fiction: An Expanding Universe<\/em><\/a> by Chris Andrews later this month. <\/p>\n

Germany<\/b><\/p>\n

Austerlitz<\/em><\/a> by W.G. Sebald, translated from the German by Anthea Bell<\/p>\n

Austerlitz<\/em> came out in German in 2001, literally a month before Sebald’s tragic passing. It went on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2001 and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2002. And for her translation, Anthea Bell received the 2002 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize. That’s a lot of prize winning. <\/p>\n

Sebald is renowned for his particular style, which combines fact with fiction, images with text, and often revolves around ideas of memory, history, and decay. Here’s a bit from a review of Austerlitz<\/em> in the Observer<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

Sebald describes a universe which is peculiar but recognisable, the way experience of the world can be shaped by a strongly academic and historical intelligence. I can’t really comprehend his prose style, so distinctive in the length of his sentences and the slight archaism of manner, the monotony of its cadences probably due to the fact that it was originally written in German and then translated. But I would strongly recommend anyone who has not experienced his writing to do so, because it succeeds in communicating issues of great importance concerning time, memory and human experience.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of the remaining four books, Austerlitz<\/em> is probably the betting man’s favorite.<\/p>\n

Mexico<\/b><\/p>\n

Faces in the Crowd<\/em><\/a> by Valeria Luiselli, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney<\/p>\n

The only living author still in the competition<\/em>, Luiselli also comes to the competition with the most recently published book—Faces in the Crowd<\/i> came out in 2011, and was published in the U.S. by Coffee House Press (along with Luiselli’s essay collection _Sidewalks__ earlier this year. <\/p>\n

It’s received some great literary praise, mostly for its unique structure and interweaving of various viewpoints, all of which keep readers on their proverbial toes, having to figure out who’s writing and what is (or isn’t) “true.” From the L.A. Times<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

Faces in the Crowd<\/em> is itself a highly original work of many parts—but one that does, in its own unique way, add up to a satisfying “whole.” At the heart of this engaging and often hauntingly strange novel is a wildly original character: Luiselli’s protagonist lies to her boss, commits literary fraud and assorted acts of adultery, all while raising a baby and a toddler son.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Or maybe she doesn’t do all those things \u2014 we can’t be certain, since it’s clear Luiselli’s protagonist isn’t just an unreliable employee and spouse, she’s also an unreliable narrator.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

DFW<\/span> is a formidable opponent, but the fact that Faces<\/em> is a truly finished<\/em> book, and that this is a first novel (instead of a posthumous one), might help her through to the finals. <\/p>\n

USA<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The Pale King<\/em><\/a> by David Foster Wallace<\/p>\n

By now, I suspect everyone knows the story behind The Pale King<\/em>: In 2008, after DFW<\/span> committed suicide, editor Michael Pietsch pieced together the unfinished novel and writings that DFW<\/span> left behind and produced The Pale King.<\/em> A novel about boredom and the IRS<\/span>—the only government agency designed to make money, therefore one that should be efficient<\/i> in modern corporate ways—The Pale King<\/i> was widely praised, including by World Cup of Literature judge Tom Roberge, in this<\/a> review for Deadspin<\/em>. Over at New York<\/em>, Garth Risk Hallberg also nailed it:<\/p>\n

\n

Under the hood, though, what\u2019s remarkable about The Pale King<\/em> is its congruity with Wallace\u2019s earlier ambitions. Recent generations of Americans have, with a few notable exceptions, been allergic to what used to be called \u201cthe novel of ideas.\u201d Information we love, and the more the better. Memes? By all means. But inquiries into ontology and ethics and epistemology we\u2019ve mostly ceded to the science-fiction, self-help, and Malcolm Gladwell sections of the bookstore. A philosophy-grad-school dropout, Wallace meant to reclaim them. \u00ad_Infinite Jest_ discovered in its unlikely \u00admilieu of child prodigies and recovering addicts less a source of status details than a window onto (in Wallace\u2019s words) \u201cwhat it is to be a fucking human being.\u201d And The Pale King<\/em> treats its central subject\u2014\u00adboredom itself\u2014not as a texture (as in \u00adFernando Pessoa), or a symptom (as in Thomas Mann), or an attitude (as in Bret Easton Ellis), but as the leading edge of truths we\u2019re desperate to avoid. It is the mirror beneath entertainment\u2019s smiley mask, and The Pale King<\/em> aims to do for it what Moby-Dick<\/em> did for the whale.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

David Foster Wallace was one of the greatest writers of the second half of the twentieth century (or the twentieth century as a whole? or of all time?), but the phrase “unfinished novel” will likely discount this in the minds of some judges, so maybe the mighty American isn’t as unbeatable as he seems at first glance. <\/p>\n

That’s it. Stay tuned to find out who’s going through to Monday’s Championship. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And with Germany’s defeat of BiH the semifinals for the World Cup of Literature are all set. You can download a PDF version here. Here’s a bit of a breakdown on these two match ups: Chile By Night in Chile by Roberto Bola\u00f1o, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews Originally published in 2000—making it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67486],"tags":[23296,56736,56836,766,56766,14916,56286,1646,756,56276,1066,56386],"class_list":["post-298606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-anthea-bell","tag-austerlitz","tag-by-night-in-chile","tag-chris-andrews","tag-christina-macsweeney","tag-david-foster-wallace","tag-faces-in-the-crowd","tag-review","tag-roberto-bolano","tag-valeria-luiselli","tag-w-g-sebald","tag-world-cup-of-literature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317356,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298606\/revisions\/317356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}