March 7, 2010
Copenhagen
by Katrine Marie Guldager (Book Thug, 2009, Translated from the Danish by P.K. Brask)
Eleven short stories that twist geographically, socially, restlessly, and perspicaciously through the city. Often mundane, then suddenly tragic, related with a matter-of-factness that is also forgiving. You can read all 82 pages in one sitting, which for that reason (and the fragility of the characters and also the unassailable whiteness of Copenhagen) makes me want to compare the book to a stack of rice cakes. In a good way. I like rice cakes. Or else I wouldn’t be recommending the book.
$20
February 7, 2010
Nobody’s Home
by Dubravka Ugresic (Open Letter, 2008, English edition translated from the Croation by Ellen Elias-Bursac)
“We live in a new, visual era, but the global view of the world is more opaque than ever.”
$16.95
February 4, 2010
Babyfucker
by Urs Allemann (Les Figues, 2010)
“I fuck babies. That’s my sentence.” More than a running dead baby joke (they’re not dead, anyway, they’re drugged with morphine milk), Babyfucker is a rambling exploration of betrayal, jealousy, and isolation under the sticky-icky veneer of psychosis. I mean, who among us has never said, “I’m so bummed out right now I could fuck a baby”?
$15