As I noted at the start of the year, likely the biggest title of 2013 -- at least in terms of sheer heft -- is the first complete English edition of Giacomo Leopardi's Zibaldone (a seven-translator job of over 2500 pages; see the Farrar, Straus & Giroux publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
The US edition just came out, and it'll be interesting to see how it gets covered and is received (with an "Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,645" as I wrote this -- hey, not too bad).
So far coverage has been ... limited (no Publishers Weekly review ...), and the Italians seem more excited than y'all (In arrivo lo Zibaldone in inglese Prima edizione negli Usa reports the Cronache Maceratesi).
At his ABC of Reading weblog Thomas McGonigle explains: "how it came to be that the editor of the Los Angeles Times book section did not reply to my asking to review the Zibaldone by Giacomo Leopardi".
As McGonigle (eventually) wrote to 'Books and Culture Editor' Joy Press:
He apparently received no reply from Press -- so, presumably no The Los Angeles Times review -- and I'm curious where it will be covered. (Guaranteed: the TLS; likely: Bookforum, The New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the Review of Contemporary Fiction. Beyond that ? I don't know.)
[Aside: I haven't received (or requested) a copy of Zibaldone; yes, I'm very tempted -- but also terrified. Still, if FSG decides to send me a copy ... I'd probably get around to it.]
At his ABC of Reading weblog Thomas McGonigle explains: "how it came to be that the editor of the Los Angeles Times book section did not reply to my asking to review the Zibaldone by Giacomo Leopardi".
As McGonigle (eventually) wrote to 'Books and Culture Editor' Joy Press:
I think I can find some words so as to make the notebooks accessible to your readers and I would stick to whatever word count you wished and would be thinking of my unknown reader living in an un-remodeled house in Hermosa Beach some Sunday morning in July.As he notes, he had (under a previous editor ...) "written long reviews of writers such as Thomas Bernhard, E. M. Cioran, Peter Esterhazy, William Vollmann, Herta Muller" for The Los Angeles Times; as someone who goes through endless reviews daily I can attest that ones by McGonigle always catch my eye since he tends to review interesting titles -- and his interest in Zibaldone suggests it, too, should be of interest (and certainly might be worth covering).
I know this is an unusual sort of possibility but given the rather dreary reality it is also important to remind ourselves of such books being published etc etc... this is really good news.
He apparently received no reply from Press -- so, presumably no The Los Angeles Times review -- and I'm curious where it will be covered. (Guaranteed: the TLS; likely: Bookforum, The New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the Review of Contemporary Fiction. Beyond that ? I don't know.)
[Aside: I haven't received (or requested) a copy of Zibaldone; yes, I'm very tempted -- but also terrified. Still, if FSG decides to send me a copy ... I'd probably get around to it.]