The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Christian Bobin's The Lady in White.
This slim translated-from-the-French novel is about Emily Dickinson, and it's a nice piece of work; it appears, however to have attracted basically no attention in the United States, where it was published by the University of Nebraska Press a few months ago, whatsoever. Before my review went up, a title/author search on Google (for: "The Lady in White" Christian Bobin) turned up all of 28 results -- an almost impossibly small number of results (by comparison: substituting the French title yielded: "About 9,440 results"). Given the subject matter, and the fact that several of Bobin's books have previously been translated (and the fact that he's held in very high regard in France), this is almost unfathomable. What happened here ?
The book was, on some level, well-supported: the copyright page acknowledges subsidy support from no less than three different governmental authorities: the publishing assistance program of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Cultural Services of the French Embassy; the Institut Français; and a grant from the (American) National Endowment of the Arts. It's unclear how much of the costs were covered, but it looks like a decent amount was. It does not appear, however, that much went into marketing.
Shocking also -- especially given the public-interest entities that put up cash to see this published in translation -- to find that the translation copyright is not held by translator Alison Anderson, but rather that:
(And a reminder again to the NEA and all those national publishing-support agencies out there: don't stand for this: if you're going to give money in support of the publishing of translations make sure that the creative talents are properly respected; given their limited bargaining power translators, in particular, are in need of your protection -- so use your clout/purse-strings for some good and ensure that translators, like authors, retain copyright of their intellectual property and work..)
For all the supposed recent increase in interest in fiction-in-translation in the US, this title would seem to suggest that the situation isn't quite so rosy: a well-deserving title, with an attractive(-to-a-US-audience) subject-matter, published with the support of several agencies that, one would think, would have an interest in seeing it succeed -- and yet it remains almost entirely invisible to the public (if you can barely find reference to it on Google it's pretty damn invisible).
Disappointing, all around -- and far from an isolated case. But, hey, at least you know about this title now, and can check it out -- as I would suggest you might really want to.
This slim translated-from-the-French novel is about Emily Dickinson, and it's a nice piece of work; it appears, however to have attracted basically no attention in the United States, where it was published by the University of Nebraska Press a few months ago, whatsoever. Before my review went up, a title/author search on Google (for: "The Lady in White" Christian Bobin) turned up all of 28 results -- an almost impossibly small number of results (by comparison: substituting the French title yielded: "About 9,440 results"). Given the subject matter, and the fact that several of Bobin's books have previously been translated (and the fact that he's held in very high regard in France), this is almost unfathomable. What happened here ?
The book was, on some level, well-supported: the copyright page acknowledges subsidy support from no less than three different governmental authorities: the publishing assistance program of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Cultural Services of the French Embassy; the Institut Français; and a grant from the (American) National Endowment of the Arts. It's unclear how much of the costs were covered, but it looks like a decent amount was. It does not appear, however, that much went into marketing.
Shocking also -- especially given the public-interest entities that put up cash to see this published in translation -- to find that the translation copyright is not held by translator Alison Anderson, but rather that:
English translation © 2014 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska PressVesting interest there certainly did nothing for this title: come on, Regents, if you're going to (mis)appropriate a right you have no moral right to then at least get off your asses and support the damn book. Go door to door in your (fancy, right ?) neighborhoods selling copies if you have to ! Do something ! Rights (-- especially those that shouldn't really be yours ... --) come with responsibilities, too, and you sure don't seem to have lived up to yours here.
(And a reminder again to the NEA and all those national publishing-support agencies out there: don't stand for this: if you're going to give money in support of the publishing of translations make sure that the creative talents are properly respected; given their limited bargaining power translators, in particular, are in need of your protection -- so use your clout/purse-strings for some good and ensure that translators, like authors, retain copyright of their intellectual property and work..)
For all the supposed recent increase in interest in fiction-in-translation in the US, this title would seem to suggest that the situation isn't quite so rosy: a well-deserving title, with an attractive(-to-a-US-audience) subject-matter, published with the support of several agencies that, one would think, would have an interest in seeing it succeed -- and yet it remains almost entirely invisible to the public (if you can barely find reference to it on Google it's pretty damn invisible).
Disappointing, all around -- and far from an isolated case. But, hey, at least you know about this title now, and can check it out -- as I would suggest you might really want to.