Literary Fashion Victims

There’s an essay in Robert Sapolsky’s “Monkeyluv” about sticky personalities. It’s a socio-biological attempt to explain why some people return to the same CDs or order the same dishes at restaurants. (not just because you like them, apparently). I like to think he’s not talking about me but the content of my bookshelves wouldn’t necessarily support this view. If I chance upon a particularly good author I like I buy the back catalogue. Like most compulsive book buyers my capacity to buy outstrips my ability to read (I have about 50 books on my TBR pile with no sign of the reading gap being bridged)

So sometimes it’s a relief to chance upon a dead author safe in the knowledge that the reading gap is, at least, not widening. The drawback is, obviously, once you’ve finished there’s nothing left. I’m not much of a re-reader so if it’s a recent demise I’m at the mercy of the literary agent. They’ll probably decide to comb the back catalogue of unpublished manuscripts for neglected work but it’s a commercial rather than aesthetic choice. I bought ( and read) Nabokov’s “The Original Of Laura” & Raymond Carver’s Beginners ( an unedited “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”) and I’m chagrined to find out that behind their publication stands the shadowy figure of Andrew Wylie ( affectionately known as “The Jackal”). It’s an open & shut case - I’m a literary fashion victim.

Occasionally, however, you strike gold. Roberto Bolano’s “The Last Interview” (a filler bridging the gap to the publication of “Monsieur Pain” in February) is a fine example. I’m retro in my belief that what an author thinks about, frames his work. So I like to think that "hearing him talk" about books gives me a greater appreciation of his output. But it’s also gratifying to know that an author you admire shares some of your obsessions (He wished he could write like Philip K Dick.) Bolano was also brash,arrogant and opinionated so perhaps PKD isn't the only thing we have in common!