This is a collection of Gopnik's New Yorker articles from the year he lived in Paris; tough duty, but someone's got to do it. Read long ago, but two pThis is a collection of Gopnik's New Yorker articles from the year he lived in Paris; tough duty, but someone's got to do it. Read long ago, but two points stand out:
French fax machines, if they failed to transmit, showed the code translated as "distant error"--I.e., the fault couldn't have been with ME, it must have been on the other end. Many 20th Century French Generals might fit that description.
After writing one piece, Gopnik turns it over to the magazine for fact checking. He warns those quoted to expect a call. Universally, they are alarmed; fact checking, apparently, is unknown in France. Instead, Gopnik speculates, French periodicals must have THEORY checkers--the facts don't matter so long as the theory sounds elegant when expounded as the saucers pile up at Lex Deux Magots cafe....more
Blum tries to define the Internet without a diagram: by description alone. Great writing; flawed concept. But, having been to some of the places he diBlum tries to define the Internet without a diagram: by description alone. Great writing; flawed concept. But, having been to some of the places he discusses (the carrier "hotel" at 60 Hudson St., NYC, and the cable landing station in Land's End, England), he's vividly accurate....more
Final third of narrative of walk to Constantinople ends in mid-sentence, half-way down the Bulgarian coast. He never completed it; this copy was creatFinal third of narrative of walk to Constantinople ends in mid-sentence, half-way down the Bulgarian coast. He never completed it; this copy was created from dusty notes. One can tell the point about half way though where PLF stopped revising--requiring his literary executors to print a only rough draft. Interesting--but by no means on par with volumes one and two. What's especially missing are the romances that so spiced up earlier books (though there's at least one hint). But what's especially good is the sense that PLF was the last visitor to a society long dead--plowed-under by Communism, Nazism and sometimes both.
Last fifth of book is a day-by-day diary of his visit to the "holy Mount Altos" (he repeats the phrase several times) in Greece. Apparently, he went to the famously misogynistic peninsula of monasteries directly after arriving in Istanbul on New Year's Day. Spiritual, yadi yadi--but, as for the numerous monks he meets, PLF is no more discerning than: "He is a delightful old chap, and extraordinary kind." Might be a useful description for women who, to this day, are barred from Mount Altos....more
Even better, and more "literary" than Volume 1, this begins in Hungary and ends at the Danube's Iron Gates. The author becomes more candid about his vEven better, and more "literary" than Volume 1, this begins in Hungary and ends at the Danube's Iron Gates. The author becomes more candid about his various affairs with high-born and a few peasant women. And his sentences got longer, but not in an annoying way.
Page 28, describing how they dress in Budapest: "Tigers for turnout."
Page 41: "The few clouds in the clear, wide sky were so nearly motionless they might have been anchored to their shadows." Bless him for not adding the unnecessary "that" before "they"--it's a personal pet peeve.
Page 42-44: Understanding I was a foreigner, she asked "Német?" (German?). My answer "Angol" induced a look of polite vagueness: an Angle meant as kettle to her as a Magyar might in the middle of Dartmoor. . .[I]n a minute a grand-daughter brought a foaming glass of milk: they both smiled as they watched me drink it. I sipped slowly and thought: I'm drinking this glass of milk on a chestnut horse on the Great Hungarian Plain. . . When I dismounted, they crowded about him and patted and stroked his neck and flanks and scanned his points with eyes like shrewd blackberries."
Page 128, looking down on the river, "which the full moon turned to mercury. The woods and streams were full of nightingales."
Page 210 et seq. contains a sequence where he happens upon a family of Romanian Jews, who are reading from the Torah; the author doesn't understand Hebrew, but, in a beautiful epiphany, manages to puzzle-out that the verse is 2 Samuel 1 19:27 "The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places; how are the mighty fallen!"...more
ales of a scamp/screw-up's cadet experience in the Brit Merchant Navy. Mostly juvenile, but not a bad writer:
"It's strange how hard it is to talk to ales of a scamp/screw-up's cadet experience in the Brit Merchant Navy. Mostly juvenile, but not a bad writer:
"It's strange how hard it is to talk to someone who is with other people, isn't it? The Americans are best at it. Anywhere you meet strangers in the US -- on a train, at a bus stop, in a queue -- they will talk to you. If the lift is going more than three floors, the chances are that you'll make a friend for life. In England, if a stranger talks to you at a bus stop, you begin to ships uncomfortably and look for a policeman. In the US, it's the person who won't talk who arouses suspicion."...more
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