Archives for September 2, 2009

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, out December 2, just received a starred pre-publication rave from Kirkus Reviews:

A comprehensive, affectionate biography of arguably the single most important figure in the history of jazz.
The broad outlines of the story are well known to jazz fans….Former professional jazz musician and Wall Street Journal drama critic Teachout (All in the Dances: A Brief Life of George Balanchine, 2004, etc.) fills in the details with a sure hand, drawing on numerous published sources as well as voluminous tape recordings and autobiographical writings left by Armstrong, many not available to earlier writers. The author sheds light on the embouchure problems that temporarily derailed Armstrong’s career, and dictated a change of style, in the early ’30s. He sympathetically re-evaluates Armstrong’s later career, which many critics have dismissed as elevating showmanship above art, demonstrating that the trumpeter was much more than the unschooled natural genius some admirers saw in him. Without overloading the reader with technical details, Teachout shows how Armstrong’s music evolved over the years, while staying true to lessons learned–above all, attention to melody–from his New Orleans mentors such as Oliver. Quotes from Armstrong’s earthy autobiographical writings give the book authentic flavor. Teachout also deals frankly with Armstrong’s lifelong marijuana use, the role of organized crime in his business affairs, his untidy marital life and his forthright statements on racial issues. The author makes an eloquent case for Armstrong’s status as a pioneer, not just in jazz but in the broader context of 20th-century art.
A rewarding jazz biography and a revealing look at a broad swath of American cultural history.

This goes very nicely with the equally enthusiastic starred review of Pops that appeared last month in Publishers Weekly.
We seem to be off to a good start….

Books I bought simply because the title amused me, no. 43: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Alchemy.
Related: If you have any lead pencils or jars of old pennies lying around, I’d be ever so grateful if you could send them along.

People sure wish George R.R. Martin would finish his new book! This new one is to be called A Dance With Dragons, and it’s the fifth in his Song of Ice and Fire series, which despite its embarrassing, “a cologne by Oksana Baiul” name is, in fact, an excellent and very addictive fantasy series. I had reservations about the fourth book in the series (short version: too many family histories, too many nipples) but I’m still a fan — and the fourth book ended with several cliffhangers that I’m eager to see get sorted out. This latest installment was originally due out a few years back. 2006? 2007? I don’t remember the specific date; only that I counted down to it, then presented myself in a froth at the bookstore that week to pick up my copy. It was nowhere to be found. Later I checked Amazon and saw a new pub date, this one about six months or so in the future, had been fixed. Disappointing — but what are you going to do? Then, a few months later, the revised publication date was replaced by this, more ominous message: “Currently unavailable. We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock.” I checked Martin’s website. An update there said something like, “Yep, I’m still writing.”
Now, if you’ve ever been engaged in a writing project that’s lasted a period of years you’ll be familiar with how, after a while, no one seems to ask how the book is anymore. Instead they ask you when it will be done. And while people often mean it well, at some point you realize that the real question they’re asking isn’t “Are you done yet?” so much as “Why aren’t you done?” It’s an awkward question to field from family and friends. Worse, I imagine, would be to hear it from an agent or editor. But now I’ve discovered the most terrible thing of all: To have it be the subject of an open debate in the reviews section of Amazon.
Yesterday I happened to think about Martin’s series and decided to check Dance With Dragons‘ Amazon page to see if it had a release date. No, but somehow the book had accrued 49 reviews and a two-and-a-half star rating. Had I missed the book’s coming out? Was there some foreign edition that people had gotten a hold of? No. The majority of the “reviews” are fans expressing their disappointment with the delay in publication and asking variations of the question: “Why isn’t it done yet?”
One reviewer writes:

I am thrilled to see that others share my growing concern. I, too, followed Robert Jordan through 11 main Novels and a prequel waiting for him to finish his series.
Then he died, leaving his series unfinished.
A lesson George RR Martin should learn from! [Ed. note: !!]
I’m a regular at GRRM’s website and “Not a Blog” and have to say that I just can’t put into words the disappointment I feel. Mr. Martin has caught the bug. He’s decided that he is going to stretch out his “A Song of Fire and Ice” series as far and for as long as possible.
He has time to blog about football.
He has time to blog about politics.
He has time to blog about toy miniatures.
He has time to travel around the world.
But…
He has no time to work on his LONG overdue 5th book.”

I’m torn here — I’m a fan too, and I confess, I’ve sometimes seen pictures of Martin at sci-fi and fantasy conventions, smiling and looking like a lovely gent, and thought, “Get back to work, George!” But reading these comments I feel sympathy for him too. Because that above comment is how I’ve always imagined the ticker tape in people’s heads runs when they ask me about the book: “She has time to take walks. She has time to watch Buffy reruns. She has time to drink wine. She has time to know a startling amount of celebrity gossip and random stories from the Internet.”
Here’s a snippet from another review:

Too much time has passed; I can’t remember all the characters and the subtle nuances of the story have escaped me. It’s been something like nine years since we read about some of our favorite characters in A Storm Of Swords. I just don’t have the heart to drag myself through the series again to rekindle the affair, only to be left hanging yet another time at the conclusion.
I’ve moved on – and maybe you should too.

Poor George. Well, at least there’s no section on Wikipedia specifically devoted to cataloging how long it’s taking him to write the thing. Oh no, wait.
UPDATE: Thanks to Levi Stahl for directing me to Neil Gaiman sounding off on the same subject: “George R.R. Martin is not working for you.” (Third item.)

Vladimir Nabokov and Lionel Trilling talk about Nabokov’s Lolita:

(This is the latest in a weekly series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Wednesday.)

“I don’t think in any language. I think in images. I don’t believe that people think in languages. They don’t move their lips when they think. It is only a certain type of illiterate person who moves his lips as he reads or ruminates. No, I think in images, and now and then a Russian phrase or an English phrase will form with the foam of the brainwave, but that’s about all.”
Vladimir Nabokov, Strong Opinions