The latest of his novels to belatedly see the light of day in English is his 1975 work Villa Triste, published by the Other Press, in a translation by John Cullen. Unusually for Modiano, it takes place entirely outside his usual Parisian hinterland.
Read MoreThe peculiar circumstances surrounding the publication of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel constitute a case study in how even the biggest literary news stories are, in the wider scheme of things, small potatoes.
Read MoreSo Germany make it four World Cups, edging level with Italy in the pantheon of winners, and just behind Brazil, whom they slain in such terrifying fashion. It’s hard to argue with that, given they were really the only outstanding team to show enduring consistency (the odd hiccup aside). A brilliant generation of players had heretofore threatened to forever fall short but things came together in Brazil and they even managed to ride their luck with a defence that continues to look suspect.
Read MoreFrancisco Antolin, with his mobile book van in Lisbon by Oliver Farry Francisco Antolin and Domingos Cruz, old schoolfriends in Lisbon, were having a drink once when a problem common to them came up in conversation. Namely, getting hold of copies of Portuguese novels in translation they had each recommended to foreign friends. Copies to…
Read MoreRebellion of Mirdits against the Ottomans, Albania, Kel Marubi, 1907 by Oliver Farry I went to Albania to try and get back with an ex-girlfriend, though that is only half the story. The trip had been planned in advance; Anna, a Swedish girl I had been seeing for about eighteen months, gave me as a…
Read MoreThe dream I had before waking up this morning: / A cat jumping up to the sky
Read Moreby Oliver Farry Though I have a few memories of España ’82 – and even a brief ticker tape-strewn flicker of Argentina ’78 is lodged in my unconscious – Mexico 86 was my first ‘real’ World Cup. An unwritten rule generally dictates that one’s first World Cup is the standard all future ones are measured…
Read MoreIn the Land of the Head Hunters, Edward S. Curtis, 1914 by Oliver Farry In the Land of the Head Hunters, dir. Edward S. Curtis, 65 minutes One of the best films of 2013 was released in 1914. Edward S. Curtis, well known for his documentary photographs of the dying traditions of the native peoples…
Read MorePhotograph by Oliver Farry by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming i. When we are laughing at your joke, I slap your face. Forgive me. I want to show you my love, but the truth is I don’t know what I am doing. ii. I tear a page from your Portuguese dictionary. I’m sorry, but it is so…
Read MoreMarine Vacth as Isabelle in Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie), Wild Bunch, 2013 by Oliver Farry Young & Beautiful (Jeune & Jolie), dir. François Ozon, France, 93 minutes The prolific François Ozon’s fourteenth feature is a companion piece to his popular hit from last year, In the House, in which a schoolteacher discovers the…
Read MorePhotograph by Oliver Farry by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming Unlike Balzac, he bought me no gloves. And none of my fingers is measured for a ring. Only I know when in love, as in Rome, do as the Romans do. He wrote me no poems, and morning begins with an espresso by a road-side café facing…
Read Moreby Oliver Farry The Act of Killing, dir. Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway/UK, 115 minutes Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing has made ripples in the West not so much because it’s a good film (though there is much about it that is very good) but because the impunity it portrays in such glaringly uncomfortable detail is…
Read Moreby Oliver Farry Baz Luhrmann adapts Fitzgerald and the result is pretty much as you might expect. There are no surprises here. You have a continual sense that you have seen this film before. That is largely because you have – if, that is, you happened to chance upon any of Luhrmann’s previous four features.…
Read MorePhotograph by Oliver Farry by Tammy Ho Lai-Ming I don’t want to be like a fruit that is small, round and has a bland taste. I like being written into poems but when someone does that I feel shy but also ridiculously euphoric. I have been using the same perfume since I was sixteen years…
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