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Hi—
This newsletter is the first one in which we're trying out a new system—instead of sending one message with 4-5 items in it, we're going to plan on sending one brief message each week. This should keep you better informed about Open Letter books, contests, events, and trivia, and without forcing you to slog through pages of deadly prose . . . If you have any comments about this (to be honest, I'm stealing this idea from "Very Short List" and "Daily Dose," and it seems like the new cool trend), please e-mail me at chad...@rochester.edu.
This month's release is Mercè Rodoreda's Death in Spring, a novel that was published posthumously in Spain back in the mid-80s and has never before been translated into English.
It's a story of a rather bizarre village—one that is organized around strange, somewhat violent rituals that are frighteningly believable. As Martha Tennent (the translator) said recently at a special launch event (more below), "there is no parallel to this book in English, which is one reason why it needs to be translated." And I agree. It's a bit of Poe, a bit of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," but wholly Rodoreda.
And Rodoreda is one of the all-time best. She was adventuresome, sharp, immensely talented, and one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's favorites. Sort of like a Catalan Virginia Woolf, but a bit more concerned with creating three-dimensional characters.
This past weekend, Jessica Lange gave a dramatic reading of Rodoreda's The Time of the Doves (another of her classic novels) at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Her performance was impassioned, melodramatic, and enthralling, and blew away everyone who attended.
Copies of the finished book are being mailed out to subscribers today (which is *cough* another good reason to subscribe), and for the rest of you, you can get the book at better bookstores everywhere, or, you can order it directly for $11.95.
For more information on Mercè Rodoreda and her works, click here.
Best,
Chad
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