NYRB Classics discussion

OK, friends, what book do we want to read for March? Let's get some nominations, and then I'll start a poll.

I will offer up Young Man with a Horn by Dorothy Baker





First published 1938 U.S.A. pp 192


Dorothy Baker’s Young Man with a Horn is widely regarded as the first jazz novel, and it pulses with the music that defined an era. Baker took her inspiration from the artistry—though not the life—of legendary horn player Bix Beiderbecke, and the novel went on to be adapted into a successful movie starring Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, and Doris Day.

Sounds quite interesting. Thanks Sam.

What others do we want to nominate?

OK, I'll offer one up: A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising

A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising is both a work of memory and a work about memory. Miron Białoszewski, the great avant-garde Polish poet, memorializes the doomed uprising of the Polish population against their Nazi masters, which began on August 1, 1944, and was eventually abandoned on October 2, 1944, with the physical destruction of Warsaw, street by street and house by house, and the slaughter of 200,000 civilians. [More if you click on the book...]

Me too: Tove Jansson's The Woman Who Borrowed Memories: Selected Stories

I know many of us here enjoyed The Summer Book, so it may be time to sample some more of her work.

https://www.nyrb.com/products/the-wom...

Great choices so far. One thing I like about NYRB, you rarely go wrong with a pick.

OK, I second all of the above. And hope more options come up. This weekend (if I remember), I'll create the poll.

Great, Michael. Thanks.

I would like to nominate Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter.

This popped up as a recommendation on Goodreads. Not a book I've come across before. Nor an author I have read before. Thought it looked good. Also seems to be available as audio on Audible;

Hard Rain Falling gets my vote as well, it's been on my TBR for ages and I've kept pulling the trigger on something else.

OK, created the poll. Will start tomorrow as GR wouldn't let me start it today.

Thanks Michael. Good choices with lots of variety this month. I haven'f decided what I am voting for.

The poll is live!

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Hard Rain Falling has won. We need a discussion topic. Thanks to those who voted for this. I am looking forward to it.

Great. Shall order.

Awesome. I added it to the main page.

I've finished " Hard Rain Falling". Gave it 5 stars. It was a great book. Really easy to read. Really liked it.

Cordelia wrote: "I've finished " Hard Rain Falling". Gave it 5 stars. It was a great book. Really easy to read. Really liked it."

That's great Cordelia. I will be starting this weekend. I wanted to catch up with book prize reading and finish Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman. I will add my thought in another week or so.

I finished Hard Rain Falling and thought it was totally worth reading. Jack's life, as were his choices, was predictable and unchangeable, yet his philosophy was filled with hard truths. I really appreciated reading this novel. The author interests me.

I also just finished and was letting my thoughts settle before posting.
I too, liked the novel but was struck at how the plot went. Carpenter seemed to be aiming for a type of realism sèen more in narrative nonfiction than in the genre of hardboiled fiction to which this book belongs. Thus I felt the emotional ups highs and lows that are present in that type of fiction were lessened of their dramatic effect. I also was a bit jarred by the movement from the poolhall storyline to the prison narrative. The poolhall did not seem played out before the author switched it up and I was curious why he decided to change things. But it was a riveting read and quite interesting as a West Coast novel.

Melody wrote: "I finished Hard Rain Falling and thought it was totally worth reading. Jack's life, as were his choices, was predictable and unchangeable, yet his philosophy was filled with hard truths. I really a..."

Me neither. I have never heard of this author before. Isn't it like that with this series of books. I must look out for others of his.

Sam. I didn't really see this as hard-boiled. I felt that it was really realististic - perhaps heading more towards noir - which I really like.

I didn't have trouble with poolroom vs prison. Same sort of people I suppose.

I'm still in the middle of the book, but am enjoying it, although since Jack is now in jail, I suppose enjoy is not the best word. I can say here even though not through the book that I thought the opening prologue was great and it drew me right in. So this is not meant as criticism of it, but I wonder how any of you think of what it is doing to set up the book. I mean, I can understand that this is a kind of origins story of how Jack came to be and might explain a little of how he is, but I wonder if there is more I am not getting about this decision by the author. Thoughts?

Seana wrote: "I'm still in the middle of the book, but am enjoying it, although since Jack is now in jail, I suppose enjoy is not the best word. I can say here even though not through the book that I thought the..."

I had problems with it since the book was following conventions that reflect stories of troubled youth having adventures, getting into trouble etc. but it then followed Jack whose story follows more of the conventions of a prison novel where a troubled sociopathic character (though not totally unredeemable) gets into trouble, goes to prison and tries to survive. I did not feel the author's decision to move from young hooligan conventions to prison conventions helped the novel, though like you I didn't feel it was unwarranted when considering the realism. I do feel it forced the reader to undergo a change in expectation. The prison part allowed the ex-con latter third with the unsuccessful relationship and downbeat ending. Again proponents of realism could claim that is what follows but it gave the book the feeling of earlier American naturalism, something akin to Jack London, Stephen Crane, or Theodore Dreiser, and I am not so sure how I would reflect on this in a year or two. Still well worth reading.