In a collection of short essays, Cesar Aira discusses his love, bordering on obsession, for the American fine art magazine Artforum. Called, simply, Artforum, as a work of nonfiction it is something of an anomaly in the writer’s oeuvre. Written in the first person, the book carries all the markers associated with the writer — slim volume, short paragraphs covering a large breadth of territory, … Continue reading Artforum by Cesar Aira
2. I never know what to expect when I crack open a new César Aira book. It’s not always love at first sight. Varamo grew on me over time. The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira initially excited me, but now ranks as least favorite. A reader on Trevor’s (of The Mookse & the Gripes) forums made the comment that in Spanish Aira tends to be … Continue reading Shantytown by Cesar Aira (Chris Andrews, translator)
César Aira is 63 years old. He has been, and continues to be, insanely prolific. Yet out of the 60+ books published in Spanish only eight have made their way into English. New Directions has brought out approximately one a year since 2006. The year 2012 was a banner one for Aira in the States – Varamo, a short story in The New Yorker and … Continue reading The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira by César Aira (Katherine Silver, translator)
My love affair with César Aira began at the Idlewild Bookshop. A friend handed me a copy of GHOSTS and said “This looks interesting. You read it and let me know if it’s any good”. (These assignments occur more often then you might think). And so I read it. Afterwards, I began to hunt for other Aira books with the single-minded focus I’d previously reserved … Continue reading Varamo by César Aira (translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews)
There’s an emotional stoicism to Hwang’s characters that might be misconstrued as flatness, but should be perceived as an idiosyncrasy of the author’s prose. The lives Hwang depicts are not easy ones, and could have been twisted into distasteful melodramas. The pain and suffering that Bari, Woohee, Minwoo, and the two brothers experience is more powerful for being muffled, filtered, as if their spirits and … Continue reading Korean Writer Hwang Sok-yong
READER AT LARGE 