Customer Reviews

Lost Classics

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The act of reading has been mistakenly called solitary. It is all about dialogue and this book has it in spades. Michael Ondaatje and fellow editors from Brick Magazine, a literary journal, invited over 70 past contributors to submit essays singing the praises of lost, long-ago, out-of-print or underrated books that mattered. In other words, it is a collection of love stories, all personable and short. It is a delight on several levels: not only does it suggests some good-sounding reads, it also introduces some interesting reader/writers, many of them Canadian who do not get enough recognition in America.

Reading allows us to learn things from others, to experience things we might not ever experience in our own lives, and to go places we wish we could but may never have the chance to. We can go back in time or travel to the future and experience worlds we haven't experienced before. After reading this book I thought of many books I too have lost and misplaced from my earlier years of reading, and wished I had kept, or perhaps not given away. It would be nice to be able to re-read them again, if only they were still in print.

This is a wonderful collection of almost 75 essays, by some of the world's best writers brought together by the editors of Brick: A Literary Journal, that are thoughtful, funny, interesting, witty, and heartwarming. There is such a diverse selection of writers here that there are bound to be several essays for everyone to enjoy.

Jim Moore's essay on "The Salt Ecstasies" by James White who died in 1981 was very inspiring. Jim's poetry is very familiar to me for this was one of the first gay books of poetry I read while coming out. Luckily I still have a first edition copy of this book. Reading this essay inspired me to re-read Jim's poetry once again, and experience the passion & love that he visualized in his poetry for so many of us. Colm Toibin's essay on "Forbidden Territory" by Juan Goytisolo, who was an acquaintance of Jean Genet in Paris in the 1950's, is a tribute to this wonderful Spanish writer. Colm is a fascinating Irish writer himself who has written two wonderful books, " The Heather Blazing" and "The Blackwater Lightship" (See my earlier reviews).

Please don't miss Javier Marias' Afterword. This is writing at its best; intelligent, informative, funny, and touching. The telling of his experience in a bookshop in England, and how the owner was such a fanatical collector that he had a hard time parting with & selling his books is unforgettable. If you love and cherish great books like I do, don't miss this collection of essays. There's something for everyone here. Only one inquiry from me, why isn't this book in hardcover for our collections. Highly recommended!!

As of my writing, there are 57 of these available in Amazon stores for a penny each. Usually when I see this it's a sign that a book was a major dud and should be avoided.

I don't know how this book did saleswise, but I love it. I read it from cover to cover.

I've lent out two and they weren't returned, so I've had to buy a third.

And I owe this book two debts of gratitude:

1. Turning me on to some amazing books that would never have crossed my radar before (e.g., "All About H. Hatterr").

2. Making me less embarrassed about those few volumes I treasure but nobody else has ever heard of (e.g., Alexander Key's "The Magic Meadow").

As a reader and librarian who enjoys books ABOUT books almost as much as books themselves, and is always on the lookout for out-of-the-way reads to pass along, this is just the sort of book I love. It reminds me of one of my other favorites, Noel Perrin's A Reader's Delight - another treasure trove of great titles.

I have lot of respect for the writing of Ondaatje but this book is just not upto his standards. Enough labour has not been given to the research portion while writing this book. You can easily get better repository of lost book in the net and sometimes in the listmania of amazon.com. Most of the critical analysis are very poorly written and I found only two books which are really "lost classic" in the correct sense of the word - they are Doctor Glas and Codex Seraphinianus. I never knew "Classic Revisited" is a lost classic since it is still taught in some universities. Its better to search the net that buy this book