I am reading, in translation, Joseph Roth’s novella, The Legend of the Holy Drinker, translated and introduced by Wykehamist, Michael Hofmann.
Hofmann has translated ten of Roth’s books and is responsible for a revival of interest in his work among English readers. The Legend of the Holy Drinker is Roth’s last work of fiction. He wrote it in exile in Paris over the first four months of 1939. At the end of the fifth he died aged forty-four. Hofmann explains:
… it is clear that Roth for some time had been running out of reasons to remain alive. Being an exiled writer was attritional, and beyond that, it was perspectiveless. Politically, economically, emotionally and physically he was under threat. Alcoholism had destroyed his health; in 1938 he suffered a heart attack, and he could walk no more than a few steps. He advanced a sophisticated argument that while drink shortened his life in the medium term, in the short term it kept him alive – and he worked hard at testing its logic.
Another fairly recent discovery, in translation, is Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier. Like Roth, he wrote it on the eve of war – in 1913. Like Roth he died shortly thereafter; fighting in the French army in September 1914. It is a charming, magical and romantic story that could only have been written by a Frenchman.
In September I mentioned Tom Ford’s latest film, Nocturnal Animals. It won the Silver Lion at the Venice film festival this year. I have now seen it and was a little disappointed. It is described as a neo-noir psychological thriller which sounds promising. However, it doesn’t have the sort of taut plot that Hitchcock delivered so reliably. It does have a lot of graphic violence and bad language. It has its moments but I was restless in the final thirty minutes.
I think you are quite harsh. Hitchcock is often marvellous but sometimes quite creaky. Ford is exceptional, and open to different weaknesses. “A Single Man” was stylish (obviously) and very touching and maybe too langorous. “Nocturnal Animals” rather fabulously pulled off the collision of the lives of two tribes: the golden and the god-awful. It was a style-fest and a thriller. It may too easily – casually – have butted these two worlds against each other, but I was mesmerised by its cheek and aplomb. I was reminded of “Cape Fear” and Elisabeth Sanxay Holding’s “The Blank Wall”, and its two film incarnations as “The Reckless Moment” and “The Deep End”.
BTW: I had the luxury of wandering in Eton College Chapel on the Wall Game Saturday, and liked your Hone window well enough: satisfactorily modern and traditional. But the Piper windows simply blew me away: I had no idea they were there.
I was pleased to be reminded of Le Grand Meaulnes again – I studied it for French A level and it had a great effect on me with its romance and the magical 19th century fete which mysteriously disappeared with the grounds of the house where it happened. It also reminds me of L P Hartley’s ‘The Go Between’ of that more innocent time before the horrors of World War 1. (Alain Fournier died in it four weeks after its start). A film of Le Grand Meaulnes was made in 1967 which we were taken to see in London in a small cinema which screened French films at the time. I now see that there has been a newer film made of it in 2006 and this is the link to its trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBinYp99Ncg
Apparently a poll of French readers a dozen years ago placed it sixth of all 20th-century books, just behind Proust and Camus.