The sun is out! I’ve been delighting the neighbourhood with my neon teal garden lounger, and some bright yellow short shorts. Summer clearly brings out the classy in me.
Hope you’re having a good weekend, and here’s a book, a blog post, and a link to help you along the way.
1) The book – I love Fitzcarraldo’s non-fiction – which I only specify because I haven’t read any of their fiction. Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton sounds like a wonderful addition to the series: it is about Barton’s time living in Japan, ‘an exceptional debut about the quietly revolutionary act of learning, speaking, and living in another language’.
2) The blog post – is really a link, I suppose, but Lucy Scholes’ ‘Re-Covered’ column for the Paris Review feels like a blog. In this column, she talks about the wonderful Barbara Comyns – including her own history of reading Comyns, and the fact that she is always on the brink of being rediscovered again.
3) The link – I was late to the fan club for Janet Malcolm, but my goodness she is extraordinary. After her recent passing, the Guardian published Helen Garner’s wonderful tribute to her.