HOFFMAN’S HUNGER

Leon de Winter Translated by Arnold and Erica Pomerans Toby Press ($14.95) by Kevin Carollo “Now what do you want to know?” asks the gatekeeper. “You are insatiable.” —Franz Kafka, The Trial There is only one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. To judge whether life is or is not worth living is to […]

OUR NOISE: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label that Got Big and Stayed Small

John Cook, Mac McCaughan, and Laura Ballance Algonquin Books ($18.95) by Kevin Carollo Our antennae were tuned very specifically for like minds, as opposed to sending out a signal to convert people. There are some kinds of art that are trying to find their peers, and there are other kinds that are trying to make peers. […]

AN ATTEMPT AT EXHAUSTING A PLACE IN PARIS

Georges Perec translated by Marc Lowenthal Wakefield Press ($12.95) by Kevin Carollo to see not just the rips, but the fabric (but how to see the fabric if it is only the rips that make it visible: no one ever sees buses pass by unless they’re waiting for one, or unless they’re waiting for someone […]

HELSINKI

Peter Richards Action Books ($16) by Kevin Carollo We were never to discuss it or perceive it why even to mention it in a dream meant death by expulsion but now I must speak it I have too much inventory as they say —Peter Richards, Helsinki Half of what I say is meaningless. —The Beatles, “Julia” […]

WORDS & THE WORLD

edited and translated by Gilbert C. F. Fong, Shelby K. Y. Chan, Lucas Klein, Amy Ho Kit Yin, and Bei Dao The Chinese University Press ($39) by Kevin Carollo Now your planet, that small territory where your name collected the weight of the chosen, is strange. Be dazzled by the seagull’s cry. —María Baranda, “Letters […]

Piercing the Page: Selected Poems 1958-1989

Antonio Porta Edited with an introduction by Gian Maria Annovi Afterword by Umberto Eco Translated by Anthony Baldry, Rosemary Liedl & Paolo Martini, Anthony Molino, Lawrence R. Smith, Paul Vangelisti, and Pasquale Verdicchio Otis Books/Seismicity Editions ($14.95) by Kevin Carollo A name is exactly the absence of definition. —Breyten Bretyenbach In order to make a […]