Synecdoche NY

We went to see Synecdoche NY this evening and came back disappointed. The acting was good and it had some good moments and funny lines, but was overlong (one hundred and twenty minutes) and slightly pretentious. We also thought it was a rip-off of Tom McCarthy's Remainder, but a very bad one – and it had a late-Nineties Allenesque atmosphere about it which we didn't like.

This is from an interview to Charlie Kaufman, the director of the movie, which you can find here in its entirety:

I found a lot of similarities between Synecdoche and this novel, Remainder, by Tom McCarthy...

This script, for the record, [was] written before that novel came out. I saw a review of that thing [Remainder]; I was freaked out. I intentionally did not read it. I have not read it. I hadn’t made the movie yet, and I didn’t want to have any kind of influence [from] it. But like I said, this script was written before that came out. I saw it online and I thought, A) oh fuck, and B) this is a book that I would read, normally. This sounds like a cool book. But I won’t. And I haven’t. And I probably at some point I will, but I don’t know…now it might be awful to read it. It might be like, Oh, he had this great idea that I didn’t have and I cant do anything about it.

It’s interesting to know that you haven’t read it.

It’s an idea that…that idea is not new to me, in my work. This particular version of it…What I’m saying is, it’s an attractive idea. I would look at that novel and think, Oh, cool. But I couldn’t in this case.

It’s got a similar kind of self-contained illogic.

He builds an apartment house and hires actors?

Yeah.

[Sarcastically] I wonder if McCarthy read the script...

* * *

A few people left before the end of the screening. There were about fifteen-twenty people to start with, and the only person who really seemed to like the film was a guy sitting alone in the row in front of us and laughing at every joke, including the lame ones. We thought he was mad, but when the credits started rolling and we got up to go, we noticed there was a bunch of flowers in the seat next to his. He had been stood up.

Since this wasn't exactly the sort of movie you invite your date to, I think he deserved his fate.

AG

Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey storms into the Top Ten Chart…

…In Sweden (see chart from this week’s Bookseller). And I don’t think this is a Vampire or Zombie version, but the real thing. I wonder what happened – maybe there’s a film tie-in with Ulrika Jonsson and Bjorn Borg in the lead roles (doesn’t look like from the cover). Or perhaps it’s been selected by the Swedish equivalent of Richard & Judy. One thing is certain: it has received wonderful reviews. I’ll try to find out – I’m intrigued. And I will try to understand what it means to be number six in Sweden – the book may have sold 235 copies for all I know.

But as a Brontë lover, I am delighted to see Anne’s novel getting this sort of recognition in our day and age. After all, she is a very fine novelist, whose only misfortune was to be the sister of two of the greatest novelists who ever lived.

This surprise entry of a translation of Agnes Grey in a top-ten chart in Sweden 162 years since its first publication, and the number one spot gained by Zweig’s Journey into the Past (just released in UK by Pushkin Press) recently in France show us at least two things: first, the incredible power of classics across time and space, their ability to speak to and excite different people of different countries, ages and times; and secondly, that whereas a classic can still get into the bestsellers’ charts in Europe, the same is almost an impossibility in UK or US.

I don’t know if it’s to do with the education system, the publishing system, the newspapers (who hardly review classics) or all of them, but I think it’s sad, because classics are – generally speaking – much more enriching than the escapist tripe you can find on bookshop tables these days.

AG

Improvisatore or cabinet-maker?

I have just finished reading Clare Dudman's interview with Tibor Fischer, one of the funniest I have read for some time. I have been keeping an eye on The Keeper of the Snails, and if you don't know this blog, I highly recommend it. It's full of life. . . in every sense.

One of Tibor's points – "I don’t think any two writers work in exactly the same way. It’s not like making a chair, whatever Socrates says. I start with a vague idea, a character, a scene and I see what happens. I write as much to entertain myself as others" – reminded me of a conversation I had with another of our authors not so long ago, in which he told me he was not so much a novelist as a "cabinet-maker" and needed to have everything planned before he could set off writing something.

So – improvisatore or cabinet-maker? I think that writers should simply do what suits them best. My own way of writing is similar to Tibor's. I start with a general idea and then like to improvise. I do sometime take down extensive notes, but I like to interact with them and remain above them – keep a free-range mind about. I would find it boring to follow a detailed treatment to the letter, and just fill it with words.

AG

Bing-ooo!

Great to be back to England – I love taking a break, but I also love returning to the excitement of publishing. Today we received four more classics books, and they all look wonderful. My Inbox was full of interesting submissions – two poetry ones, two short-story collections and four novels. I can't wait to get my teeth into them.

It's also great to catch up with the books that are already out there or about to come out. There've been great reviews of Tibor's new book, which made it into the Small Publishers' chart last week. John Boyne (The Boy with a Striped Pyjamas) has written a wonderful endorsement for Rosie Alison's The Very Thought of You, which says, "Without question one of the best debuts I've read in recent years" (full quote here). The Ice Chorus, Don Juan de la Mancha and Dear Everybody are doing fine and picking up nice reviews, excitement is growing for The Search, The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy, The Invisible City and The Shadow of a Smile, and Tsutsui Paprika is ticking along nicely, with the author expressing in a recent interview his belief that "the human race will be extinct before the printed word ceases to exist". I'll raise my glass to that.

So all in all there is reason to remain optimistic, despite the general doom-and-gloom atmosphere.

Fellow independent Canongate are also doing very well these days, and well done to them. But after reading Microsoft's big announcement today, I cannot help wondering that if Jamie Byng had registered byng.com and bing.com a few years ago rather than go into publishing, he'd be throwing much flashier parties by now.

AG

Total washout

Just as we were recovering from yesterday's microwave temperatures, the sky's cataracts burst open. "Paris est une ville bizarre," said our taxi driver today as we made our way back to our hotel after being surprised by a torrential downpour by the Seine. "Yesterday it was 32 degrees, today it's 18. We are all going to fall ill." And Emiliano was the first to go down with fever – with Elisabetta a close second. So we won't be meeting friends or John Calder tonight.

What I said yesterday about Paris was obviously caused by the high temperatures. I love the city and love the people. Yet, the prices I quoted yesterday (in response to yesterday's Parisian commentator) were not from around Notre Dame but from an anonymous bar-brasserie on rue de l'Hopital – and a more expensive bill was collected today near the Luxembourg Gardens. It didn't use to be like that seven or eight years ago.

Finally, my recollection of the Musée d'Orsay is also different. I don't remember having to queue for an hour an a half on a Tuesday afternoon in late May just to get in...

Back to Albion now.

AG

Total melt-down

I promised a few lines from Paris, and I am happy to oblige. We arrived in the midst of a terrible heatwave – it must be over 30 degrees centigrade – I haven't struggled so much with the outside temperature since my last August holiday in Apulia a few years ago.

I wouldn't complain if the kids were not with us – if it's tough for us, it's even tougher for them. Still, it seems as though they had a very good day at the nearby Jardin de plantes, paleontological museum and zoo. We also had a good day, and met a lot of like-minded publishers, including Liana Levy, Stock, Actes Sud and Quai Voltaire. Whenever we meet colleagues from France or Spain we realize we are working in the wrong country.

Having said that, we are not so much in love with Paris as we were, say, ten or twelve years ago. We don't think we could live here. I don't know if it's got to do with us – maybe we are getting older – but the city appears to have lost much of his charm and romantic atmosphere. And the Parisians' proverbial hauteur seems to have got worse.

I read today's blog by Tibor Fischer on Me and My Big Mouth, and I smiled when he described London as unliveable. He should try Paris – a place where a 20cl bottle of still water can be charged at 3.90 euros, and a small bottle of beer at 7.00 euros – where an absinthe-like cappuccino and a croissant will cost you 9.00 euros. If usury is a crime, then how can this indiscriminate ripp-off be tolerated?

I never thought I'd end up complaining on how expensive Paris is – there you go. Maybe I have been living in the UK for too long, and I have become a whinger too – too hot, too expensive... Maybe it's just time for me to go back to Italy.

AG

Off to Paris

Packing up for an early start tomorrow – we'll drive (for the second time in little more than a month) all the way to Paris, where we'll meet a few French publishers and hopefully have a whale of a time.

The weather forecast is good, the Roland Garros starts tomorrow, John Calder is around in Montreuil, the kids are coming with us – so I'm sure we'll be busy as hell, but I hope I'll be able to post a few lines from ze Frenntsch capital over the long weekend.

AG