READ WATCH PLAY FEAST: MY FAVORITES OF 2024, PART 2

A YEAR OF BEING ASTONISHED, DELIGHTED, INSPIRED AND KEPT UP AT NIGHT

Jane Jin Kaisen’s Ieodo (Island Beyond the Sea) —from Part I of our round-up

(Part One of our Round-Up here.)

As I was looking over my Kindle I noticed that I missed more days of reading this past year than I did last year — not a ton more, but still — a sign that even for a book nerd like me the distractions of the smart phone are a clear and present danger.

New Year’s Resolution: I’m going to try harder this year to stay in the literature — have already erased a few apps that should help me focus. On the positive side I visited more museums and saw more movies and attended more live performances than I did last year, which is always a win.

New Year’s Resolution II: go back to Jersey and the Dominican Republic as soon as possible. Some things you can only put off for so long.

I suspect I’ll be needing the strength and inspiration of my home spaces for the year to come.

In that spirit here’s the second part of what strengthened and inspired me this last year…

Hope this helps and inspires someone….

READ

Itami’s novel is voice perfect and heart perfect. An affluent cosmopolitan mother of two with a not-very-attentive husband fantasizes about throwing herself off her awesome Tokyo apartment’s balcony. Next thing she knows she’s met a successful restaurateur named Kiyoshi,— “well-built, broad-shouldered, strong features” — and off this propulsive novel goes. Stories about affairs often read more fantastic than Dune but Fault Lines is something else altogether — it’s full of maybe/maybe not longing and a fine-tuned zero-exaggeration frankness that makes this book — and its near-love connection — irresistible.

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/fault-lines-emily-itami

Andrew Boryga’s novel VICTIM is so damn good. What I said: “You get debuts this blazing once in a generation if you’re lucky…Boryga is brilliant, a brilliant writer, a brilliant satirist and his voice could light up a city…VICTIM is a stake of truth aimed at our vampire culture’s charlatanic heart.”

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/725334/victim-by-andrew-boryga/

This is an extraordinary chilling account of the month when “the fate of German writers, as for so many others, was decided. In a tensely spun narrative, Uwe Wittstock tells the story of a demise which was predicted by some but also scarcely thought possible. He reveals how, in a matter of weeks, the glittering Weimar literary scene gave way to a long, dark winter, and how the net drew ever closer for Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Else Lasker-Schüler, Alfred Döblin, and countless others.”

A history that I’m still turning over in my head, a document of how little courage there was in the face of tyranny and also how much. A history that resonates a little too closely to our current moment. Let me quote Joseph Roth’s prescient letter to Stefan Zweig: "By now it will have become clear to you that we drift toward great calamities. Aside from the private ones — our literary and material existence is of course obliterated — the whole thing will lead to a new war. I fear the worst for our lives. Letting barbarism assume rule bore fruit. Do not delude yourself. Hell reigns."

Hell reigns indeed.

https://www.wiley.com/en-us/February+1933%3A+The+Winter+of+Literature-p-9781509553808#download-product-flyer

Moises Saman is one of our greatest conflict photographers and his latest book, GLAD TIDINGS OF BENEVOLENCE, published on the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, is a triumph of remembering, a riposte against oblivion and an unsparing record of the hell our countries unleash on others.

To quote Moises himself: “My photographs are not intended to represent an objective account of the Iraq war against which to compare the texts. Rather, the book grapples with my own role and power as a narrator – particularly one with access to foreign publications – and the biases and limitations inevitably embedded in my work.’

And: “I'd like to bring other photojournalists into a more honest and open conversation about the ambiguities of our work, and how we might reframe and redefine the stories we tell about violence, conflict and human dignity'

https://americansuburbx.com/2024/09/interview-with-moises-saman.html

https://gostbooks.com/products/glad-tidings-of-benevolence-signed?_pos=1&_psq=gl&_ss=e&_v=1.0

WATCH

TV urban fantasy tends towards the simplistic, but the Turkish series SHAHMARAN takes the genre’s familiar tropes and filters them through a much more mature sensibility. This is supernatural love and war for the grown and sexy crowd, a show that eschews the overly simplistic shenanigans that the genre often depends on. Netflix’s description might be lame as fuck — “In this fantasy drama series, a lonely young woman finds her soul mate and discovers they are both part of an ancient legend” — but this show is anything but lame. Its drama and mythology are mesmerizing but even better are the actors, who are a revelation. Our lead, Serenay Sarikaya, is all fire all day. Put this at the top of your list.

https://www.netflix.com/title/81354934

FROM is definitely a chip off the LOST block. An otherworldly town that traps unsuspecting drivers — murderous monsters that come out at night — all sorts of head-scratching phenomena and elusive supernaturality. I won’t lie — this ain’t the best shit out there — it ain’t SLOW HORSES or THE GLORY — in all honesty FROM is the definition of Mid Television and the characters’ dumbness can be incredibly wearying, but there’s something about the premise and the production that grips, and the cast, led by Harold Perrineau, elevates the series above all its weaknesses. I blew through the first two seasons in the wink of an eye.

https://www.mgm.com/television/from-series

One of the best 80s style Hong Kong action flicks since THE RAID. Come for the kick-assery, stay for the homosocial schmaltz.

https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Warriors-Walled-Soi-Cheang/dp/B0CZJRB5QN

FEAST

I’ll admit it: I didn’t know jack about Louise Bourgeois. I always thought of her as the Spider Artist. How ignorant I was, how utterly foolish. This is a ferocity of an exhibit and Bourgeois’ elemental powers will leave you either split in a million or wishing you were. If you’re coming to Tokyo do not miss this exhibit. I repeat: if you’re coming to Tokyo do not miss this exhibit. What the Mori Museum has accomplished with this exhibit is beyond description.

https://www.mori.art.museum/en/exhibitions/bourgeois/index.html

Also at the Mori but only for a few more weeks: Bady Dalloul. My advice: you need to hit the Mori twice — once for the Bourgeois and once for Dalloul. You will not regret it and neither will your human heart.

MAM Project 032 is positioned as the first chapter of “Land of Dreams,” a nomadic exhibition series by Syrian-French artist Bady Dalloul (born 1986 in Paris) to unfold over additional venues within the coming years. Dalloul has become known for his practice interweaving historical events, themes of worldwide migration and his Arab heritage with elements of fiction…

Mirroring the dimensions of Dalloul’s apartment upon first arriving in Japan in 2014, and featuring works produced over the last ten years, the exhibition design highlights the topics at heart: encounter and migration.

https://www.mori.art.museum/en/exhibitions/mamproject032/

And that’s it. Happy New Year everyone! And see you all next week!