Brian, one of my more well read and more ebullient friends, sent me this email emoting about one of the more underappreciated writers of the 20th century, Joseph Roth. Roth’s reputation and body of work were recently addressed in a New Yorker piece by Joan Acocella. Here’s Brian’s reaction:
took the advice of the New Yorker and started reading Joseph Roth’s
collection of short stories and am totally overwhelmed. read “Stationmaster
Fallermayer” from the collection on your next break. amazing. i just ordered Radetzsky
March from amazon (along with seamus heaney’s translation of Beowulf) —j. roth is one of those writers that was meant to write as we are all meant
to breathe and move and sleep — his prose is beautiful: perfect constructions
and his sentences convey much human truth — one of those guys who writes a
line and immediately we ‘know’ it as we have felt it a million times but have
never been able to articulate it the way he does… i look forward to pillaging
his oeuvre….
He makes it sound pretty great. Unfortunately I didn’t get to read “Stationmaster Fallermayer” during my break at work yesterday, but I certainly intend to soon.
