With panache, attention to arresting details, and a flair for mixing literary classics with pop-culture hits, prominent London event planner Field invites readers to 40 fictional parties, including those portrayed in Plato’s Symposium, Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, and Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. One of the most delightful? The Onion Cellar from Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum, where patrons chop raw onions into tiny pieces while pouring out their hearts to each other in weepy camaraderie, the inspiration for Field’s own popular event, Evenings of Exquisite Misery. Eccentric and witty, Field bypasses the obvious while favoring the frequently overlooked. In lieu of the Mad Tea Party, Fields treats us to Queen Alice’s Feast (from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There), where eating a dish once it has introduced itself to you constitutes a grievous breach of etiquette. Field’s tone is one of breezy erudition. The conversation at the Pooh party (in Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne) is “Beckettian,” while Gravity’s Rainbow has “a reputation for being dense and difficult to understand, but it’s really just a picaresque romp.” Occasionally, Field’s irreverent asides seem merely facetious (“One can only hope that Hollywood Dogs is in the pipeline,” she writes of the spin-offs from Jackie Collins’s Hollywood Wives). Fortunately, she quotes lavishly from her sources to splendid effect. Agent: Ivan Mulcahy, Mulcahy Conway Associates. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink

The Italian modernist writer and demagogue embodies some of the most dynamic—and sinister—impulses of the early 20th century, according to this dazzling biography. Historian and critic Hughes-Hallett (Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams, and Distortions) delves into D’Annunzio’s lurid contradictions: he was a brilliant, scandalous literary celebrity whose works embraced medieval archaisms and machine-age futurism; a ruthless seducer of women; an avowed Nietzschean superman and an effeminate voluptuary who loved fashion, furnishings, and flowers; and a blood-thirsty militarist who helped propel Italy into World War I with his pro-war oratory and reveled in the carnage he witnessed at the front. The book climaxes with a captivating account of D’Annunzio’s 1919 seizure of power in the city of Fiume, a febrile episode part Summer of Love and part Nuremberg rally that pioneered the politics and aesthetics of later Fascist regimes. Hughes-Hallet tells the story through vignettes that unfold in intimate, novelistic detail; her patchwork narrative spotlights the raucously entertaining soap opera of D’Annunzio’s life, but gels into a shrewd, challenging analysis that links his sadomasochistic psyche to his pitiless ideology. The result is a resonant study of the themes of power, masculinity, violence, and desire that made D’Annunzio such a striking emblem of his age. 53 illus. & 1 map. Agent: Felicity Rubenstein, Lutyens & Rubenstein. (Aug. 20)

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Justifying this addition to the mountain of works on T.E. Lawrence, fabled war correspondent Anderson (The Man Who Tried to Save the World) reasons that “Lawrence was both eyewitness to and participant in some of the most pivotal events leading to the creation of the modern Middle East... a corner of the earth where even the simplest assertion is dissected and parsed and argued over.” Too many biographers of Lawrence, he suggests, have let political biases and academic hobbyhorses overshadow their work. Anderson’s own experience in some of the world’s most chaotic places allows him to speak with authority in his portrayal, at once critical and appreciative, of Lawrence and other larger-than-life individuals who left their mark on the region. A flair for the dramatic makes even the dullest historical moments redolent of palace intrigue and imperialist hubris. Readers seeking to understand why turmoil has been so omnipresent in the Middle East will benefit from Anderson’s easy prose, which makes liberal use of primary sources and research, but reads like a political thriller. The central message seems as relevant today as it was a century ago: revolutions whose success is dependent on the patronage of external powers come at a high price—a “loss of autonomy” and an influx of foreign carpetbaggers who show little concern for the inhabitants of the newly “free” land. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM. (Aug. 6)

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Spain under Nationalist dictator Francisco Franco was not a mute, traumatized wasteland, but a country with a complex, imaginative culture that deserves to be remembered, according to this probing study. Treglown (Roald Dahl: A Biography) surveys an eclectic range of cultural artifacts from the Spanish Civil War, the Franco period, and Spain’s modern democratic era—everything from monuments and hydro-electric dams, to video games and the latter-day movement to unearth the mass graves of Republican opponents shot by Nationalist forces. He unflinchingly registers the crimes of the Franco government, but argues that sophisticated, even subversive voices were tolerated and at times nurtured by the regime: novels with ambivalent attitudes toward the war and the sides that fought it, challenging art, films that satirized Franco-ite mores. Treglown presents subtle and perceptive critical readings of unjustly neglected works, showing how far they depart from the caricature of bland conservatism that some apply to the culture of the Franco era. But he also advances a deeper argument about modes of historical awareness, contrasting the confrontational and sometimes simplistic commemorative politics of democratic Spain with the oblique, symbolic but still rich expressiveness of the more repressed Franco period. Treglown’s elegant and thoughtful meditation shows us that authoritarian power is neither monolithic nor immune to the soft power of civil society and individual creativity. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Aug. 13)

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This admiring biography of Lilian Alicia Marks, known professionally as Alicia Markova, is just as hardworking as its namesake—but not nearly as elegant. Journalist Sutton lumbers through the story of Markova’s stunning dancing career, beginning with Markova in utero, her mother attending Anna Pavlova’s 1910 debut performance in London. As a girl in England, the flat-footed, knock-kneed, and weak-legged Markova enrolled in ballet lessons and surprised everyone with her astonishing talent and ability to overcome physical shortcomings. So impressive was the young dancer that Sergei Diaghilev hired her for his Ballets Russe just after she turned 14. When Diaghilev died, Markova returned to London and helped transform England into an important ballet destination. She performed the lead in Giselle (often touted as the most demanding role in ballet), became one of only 11 dancers to be recognized as a prima ballerina assoluta, and went on to start her own dance company with Anton Dolin. Markova’s popularity continued unabated until she retired from dancing in 1963. It was a stellar career, but under Sutton’s direction, it falls flat. The author fails to distinguish between the interesting and the trivial, and she grossly overuses block quotations from many sources, nearly eclipsing the star of the show. 32 pages of b&w photos. Agent: Laura Gross, Laura Gross Literary Agency. (Aug.)

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Americans often imagine that an “economic miracle” is taking place across all of Asia, a region of vast internal differences and contradictions. The truth is more complex and tentative. In his latest book, journalist Studwell (The China Dream), founder of the China Economic Quarterly, surveys nine nations: China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. At a time when ideas of “geographic pre-destination” and “‘nothing-can-be-done’” developmental thinking abound, Studwell reports on the striking differences between these nations. Taiwan, for one, “gives us a powerful reminder that geography is not destiny in development.” The book first reviews land policies, then considers basic manufacturing, including autos, cement, fertilizer, steel, and textiles. Studwell writes gripping country-by-country profiles of companies that together provide ample evidence of the brutality with which economic development is conducted. Dwelling on Hyundai, Studwell admires the “extraordinary success of [South] Korea’s manufacturing development policy” and the prospects for trade there. He concludes with a lucid review of China’s confusing economic policies, arguing that the country remains mired in government inefficiencies and slow institutional development. Readers will find Studwell’s informative and balanced report eye-opening. Agent: Claire Alexander, Aiken Alexander Associates Ltd. (July)

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Working as a proofreader on the newsletter for his local deli, Paterniti stumbled upon the story of a sublime cheese, Páramo de Guzmán (named after the family village from which it originates), that the deli’s owner discovered by chance in London. Made from the fresh milk of Churra sheep, “the cheese was submerged, after its first aging, in extra-virgin olive oil and aged again, for at least a year.” Intrigued by the story, as well as by the craft and love that went into making the cheese, Paterniti sets off on a quest to find the creator of Páramo de Guzmán and to listen to his story. Over the course of a decade, Paterniti (Driving Mr. Albert) visits Ambrosio Molino’s contador, or telling room (a space in a handmade cave that in earlier times functioned as cold larders for individual families and villages), listening raptly as the cheese maker recounts a tale both joyous and sad, of discovery, betrayal, revenge, and restoration. Much as Molinos regales Paterniti with his rich voice, Paterniti entertains us by retelling this saga of a man who successfully recovers his family’s cheese recipe, whose childhood friend betrays him by stealing the business, and who half-heartedly seeks revenge for the betrayal. Yet, this is also Paterniti’s story: “Ambrosio gave me a brief glimpse of a different, compelling sort of life, a life in which there seemed to be more time for family and conversation, for stories and food.” So in 2012 Paterniti moved his family to Guzmán. Paterniti’s zestful storytelling carries us along on a delightful journey through a village rich with the traditions of food and family. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM. (July)

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Fans of Montana-based author and environmental writer Manning’s previous work exploring the physical and psychic terrain of the American frontier (Rewilding the West: Restoration in a Prairie Landscape) will enjoy this autobiography, which moves through various topics like a winding country road. Manning recounts his life on a Michigan farm, dwelling on his parents, whom he describes as “fundamentalist right-wing Christians of the same exact stripe that plays an appallingly significant role in American life.” While Manning retains his respect and admiration for farming life—a description of a job he held at age 14 at a slaughterhouse excellently shows how that business served “as an essential hub and infrastructure of a traditional farming community”—his main concern is his “emancipation” from his family and their religious restrictions, first through a scholarship to the University of Michigan and then through a succession of newspaper jobs that take him further and further into the West, all of which he details in a superbly precise manner. Manning eventually finds his father at the end of a long road as a missionary, “literally a homeless, babbling bum” in Panama. But throughout the book, he focuses on “what transpires between a father and son, what one generation gives to and gets from another.” Agent: Peter Matson, Sterling Lord. (July 9)

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It’s not all Motown and rap—Detroit has contributed its share of rockers, vividly chronicled in this spirited oral history. Journalist Miller (Commando: The Johnny Ramone Autobiography) follows the rock scene in Motor City, its suburbs, and its satellite college town of Ann Arbor, from Ted Nugent and Bob Seger in the 1960s through the White Stripes and Kid Rock in the aughties; the presiding genius is Ann Arborite Iggy Pop, whose spitting, head-smashing, crowd-diving stage antics were the basis for punk rock’s etiquette and ethos. The reminiscences are standard rock soap opera fare, but harder edged: the drug use is more driven, the clubs grungier, the resentment of major labels more bitter, the groupies more heartless, the gunplay more casual, the attitude more defiant—“I had a straight razor in my boot, and I just, like, shook it in his face,” recalls one woman bassist—and the iconic rock mood of besieged apocalyptic rebellion more authentic against the city’s grim backdrop of bloody race riots and postindustrial collapse. Fans will find a trove of gnarly lore on unjustly (and not unjustly) neglected bands here—and an atmospheric portrait of the Wild Midwest frontier that spawned them. Photos. Agent: David Patterson, Foundry Literary + Media. (July)

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John Buettner-Janusch’s academic achievements were stellar (he was the chair of New York University’s anthropology department in the 1970s, and an expert on lemurs), but as journalist Kobel (Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and Triumph of Movie Culture) uncovers in this vivid tale, during his down time, the “mad professor” explored darker territory. On the surface, Buettner-Janusch—or B-J, as he was known to friends and colleagues—was a brilliant scientist and teacher, yet Kobel unearths a complex, contradictory man who lied to reach the heights of the Ivory Tower before being ousted by feds who discovered his illegal on-campus drug manufacturing operation. Although he claimed the LSD and quaaludes were for animal research, the court found him guilty of manufacturing the drugs and sentenced him to five years in prison, a punishment that B-J, when released on parole, sought to avenge by sending poisoned Valentine’s Day chocolates to the judge. Attempted murder earned him another 20 years. Ending with the disgraced scientist’s 1992 demise—behind bars—and an informed epilogue on lemurs, Kobel expertly wraps up this bizarre true crime tale. B&w photos. Agent: Martha Kaplan, Martha Kaplan Agency. (July)

Reviewed on 05/17/2013 | Details & Permalink