Ken Kalfus is the author of two short-story collections. His first novel, The Commissariat of Enlightenment (Ecco, $25), was just published.
Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich; Rabbit at Rest by John Updike (Knopf, $30). In language incandescent, sexually charged, and deliriously expressive, this series celebrates the life of one Harry Angstrom. Harry is voracious and self-centered, also irresponsible and lovable—by the last installment he personifies America itself. Harry returns in the novella “Rabbit Remembered,” contained in Licks of Love (Ballantine Books, $14). I haven’t read it, but if someone wanted to get it for me…
The Human Stain by Philip Roth (Vintage Books, $14). Roth is the other great old man of American letters, and he’s still turning out enduring novels that challenge our complacencies about group identity. Here he takes on American race relations. I haven’t read Roth’s most recent novel, The Dying Animal (Vintage Books, $12), which would probably make a not-unappreciated Valentine’s Day present.
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Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage Books, $14). It’s probably the greatest autobiography of the 20th century, Nabokov’s account of his childhood and young manhood, through his European exile up to his emigration to the U.S. The story is compelling; Nabokov’s attempts to grapple with the mysteries of time and remembrance even more so. Is there a book by Nabokov that I don’t already have? Well, yes, one: The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage Books, $18).
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (Harvest Books, $12). The hero of these stories is Qfwfq, who has lived forever: as a subatomic particle, as a fisherman witnessing the moon’s gradual drawing away from the earth, as a dinosaur, etc. I’ve read nearly everything by the late Italian author available in English, but a collection of his memoirs, The Hermit in Paris (Pantheon Books, $23), will shortly be published, in time for my birthday.
On the Golden Porch
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