Michael Cunningham's new one, Muji Flagship story in NYC, German photographs from 1900, Image+Nation starts this weekend: Links of Note

Germany in 1900

• LARB Interview with Michael Cunningham about his much-anticipated new book about fairy tales. He's also the one performing it in the audible.com version. I generally find his work engaging and accessible so will definitely have this on my list.
• OK I don't write about stores or shopping really at all but I have to admit that I am a huge fan of the Japanese retail outlet, Muji, and their shop in New York is one of my favorite places to go. They've opened a new flagship store near Times Square and the next time I'm there, it'll be high on my list. I have so much Muji stuff around my house, it'd be like a monastery in here without it (clothes, kitchen stuff, bedroom stuff, bathroom containers, etc.).
• Here are some really beautiful early 20th century color photographs of Germany.  These come from a new Taschen book, Germany Around 1900, which contains 800 color photos of the country from that  year. Stunning. Speaking of New York City (see above), the Taschen NYC store is also amazing and I could spend days there.
• Some very interesting films from Image+Nation starting this weekend and going until the end of next weekend, including this German film, Where are you going, Habibi; Welcome to this house about the life, loves and work of poet Elizabeth Bishop (plays this afternoon); and a series of gay shorts from around the world which is on Sunday, plus many others (not very flexible schedule this year with films almost only at night: why not more afternoon screenings?).

Elizabeth Bishop biographical documentary at Image+Nation

Germany & Canada, differing roles towards migrants, jailed Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, the Silos in the Old Port: What to do?

An idea for the silos in the Old Port

• A writer with a very personal reflection of how he left Germany because of their anti-immigrant stance and all the xenophobia he experienced, particularly after the wall came down and the two Germanys reunited. Lately, though he's had his eyes opened at how welcoming and friendly Germany has become in the 20 years since his absence, being one of the first countries to welcome refugees from Syria and accepting (so far) more than any other country (Germans out welcoming refugees at train station with gifts and toys and water). Conversely, he looks at how Canada has changed in those years, too, going from a country that is a model of peace keeping to one that bombs other countries. 
• Jailed Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, releases a translated book of the blog posts that got him into trouble (merely calling for separation of church and state), 1000 Lashes: Because I Say What I Think. PEN World has an excerpt here.
• For those who live in Montreal, here's a list of various ideas with photos/designs for what to do with the Silos along the canal in the Old Port (the site is in French though some great graphics there). Some are great ideas (a huge museum complex, wow, though it'd cost a fortune) and some are standard capitalist fare (Turn them into condos yawn). Honestly, I live not far from them and I'm in the park alongside the silos several times a week. I hope they do nothing with them, at least for now, because that park is one of the best green spaces in the city (and not very busy). 

On Käthe Kollwitz

"Like most of the socially conscious artists of her time, she lived in a world of conflicting social patterns and of individual reactions to them. The ethic of her social conscience was a personal evaluation of right and wrong and not a tactic of organized mass movements, it was social justice and not the economic interpretation of history."  - Carl Zigrosser from the Introduction to Prints and Drawings of Käthe Kollwitz.

The Weavers' Revolt (1893-98

Etgar Keret at Berlin

I have long been a fan of the work of Etgar Keret. His short story collections are funny and charming and I tend to carry them around with me for months, pulling them out and reading one or two stories whenever I have some down time. His latest collection, Suddenly a Knock on the Door, is typical of him: his stories so often contain very little set-up or exposition. We are immediately pulled into the action by a phone call, knock on the door, question from a child, or some other reminder of daily life.

What struck me about Etgar Keret this time is his perfect blend of self-deprecation, humour, and vulnerability. He says that he'd "rather have [his readers] hate him than feel neutral" about him, though he isn't one for blustery comments such as this usually. He talked about Israel, about growing up with two parents (Holocaust survivors) who each spoke five or six languages but worked hard to only speak Hebrew to the young Etgar. A natural story teller, in the space of an hour, Keret managed to work in at least three stories in his attempt to explain the hows and whys of his approach to storytelling.

If you are a fan of Keret or haven't read him at all, I highly recommend doing so: he is as modern and wry as David Sedaris, and funny as Woody Allen, and as focused as Lydia Davis.

He's been to Blue Met before but we may just have to send him another invitation if he keeps cranking out these lovely story collections.

Embrace on the Brooklyn Bridge

On Wednesday night, I saw an interesting event as part of the International Literature Festival of Berlin, on stage discussion between Egyptian writer, Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, author of the (as far as I can make out) yet to be translated into English novel, "Embrace on the Brooklyn Bridge."

Egyptian writer Ezzedine Choukri Fishere

The event was in Arabic and German, so I missed bits here and there, though I am surprised at how much I did manage to get (I studied German as an undergraduate and still retain a reading knowledge). The discussion referenced two other well-known Arab writers (and also Egyptians), Alaa al Aswany and Ahdaf Soueif, and the moderator, Stefan Weidner, clearly has a background in the culture and languages of the Middle East. The discussion touched on Choukri-Fishere's writing, his novel (which was short-listed for the most recent Arab Booker Prize), his career and his life in Egypt, France and Canada.

Choukri-Fishere's book sounds fascinating: it has eight protagonists, all Arab-Americans representing different backgrounds and classes, on their way to attend a party in New York City, this allowing the writer to explore the relations between "integrated" Arabs into Western society.

One thing Berlin tends to do which is different to our Festival is that they hire actors to do the readings. I like this idea for many reasons though the limitation here is often that writers on their international list can't read German (so no one would want to hear them read in that language anyway!). The translating back and forth slows down the discussion and limits the spontaneity of it to some extent, though the audience was engaged and the discussion was lively.

On the whole, it was an event I enjoyed and I hope someone will take on translating Choukri-Fishere's book into English.