An Improvised Life

This memoir by Alan Arkin is more about his journey of learning to act (which continues to this day) than about his personal life or Hollywood gossip. Central to Arkin's approach is improvisation, which, unlike the common perception, does not necessarily mean comedy or one-upping other actors with clever quips. Arkin has a clean, intelligent writing style and an admirable modesty.

The Magician

This 1908 novel by Somerset Maugham was his last work published before the much more ambitious and popular Of Human Bondage. It is melodramatic, filled with people talking "hoarsely" and "in agony" as they encounter the diabolical Oliver Haddo, a fictional stand-in for notorious occultist Aleister Crowley. It is slightly overheated but reliably entertaining.

A Variety of Things

This collection by Max Beerbohm is another example of how wandering around stacks of books can lead to unexpected pleasures and the opening of new doors. I bought the book carelessly, thinking it was by the Bohemian poet Maxwell Bodenheim, who was on my mind for some reason. (I had recently bought a Ben Hecht book that parodied him, and seemed to remember that Bodenheim was murdered.) Beerbohm (1872-1956) is another kettle of fish, I have since learned: dandy, caricaturist, writer and friend of Wilde and other literary lights. This collection includes a prehistoric fable about a dragon with echoes of Cabell, essays on Aubrey Beardsley and Venice, a play, and assorted other pieces. Beerbohm's work evokes the gentle irony of Anatole France and the elegance of Waugh. As Beerbohm himself writes in one of the pieces, humor is a matter of fashion, and fashions come and go; but wit, "being a hard and clean-cut thing, is always good as new." This collection is good as new.

The Missing of the Somme

I seem to remember an introduction by Somerset Maugham to one of his nonfiction books in which he said he might not be qualified to write what followed, having read only one hundred or so books on the subject. Geoff Dyer, in this short book on how the Great War is remembered, as with his other nonfiction, gives the impression of having read everything necessary on the subject. His talent is to incorporate, synthesize, and, especially, intensify. Part travelogue, part literary essay, part architectural history — Dyer defies pat genres and displays a gorgeous prose style.

At the Book Fair

Spent $40 for five titles at the annual book fair, all for reading:

• A Variety of Things by Max Beerbohm. I confused Beerbohm with Max Bodenheim, but on later reading that Evelyn Waugh admired Beerbohm's writing, I look forward to this one.
• The Miraculous Barber by Marcel Ayme. Had never heard of this French writer. "The best satirical novel since Anatole France ..." on the rear jacket sold me.
• Droll Stories by Balzac. A Modern Library edition. 
• The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. A new translation published by Everyman's Library.
• Group Portrait With Lady by Heinrich Boll. Sharp copy in DJ of a large novel.

I think if I stopped buying books now, I might just be able to finish reading what I'd like to before my eternal rest.

I Curse the River of Time

The appeal of Norwegian writer Per Petterson has evaporated. This novel is diffuse and soft, with numbing descriptions of street layouts and slanting sunlight. Without much in the way of ideas to hang itself on, the prose simply dissolves.