Paul Filev

Translator from Macedonian & Spanish to English: Alma Mahler (Dalkey Archive), The Lisbon Syndrome (Turtle Point Press), The Irreparable (Spurl Editions)

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Impulse buy. I know nothing about George Gissing or his work, but I was seduced by the titles and the covers.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Speaking of more Moore, I picked this up today from City Basement Books. I never fail to find a treasure there. I'll be going in blind on this one too, whenever I get around to reading it.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Still feeling the aftershocks of the shocking & brutal ending of A MERE ACCIDENT. Going in blind may be why it hit so hard. The abrupt shift from religious & aesthetic obsessions to a horrific end reminds how random & cruel life can be. Definitely more George Moore for me.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

"The cliffs of Conachair come upon one as unexpectedly as news of a death."

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Kelly Chen's performance in LOST AND FOUND (1996) d. Lee Chi-ngai was a revelation. Not an outright four-handkerchief weepie, but genuinely moving. Cinematography is wonderful. Like her character, I was intrigued enough to read about St Kilda Island (same book, different cover.)

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

I loved (adored!) CLARISSA by Samuel Richardson, and am confident I'm going to enjoy THE HISTORY OF SIR CHARLES GRANDISON, just not sure I'll tolerate the long s (ſ) for 1,000 pages... Too late now. Might be another folly, but I couldn't resist spoiling myself with this copy.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Leaning towards a Miltonic Satanist (mis)reading of PARADISE LOST ... But it's early days yet. About to read Book III, accompanied by Anton Lesser's brilliant narration of this astonishing work.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

I kept the flyer from a first date at the Kino Cinema in Melbourne all those years ago on 11 June 1988 when the film was released in Australia. Flyer & film have held up well & the relationship is still going strong 38 years later :)

Bonus film essay by Pauline Kael on the back.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

And when I eventually reread Cao Xueqin's DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER/THE STORY OF THE STONE, I'll switch from the Hawkes/Minford translation to the Gladys Yang & Yang Xianyi translation in this beautiful edition. Not out of disappointment; just hope to discover it (& be awed) anew.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

About to reread THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, this time in a different translation. I'm ditching my old copy of the Lowe-Porter, passing on both the new Pare & the forthcoming Bernofsky, and going with John E. Woods instead. Not an entirely gratuitous switch; just a gut feeling.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

A reminder we all get remaindered! Surprised but not shocked to learn that one of my translations turned up at the remainder bookshop where I work. Chuffed it's been popped in Staff Picks. Remaindered, but not forgotten. A(nother) chance to share Macedonian fic. in translation.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Striking camera angles in the visually stunning & occasionally OTT melodrama SCHLUSSAKKORD [THE FINAL CHORD](1936) d. by Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk). Here, hollow joy mirrors the tragic death of Lil Dagover's character, Charlotte. The score & concert scenes were brilliant.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Charmed by both recent reads, though exhausted by the squint-on-demand font of one & the extensive appendices that I "forgot" were optional of the other. Scholarly rigor, sure, but a kind of rigor mortis by way of overkill. In the end, the no-frills, no-extras POD resonated more.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

"Little did [Heinrich] know then that more than once, going into exile, he would have to abandon his entire library."

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Brilliant. Enthralling. Evelyn Juers's collective biography HOUSE OF EXILE interweaves the lives of Heinrich Mann & Nelly Kroeger-Mann with those of their contemporaries & beyond in an opera-like interplay of solos, duets & choruses. An innovative mosaic of multiple lives.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

—from THE TURNING POINT

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

Having a Klaus Mann moment. Just read his "first important work", THE CHILDREN'S STORY (1925). Blurbless back cover of the novella with a photo of the handsome author. Not sure whether to keep it chronological & continue with THE PIOUS DANCE. Inclined to read MEPHISTO next.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

So many gorgeous scenes in LIEBELEI (1933) d. Max Ophüls, especially the intimate waltz in an empty café between Fritz (Wolfgang Liebeneiner) & Christine (the luminous Magda Schneider) to music from a coin-operated Victrola. Sublime, but the film ends on real a downer.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

My go-to film guide, first published in 1979. Halliwell's pithy, old-school reviews crack me up. He's spot on here about THE RAINS CAME (1939) dir. by Clarence Brown: "High-class parasites in India during the Raj redeem themselves when a flood disaster strikes." A dazzling film.

[Paul Filev @paul_filev]

My translation of THE PHOTO by Jagoda Zdraveska-Koteska is out today. It's a powerful love story with vivid characters set in Macedonia & Melbourne in the 1960s/70s, a time when many young women from Macedonia came to Australia to meet husbands they had only seen in photos.