Sally Ito -- Night Table Recommendations

by Events Winnipeg - Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 at 10:26am

Giving a book is like giving an obligation. - Gabriel Zaid in So Many Books.

My life is one long night of unfinished books. - A character in one my unfinished short stories.

I had a bit of a laugh when I received the request for Night Table recommendations from McNally Robinson's because I have a bad habit of starting a lot of books (usually at night) and never finishing them. So of course I'd never deign to actually recommend any book to put on one's night table for one to actually finish, keeping also Zaid's comment in mind! In other words, the little list I'm putting forth here is simply what I'm reading now and if you should happen to be interested in the books, all the better!

Since I'm a writer of different genres, a translator, and a teacher, I've usually got books on hand to meet those various needs of my writing life as they arise.

Click *More* to read further...

Something Nice: Songs for Children by Kaneko Misuzu. Translated by D.P. Dutcher.

This is a book of children's poems written by the Taisho era Japanese poet, Kaneko Misuzu (1903-1930). I first heard about Misuzu Kaneko sometime last year; her poetry has recently been much celebrated in Japan and is slowly making its way into English translation. This book is one of only two English translations I know of Misuzu's work. Simple but profound, her verse has a child-like quality to it that I find deeply moving. I've read other poetry books for children before, but there was something that struck a chord in me with Misuzu's work that attracted me to her poems. Right now, my aunt in Japan and I have been translating her verse into English and it's been a real pleasure to encounter Misuzu's work in the Japanese original (parts of which I can read) and craft that sensibility into English.

Night Train to Lisbon by Pascale Mercier.

I had never heard of this book or read about it until it was sent to me as a gift from a friend in Iceland who picked it up at a fundraiser for the Japan Tsunami/Earthquake in that country. So I came to this book out of sheer obligation, and actually it's been a pleasure so far to read. I would describe it as a male mid-life crisis book - a 57 year old professor of the classical languages, Raimund Gregorius, abruptly leaves his career position at Swiss university to pursue the life of a little known Portuguese doctor whom he is attempting to understand through the late doctor's arcane and privately published book, A Goldsmith of Words.

The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again. By Sven Birkerts.

Okay, so I put a hold on this book at the library in spring just after I had finished translating my maternal grandfather's memoir from Japanese into English and just before I left for Japan for four months. Throughout the process of translation, I had been grappling with how my grandfather was telling his story, and how such a story in its constituent parts could be made to be more interesting, more literary and somehow I heard about this book. It was only after I came back from Japan that I got notice from the library that the book I had put on hold was now available.

The Art of Short Fiction, Brief Edition. Edited by Gary Geddes.

I'm teaching creative writing short fiction in the fall at Canadian Mennonite University. This is the text I usually use and before I teach, I like to read it again. The selected short stories - Geddes is a superb anthologist - are always worth re-reading and dissecting. The essays in the back by the writers on the craft of writing the short story are also useful and illuminating. Re-reading these stories have whet my appetite again for the form and have returned me to my many files of uncompleted short stories with a renewed sense of vigor in, well, finishing them!

A Large Harmonium by Sue Sorensen.

You've heard of Eat Local, well, this is my Read Local pick at the moment. This is a brand new release from Saskatchewan's Coteau Books. A Large Harmonium is a year in the life of Winnipeg professor, English mother and literary critic, Janet Erlicksen who negotiates the various travails of her academic and domestic life with gusto and wit. Beware, this is a very funny book - with an engaging narrator from the get-go. I'm having to co-read this one with my husband, but I'm pretty sure I'll finish this one. It's not long, it's funny, and you can feel good reading it because, hey, it's local.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Born in Taber, Alberta, Sally Ito is a writer, editor, and translator living in Winnipeg with her husband and two children. Currently, she is an instructor of Creative Writing and a contributor to a children's multicultural literary blog. To express a deep abiding love for things 'visible and invisible' is what she aspires to in writing her poetry; failing and yet ever striving is the process through which she hopes one day to arrive. Ito's latest collection is Alert to Glory, published by Turnstone Press and recently launched at our Grant Park location.

Categories: Reviews, Discussions, Authors, Night Table Recommendations