Zach Issenberg @ZIssenberg Twitter profile

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Zach Issenberg

1 year

Hi everyone: at the advice of some good friends, I've added my reading list to my website! You can find my monthly reads and all-time recommendations there. I'll keep updating as I organize my library.

Zachary Nicholas Issenberg

zacharyissenberg.squarespace.com

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 months

Here are four books I consider perfect!

Emily Maloney

@emilyfmaloney

2 months

Can we talk about perfect books? Is this a thing for you? What are your favorite perfect books? I’ll go first: Mrs. Dalloway

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 month

Four books that informed my last monstrous manuscript!

Alina Stefanescu

@aliner

1 month

Four books that have influenced my current creature in progress

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 months

All that is wonderful to be read and reread in literature is the experience of political realities beyond your own! An artist is best criticized by their capacity to witness and record the realities of others. What is valuable about art that doesn't breach pursuit of the other?

Bernard T. Joy

@bernardtjoy

3 months

Is there such a thing as a great, very valuable, and staunchly apolitical writer?

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 months

It's been such a hectic year, but it's also been a constant delight in reading. Here are my favorite fictions I've read so far!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 months

I've another opportunity to recommend! A lot of people liked my previous comment on literature and its relationship to human politics across time. If what I said resonated, here are my sources! These essay collections perpetually inform my academic and creative writing.

Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 months

All that is wonderful to be read and reread in literature is the experience of political realities beyond your own! An artist is best criticized by their capacity to witness and record the realities of others. What is valuable about art that doesn't breach pursuit of the other?

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

4 months

The greatest horror novel of all time returns! José Donoso's The Obscene Bird of Night is out today, in a new unabridged translation from @meganalimcd by @NewDirections . This novel is one of my greatest reading experiences, and it could be yours too. Do yourself a favor, read!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

May the memory of Edith Grossman be a blessing! What a dear professor, and an incredible titan in world literature. Her translations provided terrifying and melancholic worlds.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

If you've never read Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo, here's your sign! This novella is a surreal and gothic masterpiece, which feels like the stream-of-consciousness of an entire haunted house. I'm excited to try the new translation of this monumental work.

Grove Atlantic

@groveatlantic

9 months

So many great new Grove books published this week! Here's our new edition of PEDRO PÁRAMO by Juan Rulfo, translated from the Spanish by Douglas J. Weatherford and with an introduction by Gabriel García Márquez (and cover photo taken by Rulfo himself!) Happy reading!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

6 months

Hi everyone! I come to you with a simple request: pre-order this book, and ask everyone you know to do the same. Don't look up anything about it, just let it arrive one day, and remember someone online calling it the greatest horror novel of all time.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

27 days

I wanted to take the time to celebrate one of my favorite presses, Archipelago! @archipelagobks is at the forefront of world lit today, because they support incredible translators. To discover the avant garde in languages like Spanish, Italian, or Turkish, try their books!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 month

Why not join in! My top 10 books of the 21st century so far:

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

15 days

Four books you should read during Women in Translation month!

Ryan Alexanderplatz

@ryanhasbadtaste

16 days

four picks for women in translation month

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 months

I've got my first vacation in a long while coming up, which means I finally have time to lay back and read! I'm taking these four books with me to the beach.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

29 days

August might be my busiest month this year, so I've got to plan ahead what I'll read! Sometimes I plan which days in a week I can afford time to read, if everything else has to come first. I've got a few slim novels and one larger tome to tide me through that simmer of work.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

What a ride from the first page! I'm sure everyone else already loves this book, right?

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 month

And finished! I can now say that Steve Erickson's first four novels form a tetralogy as weird as they are worthwhile. In his own words, they're a crossbreed of Faulkner, Oz, and early noir. Curious? Try this love letter to Erickson's melancholy work here:

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

Merry Christmas, everyone! Santa and my many siblings brought me a considerable reading list for the new year.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Hi everyone! I've got a quick question: is anyone else a fan of Steve Erickson? I've only met two people irl who are fans, or have even read him at all. I'm a huge fan.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

I'm officially moved into my new apartment, which means I have a proper library! I've had to keep a lot of my favorite books binned up; not anymore.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Everyone, the greatest horror novel of all time is getting republished! José Donoso's Obscene Bird of Night is a perfect novel, comparable only to Toni Morrison's Beloved and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom. Please pre-order this masterpiece!

New Directions

@NewDirections

1 year

BEHOLD! Winter ’24, featuring: Anne Carson, Alexis Wright, Osamu Dazai, Liliana Colanzi, Jonathan Buckley, Anne de Marcken, José Donoso, Evelio Rosero, László Krasznahorkai, Sylvia Legris, and Eliot Weinberger!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

5 months

This week, I'm reading through the works of Marcel Schwob! An author of tremendous influence on Borges, Schwob writes in a style of mysticism, gothic, and alternative biography all tethered into one cohesive form. Thank you @Wakefield_Press for all these translations.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

7 months

This is my first truly great read of the year, the stories of Inés Arredondo! Her stories throttle toward madness in arched, Gothic prose. Her play with the shadow of consciousness places her alongside John Hawkes and Diamela Eltit. A beautiful translation by Cynthia Steele.

Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

7 months

The recent move has me harried, but I've surprisingly found time to read! I've got a few books lined up that might help me with my next writing project... Anyone else have some particularly exciting reads on their plate?

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

I saw a recent trend, and thought to join in! Here are my favorite fictions so far this year; do check any and all out.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

7 months

Everyone, I have incredible news! Sergio De La Pava has a new book coming out before the end of 2024. From what he's told me, it's his most stylistically experimental, mixing genre and form into an obliterating exploration of morality. Keep an eye out for news this spring.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 years

@_ryanruby_

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

6 months

I told you! Coming later this year, a new grand novel from Sergio De La Pava. Be sure to support our most fun novelists, and order a copy. Let publishers knew we want style back.

Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

7 months

Everyone, I have incredible news! Sergio De La Pava has a new book coming out before the end of 2024. From what he's told me, it's his most stylistically experimental, mixing genre and form into an obliterating exploration of morality. Keep an eye out for news this spring.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

10 months

10 Favorite novels with no repeat authors! The Obscene Bird of Night Frankenstein Jazz Light in August Gravity's Rainbow Three Trapped Tigers Red & Black The Lost Scrapbook A Naked Singularity Ulysses

Robert Rubsam

@rob_rubsam

10 months

The Idiot Middlemarch Song of Solomon The Trial House of the Sleeping Beauties Remembrance of Things Past (yes I'm cheating) Go Went Gone Austerlitz Zama To the Lighthouse ...this question is actually impossible

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 years

@JaredMPollen This is bait, but I'll take it! Toni Morrison, David Markson, Joseph McElroy, William Gass, Renee Gladman, Evan Dara, Edgar Allen Poe, Leon Forrest, Joshua Cohen, Ralph Ellison, Sergio De La Pava, Herman Melville, John Barth, John Keene, John Gardner, and Elizabeth Hardwick!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

Ever wanted to know how to write a perfect novel? Don't worry, José Donoso provided everyone a guide! For @The_Millions , I wrote about the lasting impact of the Latin Boom's greatest author, José Donoso, and how perfect novels don't exist in a vacuum.

José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature

American readers have largely forgotten the single greatest writer to come from the Latin American Boom: Chilean novelist José Donoso.

themillions.com

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

10 months

I've been posting less for the last few months, and for a good reason! Some things come before everything else, even books.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

6 months

I decided to join a book club for the first time, and what an incredible first pick! The usage of mimetic collage - a series of realities and experiences superimposed during moments of terror - is just genius. I've read many great moral, political novels lately.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

Hi everyone! I've been recently asked to make a list of my top 30 favorite novels, with a brief explanation why for each. It's a comfy Friday, why not? Besides this list, you can also follow what I'm reading on my website: Now, in no evaluative order:

Zachary Nicholas Issenberg

zacharyissenberg.squarespace.com

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

8 months

I'll be on a much needed vacation until the new year, so I thought to share my annual pile a little early! Here are my top fiction reads this past year; I recommend them all. I hope you all have a lovely holiday season, and find yourself a new favorite read.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

5 months

May the memory or Maryse Condé be a blessing! Her every novel took my breath away with the sheer beauty of their prose and the humanism of their narratives. I am thankful for the tradition she built, which has provided a vocabulary of self-reflection to so many of my students.

The Booker Prizes

@TheBookerPrizes

5 months

We’re deeply saddened to hear that Maryse Conde has died. The Grande Dame of Caribbean literature, she was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize twice, in 2015 and 2023, and leaves behind an extraordinary body of work. We send our heartfelt condolences to her family.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

8 months

Everyone, it's here, it's really here! I've got my own copy of The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso, in an unabridged translation from @meganalimcd and @NewDirections . Expect some words from me soon, as I talk about this translation achievement. You have to read this.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

With Parma read, I can declare: Stendhal is now one of my top four novelists! How propulsive, and still how far ahead of his time. Claude Simon spoke at length about Stendhal's using the clutter of realism as metaphor in his Nobel acceptance speech, here:

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Everyone, I have a request: order this book from you local bookstore immediately! The blurb is correct; you won't likely read something as brutal, hilarious, and formally playful this year, or any year really. Thanks to @BooksandBooks for always curating incredible reads.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Hi everyone, our beloved Bookforum is back! But let's make sure it stays here for good; please subscribe and support this magazine that looks after younger writers.

David O'Neill

@oneill_books

1 year

I don't know if you've heard . . . our beloved magazine is "so back."

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

8 months

@mcmansionhell I don't think this is a stylistic decision so much as a failure to achieve one. When people encounter this feeling, it's because the sentences failed to tether "everything else" into syncretic and diachronic metaphor that rewards rereading. Great writing achieves total metaphor!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

6 months

I wanted to expand on what I mean by moral, political novels! I admire novels that use metaphor to disorient the reader, before reorienting them into a process that better recognizes the political consciousness of people outside our own community. Maybe I'll write on this...

Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

6 months

I decided to join a book club for the first time, and what an incredible first pick! The usage of mimetic collage - a series of realities and experiences superimposed during moments of terror - is just genius. I've read many great moral, political novels lately.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Oh my god, how incredible! I cannot recommend this book enough.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

8 months

Look what came in the mail, some end of the year books! I've had a great year trusting indie publishers, who've rewarded me with spectacular reads. If you're ever in doubt of whether there's exciting, inventive contemporary fiction, just checking out and support indie presses.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Happy Birthday, Thomas Pynchon! No other author has taught me so much about the joys of writing. I'm also the proud owner of nearly everything Pynchon's published Each semester, my students read novel passages out loud; each semester, my students marvel at this exact passage.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Hi everyone, I have a question! Have you ever read a book so flawless, you felt both awe and intimidation, trying to figure out how they did it? I'm stuck on a train ride and thought of mine:

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

My favorite contemporary novelist came to see me read: Sergio De La Pava! I'm so thankful for the support of my friends and peers.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

6 months

Who knew moving cities would be so time-consuming! But I'm still reading, and now have the benefit of a university library to guide me deeper into questions I have about metaphor. But I especially can't wait to read the Honegger translation of Jelinek's Der Kinder der Toten.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

I'm not done *just* yet, but I wanted to share my stack of the best new fiction for me this year! There's just a few missing from my Miami library that I must mention: - The Logos by Mark de Silva - The Longcut by Emily Hall - Sterling Karat Gold by Isabel Waidner A great year!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Hi everyone, Moshi and I have a new top bookstore in NYC! 192 Books in Chelsea revamped their stock; they have the whole catalog of greats like Joy Williams and Toni Morrison, and debut stars like Tyriek White and Missouri Williams. Visit them soon! The staff loves to recommend.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Hi everyone! I have a question: Do you know any novels that weave between first, second, and third person? For example, three that come to my mind are Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso, and Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai. Any others?

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

10 months

I'll return to bookposting soon, but I just needed to single out Jenny Erpenbeck's Visitation! What an incredible novel, that is both monumental in scope and stunning in its brutal, stylized brevity. Professor Bernofsky's translation of Erpenbeck's musicality is stellar.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

Everyone! I have a humble request: please make Doomtown by @gabeblackwell the last book you purchase in 2022. This is a layered psychological novel, as harrowing and horrifying as it is hilarious and tender. What a welcome advance in American fiction.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

5 months

If you see this, share four books you don't often see recommended!

Paul Wilson

@bibliopaul

5 months

If you see this rt w 4 books you don't see often recommended on here.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

One more time! This time, let me recommend you books by authors either inspired by or adjacent to Donoso: Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez Beloved by Toni Morrison Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner The Lost Scrapbok by Evan Dara

The Millions

@The_Millions

9 months

"If you’ve ever awoken from invasive surgery, when the anesthetic numbness fades as your raw body slowly shudders into place, you have felt Donoso’s style." @ZIssenberg on Chilean novelist and eminent stylist of Latin American letters José Donoso.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 years

@emilynussbaum The Birdcage! Being forced to watch it was the greatest gift as a moody teen.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

@JasonAChristian The Fourth World by Diamela Eltit, Dream Story by Arthur Schnitzler, The Cannibal by John Hawkes, Annotations by John Keene, The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, Hell Has No Limits by José Donoso, and The Halfway House by Guillermo Rosales!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 months

Hi everyone! I wrote a few brief things about two incredible books in translation. You should absolutely read the work of Yoko Ogawa and László Krasznahorkai, who provide clarity in this life with all their brilliant hues of color and light.

The Millions

@The_Millions

2 months

Three months. 80+ books. Here's what we can't wait to read this summer.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

I had the fortune to read and reread some amazing books this month, and wanted to take the time to tell you all about them!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

4 months

Happy Birthday to David Keenan, one of the most prolific and punk writers of the last decade! @reversediorama writes in a style entirely his own, feverish modulation between maximal and minimal, only comparable to Bolaño's world-rendering. Don't miss out, consider Keenan soon.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

@exhaustdata Night Story by Joseph McElroy, The Chosen by Chaim Potok, and (unfortunately) American Pasotral by Phillip Roth! The former two are beautiful in their depth and compassion.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

Don't miss the return of Donoso's Obscene Bird! I'll have much more to say about the new, unabridged translation in the coming months. Be on the lookout.

New Directions

@NewDirections

9 months

Check out what @ZIssenberg had to say about THE OBSCENE BIRD OF NIGHT by José Donoso, which New Directions is publishing on April 2nd, 2024: “And amid all this, Donoso wrote his masterpiece—in my opinion, a perfect novel.”

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Seven "classics" to get to know me! - Jazz (Morrison) - Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon) - Obscene Bird of Night (Donoso) - The Red and The Black (Stendahl) - Mimesis (Auerbach) - Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech (Celan) - Frankenstein (Shelley)

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

13 days

Okay! Just one final batch of books for the library before the semester begins. A mix of contemporary literature and some classics I simply needed to own, like László's best, Seiobo (tr. @caringerel ). I'm alsp excited to try Verdigris, courtesy of translator @BrianRobMoore .

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

4 months

Look what arrived, the greatest horror novel of all time! Thanks to @NewDirections for an early copy of Donoso's Obscene Bird, in a fresh update by @meganalimcd . Expect jubilation from me on its pub day. But for now, please pre-order:

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

11 months

Look what came in the mail! I first heard about Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's novel during my interview with John Keene for Bookforum, and now it's here, freshly translated. I'm having fun burning through its pages, which remind me a lot of Miguel Syjuco's Illustrado.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

8 months

Last book Current book & next two books!

Ryan Alexanderplatz

@ryanhasbadtaste

8 months

Last book Current book Next two books

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

I really enjoyed this brief piece in The New Yorker about Vargos Llosa! While his name sadly goes unspoken from the Boom compatriots, it's José Donoso whose entire late career predicted and dissected the politically disenchanted authors of his generation.

The Puzzling, Increasingly Rightward Turn of Mario Vargas Llosa

The writer has shocked many by endorsing Latin America and Spain’s rising authoritarian movements.

www.newyorker.com

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 months

What a book, maybe my best read this year! I was recommended Barry Hannah's Ray by @DbDjamel a few weeks ago, and I devoured it within an hour. If you like the books I like - stylized and lyrical plays in the sacred and profane, the pastoral and the ruthilarious - read this book!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

11 months

The last of my birthday picks arrived! Has anyone read any of these four?

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

I'm back home in Miami, which means I spent the afternoon reorganizing my library! These are my "completed" shelves, which include my near-complete hunt for all works by José Donoso.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

For the evening crowd! I wrote about how the greatest horror novel of the 20th century came from one of its most inclusive and progressive artists, José Donoso. Shout out to Donoso's posthumous editor, Chris Wait, for providing translations in this piece.

The Millions

@The_Millions

9 months

"Donoso didn’t just write a perfect novel—he created a space for many more perfect novels to exist." @ZIssenberg on Chilean novelist José Donoso, a forgotten literary giant of the Latin American Boom.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

Dalkey Archive has some of my favorite short novels! Please consider trying A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kiš, and Impossible Object by Nicholas Mosley, and any of their novels by Rikki Ducornet.

Dalkey Archive

@Dalkey_Archive

9 months

Mulligan Stew. Eros the Bittersweet. At Swim-Two-Birds. Wittgenstein's Mistress. Trilogy. All these and so many more are on sale, now through the end of the year. Use the code DALKEYHOLIDAYS for 25% off all Dalkey Archive Essentials (including preorders).

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 months

Look what's come in the mail, my summer reads! The contemporary novel blooms, thanks to talented, tireless translators and editors. Del Amo, Krasznahorkai, and Ogawa are among the best novelists alive. Thanks to my friend Chris, who sent me @dedreytnien 's translation of Copi!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Just over a year later, and I can say, I have done it! I've written a new novel, my first attempt to write a novel like those that inspired me to write. Now for the fun part, to edit this work into a coherent, tethered beast!

Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

I am possessed by a new novel, and making progress! It feels so exciting to come through a dry spell with clear images of your story in mind.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

@__AustinAdams There's no clear winner! But: Beloved by Morrison M&D by Pynchon Seiobo There Below by Krasznahorkai The War of the End of the World by Vargos Llosa A Naked Singularity by De La Pava The Inquisitors' Manual by Lobo Antunes The Lost Scrapbook by Evan Dara

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

11 months

What incredible news: more Elfriede Jelinek for English readers! Gitta Honegger has also translated the rest of Jelinek's work; this is her magnum opus as well. I read Die Kinder der Toten while translating in Vienna, my first experience with Jelinek. You're all in for a treat.

Karl

@underreadgerman

11 months

Better late than never, I guess: 20 years after winning the Nobel and 29 years after its publication, the translation of Elfriede Jelinek's magnum opus Die Kinder der Toten is forthcoming at @YaleBooks !

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

This is actually one of my most anticipated fall reads! I've enjoyed Alexander Booth's translations of Kluge, and am awfully curious how he transposes Wittgenstein's vocabulary and declarative momentum.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 months

And done! I finished the first draft of something new and strange within a few weeks. That was a lot of fun to write, to surgically play with the genres of noir, cosmic horror, and southern gothic romance. As always, now the real fun begins with fine tuning this eldritch beast.

Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 months

How fun it is to get back into writing! The challenge to play with precision is always rewarding. Nothing more than a few dozen pages in yet, but I'm thinking of a very particular tone with this manuscript. Thinking of these works as I draft.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

5 months

You can grab a sneak peek of the new Donoso over in Lithub today! This excerpt comes from the opening pages. Take note of the slight changes in tense and person, as voices interject. The novel builds on this style, until it has metastasized toward hell.

The Obscene Bird of Night

The Chaplaincy founded by the father of the lay sister whose beatification Inés tried to promote in Rome has kept the Casa in the Azcoitía family for a century and a half. In the beginning, it was …

lithub.com

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

May the memory of Milan Kundera be a blessing! Each Fall, I would assign Kundera to my most moody students; they would each fall in emphatic love with his work as the leaves fell around them. Please enjoy this free interview with me.

The Paris Review

@parisreview

1 year

In remembrance of Milan Kundera, who died yesterday at age 94, we’ve unlocked his Art of Fiction interview from the archive.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

5 months

What an absolute lineup! I'm particularly excited for Bernofsky's translation of Yoko Tawada, a new translation of a László K. doorstop, new translations of Ágota Kristóf's brutal work, and what looks like a speculative septology from Solvej Balle! Oh, what a Fall to enjoy.

New Directions

@NewDirections

5 months

BEHOLD! Fall '24, featuring: László Krasznahorkai, Dunya Mikhail, Ágota Kristóf, Elizabeth Willis, Günter Grass, Yoko Tawada, Clarice Lispector, Forrest Gander, Solvej Balle, Marcel Proust, and Osamu Dazai.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

I will never stop talking about the greatest horror novel of all time! I might even be drafting an essay singing its praise for your perusal soon...

Iain Smith

@IainSmithNZ

1 year

If I can’t get The Obscene Bird of Night out of my mind before I’ve read it, what about after? And is it fatuous to assume that my mind will by then even be proximate to me? I’ve heard there are risks.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

Well look what we have here, I've reached a thousand followers! Looks like quite a few people like my book recommendations. I hope you continue enjoying my recommendations for weird, wonderful books that I discover with my reading buddy, and enjoy my own writing in the future.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

Look what came my way! Alexis Wright has rapidly joined the gang of my favorite contemporary writers, and I've heard from trusted sources this is her masterpiece. Be sure to check out Praiseworthy, as well as her winding social epic, Carpenteria, when they arrive in the U.S.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 months

@wastemailing Sherwood Anderson, Zora Neale Hurston, Djuna Barnes, Marcel Schwob, Jean Toomer, Blaise Cendrars, John Dos Passos, Machado De Assis, Evelyn Scott, John Hawkes, George Schuyler, and Flann O'Brien!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

3 years

@gewittrderrosen Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima, The Notebook by Ágota Kristóf, and The Fourth World by Diamela Eltit!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

I have a new reading buddy, say hello to Moshi!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

@mcmansionhell I personally loved the essays by authors on their process. Pynchon's foreword to Slow Learner; Toni Morrison and Delany's Paris Review interviews; Gass' essay On Influence; and Donoso's autobiography of the Boom! It helped to know what questions my canon asked itself.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

Last Birthday: Stuck in a flooded Laguardia overnight. This Birthday: Took someone special to Italy for an important question!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

If you're interested in experimental German literature, check out @underreadgerman 's YouTube channel! He just came out with a new video, which provides an accessible introduction to post-war German writers like Arno Schmidt.

Postwar German literature inspired by Joyce: Koeppen, Schmidt,...

00:00:00 Intro00:01:02 Wolfgang Koeppen00:12:56 Arno Schmidt00:28:47 Wolfgang Hildesheimer00:40:36 Uwe Johnson00:51:35 Unique readings and traces of Joyce00:...

www.youtube.com

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

People liked the post; why not 30 more! The Golden Notebook by Lessing - only genius could make a drafting process so engaging Trilogy by Kristóf - a brutal, heartbreaking narrative of dual consciousness following WW2 Breakfast at Midnight by Armand - a madcap trip of an odyssey

Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

9 months

Hi everyone! I've been recently asked to make a list of my top 30 favorite novels, with a brief explanation why for each. It's a comfy Friday, why not? Besides this list, you can also follow what I'm reading on my website: Now, in no evaluative order:

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Hi everyone, I'm at the beach! I'm also reading The Light at the End of the World by Siddhartha Deb, which feels apocalyptic, dreamlike, and fantastical. If you're looking for a book like Delillo's Underworld or the fiction of Susan Daitch and Yoko Ogawa, try this.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Hi everyone, it's Indie Bookstore Day, and I think you deserve to go out and find yourself a new book! If you're in NYC, please go out and support any of these lovely spots: Aeon Book Black Spring Books Codex Three Lives & Company Sweet Pickle Books Book Culture Book Thug Nation

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

11 months

The four best books by posthumous authors I've read this year!

Ryan Alexanderplatz

@ryanhasbadtaste

11 months

The four best books I’ve read so far this year

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

5 months

May the memory of John Barth be a blessing! Last year, Rob wrote a love letter to the style & fever of Barth's fiction, which you should read. As a teacher, I learned plenty from the scathing delight of Barth's essays. I've also seen many ESL students find a home in his prose.

Rob Madole

@rob_madole

5 months

RIP John Barth. Last year for @thebafflermag I wrote about the conflicted afterlives of his “Arch, self-indulgent, clumsily allegorical, pedantic, and puerilely obscene” masterpiece THE SOT-WEED FACTOR

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Favorite book covers!

Giles Goat-Girl

@nadienadianadie

2 years

Favorite book covers thread. (Only books I have at home)

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

1 year

Hello everyone, I've bad news! My new reading buddy likes to play at night, which means I'm too tired for a longer post. But there's good news, each book I read in June was an absolute must read. I want to specifically thank @jshyue for her incredible translation, what a debut!

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

Hello everyone, I've published a new (very) short story at @3ammagazine ! "Richard O'Dreyfuss Steps Outside" is about the joys of rereading a single sentence. My deepest thanks to @MarkdeSilva1 for the support.

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Zach Issenberg

@ZIssenberg

2 years

Hello everyone! I read (and reread) few books this month, but for two very good reasons: 1. I'm busy! My reading pal here will keep my books company until I'm ready. 2. I'm writing again! I spent the month taking out and putting in a few words and sentences in the new project.

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