2012年度最佳「廁所讀物」
2012年12月12日
上個月在《紐約時報》上，我這樣評價凱文·揚(Kevin Young)的文集《飢餓的耳朵：美食與美酒之詩》(The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food & Drink)：“2012年最佳廁所讀物，這可是很隆重的讚美。”我堅持這種看法，還堅持我的另一個稍帶玩笑性質的提議：國家圖書獎應該設立一個“最佳廁所讀物獎”。如果我必須得再選出10本年度最佳廁所讀物的話，那我會選下面這些書：
《弗蘭納里·奧康納：漫畫書》(Flannery O’Connor: The Cartoons, Fantagraphics, $22.99)。弗蘭納里·奧康納畫過漫畫？是的，她早年畫過，在她出版《好人難尋》(A Good Man Is Hard to Find)這樣的文集之前。裡面收集的漫畫滑稽而古怪。其中一幅描繪的是學校舞會上的一位壁花姑娘。她微笑着對自己說：“哦，好吧，我肯定會成為一名博士 的。”
《游泳訓練》(Swimming Studies, Blue Rider Press, $30)，作者：琳恩·夏普頓(Leanne Shapton)。這本書既是點彩畫式的回憶錄，又是可愛的藝術作品；作者以前是競技游泳運動員，後來轉行做插畫師。她回憶了很多細節，比如很久以前的一位仰卧起坐搭檔身上的氣味：“汰漬洗衣粉、牛奶、小獵犬和葡萄味的Hubba Bubba牌口香糖混合在一起的味道。”你的哪位朋友要是痴迷瑪依拉·卡爾曼(Maira Kalman)，就一定會喜歡這本書里精彩的插畫。
《爭取傑羅》(Get Jiro, Vertigo, $24.99)，作者：安東尼·波登(Anthony Bourdain)和喬爾·羅絲(Joel Rose)，插畫：蘭登·福士(Langdon Foss)。這是一本塔倫蒂諾(Tarantino)式的漫畫書，場景設置在未來的洛杉磯，那時的大廚們像黑幫大佬一樣掌控一切，顧客們拼了命才能預訂到 座位；現在他們何嘗不是這樣呢？我不能透露結局，但是我可以告訴你結尾那句讓人意外的話：“愛上那些加州壽司卷吧，夥計！”
《會說話的照片：來自過去的圖像和消息》(Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from The Past, It Books, $16.99)，作者：蘭薩姆·里格斯(Ransom Riggs)。里格斯先生在舊貨店和庭院舊貨甩賣場里細細搜尋，翻出了那些被丟棄的舊照片；這些照片能引起人們無限的回憶，具有幽靈般的魅力。在一張老年 黑人婦女的黑白照片上方，有人寫下了那首老歌中的一句話：“讓你的憂傷跨上野馬”(Saddle your blues to a wild mustang)。
《帶來噪音：20年對嘻哈搖滾和嘻哈文化的評論》(Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing about Hip Rock and Hip-Hop, Soft Skull Press, $16.95)，作者是英國音樂評論家西蒙·雷諾茲(Simon Reynolds)。這本書實際上是2011年出版的，但是我太喜歡它了，硬把它塞到了這裡。這本書收集了雷諾茲先生的很多精華文章，包括關於“電台司 令”(Radiohead)，P·J·哈維(P. J. Harvey)，披頭士樂隊和其他很多樂隊的文章；裡面真的全是好東西。
《美麗文集：散文、小說和詩歌》(The Beautiful Anthology: Essays, Stories and Poems, TNB Books, $14.99)，編輯：伊麗莎白·柯林斯(Elizabeth Collins)。就像大衛·柯南伯格(David Cronenberg)的電影一樣，這本不落俗套的文集把目光聚焦在“美”的黑暗、複雜的那一面。它還有一個優點：裡面的作者大多是你沒聽說過的優秀作者。
《外星人vs. 食肉動物》(Alien vs. Predator, Penguin Poets, $18)，作者：邁克爾·羅賓斯(Michael Robbins)。“我鄰居家的鯨魚吵得我一晚上睡不着覺。/它們也許是無意的，但是它們確實吵到我了。/我打開《鯊魚周》(Shark Week)節目，準備大開殺戒。/我備好了一大堆感冒藥。”這一卷的作者是堪薩斯州托皮卡(Topeka)市的一位年輕詩人，其中充滿了納博科夫式的(Nabokovian)絕妙的雙關語。wordplay 不只是雙關語
《用你的雙手進餐》(Eat with Your Hands, Ecco, $39.99)。本書作者扎卡里·佩拉西奧(Zakary Pelaccio)是紐約市著名的Fatty Crab and Fatty ’Cue餐廳主廚。這本書很可能是2012年最好的美食書，它巧妙地只談到四種關鍵口味：鹹的、辣的、脆的和油膩的。佩拉西奧先生的“全脂豬肘子”菜譜，讓人心悅誠服、嘆為觀止。
《好天氣》(Nice Weather, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24)，作者：弗雷德里克·塞德爾(Frederick Seidel)。塞德爾先生的新詩，和他以前的詩一樣，清新、幽默、辛辣，令人陶醉。“打開香檳，”他在其中一首詩中寫道，“這裡充滿了歡樂。無休無止。”
《杯酒日記：女人們坦率地捧出她們的故事》(Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up, Seal Press, $16)，編輯：利亞·奧德茲·愛普斯坦(Leah Odze Epstein)和卡倫·奧斯坦·格茲伯格(Caren Osten Gerszberg)。單是其中艾麗莎·斯卡佩爾(Elissa Schappell)的文章，也值得你買下這本書。這本書里有精明的女人、小小的玻璃酒杯和巨大的黑色幽默。它讓你想倒上兩個手指寬的酒，說出那句奇怪 的、很少被提起的、古老的祝酒詞：“為我們的敵人的困惑乾杯！”
《弗蘭納里·奧康納：漫畫書》(Flannery O’Connor: The Cartoons, Fantagraphics, $22.99)。弗蘭納里·奧康納畫過漫畫？是的，她早年畫過，在她出版《好人難尋》(A Good Man Is Hard to Find)這樣的文集之前。裡面收集的漫畫滑稽而古怪。其中一幅描繪的是學校舞會上的一位壁花姑娘。她微笑着對自己說：“哦，好吧，我肯定會成為一名博士 的。”
《游泳訓練》(Swimming Studies, Blue Rider Press, $30)，作者：琳恩·夏普頓(Leanne Shapton)。這本書既是點彩畫式的回憶錄，又是可愛的藝術作品；作者以前是競技游泳運動員，後來轉行做插畫師。她回憶了很多細節，比如很久以前的一位仰卧起坐搭檔身上的氣味：“汰漬洗衣粉、牛奶、小獵犬和葡萄味的Hubba Bubba牌口香糖混合在一起的味道。”你的哪位朋友要是痴迷瑪依拉·卡爾曼(Maira Kalman)，就一定會喜歡這本書里精彩的插畫。
《爭取傑羅》(Get Jiro, Vertigo, $24.99)，作者：安東尼·波登(Anthony Bourdain)和喬爾·羅絲(Joel Rose)，插畫：蘭登·福士(Langdon Foss)。這是一本塔倫蒂諾(Tarantino)式的漫畫書，場景設置在未來的洛杉磯，那時的大廚們像黑幫大佬一樣掌控一切，顧客們拼了命才能預訂到 座位；現在他們何嘗不是這樣呢？我不能透露結局，但是我可以告訴你結尾那句讓人意外的話：“愛上那些加州壽司卷吧，夥計！”
《會說話的照片：來自過去的圖像和消息》(Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from The Past, It Books, $16.99)，作者：蘭薩姆·里格斯(Ransom Riggs)。里格斯先生在舊貨店和庭院舊貨甩賣場里細細搜尋，翻出了那些被丟棄的舊照片；這些照片能引起人們無限的回憶，具有幽靈般的魅力。在一張老年 黑人婦女的黑白照片上方，有人寫下了那首老歌中的一句話：“讓你的憂傷跨上野馬”(Saddle your blues to a wild mustang)。
《帶來噪音：20年對嘻哈搖滾和嘻哈文化的評論》(Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing about Hip Rock and Hip-Hop, Soft Skull Press, $16.95)，作者是英國音樂評論家西蒙·雷諾茲(Simon Reynolds)。這本書實際上是2011年出版的，但是我太喜歡它了，硬把它塞到了這裡。這本書收集了雷諾茲先生的很多精華文章，包括關於“電台司 令”(Radiohead)，P·J·哈維(P. J. Harvey)，披頭士樂隊和其他很多樂隊的文章；裡面真的全是好東西。
《美麗文集：散文、小說和詩歌》(The Beautiful Anthology: Essays, Stories and Poems, TNB Books, $14.99)，編輯：伊麗莎白·柯林斯(Elizabeth Collins)。就像大衛·柯南伯格(David Cronenberg)的電影一樣，這本不落俗套的文集把目光聚焦在“美”的黑暗、複雜的那一面。它還有一個優點：裡面的作者大多是你沒聽說過的優秀作者。
《外星人vs. 食肉動物》(Alien vs. Predator, Penguin Poets, $18)，作者：邁克爾·羅賓斯(Michael Robbins)。“我鄰居家的鯨魚吵得我一晚上睡不着覺。/它們也許是無意的，但是它們確實吵到我了。/我打開《鯊魚周》(Shark Week)節目，準備大開殺戒。/我備好了一大堆感冒藥。”這一卷的作者是堪薩斯州托皮卡(Topeka)市的一位年輕詩人，其中充滿了納博科夫式的(Nabokovian)絕妙的雙關語。wordplay 不只是雙關語
《用你的雙手進餐》(Eat with Your Hands, Ecco, $39.99)。本書作者扎卡里·佩拉西奧(Zakary Pelaccio)是紐約市著名的Fatty Crab and Fatty ’Cue餐廳主廚。這本書很可能是2012年最好的美食書，它巧妙地只談到四種關鍵口味：鹹的、辣的、脆的和油膩的。佩拉西奧先生的“全脂豬肘子”菜譜，讓人心悅誠服、嘆為觀止。
《好天氣》(Nice Weather, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24)，作者：弗雷德里克·塞德爾(Frederick Seidel)。塞德爾先生的新詩，和他以前的詩一樣，清新、幽默、辛辣，令人陶醉。“打開香檳，”他在其中一首詩中寫道，“這裡充滿了歡樂。無休無止。”
《杯酒日記：女人們坦率地捧出她們的故事》(Drinking Diaries: Women Serve Their Stories Straight Up, Seal Press, $16)，編輯：利亞·奧德茲·愛普斯坦(Leah Odze Epstein)和卡倫·奧斯坦·格茲伯格(Caren Osten Gerszberg)。單是其中艾麗莎·斯卡佩爾(Elissa Schappell)的文章，也值得你買下這本書。這本書里有精明的女人、小小的玻璃酒杯和巨大的黑色幽默。它讓你想倒上兩個手指寬的酒，說出那句奇怪 的、很少被提起的、古老的祝酒詞：“為我們的敵人的困惑乾杯！”
本文最初發表於2012年11月26日。
翻譯：王艷
翻譯：王艷
Stories, Essays and Poems for the Powder Room
December 12, 2012
Last month in The New York Times, I called “The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food & Drink,”
Kevin Young’s anthology, “easily the best bathroom book of 2012, no
small praise.” I stand by that observation and by my only slightly
tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the National Book Awards establish a
prize in this category. If I had to pick 10 more titles from this year
to stock the ideal bathroom library, they’d be as follows:
‘FLANNERY O’CONNOR: THE CARTOONS’ (Fantagraphics, $22.99). Flannery O’Connor drew cartoons? She did, early in her life, before issuing collections like “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” and the prints collected here are droll and strange. One depicts a wallflower at a school dance. She smiles and thinks to herself, “Oh, well, I can always be a Ph.D.”
‘SWIMMING STUDIES,’ by Leanne Shapton (Blue Rider Press, $30). This book — part pointillistic memoir, part lovely art object — is from a former competitive swimmer turned illustrator.
She recalls details like the smell of her long-ago situps partner:
“Tide, milk, terrier and grape Hubba Bubba.” The winning drawings will
please the Maira Kalman fanatic in your life.
‘GET JIRO,’ by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose, with art by Langdon Foss (Vertigo, $24.99). This is a Tarantino-esque comic book set in a future Los Angeles where chefs rule like crime lords — don’t they do that already? — and customers will kill to get a table. I can’t give away the ending, but I can give away the twisted last sentence: “Love those California rolls, dude!”
‘TALKING PICTURES: IMAGES AND MESSAGES RESCUED FROM THE PAST,’ by Ransom Riggs (It Books, $16.99). Mr. Riggs has combed junk stores and yard sales, raking up evocative photographs that have been cast aside. This collection has a ghostly beauty. Across the top of one black-and-white photo of an aging black woman someone has written, as the old song put it, “Saddle your blues to a wild mustang.”
‘BRING THE NOISE: 20 YEARS OF WRITING ABOUT HIP ROCK AND HIP-HOP,’ by Simon Reynolds, the English music critic (Soft Skull Press, $16.95). This one is actually from 2011, but I like it so much I am shoehorning it in here. It’s a hefty collection of Mr. Reynolds’s best stuff — there are essays about Radiohead, P. J Harvey, the Beastie Boys and many others — which means that it’s very good stuff indeed.
‘THE BEAUTIFUL ANTHOLOGY: ESSAYS, STORIES AND POEMS,’ edited by Elizabeth Collins (TNB Books, $14.99). Like a David Cronenberg movie, this offbeat anthology zeros in on beauty’s dark and complicated side. Another bonus: it mostly features good writers you’ve never heard of.
‘ALIEN VS. PREDATOR,’ by Michael Robbins (Penguin Poets, $18). “My neighbor’s whales keep me up at night./They may not mean to, but they do./I turn on Shark Week, plan a killing spree./I’m all stocked up on Theraflu.” This volume, from a young poet out of Topeka, Kan., is Nabokovian in its ecstatic wordplay.
‘EAT WITH YOUR HANDS,’ by Zakary Pelaccio (Ecco, $39.99). From the chef behind the New York City restaurants Fatty Crab and Fatty ’Cue, this may well be 2012’s best cookbook. It expertly covers the only four food groups that matter: salty, spicy, crackly and fatty. Mr. Pelaccio’s recipe for a “full-fat pork shoulder” is a show (and heart) stopper.
‘NICE WEATHER,’ by Frederick Seidel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24). Mr. Seidel’s new poems, like his old poems, are so crisp and funny and mordant that they deliver a contact high. “Open the champagne,” he writes in one. “There’s too much joy. There’s no stopping.”
‘DRINKING DIARIES: WOMEN SERVE THEIR STORIES STRAIGHT UP,’ edited by Leah Odze Epstein and Caren Osten Gerszberg (Seal Press, $16). Worth it for Elissa Schappell’s essay alone. This book delivers smart women, small glasses and big, dark fun. It makes you wish to pour two fingers of something and utter that strange and underused old toast: “Here’s to the confusion of our enemies.”
‘FLANNERY O’CONNOR: THE CARTOONS’ (Fantagraphics, $22.99). Flannery O’Connor drew cartoons? She did, early in her life, before issuing collections like “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” and the prints collected here are droll and strange. One depicts a wallflower at a school dance. She smiles and thinks to herself, “Oh, well, I can always be a Ph.D.”
‘GET JIRO,’ by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose, with art by Langdon Foss (Vertigo, $24.99). This is a Tarantino-esque comic book set in a future Los Angeles where chefs rule like crime lords — don’t they do that already? — and customers will kill to get a table. I can’t give away the ending, but I can give away the twisted last sentence: “Love those California rolls, dude!”
‘TALKING PICTURES: IMAGES AND MESSAGES RESCUED FROM THE PAST,’ by Ransom Riggs (It Books, $16.99). Mr. Riggs has combed junk stores and yard sales, raking up evocative photographs that have been cast aside. This collection has a ghostly beauty. Across the top of one black-and-white photo of an aging black woman someone has written, as the old song put it, “Saddle your blues to a wild mustang.”
‘BRING THE NOISE: 20 YEARS OF WRITING ABOUT HIP ROCK AND HIP-HOP,’ by Simon Reynolds, the English music critic (Soft Skull Press, $16.95). This one is actually from 2011, but I like it so much I am shoehorning it in here. It’s a hefty collection of Mr. Reynolds’s best stuff — there are essays about Radiohead, P. J Harvey, the Beastie Boys and many others — which means that it’s very good stuff indeed.
‘THE BEAUTIFUL ANTHOLOGY: ESSAYS, STORIES AND POEMS,’ edited by Elizabeth Collins (TNB Books, $14.99). Like a David Cronenberg movie, this offbeat anthology zeros in on beauty’s dark and complicated side. Another bonus: it mostly features good writers you’ve never heard of.
‘ALIEN VS. PREDATOR,’ by Michael Robbins (Penguin Poets, $18). “My neighbor’s whales keep me up at night./They may not mean to, but they do./I turn on Shark Week, plan a killing spree./I’m all stocked up on Theraflu.” This volume, from a young poet out of Topeka, Kan., is Nabokovian in its ecstatic wordplay.
‘EAT WITH YOUR HANDS,’ by Zakary Pelaccio (Ecco, $39.99). From the chef behind the New York City restaurants Fatty Crab and Fatty ’Cue, this may well be 2012’s best cookbook. It expertly covers the only four food groups that matter: salty, spicy, crackly and fatty. Mr. Pelaccio’s recipe for a “full-fat pork shoulder” is a show (and heart) stopper.
‘NICE WEATHER,’ by Frederick Seidel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24). Mr. Seidel’s new poems, like his old poems, are so crisp and funny and mordant that they deliver a contact high. “Open the champagne,” he writes in one. “There’s too much joy. There’s no stopping.”
‘DRINKING DIARIES: WOMEN SERVE THEIR STORIES STRAIGHT UP,’ edited by Leah Odze Epstein and Caren Osten Gerszberg (Seal Press, $16). Worth it for Elissa Schappell’s essay alone. This book delivers smart women, small glasses and big, dark fun. It makes you wish to pour two fingers of something and utter that strange and underused old toast: “Here’s to the confusion of our enemies.”
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