I grew up reading the NME every week , going to as many gigs as I could afford to get too with my friends .Times have moved on gigs are few and far between these days and it is now Mojo and Uncut every month .But there is the memories of those gig years .
This was a gig back when I was still at school The Beatnigs were the second of two support bands for a tour by Billy Bragg , we knew something was to be expected as the older sister of my friend had a friend that went to an earlier gig and said to watch out for this band .A mad mix of industral music and hip hop with a large chunk of politics as you would expect with a support band for Billy Bragg .
A band I saw on a few occiasions was the Leeds band Wedding present they were darling of the Indie press .I remember seeing them tour with the George Best album which this is off .David Gedge songs were about broken lover affairs and growing up with maybe not being the best lover .
Now forward a few years and a band that I managed to see on there first national tour Idlewild , although they toned down there act after there first mini album it was this first album and the songs on it like Captain I feel in love with a brutal vocal and guitar caught a mix of Pixies and REM .
I’ve been up and I been down
When I been between I just been hangin’ around.
Things are quite different
And life ain’t the same
Since I lost my tooth.
Now the women they treat me rude,
Not that they ever really treated me that good
I’m a minority and now I know
What it’s like and how it feels to be a negro.
doo doo doo doo
It’s gettin’ down to the nitty gritty
If you can’t smile nice and you can’t smile pretty
They don’t wantchya around they say you look sloppy
When you eat
I love the songs of Daniel Johnson and his song since I lost my tooth is a perfect lyric match for this book
Well it is upon us the second women in translation month and I start with a crossover book as we decide to carry spanish lit month over for another month ,so the perfect choice is this book from one of the best writers to appear in recent years in translation the Mexican writer Valeria Luiselli I have reviewed her first novel Faces in the crowd and her essay collection sidewalks here as well .Valeria Luiselli still is living in New york , she also writes a monthly coloumn for El pais .This is her second novel to be translated to English .
I’m the best auctioneer in the world .But no one knows it because I’m discreet sort of man .My name is Gustavo Sanchez Sanchez , though people call ,e highway , I believe with affection .I can imitate Janis Joplin after two rums . I can interupt Chinese fortune cookies .I can stand an egg upright on the table , the way Christopher Columbus did in famous anecdote . I know how to count to eight in Japanese Ichi , ni san , shi , go , roku , Schicho , Hachi .I can float on my back .
Gustavo tells us all about himself in the opening lines of the book .
I couldn’t resist a book on teeth . This is a tall tale of one man and his teeth both his own and his collection of famous teeth . Gustavo Sanchez is a man of many talents , but all this is overshadowed by the state of his teeth . So along the way in his life he has somehow managed to collect a selection of teeth of the rich and famous and has reached a point where he wants to sell these teeth to get himself a new set of teeth .But where did he get those teeth he is selling and where did his own teeth go ? Gustavo is a real character and his stories of the teeth and how he got them are real gems to read .Also the lot descriptions of the teeth in the sale , he is a real salesman
Hyperbolic Lot No. 8
Some teeth are tormented , such is the case of this one the property of Mrs Virginia Woolf .When she was thirty years old , a psychiatrist posted the theory that her emotional ills were due to an excess of bacteria around the roots of her teeth .He decided to extract the three most affected ones .Nothing changed
I love this tall tale of Woolf and her teeth being the cause of her problems .
Now this is the sort of book I love and for me the sort of book that we only find in translation this isn’t a book that would see the light of day in english I imagine . For me teeth have often cropped up in books from Martin amis talking in his autobiography about his own dental problems is one I remember a lot especially as his novel times arrow had echos of the film Marathon man . Now Gustavo is a character that jumps of the page ,a voice that is maybe a every man who is pursuing his dreams , but it is how he is trying to get his dream teeth is a unique take on how to get to your dreams in this modern age .It is maybe also a reflection on what price we put on perfection these days . Add to that a tour of the lives of Plato Woolf and Chesterton to name a few and you have a wonderfully witty and truly unique book .
