THE ENGLISH UNDERSTAND WOOL by Helen DeWitt | Storybook ND Series

[@madrouter]

The Last Samurai is so great! I hope you enjoy it when you finally get to it. Her collection of stories Some Trick is enjoyable but challenging also. Thanks for bringing something new to attention!

[@travelthroughstories]

Good to hear her longer novels and short story collections are really worth it! I'm very excited to get to them. Thanks for watching!

[@BookishTexan]

Great review. Seems like there is a fair amount of "a book about books and publishing" here which is something I like.

[@travelthroughstories]

Thank you! As popular as "books about publishing" have become, I still quite like them. This is one of the better ones that I've read, as well.

[@BrandonsBookshelf]

Love books about writers! This sounds great.

[@travelthroughstories]

Same! Thanks for watching.

[@Elizabeth-Reads]

Thanks for your review! I'm so fascinated by the Storybook series and the authors they've chosen. (I wish they'd sell them as a bundle, because $15.50 for a novella seems like a little much, but I'm tempted.) Also gosh, when you have the time I hope you'll try The Last Samurai! It's challenging, but full of ideas--I think it was the first novel I'd read that plays so much with form, and it plays in a way that doesn't feel forced or twee, always fresh and accessible and sometimes very funny. (A lot like David Foster Wallace, really.) It's been years since I read it, but I still remember thinking it was brilliant. I also really liked DeWitt's more recent story collection, Some Trick, some of the stories were hard to penetrate but some were just fantastic, and they were always fun to read.

[@britbritbritbrit]

They are available as a bundle on the ND website

[@Elizabeth-Reads]

@@britbritbritbrit Oh really? Thank you! I’d looked on the ND site when Sean first mentioned the series in his review of the Lispector, and only found them individually. I’ll have to look more closely!

[@travelthroughstories]

Thank you! Agreed regarding the price...they look fantastic in hardcover, but it's quite steep for a novella. I really want to get to The Last Samurai! I may try to sneak it in before the end of the year, but I may also just hold off until winter break as an end-of-the-semester treat. I didn't even realize that Some Trick was a short story collection - I'll keep an eye out for a copy!

[@travelthroughstories]

@@britbritbritbrit That's great to hear that they're still being sold as a bundle! I wasn't sure if that was a temporary deal or one that would continue. I'll add that link to the video descriptions.

[@ajerrettenns]

I got my copy for free from the library and didn't regret it.

[@loyallistener201]

If you love untranslated words and phrases in books, you're gonna love The Last Samurai.

[@ДимитријевићЈелена]

Hi! I enjoyed this short story as well. But i do have a question, maybe someone else who has read this book can help me answer it. SPOILERS AHEAD: What confuses me is how these people were able to abduct this baby and then access the baby's money and trust fund? It's not like the baby herself can access it, and it's not like the money is in a physical form (an expensive ring, a pot of gold or something). So how did they do this? The logistics kind of messed it up for me.

[@SpringboardThought]

Ohh Last Samurai, yeah, I haven’t gotten to that either hah. Probably the association to the film holds me back as well. This sounds pretty interesting. Very prescient. Hope my library has it.

[@travelthroughstories]

The Last Samurai looks great (the movie, unfortunately of the same name, is terrible)! I hope you can get your hands on this one.

[@SpringboardThought]

@@travelthroughstories yeah the movie is mostly why I shunned it. Until someone said it’s actually really great and very different.

[@travelthroughstories]

@@SpringboardThought Yeah, luckily the book has nothing to do with the film, hah!

[@Echoesoflostlibraries]

Very interesting.. Do you feel that there's any thematic resonance between the works chosen for the collection? Helen DeWitt is an interesting figure, wonder if there's anything of her own mother in that character..I'll have to piggyback off of what 7 Days at Sea says and echo Last Samurai really is something. Thanks for the review and keep up the good work!

[@travelthroughstories]

Good question - so far I haven't really found anything particular that links all the works in the series, but I'll revisit this thought when I've read them all. Regarding DeWitt, I did hear somewhere that she had some issues with the publisher of The Last Samurai...I'm not sure of the specifics at all, but there could be some references in here to her own experiences that I missed. It looks like I'll have to pick up The Last Samurai sooner rather than later!

[@JJJJJOOOOOaaaaaoooo]

Just found your channel thank you for the videos

[@travelthroughstories]

Thanks for watching!

[@kiranreader]

i need to read this book asap!!

[@travelthroughstories]

Yes! I think you'd like it. Everyone I've talked to about it has absolutely loved it. The only common critique I've seen is that everyone just wishes it was longer.

[@yahaira_f]

Read it after your review and loved it! Wish it were longer, she was such an interesting character. I never read the last samurai because of that awful movie lol must rectify this mistake soon

[@travelthroughstories]

Agreed that it could have been significantly longer! Luckily, DeWitt's novel has nothing to do with the movie other than, unfortunately, sharing the name. Haha. It has been bumped up my tbr list as well.

[@Nero18anton]