Sunday, April 15, 2007

Natasha Wimmer

There are some who say that LI, underneath a surface pretentiousness, is just the kind of redneck who is going to end up sprawled in the gutter someday, another victim of cleaning fluid intox. But here’s some au contraire evidence! Readers may remember that LI threw a party for itself last December at the 7b bar. Among the attendees was the talented and beauteous Natasha Wimmer, who was coming off of translating Roberto Bolano’s The Savage Detectives. The Savage Detectives is the best novel of the year – I’m pretty confident that nothing this year is going to upset that statement.

And – abracadabra – here’s her book, gracing the front page – did I say front page – yes, front page of the Sunday New York Times! Reviewed by the Man, James Wood no less, who writes:

The pleasure we take in this, as readers of English, owes everything, of course, to the book's talented translator, Natasha Wimmer, who repeatedly finds inspired English solutions for what must be a fiendishly chatty and slangy novel.)


Alas, I can't say that James Wood really gets the novel, but I have that feeling about every Wood review I read. If I had been Sam Tannenhaus, I would have assigned the review to Eliot Weinberger, who would get the novel.

Shouts out to Natasha. My interview with her is on the Publisher Weekly site.

Now I’m going back to shooting up cleaning fluid.

6 comments:

  1. Yes, Natasha was wonderful, just lovely in all ways, and I'm glad to see her getting some recognition. It was interesting some of the things she said about Vargas Llosa.

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  2. Patrick, I so totally agree-
    Roger

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  3. hi guys! So flattered to be featured on LI. When's the next drinks date? Natasha

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  4. It is all champagne for you star translators now, eh? Rubbing elbows with Edith Grossman, turning up unexpectedly at David Remnick's penthouse at three in the morning, getting interviewed by El Pais. Me, though, I'm humbly trying to finish up the last minute publishing crapola before Ontos Verlag publishes Silja Graupe's The Basho of Economics. Which it seems like I've been doing forever!

    And hey, talking of marvelous translations - I just finished Eca de Quieros The Maias. Do you know this woman, Margaret Costa? She is the bomb! Excellent novel.

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  5. Is Natasha the daughter of Javier Wimmer, a Mexican journalist and author, and is her mother from Argentina? Appct an early answer.
    Thanks and regards,
    Henry Raymont

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  6. HI WOULD LOVE TO GET IN CONTACT WITH NATASHA AS WOULD LOVE HER TO SIGN THE 2666 BOOK FOR ME. I LOOK FORWARD TO A REPLY. BEST. LEE

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