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I’m a little biased on this one for ‘I-acquired-the-book-for-Harper-Perennial’ related reasons, but you .

is an amazing writer and he has a bunch of great books— Moo Pak; Contre-Jour; his most recent collection of critical essays, Singer on the Shore; to name just a few — that should jump to the top of your reading list straight away. I’m serious.

BachÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s composition has earned its own list of variations (not least, Glenn GouldÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s famous recording, recently digitized for a player piano; a Jerome Robbins ballet; and Richard PowersÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s novel The Gold Bug Variations). Yet Josipovici has done something delightfully daring for his homage: With the trick of a colon, his rendition proposes variations on Goldberg himself. The novelÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s setting is not Germany but nineteenth-century England; the insomniac is not a count but a wealthy aristocrat unmoved by music; and Goldberg, here named Samuel, is not a musician but a storytellerÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”a Scheherazade plagued with writerÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s block for whom Queneau-esque variations are the only solution.