Bryan Alistair Charles
@bryanacharles
Writer in midst of disorienting midlife free fall / Author of a novel, a memoir, and a book about Pavement written for 33 1/3 / Broken Hearts Are Blue guitarist / Amateur Proust scholar bryanalistaircharles.com
The other night I semirandomly selected TOKYO STORY on Criterion Channel & now am hooked on Ozu's films, which I had never seen (C. Channel has a bunch). Last night I watched LATE SPRING, again featuring the mesmerizing Setsuko Hara whose smile can convey 1000 different thoughts and feelings
Always a delight when "Céleste Albaret" appears in The Search. *no one* in the whole of the novel talks to the narrator the way she does: "...lucky for you that those who created you made sure you were born rich...I've never seen such a clumsy oaf...Poor little ploumissou!" 😂 ❤️ #Proust
Excellent (short) life of Proust. Especially good, given the brevity, on the Dreyfus Affair and war years. #Proust
I found this novel at European Books, Oakland. About a hairdresser in a small town whose life is changed by reading...well, you know. There is an English translation but I think my French (reading comprehension anyway) is OK for this one. And...Gallimard publishes such beautiful books! #Proust
#lastfourwatched Obsession, now Disclosure Day, now Wild Strawberries, 1957 Alice in the Cities, 1974 Alice was a rewatch, one of my favorites ever!!! Wild Strawberries I had not seen since an existentialism class fall 1993 & I loved that one too.
You must be referring to a Sunbeam Wireless phone-- congrats!!!
Lauren Acampora's new book THE ANIMAL ROOM. Out this week! I met Lauren fall 2002 in the Brooklyn College MFA program and have loved her writing since. "Dominion," from this set of linked stories, was in 2025's Best American, super sharp & unnerving. Looking forward to the rest!
Found at Moe's. A very nice hardcover copy of JEAN SANTEUIL, Proust's first try at a novel. Simon & Schuster, 1956. A crucial component of The Search. I have been meaning to read it for years, and as I was telling @alinaetc.bsky.social I think this summer is the time. #Proust
I used the spring sale & my Criterion rewards to splurge on the Ingmar Bergman box set, which itself is a stunning work of art fit for prominent household display. 39 movies of which I have seen only 4 or 5.
French version of @gracekrilanovich.bsky.social's masterpiece THE ORANGE EATS CREEPS. Her second novel ACID GREEN VELVET is coming September 8. I have read it. It is worth the wait.
Found at Pegasus Oakland. 1957 paperback edition of PLEASURES AND DAYS (plus miscellaneous pieces) with an Edward Gorey cover. #Proust
Northern CA Hitchcock tourism. The schoolhouse from The Birds. Bodega.
Northern CA Hitchcock tourism. The house used in Shadow of a Doubt. Santa Rosa.
I am currently making my slow way through MON VRAI NOM EST ELISABETH with a dictionary and my verbs book. The book was a hit in France and will be out in the US at some point I gather. An investigation, presented in a farrago of forms, into the tragic life of the author's great-grandmother.
Last Criterion flash sale I picked up these classics (and portals to my youth). It is possible I've seen Fast Times more than any movie in my life. But ... can't hurt to have it on hand, right?
I finally completed my set of these smaller format paperbacks of Modern Library's SEARCH. I always wanted to get them all because, well, I am a completist I guess, and that SWANN'S WAY on the left there is the first Proust I read back in 2003, the life changer that led me onto this path. #Proust
New bookshelves. @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social @penguinclassicsusa.bsky.social #booksky
A few #Proust finds from Pegasus Berkeley. I see the old Modern Library editions often, usually without dust jackets & / or in rough shape. CITIES looks great for being almost 100 years old! Handbook by P.A. Spalding (1952) aligns with 12 (!) volume Chatto & Windus edition of The Search.
slow coming together at the seaside etc.; thought maybe it should be like an hour longer (maybe still swooning over Jeanne Dielman??)--but there is so much to admire I want to go back and engage with it on its own terms
I picked up (yet another) Hermes 3000. This one had keys like I had never seen before, QWERTY but with various other diacritical marks--does anyone know what the mark that's like an o with a line under (last photo) is meant to indicate?
Picked these up at the great @ebbooksellers.bsky.social last night. A must-visit if you are anywhere in the Bay really. Monsieur Teste translated by @avecsesdoigts.bsky.social une traductrice formidable ! @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social
#childhoodcinema Eastowne 5 Kalamazoo MI. I saw countless movies there from (at least) RAIDERS/LOST ARK all the way through 1990s change to 2nd run dollar theater. Would go back to things like TOP GUN 2-3 times. (had first kiss there during 18 AGAIN!, 1988)