practice makes less shitty

Florian Illes, 1913: The Year Before The Storm

A very interesting month-by-month history of the year 1913. From the book’s description: 

It was the year Henry Ford first put a conveyer belt in his car factory, and the year Louis Armstrong first picked up a trumpet. It was the year Charlie Chaplin signed his first movie contract, and Coco Chanel and Prada opened their first dress shops. It was the year Proust began his opus, Stravinsky wrote The Rite of Spring, and the first Armory Show in New York introduced the world to Picasso and the world of abstract art. It was the year the recreational drug now known as ecstasy was invented….It was 1913, the year before the world plunged into the catastrophic darkness of World War I.

It fit in really nicely with a few of the other books I’ve read this year — its jump-cut type style reminds me of Hip Hop Family Tree and the soap opera-like tales of Rilke’s douchery reminded me a lot of David Markson’s books.

Thanks to @theunread for the recommendation!

I got it because it’s beautiful as hell, so of course I haven’t read it. the norwegian translators kept the original title, “the summer of the century”.

I almost didn’t recognize the english title, it’s like “DUN DUN DUNNN FORESHADOWING DO YOU REMEMBER THAT WAR AND SHIT HAPPENED IN 1914, AND SEE, RED TEXT!! THE STORM IS COMING, YOU DANCING FOOLS, just you wait” and the norwegian is like “it was a super sweet summer and we’re not even going to mention anything about how it is the year before shit hit the fan, LOOK butterflies! err... why is that butterfly calLED HITLER??!”