The Belles Lettres Papers by Charles Simmons is one of Realini’s Best 100 Comedies http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world and one of The 1,000 Books Everyone Must Read 10 out of 10

 The Belles Lettres Papers by Charles Simmons is one of Realini’s Best 100 Comedies http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world and one of The 1,000 Books Everyone Must Read

10 out of 10

 

 

When one reads a fabulous book like The Belles Lettres Papers and finds that it is almost forgotten and it did not have the immense impact one expected, there appear to be two rather disturbing perspectives, one that the reader must have little or no idea what value is, and the other, if this glorious Charles Simmons has received so scarce, parsimonious praise – there are some positive takes, but they are shadowed by criticism that looks too virulent for the under signed – what is there left for other scriveners, such as yours truly, who has been hoping to apply the Outliers principle as explained by Malcolm Gladwell http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/outliers-by-malcolm-gladwell.html to his efforts and then produce a narrative that can have at least a few good reviews to propel it…

 

‘Slight as Simmons' material is, he has made it funny enough that one hopes that, now that he's given the book world a kick in the axis, he will recall past hurts and seek vengeance once again…" we would agree with the Washington wish, but since thirty five years have passed since the publication of this marvelous novel https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction there is little chance of a sequel, alas, I am not even sure what the age of the munificent author would be, if he is alive…

Charles Simmons had been editor for the New York Times Book Review and thus, as reviews of his magnum opus confirm, he has modelled the fictional Belles Lettres Paper on the paper he had worked for – the comment from the NYT book Review is among the most negative ‘Mr. Simmons' chief intent seems to be to scandalize’ says the chronicler and I say he is quite nasty and unfair – and the result is euphoric for this reader.

 

The present editor, Jonathan Margin, is not the Putinesque figure in the book, but we could not say that the author portrays himself in a grandiose posture, and if Margin has quite a few pleasant traits, he is smart, clairvoyant at times – when he is replaced, he anticipates the moves of the ‘half simian’ that will have taken his seat, who thinks Women in love had been written by…Lawrence of Arabia no less – but he is also weak, unprofessional and in a conflict of interest – he has an affair with Claire Tippon, his secretary, only we can see from the trajectory her career takes that it is the ambitious woman that had initiated it and she takes it to the goal she has (not that there is anything wrong here, if feminists, indeed, anybody reads this far, it is the way it should be, everybody must try and get what they want)

Marge, as some call the editor, sees that he has fallen in love, when Claire is in Hawaii, but it is not clear if she is there with someone else, and though the editor tries to find, we do not get a cellar picture, nevertheless, Jonathan Margin assigns the review of a new book to…his lover, only the result is more than confusing and he has to ask for help from his assistant, Frank Page, who is also the narrator of the saga…the latter has to write a new chronicle, for there is nothing he can do with what Claire had written…

 

Frank Page makes some disturbing remarks for those of us to try and write notes, sometimes more, journals, diaries, even a book or two, remarking on the futility of the exercise, how so many (nay, most, almost all) make terrible mistakes, they are the result of neglectful teachers, the assistant wonders why we (alas, I am one of those hopeless cases) continue with this pointless activity…however, writing is supposed to help, if nobody else expect the writer, for it does use a part of the brain that is not in operation when we talk, it helps us get over frustrations, depression, anger, since it has (different, and not always but sometimes a) logic, hence we can see some explanation, which is otherwise missed and infuriating – ‘why the hell did that happen, how could he say that’…well, when in writing, some of that makes sense, and if it still does not, then there is a distance between the text and us, by writing about some issues, we have ‘externalized them’ we are not so consumed by them anymore…

‘The Head of Simon and Schuster says Belles Lettres stinks’...and Mrs. Tooling, the wife of the owner of Belles Lettres, has to know if it does, she also ‘wants it to Award the Nobel Prize, to say who shall live and who shall die’ and the idea that the first twenty five writers of America should be placed on a list and that printed in the Lettres, which results in some amusing, confusing propositions, ‘start with Bellow, end with Updike’ and I was pleased to find among the names some of my favorites John Cheever, Walker Percy, along with some that I do not know and others that surprise (Woody Allen, now quite disgraced)

 

Owners of publications can be ghoulish, and Tool gives the editorship to a rather primitive ruffian, Newbold Press, and this new figure is both hilarious in his ignorance (there is the aforementioned confusion about Women in Love and its author…Lawrence of Arabia) and monstrous in his attitude towards staff, he would squash anybody, if it brought him any advantage and besides, as a drunk writer will state, he does it out of pleasure most often, if not always…he ‘looks like a hungry turtle’ in the swivel chair of his predecessor – the latter is a very tall man, while Press sits now with his chest at the table

The employees dislike him, they hate him eventually, and mock his serene ignorance, suggesting they send ‘entomology to Gregor Samsa’ and showing in their dialogues that their boss has no idea about books – true, there are quite a few names in there that may leave readers wondering ‘who the fuck is this or the other’ this is the title of a chapter that underlines the ineptitude, lack of solid education of some personages and alas, some of us, in the audience – eventually, Newbold Press will have found an explosive material to boost sales, his status and win the war if you will, and dominate the arena and foes…

He does not know about the copyboy who had been selling books and places on the bestseller list, so Press is promoting his Lettres with nine sonnets by William Shakespeare that have just been discovered…there are hilarious moments, to name just in passing, the degree from William and Harry, the editor eating alone at a table, because he is too young to eat with his wife’s guests, eat pussy on your own time, says Press, only to be dragged by his tie…this book is like the lost Shakespeare sonnets, only this one is real and a true chef d’oeuvre…