Hello, I’m just coming across this blog today b/c gracq is exquisite. I’m just about to finish reading writing and found it so refreshingly bristling (and bristly) with ideas. I wanted to mention how many times I flipped back to the front of the book to see again who the translator was b/c the writing was so uninterruptedly great (in English!). I never use the word “flow” b/c it is too easy and can describe anything as emptily as “it is what it is.” What I love about this translation is it’s energy and verve, its supple musculature, its tensions and the tripwires of its tenses, that trigger thoughts quicker than the eye. This translation allows things to get lost in the cracks not b/c they’re “lost in translation” but b/c they were meant to be lost in the cracks. I follow the tracks that guide us through electric-ladyland clouds. A genuine love of language bleeds through every essay and jeanine herman’s translation fights against all manifestations of sparkslayers (I was going to say that the writing was layered with intelligent sparks (ugh!), but decided to follow the new word that magically appeared). Thank you so much. 

–Gregg