To the Editors:
Being a bit behind in my reading, I have only now read Lauren Weiner’s review of our publication of Juan Goytisolo’s Forbidden Territory in your December 1988 issue.
I can only wish that Miss Weiner had followed what I believe is the customary practice in proper reviewing, that is to check advance uncorrected proofs, submitted early to reviewers for their convenience, against the finished bound book. Had such a simple check taken place she would have discovered that “Peter Bush’s egregious mistranslation of the word ‘Catalan’ to read ‘Spanish’ in places” was properly caught in our proofing process and was corrected prior to our printing. This error does not appear in any bound copies of our edition.
Jack Shoemaker
Editor-in-Chief
North Point Press
Berkeley, CA
Lauren Weiner replies:
Mr. Shoemaker is right; I should have checked the proofs against the final version of the book. Regrettably, the final book was not available when the review went to press. But now I have my finished copy of Forbidden Territory and as I turn to pages 27 and 28 I see that on page 27 the error that I alluded to has been caught, but page 28 still has Goytisolo saying that he, his brothers, and other writers in their circle felt like “Spaniards in Madrid and Castilians in Barcelona,” when the proper translation is “Catalans in Madrid and Castilians in Barcelona.” Not a mistake one would expect from a professional translator. And it isn’t an inconsequential one, either, for it confusingly deprives Goytisolo, who felt “enriched by this mutual rejection,” of the misfit role so central to his personality and work.
The North Point editors have reduced Peter Bush’s embarrassment by fifty percent. For the other fifty percent not much can be done, but North Point may want to consider sending erratum slips to the sellers of Forbidden Territory.
