Recently finished books?

[pesahson]

Thanks. I'm not a big Naipaul fan, but he is certainly a master stylist.

And he certainly has a big ego. Nothing wrong with that, but some of his claims are...hmm...interesting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/02/vs-naipaul-jane-austen-women-writers

[Rumpelstilzchen]

After Dark, Murakami Haruki, ****0
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Jose Saramago, ****0
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Marios Vargas Llosa, ***00-

[huesao]

The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux****0+
East of Eden by John Steinbeck ****0-
Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa ****0

[Stevie B]

Of Love and Hunger by Julian Maclaren-Ross ***00+

Loved the first half of the book, but not the second.

[sirena]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif Mansfield Park - Jane Austen ***00

[JTolle]

East of Eden by John Steinbeck ****0-

One of my all-time favorite books. I feel like it might pale against The Grapes of Wrath,if I ever get around to reading it. Perhaps this explains the slightly less than enthusiastically rapturous response I see?


http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif Mansfield Park - Jane Austen ***00

Shamefully, the only Austen I've read. I wasn't particularly enthused, either, but, after reading some of Booth's The Rhetoric of Fiction, I am excited to read Emma. A good friend of mine who adores Austen always likes to remind me that Mansfield Park is, in her opinion, Austen parodying herself without much result.

[Stiffelio]

us Philip Roth

The Anatomy Lesson ****0
This is the third instalment of the Zuckerman trilogy (after The Ghost Writer and Zuckerman Unbound). Zuckerman has now reached middle age, has three divorces behind him, is estranged from his only brother and is suffering from excruciating and unexplained back and shoulder pain, rendering him completely incapacitaded to write. So he explores the possibility of going back to school in Chicago in order to study medicine. While I enjoyed this novel as I usually do with Roth, I'd rank it a notch below the preceding two. It's an unveven novel. I took a while to warm up to the first half but in the last section Roth delivers some of his best and most hilarious pieces of writing.

The Prague Orgy ***00
This short nouvelle bookends the Zuckerman Bound volume as an epilogue to the trilogy but it is completely unrelated to it. Maybe it was attached to it for commercial reasons as it may have been difficult to publish such a short book on its own. Zuckerman does feature in this novel but only as a 'sounding board' to other people's stories. The story or stories rather are set in cold-war times Czechoslovakia, where Roth tries to capture the human despair of people under a police state. The attempt to rescue a lost manuscript is a pretext to tell us the miserable life stories of an emigré writer and his actress mistress, a drunken wife left behind and other intellectuals in addition to satyrizing the local czech communist bureaucracy. The novel has some effective, atmospheric and thriller-like moments but, with hindsight, I had the sense of 'déja-read' and that this sort of themes were better covered by writers like Graham Greene or W.G.Sebald.

[huesao]

One of my all-time favorite books. I feel like it might pale against The Grapes of Wrath,if I ever get around to reading it. Perhaps this explains the slightly less than enthusiastically rapturous response I see?

The main reason for my response was that the book felt like a giant exercise in rambling to me, what with the continuous references the Cain and Able story and the battle between good and evil. Steinbeck's best novels are, I think, his shorter ones (especially Of Mice and Men), where there are all kinds of wonderful insights.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed East of Eden very much. Several of the characters were fascinating (notably Lee, Cathy, and Sam Hamilton), it has some interesting things to say on family inheritance, Steinbeck's prose is beautiful, and I found the last 10 chapters or so very moving. A book that I would recommend to others, but perhaps only after reading other works by Steinbeck.

[Clarissa]

Steinbeck is a greatly neglected writer... Pity. I have read most of his books and have never been disappointed. Which I cannot say for many another wellknown author.

East of Eden was also made into a great film, directed by Elia Kazan. James Dean was outstanding as was Jo Van Fleet who played his mother and gave one of the most memorable screen performances I have ever seen. And Julie Harris, another wonderful actress. One of those rare occasions when the film was as good as the book.

[Mirabell]

After Dark, Murakami Haruki, ****0
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Jose Saramago, ****0
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Marios Vargas Llosa, ***00-

in which translation?

[Rumpelstilzchen]

in which translation?

Hm, you are right, in addition to the English title I should really not forget to mention what language and translation I read the books in:

After Dark, Murakami Haruki, ****0
(in German translation by Ursula Gräfe)
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Jose Saramago, ****0
(In German translation by Andreas Klotsch)
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Marios Vargas Llosa, ***00-
(In German translation by Heidrun Adler)

There is a new translation of this Vargas Llosa book coming out from the same publisher this year, which could indicate that the older translation has some problems.

For books in languages that I am not familiar with like Japanese and Spanish I try to make sure to find direct translations. In addition I am usually switching between English and German translations depending on the reputation of the translators and reviews. For example, I read some of the Murakami books in English translation, some in German. But sometimes I just do not care and grab the version that is available.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

In case of Classics or older books, where typically various translations are available, I really take this translator issue very seriously and try to put some effort into researching which one is supposed to be the best one and go for this then, even if that means buying the latest translation that is only available as fucking expensive hardcover (if not available in the library). I would say that I am taking this issue very seriously in comparison to the general public. A lot of my friends are making fun of me because I am usually not going for the 5 Euro mass market paperback but rather often for the 40 Euro hardcover just because the translation is supposed to be better.

I think a lot of bad ratings (also on this forum) of books are at least partially caused by unsatisfactory translations. And a lot of the people giving such bad ratings are not even aware that the translation might be the problem.

[Remora]

I have read most of his books and have never been disappointed. Which I cannot say for many another wellknown author.

Do tell, the many another wellknown author[s].

[Clarissa]

Calvino - the choice of the month a while ago. Just couldn't get into it.
On the other hand, another choice, Saramango, I found superb.

[JTolle]

On the other hand, another choice, Saramango, I found superb.

Perhaps it was a superb choice because he happened to be so ripe?

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/br.gif Paulo Lins, Cidade de Deus (City of God) ****0

A really violent and raw picture of the lives in Brazilians favelas and how the crime ends up polluting everyone, even when their ideals dare to be different. The film must be very good as Fernando Meirelles is a great director and it had a lot of positive reviews when it first released. Looking forward to watch the movie this weekend.

[johnw1]

North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell *****

Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell *****

Moving, down to earth, some great characters... To me Gaskell's writing seems just as good as the more often praised George Eliot. I'm surprised there aren't more posts on her work on here really.

[Clarissa]

Perhaps because George Eliot is the better known writer? I have read both Gaskell and George Eliot and found George Eliot more challenging but also more satisfying.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/ru.gif Lev Tolstoi, The Kreutzer Sonata ****0

This novel is similar in many points to El Túnel, by Ernesto Sábato. It's like Tolstoi is the XIX century version and Sábato the XX. In both there is the first voice narrator telling almost since the start that he killed his lover and he keeps telling the story of how it happened. The common scenery of jealousy and madness impregnates the nouvelles. Anothe similarity is that you can read both in one sit.

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/ca.gif Leonard Cohen, Flowers for Hitler ***00+

Found him a good but not an outstanding poet. A lot of humour in many poems and specially in a small play that is included in this volume. He can interact with the devastated humanity and create grotesque characters that can amuse you and depress you at the same time, all in one verse.

[Mirabell]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/ru.gif Lev Tolstoi, The Kreutzer Sonata ****0

This novel is similar in many points to El Túnel, by Ernesto Sábato. It's like Tolstoi is the XIX century version and Sábato the XX. In both there is the first voice narrator telling almost since the start that he killed his lover and he keeps telling the story of how it happened. The common scenery of jealousy and madness impregnates the nouvelles. Anothe similarity is that you can read both in one sit.



I think the whole stars thing is a bit queer, but why just 4 stars and not five? When I read it (admittedly, I was much younger), I thought it all kinds of awesome. What negatives did you find?

[DB Cooper]

The Lost City of Z-David Grann **000

Nobody Move-Denis Johnson**000

[kpjayan]

1. Lost Paradise - Cees Nooteboom : ***+ Rather absurd novel, but crafted well.
2. Ransom - David Malouf : ***+ small plot, brilliantly retold. I need to read more of him. Any suggestions ?
3. Mr.Palomar - Italo Calvino : *** Great insights out of trivial things. Can this be called a fiction ? Guess, it demand couple of readings more.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

3. Mr.Palomar - Italo Calvino : *** Great insights out of trivial things. Can this be called a fiction ? Guess, it demand couple of readings more.

I love this little gem of a book. Might be not as important as Invisible Cities, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler or the Cosmicomics, but nevertheless very worthwhile reading. It somehow seems to appeal to my perception of the world as a physicist.

[Daniel del Real]

I think the whole stars thing is a bit queer, but why just 4 stars and not five? When I read it (admittedly, I was much younger), I thought it all kinds of awesome. What negatives did you find?

Nothing negative, just too short. I ended wanting more.

[DB Cooper]

Against the Day-Thomas Pynchon *****

A singular experience. I cant imagine how any serious reader of American fiction wouldnt be able to find something enjoyable about this book. Glad I finally took the plunge and read the thing. My favorite Pynchon, by a pretty fair margin. I have only two Pynchon books unread, Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon. Maybe one will top ATD, but thats a tall order.

[Colonel Green]

Faulkner vs. Hemingway, Round 3:

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner ***00

I never know quite what I think about Faulkner. His talent is undeniable, but he's clearly one of the spearheads of my least-favourite trend in 20th century writing: the pursuit of structural and stylistic innovation at the expense of any regard for readers (see also: Joyce, James; Eliot, T. S.). Two of this book's four sections are written in styles that might theoretically sound interesting but in practice are essentially impossible to understand without reading it several times and/or reading a synopsis. The latter two parts are written comprehensibly, and are very good; I liked the story overall, but I can't love it, which is typical of how I react to his work. The stories are always interesting when you hear about them, but you have to wade through a prose thicket.

For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway ****0

Hemingway's longest novel, which in a lot of ways seems like the obverse side of A Farewell to Arms; the latter typified disenchantment with militarism following World War I; here we follow the people travelling far afield to fight in the preliminary skirmishes of World War II. For such a long book, it really feels like remarkably little is actually going on. There's little plot, a lot of atmosphere, and plenty of musing. If Faulkner's prose often obscures his storytelling, Hemingway is clear, to the point of sometimes being too vanilla; all the same, it has a great sense of place, which is unsurprising given Hemingway's personal experiences. The main characters were all well-drawn.

[e joseph]

Faulkner vs. Hemingway, Round 3:

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner ***00

For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway ****0

Four stars to three in favor of For Whom the Bell Tolls? This just seems flat out wrong to me. As for Hemingway's well-drawn characters, how did you feel about Maria? I thought that one poorly, poorly, poorly "developed" character; the love story was just awful. Awful.

[Mirabell]

Four stars to three in favor of For Whom the Bell Tolls? This just seems flat out wrong to me. As for Hemingway's well-drawn characters, how did you feel about Maria? I thought that one poorly, poorly, poorly "developed" character; the love story was just awful. Awful.

http://static.artfagcity.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wordpress_core/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/orsonclapping.gif




I could not possibly agree more. I UTTERLY fail to understand the "it's too difficult: must be the author's fault: bad author" line of thinking.

[e joseph]

Against the Day-Thomas Pynchon *****

A singular experience. I cant imagine how any serious reader of American fiction wouldnt be able to find something enjoyable about this book. Glad I finally took the plunge and read the thing. My favorite Pynchon, by a pretty fair margin. I have only two Pynchon books unread, Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon. Maybe one will top ATD, but thats a tall order.
I've still only read The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon, which I know isn't right. I have Gravity's Rainbow on a shelf, but you're making a pretty strong case for Against the Day. Well played.

[Mirabell]

I've still only read The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon, which I know isn't right. I have Gravity's Rainbow on a shelf, but you're making a pretty strong case for Against the Day. Well played.


I think MAson & Dixon is the better novel. YOu might try that one.

[e joseph]

I think MAson & Dixon is the better novel. YOu might try that one.
Yup, that one's in the running as well; I think it's the novel that most appeals to me. Gravity's Rainbow seems more like a rite of passage though. Plus it's on my book shelf. Pynchon in 2012: GR vs. M&D vs. AtD

[Clarissa]

I never know quite what I think about Faulkner. His talent is undeniable, but he's clearly one of the spearheads of my least-favourite trend in 20th century writing: the pursuit of structural and stylistic innovation at the expense of any regard for readers (see also: Joyce, James; Eliot, T. S.).

Oh how I disagree with you. Hemingway may be good and an 'easy read' but cannot be compared to the true genius of a Faulkner, Joyce or T.S.Eliot. If you have trouble with Ulysses, may I suggest you dip into Joyce's short stories, The Dubliners. The last story, The Dead, is one of the best ever written in the English language and the last lines of that story are quite outstanding.

Mirabell, loved Orson Welles applauding but without that extraordinary voice he is less than half of himself.

[Colonel Green]

I could not possibly agree more. I UTTERLY fail to understand the "it's too difficult: must be the author's fault: bad author" line of thinking.I should think that should be fairly obvious: I take issue with Faulkner's stylistic choices, which make his novel extremely difficult to follow, and which is quite obviously his choice. A chapter told from the perspective of a mentally retarded man who shifts between three time periods completely at random and demarcated only by italics, and a chapter told from the perspective of a man having a mental breakdown that progressively disregards grammar and coherence; both are interesting ideas, but they're not remotely calculated to be readable, particularly given the grammar issues. Which is an increasing trend in modern fiction. And the second two chapters are both highly readable; if the whole story had been told in that manner, it would have been far superior (and better than For Whom The Bell Tolls).

Authors should put communicating with their audiences at a premium, particularly when, as Faulkner does, he has such a strong story to tell. These sorts of things suck any possible enjoyment out of reading and take me out of the book, as you spend all your time trying to reach a basic understanding of what's going on, instead of being drawn into the story. Not all Faulkner's works are like that, of course. Light in August is easily the most readable of his four major books, and is by far my favourite of his; I'd call it superior to anything I've read by Hemingway.

Oh how I disagree with you. Hemingway may be good and an 'easy read' but cannot be compared to the true genius of a Faulkner, Joyce or T.S.Eliot. If you have trouble with Ulysses, may I suggest you dip into Joyce's short stories, The Dubliners. The last story, The Dead, is one of the best ever written in the English language and the last lines of that story are quite outstanding.I've read some of The Dubliners (though not "The Dead"); found them fairly dull. My brother quite likes Joyce, but I've never enjoyed his writing at all.

Eliot I find I like some of his plays and more minor poems ("Journey of the Magi" is probably my favourite), but I utterly despise "The Waste Land", for much the same reasons as I had problems with The Sound and the Fury.

[e joseph]

I'm tagging out of this shit, but let me add one thing: The Sound and the Fury? Man, I love that book.

[Clarissa]

The Sound and the Fury? Man, I love that book.

So do I...

[Mirabell]

So do I...


Same here, same here.

[DB Cooper]

I think MAson & Dixon is the better novel. YOu might try that one.

I think I'm going through Pynchon withdrawals, I tried starting a couple books but nothing would stick. I may just go straight into Mason & Dixon.

[Clarissa]

I got halfway through Gravity's Rainbow, then gave up. Would like to know why Pynchon is considered such an important writer. Is there anything more accessible from him that I could try?

[Eric]

Just to put my big foot in it: why read Pynchon at all? Because people tell you he's great, people who then don't read the book to the end, or what? I'm afraid I don't remember a thing from when I read "The Crying of Lot 49" about three decades ago, but I seem to remember that I didn't "get" it. Would I now? Maybe I would. At least it's not so long.

Come on, come clean, intellectuals, is this the work of a genius or another overhyped piece of intertextuality that has dragged bits home from other people's books like the cat does with dead mice? Judging by the Wikipedia, it is a great novel for those doing a thesis on the intertextuality of postmodernistícs. But is it a good read, once you get beyond the "ahah, I recognise that allusion!" level?

Your eternal cynic,

Eric the Incorrigible

[Mirabell]

Just to put my big foot in it: why read Pynchon at all? Because people tell you he's great, people who then don't read the book to the end, or what? I'm afraid I don't remember a thing from when I read "The Crying of Lot 49" about three decades ago, but I seem to remember that I didn't "get" it. Would I now? Maybe I would. At least it's not so long.

Come on, come clean, intellectuals, is this the work of a genius or another overhyped piece of intertextuality that has dragged bits home from other people's books like the cat does with dead mice? Judging by the Wikipedia, it is a great novel for those doing a thesis on the intertextuality of postmodernistícs. But is it a good read, once you get beyond the "ahah, I recognise that allusion!" level?

Your eternal cynic,

Eric the Incorrigible


as has been said on another thread:


Keep your prejudices to yourself... we know that you do not like him, probably without really knowing his works (how many of his books have you read from front to back?), nevetheless you like to talk about him all the time for unkown reasons as in this case... grow up!

[Mirabell]

2. Ransom - David Malouf : ***+ small plot, brilliantly retold. I need to read more of him. Any suggestions ?


Why not An Imaginary Life? We have thread on it here http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/showthread.php/24758-David-Malouf-An-Imaginary-Life

YOu could also try Johnno.

[waxwing]

The Fountain Overflows (1957) by Rebecca West

Has to be one of the best novels of childhood ever written. West had a remarkable one (first decade of the 20th century) with remarkable parents, her father a brilliant, renowned journalist who gambled away his money on financial schemes; and her mother, a famous pianist in her youth, struggling to keep the family above the poverty line.

[waxwing]

Come on, come clean, intellectuals, is this the work of a genius or another overhyped piece of intertextuality that has dragged bits home from other people's books like the cat does with dead mice? Judging by the Wikipedia, it is a great novel for those doing a thesis on the intertextuality of postmodernistícs. But is it a good read, once you get beyond the "ahah, I recognise that allusion!" level?


I'm no intellectual and don't care a whit about "intertextuality of postmodernistics" or any other academic theory. I'm a general reader who reads novels hoping they will provide some measure of what Nabokov termed aesthetic bliss. And for me Pynchon hits the mark in that aspect more so than any American writer I've read since Melville. But I can certainly understand that many readers will not respond to him, like all artists he has strengths and weaknesses.

[Mirabell]

And for me Pynchon hits the mark in that aspect more so than any American writer I've read since Melville.

I agree, also about the grouping of these two writers. I believe they are very similar in a whole lot of ways.

[Mirabell]

Honey and Clover Vol.1, Chica Umino (trans. Akemi Wegmuller)

[Stiffelio]

Ransom - David Malouf : ***+ small plot, brilliantly retold. I need to read more of him. Any suggestions ?


The only book by Malouf I read was Remembering Babylon and I thought it was very good.

[Mirabell]

Porn Studies, Linda Williams (ed.)


I need to reread Hard Core.

[Colonel Green]

The Sibyl by Par Lagerkvist ***00

Lagerkvist's slim parable-style novellas are generally interesting reads; I often feel like he should have made these into stage plays, given how much they often remind me of classical Greek theatre (in this case, the fact that the main character is an oracle of Delphi amplifies that connection).

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif Leonora Carrington, The Seventh Horse and other Tales ***00+

[sirena]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham *****

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/cl.gif Nicanor Parra, Poemas para Combatir la Calvicie (Antología) *****+

I really have an imperious need to talk about Parra so I'll have to create a thread about him. It took me so long to get to him and I really regret of losing time before reading him. Amazing poet, or better said, amazing anti-poet.

[Colonel Green]

Hunger by Knut Hamsun ***00

Early (1890) foray into the realm of stream-of-consciousness storytelling. The comparative uniqueness of that has completely worn off in the ensuing 120 years, leaving what is overall a pretty good example of the style, though Hamsun quite deliberately avoids having much of a plot, which I think limits how well it can age.

[Liam]

Which translation did you read?

[Colonel Green]

Sverre Lyngstad's, the one used by Penguin Classics.

[Liam]

OK, mine's by Robert Bly (copyright says 1967), republished recently by FSG (intro by Paul Auster) and I liked it very much! :)

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/cl.gif Alejandro Zambra, Formas de Volver a Casa (Ways to Go Back Home) *****

This guy is really really good. Trust me. Whenever this translation is available, go get it!

[errequatro]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/mz.gif Mia Couto Vinte e zinco 3 out of 5

Very short novel (99 pages) to be read in a breath. Caracthers are nevertheless well developed and Mia Couto's language is a joy. There are some more or less cliched scenes and and think it would have benefited to have a bit more pages. It's about the revolution of Vinte e Cinco De Abril as perceived from Mozambique.

[Mirabell]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/cl.gif Alejandro Zambra, Formas de Volver a Casa (Ways to Go Back Home) *****

This guy is really really good. Trust me. Whenever this translation is available, go get it!

Huh. So far, only two plant-centric novellas appear to have been translated. is this about plants, too? how long is it?

[Daniel del Real]

Huh. So far, only two plant-centric novellas appear to have been translated. is this about plants, too? how long is it?

I haven't read the second one, but this one is not about plants. This novel deals with how the childhood and youth in Chile grew up under the Pinochet's dictatorship, specially in the 80's that matches the young days of Zambra. Here the author tells how adults tried to hide the truth from the young ones and how the tense ambient prevailed as the kids have to watched their parents worries and tears.
This is also a nouvelle, but a little longer than his previous, 165 pages in my edition.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/pt.gif José Saramago, As Intermitências da Morte (Death at Intervals) re-read ****0

[Colonel Green]

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway ***00

Based on the first few chapters (particularly the description of the origins and character of Robert Cohn), I thought this might be my favourite Hemingway novel, but it gets less interesting as it goes on. We follow a group of disaffected youngish people who live comfortably despite having no obvious means of support and whose lives consist of nothing but travelling around Europe and engaging in love triangles (apart from the travelling around Europe part, it's like a long episode of Friends) - of course, Hemingway's whole point is how adrift and ineffectual everybody is, but it's not a particularly interesting read. I think F. Scott Fitzgerald did this sort of thing better.

Light in August by William Faulkner *****

Read this a whole ago, but I realized I forgot to comment on it.

Anyway: See, Faulkner, was that so hard? Finally a novel of his that I can unreservedly embrace. It's by far the most readable of his four major novels (not even close, really), even though it's the longest. Still, a tremendous read. I'll probably take another crack at Absalom, Absalom! in the near future, since that was the first of his novels that I read, and I absolutely hated it at the time.

I'm also reading, bit by bit (there's only so many unrelated poems one can read at a time, I find), Rudyard Kipling's Complete Verse. I've read a couple of his notable poems, between high school English and various history classes where people examine "The White Man's Burden" (I would a hazard a guess that Kipling is the most widely-read Nobel Laureate, for that reason), but there's a ton of minor stuff here I'd never heard of. For instance, "James I", which is hilariously scathing about its subject (the historian in me says it's a little unfair, but whatever), particularly the final four lines. I've always enjoyed Kipling's poetry a lot; he knew how to craft a memorable phrase, and even if some of the politics are dated, I find that just makes it more interesting to consider. You can see why he was one of the last poets to be truly widely-read (though the continuing encroachment of the novel through the Victorian period also plays into that).

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/ar.gif Ernesto Sabato, Hombres y Engranajes (Men and Mechanisms) *****+
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/cl.gif Roberto Bolaño, Entre Paréntesis (Between Parentheses) *****

[sirena]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett ***00

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/es.gif Federico García Lorca, Poeta en Nueva York (Poet in New York) *****++

A fantastic experience that was guided by an excellent anotated edition that led me through the multiple and sometimes complex poems that joins this book. Divided in X sections, Lorca takes you to New York City in 1929 where he yells about the past innocence and childhood, paradise lost, the denunciation of the industrial and mechanic world in the city that never sleeps.
After finishing it, I had the urge to to back and make a re-read on the following poem

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/sy.gif Adonis, The Funeral of New York *****
I finally was able to fully comprehend this poem that has so many connections with Lorca's Poeta en Nueva York. A foreigner returns 40 years laters, and finds many similar structures that Lorca did. In Adonis, the tone of denunciation is stronger and more straigthforward than in Lorca's and takes some elements from him; the mention of Walt Withman, the escape from this world as the only option and the posibility of a rebirth by the people in Harlem or Greenwich Village.
This poem also has ten sections and both have a common point at the end, taking Cuba as a possibility for freedom, a place for the black people and their inner rythm to break free, a return to Nature.

Now, it's been another 40 years after Adonis wrote that poem. Some other poet should be writing a new poem about New York and see if something have changed. It would be really interesting but devastating as I think the situation has gotten worse.

[kpjayan]

The Old man and his sons - Heðin Brú : Little gem from Faroe Island. Simple, fascinating read with no intellectual pretension.

The wandering Falcon - Jamil Ahmad : Literary debut by a 78 year old Pakistani bureaucrat. Loosely held tale of Tribal people of Pak-Afghan-Iran border. Fantastic settings, poignant language and often hinting at the root of the modern conflicts. I mentioned loosely help because , each chapter is a story by itself, connected by a character ( insignificant in most cases). Very good.

[Alish]

Roadside Picnic by Arcadiy and Boris Strugackiy. It's my favourite book.

[waxwing]

The War of the End of the World (1981) by Mario Vargas Llosa

I suffered fatigue from the endless battle scenes, the unrelentingly bleak view of human nature, it ends quite appropriately with one soldier urinating on another.

The Pumpkin Eater (1961) by Penelope Mortimer

Penelope was married to dramatist John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey) and I found this novel to be a very moving angst-ridden evocation of their tumultuous relationship. Brilliant Pinter-esque dialogue.

[Loki]

The Warden- Anthony Trollope ***00+

I've finally read my first Trollope, and I've found it a very enjoyable read. It's a short and unpretentious novel, about a little scandal in a little village: I like this kind of setting. There are not a lot of characters, and the main ones are well characterised. However, some of them, like the children of the archdeacon, are described but they are not really part of the plot; they could have a bigger role in the next five Bersetshire novels.
I didn't really like some descriptions, like the one of the offices of The Times (which Trollope calls the Jupiter, playing on the fact that at the time it was called "The Thunderer"), which I find boring and unnecessary.
What I did like was a peculiarity of the warden of the title, that is that while he was conversing he was playing an imaginary violoncello behind his back or beneath the chair, and the more difficult the situation, the sadder the immaginary tune would be.

[Alish]

Pet Sematary by Steven King. It was "first" book that i had read in English for myself. Not greatfull. 2/5.

[sirena]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/jp.gif Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami (reread) *****
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif Scenes of Clerical Life - George Eliot ***00

[sirena]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif The Professor - Charlotte Brontë **000

[lenz]

Clarice Lispector: The Hour of the Star and Family Ties

Influenced by many but unique.

[Elie]

Arundhati Roy - The God Of Small Things
Jhumpa Lahiri - Interpreter Of Maladies

Very different but both very good reads. If I had to choose I'd probably say the second of the two was my favourite - beautiful, really simple well-written short stories, which brought an unexpected tear to the eye at times.

[Stiffelio]

Arundhati Roy - The God Of Small Things


I loved this book. I read it a few months ago and I'm still gathering strengths to comment on it with some critical sense beyond saying that I was shattered by so much power and beauty.

[Loki]

Harper Lee- To Kill a Mockingbird ***00++

It took me some eighty pages to start enjoying it. From then on, however, it has been a pleasure to read this novel: ok, some passages were boring, yet the plot was full of little adventures and of some important and serious events narrated by the peculiar point of view of a eight-year-old girl. The trial scene was probably the best one.
I've loved the metaphor of the mockingbird from the beginning, and it got even better when with the last chapter it has become related to other characters too. In Italian the title is completely different: Il buio oltre la siepe, that is "The darkness beyond the hedge", meaning something that is close to you but that you don't know and that when you come to know you find that it is something "nice".

[Liam]

László Krasznahorkai's AnimalInside: *****.

As I said elsewhere, I'm amazed at how he only needs 40 pages to say what Jonathan Littell can't say in over a thousand.

[Loki]

C. S. Lewis- The Screwtape Letters **000-

I had high expectations about this book, which turned out to be a series of letters about random topics, so that in the end they have been disappointed. Despite its length I've struggled to finish it.
I may have missed some references to religion or history as my edition was not an annotated one, but I doubt that it would have made the book any better.

[Liam]

Loki, The Screwtape Letters is best read in conjunction with the rest of Lewis's religious writings, which were recently published in a Signatures Classics edition in an affordable paperback, :).

[nightwood]

I, City by Pavel Brycz ****0


A city itself (that of Most in Czech Republic) as the narrator of the lives of its inhabitants. A rather unusual perspective. Allmighty but also powerless as it can only narrate its history and those of their inhabitants; and it does so full of irony but also in a very melancholic tone at times. If one can appreciate this in a story and has a soft heart one can shed a tear or two.

The chapters, appearances as they are called and which fits perfectly as they have a very ghostlike feeling, are rather short so one doesn´t spend to much on it but as Pavel Brycz makes a lot of allusions about the history of CZ in general and Most especially there is more than meets the eye in it which one can and does easily miss if one is not familiar with it.

At the end of the book all those historical events, people, TV shows, music bands, phrases etc. are explained in footnotes in more detail (for which I was very grateful to the two translators Joshua Cohen and Marketa Hofmeisterova).

A solid 4 Star read for a very lyrical work of prose, at least for me it was :)

[Stiffelio]

C. S. Lewis- The Screwtape Letters **000-

I had high expectations about this book, which turned out to be a series of letters about random topics, so that in the end they have been disappointed. Despite its length I've struggled to finish it.
I may have missed some references to religion or history as my edition was not an annotated one, but I doubt that it would have made the book any better.

I remember reading these letters, or some of them, at school for religion class. They were rather compelling for me at 14 or 15 yo, but I imagin they may seem a lttle underwhelming if you read them as an adult.

[asocial]

Tariq Ali - The Book of Saladin ***00
Book 2 of Ali's Islamic Quintet. I appreciate the concept of this series - a non-Eurocentric fictionalised retelling of various important pockets of Islamic history. The Book of Saladin takes the form of a memoir of Salah Al-Din and charts his reign as Sultan of Egypt and beyond, leading up to his recapturing of Jerusalem from the Crusaders. The historical detail and attention to the daily life of the period is fascinating and so too are the litany of support characters whose lives seem occupied as much with sexual intrigue as they are with issues od politics, religion and war. (There are plenty of bawdy moments here!) Salah Al-Din himself is an intriguingly portrayed and effectively brought to life as a determined, charismatic, yet very human, leader. The prose is quite minimalist and occasionally does seem a touch flat. This no doubt stems from the choice of a fictional 12th century scribe as narrator. Ultimately, this is a thorougly enjoyable and very insightful saga, though not quite as engaging as the first in the series: Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree.

[waxwing]

A Word Child (1975) by Iris Murdoch

I loved the feverish tone, and the echoes of Hitchcock's Vertigo in it's depiction of the destructive power of overwrought passion, and in the second chance offered to the crazed-by-love protaganist. Very bizarre, I couldn't put it down.

Embers (1942) by Sandor Marai

Forty years of brooding in an Eastern European castle. A short story gone long, but often suspenseful in the tale's slow unravelling.

[Loki]

Il libro dei morti (The Book of the Dead)- Patricia Cornwell ****0

My first Cornwell, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Finally I've come back to read the kind of the book (no, not that of the dead) I've always enjoyed reading. This has been no disappointment, I expected a good plot with a lot of cliff-hangers and that's what I found. Yes, it's an unpretentious book from a literary point of view: the prose is rather plain, but easy to follow.
It's been weird reading a book set in the 2000s though, being used to Victorian novels or 20th century ones.

[kpjayan]

Sozaboy - Ken Saro wiwa : Master class. I have not seen the language being an important character in any other fiction. One of the African Classics of 20th Century.

2666 - Roberto Bolano : Took me 2 years and three of his other works ( to familiarise with his writing) before attempting this mammoth book. It was worth all the effort. I am still fresh with the thoughts and will need a couple of days more to get over this. Yet to see a negative opinion on this in general. Epical writing.. may be too long chapter on murders..

[Loki]

Luigi Pirandello- L'esclusa (The Excluded Woman) ****0-

This is Pirandello's first novel (1901, although first written in 1893), about a woman who is forced to leave the village she has always lived in because of her infidelity, although we are not sure if the betrayal is true or not. She then goes to Palermo, where she tries and start a new life, surrounded by new people, new friends, new neighbours, but she can't forget, and she can't escape her old life...
It's a pity the book is so short: Pirandello describes some interesting characters, like Mr. Madden, but then it seems as if he forgets about them; he could have expanded on them a little.

On the whole, L'esclusa is a well-written novel, in which the narrator successfully transmits the characters' feelings (especially Marta's, the excluded woman of the title), and all the tragedy, death and sadness that permeates the story. But it's not just the characters: Pirandello talks at length about the little village, about the society, full of its gossip, its prejudices, its religious feast, its local corrupt politicians: all these elements, in the end, will contribute to the exclusion she will suffer.

I don't know if an English translation is available. There's a Wikipedia page if anyone's interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Esclusa

[sirena]

The Ambassadors - Henry James ***00

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/us.gif A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway **000

[Loki]

Patricia Cronwell- Predatore (Predator) ****0-

Another great detective thriller, like the other one, although this is a bit less well-written: there are many threads of the story that little by little are linked, but in The Book of the Dead this was done in a clearer way.
Also, I should've read the two books in chronological order, because I knew things I was not supposed to know yet.

[Liam]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/us.gif A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway **000
Yeah, I was vastly underwhelmed by this "masterpiece" as well, but don't you think two stars is still a bit... harsh, :)?

[sirena]

Yeah, I was vastly underwhelmed by this "masterpiece" as well, but don't you think two stars is still a bit... harsh, :)?

No, not at all. :D

[Loki]

Philip Roth- The Ghost Writer ***00++

Just finished this short novel (about 180 pp.), and I'm not sure what to make of it. To start with I had difficulties to getting used to his rather complex style, especially after reading two Cornwell's novels in Italian. The sentences are ostentatiously long, with many subordinates that at times made me forget the first part of the sentence. Anyway, in the end I like the way he writes, for what I've read at least.
Then, the main idea of the book was interesting indeed, but I couldn't but be bored by some "inserts", like the one about the story about his family that he had published, or the one "about Anne Frank": way too long! So the first part and the last part especially have been amazing, but they were far too short! (There must be a problem of measurement...) An exception would be the part about "the madness of art", i.e. about Henry James's novella The Middle Years.
It's always fascinating for me to read novels about writers, about people who dedicate their lives, in their own ways, to art, to literature, and about the process of writing. Add to that the mysterious Amy and all the unconventional relationships between the characters and the result is this great little novel.

[pesahson]

Loki, I see you're making use of time now that you don't have classes! :)

[Loki]

Loki, I see you're making use of time now that you don't have classes! :)

Well, now that I can read I try and spend my time well! I can't understand how people can read while going at university.

[Stiffelio]

Philip Roth- The Ghost Writer ***00++

Just finished this short novel (about 180 pp.), and I'm not sure what to make of it. To start with I had difficulties to getting used to his rather complex style, especially after reading two Cornwell's novels in Italian. The sentences are ostentatiously long, with many subordinates that at times made me forget the first part of the sentence. Anyway, in the end I like the way he writes, for what I've read at least.
Then, the main idea of the book was interesting indeed, but I couldn't but be bored by some "inserts", like the one about the story about his family that he had published, or the one "about Anne Frank": way too long! So the first part and the last part especially have been amazing, but they were far too short! (There must be a problem of measurement...) An exception would be the part about "the madness of art", i.e. about Henry James's novella The Middle Years.
It's always fascinating for me to read novels about writers, about people who dedicate their lives, in their own ways, to art, to literature, and about the process of writing. Add to that the mysterious Amy and all the unconventional relationships between the characters and the result is this great little novel.

Roth is a brilliant writer and this is a deep, funny, complex and absolutely fabulous novel. It is the beginning of his Zuckerman saga, which I recommend you to read in toto. In The Ghost Writer, Roth describes Zukerman's (and in a way his own!) first ropes as a writer; it is a homage of sorts to many of his admired authors, such as Joyce, James, Bellow and Malamud.

[Loki]

Roth is a brilliant writer and this is a deep, funny, complex and absolutely fabulous novel. It is the beginning of his Zuckerman saga, which I recommend you to read in toto. In The Ghost Writer, Roth describes Zukerman's (and in a way his own!) first ropes as a writer; it is a homage of sorts to many of his admired authors, such as Joyce, James, Bellow and Malamud.

I've read that Lonoff could represent Malamud, and even if you knew nothing of Roth (like me) you could get a sense, while reading the book, that he was kind of describing his first steps in his career as a writer.
Anyway, yes, I would like to read the whole Zuckerman Bound, especially The Anatomy Lesson, which seems great. But first I'd have to read Zuckerman Unbound, and even before that I'd have to buy them both!

[Loki]

Beppe Fenoglio- La paga del sabato (Saturday's Pay) *****

Now, this I couldn't expect! A terrific novel, although not one of his most famous like Il partigiano Johnny (Johnny the Partisan).
The violence of this book is what struck me: it's everywhere, but most of all in Ettore, the protagonist, a 22-year-old war veteran. The first scene in which he argues with his mother is probably the best of the whole book, and also the most violent.
Fenoglio was able to capture the inner state of this young man, his worries, his feelings towards Vanda, his girlfriend, and towards his family and his friends. Feelings that he was not able to express nor communicate to anyone. He could only express them through anger and violence, towards everybody. He says that nobody can understand what goes through his mind because he has fought in the war, that all that he is and everything he does is to be put down to the war (an important theme for Fenoglio, since he was a partisan himself).

I don't think there's an English translation.

[Loki]

Thomas Kyd- The Spanish Tragedy ***00+

I've finally read this tragedy that I had always heard of during my literature courses, of course in relation to Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's been a play sometimes obscure for me, not just for the language but also for the allusions to Greek mythology and theatre (although the notes helped me a bit). Anyway, despite this and despite the fact that my edition had endnotes instead of footnotes, I've been able to enjoy this tragedy, which supposedly established a new genre in English drama.
The fact that it is a "revenge tragedy" says it all: we have the ghost of Andrea, killed before the action starts, we have Revenge (they both act as the chorus of the play), and we have revenge and many deaths, of course.
There's also a masque, a dumb show and a play-within-the-play, which complicates things as the actors maintain their original names when they deliver their lines. However, Hieronimo, the "author" of this play-within-the play (and ultimately also of the revenge) originally intended the play to be acted in as many different languages as were the actors: in this case we would have had Latin, Greek, Italian and French; then there's a stage direction that explains that to make the understanding easier, the lines in the foreign languages have been translated into English. It would've turned out to be a mess, but it would've been also more fun. (I was contented enough with some lines in Italian though: those were among the few I didn't need to look up in the endnotes!)

On the whole I've liked Kyd's verse, that at times gets powerful and runs fast.

[Daniel del Real]

Tariq Ali - The Book of Saladin ***00
Book 2 of Ali's Islamic Quintet. I appreciate the concept of this series - a non-Eurocentric fictionalised retelling of various important pockets of Islamic history. The Book of Saladin takes the form of a memoir of Salah Al-Din and charts his reign as Sultan of Egypt and beyond, leading up to his recapturing of Jerusalem from the Crusaders. The historical detail and attention to the daily life of the period is fascinating and so too are the litany of support characters whose lives seem occupied as much with sexual intrigue as they are with issues od politics, religion and war. (There are plenty of bawdy moments here!) Salah Al-Din himself is an intriguingly portrayed and effectively brought to life as a determined, charismatic, yet very human, leader. The prose is quite minimalist and occasionally does seem a touch flat. This no doubt stems from the choice of a fictional 12th century scribe as narrator. Ultimately, this is a thorougly enjoyable and very insightful saga, though not quite as engaging as the first in the series: Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree.

It's not easy to find non-Eurocentric point of views in the western world but I find Ali and specially Amin Maalouf fascinating figures, modern storytellers that allow us to remember that there was a second party in history that most of the times we don't see. In this vein, I've wanted to read for so long Maalouf's book The Crusade Through Arab Eyes.

I also read the first book, and I found it really good, though a little difficult to get in. It can happen to us, Occidental readers to be confused with so many Arab names. Once you get in, it's a nice piece of fiction touching sides with reality.



2666 - Roberto Bolano : Took me 2 years and three of his other works ( to familiarise with his writing) before attempting this mammoth book. It was worth all the effort. I am still fresh with the thoughts and will need a couple of days more to get over this. Yet to see a negative opinion on this in general. Epical writing.. may be too long chapter on murders..

It probably is the translation, because in Spanish, it is a very easy reader to get in, his language is clear and precise and his ways of telling the story are very straightforward. However, I'm really glad you liked it, and yes, it's hard to listen to someone not liking this great book

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/pt.gif José Luis Peixoto, The Piano Cemetery *****
This writer has a very interesting way to tell a story. He goes very deep into the day to day life, and brings a melancholic eye to family and its routine. Very good evoking moments that seem common, but at the end they're the ones that mark people's life. Interest narrative techinques, a collage, a complete novel thrown at the air and spread all around, told by different point of views and going zig zag in time. A lot of influence by Faulkner and Rulfo.

[nightwood]

The Other City by Michal Ajvaz ****0

While reading this strange and estranging novel I couldn´t shake off an uneasy feeling which was really creepy, especially since I am familiar with the streets of Prague where this story takes place.

An unnamed narrator discovers in a bookshop a slim volume bound in purple velvet written in an unknown alphabet, where the letters look like flaming swords. In his quest to understand the story of the book he stumbles into a nightly journey to a "sister city" of Prague, hidden in dark corners, bedrooms (sic!) and libraries which turns into jungles.

Borges fans will love it.

Waiting For The Dog To Sleep by Jerzy Ficowski ***00 and a half

A short story collection wide in theme and characters without anything to hold it together but the atmosphere and the feeling in it. What the characters have indeed in common is that they are trying, quite often in vain, to link the past to the present and focus entirely on it.

One can see that Ficowski was and is foremost a poet, with one word he can do… everything. I surely have missed a lot in the stories due my lack of knowledge of Poland´s rather unfortunate history which Ficowksi veils in allusions.

Out Of Oneself by Andras Palyi ****0

Two short novellas of a 70 pages each.

In the first story “Beyond” encounters a catholic priest in the 1930´s of Budapest a sexual relationship with a stage diva. He seeks and finds redemption and feels closer to God in intercourse with the woman than in the culprit.

In the second story “The End Of The World” 50 years later a screenwriter experience transcendental ecstasy with a young actress while shooting a film.

Sexuality, spirituality and death, that is what you get. Or as Peter Nadas has put it: “What Andras Palyi has been doing is nothing short of tempting God”.

[Daniel del Real]

The Other City by Michal Ajvaz ****0

While reading this strange and estranging novel I couldn´t shake off an uneasy feeling which was really creepy, especially since I am familiar with the streets of Prague where this story takes place.

An unnamed narrator discovers in a bookshop a slim volume bound in purple velvet written in an unknown alphabet, where the letters look like flaming swords. In his quest to understand the story of the book he stumbles into a nightly journey to a "sister city" of Prague, hidden in dark corners, bedrooms (sic!) and libraries which turns into jungles.

Borges fans will love it.

This novel sounds like a formula that cannot fail with me: Borges like + Prague. I'm tempted to order it right now!

[nightwood]

This novel sounds like a formula that cannot fail with me: Borges like + Prague. I'm tempted to order it right now!

Daniel, you will love it for sure :) Don´t know if it is available in Spanish but Dalkey Archive has published the English translation, ISBN 978-1-56478-491-9 if this is of any help.

Ajvaz seems also to be some kind of Borges "scholar" as "he has published a booklength meditation on Borges and a philosophical study called Jungle of Light: Meditation on Seeing" - taken from the backcover of the book but I do not have any other information about this, sorry.

[huesao]

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson *****
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ****0 (re-read)
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner **000
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy *****+
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez *****+++

[Peeping Tom]

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell *****

This was a difficult novel to get into (for personal and stylistic reasons). And it was slow (though interesting) going during the first half. But by the second half, the novel really took off, a real page-turner. I still don't know how I feel about David Mitchell, who has been mentioned quite a bit here on this forum, but the very last sections of this novel were saving graces, and it was more than enough that I'm now reading Cloud Atlas.

[Loki]

Charles Dickens- A Tale of two Cities *****

A very beautiful historical novel by Dickens, set before and during the French Revolution. It depicts the blind violence and cruelty of the patriots towards the aristocrats, it shows the anguish that one is to suffer because of one's secrets that are little by little unveiled and because of the remembrance of such secrets, and, on an individual level, the sacrifice of a man for the woman he loves. The novels deals also a lot with the theme of the double, although not in the sense of the double of Hogg or Poe (in William Wilson): right from the title we have opposition of two elements, continuing in the first paragraph and then throughout all the novel.
Apart from the plot and the emotions conveyed, I could not but admire Dicken's prose and style. The opening and closing sentences are memorable, but the best part is the scene, towards the beginning, in which the cask of wine breaks.

[JTolle]

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson *****

I recently finished Housekeeping, but for all that I could appreciate in the novel - its prose, its imagery, its abstract, existential speculation - I found it, overall, tedious, overly serious, monotonous, and (fatally) aware of its own literariness.

Is this your first Robinson? If so, or if not, what made you like this book so much?

[Daniel del Real]

Daniel, you will love it for sure :) Don´t know if it is available in Spanish but Dalkey Archive has published the English translation, ISBN 978-1-56478-491-9 if this is of any help.

Ajvaz seems also to be some kind of Borges "scholar" as "he has published a booklength meditation on Borges and a philosophical study called Jungle of Light: Meditation on Seeing" - taken from the backcover of the book but I do not have any other information about this, sorry.

I don't think it has been translated to Spanish, but the English edition will work for me. Unfortunately I placed an order for Amazon about two weeks ago, so I guess this one will have to wait for the next one. However, it goes for sure at the top of my to read list.

[huesao]

I recently finished Housekeeping, but for all that I could appreciate in the novel - its prose, its imagery, its abstract, existential speculation - I found it, overall, tedious, overly serious, monotonous, and (fatally) aware of its own literariness.

Is this your first Robinson? If so, or if not, what made you like this book so much?

It's not my first. I've also read Gilead and liked that just as much, if not more.

I suppose the main reason I enjoyed Housekeeping so much is that its themes resonated with me. Loss, nostalgia, and transience are all subjects that I've been really getting into lately (though I haven't gone through much of them myself). Also, as you pointed out, Robinson's prose and imagery are a joy to read.

[Liam]

I found it... tedious, overly serious, monotonous, and (fatally) aware of its own literariness.This from a guy who's in love with DeLillo's wooden prose, :rolleyes:?

(Oops, did that slip out, :o).

However, what you said in regards to Robinson applies equally well to my "appreciation" of DeLillo, Roth, and a bunch of other pretentious wannabes.

[Clarissa]

The Summer Without Men - Siri Hustvedt *****

Ignore the title, probably chosen by the publisher to make the book more commercial. Stunningly well written, deeply moving, intelligent and highly recommended.

[hdw]

The Summer Without Men - Siri Hustvedt *****

Ignore the title, probably chosen by the publisher to make the book more commercial. Stunningly well written, deeply moving, intelligent and highly recommended.

Yes, from the title it sounds like a remake of Lysistrata.

Harry

[JTolle]

It's not my first. I've also read Gilead and liked that just as much, if not more.

Everything I've heard contributes to my still wanting to read both Gilead and Home, despite my lukewarm reception of Housekeeping. Perhaps I'll find in one of those two what I missed in my first encounter with Robinson.


This from a guy who's in love with DeLillo's wooden prose, :rolleyes:?

(Oops, did that slip out, :o).

I've got nothing against Robinson's prose, that was likely my favorite part of the book. When I say "monotonous" and "tedious" I refer to her overbearing philosophical thoughts, her utter lack of humor, and her need to render every single object, gesture, and emotion with prolix (albeit beautifully rendered) description.

One thing to say for DeLillo: he's actually got a sense of humor :p.

[Liam]

One thing to say for DeLillo: he's actually got a sense of humor...I don't read great literature for humor, but then DeLillo is not a great writer by any stretch of imagination, ;). He's also a prolific motherfucker; Robinson's only produced three short novels and two collections of essays in 30+ years. Nothing wrong with being prolific if you vary your themes, but they're all the same with DeLillo: American paranoia and white middle-class malaise. I'm surprised you're so in love with him, :p.

[JTolle]

I don't read great literature for humor, but then DeLillo is not a great writer by any stretch of imagination, ;).

Man, taking all these shots at DeLillo, Liam! Now, remind me, which one of his books traumatized you as a young lad ;)?


He's also a prolific motherfucker; Robinson's only produced three short novels and two collections of essays in 30+ years.

I notice you forgot Robinson's gloriously fun-looking Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution :rolleyes: and the fact that DeLillo's been publishing for a decade longer.

[Liam]

Now, remind me, which one of his books traumatized you as a young lad?I'd like to think that I'm still a young lad, thank you very much, :D, despite our own Waalkwriter's efforts to cast me as an old fart.

I had to write a paper back in the day on Mao II; I was unpleasantly struck with how poor and unimaginative the execution of that novel generally was. I think DeLillo's talents are wasted on literature. What he is, is a good journalist: noting in minute detail the ills of the society he's living in. He should be doing reportage on war, popular culture, mass cults, etc.

I find his books (rather like Roth's) formulaic and repetitive. It would be OK if they published one or two novels, from the heart, suffused with their respective viewpoints. But it seems they have hit a goldmine, and so they continue milking the same (nearly emaciated) cow, book after book, novel after novel. And now DeLillo has even published a volume of short stories, which are probably as dry as a cartload of clay. Short stories are a very delicate art form, rather like the pattern on a fern leaf; I can only imagine how he's going to handle it, in his usual pedestrian, journalistic manner.

I flipped through his last book (what was the title of that god-awful novella?) and concluded that, to top it all off, he is also growing increasingly senile. See, most great writers die young; good writers know exactly when to stop; bad writers continue to write into their second childhood, which is what I think is happening here.

Oh and nothing personal, I do realize you're in love with this guy, sorry about dropping a bomb of poo on your idol, :o.

Check out Colm Tóibín's short story collection Mothers & Sons and see him take DeLillo's breath away.

[JTolle]

I had to write a paper back in the day on Mao II; I was unpleasantly struck with how poor and unimaginative the execution of that novel generally was. I think DeLillo's talents are wasted on literature. What he is, is a good journalist: noting in minute detail the ills of the society he's living in. He should be doing reportage on war, popular culture, mass cults, etc.

I flipped through his last book (what was the title of that god-awful novella?) and concluded that, to top it all off, he is also growing increasingly senile. See, most great writers die young; good writers know exactly when to stop; bad writers continue to write into their second childhood, which is what I think is happening here.

Check out Colm Tóibín's short story collection Mothers & Sons and see him take DeLillo's breath away.

So, you read Mao II and flipped through Point Omega (perhaps the book of his least accessible at a quick glance)? That's the impression I'm getting :(. The only defense I can give of DeLillo for the kind of criticism you level at him is: try reading Libra. From my own (limited) experience, it's the most warm and human of his novels, and the least like a "novel by Don DeLillo." Otherwise, I'll agree to disagree.

I'll certainly check out Tóibín sometime soon!

[Liam]

Yes, Point Omega, that was the name of that bagful of putrescent ooze, :).

[Daniel del Real]

Ok now, stop you both. My copy of The Names is about to arrive and there I'll be able to judge if the man is that wise man of the modern letters as JT says or that piece of crap that "young lad" Liams claims. It well could be in the middle, not that good, not that bad, but hey, I could find an author I get to like.
While that happens I finished this one:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/basque.gifBernardo Atxaga, Siete Casas en Francia (Seven Houses in France) ***00+
Good novel, Atxaga is very fluid telling stories and he creates interesting characters in the paper. However I felt that those characters had a lot more to give to the story, I mean, their original descriptions are great, but then they fade away and start getting really common-like throughout the story. As I said, very entertaining, with good imagery but nowadays it's really difficult to tell a good story about colonialism.

[Colonel Green]

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk ***00

Pamuk's first book since winning the Nobel in 2005; I imagine that puts a special pressure on any writer. My Name Is Red was one of my favourite novels of recent years, and while this isn't in that league, it's still a good read (you can see a lot of the same themes at work here, pertaining to interactions between Turkish society and Western ideas of modernity). One of the quotes describes it as a study of romantic love similar to "Madame Bovary, Lolita, and Anna Karenina", which obviously sets certain expectations. Pamuk again makes use of metatextuality, to an even greater extent than the previous one, though I didn't find it quite as clever. Could perhaps have been a bit shorter without losing anything.

The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan ****0

To be clear, operating on the Roger Ebert concept of relative ratings (ie, this isn't being compared to Anna Karenina, but to other similar works in its genre). I like a good clean YA fantasy story every now and then.

The second book in Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles trilogy. I still don't think this series is quite on the level of Riordan's early Percy Jackson books, but I imagine that's partly because I'm not nearly as invested in Egyptian mythology as I am in Greek. All the same, this is a thoroughly enjoyable YA adventure book, and the same qualities that made Riordan's earlier books a success (strong character voice, a superb ability to make use of mythological detail) are in evidence here.

[Liam]

"young lad" Liam
Ouch! :p Touché, Dan. The quotation marks--LOL, LOL, LOL.

[Bubba]

Beppe Fenoglio- La paga del sabato (Saturday's Pay) *****

Now, this I couldn't expect! A terrific novel, although not one of his most famous like Il partigiano Johnny (Johnny the Partisan).
The violence of this book is what struck me: it's everywhere, but most of all in Ettore, the protagonist, a 22-year-old war veteran. The first scene in which he argues with his mother is probably the best of the whole book, and also the most violent.
Fenoglio was able to capture the inner state of this young man, his worries, his feelings towards Vanda, his girlfriend, and towards his family and his friends. Feelings that he was not able to express nor communicate to anyone. He could only express them through anger and violence, towards everybody. He says that nobody can understand what goes through his mind because he has fought in the war, that all that he is and everything he does is to be put down to the war (an important theme for Fenoglio, since he was a partisan himself).

I don't think there's an English translation.

There is an English translation, Loki, and I should know, as I did it. What there isn't is an English-language publisher for it.

One of the many scenes that astonished me involved Ettore's asking a French-speaking drug smuggler what the French inscription above a sundial on a chapel wall meant...

Fenoglio is a terrifically good writer.

[Colonel Green]

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells **000

When reading older novels that helped found genres, I find that they fall into two categories: either they remain exemplars of the genre due to strong stories and characters in addition to the genre-founding concept (Frankenstein, for instance), or they lose value because the story hung everything on the originality of the concept and didn't develop it much beyond that. Wells' own The Time Machine is in the former; The Invisible Man falls into the latter category, unfortunately; the novel basically amounts to "Okay, so there's an invisible man..." There's really not much to it.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells **000

When reading older novels that helped found genres, I find that they fall into two categories: either they remain exemplars of the genre due to strong stories and characters in addition to the genre-founding concept (Frankenstein, for instance), or they lose value because the story hung everything on the originality of the concept and didn't develop it much beyond that. Wells' own The Time Machine is in the former; The Invisible Man falls into the latter category, unfortunately; the novel basically amounts to "Okay, so there's an invisible man..." There's really not much to it.

Wells' scientific romances never were just about the scientific speculation and adventures in my opinion. In most of his books you can find a second layer dicussing or at least pointing to social, political or even philosophical issues. It is a very common misconception most people have these days about Wells, that he just wrote simple adventure stories that only stand out because of their very inventive and pioneering concepts. Think about all those crappy film adaptations of his books. I also never really liked the Invisible Man very much, some of his other books are certainly better, like the one you mention. But even in this one you can make out some more serious topics, like the matter of morality being a social construct, right?

[Loki]

There is an English translation, Loki, and I should know, as I did it. What there isn't is an English-language publisher for it.

That is pretty sad, really. I'm sorry for your translation, and it is a pity because as you say Fenoglio is a great writer. The English-speaking world should know this book of his, too.

[Colonel Green]

There are inklings of some deeper ideas, but compared to The Time Machine or War of the Worlds it's pretty thin stuff.

[sirena]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif Vanity Fair - William M. Thackeray *****
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif Quentin Durward - Sir Walter Scott ***00

[Eric]

Sirena, how does "Vanity Fair" compare with the goings-on in London right now (Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah "Becky Sharp" Brooks, and so on)?

[Loki]

Dan Brown- La verità del ghiaccio (Deception Point) ***00-

A novel that has ended up being somewhat disappointing. It started great, and many passages continued to be compelling. However, there was too much science, and many scenes developed upon it. Also, the only character who is not a scientist is the one that unravels the mysteries using scientific arguments that none of the best scientists had not even thought of: a bit unbelievable and annoying.
Finally, the style was pretty plain and dull.

[nightwood]

Primeval And Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk *****

Based in the village of Primeval it tells about the lives, deaths and fates of two families of three generations, beginning at around the World War I until the 1980s.

Tokarczuk has a unique voice and a fantastic one it is. Realistic, magical and philosophical all at once but nothing is forced or sounds false, it is simple a pleasure to read.

One cannot help but feel sympathy with all the characters. What a great book *sigh* love it :)

Pehsason, thanx for the suggestion.

[Daniel del Real]

Dan Brown- La verità del ghiaccio (Deception Point) ***00-
Finally, the style was pretty plain and dull.

Well, it's Dan Brown, what did you expect? ;)


Primeval And Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk *****

Based in the village of Primeval it tells about the lives, deaths and fates of two families of three generations, beginning at around the World War I until the 1980s.

Tokarczuk has a unique voice and a fantastic one it is. Realistic, magical and philosophical all at once but nothing is forced or sounds false, it is simple a pleasure to read.

One cannot help but feel sympathy with all the characters. What a great book *sigh* love it :)

Pehsason, thanx for the suggestion.

This sounds as a really good piece of fiction. I might have to procure myself a copy of this book and read it before the lady arrives to the Guadalajara Book Fair in late November. Thank you guys for the review.

[Loki]

Roald Dahl- Matilde (Matilda) ****0

A nice little story indeed. I had some time before starting a new book, and when I found this I thought I might as well read it. :)
It made me think how late I've started reading seriously. I wish I could've started a bit earlier.

Ah, and I've found out that Dahl is Welsh, I though it was English (although the surname is pretty strange...).

[kpjayan]

@ Nightwood,

May be a thread of its own at the European Literature Thread , if it is not too much to ask...

[Colonel Green]

Roald Dahl- Matilde (Matilda) ****0
That's my favourite Dahl book, though he has a lot of good ones. If he wasn't the most influential children's author of the 20th century, he should have been.

[Loki]

Italo Calvino- Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore (If on a Winter's Night a Traveller) *****+

As I had expected, I've loved this novel! Weird, really weird, straight from the beginning but fascinating throughout. I had often thought of a novel told in second person, and here it is, addressing the Lettore, but also the Lettrice (I don't know how it has been translated: male/female reader?, or is there some strange word like "readeress"?).
The book is filled with thoughts on books, and both on writing and reading, especially when the reader is reading Flannery's diary, which is one of the best parts I think.
It was disappointing to not being able to continue the ten stories (are the stories really ten?, I forgot to count them!), which is just the intention of the author. It could be great to find the rest of them (especially the one about the man who's afraid that everyone's telephoning him), although I know that it wouldn't be the same thing then.


I don't know if I'll end up making the same comment as David Mitchell:

Author David Mitchell described himself as being "magnetised" by the book from its start when he read it as an undergraduate, but on rereading it, felt it had aged and that he didn't find it "breathtakingly inventive" as he had the first time, yet does stress that "however breathtakingly inventive a book is, it is only breathtakingly inventive once" - with once being better than never.

[Colonel Green]

War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells *****

First rate classic of the sci-fi genre and Wells' best book, which inspired the entire alien invasion sub-genre.

[kpjayan]

The Taste of a man - Slavenka Drakulic : Cannibalism is the theme. I guess this was her first attempt to fiction. Interesting enough, but not convincing..

[sirena]

The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James ****0

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/es.gif Ramón del Valle Inclán, Martes de Carnaval (Three "esperpento" plays) **000
I expected a lot more for my first attempt to Valle Inclan's theatre, however I have to understand these three are not considered among his best plays. I'll have to give it another try with Luces de Bohemia, which is considered his master work in terms of esperpento.

[Loki]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/es.gif Ramón del Valle Inclán, Martes de Carnaval (Three "esperpento" plays) **000
I expected a lot more for my first attempt to Valle Inclan's theatre, however I have to understand these three are not considered among his best plays. I'll have to give it another try with Luces de Bohemia, which is considered his master work in terms of esperpento.

I had to read Luces de Bohemia a couple of years ago, but my lecturer, in the end, expunged it from the reading list. I should read it.

[Loki]

Virginia Woolf- To the Lighthouse ****0+

I've finally read a novel considered by many a masterpiece of English literature. I've struggled a lot with her prose, with her stream of consciousness, with the absence of action and dialogue. It is a complex novel, that it takes some time to read despite its brevity. Add to that that I get distracted quite easily by noises outside my room (the room of my own...).
But the novel is well worth the effort. Woolf proves here an extraordinary writer, able to express the characters natures, feelings, relationships, contrasts, dreams, etc. perfectly.

If I have time I would like to read Mrs Dalloway, too, but my edition is not annotated.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/ar.gif Julio Cortázar, Octaedro (short stories) ****0
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/ar.gif Julio Cortázar, Último Round (short stories) ***00+

[lenz]

Trois Femmes Puissante by Marie Ndiaye
I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson (trans. Charlotte Barslund with the author)
Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (trans. Giovanni Pontiero)
Family Ties by C.L. (trans. G.P.)
The Stream of Life by C.L. (trans. Elizabeth Lowe and Earl Fitz)
Near to the Wild Heart by C.L. (trans. G.P.)

[Stiffelio]

Trois Femmes Puissante by Marie Ndiaye
I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson (trans. Charlotte Barslund with the author)
Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (trans. Giovanni Pontiero)
Family Ties by C.L. (trans. G.P.)
The Stream of Life by C.L. (trans. Elizabeth Lowe and Earl Fitz)
Near to the Wild Heart by C.L. (trans. G.P.)

That's a good bunch of books! What did you think og them? I'm most curious about Lispector; I've been meaning to read her for some time.

[lenz]

Lispector has a unique voice, although she's compared to many writers: Kafka, Chekhov, Mansfield, Joyce . . . .
The meditative, spiritual, enigmatic way she expresses the inner lives of her characters reminds me of
Emily Dickinson's poetry. Her first novella, Near to the Wild Heart, written when she was 19 (1944),
has the logical weaknesses of youthful fiction but her talent is obvious even there. The later stories
and short novels grow in strength; the last, The Hour of the Star, I found very moving and a profound study or,
rather, meditation on, the hopeless lives of very poor, badly educated young people whose aspirations in a rich
country (Brazil) are doomed, due to ignorance and bad health. Her work demands a careful and thoughtful
reading but offers rich rewards.
I've started reading the recent biography Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by
Benjamin Moser. It looks very interesting, indeed.

The Marie Ndiaye is the first I've read and I don't know what to say about her yet -- must read more.

Per Petterson seems a writer you can hang around with, get drunk with -- I liked this
charming and moving novel.

Fitzgerald. Well, I love him, but these stories range from great to slightly amusing to abysmal.
He was best at fantasies like A Diamond as Big as the Ritz and Benjamin Button. Bernice
Bobs her Hair is a favourite of mine.

[Colonel Green]

The Sound of the Mountain by Kawabata Yasunari ***00

Interesting if sedate drama about an older man watching the domestic dramas of his children. For non-Japanese it offers some interesting details about Japanese society in the immediate postwar era, when people like the main character were still familiar with the old way of doing things.

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain ***00

As the preface to the Everyman collection this was a part of notes, while Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett have become canononical writers, Cain's novels have largely been overshadowed by the films based on them. This, the first of his major ones, is a good crime story (he's got a very strong narrative voice), though it takes a turn into a drama about legal technicalities where the narrator is basically a spectator at one point.

[JTolle]

Mao II (1991) - Don DeLillo
If Only the Sea Could Sleep: Love Poems (2003) - Adonis (trans. Kamal Boullata, Susan Einbinder, and Mirène Ghossein)

[Eric]

Lenz, Clarice Lispector is one of my favourite short-story writers. I read several stories in that same book, translated by Pontieri, and was immediately fascinated. I've not read her longer works, but I shall someday. I will also get hold of the Moser book when I get round to reading her works. I find it fascinating that although she is a Brazilian Portuguese writer, she is in effect from the East European Jewish tradition (e.g. Kafka, Schulz) of story-writers, and even spoke Yiddish at home.

[DouglasM]

Contrary to other people, I prefer Lispector's novels instead of the short stories. My favorite book is The Passion According To G.H., an insightful and absolutely brilliant novel. She was a unique writer, too bad she died on such a young age (for a writer, 57yo).

Here, the last book was Tokyo Vice, by Jake Adelstein. Great covering of Tokyo's criminal world - and a fun book too. But Adelstein himself is a retard.

[Loki]

Thomas Hardy- Far From the Madding Crowd ****0


Cesare Pavese- La casa in collina (The House on the Hill) ***00-

On the whole it's not a great book, and had it not been for the last 35-40 pages it would've been much worse. Although I'm sometimes against long descriptions, this novella lacks almost any description of the characters. It got better and better though.

[Loki]

William Beckford- Vathek ***00

Probably the second romance, tale, story, novella (or even "experiment", however you want to call it) of the Gothic genre in the English literature, after Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. The style is not much different from Walpole's, and it is evident of their both being the first attempts to write gothic novels: in some passages we would laugh nowadays. I would have liked to read such stories in the second half of the 18th centuries, when they were published, to see their effect.
Beckford's Vathek started actually quite well, with the description of this curious Caliph who indulges in the pleasure of all the five senses (he's built five wings in his palace: one for each sense). Then the arrival of the stranger was still engrossing and mysterious, but then his journey was a bit dull and confusing. The end was a bit better than the journey part, although not as good as the beginning.

Beckford wrote it first in French, at the age of 21, and then 5 years later it was published in English: he did not translate the book himself, although he supervised the translation.

[kpjayan]

Imperium - Ryszard Kapuściński : Journey through the heartland of communism post the fall of Berlin wall before the disintegration of USSR ( 1989 -1991). Insightful, unbiased and moving narrative. Brilliant.

[nightwood]

Herztier (Land Of Green Plums) by Herta Müller (re-read) *****

A bleak story, not told chronologically but with many short impressions. Its not a conventional novel, more a poem like structured prose style narrative IMHO. About suppression of speech in the Romania under the Communist reign, about sincerity, trust and helplessness, hopelessness and finally resignation and how one deals with the situation.

The language has a hypnotic power in which I was drown from the very first minute. A real marvelous book and highly recommended.

Memory Glyphs ****0

A collection of three different prose-poets (please see in the Romanian Literature thread, here (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/showthread.php/7553-Romanian-Literature?p=96019#post96019), for further information). Very different in style and in fact the only common ground they have is the country of their origin.

Cristian Popescu writes about his family, himself (but only in the third person), is self-mocking and rather comical in his narrative but also dark and melancholic.

Iustin Panta I found the most accessible, he mixes real poetry so to speak with more conventional prose but in fact they are more real short short-stories.

Radu Andriescu seems to be most surrealistic of this threesome. Sometimes, often, very hard to get into because of words words words alone, not a real story, more like newspaper clippings or short TV newsflashes. Neverthelss not something for people with a short attention span :p

[lenz]

Lenz, Clarice Lispector is one of my favourite short-story writers. I read several stories in that same book, translated by Pontieri, and was immediately fascinated. I've not read her longer works, but I shall someday. I will also get hold of the Moser book when I get round to reading her works. I find it fascinating that although she is a Brazilian Portuguese writer, she is in effect from the East European Jewish tradition (e.g. Kafka, Schulz) of story-writers, and even spoke Yiddish at home.

Please see Clarice Lispector thread:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/showthread.php/53-Clarice-Lispector/page2?highlight=clarice+Lispector

[Flower]

Herta Müller Atemschaukel (Everything I own I carry with me)

A tough but great read. I like the way she has made the chapters with focus of the meaning of words or loss of meaning, how words take a very concrete role in his life in the camp. The world the book descripes can seem far away but Frau Müller makes his reactions not only a matter of survival but a truely human experience for the reader to relate to.

Yet again I sat with my pencil making notes of some of Frau Müller's wonderful metaphors and sentenses. It wont make much sense for me to quote them here as I read the book in Danish, so go get the book yourself and enjoy.

*****

[pesahson]

Herztier (Land Of Green Plums) by Herta Müller (re-read) *****



Herta Müller Atemschaukel (Everything I own I carry with me)

*****

Two great reviews on just one page of the tread. I guess I know which author I will be looking for next time I'm in a bookstore or a library. :)

[Loki]

Luigi Pirandello- Il fu Mattia Pascal (The Late Mattia Pascal) *****-

A great great novel, as I remembered from reading some bits at high school. The only defect, maybe, is the part in which Mattia recalls his childhood: it's a bit dull in comparison with the rest of the book.
I've enjoyed the very few pages in which Mattia (are you sure?!) stays in Pisa. And apart from the fact the the novel is in itself weird, the language, too, was sometimes funny to me: it sounded so archaic sometimes, with all those "j" (gioja instead of gioia; ajuto instead of aiuto; guaj instead of guai, and so on and so forth), those words he insisted in writing separated (non ostante instead of nonostante, and the like)...

[Daniel del Real]

William Beckford- Vathek ***00

Probably the second romance, tale, story, novella (or even "experiment", however you want to call it) of the Gothic genre in the English literature, after Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. The style is not much different from Walpole's, and it is evident of their both being the first attempts to write gothic novels: in some passages we would laugh nowadays. I would have liked to read such stories in the second half of the 18th centuries, when they were published, to see their effect.
Beckford's Vathek started actually quite well, with the description of this curious Caliph who indulges in the pleasure of all the five senses (he's built five wings in his palace: one for each sense). Then the arrival of the stranger was still engrossing and mysterious, but then his journey was a bit dull and confusing. The end was a bit better than the journey part, although not as good as the beginning.

Beckford wrote it first in French, at the age of 21, and then 5 years later it was published in English: he did not translate the book himself, although he supervised the translation.

I read Vathek about two or three years ago and I remember liking it without thinking is a master work of gothic literature. I arrived to it like most of the modern readers get to Vathek: via Borges. Borges was really fond of it and he made the prologue for this book for the Babel Library. Not so sure why he loved it that much, probably because he read it when he was really young as English literature was a huge part of his formation. Still I think it's way better than Walpole's The Castle of Otranto.

Great you liked Pirandello's novel, I told you it was really found, but of course I read it in translation so there was no way of finding how he originally wrote it in Italian. Very interesting.


Herta Müller Atemschaukel (Everything I own I carry with me)

A tough but great read. I like the way she has made the chapters with focus of the meaning of words or loss of meaning, how words take a very concrete role in his life in the camp. The world the book descripes can seem far away but Frau Müller makes his reactions not only a matter of survival but a truely human experience for the reader to relate to.

Yet again I sat with my pencil making notes of some of Frau Müller's wonderful metaphors and sentenses. It wont make much sense for me to quote them here as I read the book in Danish, so go get the book yourself and enjoy.

*****

Great you liked it too. I tell you, it's one of those novels that start growing on you once you leave the book and start comprehending everything. Now with Nightwood reviews I really want to read Herztier!

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/za.gif Nadine Gordimer, Something Out There ***00
The short stories in the volume are good, specially A City of the Dead A City of the Living and Sins of the Third Age, great ones. However, the nouvelle that titles the book bored me to death, something similar than what happened to me when I had to abandon Burguer's Daughter for the same reasons. At least this one is shorter so I was able to finish it, but it took points out to the good short stories that started the book.

[Loki]

Great you liked Pirandello's novel, I told you it was really found, but of course I read it in translation so there was no way of finding how he originally wrote it in Italian. Very interesting.


By the way, how has the Spanish translator resolved the "problem" of the Spanish character who in the original speaks a "Spanitalian"? Is he still Spanish?

[Flower]

Great you liked it too. I tell you, it's one of those novels that start growing on you once you leave the book and start comprehending everything. Now with Nightwood reviews I really want to read Herztier!

Have you read it in Spanish?
I cannot get Herztier as its not translated yet.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

Have you read it in Spanish?
I cannot get Herztier as its not translated yet.

You could read the English translation The Land of Green Plums. I am curious myself to have a look at an English translation of one of her books, to see how they translated certain passages and terms.

[Daniel del Real]

By the way, how has the Spanish translator resolved the "problem" of the Spanish character who in the original speaks a "Spanitalian"? Is he still Spanish?

I can't quite remember but I'll try to look for my edition and will let you know.


Have you read it in Spanish?
I cannot get Herztier as its not translated yet.

I haven't read Herztier, but yes it's already translated to Spanish. You can read it in English.


You could read the English translation The Land of Green Plums. I am curious myself to have a look at an English translation of one of her books, to see how they translated certain passages and terms.

I hope it's better than how they translate titles. I mean The Land of Green Plums? Not a great translation for Herztier. In Spanish they did a good job making it closer to the original: La Bestia del Corazón.
Not the case with Atemschaukel as they only translated the English translation title to Spanish, Everything I Own I Carry with Me.

[nightwood]

I hope it's better than how they translate titles. I mean The Land of Green Plums? Not a great translation for Herztier.

I have seen the English translation in a bookshop and was browsing through it out of curiousity. Herztier is named in the text as Heart-beast* but the English title definitly does have a justification also... but to tell you why would be a spoiler :p

*Tier = animal, beast .. so that fits even I would say "beast" is more a wild animal than just a "normal" one lol

[sirena]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gb.gif A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ***00

[Loki]

I can't quite remember but I'll try to look for my edition and will let you know.

Thanks Daniel.

Giorgio Faletti- Niente di vero tranne gli occhi ***00-

Although the Wiki page of the book asserts that in this second novel of Faletti's the author's style is better, on the whole I enjoyed his first novel more: Io uccido (I Kill). This is a good thriller at the end of the day, but too much useless description of the past of the characters. Also the writing was rather disappointing: nowadays these thrillers, well, those I've read at least, seem all books by the same author: I thought I was reading a novel by Patricia Cornwell. Except for the plot around the mystery, there's nothing new under the sun.

[JTolle]

The Hour of the Star (1977) - Clarice Lispector (trans. Giovanni Pontiero)
Thoughtfully I Read the Smoke: Selected Poems (1980) - Imants Ziedonis (trans. Dorian Rottenberg)

[Clarissa]

Great House - Nicole Krauss

Our Kind of Traitor - John le Carré

The Other - Ryszard Kapuscinski

[Flower]

I haven't read Herztier, but yes it's already translated to Spanish. You can read it in English.


Well Ive started to read Frau Müller in Danish and to me I hear her words in Danish which is somewhat close to German, so it would be weird reading her in English now.

[nightwood]

@ Nightwood,

May be a thread of its own at the European Literature Thread , if it is not too much to ask...

Done :) see here : http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/showthread.php/44008-Olga-Tokarczuk-Primeval-And-Other-Times?p=96390#post96390

Primeval And Other Times by Olga Tokarczuk

[Loki]

Graham Swift- Waterland ****0+

At the beginning it was a difficult novel to read, not just because of its going back and forth in time, but also for those chapters which one could almost call essays, in which we are explained how the water is drained from the Fens using technical vocabulary difficult to understand. But I haven't minded the other essays: one on the Great Ouse, one on how the eels reproduce...
Anyway, at the end it has been a rewarding read, a curious novel with many narrative layers, covering centuries of local history and decades of the protagonist, a history teacher telling his pupils his story (as man, the narrator and main character says, is "the story-telling animal").

[kpjayan]

Miguel Angel Asturias - The President : Is this the first of the 20th Century Latin American Dictator Novels ? Written in 1946, I am sure it preceded most of the other known books. Structurally, it may not be as great as "I the Supreme" or "Feast of the Goat". Shorter and simpler narrative, but very very good, especially the 3rd part.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/lb.gif Amin Maalouf, The Gardens of Light ****0+

Personally, I consider Maalouf one of the best five narrators alive. He's very solid in each one of his books and he sets a bridge between Western and Arab world in all of his texts. He should win the Nobel soon.

[Loki]

Elsa Morante- L'isola di Arturo ***00-

[Loki]

G. K. Chesterton- The Innocence of Father Brown ***00+

I had read a couple of the stories in this collection (The invisible Man and The Blue Cross), so I knew that Father Brown was a great sleuth and that it was very different from other great detectives like Holmes or Poirot. Anyway, although most of the stories taken singularly are fascinating, on the whole I can't say I prefer Brown to Holmes.
Also, sometimes it gets too long to get to the mystery or to get to see Father Brown.
The Sign of the Broken Sword was the poorest story of the collection, while the best ones were The Blue Cross (maybe the best of all), The Eye of Apollo, The Hammer of God, The Three Tools of Death and The Wrong Shape.

[JTolle]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/ro.gif The Trouble With Being Born (1973) - Emil Cioran (trans. Richard Howard)
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/scotland.gif Smeur an Dochais: Dain / Bramble of Hope: Poems (1991) - Derick Thomson (self-translated from Scottish Gaelic)
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/us.gif Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note.... (1961) - LeRoi Jones

[sirena]

The Newcomes - William M. Thackeray ****0

[lenz]

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser

[JTolle]

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser

Not a huge fan of biographies, over here, but, since I can't get enough of Lispector lately, I'm thinking I might actually give this a go. Could you briefly comment on the book's readability and integrity?

[Colonel Green]

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler ****0

I'd already seen the movie before reading the book, so I was familiar with the contours of the story going in. The main differences are Hayes Code-enforced ones about content, mainly; and as with many mystery stories, the novel spends more time outlining the finer points of the plot. Chandler has a great prose style, and you can see how it became so influential in crime fiction.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark **000

A very acclaimed book (later filmed with Maggie Smith, who, reading it, I could completely picture in the title role), but I found it pretty slow going. Despite being only about 120 pages, it took me a while to get through it, and I didn't find it especially interesting.

Double Indemnity by James M. Cain ****0

Adapted to film by director Billy Wilder and screenwriter Raymond Chandler in 1944 (the film has made the AFI's Top 100 American films list, and currently sits at #54 on the IMDB), I guess that would make this Cain's most famous novel by association. Fairly compelling story (albeit with a setup rather similar to the first one), I can definitely see it making a great film (and Cain does Hollywood a favour by doling out appropriate comeuppances to his villain protagonists so there's no need to change things to suit the Hayes Code).

Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler ****0

Chandler's second novel (but it managed to make it to the cinema twice, albeit renamed both times, before the first novel did). Since I hadn't seen the movie before reading it, this was a more interesting read than The Big Sleep. The first few pages I thought were a bit bewhildering, but after that it settled into a very good mystery story. Chandler introduces so many seemingly unrelated plot elements that it's gratifying to see him fit them together fairly coherently.

Captain America Omnibus v.1 by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, et al. ***00

Read this in between chapters of Anne. I'm a big fan of Ed Brubaker's Captain America, and I've gradually been reading more stuff by past writers. This Omnibus covers the Lee/Kirby era and Steranko's brief presence (essentially, most of the 1960s), including the first few stories which I already had in a Masterworks paperback. As with all the omnibuses, it's a lovely collection. 60s comics are kind of an acquired taste, but there's a lot of goofy fun here. Most of it is hilariously over the top, but there's plenty of good ideas here, and I can identify a lot of things Brubaker used later (including, most obviously, the introductions of Sharon Carter and Dr. Faustus; there's also the debut of the perennially silly MODOK; some of the Steve/Sharon dialogue is especially stilted). However, the last three issues drawn/scripted by Jim Steranko are a revelation (made even more obvious by a Kirby-drawn fill-in in the middle); the art goes from 60s Marvel house style to Steranko's edgy layouts that still feel fresh and innovative today.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery ****0

You would think this would be mandated reading in PEI schools, but it isn't. I decided to read it at last (having previously seen the musical about ten years ago; I could have sworn the Cuthberts were married), given how much it has contributed to the economy over the years (and Montgomery's place in Canadian literature is enormously significant; she was the first one to attract a large international readership, and hers is almost certainly the largest to this day). On the Island, Anne Shirley is less a fictional character than a fact of life, so a lot of people never bother to read the books. I was pleasantly surprised by how readable Montgomery's prose is, even a century after it was written (perhaps not that surprising, given its continued enormous popularity). Episodic, but effortlessly charming.

[Daniel del Real]

G. K. Chesterton- The Innocence of Father Brown ***00+

I had read a couple of the stories in this collection (The invisible Man and The Blue Cross), so I knew that Father Brown was a great sleuth and that it was very different from other great detectives like Holmes or Poirot. Anyway, although most of the stories taken singularly are fascinating, on the whole I can't say I prefer Brown to Holmes.
Also, sometimes it gets too long to get to the mystery or to get to see Father Brown.
The Sign of the Broken Sword was the poorest story of the collection, while the best ones were The Blue Cross (maybe the best of all), The Eye of Apollo, The Hammer of God, The Three Tools of Death and The Wrong Shape.

I just took a look to my notes a my favorite tales from this volume were: The Blue Cross, The Secret Garden, The Honour of Israel Gow, The Sins of Prince Saradine & The Three Tools of Death. Apparently I liked it more than you do, but I haven't read any Sherlock stories. Which ones do you recommend?

[Loki]

I just took a look to my notes a my favorite tales from this volume were: The Blue Cross, The Secret Garden, The Honour of Israel Gow, The Sins of Prince Saradine & The Three Tools of Death. Apparently I liked it more than you do, but I haven't read any Sherlock stories. Which ones do you recommend?

Any! I've liked all the stories I've read, but I would recommend The Red-Headed League, The Speckled Bend, The Five Orange Pips. Of course also A Scandal in Bohemia. You won't be disappointed by this famous detective!

[lenz]

Not a huge fan of biographies, over here, but, since I can't get enough of Lispector lately, I'm thinking I might actually give this a go. Could you briefly comment on the book's readability and integrity?

Sure, but I'll post in biographies thread.

[lenz]

Sure, but I'll post in biographies thread.

If anyone can find the biographies thread, they can move my review, but for now it's in Clarice Lispector.

[Eric]

The biographies thread starts with the word "auto" which makes you think of cars, but here it is:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/showthread.php/27517-Auto-Biographies-of-writers?highlight=Biographies

I am keen to get hold of that biography of Lispector. I saw three books by her in Swedish translation in Stockholm the other day, but they were all about 25 euros each, which is a price I only reluctantly pay for a fairly slim volume. That's what public libraries are for.

[Loki]

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa- Il Gattopardo ****0

I was prejudiced against this novel, don't know why (maybe for some scenes from the film directed by Luchino Visconti). There are some weird episodes, like the one of father Perrone's "holiday", which is not much connected with the rest of the plot, and as a matter of fact the princess (the wife of the prince) wanted to publish it separately as a novella in a collection of short stories. Anyway, it's been an enjoyable read, with some nice touches of humour here and there.

[nightwood]

cz Bohumil Hrabal - Příliš hlučná samota (Too Loud A Solitude) *****

Holy Cow :p A rather simple plot but full of dark, pretty weird humour and very surrealistic. Need to get a translation, not sure if I really understood it...

[Eric]

That is what translations are for, Nightwood. One function is to bolster your understanding when you are brave enough, as you have been, to tackle the original. That's why I always swear by parallel text (bilingual) poetry books when I know something of the source language, but am by no means perfect in my knowledge. As I have mentioned somewhere, I appreciate reading Szymborska's poetry much more when I can read the original, but then glance over at the translation when I get stuck. But except for a few easy-readers produced by Penguin, that system is rarely adopted for prose.

At present, as I mentioned on the Latvian thread, I am about to read a novel by Gundega Repse in Swedish (one of my best languages) but have borrowed the original Latvian version from the library. Here my Latvian isn't good enough to read it, but I am sometimes curious as to what the original Latvian word or expression is.

[sirena]

The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy *****

[Loki]

The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy *****

I enjoyed it much too, maybe more than Far From the Madding Crowd. There's nothing like Henchard's will!

[Loki]

Cranford- Elizabeth Gaskell *****

Some time ago I decided that I had to read something by Elizabeth Gaskell, and I bought a random novel by her. I had heard more than once about Mary Burton, North and South and Cranford (and also of her biography of Charlotte Bronte), but I picked one without thinking. Then when I read at the end of the book that the novel was about "the uneventful lives" of a bunch of ladies living in a little village I was a bit discouraged, which fact resulted in my postponing the reading. However, this rather short novel was a bit of a surprise for me: I've greatly enjoyed it throughout, and the uneventful lives of the characters ended up beung the best part of it, although we also find deaths, little mysteries and tragedies.
I've been thinking of the narrator ever since the beginning of the novel: she is connected to the ladies living in Cranford (via her father), but yet she does not live with them, and her perspective may be the one of a stranger spending some days at at the local inn were it not for the knowledge of her friends. I wonder whether Gaskell wouldn't have done better if she had explained the reason for telling the story: especially at the beginning the narrator addresses the Victorian reader, asking them if they had this or that in London, and it would seem that the narrator wants to prove something, or to teach something. That's why I said that maybe an explanation to this effect would be appreciated, at least by me! Anyway, weird reflections aside, I suggest this novel to everybody, although the implicit reader would be the greatest gossipy old women!:)

[sirena]

Cranford- Elizabeth Gaskell *****

Some time ago I decided that I had to read something by Elizabeth Gaskell, and I bought a random novel by her. I had heard more than once about Mary Burton, North and South and Cranford (and also of her biography of Charlotte Bronte), but I picked one without thinking. Then when I read at the end of the book that the novel was about "the uneventful lives" of a bunch of ladies living in a little village I was a bit discouraged, which fact resulted in my postponing the reading. However, this rather short novel was a bit of a surprise for me: I've greatly enjoyed it throughout, and the uneventful lives of the characters ended up beung the best part of it, although we also find deaths, little mysteries and tragedies.
I've been thinking of the narrator ever since the beginning of the novel: she is connected to the ladies living in Cranford (via her father), but yet she does not live with them, and her perspective may be the one of a stranger spending some days at at the local inn were it not for the knowledge of her friends. I wonder whether Gaskell wouldn't have done better if she had explained the reason for telling the story: especially at the beginning the narrator addresses the Victorian reader, asking them if they had this or that in London, and it would seem that the narrator wants to prove something, or to teach something. That's why I said that maybe an explanation to this effect would be appreciated, at least by me! Anyway, weird reflections aside, I suggest this novel to everybody, although the implicit reader would be the greatest gossipy old women!:)

Have you tried reading her Wives and Daughters? It's a real jewel. :)

[Loki]

Have you tried reading her Wives and Daughters? It's a real jewel. :)

No, it was my first Gaskell, but I wouldn't mind reading another of her works soon. Allright then, Wives and Daughters will be that "another of her works".
From the title I can imagine it is another story written for gossipy people!

[sirena]

From the title I can imagine it is another story written for gossipy people!

It's a great example of 19th century provincial life in England. Something like Jane Austen's novels only, I dare to say, better. :)

[Loki]

It's a great example of 19th century provincial life in England. Something like Jane Austen's novels only, I dare to say, better. :)

If as you say it's better than Austen, whose novels I've so far enjoyed a lot, it'll be a terrific read (although a bit long, but never mind that).
Anyway, thanks for the advice sirena!:D

[Rumpelstilzchen]

László Krasznahorkai, Satantango, German translation by Hans Skirecki, *****-

The second half of the book is mostly rather unspectacular, though the ending is fun and offers two surprises, one of them gives the novel a rather postmodern touch, but I do not want to spoil this for you. I am curious how closely the film follows the book. All in all I strongly recommend this novel, which is very good, considering that it is his first novel I would even call it great. I am not sure yet about the structure of the novel. As I mentioned elsewhere the contents are called "Tanzordnung", i.e. something like "dance order/formation/arrangement?", but I have absolutely no clue how Tango works, so maybe there is a connection somehow between Tango and the chapter arrangement. (well the ending might have some similarity to a dance ;) ) I have to read up on how Tango works... Now I am really looking forward to reading the Melancholy of Resistance.

[nightwood]

László Krasznahorkai, Satantango, German translation by Hans Skirecki, *****

Sucker :p

But seriously, glad to see you are pretty enthusiastic about it - pretty cool review I must say :)

[Norma]

I've just finished "Christmas Holiday" by William Somerset Maugham in an old translated version borrowed from a friend. I liked the story and the ability of the writer to connect every character with the other,even though I found the final a bit simple compared to expectations. But the most upsetting thing was the translation which I found most inadequate and was surprised to have been made by Elio Vittorini,a very distinguished italian writer. Has anyone happened to read such a translation and would comment on it?
I'll now try and find the original version to be able to enjoy it fully...

[Eric]

Norma, you touch upon an interesting problem: are talented writers always the best translators? Some people think that you have, for instance, to be a poet to translate poetry. No one has ever produced a shred of evidence that proves that a translator, who spends his or her life imitating people's literary efforts in another language, has per se to be a brilliant poet or novelist in their own right. And the converse is true: why should a brilliant novelist or poet necessarily be a brilliant translator?

[kpjayan]

Zero Degree - Charu Nivedita ( translated from Tamil by Pritham K. Chakravarthy and Rakesh Khanna) : Originally published in 1998, the book caused a stir in the Tamil Literary scene for its non-linear narrative and the brutal and explosive description of violence, torture and sex. It was beyond what the conservative society could take. Experimental novel with narrative technique moving between traditional styled story telling to poems, to plain single lined comments, monologues, telephone conversations and what not...

What is appreciable is the effort in translation. I am usually wary about English translations from an Indian Language. This was a welcome change, with certain limitations ( like the local idioms ) not withstanding.

http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Degree-Charu-Nivedita/dp/8190605615/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313556185&sr=1-1

[Norma]

Norma, you touch upon an interesting problem: are talented writers always the best translators? Some people think that you have, for instance, to be a poet to translate poetry. No one has ever produced a shred of evidence that proves that a translator, who spends his or her life imitating people's literary efforts in another language, has per se to be a brilliant poet or novelist in their own right. And the converse is true: why should a brilliant novelist or poet necessarily be a brilliant translator?

Hi Eric! I agree with you about the fact that a brilliant writer shouldn't necessarily be a good translator or the other way round, but in this case I was surprised for the choice of vocabulary and language which had got little to do with the Italian language,and a writer is supposed to be able to master it,anyway...

[Eric]

Another pertinent point you make, Norma is that a translator must know the target language extremely well. When translators start, they are usually so in love with the language and culture they are translating from, that they forget about the fact that their greatest asset is the language they are translating into, usually their mother-tongue.

[Loki]

Luigi Pirandello- Uno, nessuno e centomila (One, No one and One Hundred Thousand) ****0++

A bit repetitive maybe, at times, but yet another great novel by the 1934 Nobel Prize winner. It was difficult to follow at the beginning, as it gets a little philosophical.
I'd like to read his theatre now, especially Enrico IV and Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore.

[lenz]

Hecate and Her Dogs - Paul Morand

Very weird novella - a sort of (supposedly) erotic fantasy written in the 1950s but set in the 1920s and reminiscent of the orientalist bizzareries of that period. None of the horrifying, perverse, violent, pedophiliac sexual goings on are explicit, so it's rather a bore and beneath the highly elegant prose one can hear dimly the author chortling over his nerdy naughtiness. Perhaps this inspired Lolita? The translator's name under the title is David Coward but there's a note on the dust jacket implying that it's Scott Moncrieff. How odd.

[lenz]

Paris Metro Tales: Stories (French) translated (mostly) by Helen Constantine

A bit disappointing at first, since most of the stories don't take place in the Metro at all. I spent a lot of time in the Metro
a few years ago and was interested in a Parisian's experience of it. The editor cheats a bit by noting the stations nearest to the places in the stories but makes up for it by providing notes on the stations and how to to get about in the system - map included. Balzac, Nerval, Julien Green, Simenon, Colette, Jacques Réda, de Maupassant, Marie Desplechin, and many others. Mostly morose but some funny.

[Liam]

Menna Elfyn, Perfect Blemish: ***00+

I absolutely loved her personal poems about her childhood and family, but the collection is spoiled by her passionate involvement in international affairs: she writes about the violence in Sri Lanka, Israel in Gaza, American invasion of Iraq, blah blah blah. Her political poetry is neither probing nor incisive nor stimulating: just sappy hogwash boiling down to, Why can't we all be good to each other? No shit, you're asking me?

I also found her pronounced anti-Americanism crude and distasteful, not because I'm a patriot (although I am) but because it is so superficial and badly handled. If anything, I think it spoils her poetry; at best, it adds nothing to it.

Her dismissal of the entire American Midwest as a great desert (I suppose she means "cultural") is actually rather degrading--to herself, as a poet.

But those poems in which she looks beyond international politics and everyday minutiae of the world we live in, are awesome.

I'll post some of them in the appropriate thread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/showthread.php/43921-Menna-Elfyn).

[JTolle]

Her dismissal of the entire American Midwest as a great desert (I suppose she means "cultural") is actually rather degrading--to herself, as a poet.

Yeah, that's bothersome. I mean, I'm assuming that means she hasn't read (or appreciated) Eliot, Hart Crane, Morrison, Sherwood Anderson, James Wright, Kenneth Rexroth, and Theodore Roethke, among others. Or didn't she realize they were all from the Midwest?

[sirena]

Hard Times - Charles Dickens ****0

[Liam]

Sigitas Parulskis, The Towers Turn Red: ****0+

Insanely beautiful, surreal poetry. Four stars only because the poems don't quite follow one another well in the volume (I would have arranged them differently) and because of the general briefness of the collection (I was hoping for more. 64 pages in total, but most poems are between two and eight lines long, at best).

Will have to start a thread on this poet at some point.

[Peeping Tom]

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This is a marvelous novel. One of the best I’ve read in the last couple of years. Love the narrative structure. *****

[johnw1]

Samarkand - Amin Maalouf ***00

I didn't enjoy this as much as Leo the African and I found the structure a bit disjointed with half set in the Middle Ages and half in the early 20th Century (although I understood the parallels he was trying to draw) and it also seemed to lack any kind of suspense. So, I only became immersed in it in patches. I did enjoy finding out something about Omar Khayyam whose story is well worth telling.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree - Tariq Ali ***00+

This was very enjoyable story about a Muslim family in Granada and how their community was destroyed by the barbarism of the Spanish - particularly led by Cortes who later leads the extermination of the the Aztec civilisation of course. This novel shows how much more tolerant and civilized Muslim Granada was than their Christian neighbours and conquerors. However I think he does labour the point somewhat and seems to present a somewhat idealised image.

The Book of Saladin: A Novel - Tariq Ali ***00+

It is refreshing to read of the Crusades from the perspective of the Muslims, and also interesting to learn more about Saladin. This is written in the first person by one of Saladin's scribes and personal historian and the conceit works well as he could have been privy to all of the goings on in this capacity (it is similar to Robert Harris in his Cicero trilogy where he writes from the perspective of Tiro). According to this book, Saladin does seem a remarkably enlightened ruler (excepting the odd beheading for adultery etc), charismatic, and open to criticism from his advisers. Many of the main characters are real historical figures but Ali invents the women in the book (who are never mentioned in the histories of the time) and makes these into remarkable personalities. You do wonder whether Saladin would really have allowed them to act as they did (lesbian relationships, affairs with eunuchs, heretical views, even joining him on his campaigns disguised as soldiers). It seems to be stretching it a bit - I'm sure there were exceptional, strong women at that time but would a Medieval ruler really have allowed these goings on in his harem??

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco *****

A re-read.

The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevky ***00

I was disappointed with this. I liked his lively writing style but I didn't find it hugely involving and the characters. their relationships and the major scenes were all so consistently bizarre and grotesque it almost became mundane and failed to shock me at any point. I maybe should re-try this another time as I'm sure the fault lies with me, not Dostoevsky!

Palace Walk - Naguib Mahfouz *****

The first of his Cairo trilogy (I'm reading the second now). He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1988 and it's easy to see why. These are brilliantly drawn characters and so I can understand the comparisons with Tolstoy! This is the story of one family and everything that they do or think revolves around the tyrannical father who they see almost as a god - either acting in submission or small acts of subversion. All the characters are fully rounded and able to surprise the reader convincingly (which is surely the best test for good characterisation).

[Loki]

John Grisham- Il Broker ***00

A relatively good thriller, although it talks at length of things that have nothing to do with the thrilling plot.
Anyway, I didn't mind reading of these things, since the main character escapes to Italy, in Bologna, and there he has to learn Italian, both with a couple of teachers and with actual experience (buying clothes in a shop, ordering food, asking for directions, etc.). It would be interesting to see the original, because the translator was writing about a man who had to learn Italian in Italian, so I think he had to change quite a lot.

At the end of the book Grisham thanks a couple of people (especially a friend of his who'd accompanied him around Bologna, and its restaurants). He also admits to not knowing almost anything of spies and technology (which are both very important for the plot): I wonder what Zola would have said!

Luis Sepúlveda- Historia de una gaviota y del gato que le enseñó a volar, translated by Ilide Carmignani. ****0
I've found the book today, I had read it years ago, but I don't remember if I saw the movie, too. A light reading before starting something more serious, so to say. Undoubtedly a funny story.

[Hemmo]

Over the summer I finished Jean-Paul Sartre's The Age of Reason****0 (the first part of the Chemins de la Liberte trilogy). Thought it was excellent - one of the best example's I've read of the 'novel of ideas' in that it manages to put philosophical theories (existentialism vs communism) in a compelling novelistic situation - should someone who rejects bourgeois society marry someone he has got pregnant or find the money to pay for an abortion. It works because it is critical of all sides and fails to reach a happy/satisfactory conclusion. The whole trilogy is set in the build up to/during WW2 but, as with other Sartre/de Beauvoir novels the fear/hardship doesn't really come across as most of the characters spend all their time in Paris cafes drinking.

I'm also close to finishing Thomas Bernhard's 'Frost' and David Thomson's biography of Orson Welles.

[Daniel del Real]

Samarkand - Amin Maalouf ***00

I didn't enjoy this as much as Leo the African and I found the structure a bit disjointed with half set in the Middle Ages and half in the early 20th Century (although I understood the parallels he was trying to draw) and it also seemed to lack any kind of suspense. So, I only became immersed in it in patches. I did enjoy finding out something about Omar Khayyam whose story is well worth telling.

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree - Tariq Ali ***00+

This was very enjoyable story about a Muslim family in Granada and how their community was destroyed by the barbarism of the Spanish - particularly led by Cortes who later leads the extermination of the the Aztec civilisation of course. This novel shows how much more tolerant and civilized Muslim Granada was than their Christian neighbours and conquerors. However I think he does labour the point somewhat and seems to present a somewhat idealised image.

The Book of Saladin: A Novel - Tariq Ali ***00+

It is refreshing to read of the Crusades from the perspective of the Muslims, and also interesting to learn more about Saladin. This is written in the first person by one of Saladin's scribes and personal historian and the conceit works well as he could have been privy to all of the goings on in this capacity (it is similar to Robert Harris in his Cicero trilogy where he writes from the perspective of Tiro). According to this book, Saladin does seem a remarkably enlightened ruler (excepting the odd beheading for adultery etc), charismatic, and open to criticism from his advisers. Many of the main characters are real historical figures but Ali invents the women in the book (who are never mentioned in the histories of the time) and makes these into remarkable personalities. You do wonder whether Saladin would really have allowed them to act as they did (lesbian relationships, affairs with eunuchs, heretical views, even joining him on his campaigns disguised as soldiers). It seems to be stretching it a bit - I'm sure there were exceptional, strong women at that time but would a Medieval ruler really have allowed these goings on in his harem??

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco *****

A re-read.

The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevky ***00

I was disappointed with this. I liked his lively writing style but I didn't find it hugely involving and the characters. their relationships and the major scenes were all so consistently bizarre and grotesque it almost became mundane and failed to shock me at any point. I maybe should re-try this another time as I'm sure the fault lies with me, not Dostoevsky!

Palace Walk - Naguib Mahfouz *****

The first of his Cairo trilogy (I'm reading the second now). He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1988 and it's easy to see why. These are brilliantly drawn characters and so I can understand the comparisons with Tolstoy! This is the story of one family and everything that they do or think revolves around the tyrannical father who they see almost as a god - either acting in submission or small acts of subversion. All the characters are fully rounded and able to surprise the reader convincingly (which is surely the best test for good characterisation).

Great reads! You also happen to be in a Middle East literature mood, just like me. Actually this month I've read two Maalouf's books and I've also read Samarkand as well, a novel I truly enjoyed and lead me to read Omar Jayham's Robba'iiyat. I've also read Ali's Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and although I found it a little hard-to-get-in novel It was a really crafted novel with truly authentic, well developed historical background. Actually I'm thinking of reading The Book of Saladin later this month or early september. I had no idea it was about crusaders from the Arab perspective; in this way it's similar to Maalouf's book that everyone has highly recommended, The Crusades through Arab Eyes.
Yesterday I started a book by Algerian writer Boualem Sansal titled The German Mujahid. Quite interesting plot as it deals with fundamentalism, either it goes with the more known Muslim wing or back to history with Nazism. The connection goes with two brothers that live in Paris, born Algerian from an Algerian mother and a German father that used to work for the SS. If the authors can manage this history in a good way it really promises to be a great literary piece as it's the first time an Arab world author deals with those two topics in a book.



Luis Sepúlveda- Historia de una gaviota y del gato que le enseñó a volar, translated by Ilide Carmignani. ****0
I've found the book today, I had read it years ago, but I don't remember if I saw the movie, too. A light reading before starting something more serious, so to say. Undoubtedly a funny story.

This is a story originally writen for children; however that doesn't mean it has to be dumb, and this is a feeling I never ceased to have in the 45-50 minutes it took me to read this story.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/lb.gif Amin Maalouf, Baldassare's Oddisey ****0
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/us.gif Philip Roth, The Human Stain ***00+

[Caodang]

Laszlo Krasznahorkai, The Melancholy of Resistance *****+
Witold Gombrowicz, Pornografia ****
Oe Kenzaburo, The Silent Cry ****+

[Rumpelstilzchen]

Laszlo Krasznahorkai, The Melancholy of Resistance *****+


I am really looking forward to reading this book soon (probably next month, won't have time before). I just read an article of James Wood on Krasznahorkai in the New Yorker (edition from the 4th of July this year). I already have read Satantango and Animalinside, and both books left a very good impression. Another book by him that sounds very, very interesting and that got raving reviews around German newspapers is the story collection Seiobo. It was published last year in Germany, but I do not know if there will be an English translation in the near future.

[adaorardor]

I am really looking forward to reading this book soon (probably next month, won't have time before). I just read an article of James Wood on Krasznahorkai in the New Yorker (edition from the 4th of July this year). I already have read Satantango and Animalinside, and both books left a very good impression. Another book by him that sounds very, very interesting and that got raving reviews around German newspapers is the story collection Seiobo. It was published last year in Germany, but I do not know if there will be an English translation in the near future.

I think it's coming out in late 2012 or early 2013 or something. New Directions. I want to get the Thesus Book and the Prisoner of Urga and Destruction and Sorrow Under the Heavens in English, too...can't get enough Krasznahorkai.

[nightwood]

hu Peter Esterhazy - The Book Of Hrabal ****0 +

More or less one long inner monologue by Anna, the wife of a writer who writes a book about Bohumil Hrabal, which is an extended love letter to Hrabal and ramblings about the life in Communist Hungary, about her family mixed with theoretical pieces about angels (talking about Swedenborg), blues and even Charlie Parker has a cameo. Colloquial speech mixed with stylized prose but while plotless it is still a powerful and driving narrative. Esterhazy uses lengthy quotes from "Too Loud A Solitude", so it was perfect that I have read this particular book shortly before. In short, damn good and the English translation reads fantastic (done by Judith Sollossy). A bit on the odd side in some ways but I was really impressed :)

hu Peter Nadas - A Lovely Tale Of Photography ****0

One of the first things I have noticed were the dialogues; they read like a complicated form of dancing. They touch each other at times and sometimes not or more often they simply circle around before they finally come together. In overview that chapters are short, not one is more than one page, but everything is rather jumpy, nervous and not always easy to follow. In that (experimental?) way Nadas has captured the general feeling, the story of the woman who sees everything through her camera lens and is not able to see the world as such without it, quite well. This 120 page "film novella" really reads very movielike; first of all the surrounding, the characters (which are not developed at all but voices only), dialogue and then an abrupt cut to another scene. Like that one I must say and I am really looking forward to read his looong novels :)

ru Daniil Kharms - Today I Wrote Nothing

I am still not sure what to make of this collection of "absurd" and/or "nonsense" short prose, poetry, diary entries etc... Interessting I might call it... An experience it was, or a journey through the mind, with a weird intensity which made it impossible for me to read more then some pages in one sitting, needed to have lots of breaks in between. Will give his other book Incidences a try I guess.

[lenz]

Paul Claudel - Les âmes grises

Wow! The French can these awful gothic mysteries as badly (or successfully) as the Americans!

[nightwood]

pl Natasza Goerke - Farewells To Plasma ****0+

Natasza Goerke - Farewells To Plasma

A collection of absurd stories? Maybe. The only turn off is that the book starts weak, which made me almost abandon the book after some pages only. One page stories where I could not decipher their meaning, or which way Goerke wants to go with them, what she had in mind while writing them. Little incomplete meaningless circling-around-themselves-stories. But as soon as she allows herself some more space, from 5 to 8,10 pages then she is not only good, but very good. Holy cow, what a writer! The plots are just an excuse to play, slightly ironic, with narrative, to drive small events to powerful consequences. Probably not a book for everyone (the critics either praise her or slaughter her it seems) but I did enjoy most of it a lot. Or better said A LOT (yes, in capital letters!). Would love to read more from her but this seems the only collection available in any other language then Polish - well, in some years time then.

Guess I have found my holy trinity of polish female writers with Tokarczuk, Tulli and now Goerke. :)

[kpjayan]

Samrat Upadhyay - Arresting God in Kathmandu : Short Stories written in English by Nepali expatriate( living in the US), set in Kathmandu. Catchy name for the book, but there was no story with that title. Mediocre in content , language and style. He is apparently the first Nepali writer to have written and published in English.

[nightwood]

cz Róbert Gál - Signs & Symptoms

Róbert Gál: "E.M. Cioran is Nietzsche brought into the present. I have attempted to bring Cioran into the present. But what is this "present"? Can the present be viewed in any way objectively? And concerning the "bringing" of something into something other, we have a number of examples. For my own attempt I was inspired by John Zorn´s "bringing into the present" of Ornette Coleman (Spy vs. Spy). Here we can see how subjective the concept of the present can be."

In collaboration with the photographer Lucia Nimcová

http://www.twistedspoon.com/signs.html

ru Andrei Makine - A Life´s Music *****

One of those makes-me-want-to-run-out-and-buy-everything-this-guy-has-ever-published-novel(lla)s :p

[Liam]

ru Andrei Makine - A Life´s MusicWhy do people insist on putting him under a Russian flag??? He was born in the former Soviet Union (so: wrong flag, anyway!) and is now a French citizen writing solely in French. Unlike Vladimir Nabokov, who produced a substantial body of work in Russian before switching to writing in English, Makine didn't really have anything published in his native language before his move to France. It's like insisting on putting Conrad under a Polish flag, people.

A storm in a teacup, probably, but this kind of stuff has always bugged me.

[nightwood]

Guess because I have trusted the info that Makine applied for French citizenship but was turned down :confused: Sure, didnt cross-check with Wikipedia or any other sources if it might not be out of date - so my fault...

2) I didnt happen to see a USSR flag :p

Correction:

fr Andrei Makine - A Life´s Music

[Liam]

I didnt happen to see a USSR flagThank god! :)

[kpjayan]

ru Andrei Makine - A Life´s Music *****

One of those makes-me-want-to-run-out-and-buy-everything-this-guy-has-ever-published-novel(lla)s :p

You know what ? I went through the same. A life's Music was the first of Makine, that I've read. And I went on buying his other books one after other. An erstwhile member of WLF , Thomas Saliot, was my guide in discovering this writer. Read The woman who waited, if you could get.

[Elie]

I finally finished reading A.S. Byatt's Possession. A bit of a slog, maybe, but definitely worth it. It was one of those novels that started really, really slowly, but by the time I finished it I was totally on the edge of my seat.

[Colonel Green]

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill ****0

I'd been meaning to read this for months, but never got around to it until now; decided to take a break from noir (I haven't historically been much interested in detective fiction). This novel has been a huge success in Canada, where it had sold 500,000 copies by 2010 (in a nation of 33 million); abroad it's mostly known as Someone Knows My Name, apparently because American publishers were gunshy of using the word "Negro" in the title.

The story is an old-fashioned historical epic tracking our protagonist through nearly sixty years of a life that takes her from Sierra Leone to South Carolina to New York to Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone to London, and lives out the history of the slave trade, eventually becoming involved with abolitionist efforts. It's certainly a packed life, with a few Dickens-style contrivances along the way, but it's a story, after all. The main character, Aminata, is very well-done, and Hill does a good job of sketching the surrounding characters, particularly giving a nuanced look at the period. A lot of the buzz talks this up as a novel about black Canadians in Nova Scotia, but that's actually a fairly small part of the story, which is mostly set in Africa and America.

[Loki]

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu- Uncle Silas ****0

I expected a different kind of novel, more supernatural events, more menacing characters, more frightful things in general, but still this is a great read. The autodiegetic narrator is a young heiress, who finds herself in danger after her father's death, as she is to be under her uncle's guardianship. The character after whom the novel is entitled does not appear for the first 200 pages, at least in person.

As the introduction in my novel has pointed out, there are some points that are not explained at all. For instance, the narrator gives a very detailed account of a meeting, although she has not witnessed it, saying only that someone would tell her about it some years afterwards: however, who tells her is never mentioned.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/dz.gif The German Mujahid, Boualem Sansal ****0
Very interesting book dealing with Nazism from an Arabic perspective. The story is very dry and tragic but it depicts perfectly how life changes for two Algerian born living in France brothers that discover that his German father worked for the SS. The story is narrated in diary forms and it goes from the diary of one brother to the other. Sansal doesn't focus only in the past, but he shows how the Islamist terrorists are opening its way in modern French society and how it has damaged the atmosphere. He even dares to make a defiant argument, telling that Islamist terrorist can be compared to Nazism. This is the part where the author doesn't look as solid as in the rest of the novel, because although he brings interesting facts that could support his thesis, in most of the parts it is not discussed correctly and it falls in to unfeasible arguments. Still a very good novel I fully recommend.

[Norma]

Another pertinent point you make, Norma is that a translator must know the target language extremely well. When translators start, they are usually so in love with the language and culture they are translating from, that they forget about the fact that their greatest asset is the language they are translating into, usually their mother-tongue.
Sorry for the late answer,Eric. This is true when we talk about students or young children approaching a foreing language for the first time but it shouldn't happen with professional translators whose work is going to be read by million people around the world...should it?

[Norma]

Theatre - W.S. Maugham ***00
I just gave it three stars because I did not read it in its original language and I'm conscious of having missed a lot of the atmosphere and description of characters so as I could not judge. But I liked the story and the delicacy of the author always keen on understanding human nature and its vices and virtues. Julia is one of us. Despite her successful career and interesting life she can show all her weakness and could be very insecure in everyday events but always able to regain control in the end. A strong character who never seems to surrender. Many are the points which the author comes to in his book,relationships between children and parents,husband and wife,lovers;among people in society and workplace. But hypocrisy of the British society of the time is what the novel is most spread with together with the social class differences and false respectability.
A most enjoyable portrait of an interesting time. Good to entertain.

[lenz]

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu- Uncle Silas ****0

I expected a different kind of novel, more supernatural events, more menacing characters, more frightful things in general, but still this is a great read. The autodiegetic narrator is a young heiress, who finds herself in danger after her father's death, as she is to be under her uncle's guardianship. The character after whom the novel is entitled does not appear for the first 200 pages, at least in person.

As the introduction in my novel has pointed out, there are some points that are not explained at all. For instance, the narrator gives a very detailed account of a meeting, although she has not witnessed it, saying only that someone would tell her about it some years afterwards: however, who tells her is never mentioned.

Thank you for using the critical term autodiegetic, I had to look it up and it started me trying to think of others autodiegetical narrators and all the other kinds. Very interesting.

[Eric]

Do tell me, o intellectuals, what autodiegetic means. Well, I did look it up, but the term means no more than autobiographical, or semi-sutobiographical narration. So why another mystificatory term for narratologists to use when becoming more aloof from the rest of us in their cloud of unknowing?

I've just finished reading "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by the well-known Stratford author. There are a lot of words there that are obscure to the modern reader. But the Wordsworth Editions book was humble enough to list them in a glossary and notes, instead of creating unnecessary words to show vast intellectual superiority.

The play is very funny in parts, including the end, which consists of a spoof of bad amateur productions. It has a happy ending and a bit of surrealism - but I doubt if it was written autodiegetically, as Shakespeare presumably never had an asses head.

[Loki]

Autobiographical refers to a real person writing about their life: it doesn't seem the same thing as autodiegetic. It is useful to have proper terms for literature as well: isn't it better to say "autodiegetic novel" instead of "a novel in which the narrator is also the protagonist"?

[Loki]

Agatha Christie- Dieci piccoli indiani (And Then There Were None/ Ten Little Niggers/ Ten Little Indians) *****

The fact that this novel has one billion titles has really irritated me. It was first published as Ten Little Niggers, then that is the title! Full stop. I've read the book wondering all the while why on earth the title talked about indians if in the novel there are only little niggers.
Despite all this unbelievable mess, the novel was great!

[Eric]

I looked up "autodiegetic" in my stylistics dictionary, and there was no entry for it. But it was given in the entry on narration. It appears to have first been used by Genette in 1972, which makes you wonder what the science or art of narratology did before that relatively recent year. It is used to describe narration of an autobiographical kind where, for obvious reasons, the narrator cannot have an omniscient view of what is going on in the story, but takes part in the action. It is also called "homodiegetic" and is contrasted with "heterodiegetic", which is used when referring to the omniscient narrator where the narrator is aloof from the action, which is an old device in novels.

It may have its uses when very intricate patterns of narration are being compared and contrasted, but strikes me as a terms that has been translated into English with haste.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/us.gif Don DeLillo, The Names **000+

I'm sorry, I really tried, re-read some paragraphs, stopped to check what he was trying to say but it never clicked on me. I have to recognize he is very crafty with language and he can reach beauty in some descriptions, but that's it. He failed to deliver a good thriller or a good exposition of ideas regarding language, religion or the impact of the United States all over the world.

[Loki]

Agatha Christie- Verso l'ora zero (Towards Zero), translated by Lia Volpatti. *****

Another great novel by Agatha Christie. A bit slow maybe at the beginning, but yet we were going towards zero...
The story was very clever, as always, and I stupidly thought I had guessed it all! Of course it came out totally different in the end. The reference to her greatest detective, Hercule Poirot, was interesting too. I have two other novels and all of Poirot short stories: I think I'll keep on reading this great writer, at least until I receive the Poetic Edda.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/gf.gif Jean Echenoz, Nous Trois ****0
I'm growing fond of Echenoz brief novellas. He's really smart, sarcastic and his narratives are full of funny moments were he criticizes modern society. This novel is a good example and it's incredible how fast he can move in less that two hundred pages; from Paris to Marseille, an earthquake to a space voyage. I'll keep reading him, I really want to get the Ravel and Zatopek novellas, but my next will be Les Grandes Blondes, already waiting to be read in my shelf.

[Loki]

Agatha Christie- Le due verità (Ordeal by Innocence), translated by Paola Franceschini. *****

From Wikipedia it seems that this novel has not been appreciated by some reviewers, but I nonetheless found it terrificly well-written. It is true that it is different from most of her novels, and there is little of the typical detective work: it is based more on the psychology of the characters than on proofs, fingerprints or anything else. Also, there is not one detective, but we could say there are three: one official detective plus other two.

[johnw1]

Palace of Desire - Naguib Mahfouz *****

This was, if anything, better than the first in this series. Ahmad is struggling to deal with growing older, with losing control of his children, the death of his favourite son, his infatuation with a younger woman (who then marries his son), and ill health. His youngest son, Kamal, is tormented by idealistic, unrequited love for his friend's sister and by his discovery of science and philosophy which undermines all his family have brought him up to believe in. Yasim careers from one catastrophe to another and continues with his drinking and womanising. This series brings in all sides of human life - love, lust, ageing, idealism, longing, disappointment, loss ....

The Warden - Anthony Trollope ***00

This is the first in the Barchester Chronicles and, for me, not so good as the others I've read (Barchester Towers -the best - Doctor Thorne and Framley Parsonage) but was still enjoyable. It does not take itself too seriously and is at times quite comical but did feel insubstantial. The central character is interesting in that although he is lazy and generally weak minded, and lives far too well off the misdirected funds of a charitable trust, you feel that his cannot really be blamed and is entirely likeable and even heroic.

Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell ****0+

Gaskell is becoming one of my favourite writers. This is a semi-autobiographical series of sketches of life in a small village in the north of England in the early 19th Century. The stories are in a sense banal but have real pathos without ever verging into sentimentality. This seems to me to be what Realism is all about, making real people who do unspectacular things into the heroes of the stories.



Great reads! You also happen to be in a Middle East literature mood, just like me. Actually this month I've read two Maalouf's books and I've also read Samarkand as well, a novel I truly enjoyed and lead me to read Omar Jayham's Robba'iiyat. I've also read Ali's Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and although I found it a little hard-to-get-in novel It was a really crafted novel with truly authentic, well developed historical background. Actually I'm thinking of reading The Book of Saladin later this month or early september. I had no idea it was about crusaders from the Arab perspective; in this way it's similar to Maalouf's book that everyone has highly recommended, The Crusades through Arab Eyes.
Yesterday I started a book by Algerian writer Boualem Sansal titled The German Mujahid. Quite interesting plot as it deals with fundamentalism, either it goes with the more known Muslim wing or back to history with Nazism. The connection goes with two brothers that live in Paris, born Algerian from an Algerian mother and a German father that used to work for the SS. If the authors can manage this history in a good way it really promises to be a great literary piece as it's the first time an Arab world author deals with those two topics in a book.



Yes, I too have heard good things about The Crusades Through Arab Eyes and will look to buy it soon I think. Thanks for the recommendation of Boualem Sansal - I hadn't heard the name before! For now though, I've just ordered the third in Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy and another of his - Arabian Nights and Days (his version of some of the Arabian Nights stories) - so I'm looking forward to these.

[Loki]

Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell ****0+
Gaskell is becoming one of my favourite writers. This is a semi-autobiographical series of sketches of life in a small village in the north of England in the early 19th Century. The stories are in a sense banal but have real pathos without ever verging into sentimentality. This seems to me to be what Realism is all about, making real people who do unspectacular things into the heroes of the stories.


I really enjoyed it too, although it is only about the uneventful lives of some Cranford inhabitants (which may not seem appealing at the beginning).

[Loki]

Virginia Woolf- Mrs Dalloway ***00+

I'll have to re-read it, surely using a much better edition (I mean, with more notes). I've found it quite difficult, and many times I had to go back to the start of the paragraph because I lost the thread, generally because Woolf liked to repeat the pronoun for a full page without rementioning the name of the character. Anyway, I can't say I haven't enjoyed it, but I'm sure I can get much more out of it. Right now I think I've enjoyed To the Lighthouse more, but as I've said, I'll have to re-read Mrs Dalloway.

I liked her descriptions of Septimus's madness, and from my very useless notes of my edition I only gathered that Woolf tried to commit suicide after her father's (Stephen Leslie) death throwing herself from a window and that on that occasion she thought she was hearing birds singing in Greek, like Septimus in the novel.

[Hemmo]

Just finished David Thomson's 'Rosebud' - a biography of Orson Welles:mad:****0. Really enjoyed it - particularly at the start: Thomson's over-confidence and maximalism seeming like the appropriate way to convey the over-confidence and maximalism of Welles' rise. He's also good on Citizen Kane and Welles' first rows with Hollywood. But it slips a bit as it goes on - Thomson clearly gets less interested as Welles gets sadder and his output worse. Still, glad I took it on holiday with me...

[kpjayan]

Hwang Sok-Yong - The Ancient Garden : At the backdrop of the students movement that rocked South Korea in the early 80s, Hwang Sok-Yong writes a 'love story' as the books title declare. Released from solitary confinement for nearly 20 years, Hyun Woo, realises that his erstwhile lover Yoon Hee is no more, died of cancer. The remaining of the book is written as the old fashioned "flash back sequence", with his reminiscence, and through the notes of the deceased left for him in anticipation. Nice story and that's about it. Over 500 pages of going back and forth on these events. Not greatly impressed. ***00

[SR1991]

Currently struggling trough all the Grishams I can find. Love his writingstyle, though the stories are often weak, or I feel like I've read such a story at least 5 times before.

[Loki]

Agatha Christie- Nella mia fine è il mio principio (Endless Night), translated by Laura Grimaldi. *****

A very different novel this time, not really a detective novel. Also the style was somewhat different: Eric will be happy to know that the narrator is homodiegetic and more specifically autodiegetic. This surprised me at the beginning, as I couldn't think what exactly to expect, how things would develop. The story starts very slowly, and it seems honestly mediocre up to a certain point: and yet I had a foreboding while I was reading, which is normal when you read Christie's novels or short stories. But in the end all the waiting is well justified. I thought critics wouldn't have liked this story, judging from how they've criticised Innocence by Ordeal, but I was positively surprised to find out that the novel is highlt considered.

A word or two about the title, or better about its translation. On the whole the translation was rather good, although there were some elements I would've ut differently, and there were also some dialectal elements which I would've have avoided, although I haven't read the original, so I give her the benefit of the doubt. The original title comes from a poem by William Blake:
Every night and every morn,
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night,
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

She has managed to maintain the rhyme, but of course had to change the verses, and so the title had to be changed too. So she chose the first sentence of the novel: Nella mia fine è il mio principio, which is, I've found, a quotation from T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets: "In my beginning is my end […] In my end is my beginning”.

[Bubba]

Agatha Christie- Nella mia fine è il mio principio (Endless Night), translated by Laura Grimaldi. *****

[...]

A word or two about the title, or better about its translation. On the whole the translation was rather good, although there were some elements I would've ut differently, and there were also some dialectal elements which I would've have avoided, although I haven't read the original, so I give her the benefit of the doubt. The original title comes from a poem by William Blake:
Every night and every morn,
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night,
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

She has managed to maintain the rhyme, but of course had to change the verses, and so the title had to be changed too. So she chose the first sentence of the novel: Nella mia fine è il mio principio, which is, I've found, a quotation from T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets: "In my beginning is my end […] In my end is my beginning”.

Grimaldi, your translator, is herself a pretty good novelist; I rather liked her three novels Il sospetto, La paura, and especially La colpa. I've had little luck finding Monsieur Bovary, which I'd very much like to read.

[Loki]

Yes, I knew she was a novelist, but I haven't read anything by her. But now I'm curious: which one would you recommend to start with?

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/fr.gif Émile Zola, Le Ventre de Paris ****0+