Recently finished books?

[Daniel del Real]

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness *****
The descriptions are brilliant, the ones concerning the jungle and the ones about diving into human nature and find solitude. The Horror!!

[Omo]

Just finished Herr Peter Squentz by Andreas Gryphius. What a wonderful comedy, I definitely need to read more baroque literature!

[Daniel del Real]

Enrique Vila-Matas, Una Casa para Siempre (A Home Forever) *****++
What a great short novel! One of the best endings I've read recently. I think this one hasn't been translated to English yet, but when it becomes available or if you can read Spanish, you should read it.

[miercuri]

Philippa Gregory - The Other Boleyn Girl ***00
I felt like reading something girly and light but not too much so, a historical romance seemed like a good choice and this one came with good recommendations from friends. I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it were a healthy third person narrative. Some of the first person descriptions and comments came across as horribly anachronistic, I couldn't believe for one moment that it was the voice of 16th century courtensan and not that of a contemporary teenage girl. Three hundred pages in - it got extremely annoying, not to mention the historical inaccuracies (but those I was expecting). I finished it just for the sake of finishing it.

[Daniel del Real]

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/cl.gif Luis Sep?lveda, El Mundo del Fin del Mundo ****0

There's a free spirit in everyone of his books that makes you travel and go to an adventure along the author. Recommended for everytime you want to get out of your daily routine.

[Bjorn]

Gustav Meyrink, The Golem. ***00 for pretty much the same reasons that I gave ***00 to Hedayat's The Blind Owl. One of these is like the other, and I'm guessing it's Hedayat.

[Ramblingsid]

Recently finished Kobo Abe: Woman in the Dunes

Quickly followed by John Le Carre: Call for the dead - the first of the Smiley novels

[Ramblingsid]

Recently finished Kobo Abe: Woman in the Dunes - very much a ***** -still puzzling over it :)

Quickly followed by John Le Carre: Call for the dead - the first of the Smiley novels - ****0 - a good yarn - neatly done

[Daniel del Real]

Gustav Meyrink, The Golem. ***00 for pretty much the same reasons that I gave ***00 to Hedayat's The Blind Owl. One of these is like the other, and I'm guessing it's Hedayat.

I agree Bjorn, I expected a lot from The Golem, since it was one of Borges favorite books. It didn't impress me that much because he used to digress a lot on certain topics and situations leaving the main story unfinished at some points.

[miercuri]

Elfriede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher
I would give it a ****0 although the overall impression is one of rather mixed feelings. I am looking forward to watching Haneke's adaptation, I couldn't have imagined anyone else taking this book to screen.
I loved the style, it is striking. Jelinek masters a very powerful voice which suits the content perfectly. Yet, it was this particular style that made me feel uneasy and not the content as I was expecting. I am a reader who can stomach a lot but this time I was a little taken aback and I can't really make up my mind. I will have to give another of her books a try.

[Colette Jones]

Elfriede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher
I would give it a ****0 although the overall impression is one of rather mixed feelings. I am looking forward to watching Haneke's adaptation, I couldn't have imagined anyone else taking this book to screen.
I loved the style, it is striking. Jelinek masters a very powerful voice which suits the content perfectly. Yet, it was this particular style that made me feel uneasy and not the content as I was expecting. I am a reader who can stomach a lot but this time I was a little taken aback and I can't really make up my mind. I will have to give another of her books a try.
I have this and a few other Jelinek books on the shelf which I have not read yet. Your comments. especially that you felt uneasy, make me want to get to it soon.

[miercuri]

It's definitely worth reading! Make sure you post your impressions after you get around to it. :)

[e joseph]

Elfriede Jelinek - The Piano Teacher
I would give it a ****0 although the overall impression is one of rather mixed feelings. I am looking forward to watching Haneke's adaptation, I couldn't have imagined anyone else taking this book to screen.
I loved the style, it is striking. Jelinek masters a very powerful voice which suits the content perfectly. Yet, it was this particular style that made me feel uneasy and not the content as I was expecting. I am a reader who can stomach a lot but this time I was a little taken aback and I can't really make up my mind. I will have to give another of her books a try.

Well I'm sold. There's something about a well written book that makes you uneasy that is strangely appealing. I've never read Jelinek, but based on what you say, you may want to check out Attila Bartis' Tranquility. I had mixed reactions upon finishing that one, and now I wholeheartedly endorse it. As for me, The Piano Teacher's making it's way onto my toberead list. Thanks.

[e joseph]

Virginia Woolf - Orlando
Michael Herr - Dispatches
Yasunari Kawabata - Snow Country

[Jayaprakash]

A DEAD MAN IN DEPTFORD by Anthony Burgess. I liked it a lot.

[miercuri]

Attila Bartis' Tranquility
I keep hearing great things about this book! :) I think I first read of it somewhere on the forum. Unfortunately, it seems that it is out of print in Romania at the moment, I'll probably have to check at the library.

[Igu Soni]

Jose Saramago - The Double ****0
Brilliant book, lost a star from me for 3 reasons:
a) Saramago seemed scared that we wouldn't figure it out, constantly littering the book with explanations that have no right to be there.
b) Seemed a bit too clever(this probably my shortcoming, so count this as a half-reason): I haven't figured out why much of the format is as it is, like the dialogue which just runs on with only a capital to inform you next dialogue. The only effect I found was that I had to reread bits to figure out why a history teacher was being told by his mother about The Illiad and so on.
c) Too long by two pages. You'll understand if you read the book.

Honourable mention for this book: The movie Taxi Driver which seemed similar to the book in many ways and which I watched while reading it.

[saliotthomas]

Jean Teul?-O' Verlaine ***00 Not great but a lively acount of what could have been Verlaine life.
"Je fais souvent ce r?ve ?trange et p?n?trant..."

[Daniel del Real]

Virginia Woolf - Orlando
Yasunari Kawabata - Snow Country

Those two are amazing

[Daniel del Real]

Antonio Tabucchi, El Juego del Rev?s ***00

[Stewart]

I read Bohumil Hrabal's Dancing Lessons For The Advanced In Age earlier in the week and, because of its scattergun approach to story telling I remember nothing of it already. so will be giving it a second read before writing about it.

[Shoshanapnw]

I just finished Kris Holloway: Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali. It's affectionate but not romanticized.

[e joseph]

Those two are amazing

I agree Daniel. I sort of lost patience with Orlando towards the end, which was totally my fault I think. Like my arrogance there? Like it could have been the acclaimed Virginia Woolf's fault and not my own...

And I have to say Snow Country was perhaps a perfect novella. No wasted words or thoughts. I really really enjoyed it, which I was just what I was hoping for after all the acclaim the book has gotten on this forum.

[DreamQueen]

Michael Herr - Dispatches

Wow, I haven't thought about this book in a long time - I had to write an essay about it in my first year English class! That's an extremely long time ago now...

So, did you like it?

[DreamQueen]

I just finished Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby. Strange to say, but I felt as though this 800 page book ended rather abruptly. Just the concluding chapter was abrupt, and I had to check a few times to be sure that I hadn't missed something.

Also, it felt very Shakespearean to me - like one of W.'s early Comedies with all the secret and unknown familial relationships and confusion among young lovers being benevolently directed towards their happiness by their elders.

I enjoyed this novel very much but it did read like the work of a very young man. An extremely talented man, but a very young one too.

[e joseph]

Wow, I haven't thought about this book in a long time - I had to write an essay about it in my first year English class! That's an extremely long time ago now...

So, did you like it?

Did I like it? Hmm, tough one. I liked it, but I didn't "like it" like it. Know what I mean? Like if no other book asks me to homecoming I'll go, but I'm really hoping The Forever War asks me instead.

Anyway, on the whole I enjoyed it; however, I wasn't a huge fan of the tone of the novel, particularly when Herr recounted stories focused on himself. It felt a little hipsterish to me. I understand giving us the language and attitudes of the kids serving in Vietnam, but I also felt like Herr was showing off a little; I get it, you listened to Jimi Hendrix and smoked tons of pot. The times when Herr wrote like a journalist and focused on the soldiers though were worth reading.

I've enjoyed other war novels far more. Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War (also about Vietnam), for example, hit me a little harder.

Any memories of your thoughts about it?

[Bjorn]

Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice. Review to come. For now, I very very much liked it, even if I wasn't quite as awed by it as Mirabell.

[promtbr]

The Slynx--Tatyana Tolstaya Excellent...

Reviewed in its own thread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/18827-tatyana-tolstaya-slynx.html).



----

[My name is red]

Oblomov by Goncharov**********

[DreamQueen]

Did I like it? Hmm, tough one. I liked it, but I didn't "like it" like it. Know what I mean? Like if no other book asks me to homecoming I'll go, but I'm really hoping The Forever War asks me instead.

Anyway, on the whole I enjoyed it; however, I wasn't a huge fan of the tone of the novel, particularly when Herr recounted stories focused on himself. It felt a little hipsterish to me. I understand giving us the language and attitudes of the kids serving in Vietnam, but I also felt like Herr was showing off a little; I get it, you listened to Jimi Hendrix and smoked tons of pot. The times when Herr wrote like a journalist and focused on the soldiers though were worth reading.

I've enjoyed other war novels far more. Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War (also about Vietnam), for example, hit me a little harder.

Any memories of your thoughts about it?

My memories are pretty vague it seems as I don't remember Dispatches being a novel at all! I recall it being a memoir or collection of essays. Ah well, I will blame my memory loss on foolish youth and all the drinking I did (as one does) in first year. ;)

[Flower]

"The heart is a lonely hunter" by Carson McCullers.

I got an old version from a second hand bookshop so the translation was a bit odd sometimes. Im not sure if the translation is from 1941 when the first danish copy came out or if its from 1963 when the book was printed.
None the less, the odd translation did not spoil the greatness of the story.

I loved the characters of the story, their pain and longing. They were so real to me, its almost unbelievable that the author was only 20 years old when she wrote the book.

A sad and beautiful book!
****0

[e joseph]

"The heart is a lonely hunter" by Carson McCullers.

I got an old version from a second hand bookshop so the translation was a bit odd sometimes. Im not sure if the translation is from 1941 when the first danish copy came out or if its from 1963 when the book was printed.
None the less, the odd translation did not spoil the greatness of the story.

I loved the characters of the story, their pain and longing. They were so real to me, its almost unbelievable that the author was only 20 years old when she wrote the book.

A sad and beautiful book!
****0

I loved this one as well. I thought both Mick and Singer were fantastic characters.

[e joseph]

My memories are pretty vague it seems as I don't remember Dispatches being a novel at all! I recall it being a memoir or collection of essays. Ah well, I will blame my memory loss on foolish youth and all the drinking I did (as one does) in first year. ;)

Don't go making excuses for memory loss just yet...

Dispatches is sort of a mix of a memoir and a collection of essays. What it clearly is not is a novel. Don't let my insecure grasp on the english language fool you. My bad.

[saliotthomas]

Driss Chraibi-Inspector Ali ***00

Giorgio Bassani-Behind the door ****0

[Liam]

Toad to a Nightingale by Brad Leithauser.

****0


Review forthcoming.



L.

[Daniel del Real]

Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project *****

[saliotthomas]

Knut Hamsun-Hunger
I finished it in the train from the mountains today.
Not an summer reading,by all means.
The more i read Hamsun the more is think the guy was nuts.
Genial,bright,gifted,fast,sharp and sick because of it.
An unbrearable friend i would guess.

As a normal book ****0+
as a summer read *0000-

[Liam]

Not an summer reading,by all means.I thought if you lived in Marrakech then every read would be a summer read! :)

Hamsun's great.



Cheers,
L

[saliotthomas]

I thought if you lived in Marrakech then every read would be a summer read! :)
Hamsun's great.


I tend to escape Marrakech(hellish) for summer monthes Liam.
I'm in Paris.
And i agree Hamsun is great but not light,even if his tone appears to be so.

[promtbr]

In The Skin of A Lion-- Michael Ondaatje (first and doubtfully last Ondaatje)

Reviewed in its own thread. (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/18975-michael-ondaatje-skin-lion.html#post33528)



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[DreamQueen]

The Face of Another, Kobo Abe. ***00

[Daniel del Real]

The Face of Another, Kobo Abe. ***00

Can we have your comments on this one DreamQueen? I've just read one Abe's book and I was greatly impressed.

[Daniel del Real]

Italo Calvino, The Watcher ****0

[DreamQueen]

Can we have your comments on this one DreamQueen? I've just read one Abe's book and I was greatly impressed.

Which one did you read? I've read The Woman in the Dunes and The Ark Sakura as well, and preferred the latter of all three. I will post about The Face of Another in the author section...

[K., the land surveyor]

Emile Zola, L'Assommoir *****
I'm going to post a review in the European Literature corner soon.

[Mirabell]

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne

[Clarissa]

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne I haven't read the book but I did see the film a couple of months ago. I found the story improbable but clever. Don't know if the film is very different from the book but I know the book has met with great success. I do not think I shall be reading it.
I am never quite sure what to make of these Shoah fictions - starting with Styron's Sophie's Choice. Saw the film and read the book for the Styron and both were outstanding. It's just the motivation that worries me. Kosinski's The Painted Bird, anything by Primo Levi, Kertesz (whose work I like less than Levi) are all based on first hand experience and yes, I know Tolstoy did not experience the Napoleonic wars nor did Stendhal either and wrote lasting masterpieces.
Nevertheless, perhaps because WWII is historically so close and there are perpertrators and survivors still alive, even if they are few and old, I find it a bit difficult to accept 'Shoah' literature. The book of Schindler's List was admiraby researched - and not a fiction. I disliked the film beause it became a fiction, unlike Wajda's postwar films which were authentic and true masterpices (not concentration camps, the occupation of Warsaw, but his Ashes and Diamonds and Kanal belong to the great films of all time).

[Mirabell]

hate the book. very very much. will not write a review just now or it'll be pure bile.

[Clarissa]

Having seen the film, I had no desire to read the book. But you have definitely put me off, Mirabell!

[Daniel del Real]

Which one did you read? I've read The Woman in the Dunes and The Ark Sakura as well, and preferred the latter of all three. I will post about The Face of Another in the author section...

I precisely read The Woman in the Dunes. That's great, I'll be expecting for your review.

[promtbr]

Aura-- Carlos Fuentes... what reading this accomplished is that I am pretty sure that I need a bigger size-sample from Fuente's works to start forming a reader-response...


Reviewed in its own thread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/19077-carlos-fuentes-aura.html#post33720).



---

[Daniel del Real]

Aura-- Carlos Fuentes... what reading this accomplished is that I am pretty sure that I need a bigger size-sample from Fuente's works to start forming a reader-response...


Reviewed in its own thread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/19077-carlos-fuentes-aura.html#post33720).



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Well Randy, Hate yo say I told you so! :D

[e joseph]

John Hawkes - The Beetle Leg

This one could take some digesting. I liked it. Alot. That I do know.

[e joseph]

Senselessness - Horacio Castellanos Moya (Katherine Silver)

Really nice 140 page read. Castellanos Moya's narrator is a hilariously wretched misanthropist (or at the very least misogynist). Why I keep reading authors influenced by Thomas Bernhard without having ever read Bernhard is beyond me; he's my favorite author I've never read at this point.

[Bjorn]

Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived In The Castle, almost *****

Emmanuel Carr?re, Un Roman Russe, barely ***00

[Jayaprakash]

Re: The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas: I have only seen the movie but I was considerably disgusted by it. Here were some of my comments on the movie:

'A movie like this, with all its heavy-handed symbolism, high-minded and unimpeachable moralising and the way in which it goes too far to make a point that only Holocaust deniers and Neo-Nazis will argue with, is little more than emotional porn. It gives viewers a cheap, easy high of horror, pity and indignation without any sort of narrative rigour or deeper context. '

Also, which is the more important point, I think:

'All in all, moves like this make me feel it's time people stopped trying to make heavy-handed and obvious commentaries on morality and human nature by making up stories about past wars, least of all the second world war, the last war where the dominant western cultures could claim to have been the good guys (although even this claim is a bit of a stretch at times). Perhaps this movie, with its British actors and British accents could have been about the UK's opportunistic support of Bush's war on terror, or, if it had to be about something from the past, the Falklands war. How many films have been made about that? I'm sure there are lots of telling moral fables to be found there without trotting out the same old Nazi boogeymen. '

In other news, I have just finished THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiel Hammett which I absolutely loved. A friend described Hammett as being like Marcus Aurelius writing about murder, without all the philosophising. Who am I to disagree?

[Daniel del Real]

Paul Auster, Man in the Dark ****0
and I'm being generous

[Jayaprakash]

THE SQUARES OF THE CITY by John Brunner. A 'traffic flow expert' is called in to help solve traffic problems in Ciudiad De Vados, a Utopian planned city built by a South American dictator. The problems are largely the unplanned growth of slums, shanty towns and impromptu bazaars populated by immigrants from other parts of the country, eager to become part of CDV's success story. Unlike some of Brunner's more elaborately constructed novels, this one is a taut, gripping first-person thriller. Like them, it is filled with considerable amounts of food for thought about larger issues, in this case about politics, city planning and administration, power plays, racism and the allocation of limited resources amidst seemingly unlimited long and short term goals. Not as sweeping as STAND ON ZANZIBAR or THE SHEEP LOOK UP, but equally effective and prescient, and perhaps more engaging on the human level. The chess angle makes for a nice little bit of extra fun if you're into that sort of thing. It confirms my belief that Brunner was one of the most important novelists of the last century, unfairly limited to a niche audience (and to a niche audience even within that audience, which is generally more interested in the latest far-future militaristic shoot-em-up) by his choice of genre.

[DreamQueen]

The Van, Roddy Doyle. ****0

[chika]

The Caliph's House, Tahir Shah
loved it (mostly)

[Bev Stayart]

Black Robe is an excellent book. The movie adaptation of this book is fairly good, in my opinion.

[promtbr]

A Wild Sheep Chase-- Haruki Murakami

Reveiwed in its own thread. (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/asian-oceanic-literature/19246-haruki-murakami-wild-sheep-chase.html#post34026)




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[Jayaprakash]

KISSING THE BEEHIVE by Jonathan Carroll.

[Daniel del Real]

Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo ****0

Mario Bellat?n, Beauty Salon *****

[promtbr]

Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo ****0

Mario Bellat?n, Beauty Salon *****

jeezes, do you ever slow down??? Jealous of the Bellatin...



No Longer At Ease--- Chinua Achebe

My attonement for being out of sync with TFA...

Reviewed in its own thread. (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/african-literature/19346-chinua-achebe-no-longer-ease.html)


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[kpjayan]

Spare Room : Helen Garner - ***00

Snakepit : Moses Isegawa - ***00 ( Uganda)

[Mirabell]

Finished a reread of A.L. Kennedy's "On Bullfighting"

[e joseph]

Mario Bellat?n, Beauty Salon *****

Well done my friend. Somehow I knew you'd get to this before me. I'm glad you enjoyed it as well; I'll have to check it out sometime soon.

[Bev Stayart]

"Pack of Two" by Caroline Knapp. I actually read this book about ten years ago, but it is one of my favorite books.

[Igu Soni]

Metamorphosis by Kafka
Everyone tells me that metamorphosis is Kafka's great. Personally, I thought that it was well-written but. . . not Kafkaesque.
Considering that Samsa is a big bug and the trauma caused by seeing your son/brother turn into a big bug, I thought his family was rather nice, apart from - later in the story - his sister. Not at all Kafkaesque if you ask me.

[e joseph]

The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles

Really great read. Part 3, I thought, was excellent.

[Jan Mbali]

Just completed Boswell's London Jpournal 1762-1763 by reading a page or two before attempting to sleep every night. It is the 1950 original edition, reprinted in 1952 by the reprint society, which comes with an erudite and stylish introduction by Prof Frederick A. Pottle - a wonderfully appropriate name for a literary chap. In it he states that the journal of the young and troubled Boswell is a conscious history of his mind at work rather than simply a record of his year in London. Indeed, that is what makes it fascinating, besides being a window onto his life and times. His moral struggles and the contest with his father are two salient themes, the former being best known for his frank accounts of his sexual misdaventures. For instance, sitting in church he records that he felt elevated and spiritual and a moment later a pang of lust as he oggled a certain lady. He hid the book away with half an eye on it being discovered for posterity, although he shared it with Dr Johnson and a couple of close friends. It was only discovered in the 1930s with a few portions emerging later. Are there anyother similar diaries people can recommend?

[beelzebubbles]

Metamorphosis by Kafka
Everyone tells me that metamorphosis is Kafka's great. Personally, I thought that it was well-written but. . . not Kafkaesque.
Considering that Samsa is a big bug and the trauma caused by seeing your son/brother turn into a big bug, I thought his family was rather nice, apart from - later in the story - his sister. Not at all Kafkaesque if you ask me.
I am trying to get my mind around the notion that the Metamorphosis is not Kafakaesque. Could you elaborate on why you don't think this story is Kafkaesque and what you do find Kafkaesque.

[Mirabell]

All Soul's Rising, Madison Smartt Bell

[promtbr]

The Ghost Writer-- Philip Roth

Reviewed in its own thread. (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/19438-philip-roth-ghost-writer.html#post34353)



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[Igu Soni]

I am trying to get my mind around the notion that the Metamorphosis is not Kafakaesque. Could you elaborate on why you don't think this story is Kafkaesque and what you do find Kafkaesque.

First, let me tell you what I think of as Kafkaesque: it is an individual getting really badly messed around with by a larger group.
I was under the impression, from what I'd heard, that Samsa was really badly treated by his family after the metamorphosis. I thought that fit my idea of kafkaesque cos if you're a big bug and can complain about being badly treated, it must be bad.
What I found, however, was that, considering the trauma those three go through when their family member and only breadwinner turns into a - I''m saying this too much but no better way - big bug, they treat him fairly well(until his sister gets truly fed up). They are all truly saddened by his condition, they hate the bug for having taken Gregor away from them, and:

His quick-witted sister only needed to observe twice that his armchair stood by the window; after that, whenever she had tidied the room, she always pushed the chair back to the same place at the window and even left the inner casements open.
That, seriously, is eminently nice in my book.
It, to me, became more of a story of a family getting a rude shock and waking up to the world when their only breadwinner and beloved family member(I actually am implying an order of preference here; look at the second para) turns into an unpresentable figure.

[Daniel del Real]

First, let me tell you what I think of as Kafkaesque: it is an individual getting really badly messed around with by a larger group.
I was under the impression, from what I'd heard, that Samsa was really badly treated by his family after the metamorphosis. I thought that fit my idea of kafkaesque cos if you're a big bug and can complain about being badly treated, it must be bad.
What I found, however, was that, considering the trauma those three go through when their family member and only breadwinner turns into a - I''m saying this too much but no better way - big bug, they treat him fairly well(until his sister gets truly fed up). They are all truly saddened by his condition, they hate the bug for having taken Gregor away from them, and:

That, seriously, is eminently nice in my book.
It, to me, became more of a story of a family getting a rude shock and waking up to the world when their only breadwinner and beloved family member(I actually am implying an order of preference here; look at the second para) turns into an unpresentable figure.

For me, this has to be Kafkaesque in all the extension of the word. A large group, in this case whole society, strip him away from his individuality and his social position, making Gregor one day to turn into an insect. This is a great analogy depicting the absurd and the touch of surrealism the works belonging to Kafka?s world.

[Daniel del Real]

Javier Marias, Man of Feeling ****0

[Igu Soni]

A large group, in this case whole society, strip him away from his individuality and his social position, making Gregor one day to turn into an insect.
And you just put the whole story into perspective for me. Thanks. All makes sense now.

[Clarissa]

Quite a list for me since Marilynne Robinson's Gilead

A Most Wanted Man -John Le Carr? (not as good as his A Perfect Spy that I read about a month ago but still a good read. Le Carr? is a true master of the genre.)
The Secret Scripture - John Barry
Day - A.L.Kennedy
R?ckkehr nach Wien - Hilde Spiel
Mein Leben - Marcel Reich-Ranicki
W ou le souvenir d'enfance - Georges Perec

[K., the land surveyor]

Letter to his father - Franz Kafka *****
The Sorrows of Young Werther - Wolfgang Goethe ****0
Flight into Darkness - Arthur Schnitzler ****0

Starry judgements represent how much I enjoyed the book, it's not about giving them "a mark", I would never commit such an arrogant act.

[john h]

Just recently finished George Johnston's "My Brother Jack". Kimbofo at Reading Matters lists it as her all time favorite novel. Until then I hadn't heard of it. It's about two brothers who grow up in 1920s Australia. The action follows them through the depression years and into the 1940s when the younger brother becomes a famous war correspondent. Great book. I can't imagine why it's not better known.

[DreamQueen]

Diary of a Bad Year, J.M. Coetzee. ****0+

[Daniel del Real]

Kenzaburo Oe, Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids ****0-

[Bjorn]

Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions. ***00+ or ****0- ... hmmm..

[Mirabell]

Fables: Animal Farm, Bill Willingham et al.

wow. even worse than the first.

[promtbr]

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting-- Milan Kundera

Reviewed in this thread. (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/1903-milan-kundera-book-laughter-forgetting.html#post34700)


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[Jayaprakash]

Fables: Animal Farm, Bill Willingham et al.

wow. even worse than the first.
I told you! Didn't I tell you?

[Mirabell]

I told you! Didn't I tell you?

I'm giving it another chance. I adore James Jean's covers. Seriously, they are almost worth buying the books. Mark Buckingham's pencils however suck. The writing is bad, the pencils are horrible, Leiloha's inks are good and Jean's covers. I'm hoping for the best.

[miercuri]

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde ***** for some reason I never got round to reading this book in high-school when all my friends were raving about it. I feel a bit en retard and it seems pointless to jump on the Oscar Wilde bandwagon now but that was an exquisite read! I'm glad I finally picked it up, I'm looking forward to studying it in autumn.
Summer Crossing - Truman Capote ****0+ for a book that Capote never meant to publish, it is quite a little gem. After finishing it I reread the last chapter, very confident writing that builds such beautiful momentum. I was expecting a lot less and it kind of swept me off my feet.
Disgrace - JM Coetzee ****0+ what a bleak book! It will take a few light-hearted reads to wash away that feeling of hopelessness. Very terse prose that manages to capture so much emotion. I am glad I finally read something by Coetzee, of whom I was quite skeptical at first, but now I can see what the fuss was about. I'll be checking The Master of Petersburg or Slow Man next.

[Mirabell]

Not True and Not Unkind, Ed O'Loughlin

there's no way that this is not the worst book on the longlist.

[Clarissa]

Soie - Alessandro Baricco from the Italian Seta translated into French by Fran?oise Brun *****

[e joseph]

As I Lay Dying - Billy Faulkner

[Liam]

Soie - Alessandro Baricco from the Italian Seta translated into French by Fran?oise Brun *****
VS.

As I Lay Dying - Billy Faulkner

I really wish Stewart would make it mandatory to fuckin' RATE each and every one of your "Recently Finished Book[s]." I really don't care whether or not you've finished the Faulkner, what I want to see is how you rate him.

[Shit, there goes my reputation... Joseph, plz don't give me any negative points for this, OK darlin'???] :p



Cheers,
L

[Peeping Tom]

Netherland by Joseph O?Neill. Very strong echoes of The Great Gatsby. I liked it very much. ****0

[e joseph]

I really wish Stewart would make it mandatory to fuckin' RATE each and every one of your "Recently Finished Book[s]." I really don't care whether or not you've finished the Faulkner, what I want to see is how you rate him.

[Shit, there goes my reputation... Joseph, plz don't give me any negative points for this, OK darlin'???] :p




Too late. Negative 2.

Anyway...since I'm virtually illiterate, I don't feel comfortable rating what I've read. Since you pointed it out though, As I Lay Dying was fantastic. It doesn't touch The Sound and the Fury for me, but still great. Does that cut it or am I still slapping the face of all that's right in the World Literature Forum?

[Bjorn]

Men And Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem. I like Lethem, but he's been slacking off since The Fortress of Solitude and short stories are, strangely, not his forte. But entertaining enough and occasionally manages to get it very right. ***00

[Igu Soni]

Anyway...since I'm virtually illiterate, I don't feel comfortable rating what I've read.

Man, I don't think anyone's rating quality here. I'd say just rate it by how much you enjoyed it.

[Daniel del Real]

VS.


I really wish Stewart would make it mandatory to fuckin' RATE each and every one of your "Recently Finished Book[s]." I really don't care whether or not you've finished the Faulkner, what I want to see is how you rate him.

[Shit, there goes my reputation... Joseph, plz don't give me any negative points for this, OK darlin'???] :p



Cheers,
L

You finally lost it, didn't you Liam? :D
You should start your thread on Writers Deathmatches. lol.

[Daniel del Real]

Arthur Miller, The Death of a Salesman *****

Horacio Castellanos Moya, The Gun in the Man ***00+

[Liam]

Since you pointed it out though, As I Lay Dying was fantastic. It doesn't touch The Sound and the Fury for me, but still great.I agree. The first time I read The Sound and the Fury was in high-school, and it was a revelation. Bear in mind that at that point I had no knowledge of Joyce, Woolf or Proust, so Faulkner's style had seemed both strange and uniquely appropriate to me.

I also think that, overall, As I Lay Dying is a better-constructed novel than TS&TF. However, it is much less dark or intense, though still riveting.


Man, I don't think anyone's rating quality here. I'd say just rate it by how much you enjoyed it.Igu Soni is precisely right. I AM interested in seeing how much you guys have enjoyed your "recently finished" books. If you want to provide some critical analysis on the side, that's fine with this English Major! ;)


You finally lost it, didn't you Liam? :D
You should start your thread on Writers Deathmatches. lol.Ugh, I know. Now that I have come across as a total PSYCHO I'm sure some of you guys will never speak to me again! :( But what can you do...

My mom's mother had a hilarious saying (I'm more or less paraphrasing from the Ukrainian): Sperm is no sparrow, once it's out, it's out--which is what you basically say when you find out a young girl or woman you know got pregnant by "accident." However, I believe the same can be applied to words. Once you say something, it no longer belongs to you, it's out there in the open and you can't take it back, though of course you can always apologize for it.


Cheers, as always,
L

[e joseph]

Arthur Miller, The Death of a Salesman *****

Horacio Castellanos Moya, The Gun in the Man ***00+

My God that was quick! Just 3 stars eh? Sorry...

[Daniel del Real]

My God that was quick! Just 3 stars eh? Sorry...

It was almost a four star. It had a really good start but then got lost toward the end. I'll make a mini-review on the thread you started.

[e joseph]

I agree. The first time I read The Sound and the Fury was in high-school, and it was a revelation. Bear in mind that at that point I had no knowledge of Joyce, Woolf or Proust, so Faulkner's style had seemed both strange and uniquely appropriate to me.

I also think that, overall, As I Lay Dying is a better-constructed novel than TS&TF. However, it is much less dark or intense, though still riveting.

The Sound and the Fury was my first Faulkner, so it definitely seems like it'll be tough to top in the "my favorite book by him" listing for exactly the same reason. Do you really think Dying was a better-constructed novel? I think it was much more linear, but I really liked the organization of Fury. It's a toss up for me there is what I'm getting at. As for darkness and intensity, we're on the same page.


Igu Soni is precisely right. I AM interested in seeing how much you guys have enjoyed your "recently finished" books. If you want to provide some critical analysis on the side, that's fine with this English Major! ;)
Nope, still not going to rate them. I invite anyone/everyone to ask my thoughts if curious though. Even you Liam.


Ugh, I know. Now that I have come across as a total PSYCHO I'm sure some of you guys will never speak to me again! :( But what can you do...

My mom's mother had a hilarious saying (I'm more or less paraphrasing from the Ukrainian): Sperm is no sparrow, once it's out, it's out--which is what you basically say when you find out a young girl or woman you know got pregnant by "accident." However, I believe the same can be applied to words. Once you say something, it no longer belongs to you, it's out there in the open and you can't take it back, though of course you can always apologize for it.

Fine, fine, I'll take back that negative 2. Geesh. Still not rating my finished books though. And thanks for giving me the new phrase word-sperm too!

[kpjayan]

Arthur Miller, The Death of a Salesman *****


Absolutely.. I have been shying away from plays for long and realised how much I missed; finished reading 'who's afraid of virginia woolf' over the weekend.

[e joseph]

Nobody Move - Denis Johnson

It's a straight up gangster crime novel that was serialized in Playboy, so what you expect is exactly what you get. Fun read. Look for the inevitable Tarantino-esque movie by sometime next year.

[abecedarian]

The Deportees by Roddy Doyle****0

[Stewart]

The Deportees by Roddy Doyle****0
Do drop by the thread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/585-roddy-doyle-deportees-other-stories.html) and elaborate.

[abecedarian]

Do drop by the thread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/585-roddy-doyle-deportees-other-stories.html) and elaborate.

I've been trying to do just that for the last ten minutes. Certain abc ranchhands have this radar...t'was quiet til I started trying to frame a coherent sentence. Even as I write this, the 8 yr old is giving me this speel about how mistreated he is...I think he's got a bit of Irish blood in there somewhere:p

[Daniel del Real]

Enrique Vila-Matas, Bartleby and Co. *****

The Best English Humour, selected by Jorge Herralde ****0

[DreamQueen]

The Toughest Indian in the World, Sherman Alexie.
A Heart So White, Javier Marias.
The Leper of St. Giles, Ellis Peters.

[abecedarian]

The Toughest Indian in the World, Sherman Alexie.
A Heart So White, Javier Marias.
The Leper of St. Giles, Ellis Peters.

Have you read Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

[Daniel del Real]

Danilo Kis, A Tomb for Boris Davidovich ****0-

[DreamQueen]

Have you read Alexie's Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian?

Yes, I have. I thought it was just okay. I find Alexie's early work to be much better than his more recent stuff.

[Mirabell]

The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters

Loved it.

[Bjorn]

Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia ***00

[Igu Soni]

Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia ***00
Why only 3? Everyone else I know loves it.
(sorry this sounds rude, i cant rephrase it)

[Bjorn]

Why only 3? Everyone else I know loves it.
(sorry this sounds rude, i cant rephrase it)
No problem. Review here (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/20080-oliver-sacks-musicophilia.html#post35536).

[Julie]

Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room ... I liked it well enough, and definitely look forward to rereading it. Didn't like it as much as Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, The Waves, and Between the Acts, but so far I like it more than The Years, which I'm currently reading.

Hermann Broch (tr. Edwin and Willa Muir) The Unknown Quantity ... This is the first Broch book I've read and it was a revelation to me. I have a feeling his work is going to be integral to my own. His other works just shot up my to acquire list.

Similarly, a few weeks ago I finished Pynchon's Against the Day (the only other Pynchon I've read is The Crying of Lot 49)and felt as if I wasn't completely crazy, or, at least, alone in my craziness. With Broch and Pynchon, I'm particularly interested in their treatment of science, math, and tech in modern culture, how that filters into people's consciousness, and subsequently into literature.

Awesome, awesome... you guys are fantastic :)

[saliotthomas]

Alexandro Baricco-Novecento***00

I liked it but i think there were the bases for a longer novel(even few of them !),so full of good ideas and far too short.Very frustrating.

Glad and sad to back.
I Like the all lot of you but real life taste like nothing else when it rocks !

[stephendedalus]

Robertson Davies, Manticore *****

I spent a couple of really fun evenings with this book. It's a bit of a show-off I guess, but heck, it was so good, one of the best I read this year. The style somehow reminded me of Bellow.

EDIT:

Oh, and Ali Shaw, The Girl with Glass Feet *0000

Not recommended.

[Peeping Tom]

I just finished The Informers by Juan Gabriel V?squez, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean. This is an excellent novel. It is intricately constructed (stories within stories within stories), but the narrative flow is pretty straightforward. And the translation (as far as I can tell) is superb. This novel does require a bit of patience, however; events and intentions are revealed very slowly, layer by layer. *****

[Jayaprakash]

Isn't THE MANTICORE the one with the Jungian analysis? I like Roberton Davies quite a bit. For a slightly lighter example of his work, try TEMPEST-TOST.

Things I've read recently:

THE STAIN IN THE SNOW by Georges Simenon, the second of his non-Maigret novels I've read so far. A very dark tale about a dissolute young man testing the limits of morality in German-occupied France. Highly worthwhile if you like noirish narratives, although this rather goes beyond the genre, stripping away even what ragged glamour it has to wallow in total human degradation a bit like a latter-day Zoya.

ROYAL HIGHNESS by Thomas Mann. A relatively minor novel; suffers from a deflating lack of conflict in the last 3rd of the book. Not recommended for Mann newbies. I missed out on this one for the book club discussion, but in any case I think it's not worth as much as his other works.

THE SI-FAN MYSTERIES by Sax Rohmer. An enjoyable romp, but the end sequence is framed by an overly fortunate coincidence - that the Si-Fan's secret lair should just happen to be hidden away in caves below the very place where Petrie and his friends go to rest up after a big confrontation in London. Still, super fun and a must-read for anyone into old-school pulp adventure.

[promtbr]

Back after a brief hiatus...(fly fishing sometimes beats reading;))

The Green House-- Mario Vargas Llosa

Reviewed in its own thread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/20179-mario-vargas-llosa-green-house.html#post35740)



---

[stephendedalus]

Isn't THE MANTICORE the one with the Jungian analysis? I like Roberton Davies quite a bit. For a slightly lighter example of his work, try TEMPEST-TOST.

Yes, indeed it is. But 1) I am a bit interested in Jung's ideas and 2) I didn't find the book particularly heavy. After this one I will certainly read more of his work so thanks for recommendation. :)

[Jayaprakash]

Then do try the whole of the Deptford Trilogy, of which The Manticore is the middle volume. The first one, The Fifth Business, is especially good.

[Igu Soni]

Pagan Babies - Elmore Leonard *****
Always used to wonder what the hate for jeffrey archer(not a great - or even very good - writer but a good entertainer) but now I don't.

[Daniel del Real]

Alexandro Baricco-Novecento***00

I liked it but i think there were the bases for a longer novel(even few of them !),so full of good ideas and far too short.Very frustrating.

Glad and sad to back.
I Like the all lot of you but real life taste like nothing else when it rocks !

I just loved the brief novel and to me it was a pure 5 star. I agree with your opinion Thomas regarding the lenght and how it could have been a longer novel, but brevity is a quality I truly admire in Baricco and that can be witnessed in novels like Silk and Without Blood. It's an amazing story full of inventiveness and delightful characters. One of those onesit-read marvels.

[Daniel del Real]

Roberto Bola?o, Nazi Literature in the Americas *****

What can I say, I just love this man's writings.

[Mirabell]

DMZ: Body of a Journalist, Brian Wood, Riccardo Burchielli

[kpjayan]

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf - Edward Albee : awesome*****

A Golden Age - Tahmima Anam : Impressive ***00+ .

[abecedarian]

Codex 632 (http://www.amazon.com/Codex-632-Secret-Christopher-Columbus/dp/0061173193/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252591013&sr=1-1)-Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos**000

Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels (http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Heaving-Bosoms-Bitches-Romance/dp/1416571221/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252590845&sr=1-1)- Sarah Wendell ***00

In the Heart of the Sea:The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Sea-Tragedy-Whaleship-Essex/dp/0141001828/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252591063&sr=1-1)- Nathaniel Philbrick *****

[beelzebubbles]

Robertson Davies, Manticore *****

I spent a couple of really fun evenings with this book. It's a bit of a show-off I guess, but heck, it was so good, one of the best I read this year. The style somehow reminded me of Bellow.

EDIT:

Oh, and Ali Shaw, The Girl with Glass Feet *0000

Not recommended.

I love Robertson Davies' novels and have read them all. What's Bred In the Bone is a particular favorite.

[Stiffelio]

"La Testa Perduta di Damasceno Monteiro" by Antonio Tabucchi. In the line of "Sostiene Pereira". It tricks you into being a "who dunnit" but it's a lot more profound than that. Great character and ambience descriptions. A bit hectoring and much too politically correct at times. Not quite Tabucchi's best (such as IMO "Indian Nocturn" and "Little Misunderstandings of no Importance") but still a great read.****0

[miercuri]

Finished Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and absolutely loved it. Which is strange, because I tried reading it two years ago and couldn't get past page 30. Best childhood account I've read in a while, between laughs and tears. This felt like a ***** to me.

[Igu Soni]

Chaos - James Gleick ***00
The edition I read has the subtitle 'The amazing science of the unpredictable' on the cover and 'Making a new science' inside. Unfortunately, it only lives up to the second name. Gleick regularly glosses over explanations of the advance itself and talks about the people behind it. Many of whom are praised for the intuition - the same one that would have been called crankery if chaos hadn't turned out to be so useful.

[DreamQueen]

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky. ****0

I was startled by how thoroughly silent she was on what was happening to Jews in France during WWII in this novel. Anyone know why or have any ideas why? This is keeping this book from being a ***** for me.

[saliotthomas]

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky. ****0

I was startled by how thoroughly silent she was on what was happening to Jews in France during WWII in this novel. Anyone know why or have any ideas why? This is keeping this book from being a ***** for me.


Suite Francaise is mainly about very begining of the war,the run from Paris and the chase and deportation had not started.The segond part could have mentioned it but maybe the syze of the village or again the period of time(early war) kept it from it's actuality.


Finished Money for Nothing -Donald E Westlake****0 great.
Am i the only one who likes hard boiled novels here?

[e joseph]

The Skating Rink - Roberto Bolano (Chris Andrews)

Excellent "detective" novel delivered from 3 characters points of view. Very engrossing. Oh I, uh, mean it's not very good Daniel...

[Clarissa]

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky. ****0

I was startled by how thoroughly silent she was on what was happening to Jews in France during WWII in this novel. Anyone know why or have any ideas why? This is keeping this book from being a ***** for me.I did read somewhere that N?mirovsky had an awkward relationship with her own Judaism. One or two critics even labelled her as Anti-semitic.This not for Suite Fran?aise but for novels published in the '20s and '30s. I read her David Golder after reading Suite Fran?aise and could see what the critics were getting at with that label. Apparently, she converted to Catholicism.

That said, Suite Fran?aise is a remarkable book. The fact that she did not portray what was happening to the Jews in France at the time may be because she had escaped to the countryside and the exactions were perhaps less flagrant than in Paris. Until July, 1942, when the Nazi occupation started arresting and deporting their first victims from France. She was one of them.

I find fascinating the story of the novel itself, the discovery of the manuscript all those years later, the projected never to be written 'suite' etc. Proof that 'books have their own fate' .

[Bjorn]

Left Behind, LaHaye/Jenkins (-1 out of 5, but hilarious)
I Curse The River of Time, Per Petterson ****0
Grammatica Obscura, Nanok *0000
Tredje flykthastigheten, Lotta Lotass ****0

[Eric]

Ah Bj?rn, I see that you've got round to reading a Lotass. Do tell us more in detail somewhere on the WLF (if you haven't done so already). I haven't been to Sweden yet to buy books, because there seems to be a spate of car-burnings in Gothenburg, Uppsala, Malm?, etc. Wouldn't want to get the covers of my new purchases singed and charred, would I? So maybe I'll resort to Amazon, after all. Then they can send them from Morgong?va. And I can read them safely with no fear of having the tram I'm sitting in drenched in petrol and set alight. I thought Sweden was a sleepy, slightly tedious country. But all of a sudden it's become mayhem in a few pockets of chaos. What's causing the Swedes to be so revolting?

Clarissa, part of the horror of the testimonies of N?mirovsky, Hillesum, Frank, etc., is that they survived long enough to write moving documents - but did not make it to the end of the war. Even those who did were scarred for life, as the suicides of Celan and Levi, years later, demonstrate. And these authors are only five individuals out of the six millions that died.

[Liam]

What's causing the Swedes to be so revolting?
Perhaps they're reverting to their glorious Viking past... :p Englishmen (and women) beware...


Cheers,
L

[Jayaprakash]

STAMBOUL TRAIN by Graham Greene. Some interesting juxtapositions, but ultimately not one of his stronger novels.

MULLINER NIGHTS by PG Wodehouse. Tall tales about Mr. Mulliner's many nephews. One of those books that pretty much reads itself while I sit turning the pages and laughing out loud.

Now reading the second Dashiell Hammett omnibus from Everyman, the one with 'THE DAIN CURSE', 'THE GLASS KEY' and selected Continental Op short stories.

[Daniel del Real]

The Skating Rink - Roberto Bolano (Chris Andrews)

Excellent "detective" novel delivered from 3 characters points of view. Very engrossing. Oh I, uh, mean it's not very good Daniel...

Oh my god you did it! :(.
Ok I definitely need to get if from Spain. I hope some relatives of friends go soon.

[Daniel del Real]

Haruki Murakami, After the Quake ****0

[DreamQueen]

Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay **000+

[Daniel del Real]

Imre Kert?sz, Fiasco ***00

[Mirabell]

Imre Kert?sz, Fiasco ***00

please comment on your inexplicable handing out of points here:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4629-kertesz-imre-kudarc-fiasko.html

[saliotthomas]

The world without us-Allan Wiesman***00

[Flower]

"I curse the river of time" by Per Petterson

Loved it!
Once again Petterson has managed to write a book, that I wish never ended. He creates an atmophere so intense and vibrant, even though not much happens.
This time we hear about the main characters relationship with his mother and a few women in his life. Where we heard about the father in "Out stealing horses".
In this novel, I noticed that he descripes the way the wind touches the skin in different ways, it feels like he has gotten much more "body" in this book than "Out stealing horses" or is it me who has forgotten that detail?
The book is such a joy to read and he master words so brilliantly, that I might even read it again...very soon.

****0 (4,5)

[Daniel del Real]

"I curse the river of time" by Per Petterson

Loved it!
Once again Petterson has managed to write a book, that I wish never ended. He creates an atmophere so intense and vibrant, even though not much happens.
This time we hear about the main characters relationship with his mother and a few women in his life. Where we heard about the father in "Out stealing horses".
In this novel, I noticed that he descripes the way the wind touches the skin in different ways, it feels like he has gotten much more "body" in this book than "Out stealing horses" or is it me who has forgotten that detail?
The book is such a joy to read and he master words so brilliantly, that I might even read it again...very soon.

****0 (4,5)

I've heard a lot of Per Petterson lately in the forum, and always accompanied with very good references. Out Stealing Horses is a good introduction to this author? Anyone?

[saliotthomas]

I've heard a lot of Per Petterson lately in the forum, and always accompanied with very good references. Out Stealing Horses is a good introduction to this author? Anyone?

Go on Daniel,i'm sure you will like it.

[kpjayan]

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys : I haven't read Jane Eyre. This book is supposed to be inspired by it and was written as a prequel to that book. That definitely was a handicap for me in appreciating this book. Though it was very well written, and the 'new penguin classic' edition had a 24 pages introduction, did not go well with me. I am sure to have missed something.**000

The Rape of Sita - Lindsay Collen : Beautifully written novel, have made a small note at the African Literature section.****0+

[Bjorn]

Senselessness, Horacio Castellanos Moya ****0

[e joseph]

Senselessness, Horacio Castellanos Moya ****0
I'm in the middle of Castellanos Moya's The She-Devil in the Mirror now. So far mixed feelings about it. Senselessness grabbed me from page one; She-Devil could be more of a grower. I hope.

[promtbr]

Still alive but busy....I see that I have a lot of catching up to do...

Rituals-- Cees Nooteboom

Reviewed in its own thread. (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/20673-cees-nooteboom-rituals.html#post36647)

If I were inclined to still give out stars for books read, there would be legion for this one.



---

[Stiffelio]

Senselessness, Horacio Castellanos Moya ****0

Castellanos Moya is an excellent writer. His prose is so smooth and swift and transparent, yet his books are very profound. I loved Senselessness. I think it's his best book so far. I read it in one sitting. I also recommend El Asco, (asco means disgust or revulsion) purposedly written in a style imitaing or homaging Thomas Bernhard. I'm not sure if it's been translated into English yet. It has probably been translated into German though. Another good book of his is El Arma en el Hombre.

[DreamQueen]

Regeneration, Pat Barker. ****0
Really good but too painful a read to be a 5.

[Clarissa]

Ward No. 6 - Anton Chekov - translated by Constance Garnett *****

Outstanding - no wonder Chekhov is considered one of the greatest short story writers ever. This left me literally breathless.

[Daniel del Real]

Another good book of his is El Arma en el Hombre.

I read this one like a month ago and I wasn't totally convinced about it. It starts so fine but little by little it starts to become a black novel. At the end I had the feeling I was reading Perez Reverte, and for me, that was terrible.

[shehateme]

Just finished George Orwell?s Animal Farm, not for the first time I have read it at least a dozen times science first reading it as part of a literature course at school.

Orwell?s Self proclaimed fairy story is probably one of the best political fables ever written, every time I read it I experience the same feelings of disappointment and disgust as the pigs use philosophical justifications to explain their blatantly unprincipled actions, I also feel just as chilled by the way the idealism the animals start out with is betrayed by tyranny and corruption, this theme is as bright and relevant today as it was when published in 1945.

[Stiffelio]

I read this one like a month ago and I wasn't totally convinced about it. It starts so fine but little by little it starts to become a black novel. At the end I had the feeling I was reading Perez Reverte, and for me, that was terrible.


Mmm..Daniel, allow me to disagree with you on this one. I didn't view this book as a 'noir' novel at all. I think Castellanos does a pretty good job creating a pathetic character in Robokop. The final pages were quite vivid to me and the open ending (I don't want to throw in a spoiler here) is rather visionary. Robokop could be serving duty in any of the current, lucrative wars. Think about it :-)

[saliotthomas]

Joseph O'Neil-Netherland ***00

[e joseph]

The She-Devil in the Mirror - Horacio Castellanos Moya (Katherine Silver)

Not great, not bad. I found Senselessness to be much more enjoyable.

[miercuri]

Regeneration, Pat Barker. ****0
Really good but too painful a read to be a 5.
I read The Ghost Road by her, the last book of the Regeneration trilogy and I thought it was stunning! I highly recommend!

[My name is red]

Norwegian wood-Haruki Murakami
simply*0000

[saliotthomas]

China Mieville-The city & the city ***00 okeyish in a graphic sort of way.I felt i was reading a Moebius comic,but without the nice drawings.

[DreamQueen]

I read The Ghost Road by her, the last book of the Regeneration trilogy and I thought it was stunning! I highly recommend!

Excellent. I'll definitely be reading the next two in the trilogy!

[DreamQueen]

I just finished Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe. Very good, but like the last book I mentioned here, too painful to be pleasurable in the reading.

[promtbr]

The Missing Head of Antonio Tabucchi... wait, that's not right...

The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro-- Antonio Tabucchi

Reviewed in its thread. (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/20847-antonio-tabucchi-missing-head-damasceno-monteiro.html#post37045)

[Daniel del Real]

Enrique Lihn, Diario de Muerte *****

Excellent! I can see why Bola?o admired him so much and what of his ideology he took to structure his works.

[saliotthomas]

Will Knott-Devils flowers **000+
Guy de Maupasssant-Boule de Suif ***00The horla is much better.I say.

[SlowRain]

China Mieville-The city & the city ***00 okeyish in a graphic sort of way.I felt i was reading a Moebius comic,but without the nice drawings.
Have you read Perdido Street Station? If so, how does it compare? That's the only Mieville that I've read so far.

[saliotthomas]

Have you read Perdido Street Station? If so, how does it compare? That's the only Mieville that I've read so far.

Not but Bjorn is,so when he got is thoughts together we can all compare notes.Jayaprakash also read it not long ago.

[Mirabell]

K?rzere Tage, Anna Katharina Hahn

The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown

[Mirabell]

China Mieville-The city & the city ***00 okeyish in a graphic sort of way.I felt i was reading a Moebius comic,but without the nice drawings.

wow. I thought it was perfect. it wouldn't work as a comic. like, at all. s sort of part of the point.

[saliotthomas]

wow. I thought it was perfect. it wouldn't work as a comic. like, at all. s sort of part of the point.

I'm not talking to poeple who give away money to Dan Brown,all you have to say from now on is subject to deep suspicion.
Anyway You must read The incal-by Mobius and jodorowsky to see my point with Mieville.You bloody iluminaty bordering templar.

Finished The red and the black-Stendhal*****with a few reserves.

[Mirabell]

I'm not talking to poeple who give away money to Dan Brown,


I didn't. This is the 'finished' books thread, not the bought books.

[saliotthomas]

Did you steal the thing then?:confused:

[Mirabell]

Did you steal the thing then?:confused:

uh. sorta.

[Igu Soni]

uh. sorta.
The Cartman avatar starting to make sense:D. Blame any handy jews for the theft?

[Daniel del Real]

Did you steal the thing then?:confused:

Maybe we should create a new thread on stolen books. Mirabell you thief!

[Stiffelio]

"La Confesi?n" by C?sar Aira (published 2009, no translation yet). What to say about this new novella by Aira! Every book of his I read leaves me puzzled, with mixed feelings. As always with an Aira novel, trying to summarize the plot is near impossible, and ultimately not that important. Let's say this one's about a one decadent Count Orlov, who is invited to a family gathering and who's trying to avoid letting out on an old secret, the nature of which is of course hidden from the reader. During the party, and while irritatingly observing the mischieveous behaviour of a child, the outcome of which may result in a terrible chain of events leading to the revelation of his secret, Orlov discusses the nature of story telling with another member of the extended Orlov family. Clear enough?? Anyway, the book is undoubtedly well written (Aira is a master stylist) and when he chooses to be funny he's hilariously so. But all of a sudden he'll take an awkward, introspective tack which may be annoying if you are not used to this sort of capricious meandering. Aira's idiosyncrasies and literary work are better appreciated in the long run, with the cumulative reading of many of his novels (more than 30 by now), than by reading just an isolated novel. You see the common traits from one novel to the next but in a single one you miss the forest for the trees. ***00 and 1/2 :confused:

[DreamQueen]

The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge ***00+

Generally "meh" with a few very funny parts.

[Daniel del Real]

"La Confesi?n" by C?sar Aira (published 2009, no translation yet). What to say about this new novella by Aira! Every book of his I read leaves me puzzled, with mixed feelings. As always with an Aira novel, trying to summarize the plot is near impossible, and ultimately not that important. Let's say this one's about a one decadent Count Orlov, who is invited to a family gathering and who's trying to avoid letting out on an old secret, the nature of which is of course hidden from the reader. During the party, and while irritatingly observing the mischieveous behaviour of a child, the outcome of which may result in a terrible chain of events leading to the revelation of his secret, Orlov discusses the nature of story telling with another member of the extended Orlov family. Clear enough?? Anyway, the book is undoubtedly well written (Aira is a master stylist) and when he chooses to be funny he's hilariously so. But all of a sudden he'll take an awkward, introspective tack which may be annoying if you are not used to this sort of capricious meandering. Aira's idiosyncrasies and literary work are better appreciated in the long run, with the cumulative reading of many of his novels (more than 30 by now), than by reading just an isolated novel. You see the common traits from one novel to the next but in a single one you miss the forest for the trees. ***00 and 1/2 :confused:

I still don't know what's the whole idea behind Aira's works, what is he trying to accomplish with all his mini novels. I've also read that the big picture will come ahead better if we read more novels. By now I'm reading two and I'm willing to read more, but I don't know how long it's gonna take before I get tired and leave him. Right now,I'm just like you Stiffelio, not knowing what to think, my mind puzzled, in a neutral zone where Aira could be a total genius or a very overrated author.

[My name is red]

Your Villages by Cesare Pavese
Very good one.it made me want to read other works of the writer and that's important

[kpjayan]

The year of Miracle and Grief - Leonid Borodin : Beautifully mixing the real life and a fairy tale about the legend of Lake Baikal in Siberia, through a 12 year old boy. Leonid Borodin is one of the many writers who was sentenced and was 'internal exiled' to Siberia by the regime. ***00

Firmin : Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife - Sam Savage : About a rat who lives in a book store, eating away classics, and develops a taste for books and behave and think like human. After the initial curiosity, the book is a very very boring read. *0000

[Mirabell]

Hua Song: Stories of the Chinese Diaspora, Christine Su-Chen Lim
Ultimate X-Men: The Tomorrow People, Mark Millar et al.

[Igu Soni]

Albert Camus: The Outsider ***00
Brilliant central character in horrible plot. Full review here (http://ronakmsoni.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/the-outsider-by-albert-camus/).

[e joseph]

Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Ray Carver

Housekeeping was excellent. Beautifully written, very stark.
The Carver was also enjoyable. The stories rattled around my head for a bit after finishing the reading. I'd be curious to read the newly released (or pending release?) unedited version, which Carver supposedly preferred.

[promtbr]

The Marx Family Saga-- Juan Goytisolo

Impressive mix of language, errudition and humor and narrative chops. Miles above a lot of other oft-mentioned Nobel contenders I have read in the past few weeks. As a novel it bogs down late if your not a 20th century Euro-socio-political history buff.

I am sure I will read everything of his available in translation at some point.

[beelzebubbles]

Maybe we should create a new thread on stolen books. Mirabell you thief!

I am so there!

[Daniel del Real]

The Marx Family Saga-- Juan Goytisolo

Impressive mix of language, errudition and humor and narrative chops. Miles above a lot of other oft-mentioned Nobel contenders I have read in the past few weeks. As a novel it bogs down late if your not a 20th century Euro-socio-political history buff.

I am sure I will read everything of his available in translation at some point.

Interesting point of view about Goytisolo. I really need to read him soon, otherwise I might be missing a great writer because of a bad experience with him before.


Firmin : Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife - Sam Savage : About a rat who lives in a book store, eating away classics, and develops a taste for books and behave and think like human. After the initial curiosity, the book is a very very boring read.

I was curious about this book, almost bought. I never thought it would be something amazing, but at least entertaining and funny. If it doesn't work this wat, guess there's no need to read it.

[Daniel del Real]

Roberto Arlt, Juguete Rabioso (Mad Toy) *****

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 *****

Amazing pair of short novelas!

[Bjorn]

I was curious about this book, almost bought. I never thought it would be something amazing, but at least entertaining and funny. If it doesn't work this wat, guess there's no need to read it.
FWIW, I loved Firmin. It's definitely the sort of book where you have to accept the central premise, though.

[Daniel del Real]

FWIW, I loved Firmin. It's definitely the sort of book where you have to accept the central premise, though.

Ok, now I don't know what to do again!

[crazzycat]

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max

[Jayaprakash]

I recently read SLEEPING MURDER, Agatha Christie's last Miss Marple novel. A rather cunning mystery with the usual variety of English rural characters for a supporting cast. Also read THE WRONG BOX by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne which seems to have had quite a cult following at one time and is indeed extremely hilarious.

[saliotthomas]

Home-Marylinne Robinson ***00+ or ****0-
Very,very well written,but as i read recently "the Chemisrty did not happen" betwin the book and me.And if the guy Jack was to say "Sorry" just one more time,i would have thrown the book by the window(it would have been in my garden then,still home,but i would have feel better for it)
Also i'm a bit alergique to the small story,small life,small town, be they French,English(lot of those) or Americain.I like a bit of exitment or madness.Life is often boring enough.
Also Dream of dreams By antonio Tabucchi ****0cool to end it with Freud

[Flower]

Just finished "Captain Nemos Library" by P.O. Enquist last night.

Great book on many levels!

Will write more later in the Enquist thread.

****0

[Mirabell]

Das Konzert, Hartmut Lange

[promtbr]

Chronicle in Stone-- Ismael Kadare

I refuse to read the twice removed Belos translations of his other novels into English. This one is the only text that I am aware of that is rendered direct from Albanian to English. Kadare based on this seems worthy of some fuss. He at least nailed the child's narrative here, what would be horror to most adult's is viewed with curiosity and wonderment.

[Daniel del Real]

Chronicle in Stone-- Ismael Kadare

I refuse to read the twice removed Belos translations of his other novels into English. This one is the only text that I am aware of that is rendered direct from Albanian to English. Kadare based on this seems worthy of some fuss. He at least nailed the child's narrative here, what would be horror to most adult's is viewed with curiosity and wonderment.

Hey Randy, stop reading! I want a review on Goytisolo's novel :o

[Eric]

I finished Boris Johnson's non-fiction book The Dream of Rome, the other day. It compares and contrasts the Roman Empire with the European Union, while at the same time giving glimpses into Roman life in Johnson's inimitable way. And the author lists the people he consulted at the back, so as to acknowledge the debt to them.

The four main sections are: "The Impact of Rome", "At the Centre of the Web", "How the Romans Did It", and finally "What Went Wrong?".

The first section starts with the final disasters that brought the Empire low, and does a lot of the comparison with the EU. The second section shows the Emperor Augustus to be a pretty scheming and pretty fanatic dictator. The third section covers various aspects of Roman life including its most revolting to our sensibilities, the Games in the stadia, the gladiators, murder of Christians, and so on. The last section shows how the Roman Empire essentially collapsed from the inside, leaving a smaller part alive run from Byzantium, what is now Istanbul, and Johnson also tackles the rise of Islam, some centuries later.

One of Johnson's main arguments is that the Roman Empire, for all its faults, did consolidate its pan-European control in a way the squabbling states of the European Union have not yet done.

I thoroughly recommend this very readable book. It strikes a happy balance between erudition and wit.

[Bjorn]

China Mi?ville, Perdido Street Station. Impressive in a lot of ways, but can't in good conscience give it more than ***00.

[Jayaprakash]

Because of the somewhat slapdash narrative? Or what?

[Stiffelio]

Chronicle in Stone-- Ismael Kadare

I refuse to read the twice removed Belos translations of his other novels into English. This one is the only text that I am aware of that is rendered direct from Albanian to English. Kadare based on this seems worthy of some fuss. He at least nailed the child's narrative here, what would be horror to most adult's is viewed with curiosity and wonderment.


Can you read in Spanish? Kadare's translator into Spanish, Ram?n S?nchez Lizarralde, has done a great job. He lived many years in Albania and has worked closely with the author. I am told French editions are also excellent.

[SlowRain]

China Mi?ville, Perdido Street Station. Impressive in a lot of ways, but can't in good conscience give it more than ***00.
I agree.

I thought it was wonderfully imaginative and had an interesting story. The characters were okay, but Yag was truly outstanding. The plot was sometimes good and sometimes a little shaky, and Mi?ville's politics got in the way a few times. I want to start a petition banning him from ever using a thesaurus again.

[Bjorn]

I want to start a petition banning him from ever using a thesaurus again.
Oh hell yes. Pretty much everything you and Jayaprakash said, but especially this.

Oh, and reading the ending in the middle of the Polanski debate was an odd piece of synchronicity...

[promtbr]

Hey Randy, stop reading! I want a review on Goytisolo's novel :o

Well, about my reviews...I am now a retired blogger/reviewer.



Can you read in Spanish? Kadare's translator into Spanish, Ram?n S?nchez Lizarralde, has done a great job. He lived many years in Albania and has worked closely with the author. I am told French editions are also excellent.


Sadly no.:(

[hdw]

I've just finished Melvyn Bragg's trilogy of novels The Hired Man (1969), A Place in England (1970) and Kingdom Come (1980). Saw the paperbacks for sale at the recent Edinburgh International Book Festival, remembered appreciative reviews of his books by reputable critic and fellow-novelist Allan Massie, and decided to go for it.

Non-Brits may not be familiar with the name Melvyn Bragg - Lord Bragg as he is now. Over here in the UK he is best known as a broadcaster and general mover and shaker in the media world - presenter of the South Bank Show, one of the longest-running arts programmes on TV, and of BBC Radio Four's In Our Time, one of the few radio programmes that features academics talking intelligibly about interesting subjects from the arts and sciences. At this very moment, as I write, Melvyn and today's tame experts are discussing the Pharaoh Akhenaten, "the world's first individual"(?).

Bragg comes from the small market-town of Wigton in Cumberland, north-west England, near the Lake District, not to be confused with nearby Wigtown in south-west Scotland. I read a lovely story the other day about the writer A.L. Kennedy missing her train to take her down to the Wigtown Book Festival and hiring a taxi from Glasgow, which promptly took her to Wigton in Cumberland.

Anyway, a strong thread running through these semi-autobiographical novels is rootedness in a particular part of England, which becomes weaker in succeeding generations but never completely disappears. The "hired man" of the first novel is John Tallentire, farm-labourer turned miner in the 1890s through to the 1920s, who throughout his life resents his lowly status at the bottom of society's ladder and the humiliation of having to hire out his labour. The depiction of John and his wife Emily's struggle to make ends meet is realistic and unsentimental - there is no dewy-eyed sentimentality about the rustic life of our ancestors.

In A Place in England, John's son Joseph Tallentire has hope and ambition and is determined, like his father before him, to make something of himself. His struggle to rise in the world is played out in the years before and during World War Two. Eventually Joseph finds some pride and independence in running a pub, being his own master at last. The relationship between Joseph and his wife Betty and their very different children is almost forensic in its detail. You could get away with calling this book "Portrait of a Marriage".

In Kingdom Come, Joseph and Emily's son Douglas Tallentire has managed to escape his constricting northern environment and make it big as a script-writer in the TV and film world. Not a million miles, then, from his creator. But if this is a self-portrait, it's certainly not a flattering one. Douglas drinks too much, has a dysfunctional marriage and a difficult relationship with his son, can't decide between his wife and his lover, eventually breaking up with both, and tries to keep one foot in his native Cumbria, which his family and friends back home regard with a mixture of amusement and contempt. He wants it all, to move with ease in the sophisticated media circles of London and California, and at the same time to be the feted local boy made good, who never forgot his roots.

As well as dissecting dysfunctional family relationships, all three books demonstrate Bragg's concern with "the state of England", and there is evidence of serious research into the minutiae of how people actually lived their daily life in the past. He is convincing in the way he depicts the daily round of a farm-labourer or miner, and after reading pages and pages about Joseph's induction into the life of a publican, I almost feel I could run a pub myself.

Presumably the long gap between publication of the second and third novels reflects Bragg's increasing involvement in media work.

I would say that he is a decent, conventional story-teller and very much in the English tradition of Thomas Hardy and (especially) D.H. Lawrence, who I imagine would be one of his literary heroes.

If you develop a taste for Melvyn Bragg's books, you will find it easy to satisfy, as he currently has 20 novels and 6 non-fiction books to his credit.

Harry

[e joseph]

Well, about my reviews...I am now a retired blogger/reviewer.

Any particular reason? You had a good run there for a few, well done.

[Mirabell]

Well, about my reviews...I am now a retired blogger/reviewer.


booh! I disapprove! I want more!

[Daniel del Real]

Any particular reason? You had a good run there for a few, well done.

I think he is only creating controversy. He'll be back in a few weeks just like Brett Favre

[DreamQueen]

Dangerous Liaisons, Choderlos de Laclos.****0

[Jayaprakash]

PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov. I liked it a lot. A brilliant literary game, clever, creative and absorbing. Like all games, you can only really experience the emotion it is capable of evoking if you play it.

[My name is red]

The Knot of Vipers by Fran?ois Mauriac*****
it's a true masterpiece.

[Peeping Tom]

The Skating Rink by Roberto Bola?o. It?s ostensibly a mystery novel, but of course it?s much more than that, and more conventional than his other works (at least the ones I?ve read so far). But I liked it. *****

[promtbr]

I think he is only creating controversy. He'll be back in a few weeks just like Brett Favre

Oh, I am not going anywhere....someone has to keep looking in here to make sure Aira get's his fair due ;).

If I am to catch up with the rest of you I need to read more and review less.

A Grain of Wheat-- Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
What happens when one applies Marx too liberally in the writing process...I admire the ambition tho. Like Neil Young's song, Got Mashed Potatos (got no T-Bone) there's not much to sustain (not enough meat on the bones)

[saliotthomas]

Justine /Balthazard -Lawrence Durrell ***** beautifully overwritten.

Two serious Lady-Jane Bowles ****0 very,very strange.It will take a while before it start to make sense.

I take a break from Durrrell,not because i'm bored but like good thing,one wan't to save some for latter.I started Alice Munro a view from Castel Rock,and it's a nice change of writing and setting.

[Bjorn]

A Grain of Wheat-- Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
What happens when one applies Marx too liberally in the writing process...I admire the ambition tho. Like Neil Young's song, Got Mashed Potatos (got no T-Bone) there's not much to sustain (not enough meat on the bones)
:D I love that analogy (and I love the song, too).

[Daniel del Real]

Enrique Vila-Matas, La Asesina Ilustrada (The Illustrated Assasin) *****
An amazing short novel about a book that kills you if you read it. A novel at the best tradition of Borges with the gothic approach of the Shadow of the Wind.

David Toscana, El ?ltimo Lector (The Last Reader) ****0+

A town in the desert in North Mexico where it hasn't rained for months. A corpse found in a well and the mistery to be solved. A librarian who is creating the story of the town based on his readings. It tastes like Rulfo mixed with Vila-Matas.

[Manuel76]

Clock without hands from Carson McCullers
Inherent Vice from Thomas Pynchon

[DreamQueen]

The Lords of the North, by Bernard Cornwell. Pure fluff - very enjoyable!

[Stiffelio]

Enrique Vila-Matas, La Asesina Ilustrada (The Illustrated Assasin) *****
An amazing short novel about a book that kills you if you read it. A novel at the best tradition of Borges with the gothic approach of the Shadow of the Wind.


I'm curious about this book after having read your comment. I still don't buy all the fuzz about Vila-Matas. The only book of his I read was "Bartleby & Co." and it was the most boring book I read in ages. It was like a mental masturbation about a long list of writers who decided not to write anymore. I could barely finish it. Maybe I wasn't lucky with my choice :-(

Which are your favourite Vila-Matas books?

[1morechapter]

A Thousand Splendid Suns ***** by Khaled Hosseini

This one will definitely make my Top 10 list for the year.

Liked this one much better than The Kite Runner ****

[heidiadonis]

Really? I somehow did not manage to finish that one because I had such high expectation from it after reading The Kite Runner.

[Daniel del Real]

I'm curious about this book after having read your comment. I still don't buy all the fuzz about Vila-Matas. The only book of his I read was "Bartleby & Co." and it was the most boring book I read in ages. It was like a mental masturbation about a long list of writers who decided not to write anymore. I could barely finish it. Maybe I wasn't lucky with my choice :-(

Which are your favourite Vila-Matas books?

Bartleby & Co :D.
Actually I've recently discovered Vila-Matas, so I've only read three titles so far: La Asesina Ilustrada, Bartleby y Compa??a y Una Casa para Siempre. I've liked so much the three of them, but I'm still missing what a lot of reader say is his best book: Doctor Pasavento.
What happens with Bartleby & Company is that it's more an essay than a novel so if you were looking for a novel, then it all starts with the wrong foot. It's more like an encyclopedic content, more less like Borges, Libro de los Seres Imaginarios.

[Daniel del Real]

J.M.G. Le Cl?zio, Quarantine **000

350 pages that could perfectly fit in 150. Too much for saying almost nothing.

[promtbr]

The Handmaid's Tale-- Margaret Atwood
I have to ponder this one a bit more, never having read any other Atwood. Impressive narrative control and pitch. 4 ish if I was to give stars. I would need to read more Atwood before I decide if she is Nobel worthy at some point.

Just read 10 or so Alice Munro stories from various collections. There are passages that are as good as it gets. Anywhere....I would read EVERY story she published based on what I have read so far. Miles City Montana, Runaway, and The Beggar Maid are standouts...

[Stiffelio]

Just read 10 or so Alice Munro stories from various collections. There are passages that are as good as it gets. Anywhere....I would read EVERY story she published based on what I have read so far. Miles City Montana, Runaway, and The Beggar Maid are standouts...

Munro is just brilliant. I would dare say she's (perhaps on a par with William Trevor) the best living short story writer in the English language. Every single story of hers is a gem. My advice to Munro readers is to NOT read a whole book of stories in one go. Each story is as rich and eventful as a novel, condensed in twenty odd pages. So for better enjoyment of each story I recommend to put the book aside for a day or two, read something else, before you go on to the next story.

[Stiffelio]

What happens with Bartleby & Company is that it's more an essay than a novel so if you were looking for a novel, then it all starts with the wrong foot. It's more like an encyclopedic content, more less like Borges, Libro de los Seres Imaginarios.

Precisely, he attempts to write a sort of essay, but it came across to me as a long, boring list. I got the point after the third or fourth entry, after which it became more and more exasperating. Anyway, I'll give Vila-Matas a further try with another book.

[anoush]

What is the What? Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers ****0-

anoush

[saliotthomas]

Alice Munro-The view from Castel Rock ,if i was still giving stars i would give it a good ****0+:p
I see that some poeple call it a collection of short stories but it read to me like a novel.
I mean short stories with commun characteres and story lines are called novel?
And i agree with Prommy(:p) and Stiffelio,she is good.After reading Marylinne Robinson whom i find a bit of a cold fish,Munro has a real energy and dynamisme that the other lake.Some very interesting observation too,what Prommy(:p) calls,if i reacalls,the talking from ones head.A sensitve brain-picker.

[Jayaprakash]

JOHN SILENCE by Algernon Blackwood which I liked a lot. Is anyone else here a fan of classic supernatural fiction?

[saliotthomas]

JOHN SILENCE by Algernon Blackwood which I liked a lot. Is anyone else here a fan of classic supernatural fiction?

I got is collection of short stories-Ghosts Stories yesterday.

I'm still reading Jim Harrisson A good day to die and it's very good.Promptr you must know him but if you don't you have to get it(any other of his book i guess) immediatly.

[Bjorn]

Nikanor Teratologen - Att hata allt m?nskligt liv (Sweden) **000
Chris Abani - Graceland (Nigeria) ***00

[DreamQueen]

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. A potential for perfect that isn't quite reached. But a great book nonetheless.

[Jayaprakash]

THE TANGLED SKEIN by David Stuart Davies. A Holmes meets Dracula novel. Moderately entertaining, but not half as good as it could have been. It helps to play it in your head as a Hammer film with Peter Cushing (in a double role as Holmes and Van Helsing) and Christopher Lee.

[kpjayan]

At heaven's gate - Sunil Gangopadhyay ( Translated from Bengali) : At heaven's gate revolves around three characters over one afternoon till the next day. Ranjan , young professional working in a prestigious company in Kolkata , and his beautiful wife Bhashmati are on their annual vacation in a remote country side village in Madhyapradesh. Caught in the rain in the open with no protection in a difficult terrain in an unoccupied hill, they were rescued by a nomadic youth Prosenjit, staying in a makeshift tent among the poisonous snake that he catches and sells for living. Beautifully written novel of the internal struggle , the fight for control, the personal and social moral issues, the middle class prejudice and obligation, the plots to overpower and greed & lust. Nice little novel.****0

Diary of a Djinn - Gini Alhadeff : Story of a woman whose life is floating and wandering as if controlled and directed by a djinn. Very random and fragmented stories in the beginning (through her schooling, life , settling into the care taking of an old women fighting cancer in the latter half.**000

[saliotthomas]

Per Petterson-To Siberia ***00+ Not as good as out stealing horses but less frustrating(every stories explained and ended).
As for the title,he must a reached a blank.My guess is that he wore a blindfold and stuck in finger in the book,and picked whatever was there.

Jim Harrison-A good day to die ***** this was great,enjoyed myself i did.
And a lot.
I read it on paper so i shall be able to copy a paragraphe about music and cars that really rocks'(Bjorn might like it) and i shall misspell a short review for the brave and the patient.
Prompt,there is plenty of fishing in it and also i'm a neophyte,i did find it a bit boring.(
well there is also laod of drink,dope and fooling around)

[DB Cooper]

Inherent Vice-Thomas Pynchon *****
Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century-Patrick Ourednik ***00
Tree of Smoke-Denis Johnson ****0
The Skating Rink-Roberto Bolano ****0

[e joseph]

Frost - Thomas Bernhard (Michael Hofmann)
Really enjoyable in a horribly bleak kinda way.

It was impossible (for me) to catch everything on the first read of the novel. I look forward to returning to it following more Bernhard down the road and finding things I missed this time through. Even the parts I may have missed though I can still feel seeping into my brain and effecting my thinking. For better or worse.

[Stiffelio]

Travesuras de la Ni?a Mala (The Bad Girl) - Mario Vargas Llosa. ***00 1/2. If this novel had been written by a lesser writer I would have said it was a very good, enjoyable page turner. Coming from the Peruvian master, however, I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. It's undeniable that MVL boasts powerful narrative resources. Characters are well developed, especially the supporting cast, but the main protagonists, the narrator and the "bad girl", are a pitiful pair. The narrative structure is the most linear and straightforward I've read from MVL, in the manner of the typical nineteenth century novel. It can be read as a love story, or rather the story of an obsession. A good but ultimately predictable story. Some conscious winks at Flaubert and the Russian realists are evident. After "La Fiesta del Chivo" and "Para?so en la Otra Esquina", this is a bit of a letdown.

[Jayaprakash]

THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler. Very convoluted, very stylish. I was told noir fans tend to be split between Chandler and Hammett. I think I prefer Hammett's terseness, even while I enjoy Chandler's elaborate similes, catchy dialogue and endlessly quotable near-aphorisms.

[Daniel del Real]

Travesuras de la Ni?a Mala (The Bad Girl) - Mario Vargas Llosa. ***00 1/2. If this novel had been written by a lesser writer I would have said it was a very good, enjoyable page turner. Coming from the Peruvian master, however, I have to admit I was slightly disappointed. It's undeniable that MVL boasts powerful narrative resources. Characters are well developed, especially the supporting cast, but the main protagonists, the narrator and the "bad girl", are a pitiful pair. The narrative structure is the most linear and straightforward I've read from MVL, in the manner of the typical nineteenth century novel. It can be read as a love story, or rather the story of an obsession. A good but ultimately predictable story. Some conscious winks at Flaubert and the Russian realists are evident. After "La Fiesta del Chivo" and "Para?so en la Otra Esquina", this is a bit of a letdown.

I agree, there is nothing new in this novel that indeed can be entertaining but leaves you almost nothing. A new novel from Vargas Llosa is about to be published (don't remember the title) so let's hope he comes back to the level we all know.

[Daniel del Real]

Roberto Bola?o, Llamadas Telef?nicas *****

[Igu Soni]

Fugitive Histories by Githa Hariharan *****
Loved it (http://ronakmsoni.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/fugitive-histories-by-githa-hariharan/).

[Daniel del Real]

Banana Yoshimoto, Asleep *****