Recently finished books? [Archive] - World Literature Forum

Irene Wilde

25-Jun-2008, 16:21

My reading so far this year:

Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink -- Treatments of food and things food-related from the archives of the magazine. ****0

The Importance of Being Ernest and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde -- Plays from the man more known for his wit and lifestyle than his body of work. Blistering critique of the manners and mores of the upper classes, but sadly, the work shows its age.***00

Breakfast at Tiffany's & Other Stories by Truman Capote -- BaT is wonderful, but the best of the bunch is A Christmas Memory. Recommended for anyone who only thinks of Capote as that strange little man with the funny voice on the late-night chat shows back in the 70s. *****

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh -- There's nothing I can say that would be original or contribute what others have already said and written about this book. *****

The Letters of Noel Coward -- I fell in love with Noel Coward, despite his being both gay and dead. Never wanted this to end and so I read...

Private Lives & Other Plays by Noel Coward -- The situations of Private Lives and Blythe Spirit have been borrowed by second-rate television and film writers for so long now that a moratorium should be passed against further recycling, but these are the real deal in their original glory. For both this and the letters *****

Cocktail Time by P.G. Wodehouse -- It's Wodehouse and I'm a sucker for Wodehouse. Nothing I say would be objective. *****

Bobbed Hair & Bathtub Gin: Writers Running Wild in the Twenties by Marion Meade -- The lives of Edna Ferber, Dorothy Parker, Zelda Fitzgerald and Edna St. Vincent Millay through the 1920s. Fascinating and fun, but limited. First, the author tends to want to take the reader inside these ladies' heads without attribution (though there are sources listed in the end notes) which I found unsettling. Also, the book ends with the decade of the 20s, leaving these four compelling stories hanging, along with the reader. ***00

The Portable Dorothy Parker -- Recommended to anyone who doesn't know who Dorothy Parker was or, and most especially, people who only know her as the acid-tongued wit of the Algonquin Round Table. *****

The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester -- See what passes for an Irene Wilde Review in the General Chat section. ***00

A Dance to the Music of Time -- The First Movement by Anthony Powell -- The first three books in Mr. Powell's intricate 12-volume tale of the lives of several people from the early 1920s on to the late 1960s/early 1970s (I'm not sure which, I'm not there yet). The first movement covers the 20s into the depression, focusing on three young men -- Peter Templer, Charles Stringham, and Kenneth Widmerpool -- as seen through the eyes of writer Nick Jenkins. *****

nnyhav

25-Jun-2008, 22:35

It's what I have a blog for, but I'll do the six words thang here:

Marguerite Yourcenar, Coup de Gr?ce (Grace Frick): Modern romantic tragedy, end of nobility. ***00
C?sar Aira, An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter (Chris Andrews): Humboldt's physiognomy naturally rearranged, gone awry. *****
Ryū Murakami, Almost Transparent Blue (Nancy Andrew): Burroughs does Japan, or vice versa. ***00

Stewart

25-Jun-2008, 22:39

This is, to date, what I've read this year. I've fallen into a bit of a reading slump these past few months and I only feel I'm getting out of it now. Sadly, with the motivation to read went to the motivation to write about what I did read, although I do intend to have a bit of a reread of some of them as they are about 100 pages each.

June
039. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/sq.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif The Changeling, Robin Jenkins
038. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/kg.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Jamelia, Chingiz Aitmatov
037. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ht.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Alphabet Of The Night, Jean-Euph?le Milc?

May
036. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/hu.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif Metropole, Ferenc Karinthy
035. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/il.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Badenheim, 1939, Aharon Appelfeld
034. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ru.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Mary, Vladimir Nabokov

April
033. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/fr.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Lobster, Guillaume Lescable
032. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/be.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Sulphuric Acid, Am?lie Nothomb
031. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ar.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif With Borges, Albert Manguel
030. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fivestars.gif A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess

March
029. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif Born Yesterday: The News As A Novel, Gordon Burn
028. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif Goodbye, Columbus, Philip Roth
027. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/it.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Envy, Alain Elkann
026. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif Clean: An Unsanitised History Of Washing, Katherine Ashenburg
025. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/sq.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif We Are Now Beginning Our Descent, James Meek
024. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ng.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif Becoming Abigail, Chris Abani
023. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
022. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/it.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Silk, Alessandro Baricco
021. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Night Train, Martin Amis

February
020. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/de.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_twostars.gif The Book Of Words, Jenny Erpenbeck
019. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif A Man Without A Country, Kurt Vonnegut
018. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/se.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fivestars.gif Doctor Glas, Hjalmar S?derberg
017. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Black Dirt, Nell Layshon
016. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/br.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif The Hour Of The Star, Clarice Lispector
015. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/jp.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Snakes & Earrings, Hitomi Kanehara
014. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/al.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif Agamemnon's Daughter, Ismail Kadare
013. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/cn.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif The Moon Opera, Bi Feiyu

January
012. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ua.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif A Matter Of Death And Life, Andrey Kurkov
011. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ru.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif The Woman Who Waited, Andre? Makine
010. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/sq.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif The Dreamers, Gilbert Adair
009. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/co.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif No One Writes To The Colonel, Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez
008. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Continent, Jim Crace
007. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_twostars.gif Gentlemen Of The Road, Michael Chabon
006. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
005. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/fr.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif Secret, Philippe Grimbert
004. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ar.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fivestars.gif The Invention Of Morel, Adolfo Bioy Casares
003. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Plain Girl, Arthur Miller
002. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_fourstars.gif The Pilgrim Hawk, Glenway Wescott
001. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/jp.gif http://palimpsest.org.uk/images/smilies/icon_threestars.gif Piercing, Ryu Murakami

ions

26-Jun-2008, 01:33

On the go:
http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/de.gif Basic Writings of Nietzsche, 800 pages. April 4th to...

June
34. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif 1491 by Charles C. Mann, 387 pages. January 14th to June 30th. Nonfiction History.
33. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan, 219 pages. 24th to 30th. (U)
32. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/de.gif A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, 309 pages. 21st to 23rd.
31. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian, 615 pages. 5th to 20th.
30. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/cl.gif The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bola?o, 648 pages. May 22nd to June 4th.

May
29. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ru.gif Stories by Anton Chekhov, 454 pages. March 6th to May 13th.
28. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif The Bible in Translation by Bruce M. Metzger, 190 pages. May 5th to 8th. Non-fiction. (U)
27. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/it.gif The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, 502 pages. April 23rd to May 3rd.

April
26. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Little, Big by John Crowley, 538 pages. 15th to 22nd.
25. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/co.gif One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia M?rquez, 417 pages. 7th to 15th.
24. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif Critical Reasoning by William Hughes, 277 pages. 6th to 9th. Non-fiction. (U)
23. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif Sainte-Carmen of the Main a play by Michel Tremblay, 68 pages. April 5th. (U)
22. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif How To Win An Argument by Michael A. Gilbert, 163 pages. April 2nd. Non-fiction. (U)
21. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro, 219 pages. March 31 to April 1st. (U)

March
20. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ie.gif The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 192 pages.
19. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Light Years by James Salter, 308 pages. 11th to 13th.
18. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/gb.gif Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich by Stephen Leacock, 211 pages. 7th to 10th. (U)
17. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, 337 pages. 2nd to 7th.
16. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Rock Springs by Richard Ford, 245 pages. February 28th to March 6th.

February
15. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Mind Over Mood by Dennis Greenberger, 243 pages. Non-fiction. (U)
14. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Agapē Agape by William Gaddis, 112 pages. 20th.
13. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, 244 pages. 15th to 16th. (U)
12. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif The End of the Road by John Barth, 188 pages. 12th to 14th.
11. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif Son of a Smaller Hero by Modecai Richler, 207 pages. 10th to 12th. (U)
10. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci, 248 pages. 8th to 10th. (U)
09. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/fr.gif Maria Chapdelaine by Louis H?mon, 162 pages. 7th to 8th. (U)
08. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/gb.gif Roughing it in the Bush by Susanna Moodie, 237 pages. January 25th to February 7th. (U)

January
07. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Independence Day by Richard Ford, 451 pages. 22nd to 31st.
06. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif The Floating Opera by John Barth, 252 pages. 12th to 14th.
05. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif Half-Breed by Maria Campbell, 184 pages. 10th to 12th. Memoir. (U)
04. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ie.gif Black Robe by Brian Moore, 183 pages. 8th to 10th. (U)
03. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ca.gif The Wars by Timothy Findley, 218 pages. January 7th. (U)
02. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, 275 pages. 5th to 6th. Non-fiction.
01. http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif The Collapse of Globalism by John Ralston Saul, 280 pages. December 26th to January 4th. Non-fiction.

Irene Wilde

26-Jun-2008, 15:44

ions, I admire your record-keeping -- I'm one of those that keeps their tax papers collected in an old shoe box along with some 8-track tapes and leftover pizza. What did you think of 100 Years of Solitude? Do you have a review you've done you could point me to? I didn't see anything when I did a thread search. Personally, I tried very heard to love this book and completely failed at it. I put it down as proof that I should never read anything with an Oprah Book Club sticker on the cover.

saliotthomas

26-Jun-2008, 19:58

OKay i see who she is.I'm so glad my TV is only pluged to a DVD player.It make the world a little bit cleaner when you choose the rubbish you watch!

Heteronym

02-Jul-2008, 00:20

My June read:

Andreiev, Leonid: The Red Laugh
Agualusa, Jos? Eduardo: A Feira dos Assombrados
Cazotte, Jacques: The Devil in Love
Cort?zar, Julio: Todos los Fuegos el Fuego
de Assis, Machado: Helena
de S?-Carneiro, M?rio: Lucio's Confession
Kundera, Milan: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Pessoa, Fernando: The Book of Disquiet
Pinto, Fern?o Mendes: The Voyages of Fern?o Mendes Pinto
Richter, Hans: Dada: Art and Anti-Art
Schwob, Marcel: Le Roi au Masque d'Or

Mirabell

02-Jul-2008, 03:40

My Revolutions, Hari Kunzru

awesome.

Beth

02-Jul-2008, 04:15

The one still ringing in my ears is Independent People by Halld?r Laxness, a title mentioned somewhere in a forum that I would otherwise never have known about. It's my favorite so far this year along with The Master by Colm T?ib?n and In The Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien.

Stewart

02-Jul-2008, 09:48

The one still ringing in my ears is Independent People by Halld?r Laxness

Ah, the one novel I've wanted to read...and miserably failed. (Well, that's a lie, there's more than one novel.) Do tell more.

It's my favorite so far this year along with The Master by Colm T?ib?n
I do sort of feel I should read something by T?ib?n, seeing as I'm going along to his event at Edinburgh next month, purely for Patrick McGrath, but it would be nice to know what it is that has put these two together on the bill.

Beth

03-Jul-2008, 00:52

I do sort of feel I should read something by T?ib?n, seeing as I'm going along to his event at Edinburgh next month, purely for Patrick McGrath, but it would be nice to know what it is that has put these two together on the bill.

Yes, I'm surprised to see them appearing together as well. Maybe they are friends! If I were attending, it would be to see both of them, but I might linger in T?ib?n's hallf of the tent just a bit more. Certainly, The Master is a big recommendation here.

Irene Wilde

03-Jul-2008, 15:05

I found 100 Years of Solitude frankly boring. It just didn't grab me. The magic that was foretold was minimal and the love I was to have for the place and the characters non-existant. Was bleh to be perfectly honest. I don't blame Oprah, she did pick Cormac and Leo afterall, but I do blame the Swedes! For some reason books that push an author into Nobel prizedom and I rarely get along. Some of them I find to be shit, Lord of the Flies & Pamuk's Snow was a boring frozen turd for example, but most fall into the category of .... really?! this is Nobel material?! Granted I have not read all of the Nobels and there are some Nobel winners I enjoy, usually those that have also won awards elsewhere, the earlier stuff. Of course what a book has or has not won has no bearing on my reading of a novel, only the reflection of it. But so far Alfie and I don't agree on books. Pulitzer and National awards mind you, that's a different story.

I had no object to Lord of the Flies and I haven't read Snow, I'm wondering if my expectations too high for Garcia Marquez or maybe the translation was poor, I don't know, but to me the whole thing felt flat -- two dimensional -- it lacked vibrancy, something to take these characters out of their roles as symbols and into something human and real. To me, Calvino takes the fantastic -- sentient molecules and talking dinosaurs -- and makes it human, while Garcia Marquez took human beings and made them cardboard cut-outs. I'm sure I'll undertake this one again at some point.

As for awards, I really rarely pay attention to them. For me, reading is a personal journey; I've got to feel more connection to the material than some blue-ribbon committee thinks it might be good for me.

ions

06-Jul-2008, 19:04

Indeed Irene, I completely agree with your assessment of 100 Years. Flat. There were a few nice passages but overall quite plain.

Just finished Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen. Sucked. Just terrible.

Sybarite

08-Jul-2008, 12:20

I finished Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez last night, picked up a couple of other books but couldn't get more than a page into them, and broke my rule regarding not reading two books by the same author in rapid succession, picking up 100 Years of Solitude. I'll let you know how it goes.

I feel as if I'm just really getting a grip on M?rquez and seeing his themes.

Sybarite

08-Jul-2008, 13:49

Inspired by Stewart and Ions, I've done a similar list ? interesting particularly as an easy way of seeing the diversity of nations I'm reading from.

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/be.gif Maigret and the Toy Village by Georges Simenon *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif The Life & Loves of a She Devil by Fay Weldon ****0

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/it.gif Adventures of Casanova by Giacomo Casanova ****0

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ie.gif The Book of Evidence by John Banville *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif Piaf: A Passionate Life by David Bret *0000

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif Nothing to be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ru.gif Roadside Picnic by Boris Strugatsky & Arkady Strugatsky *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Earth Abides by George R Stewart ***00

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif The City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke ****0

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/cl.gif The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif I Am Legend by Richard Matheson ***00

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/co.gif Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez ****0

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/de.gif Perfume by Patrick S?skind ****0

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif A Case of Conscience by James Blish ***00

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ie.gif The Pornographer by John McGahern ****0

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ie.gif Dubliners by James Joyce *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/fr.gif Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne ****0

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/fi.gif The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna *****

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/co.gif Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez *****

Stewart

08-Jul-2008, 14:04

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/be.gif Maigret and the Toy Village by Georges Simenon *****
Simenon. There's someone we should have a thread on.

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ru.gif Roadside Picnic by Boris Strugatsky & Arkady Strugatsky *****
I was just looking at this about ten minutes ago. I was going to buy it and then I thought I would wait and see if I can get it in something, to my mind, better than the Sci-Fi Masterworks series. If it isn't, I'm going to kick myself.

fausto

08-Jul-2008, 14:34

Sorry for the silly question but how do you do to get the flags in the message?

Sybarite

08-Jul-2008, 14:41

Simenon. There's someone we should have a thread on...

I spotted it. Good call. :-)

I was just looking at this about ten minutes ago. I was going to buy it and then I thought I would wait and see if I can get it in something, to my mind, better than the Sci-Fi Masterworks series. If it isn't, I'm going to kick myself.

I actually rather like the Masterwords imprint – a great deal better than many other sci-fi covers. But that really is a corking book. So many things that you can think about with it.

Sorry for the silly question but how do you do to get the flags in the message?

I hit the 'quote' button on Stewart's post, took as many of them from that and, having found the formula, worked out the others that he didn't have, referring in one instance to good old Google for a list of standard abbreviations for countries.

And then I try to claim not to be a geekette. ;)

Mirabell

08-Jul-2008, 15:09

Sorry for the silly question but how do you do to get the flags in the message?

Below your message you can choose a country from these options

Post Icons You may choose an icon for your message from the following list:

fausto

08-Jul-2008, 15:15

Thanks, mirabell, but I think that would assign an icon to the message, not to specific lines of your message. I think I will use Sybarite's work around.

Stewart

08-Jul-2008, 15:16

Thanks, mirabell, but I think that would assign an icon to the message, not to specific lines of your message. I think I will use Sybarite's work around.
I'll look into adding the flags to an extended smilies box.

abecedarian

08-Jul-2008, 15:23

I'll look into adding the flags to an extended smilies box.

Make em big...some of us are going blind here:p

fausto

08-Jul-2008, 17:23

Mirabell

08-Jul-2008, 17:48

cool. any details? haven't read half of them.

Mirabell

10-Jul-2008, 03:47

Der Blinde Reiter, Juan Goytisolo (German translation of Tel?n de boca)

fausto

10-Jul-2008, 16:15

OK, so here is what I read in June:

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Donald Barthelme - Flying to America
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/images/flags/at.gif Thomas Bernhard - Le naufrag? / Der Untergeher
http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/fr.gif Lutz Bassmann - Ha?kus de prison
Various - Lexique Nomade
http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif William H. Gass - Test of time
http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/be.gif Paul Verhaeghen - Omega Minor
http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Alexander Theroux - Laura Warholic
http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/jp.gif Yasunari Kawabata / Yukio Mishima - Correspondance
http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/en.gif B.S. Johnson - Chalut / Trawl
http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/us.gif Robert Coover - Noir

Couple of words reviews for my homie Mirabell:

Barthelme -- fun and well constructed as any Barthelme, less good than the previously collected work.
Benrhard -- You know I prefer to remain silent and listen to the music.
Bassmann -- Background info: this is the pseudo of Antoine Volodine, a French writer in the process of acquiring more heteronyms than Pessoa. He actually created a school called "literature post-exotic". All its disciples are avatars of himself. Dark and unpleasantly funny. This is a 100 pages book, a narration entirely made of ha?kus. Not a fantastic book, but a great read nonetheless.
Gass -- I don't know if you've read any essay of his, this collection is like the rest: beautiful insights on the themes he is examining -- among which why some book do stand the test of time, and what is that test -- and marvelous writing.
Verhaeghen, you know all about already.
Theroux -- reactionary, non-pc to the max. If you're into that kind of humour, laughing out loud funny and Theroux is a master of the word. His main character made me think of Bellow in his grumpy phase (Sammler, Herzog). Maybe too long.
Kawabata / Mishima -- letters of a fanboy to his master. Fanboy later turns into master's equal.
Johnson -- A sort of Bernhardian version of good ole B.S. Beatifully desperate.
Coover -- His take on the Noir movies and lit. Vintage Coover, great fun. Not his best work. Published in French, not in English yet. Name of main character: Phil M. Noir. Fantastic pun, as you can see.

Mirabell

10-Jul-2008, 17:00

Published in French, not in English yet

written in french?

fausto

10-Jul-2008, 17:02

Nope. In English. Coover wanted it to be published in France first as a tribute to the inventors of the "film noir". No US publisher at the moment. Coover himself said it could take a year or so beofr it's published in the original.

saliotthomas

11-Jul-2008, 11:44

The remain of the days-Kazuo Ishiguro

I guess most of you read it,(i though i did).I enjoyed it but not has much as i hoped i would.Somehow this all story of the hight standard in butlering left me a bit cold.It is very well writen and the atmosphere is charming but i kept try to figure out what hiden meaning laid out of my reach.The only thing i could get is the very similarity betwin this English decency and the Japanese sense of honor and unselfishness.Something that occured to me in earlier readings.
I shall try others of his books it might help me to see the bigger picture.

Stewart

11-Jul-2008, 12:17

The remain of the days-Kazuo Ishiguro
I've taken this post and made a new thread (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/2216-kazuo-ishiguro-remains-day-new-post.html) on the book.

Mirabell

13-Jul-2008, 05:35

Der Gast, Hwang Sok-yong

iiris

13-Jul-2008, 08:11

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

ions

13-Jul-2008, 17:28

A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews

What did you think? I recently won a galley of her next book The Flying Troutmans for filling out a survey for Random House. A Complicated Kindness has blipped across my radar a few times but I've ignored it as an aberration for no real reason.

ions

16-Jul-2008, 23:38

Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King. Heartily recommended. Fun stuff. Amusing, non-linear and clever.

Mirabell

16-Jul-2008, 23:50

Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King. Heartily recommended. Fun stuff. Amusing, non-linear and clever.

care to write a shortish review in a thread of its own? i am very interested.

Irene Wilde

17-Jul-2008, 00:02

Just finished Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen. Sucked. Just terrible.

Sucked is rather strong...disappointing with an interesting perspective perhaps?:o I do adore Leonard's "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" but I have to admit, Beautiful Losers isn't what I was hoping it would be.

fausto

17-Jul-2008, 08:42

http://www.booklit.com/blog/wp-content/themes/limau-orange-01/images/flags/ar.gif Jorge Luis Borges - Obras Completas vol. 1

iiris

19-Jul-2008, 05:17

Playing with the Grown-ups by Sophie Dahl. Painfully raw, lyrical story of young Kitty growing up. I really loved this one.

Sybarite

20-Jul-2008, 10:35

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez.

Brilliant.

Beth

20-Jul-2008, 15:43

Embers by S?ndor M?rai, not so brilliant, I'm afraid. I was hoping to chat with Dabbler about it, drats.

saliotthomas

20-Jul-2008, 16:04

Embers by S?ndor M?rai, not so brilliant, I'm afraid. I was hoping to chat with Dabbler about it, drats.

Sorry to intrude but would that be average or just plain bad?

Beth

20-Jul-2008, 16:07

More frustrating than anything, Thomas. I posted a bit on the Embers thread. I had forgotten that you started the thread and that it's one of your favorites. Revisiting some of your and Dabbler's comments today makes me wonder if I shouldn't skim back through it.

ions

21-Jul-2008, 04:32

Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa & Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald were finished today. Meh on both really. The De Sa was a typical immigrate to Canada and have a rough time of it story and the MacDonald was a mashup of Romeo and Juliet and Othello. I liked it more than I thought I would but not a whole lot overall.

Hmmm, a review of Green Grass, Running Water eh? Well perhaps I'll send you a pdf of the paper I have to write on it when I am finished Mirabell. Given how closely instructors now scour the Interweb for plaigarism I'm reticent to upload even a small quote of my trite musings on it in case I decide to use said musings in the essay.

Irene, yeah, Beautiful Losers sucks. Studying it a bit I like what he was trying to do and don't necessarily feel he failed at all of it but when I pick the book up and leaf through it it's more emetic than anything else. Sucks.

Mirabell

21-Jul-2008, 04:55

I loved Desdemona. One of my favorite Canadian plays. It's just such a load of fun. I'd love to see it performed.

ions

21-Jul-2008, 05:34

Inventory by Dionne Brand. We suck, she's full of angst but there's beauty here and there. Woo! How meh.

Yeah, agreed, Desdemona would probably be okay to see.

Mirabell

21-Jul-2008, 05:49

come to think of it, I don't know so many canadian plays. There's Greg McArthur's play Snowman (great), John Mighton's plays (I love "Possible Worlds", am not so happy about some of the others), and then two or three whose names I have forgotten.

Sybarite

21-Jul-2008, 09:51

Syb, I must have read a different 100 Years of Solitude than everyone else. :( I think I'll pick this one up again after Tristam Shandy and have another go at it before I start The Wake. How did you find the characterizations? I felt like I was reading about cardboard cutouts with the label "symbol" attached to their heads. I mean, I get magical realism, but for it to work, there has to be some "realism" involved and I wasn't finding any. That left magical creatures standing in for characters without any sort of humanity living in an artificial environment meant to deliver a "message." It left me feeling like I was supposed to read this book because it's supposed to be good for me -- filled with moral fiber and spiritual nurturing. Anyone who knows be knows I'm allergic to moral fiber and I sold my spirit on e-bay for a cocktail shaker and a silver cigarette case.

What made this book work for you? What am I missing?

I Irene, sorry I missed this yesterday.

I found some characters more rounded than others ? Ursula and the Colonel, for instance ? but I didn't feel that the less-rounded ones really got in the way at all. There was always so much going on.

I found it a really rich tapestry, with vast amounts that's almost a fairy tale for adults, with so many layers of stuff to keep you thinking in the background.

I'm going to sit down a write a review later, so I'll try to explore some of this in more detail.

I don't think that you're necessarily "missing" anything ? perhaps it's more a case of coming to a book that you feel you should like because it's so highly regarded, and then just finding that it doesn't 'do it' for you? I suspect that's partly why I intensely disliked 1984 and The Trial.

Sybarite

21-Jul-2008, 22:47

The Successor by Ismail Kadare, translated from the French by David Bellos and from the Albanian by Tedi Papavrami.

Mirabell

21-Jul-2008, 23:03

The Successor by Ismail Kadare, translated from the French by David Bellos and from the Albanian by Tedi Papavrami.

How I despise doubly translated books
the publisher must not care very much about the actual words the author was using
german publishers pull that sort of stunt sometimes too
philisters!

Stewart

21-Jul-2008, 23:16

How I despise doubly translated books
the publisher must not care very much about the actual words the author was using
David Bellos talks about retranslating Kadare here (http://www.complete-review.com/quarterly/vol6/issue2/bellos.htm).

Mirabell

21-Jul-2008, 23:44

David Bellos talks about retranslating Kadare here (http://www.complete-review.com/quarterly/vol6/issue2/bellos.htm).

wow what a bunch of bad excuses
he's trying everything, starting with...uh we...uh don't haven ANY good albanian translators and ending
He doesn't think that anything he writes in prose is "untranslatable" -- on the contrary, he thinks that what he has to say will come through in pretty much any language
for which his hands should be cut off and stuffed into his arse.

Cocko

22-Jul-2008, 00:08

Here's my last five, comments on each can be found on my blog, link in signature:

The Spare Room - Helen Garner (10/10)
His Illegal Self - Peter Carey (6.5/10)
Even Cowgirls Get The Blues - Tom Robbins (8.0/10)
The Well - Elizabeth Jolley (8.5/10)
A Very Easy Death - Simone de Beauvoir (1.0/10)

I'm currently reading Ever After by Graham Swift.

Stewart

22-Jul-2008, 00:14

The Spare Room - Helen Garner (10/10)
His Illegal Self - Peter Carey (6.5/10)Hmmm, the two I bought today.
The Well - Elizabeth Jolley (8.5/10)That's encouraging. I've been thinking of stumping up for the ten Penguin Modern Classics that are Australian territory only (Jolley, Garner, Stow and Horne). Last week I did some investigation into the cheapest company, including shipping. Dymocks was best.

Cocko

22-Jul-2008, 02:19

Hmmm, the two I bought today.That's encouraging. I've been thinking of stumping up for the ten Penguin Modern Classics that are Australian territory only (Jolley, Garner, Stow and Horne). Last week I did some investigation into the cheapest company, including shipping. Dymocks was best.

I know you're not meant to judge a book by its cover but those newly released Australian modern classics have really spiced up the old titles... The previous paperback cover for Jolley's The Well made what is a dark and disturbing novella look almost comical, for my mind Penguin has done a good job.

ions

22-Jul-2008, 03:03

I'm really not the best source for this info as the play is not my favourite medium or even close but I did pay attention in school and have learned that drama/theatre in Canada is relatively poorly supported beyond the Bard in Stratford and American funded theatres running American plays with American actors mostly in Toronto. Beyond that there is little money for drama in Canada. Thus finding Canadian plays becomes a bit of work and unlikely to have much international exposure. I know of two Canadian playwrights, one is Ann-Marie and the other is Michel Tremblay. I can not stand Tremblay. His style and content bore me to the point of offence. Plain icky. But again, the play is not my thing. There may be fantastic Canucks writing dramas well worth seeing/reading of which I'm neither aware or likely to look for.

come to think of it, I don't know so many canadian plays. There's Greg McArthur's play Snowman (great), John Mighton's plays (I love "Possible Worlds", am not so happy about some of the others), and then two or three whose names I have forgotten.

Stewart

22-Jul-2008, 09:31

I know you're not meant to judge a book by its cover but those newly released Australian modern classics have really spiced up the old titles...

For illustration's sake, here's the ten covers:

http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180074.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180074) http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180029.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180029)
http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180067.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180081) http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180036.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180036)
http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180043.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180043) http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180050.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180050)
http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180098.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180098) http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180081.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180081)
http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180104.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180104) http://www.penguin.com.au/covers-jpg/9780143180012.jpg (http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780143180012)

Cocko

22-Jul-2008, 10:22

Compare that to this...

http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/bookcovers/well.jpg

Mirabell

22-Jul-2008, 22:07

I'm really not the best source for this info as the play is not my favourite medium or even close but I did pay attention in school and have learned that drama/theatre in Canada is relatively poorly supported beyond the Bard in Stratford and American funded theatres running American plays with American actors mostly in Toronto. Beyond that there is little money for drama in Canada. Thus finding Canadian plays becomes a bit of work and unlikely to have much international exposure. I know of two Canadian playwrights, one is Ann-Marie and the other is Michel Tremblay. I can not stand Tremblay. His style and content bore me to the point of offence. Plain icky. But again, the play is not my thing. There may be fantastic Canucks writing dramas well worth seeing/reading of which I'm neither aware or likely to look for.

do look up mighton and mccarthur. especially possible worlds is a shitload of fun. ha. putnam was giggling in his grave.

Stewart

23-Jul-2008, 21:43

Have just this minute finished The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot D?az. It's been an exhausting read and I think, for the most part, reading it is akin to the white boy in the wrong neighbourhood stereotype with its reams of ghetto Spanglish that were often unintelligible from the context. Not to mention the bucketload of sci-fi references that meant nothing to me. And pages of lengthy disruptive footnotes. It's strange, despite all this, the narrative has such an energy that it, at the very least, engages and propels to the end.

nnyhav

25-Jul-2008, 12:30

Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook.

saliotthomas

25-Jul-2008, 13:15

ignorance by Milan Kundera ****0

Amsterdam by Ian mcEwan***00 booker price98:confused:

Stewart

25-Jul-2008, 14:43

Amsterdam by Ian mcEwan***00 booker price98:confused:
I liked Amsterdam. What annoys me most is the people who say it shouldn't have won the Booker and Atonement should have. Well, a bok can only stand up against the others in the same competition and the judges deemed Amsterdam the best of that year. Atonement, as should be obvious, was a completely different year. There can't be a valid comparison, as far as the competition goes.

saliotthomas

25-Jul-2008, 15:12

Maybe with the reading of another of his books i might find it better.I just found the all a bit too tidy,the 2 friends so different,both on a special work,the failure,the poisoning?,the cheated husband revenge,...clockwork.There are good parts,specialy in the creation of music,the lakes and clive charactere,but again i found the all to purposefull,(but it seem that since Makine it's something i see i all books).And very British,local in the treatement of the press work.
But i really need to read more McEwan.

Stewart

25-Jul-2008, 15:27

I think the general concensus with McEwan is that he's a great short story teller and his novels, for the most part, are just overlong short stories. I really must read Atonement one day.

nnyhav

25-Jul-2008, 17:41

I really must read Atonement one day.
Only when you have something for which you feel you must atone ...

Mirabell

25-Jul-2008, 18:25

Only when you have something for which you feel you must atone ...

agreed.

Mirabell

25-Jul-2008, 18:42

yeah point is, my online bookseller told me to go fuck myself, he doesn't stock it any more. So I thought of ordering it over amazon. meh. after the first comment there was a possibility I wouldn't need to. now I'll have to. damn.

cuchulain

25-Jul-2008, 19:22

My reading has really slowed recently.

Recently finished Boris Vian's wonderful L'Ecume Des Jours, translated by Brian Harper as Foam of the Daze.

First time I read it, it was translated as Mood Indigo. Wonderful book. Dada. Pataphysics. Slap stick. Crazy, with a bit of satire and social commentary thrown in.

Any book that has Jean Sol Partre in it, and lists all of his books as various riffs off of (and synonyms for) Nausea is going to be good.

saliotthomas

25-Jul-2008, 19:42

Recently finished Boris Vian's wonderful L'Ecume Des Jours, translated by Brian Harper as Foam of the Daze.

First time I read it, it was translated as Mood Indigo. Wonderful book. Dada. Pataphysics. Slap stick. Crazy, with a bit of satire and social commentary thrown in.

I shall re-read it soon too.With your help we might give Boris Vian a chance with our friends here.He is a interesting item in the French literature,far more than the better known names of the beat generation.

cuchulain

25-Jul-2008, 20:11

The new translation reads better, IMO. It's supposed to be based upon a definitive text. Mood Indigo, apparently, wasn't.

I was amazed that Boris Vian is actually on youtube. I used one of his videos for a brief blog post here (http://www.spinozablue.com/2008/06/141/) (about Vian and movies, among other things). Wrote the post before my reread of his novel.

nnyhav

26-Jul-2008, 21:18

B.S.Johnson, The Unfortunates (http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/2008/07/box-review.html)

Sybarite

26-Jul-2008, 21:58

Just finished Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana.

nnyhav

28-Jul-2008, 17:50

Osamu Dazai, The Setting Sun: a bit of a disappointment for this reader, quite a bit of disappointment for the author. But I'll be giving No Longer Human a shot.

cuchulain

28-Jul-2008, 19:40

Osamu Dazai, The Setting Sun: a bit of a disappointment for this reader, quite a bit of disappointment for the author. But I'll be giving No Longer Human a shot.

Surprised you didn't like it. Remember being very impressed by the book.

Liked your review of B.S. Johnson's book. Are you at liberty to at least give a thumbs up or thumbs down?

:>)

As for my own "just finished" book. It wasn't literature. But it was very good, and heartbreaking. A non-fiction look at RFK's last 82 days, called The Last Campaign.

Amazing to think that he went into that last campaign thinking he'd probably be shot. His aides thought he'd probably be shot. Friends and foes alike thought it would happen as well. He still went forward with it. And he seems not to have done anything to reduce the chances of assassination. In fact, he felt his best chance to win the presidency was to walk among the people, let them touch him, grab him, pull him into their world. He campaigned mostly in the old "whistle-stop" manner, completely vulnerable, completely in the open.

From this and other studies, and from my own memories of the time, I think he was America's last best chance. A man who transformed himself into someone who would have altered the course of our history for the better. Despite his many flaws and faults, I think he finally achieved greatness of soul in his last few years, especially the final year of his short life . . . .

Jumping back into literature, I'm rereading The Red and the Black, by Stendhal. The new translation by Burton Raffel.

fausto

28-Jul-2008, 19:48

Mirabell

28-Jul-2008, 19:50

fausto

28-Jul-2008, 20:08

As a cohesive whole , not necessarily -- you have to draw your own conclusions, he won't do it -- but as a suite of revealing anecdotes, at times shocking revelations and overall interesting panorama of the Agency, I don't think there is a better book on the subject out there. Lots of exclusive info with declassified files, etc.

cuchulain

28-Jul-2008, 20:15

I've read a while ago Tim Weiner's Legacy of ashes, 2007 non-fiction NBA winner. It's the history of the CIA. Honestly, this "RFK, last best chance" thing is not likely to come unharmed of this reading.

Which is why I mentioned his transformation. RFK changed dramatically after his brother was killed. He changed dramatically when he visited poverty-stricken towns and villages in Central and South America. And when he visited poverty-stricken places in America, especially the Mississippi Delta.

But perhaps the most profound agent of change was his visit to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. As a senator, he made Native American rights a major focus of his time in office. As a candidate for the presidency, he made that and poverty issues the central focus, along with race and ending the Vietnam War.

Yes, he made terrible mistakes during JFK's administration. Which he later regretted. I think he changed more than any other American politician in that span of time (1963-1968). There is no one today talking about the things he talked about in 1968. And no one who is even remotely comparable in sincerity, authenticity, and drive to effect positive, progressive change.

That's my view of it, anyway . . .

cuchulain

28-Jul-2008, 20:25

Another quick point about politics and such. The perfect is often the enemy of the good . . . or so the old saying goes.

As in, when we look at politicians, we should think in terms of comparing apples with apples, rather than with ideals of perfection, etc.

They are very flawed human beings. Like all of us. But it's probably heightened when it comes to politicians, because of the dynamics of power, the climb up the ladder to that power, and all of the compromises one necessarily has to make to gain that power.

It is rather easy for us who remain outside the political system to keep our ideals and principles intact, clean and pure. We're typically not asked to make compromises to achieve this or that objective. We can just think what we think without much in the way of obstacles.

Politicians, OTOH, of necessity, never, ever can get exactly what they want. Because they're (obviously) dealing with other politicians who want what they want as well. And different constituencies, etc. etc. Battling for what they want. Agon and so on.

So, to make a long story short . . . I compare RFK with other pols of the time and today . . . and I see him as the best of the whole lot . . . insofar as . . . someone who was more likely to achieve progressive goals within the system . . . and reform that system.

Apples with apples. RFK was the best apple of the bunch, IMO.

ions

30-Jul-2008, 01:45

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. So much fun that it almost makes me want to knock someone up just to have the joy of reading this to a child of my own.

Cocko

31-Jul-2008, 00:35

Ever After by Graham Swift... I started a thread, but the short and sweet appraisal is, I didn't like it much. A disappointment in comparisons to Waterland and Last Orders.

Sybarite

31-Jul-2008, 09:23

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.

Mirabell

31-Jul-2008, 23:13

Sterben und Auferstehen, Frans Eemil Sillanp

Mirabell

04-Aug-2008, 23:27

A Severed Head, Iris Murdoch

wow

Cocko

05-Aug-2008, 00:37

Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje... a beautifully written tapestry of tangents, the most impressive book I've read in a long time. I started a thread.

nnyhav

05-Aug-2008, 21:39

L.P.Hartley, The Go-Between. Conventionally good, stylistically even better, but a tad heavy symbolically.

Sybarite

06-Aug-2008, 10:04

Just finished Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Very, very good.

Stewart

06-Aug-2008, 10:08

Just finished Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Very, very good.
Well done. I never could.

Sybarite

06-Aug-2008, 11:32

Well done. I never could.

It's not the 'easiest' book I've ever read, but I found it really rewarding: there's such a huge number of ideas and themes in it.

saliotthomas

06-Aug-2008, 18:28

Mirabell

08-Aug-2008, 04:43

Bone by Jeff Smith

as so often in the past two years, I am very thankful for this recommendation, funhouse.

what a ride/read.

ions

16-Aug-2008, 09:34

Underworld by Don Delillo

nnyhav

16-Aug-2008, 17:09

back online again ...
G?nter Grass, The Tin Drum (trans Ralph Manheim, don't see the prob; saved nearly the best for nearly the last)
Francis Carco, Streetcorners (trans Gilbert Alter-Gilbert; teens Parisian demi-monde atmospherics)
Camilo Jos? Cela, The Family of Pascual Duarte (trans Anthony Kerrigan; called the Spanish L'?tranger, superior to it)
the last two acquired last week, as was more, cf the other Recently ...

ions

16-Aug-2008, 21:56

Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje

Sybarite

17-Aug-2008, 12:09

From A to X by John Berger.

Beth

17-Aug-2008, 15:23

Stewart

17-Aug-2008, 15:29

Animal's People by Indra Sinha, though I hated to turn the last page. Don't know when I've laughed out loud so consistently all through a novel, and at the same time felt hugely the inadequacy of how the world responds to disaster. Animal unforgettable is.

Yes, his voice is wondeful. I can still, a year on, hear him in my head. The thread's here (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/asian-oceanic-literature/583-indra-sinha-animals-people.html), if you have anything more to add.

Mirabell

25-Aug-2008, 00:24

Play it as it lays by Joan Didion.

Wow. Great, great novel.
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/3484-joan-didion-play-lays.html#post6981

fausto

25-Aug-2008, 08:44

She likes her wrecks, does Joan.

nnyhav

26-Aug-2008, 05:26

Ahwell, Richard Sennett's The Craftsman didn't live up to its promise; not without some interest and curious anecdotal evidence, but the synthesis fails, the metaphor falls to earth (making it a metaphorite?) ...

In other readings:
Amos Oz, A Perfect Peace ****0
Graham Greene, The Quiet American ***00+

Jan Mbali

26-Aug-2008, 19:58

Matha quest by Doris Lessing ,it toke me forever to finish it,i could not get into it.But it has nothing to do with the quality of the writing,more to do with deep incompatibility betwin the book and i.Some of the images i found a bit dated,the tex avery reference to the wolf all along was ennoying.

Her first work, "The Grass is Singing" is the only thing she wrote I can abide. A collection of short stories that express genuine feelings about the spirtual wilderness of Rhodesian colonialism (while set in an actual wilderness). The rest has the shallow feel of the work of many a writer in exile - roots somehow broken.

Stewart

28-Aug-2008, 00:25

I'm sitting giggling sporadically, having come to the end of Gilbert Adair's The Death Of The Author and, knowing there was a twist at the end, I'm glad all the forward thinking I put in to work out what it may be didn't pay off. I've never really followed literary and critical movements, but those that do may notice that the book's title echoes, as I've found out, an essay by Barthes and the book's actual storyline subverts, as I've also found out, the biography of Paul de Man.

Wordplay, erudition, literary theory, satire, and more - and all in just over a hundred pages. I've always liked Adair's work and this one, from 1992, has to be his best.

Cocko

28-Aug-2008, 00:52

Elizabeth Costello by J. M. Coetzee. Started a thread elsewhere, however I would some it up by saying 'interesting', both in device and content. Sorry to be a fence sitter. ***00

Mirabell

28-Aug-2008, 01:49

Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon

Finished it an hour ago and I am still happy. His most flat-out enjoyable novel since Wonder Boys, although I haven't read Yiddish Policemen's Union yet.

nnyhav

29-Aug-2008, 12:59

Tove Jansson, The Summer Book ***00
G.V.Desani, all about H.Hatterr ***00+

nnyhav

01-Sep-2008, 04:41

Paul Verhaeghen, Omega Minor: if you liked Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, you'll like this as well (though there's more literary filigree in OM).

Cocko

01-Sep-2008, 08:02

Johnno by David Malouf... a beautifully crafted, yet disappointing, exploration of friendship, love and loss.
***00

Mirabell

01-Sep-2008, 22:00

The Invisibles, Vol. 1: Say You want a Revolution, Grant Morrison et al.

totally awesome. and whacky.

nnyhav

04-Sep-2008, 03:55

Alan Bennett, Untold Tales: primarily memoir, also essays; UK bestseller US remainder. Good fun.

Jayaprakash

04-Sep-2008, 11:59

A bit of a reading jag took place the last couple of weeks and I finished Javier Marias' ALL SOULS (liked very much), Gabriel Josipovici's GOLDBERG:VARIATIONS (uneven at times but mostly quite interesting), Christopher Isherwood's MR. NORRIS CHANGES TRAINS and GOODBYE TO BERLIN (both very good books set in pre-war Berlin, the first an excellent political parable, the second a very effective semi-autobiographical ficional documentary), Peter Ackroyd's THE LAMBS OF LONDON (where the plagiarism plot seems to run away with Ackroyd to the extent that the titular characters vanish for much of the last third, but a satisfying read in any case) and Georges Simenon's MAIGRET AND THE GHOST (an about average installment in the series).

Now, I'm dipping cautiously into ST LUCY'S HOME FOR GIRLS RAISED BY WOLVES by Karen Russell, and it's a slog. The stories often wind up being quite memorable and even moving, but the writing style is a bit of a pain. I suppose it's just too jumpy, modern and perhaps too American for my more sedate Old World tastes and pedantic ways. I suspect that I might have embraced this book quite enthusiastically about a decade back, but one's arteries do begin to harden with time.
Far more in keeping with my emerging taste for sedateness, pedantry and a touch of well-applied pomposity is Thomas Mann's DR FAUSTUS, which I am already halfway through.

Stewart

07-Sep-2008, 23:12

Finished today Micheline Aharonian Marcom's new novel, The Mirror In The Well, which was pretty much a prose poem dedicated to the vagina. Of course, there was more to it than that, such as power struggles, immigration, and an undercurrent of Biblical allusion, but I'm surprised at how much I liked it, moreso on the second reading. Oh, and its very explicit sexually, consistently so, that I was afraid she wouldn't be able to keep it up. {{Groan.}} The style was very reminiscent of Clarice Lispector, and I'll certainly try and chase up her previous novels, being a trilogy of the consequences of the Armenian Genocide.

Mirabell

08-Sep-2008, 01:41

From A to X by John Berger.

No comment?

nnyhav

10-Sep-2008, 05:27

Juan Goytisolo, Makbara (trans Helen Lane): recently reissued (http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/catalog/show/443) by Dalkey Archive. One of the rare instances where Complete-Review doesn't get it (http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/goytisj/makbara.htm) (no sense of humor on evolving issues), but does get that it's a bit much. It's a lot much. Such much! Over the top at times, including in the meta category, but there's rewards to the risks it takes. In some respects an answer to Edward Said's Orientalism; but that's minor compared to the send-up of academic and other modern follies -- more anti-ideological than anything, except sex, which [it] is also all about.

***00+ (or B+, vs C-R's B-)

nnyhav

11-Sep-2008, 04:34

Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa: Running the gamut (or is it gauntlet?) from A to Z and back again; the constraint (of which one is always aware, or one of them anyway, as others seem to be in force at times, provisionally, checking as one progresses) interacts with the story in curious ways, surprisingly richly; even so, the conceit gets in the way, however ingenious the ways around it (but then something Dictionary Johnson said about dogs comes to mind): All in, ***00+, maybe ****0

Add: I see complete-review has its say (http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/abishw/aafrica.htm) along these lines.

cuchulain

11-Sep-2008, 07:51

nnyhav,

Have you read his How German is It? Marvelous book. I haven't read the novel you mentioned, but HGII is among my Top 100 all time.

Stewart

11-Sep-2008, 09:59

I've been through this thread and taken a number of the posts and made honest threads of them.

So, the new threads are:

Alphabetical Africa, Walter Abish (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/4161-walter-abish-alphabetical-africa.html)
Makbara, Juan Goytisolo (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4160-juan-goytisolo-makbara.html)
Amsterdam, Ian McEwan (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4162-ian-mcewan-amsterdam.html)
Larva, Juli?n R?os (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4163-julian-rios-larva.html)
Collected Stories, Arno Schmidt (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4165-arno-schmidt-collected-stories.html)
Foam Of The Daze, Boris Vian (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4164-boris-vian-foam-daze.html)

Mirabell

12-Sep-2008, 01:29

Money, Terry Pratchett

meh. Not his best, but not bad. Lots of the usual brilliance, but somewhat...errant. Dullish, even.

DreamQueen

12-Sep-2008, 15:35

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. I enjoyed it but would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't read it too quickly.

Mirabell

12-Sep-2008, 16:07

The Brethren, John Grisham

Not bad.

Jayaprakash

13-Sep-2008, 07:00

Great Apes by Will Self, a satire that is pungently scatalogical and impressively well researched and detailed but a bit unfocussed and lacking in very much new to say. ***00

Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann. I'd composed a long post on this book for the relevant thread and then lost it. I'll try again later. *****

nnyhav

14-Sep-2008, 03:48

Close on Syb's heels:
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4241-camilo-jose-cela-hive.html

and close on its:
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/asian-oceanic-literature/88-murakami-ryu-miso-soup.html

Sybarite

15-Sep-2008, 08:47

Just finished Cat and Mouse by G?nter Grass ? excellent; review to follow.

fausto

15-Sep-2008, 13:40

Mathias ?nard - Zone (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/general-discussion/397-french-literature-3.html#post8282)

DreamQueen

16-Sep-2008, 00:08

G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday.

nnyhav

16-Sep-2008, 02:10

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4362-venedikt-erofeev-moscow-end-line.html

Jayaprakash

16-Sep-2008, 03:05

Nip The Buds, Shoot The Kids by Kenzaburo Oe. Set in the second world war, this novel follows the fortunes of a group of teenaged reformatory school boys, evacuated from the city and dragged about the countryside until a village that will take them in is found. When they are finally taken in, an outbreak of disease causes the villagers to flee, leaving the despised group of boys trapped in their abandoned village. The boys try to carry on on their own, and make a stab at building a life and society of their own. Then the villagers return, and the high-handed brutality of the adult world re-establishes itself.

It's a very short but vivid and intense story which doesn't flinch from dealing with violence or sexuality. It's been compared to The Lord Of The Flies, but if anything is the exact opposite, with the despised children attempting to live a decent, fulfilling life in the absence of adults, and being plunged back into a state of abject captivity when the adults return. I felt the book suggested that the war had completely compromised the moral authority of the adult world, and only those who were not a part of it, either because they were children, refugees or deserters, had any chance of rediscovering what it meant to be human. Everyone here is more or less corrupt here in direct relation to their degree of assimilation with the adult world.

A very bleak and haunting little book.
Edit: I've had some time to think it over and piece apart the initial impact of the book and what I feel on second consideration, and I think the book deserves the full five stars.*****

nnyhav

18-Sep-2008, 05:01

Yury Dombrovsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Dombrovsky), The Keeper of Antiquities (http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/dombrovy/keeper.htm) (trans Michael Glenny), ***00+, can be read as part of a sequence with the richer follow-up The Faculty of Useless Knowledge (http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/dombrovy/faculty.htm) (Alan Myers) ****0, which I'd read some years ago, and which remains in print (the former, not: I had the good fortune to find a library discard/used book).

to which I'll add, Aurelius figures in to the archaeological plot, so the segue to Hadrian was determined (also, by this recent newsitem (http://forums.lablit.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2834&start=0#p13952))

titania7

19-Sep-2008, 07:52

Hello, all:
I just finished three novels by D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Lost Girl, and The Rainbow. Lady Chatterley is, in my opinion, a mixed bag. It's ironic that it's the novel Lawrence is most widely known for. Apparently, he saw it as very much a "statement piece," of sorts--a book, he claims, that "every 17-year-old girl" should read, to fully grasp what male/female relations really
mean (!?!) Gee, now I know why most of my relationships with men have been unsuccessful. I should've read this book sooner.....

The Rainbow is beautifully written, though not as good as the sequel, Women in Love. I read somewhere that Lawrence wrote The Rainbow in the style of Tolstoy, and Women in Love in the style of Dostoevsky. Lawrence is one of my favorite writers, but I wouldn't compare him to Tolstoy or Dostoevsky.

The Lost Girl is my personal favorite of the three I've just finished. It centers around Alvina Houghton, an unconvential woman who is nearing spintershood (in that day, if you were 30 or over and unmarried, you were undoubtedly a spinster). After some unfruitful semi-romances with two other men, Alvina, still a virgin, is seduced by the passionate, domineering, and not altogether likeable Cicio.
Being Italian and rather animalistic, he is, of course, irresistible (in modern terms, he is the "quintessential bad-boy). Eventually, Alvina
marries Cicio, and we are left to believe that they live happily ever after--if anyone ever does in a Lawrence novel.

All three of these books (Lady Chatterley, The Rainbow, and The Lost Girl) are worthwhile reads, and I definitely would recommend them. After finishing The Rainbow, I'm re-reading Women in Love because I don't remember it that well (having read it the first time 10+ years ago--and in one day, at that).

And as I continue my D. H. Lawrence obsession, I'm also reading _The Plumed Serpent_ (more on this at a later date).

Anyone else have thoughts on Lawrence and his work?

titania7

"Books have to be read--It is the only way of discovering
what they contain. A few savage tribes eat them, but
reading is the only method of assimilation revealed to
the East."
~E.M. Forster

Mirabell

19-Sep-2008, 15:32

Ondjaki - Good Morning Comrades ****0

DreamQueen

19-Sep-2008, 17:07

Five Miles From Outer Hope by Nicola Barker *****

Heteronym

20-Sep-2008, 14:46

Mirabell

20-Sep-2008, 15:33

Jos? Saramago's Levantado do Ch?o reminded me why I consider him the best writer alive. The last time he dabbled in naturalism before converting himself to magical realism, he writes an epic saga about three generations of an agrarian family, interweaved with the history of Portugal from the beginning of the 20th century to a few years after the 1974 revolution that restored democracy here. It's highly political, possibly one of the few genuinely communist novels with literary merit. It's full of horror and hope, great tragedies and small victories. It's one of the best things he's written, and I'm amazed it hasn't been translated into English yet. Anyone who can read it in some other language, please do so.

it's translated into German, most of his novels are. I briefly hoped that epic = long, but the German trans. clocks in at 310 pages.

I have read Blindness once, a long long time ago, but I don't remember anything, and I own The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis but haven't read it.

What are, say, his three best novels?

Sybarite

20-Sep-2008, 20:32

Finished The Blackwater Lightship by Colm T?ib?n earlier. Now reading Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spiderwoman.

Stewart

20-Sep-2008, 20:37

Finished The Blackwater Lightship by Colm T?ib?n earlier.
I've yet to read anything by him but, as was evident at his event at the Edinburgh Book Festival, he's a very funny guy. He and Patrick McGrath were an inspired pairing, each playing off the other very well.

Now reading Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spiderwoman.I've been meaning to read that for ages. Last year, or was it the one before, a national paper gave away the DVD and I had resolved not to watch it until I'd read the book, which is something I try to do.

I've read a few recently, but not had time to review them yet. These were:

The Story Of Mr Sommer, Patrick S?skind
Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk, Nikolai Leskov
Monsieur, Jean-Philippe Troussaint
The Key Of The Tower, Gilbert Adair

And I'm not that far off finishing Detective Story by Kert?sz Imre.

Sybarite

20-Sep-2008, 21:42

I've yet to read anything by him but, as was evident at his event at the Edinburgh Book Festival, he's a very funny guy. He and Patrick McGrath were an inspired pairing, each playing off the other very well...

I've read a couple of his non-fiction (Homage to Barcelona and Love in a Dark Time: Gay Lives from Wilde to Almodovar), but this was the first of his fiction that I'd read. I'll certainly be reading more ? deceptively simple. I'll review it properly in due course.

... I've been meaning to read that for ages. Last year, or was it the one before, a national paper gave away the DVD and I had resolved not to watch it until I'd read the book, which is something I try to do...

I'm not sure that I haven't got the same give-away DVD. I've never seen the film, but I reviewed the stage musical (by Kander & Ebb of Cabaret and Chicago fame) some years ago. I don't remember much of it, though.

DreamQueen

20-Sep-2008, 22:18

On Colm Toibin:

deceptively simple

Yes. And so good.

spooooool

20-Sep-2008, 22:25

I finished rereading a Levinas, beautiful as ever but he doesn't convince or my imagination fails him as ever. And yes i want to read Colm Toibin

Mirabell

21-Sep-2008, 21:25

Javier Cercas,Die Soldaten vonSalamis.

A light, good read. Interesting take on war. Bolano's one of the main characters. review forthcoming.

Jayaprakash

22-Sep-2008, 08:18

Red Lights by Georges Simenon. Very taut and gripping story of a man's outwardly stable, peaceful life unravelling literally overnight.

I'm definitely interested in searching for more of Simenon's non-Maigret novels.

Austerlitz by WG Sebald. Strange, stangely gripping book. I think the meditations on architecture, so apparently digressive, tie in brilliantly well with the book's themes.

saliotthomas

23-Sep-2008, 11:40

Metamorphosis of a wedding-Sandor Marai*****
The bal-Irene Nemirovsky****0
Silk-Alexandro Baricco*****
I have been very lucky with the last books i read.
Baricco was a surprise,a short book,original in his pace and prose.The kind that make you smille page after page.
Sandor Marai is capital.A master.The two previous (Embes,Esther inheritance)where but apetizer compared to this.Reviewing it is far out of my reach.
The bal was a lovely novela,funny,unmerciful for the characteres.

Still listening to Foucauts pendulum....

Heteronym

23-Sep-2008, 14:35

it's translated into German, most of his novels are. I briefly hoped that epic = long, but the German trans. clocks in at 310 pages.

I have read Blindness once, a long long time ago, but I don't remember anything, and I own The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis but haven't read it.

What are, say, his three best novels?

:D

Why must epic mean long? The struggle of the characters to survive is what's epic about the novel, although this might be Saramago's most Portuguese novel ever, so it may go over anyone's head who doesn't know much about Portugal.

I'll give you my five favorite novels: Seeing, Death at Intervals, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, All the Names, and The Cave.

Sybarite

23-Sep-2008, 17:23

... I'll give you my five favorite novels ... The Gospel According to Jesus Christ...

This provoked me to look up Saramago and I've popped it into my Amazon basket.

I've just finished Kiss of the Spiderwoman by Manuel Puig ? review to follow.

nnyhav

24-Sep-2008, 04:49

Marguerite Yourcenar, Memoirs of Hadrian (trans Grace Frick, also amanuensis) ****0+

Historical autobiography, followed by bibliographic and compositional reflections. My only slight cavil is that more liberalism is projected back than seems warranted (though still so much as to be remarkable for the time), but even that, in turn, reflects on the modern liberal project, esp when written ('48-51).

see "Becoming the Emporer" by Joan Acocella (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/02/14/050214crbo_books?currentPage=all)

see also British Museum (http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/jul/20/art1)

NB: threadcloned (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/european-literature/4717-marguerite-yourcenar-memoirs-hadrian.html) (thx Stewart)

Heteronym

24-Sep-2008, 12:34

This provoked me to look up Saramago and I've popped it into my Amazon basket.

It's one of his best novels, an imaginative description of Jesus' life from birth to death.

Sybarite

24-Sep-2008, 14:32

It's one of his best novels, an imaginative description of Jesus' life from birth to death.

It's actually an illustration of why I love Amazon – even if I don't actually buy books from them, it's brilliant for research.

When I'd looked up that book, it recommended to me The Last Temptation [of Christ]. Now, I'd heard of the film and knew there was a book, but didn't know anything about it. Finding that it was penned by Nikos Kazantzakis, I discovered that he also wrote Zorba the Greek – which I had no idea was a book before the Anthony Quinn film. So I've popped that in my basket too.

Heteronym

25-Sep-2008, 13:46

:D

Yeah, I don't know how many new writers I've discovered following Amazon's recommendations.

DreamQueen

26-Sep-2008, 00:32

I just finished Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I really enjoyed it but it didn't blow me away as I was repeatedly told it would do. Too much hype perhaps.****0

Stewart

26-Sep-2008, 08:23

I just finished Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I really enjoyed it but it didn't blow me away as I was repeatedly told it would do. Too much hype perhaps.****0
We have a thread for that here (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/2660-junot-diaz-brief-wondrous-life-oscar-wao.html), if you want to see others' thoughts on it and add some of your own.

DreamQueen

26-Sep-2008, 13:52

We have a thread for that here (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/2660-junot-diaz-brief-wondrous-life-oscar-wao.html), if you want to see others' thoughts on it and add some of your own.

Yeah, I saw the thread...but this is about all I have to say about it at the moment. :)

Jayaprakash

29-Sep-2008, 10:27

Enderby Outside by Anthony Burgess. I'll probably try and jot down a few ill-considered thoughts once I read the entire Enderby Quartet.

saliotthomas

29-Sep-2008, 11:48

Foucaults pendulum by Umberto Eco*****

Falcon/Asters by Jun IShikawa****0

The fact that i came to Foucaults Pendulum late was good because i had some references to eased the approche to a very,very dense read.
I read the Domned kings serie last year by Maurice Druon where the trials of the templar(and the following events) are very well discribed.The Crusades through the arabian eyes by Amin Maalouf was also good concerning the birth of templar order,and the assassin sect(the old man of the montain).
So i had few white stones to help me keep the path.Still i had to grab the book hard not to get lost by some of Eco digressions.
I loved it though, and Eco light tone is a fine balance to thesis side of the book.I liked the ironie of the end (the launderie list) and the all paradox about knowledge.

Ishikawa book is made of two novelas,the first is futuristic and very hard to grasp ,the segond is more classic and oneiric.I'll be curious to read more,those two been so different,i wonder what the rest of his books are like.

nnyhav

29-Sep-2008, 12:38

Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus & Harmony (trans Tim Parks) *****

Sybarite

29-Sep-2008, 15:28

Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal. Very funny ? review to follow.

DreamQueen

29-Sep-2008, 18:05

Black is the Colour of My True Love's Heart by Ellis Peters and I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert.

The former was compelling, well-told, sad; the latter, ridiculous and funny.

Stewart

29-Sep-2008, 20:48

Roberto Calasso, The Marriage of Cadmus & Harmony (trans Tim Parks) *****

Good to see another author and translator all rolled into one with Tim Parks.

nnyhav

01-Oct-2008, 03:15

Andr? Breton, Nadja (trans Richard Howard): Another unexpected segue, from Calasso's But how did it all begin? to Breton's Who am I? But that's not the question, really: the exquisite core made manifest (text and subject: "Nadja, because in Russian it's the beginning of the word hope, and because it's only the beginning.") is framed within manifesto and other sublime-ridiculous gestures (which I suppose get at the original question). Training wheels for fish. ***00+

cuchulain

01-Oct-2008, 04:53

Recently finished Doctor Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak. Old translation. Max Hayward and Manya Harari. If anyone knows of a better translation, please post it.

I loved the book, but I think it needed editing. At least that's the way it reads in English. I do a quick review here (http://www.spinozablue.com/2008/08/391/) and here (http://www.spinozablue.com/2008/09/646/)

Currently reading R.F. Powers' biography on W.B. Yeats.

Sybarite

02-Oct-2008, 12:44

I gave up The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Barbery last night. Sixty pages in, I couldn't see plot for a load of pretentious twaddle about Husserl, phenomenology and the decorative benefits of cats.

saliotthomas

03-Oct-2008, 12:00

Shirley Jackson-The haunting of hill house***00

I liked the start and the building up of the atmosphere but was a bit disapointed by psychological turn of the book.

Haruki Murakami-After dark ***00

Just finished After dark and wasn't to much taken by it.I liked certain parts,like the big woman of the Alphaville hotel,but the rest was like watching a new wave japanese movie.A bit like something by Jim jarmush.Even the writing is very cinematographic,with camera angles,the description of the attitudes and expressions of the characteres,some of the music too.
A very good book but not in my line,maybe the urban atmosphere didn't help.

nnyhav

03-Oct-2008, 12:45

Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human (trans Donald Keene) ****0
and memoirs I shan't presume to rate, just recommend:
Elie Wiesel, Night (Marion Wiesel)
Jacobo Timerman, Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number (Toby Talbot)

nnyhav

04-Oct-2008, 21:19

Seamus Heaney, Electric Light: I'd started this but set it aside in order to go through Opened Ground, then Beowulf, and found a strayed bookmark in this, but it was back to the beginning. Not well received (nor was District & Circle), but that's par for the course post-Nobel.

Seamus Heaney his recent collection, Electric Light | Books | The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/jun/16/poetry.features)

titania7

04-Oct-2008, 22:34

miercuri

05-Oct-2008, 16:16

I've just finished Comrac McCarthy's The Road. ****0
After the first few pages I was beginning to think I wouldn't like it but then it grew on me more an more and I managed to read it in one sitting. A rough style fit for the bleak atmosphere which reminded me somehow of Saramago's Blindness. Incidentally, adaptations of both novels are due for release this autumn, I can't wait to see how they turned out.

Sybarite

05-Oct-2008, 17:58

Just finished Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs ? enjoyable as well as interesting.

Jayaprakash

06-Oct-2008, 05:00

I read Venus In Furs recently too and enjoyed it a great deal. I collected a few interesting quotes from the book here (http://aaahfooey.blogspot.com/2008/04/christianity-whose-cruel-emblem-cross.html).

This weekend, I finished Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry. It's the story of a Parsi (Zoroastrian) family who live in Bombay, and a period of transition, loss and reconciliation they go through when the elderly patriarch of the family has a fall and becomes bedridden. Mistry is certainly working in a Dickensian vein here, so there's much melodrama and an array of impossibly colourful background characters, but he manages to weave a compelling tale all told. A good, moving read all in all, with some reservations.***00

Mirabell

06-Oct-2008, 05:17

nnyhav

06-Oct-2008, 05:40

Flann O'Brien, An B?al Bocht/The Poor Mouth (trans Patrick Power) (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/general-discussion/68-irish-literature.html#post9853)

cuchulain

06-Oct-2008, 06:03

Cuchulain,
Excellent review of Doctor Zhivago. It makes me want to read it again! I read the same edition you did. I, too, would like to find a better translation.

Best,
Titania

"Books do furnish a room."
~Anthony Powell

Thank you. A fascinating novel, author, nation, movie and road to the Nobel. I doubt there are too many books with so many different angles/facets/avenues churning around.

I'm guessing an updated translation would make it even more enjoyable to read . . .

Jayaprakash

06-Oct-2008, 06:47

When I finished it I kicked it. Twice. But nowadays I consider it actually a really good novel. well executed, well written, wonderful characters. What bummed me was that it was no Fine Balance. I hoped for a novel on the level of that one, i.e. genius, but what I got instead was competent.

I can relate to that. There were several times when events seemed a little too contrived or fortuitous, background characters a bit too picturesque and one character in particular whose decisions and attitudes all seemed to make little sense. Mistry does a fine job if tugging at the heartstrings though, and there's much to redeem his more wannabe-Dickens excesses.

I'm certainly interested in reading his other books.

DreamQueen

06-Oct-2008, 14:03

kpjayan

07-Oct-2008, 12:58

Finished reading Nine by Andrzej Stasiuk ( translated from Polish by Bill Johnston)..***00

A very dark and pessimistic novel set in post Communist Warsaw. Writer also gets into a very detailed descriptive narration of places, events and people with keen observation not common in contemporary fiction.

miercuri

08-Oct-2008, 20:44

Yesterday I read The Following Story by Cees Noteboom, on my way to school and back. A mininovel, yet a pretty solid one, very dense poetic prose, subtly humorous and surely more than I expected from 100 pages.
It vaguely reminded me of Jeanette Winterson's Gut Symmetries (which I hated), in the sense that it seemed to be the novel that Winterson had tried and failed to write.
I might reread this at some point, because it surely deserves more attention than I could offer it while reading on a crammed bus.
****0

Sybarite

13-Oct-2008, 21:51

Finished Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye, together with accompanying essay by Susan Sontag and article by Roland Barthes at the weekend, plus Jeanette Winterson's Sexing the Cherry.

Reviews to follow.

Jayaprakash

14-Oct-2008, 06:46

Sentimental Education by Flaubert. A novel about how a conceited ass can live through times of great upheaval, oblivious to everything but his own vanity, reflected in a series of sordid affairs and laughable infautations. I liked it quite a bit, while being throughly disgusted with both Frederic and many of his friends. ****0

The Eagle's Throne by Carlos Fuentes. A political thriller written in the now rare epistolatory form. It veers between farce and high drama, as politics itself does, as rivalries, alliances, ambitions and conspiracies collide in Mexico, 2020, in the wake of a nationwide state of emergency brought on by the President's defiance of the USA. My main complain is that too many of these politicians seem far too erudite or capable to be believable. On the other hand, the story finds an unexpected human core right at the end which I thought worked very well in putting all the political skullduggery into a much-needed perspective. ***00

Cocko

14-Oct-2008, 07:02

The extremes are reviewed elsewhere, but the short and sweet version is... Patrick White's The Aunt's Story *0000 and Three Uneasy Pieces *****.

saliotthomas

14-Oct-2008, 16:31

Mondo by LeCleziot****0 Beautifull writing,but short stories alway sound a bit like exercises of style to me.I need to read one of his novels to get a clear idea.
White Tiger by Aravind Adiga****0 Good but not memorable.I'll try to write a short review of it.

DreamQueen

14-Oct-2008, 21:01

Terry Pratchett's second Discworld novel, The Light Fantastic. It was pure, unabashed silliness - and great fun. ****0

Ramblingsid

16-Oct-2008, 13:28

First of all...... hello everyone :)

And recently finished books :

The Lazarus Project - Aleksandar Hemon

Dreams of Rivers and Seas - Tim Parks

The Lazarus Project was not quite as brilliant as I had anticipated but is still a great book in my opinion.

Dreams of Rivers and Seas was a quieter read but ended up being more engaging and involving than I had originally imagined.

Max Cairnduff

16-Oct-2008, 13:41

The Gift of Rain, Tan Twan Eng, tremendous novel, hugely enjoyable. I made some comments on it on the Gift of Rain entry which I think is in the Asia forum.

nnyhav

17-Oct-2008, 16:00

Ign?cio de Loyola Brand?o: Zero (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/5798-ignacio-de-loyola-brandao-zero.html)

Bjorn

17-Oct-2008, 16:01

Two books which don't seem to be available in English:

The Story of Mister Han by Hwang Sok-yong (South Korea). Depressing but masterfully told story of a man trying to follow his conscience in the midst of the Korean war. Apparently, "Han" is not only a common surname, but also an abbreviation for Korea itself and a word meaning "a collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of overwhelming odds... lament and unavenged injustice". Makes perfect sense to me. *****

Dead Novices by Salim Barakat (Syria/Kurdistan/Sweden). Beautiful, dreamlike, and almost completely incomprehensible fairytale taking place in a medieval forest that's somehow both northern winter, meditteranean desert and a modern Stockholm suburb. ***00

miercuri

17-Oct-2008, 19:48

I started The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kiš about a week ago but I forgot it at a friend's place the same day, hopefully I will recover it this weekend.

Apart from that, I finished The Trial, which I had actually started in August but never managed to read to the end because I lost the copy somwhere in Paris.
Kafka is one of the classics I didn't get round to reading in highschool and I guess it was high time I did. Personally, I found the book very distressing, I'm not going to rate it, I will probably revisit it in a few years time. Stylewise, it felt as if it were a diamond in the rough, but I am definitely intrigued by Kafka. I have yet to read The Castle and his short stories in order to get a clearer picture.

DouglasM

18-Oct-2008, 19:50

I just finished Beloved by Toni Morrison. To be honest, I did not like it. Could be better if the narrative was more linear. I have the impression she tried to mix present and flashbacks at the same time to create a frenetic and confusing scenery, but in the end it revealed itself to be only monotonous.

titania7

18-Oct-2008, 20:12

Miercuri,
I'm currently reading The Trial and seem to have difficulty getting around to finishing it. I think I'm sometimes too inclined to indulge my moods in regard to reading.
I wait until I'm "in the right mood" to read certain authors--and lately the thoughts of
Kafka have not been enticing.

However, from the 198 pages I've read thus far of The Trial, I would say (just my opinion) that this book is not Kafka's masterpiece. It's not my favorite, at any rate.
Actually, I like his unfinished novel, Amerika, the very best, with The Castle
coming in as a close second. His short stories are fabulous. You are right to be intrigued by him. He is a fascinating enigma.

~Titania

PS By the way, which translation of The Trial are you reading? Sometimes I think
the translation can make all the difference. I'm reading a new translation by
Breon Mitchell. Highly recommended.

"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."
~Franz Kafka

nnyhav

19-Oct-2008, 13:32

Horacio Castellanos Moya, Senselessness ****0

reviews:
Conversational Reading: Horacio Castellanos Moya Fun (http://www.conversationalreading.com/2008/09/horacio-castell.html)
Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya Book Review ReadySteadyBook - a literary site (http://www.readysteadybook.com/BookReview.aspx?isbn=0811217078)
(spoiler alert: 3% gives away [in part] the Bola?o-style ending [cf By Night in Chile])
Three Percent: Senselessness (http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=1116)

PS: this was the sensible reading followup to Ign?cio de Loyola Brand?o's Zero

PPS: spoiler alerts: the nonfiction sequel (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n20/jone01_.html) is reviewed (and bookforum's review (http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/015_03/2738) isn't shy about it either)

miercuri

19-Oct-2008, 14:40

PS By the way, which translation of The Trial are you reading? Sometimes I think
the translation can make all the difference. I'm reading a new translation by
Breon Mitchell. Highly recommended.

I read The Trial translated into Romanian by Gellu Naum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gellu_Naum). It's not the most recent tranlation but probably the most popular. Naum also translated Stendhal and Beckett and was a writer himself, one of Romania's foremost surrealists.

Boki

20-Oct-2008, 11:16

just now finished the secret sharer by Conrad.

I absolutely fell inlove with it. The language itself is amazing, it is so well constructed - i was involved from the first few sentences.

His depiction of going to the darkest reaches of the soul/conscience/unconscience was what interested me most. Furthermore, his connection of his thoughts with the actual ship he commands. as in the last few pages it states that the hat he handed his 'double' is saving the ship, it is also saving him because its a symbol of letting go of his 'dark' and taboo conscience. Moreover, id like to add, at the end when he states 'my second self, had lowered himself into the water to take his punishment', this wholly represents Conrad himself. He was a firm believer in following the rules and he was very tenacious with 'doing things the right way'. As his double was a murderer he understands that falling into the ocean, as he describes it, being some what a metaphor for heaven, represents the double or now the part of himself which he has let go, to accept his sins and approve of punishment.

im now going on to read heart of darkness which supposedly does well with the secret sharer. CANT WAIT!

EDIT: Also, if any of you can state your opinion on this book for me, it would be greatly appriciated, would love to know how others viewed it.

Jayaprakash

21-Oct-2008, 06:17

Onitsha by JMG Le Clezio. Very beautifuly written and with a haunting, powerful story to tell about the devastation wrought in Africa by succesive waves of colonialism (imperial and then corporate). It's seen through the eyes of a young European boy who goes to live in the town of Onitsha in 1948, and to lesser extent his father, an oil company executive who is obsessed with uncovering the area's ancient history by tracking down myths and legends and his mother, who is not able to fit in with the colonial society of the town with its casual acceptance of 'native' slave labour. *****

titania7

21-Oct-2008, 06:25

Jayaprakash,
Once again, your scintillating review has piqued my interest
in an author's work! I haven't yet read any Le Clezio, but this
book sounds as if it might be a good place to start. It deals
with a lot of important issues I find interesting.

Snow Country finally arrived at the library--my second library to try my luck
with thus far. Now all I have to do is get down there to pick it up! :)

~Titania

"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift
is nothing without work."
~Emile Zola

titania7

21-Oct-2008, 06:30

Boki,
Regrettably, I haven't read The Secret Sharer. Perhaps others on the list
have done so? At any rate, I'll look forward to hearing what you have to say about Heart of Darkness.

~Titania

"Total absence of humor renders life impossible."
~Colette

kpjayan

21-Oct-2008, 12:07

In the country of Men by Hisham Matar. short listed in 2006 for Man Booker, this book by Anglo-Libyan writer is written as a memoir of a 9 yr old boy, during the summer of 1979, where his family goes through the difficult period , being on the wrong side of the regime.

A fluid , very well written prose; however from the fictional point of view, a lot to be desired.

DreamQueen

21-Oct-2008, 12:18

Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed ****0
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame ****0

Max Cairnduff

21-Oct-2008, 16:32

Lust, Caution, by Eileen Chang. Miniaturist portraits of the disappointments of ordinary lives perfectly captured. I've written it up on my blog (linked to on my personal page here, which is accessible by clicking my name above should you be interested) and can happily recommend it as a work I think many here would appreciate.

rabbitfast

22-Oct-2008, 09:00

I recently finished Adam Bede and, being the George Eliot nut that I am, I liked it...though, in my humble opinion...it is not quite at the level of Daniel Deronda or Middlemarch. I just finished Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. I'm not going to review it...I did like it, however...except for the America Vicuna bit...though obviously it gives us insight into Florentino's character and state of mind at that point.

nnyhav

24-Oct-2008, 00:25

Ariel Dorfman, Konfidenz (http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/americas-literature/5463-ariel-dorfman-konfidenz.html#post10524)

saliotthomas

25-Oct-2008, 12:35

Chinua Achebe-Things fall apart *****
I liked it very much.A great insighed of African tribal life,well written.I wonder what Stewart thought about it.
Driss Chraibi-Mother of spring ****0
A Moroccan novel about the arrival of Arabian muslim and the reaction of Berber tribes.The style respect the oral tradition of Moroccan story teller.Very interesting story and original writing(but not acrobatic)
Arturo perez Reverte-the painter of battles**000
I wanted to like this but didn't."cousu de fils blanc" as we say in french.
Luis Sepulveda-An old man who read love novels(un viejo que leia novelas de amor)*****
A great novel about amazonia,a old colon,the forest,wild beasts and love novel.Great.

Mishima-the sailor who fell from grace with the sea****0

Sybarite

25-Oct-2008, 15:34

Just finished Peter Carey's My Life as a Fake ? very enjoyable: to be reviewed later.

Stewart

25-Oct-2008, 16:02

Chinua Achebe-Things fall apart *****
I liked it very much.A great insighed of African tribal life,well written.I wonder what Stewart thought about it.
Oh, don't believe what I have on my currently reading spot. I am in one of those phases where one book at a time never seems to do. As a result I am nowhere near finished it, but it is a reread (it came out fifty years ago) so I can say that I liked it first time but couldn't remember a thing about.

As it happens, I just finished Michel Faber's new one, The Fire Gospel, and I have not decided whether a ***00 or a ****0 is warranted. That said, ***** for the sending up of Amazon reviews, as the author in the story looks up reviews of his own book.

titania7

27-Oct-2008, 18:15

Just finished Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers *****.
This is often considered to be Trollope's finest achievement, and it is indeed a witty, clever, highly entertaining read. It satirizes clergymen, paints a dazzling portrait of a cunning "Signora" (what a vixen!) and brings to life one of the most memorable characters in Victorian literature, the indomitable, ever-domineering "Mrs. Proudie." Highly recommended.

Note: I will review this book later in the Trollope thread, when extra time is less of a luxury.

~Titania

"Never think that you're not good enough.
A man should never think that. People
will take you very much at your own
reckoning."
~Anthony Trollope

nnyhav

27-Oct-2008, 20:34

Speaking of books that came out fifty years ago (albeit not in translation) ...

Shusaku Endo, The Sea and Poison (trans Michael Gallagher, or Peter Owen*): Akutagawa Prize, 1958. Better known for his work on the Japan-Catholic interface, this work is more Protestant (without being Christian), an examination of conscience involving an isolated but very personal wartime atrocity. ****0, nearly + but for a minor character flaw.

*MG wrote intro and is coverlisted as translator, but PO gets credit for '72 copyright.

amanda

27-Oct-2008, 21:46

Finished the Le Clezio (Terra Amata ****0) though I haven't got around to changing the listing in the corner.

Erzs?bet Galg?czi's Another Love ***00. I borrowed it from the library after reading this review (http://www.salonicaworldlit.com/2008/09/slight-hungarian-lesbian-detour.html) from Salonica. While I can appreciate it for its depiction of lesbianism and dissent/political life in post-1956 Hungary, the work itself did nothing for me.

Rita Felski's Literature After Feminism ****0 was a rather accesible yet nuanced survey of feminist literary theory.

Jayaprakash

28-Oct-2008, 07:03

Nation by Terry Pratchett. Loved it. Favourite line: 'Religion is not an exact science. Sometimes, neither is science.' *****

The Old Gringo by Carlos Fuentes. Not so satisfying. Some very cliched sexual politics in particular. This American woman mooning on about a Miexcan revolutionary who 'showed her what she could be, and then took it away'. Translation: first major sexual thrill, followed by betrayal. It had its moments, but I think a far better book can be written about Ambrose Beirce's last days. The sort of book Roger Zelazny or Philip Jose Farmer would have written... **000

Ramblingsid

28-Oct-2008, 18:41

Dissolution by C J Sansom - I thought this a rather nice murder mystery set in the time of Henry VIII and the influential Thomas Cromwell. As the title suggests it is set against the backdrop of the dissolution of the english monasteries following the break with Rome.
The central, character, Matthew Shardlake, one of Cromwell's men is seemingly realistically and sympathetically drawn. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

nnyhav

30-Oct-2008, 00:29

Christina Peri Rossi, The Museum of Useless Efforts (http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Museum-of-Useless-Efforts,671326.aspx) (trans Tobias Hecht) ****0

NB: University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books European Women Writers Series (http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/Catalog/ProductSearch.aspx?filter=&search=european+women+writers&ExtendedSearch=False&SearchOnLoad=True) has about 50 titles (not all captured by link).

rabbitfast

30-Oct-2008, 07:58

Just finished Notes from Underground...somewhere between ***00 and ****0...Not quite the Dostoyevsky I'm used to (at least the first part) and yet, so typically him. :D I enjoyed the humor...as well its metafictional elements.

titania7

30-Oct-2008, 13:03

Quiet days in Clichy by Henry Miller ****0.
My first excursion into the world of Henry Miller. A bawdy, Bohemian mix of provocative prose, cheap sex, and fast living. A quick read and quite different than the literature I'm used to.

~Titania

"Life is constantly providing us with new funds,
new resources, even when we are reduced
to immobility. In life's ledger there is no such
thing as frozen assets."
~Henry Miller, Quiet Days in Clichy

Eric

30-Oct-2008, 13:52

I've finally finished reading Virginia Woolf's Jacob's Room. An intriguing book. I shall start a separate thread about the book, as someone has done with Mrs Dalloway.

The reason for the title of the book does not become evident until literally the last chapter.

miercuri

01-Nov-2008, 22:52

I finished Breakfast of Champions earlier this week. This is the second Vonnegut novel I read after Slaughterhouse Five, which I have read a few years ago. I remembered how insanely enjoyable Vonnegut is and how he can manipulate words in the funniest and most unusual ways. And this one had drawings too, I was really impressed. :D I know many of the characters in the book have appeared in previous Vonnegut novels. I definitely intend to read the rest so I could get a clearer picture. Nonetheless, this one was pure and simply fun. ****0

nnyhav

01-Nov-2008, 23:53

One from the heartland: Marilynne Robinson, Gilead ****0
Book Reviews - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/gilead/)

Sybarite

02-Nov-2008, 12:05

Just finished Goldfinger ? the first Ian Fleming I've read. Review to follow.

sara

02-Nov-2008, 12:10

I just finished The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates (I actually almost stayed up the whole night because I couldn't put it down towards the end :))
I would say something between ***00 and ****0 (more towards four, though).
It was the first Oates novel I read, and I must say it 's not going to be the last, even though I was tempted to put it down after reading the first 50 pages-
This is something I almost never do, but there was something deeply appalling and disturbing about the characters that made me feel uneasy (I 've got to admit though, that I am in a bit fragile psychological state at the moment and that must have been the main reason for my dislike at first :o).
I decided to go on, and I found it pretty rewarding at last-
It is a fast paced, very cleverly written book, that never misses its point.
I read other reviews suggesting that the ending seems forced and disappointing, but I personally did not see it coming and found it quite fitting to the characters' demeanor and fate throughout the book.

My only objection would be in that the book is marketed as dealing mainly with "anti-semitism".
This is a mistake, IMO, but it's really difficult for me to explain why without giving away large parts of the plot.
(If Oates really intended it to be clearly about anti-semitism - and not hatred or prejudice in general and harsh judgement of others- then she didn't handle her subject well.
And that's the main reason I am a bit hesitant about the stars.)

Heteronym

02-Nov-2008, 12:55

I've just finished Milan Kunder'a Slowness. Once I have some free time, I'll post a review. But I can say I liked it a lot.

kpjayan

03-Nov-2008, 06:23

Tale of the dispossessed - Laura Restrepo

Fantastic plot, but did not develop to a good novel. During the war in Columbia, a man is in look out for his only love ; his foster mother who rescued him and supported him. They get separated during one of the ambush, never to meet again. She is the only women he loves. The novel starts with his arrival at a refugee shelter run by French nuns, where the care taker falls in love with him ( very gentle, soft , silent love), eventually. Disappointed , as the short novel ends abruptly without much elaboration **000

Onitsha - JMG Le Clezio

My introduction to this years Nobel Laureate. As others mentioned in this thread, I am also impressed with his style of writing. The initial pages, until the first chapter, was a bit of drag , but picked up later beautifully. ****0

Jayaprakash

03-Nov-2008, 11:48

Jayan, I read the same book last week. It took a little getting into, as you've noted, but I was favourably impressed by it too. Rupa quietly scored a coup by being the only publisher in India to already have one of his books in print, didn't they?

Over the weekend I read A Life's Music by Andrei Malkine. A slender book, little more than a novella really. Set in the 70s, I think, in the Soviet Union. A traveller stranded in a station in the Urals encounters an old man with a tale to tell. It's a bit remniscent of WG Sebald's Austerlitz in this sense. Although the book is quite short and the old man's story deals with a specific period in Soviet history, the story resonates and felt larger than its actual size, if that makes any sense. *****

kpjayan

03-Nov-2008, 13:40

Yes, Jayaprakash.

While the efforts of Rupa Publications have to be lauded , in getting these books in India at an affordable price, I wasn't all that impressed with the print and presentation quality of the book. To me, it had a printing and styling similar to that of the 'pirated', locally printed paper-backs of popular books, available at the road sides, next to forum mall and other parts of the city. Hence, the reading wasn't pleasent to the eyes.

And, you have definitely made me interested in Andrei Malkine's book. Will hunt for that now..

titania7

03-Nov-2008, 15:11

A Dead Man's Memoir (A Theatrical Novel) by Mikhail Bulgakov ****0.
Forget The Master and Margarita and read this book with
a fresh, open mind. It is both satirical and tragic, both funny
and sad, both ingeniously written and inherently fragmented. It is Bulgakov's autobiographical novel, and, in reading it, you will
have an infinitely more acute understanding of the writer
and the turbulent times in which he lived.

To read my full review, go to the European Literature Thread
and look for Mikhail Bulgakov: A Dead Man's Memoir

Best,
Titania

"You won't get through life without criticism."
~Mikhail Bulgakov, A Dead Man's Memoir

Max Cairnduff

03-Nov-2008, 16:06

I just finished Vikas Swarup's Q & A, which I'm afraid I didn't really take to. I've written it up on my blog, and posted a thread in the relevant forum.

Still, we cannot push our boundaries without occasional disappointment, and I still look forward hugely to the other works of contemporary Indian literature I recently bought.

jackdawdle

04-Nov-2008, 20:44

joyce's ulysses for about the 5th time, the only way to read this book.

it cracks me up to think about the impression made on the reading public who were used to victorian literature and such to read about people peeing and shitting.

nnyhav

04-Nov-2008, 23:35

J.F. Powers, Morte D'Urban (http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product?usca_p=t&product_id=29) (NBA '63) ***00 shows its age. Not without some nice set pieces. (Yardley thinks better of it (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081401706.html).)

saliotthomas

06-Nov-2008, 12:43

Over the weekend I read A Life's Music by Andrei Malkine. A slender book, little more than a novella really.............. the story resonates and felt larger than its actual size, if that makes any sense. *****

It does make a lot of sense to me.Prodigious book.
In the same line is Requiem for the east,i really recommend it to you.

I finished Shadow of the silk road by Colin Thubron ****0 about is travel from China to the mediterran?e.It is alway interesting to have an educated man telling of his travels,meeting,visites of historical place but a much prefere Paul Theroux.More of a literary man, far funnier,and original.Still this was not bad,i nearly gave it up but i'm glad i went on.

The kraken wakes by John Wyndhan,***00 good Scifi but the couple part of it is irritating.The trifids was far better.

titania7

10-Nov-2008, 20:56

titania7

13-Nov-2008, 04:11

Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari. *****.
My interest was piqued in this book by the review Jayaprakash wrote a little while ago. It is a small novel, deeply effective and visually provocative. The snow provides the backdrop for a fascinating love triangle. Absolutely incandescent.

For my complete review, see the sub-form, Asian and Oceanic Literature, Kawabata Yasunari: Snow Country.

~Titania

"From the gray sky, framed by the window, the snow floated
towards them in great flakes, like white peonies...."
~Snow Country, Kawabata Yasunari

kpjayan

13-Nov-2008, 10:58

Two murders in my double life - Josef ?kvoreck? : ***00

This is the first novel written in English, by Czech author living in exile in Canada.

Two stories, one in the Edenvale College , and one in his native Czech almost at the same time revolves around a murder in Canada and a character assassination ( ? ) in the his homeland, told in an interwoven narrative by a professor, emigre from Czech living in Canada with his wife ( strong resemblance to the author and his wife).

This book has been written in a humorous, very informal style, intermixing the events beautifully, and with an easy and absorbing narration.

I have read one of his earlier novel "Republic of Whores" years ago, and recollect, not having a great opinion about it.
***00

jackdawdle

13-Nov-2008, 17:25

king queen knave by vladimir nabokov

this book's fascinating because it is so utterly devoid of autobiography. the story suffers as a result but its purpose -- to invent the most loathsome characters imaginable; to have said characters serve the most banal storyline imaginable; and to have it all told with acerbic wit and irony -- is admirable even if the results scarcely measure up to its original model, flaubert's madame bovary.

the story begins at a train station, a nod to anna karenin, and though the liberal use of interior monologues seems to suggest the book is actually a tribute to tolstoy, it quickly becomes apparent that martha, kurt and franz are reincarnations of emma, charles and leon/rudolphe. with some resevations made on behalf of kurt who exhibits a number of appealing traits (he has a cheerful dispostion, also an eye for fashion, and is kind to his dog), the lead characters are ruthlessly debunked of their seemingly decent attitudes and behavior. thus franz is taken to task for his neurotic squeamishness while martha's devotion to the almighty deutchemark is alluded to with headshaking scorn.

naturally the latter 2 are made for one another and nabokov does not begrudge them their pleasure, nor the reader the salacious details of their pleasure. the rest of the story is a sort of a farce, a comedy of errors, as franz and martha conspire to murder kurt by staging his accidental drowning. again this is a poor book by nabokov's standard. it serves as a reminder, however, that fiction can be much more than a thinly disguised autobiography, that lies are as critical to art as one's most precious emotions and memories.

***00

saliotthomas

13-Nov-2008, 17:36

titania7

13-Nov-2008, 17:44

Jackdawdle,
I enjoyed the clever observations you made about King, Queen,
Knave. I read it last year and found it to be fun and provocative read. In fact, I passed it on to my Mum, who also appreciated it. You should consider posting what you said about the book here to a new thread under European Literature.

If you liked King, Queen, Knave, you might like Laughter in the Dark even more. I read LITD many years ago--a library copy--and have been trying to find a copy at a second-hand bookshop ever since. At long last, a couple of months ago, I found one. I can't wait to re-read it.

Best,
Titania

"All my stories are webs of style and none seems at first blush to contain much kinetic matter. For me style is matter."
~Vladimir Nabokov

titania7

13-Nov-2008, 17:50

I finished the Elegance of the hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and really liked it.I started it with a bad a priori ,Syb giving it up and a bit too much fuss about it,but could not stop myself liking it.It's very French though,very Parisian.And sweetly funny. The Idea of someone hiding in his social condition is very good.Doing what other classes expect you to do is interesting.I think caretaker in Paris will be under very close scrutiny in future.
I shall try to do a small review.****0 if not more.

Thomas,
I'll be looking forward to your review of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, especially in light of what Sybarite had to say about it. I'm cognizant of the fact that you might well think this is yet another book I would find offensive ;). However, it sounds quite good. At least, from your brief description, Thomas.....

Best,
Titania

"Creativity takes courage."
~Henri Matisse

jackdawdle

13-Nov-2008, 19:06

thanks for taking note of my post, titania7. i had noticed that u had read king queen knave from another thread.

as to your recommendation of laughter in the dark, i'll have you know that i've stored megabytes of knowledge with regards nabokov the extent of which may be only rivaled by nnyhav on this board...not boasting...just stating a fact...again thanks.

Bjorn

13-Nov-2008, 23:27

Les Honneurs Perdus by Cameroonian/French writer Calixthe Beyala. Second one of hers I've read, and I quite like her - she manages to be both pissed-off political and darkly hilarious in this send-up of relationships between religions, continents, classes, and men and women. ****0, even if it lags a bit a couple of times.

And as far as I can tell, virtually none of her books have been translated into English. A pity.

Heteronym

14-Nov-2008, 12:32

I've finally read a disappointing E?a de Queiroz' novel, The City and the Mountains: full of his usual humor and wit, but the poor man passed away before revising the book, so nowadays it's published with hundreds and hundreds of typos, ruining my enjoyment of the story. I hate typos.

Dedalus has translated or will translate this novel, so I wonder if they'll do the right thing and correct the typos, or show the same type of stupid respect for the text.

saliotthomas

17-Nov-2008, 19:53

Nevil Shute-On the beach **000 a big dispointement.

Aris Fakinos-Tale of lost times ****0
A very interesting book about life in Greece among the paysanery in the early century.Famikos is a great writer,and leave in exil from the dictaturship of the colonels in France.Shall read more from him too.Very good surprise.

Graham Green-Travel with my aunt***00
short and untertaining.Pure Green.

Max Cairnduff

19-Nov-2008, 00:49

The Shipyard by Juan Carlos Onetti *****. This book is a brilliant work of Latin American Existentialism by a writer who has been compared to Camus, Dostoevsky, Beckett, and Graham Greene. For my complete review, look under Americas Literature, Juan Carlos Onetti: The Shipyard.

~Titania

"And the proof of man's inability to accept the true meaning
of life lies in the fact that the most incredible of all possibilities,
our own death, is mere routine for life; an event which at every
moment has already happened."
~The Shipyard, Juan Carlos Onetti

Hm, that sounds fascinating, as does Snow Country for that matter. Much to mull upon.

I've just finished Neuromancer by William Gibson, I wrote it up on my blog (Pechorin’s Journal (http://pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/)) but probably shan't here as it's science fiction which I tend to think is of less interest to most posters in this forum.

Working appalling hours at present, which is keeping me from getting back into Anthony Powell, so I'm now trying some more Derek Raymond who might interest some folk here.

Karen

22-Nov-2008, 15:13

I just finished Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky's unfinished novel, about the German occupation of France in WWII. I loved it, and if I have the time and courage I'll post a review.

saliotthomas

22-Nov-2008, 17:07

Magnus Mills- the restrain of beast ***00 good but i prefer Doyle in this line.
Dinos Buzzati-Mysteres a l'italienne***00 They where articles about occultisme he wrote for the "corriere della sera",interesting but very short novels.A good one about Fellini though.

titania7

23-Nov-2008, 13:02

Quicksand by Tanizaki Junichiro ****0. A mesmerizing novel of intrigue and bi-sexuality that will have you turning pages quickly. Rumored to feature "one of the most extraordinary femmes fatales in all of literature." My complete review is here:

http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/forum/asian-oceanic-literature/7413-tanizaki-junichiro-quicksand.html#post14445

Max, here's another one for you to add to your to-be-read list! ;)

Cheers,
Titania

"So I found myself sinking deeper and deeper into the quicksand,
and although I said to myself I had to escape, by this time I was
helpless...."
~Quicksand, Tanizaki Junichiro

Heteronym

24-Nov-2008, 12:57

Finished Garc?a M?rquez' In Evil Hour: a fine novel from early in his career, but more and more I'm growing disillusioned with Gabo. It's Macondo again, the usual stuff about religion and dictatorships and what a mess South America is. I fear I'll never feel again the pleasure I felt reading One Hundred Years of Solitude or Love in Time of Cholera :(

The novel has a bonus for Gabo readers, though, since it's full of references to other works by him. I like the idea his ouevre co-exists in a single universe.

stephendedalus

24-Nov-2008, 16:59

My few last ones:
Venedikt Erofeev, Moscow to the End of the Line
Thomas Bernhard, 2nd part of Gathering Evidence
Philip K. Dick, Ubik (this one jumps to my 50 favourite books easily; a very good novel; nothing spectacular in terms of style but the story, author's ideas and how they come to life and are blended together and harmonised is remarkable)

Jayaprakash

25-Nov-2008, 02:15

I've just finished Neuromancer by William Gibson, I wrote it up on my blog (Pechorin?s Journal (http://pechorinsjournal.wordpress.com/)) but probably shan't here as it's science fiction which I tend to think is of less interest to most posters in this forum.

Not at all. Do share.

liehtzu

25-Nov-2008, 06:46

Pan by Knut Hamsun

A Tomb For Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kis

Troubles by J. G. Farrell

Longer reviews later, but immediate verdicts:

- Hamsun was thought to have refined the "unreliable narrator" before it became fashionable. His debt to Dostoevsky is apparent, but Hamsun does something different with the Dostoevskian character, makes him a little less repetitious (much as I love Poe and Dostoevsky, characters often remain at one pitch). As in Mysteries the main character is a young fellow who seesaws back and forth between moments of ecstacy and love for humanity and the world, and then crashing, violent fits. In both cases the man is a emotionally fragile and confused, likely psychotic, flailing while trying to convince the world that he is perfectly well. Here he is an army lieutenant with seemingly unlimited time to spend in the Nordland hunting and contemplating nature.

I know well the places I pass, trees and stones stand there as before in their solitude, the leaves rustle under my feet. The monotonous sighing of the wind and the familiar trees and stones means much to me; I feel a strange sense of gratitude, everything reaches out towards me, blends with me, I love all things. I take up a dry twig and hold it in my hand as I sit there and think my own thoughts; the twig is nearly rotten, its meager bark distresses me, and pity steals through my heart. And when I get up to go, I do not fling away the twig but lay it down and stand and gaze fondly at it; finally, with moist eyes, I give it one last look before I forsake it.

- It is the second time I've read Kis's masterful novel, described aptly on the back cover as "short, brutal, and relentless." It's the kind of book where you just know everyone is going to end badly, and one of the great little novels of the 20th century.

- J. G. Farrell and his novel The Seige of Krishnapur were the only names I didn't recognize on that recent "Best of the Booker" charade. While I was unable to find Siege for a price that tickled me, I picked up Troubles - which John Banville and a few others reckon is Farrell's best novel anyway - for a bargain at the discount rack at a used bookstore. This is an exemplary novel, unfashionably oldfashioned, a sly slapstick set in a ludicrously decaying hotel during the Irish uprisings in 1919-1921 that has tragedy and violence rippling visibly beneath its placid, genteel surface.