Recently finished books?

[Sybarite]

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

Brilliant.

[Beth]

Embers by Sándor Márai, not so brilliant, I'm afraid. I was hoping to chat with Dabbler about it, drats.

[saliotthomas]

Originally Posted by Beth

Embers by Sándor Márai, 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Irene Wilde

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]

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

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Sybarite

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]

Originally Posted by Mirabell

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.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by Stewart

David Bellos talks about retranslating Kadare here.

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Cocko

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]

Originally Posted by Stewart

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]

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.

Originally Posted by Mirabell

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]

Originally Posted by Cocko

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:

[Cocko]

Compare that to this...

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by ions

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.