Recently finished books?

[Loki]

Originally Posted by Jayaprakash

Also, have you read Lotte In Weimar, a sort of response to Werther by Thomas Mann, who is at least a very great craftsman of German literature?

I have not unfortunately, but it seems pretty interesting. However, what do you mean by "response to Werther"? Does Mann minimalize Werther's romanticism? Does he oppose reason and logic to his folly? I don't know what it could be.
Very soon I'll start studying Goethe and Tolstoj, an essay written by Mann: maybe I'll find some ideas expressed also in Lotte in Weimar.

[Daniel del Real]

Originally Posted by kpjayan

The Inquisitors Manual - Antonio Lobo Antunes : Wow... Not sure how to summarise. It was very good. Very untraditional, no flow or sequence, various people reminiscing on their association with Francisco, a Minister in the Salazar's regime, as well as their own life. Lot of suspended sentences, mixing past, present and dreams. I need time to sink it in. Thanks for the introduction to the author.. +

Is it your first Lobo Antunes? If it is, don't worry, it is a normal reaction after you read him, even though it's not the first. He has a splendid selection of words to express himself, but all the voices flowing at once and all the crossing sections in the book make it hard to define if you like it or not when you finish it.

[Daniel del Real]

Yasurani Kawabata, A Thousand Cranes

[Jayaprakash]

Originally Posted by Loki

I have not unfortunately, but it seems pretty interesting. However, what do you mean by "response to Werther"? Does Mann minimalize Werther's romanticism? Does he oppose reason and logic to his folly? I don't know what it could be.

Mann imagines a woman whom Goethe loved, and was known to be the original of the love-object in Werther visiting the writer in their old age.

[lenz]

My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet's Life in the Palestinian Century by Adina Hoffman

A biography of poet Taha Muhammad Ali. Born 1931 in village of Saffuriyya in Palestine.

[Omo]

Originally Posted by Jayaprakash

The book I'm currently reading, Anton Reiser by Karl Phillipp Moritz

A wonderful book, have fun with it!

Also, have you read Lotte In Weimar, a sort of response to Werther by Thomas Mann, who is at least a very great craftsman of German literature?

Well, I would say this book is Thomas Mann's attempt to draw near to Goethe, it's a kind of biography, in terms of character, not life actions. He takes a shot of Goethe in one moment; - Spoiler -
historical Lotte (or rather her pendant in Mann's writing) is not so much subject, rather does she project the young Goethe she knew onto the old one and hopes to find in this projection also something of her younger self again, and all the way through she plays with the thought of whether her life would have been better if she had made a different choice back then, but this is mainly a way to draw nearer to Goethe, showing him in the memory of another person.


I never liked the Werther, actually loathed it when I had to read it for school (which doesn't need to tell anything about the book of course, when opposition to force can overshadow the best of literature), but I've always appreciated it as a substitute for Goethe's sorrows, from which he could emancipate by writing this work, so that he remained in the world to go on writing better stuff (and also a lot of BS inbetween).

[Jayaprakash]

In a way, Werther seems to have been the Holden Caulfield of a certain generation.

I liked Anton Reiser quite a bit. I think it's a great portrait of a character type that still exists, although a Reiser of my own generation would probably have taken to reading Anne Rice novels and listening to The Cure.

I'm now reading a science fiction novel after a great long while: Mission To The Stars by AE van Vogt. A supremely generic title for a typical van Vogt tale of a hidden race of superior beings with weird mental powers.

[Bjorn]

Kleopatra, Allan Klynne (Sweden)

The problem of writing a 400-page biography on Cleopatra VII, of course, is that despite her fame, there isn't really 400 pages' worth of knowledge about her. Since most of the Egyptian records haven't survived, most of what we have to go on are accounts by Roman chroniclers and poets who not only lived a generation or five later, but also saw Cleopatra as a) just a woman, b) a foreigner, and c) an enemy of Rome. Klynne does a decent job of trying to pick through the propaganda to find the "real" Cleopatra, but much of it still ends up more like yet another account of Caesar v Pompey and Octavian v Antony with references to what Cleopatra might have thought about it sprinkled throughout. Still very interesting, though.

[Igu Soni]

Notes from Underground, Dostoevsky
Possibly the most beautiful (for me; let's not kick up a fuss about it) book I've ever read.
“set down / This set down / This”: a complete misreading of Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground Life as it ain't

[saliotthomas]

Umberto Eco-Baudolino
Around the themes as The name of the rose or Foucault but from another angle, an investigation based obscure lost land and the major symbolical pillars of religions.
More funny than the others, Baudolino is a rogue and a liar, but the third part in the magical kingdom left me a bit bemused.
Still Eco is always a good read even if not exactly promenade(easy walk) and each time you leave the thread you have to go back to find it again.

[Stevie B]

Recently finished Three Day Road by the Canadian writer Joseph Boyden. This beautifully written novel details the horrors of WWI trench warfare while also telling the unique story of two Cree natives and how they adjust to war and the white world. I would have given it five stars except I thought it went on too long. Then again, perhaps the author wanted to give the reader a sense of the monotony the soldiers faced.

I've decided to follow up Three Day Road with All Quiet on the Western Front, the German classic that's been collecting dust on my shelf for a dozen years.

[kpjayan]

Originally Posted by saliotthomas

Umberto Eco-Baudolino
Around the themes as The name of the rose or Foucault but from another angle, an investigation based obscure lost land and the major symbolical pillars of religions.
More funny than the others, Baudolino is a rogue and a liar, but the third part in the magical kingdom left me a bit bemused.
Still Eco is always a good read even if not exactly promenade(easy walk) and each time you leave the thread you have to go back to find it again.

Somehow, I did not enjoy Baudolino, as much I did the others ( Foucault's Pendulam , Name of the Rose and Island of the day before). That was long ago, may be it demand another read. Which is also the reason, why I haven't taken up the last fiction ( Queen...).

[saliotthomas]

Manhood for Amateurs-Michael Chabon
The very start is fine, then the clichés slowly piles till it becomes unberable. A not even fine trip into sub culture, might well be my last Chabon.
This read like a long fashon magazine article.
Poauh...


"ho baby, shake your booty" (c) 2010 thomas

[titania7]

Originally Posted by saliotthomas

"ho baby, shake your booty" (c) 2010 thomas

Dear Thomas,
I have sent you a private message about this, sweetheart. Please check your inbox.

Be well,
Alexis

[lenz]

Finally read some Bolaño - Le Secret du Mal French translation by Robert Amutio. This is short stories and short pieces probably parts of intended novels. I see now what all the excitement is about so, on to the novels!

[Daniel del Real]

Originally Posted by lenz

Finally read some Bolaño - Le Secret du Mal French translation by Robert Amutio. This is short stories and short pieces probably parts of intended novels. I see now what all the excitement is about so, on to the novels!

Really glad you liked it since I'm the biggest Bolaño's promoter in this forum. I'm also reading his short stories in El Gaucho insufrible. I haven't read the volume you read but I have to agree that Bolaño's short stories are an excellent base foe his novels.
Now the question is what novel are you planning to tackle as your first one?

[lenz]

Originally Posted by Daniel del Real

Really glad you liked it since I'm the biggest Bolaño's promoter in this forum. I'm also reading his short stories in El Gaucho insufrible. I haven't read the volume you read but I have to agree that Bolaño's short stories are an excellent base foe his novels.
Now the question is what novel are you planning to tackle as your first one?

I think I'll try the Savage Detectives, unless you can think of a better place to start. 2666, because of its subject - Ciudad Juàrez - I'll leave for along time. The reality is enough for now.

[e joseph]

Go Tell it on the Mountain - James Baldwin
So, Baldwin's started making a pitch to become a favorite writer of mine. Sometimes you can feel the rage behind his writing; extraordinarily written methinks. The first I've read by him, Giovanni's Room should follow pretty closely on its heels.

[Scott89119]

Istanbul- Memories and the City by Orhan Pamuk- Rich, evocative, warm, and a little quirky.

[Mirabell]

Originally Posted by e joseph

Go Tell it on the Mountain - James Baldwin
So, Baldwin's started making a pitch to become a favorite writer of mine. Sometimes you can feel the rage behind his writing; extraordinarily written methinks. The first I've read by him, Giovanni's Room should follow pretty closely on its heels.

Ooooh glad you liked it.

Whatta book.

We have a thread on it: James Baldwin: Go tell it on the mountain

Giovanni's Room is almost as great, but different.

One of my favorite unpublished poets insists that Another Country is even better. It's on my shelf, waiting for me. I'm afraid to be let down. So I'm ogling it. Dithering. Huh.