Phil D
Well-known member
So glad to hear you liked Carpentaria!
Recently finished books?
- Thread starter Mirabell
- Start date
Leseratte
Well-known member
Thanks for your thoughts, Cadet, specially on No Man’s Land which is Wolfie material. I´ll try to start my reading of
Duong Thu Huong with another novel.
alik-vit
Reader
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (In Rus.). I did read it, only because I had class about Derrida as curator. Not my usual cup of tea/thinking. Can't see any heuristic potential in this kind of overgargonized modeling. Research is map (imho), her it's abstract painting. On the other hand, Derrida himself was really cool.
Linda Nochlin, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" (With P. S. In Rus.). Great short piece with acute anti transcendentalistic view on art and its production. Her answer is quite logical and her approach is fruitful. Especially in historical perspective, it's very rewarding read.
Jon Fosse, "Shining" & "Scenes from a childhood". I know, "Septology" is his masterpiece, but I love his shorter pieces. IMHO, on the territory under 100 pp Fosse is at his best. And this collection is not exception. Two longer texts, two shorter and one medium return to his favorite motives, scenes and characters. I love it. And my humble recommendation is to read "Shining" as part of this set of texts. As standing alone piece it's not so good, but as part of bigger unity it's pretty good.
Linda Nochlin, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" (With P. S. In Rus.). Great short piece with acute anti transcendentalistic view on art and its production. Her answer is quite logical and her approach is fruitful. Especially in historical perspective, it's very rewarding read.
Jon Fosse, "Shining" & "Scenes from a childhood". I know, "Septology" is his masterpiece, but I love his shorter pieces. IMHO, on the territory under 100 pp Fosse is at his best. And this collection is not exception. Two longer texts, two shorter and one medium return to his favorite motives, scenes and characters. I love it. And my humble recommendation is to read "Shining" as part of this set of texts. As standing alone piece it's not so good, but as part of bigger unity it's pretty good.
SpaceCadet
Quiet Reader
Last edited:
The sound and the fury- William Faulkner(Translated into Chinese)-probably my book of the year.
I assume that those of you who grew up in an English-speaking environment are probably quite familiar with this book. However, as someone from a cultural background different from yours, I would like to share my thoughts after reading it.
The first three parts of the book are distinct yet interconnected, revolving around the same event. Faulkner's masterful stream-of-consciousness technique and unrestrained expression allow us to delve into the depths of the characters' minds. In each independent section, Faulkner employs different languages, such as the innocent and poetic babbling of Benjy; Quentin's gloomy, elegant, and somewhat paranoid monologue; and, when describing Jason, Faulkner deliberately downgrades his language to precisely reflect the uneducated image of this small-town youth.
By using the wristwatch passed down from Quentin's ancestors, the title borrowed from a monologue in Shakespeare's "Macbeth," the unfolding plot triggered by Caddie(who, serves as the catalyst for the plot, is intentionally rendered speechless in terms of the narrative structure), and the various struggles faced by the African American servant family. Faulkner explores themes of time, religion, race, and life, reflecting the spiritual landscape of the American South in the first half of the 20th century.
Hope I will be able to read it in English someday.
I assume that those of you who grew up in an English-speaking environment are probably quite familiar with this book. However, as someone from a cultural background different from yours, I would like to share my thoughts after reading it.
The first three parts of the book are distinct yet interconnected, revolving around the same event. Faulkner's masterful stream-of-consciousness technique and unrestrained expression allow us to delve into the depths of the characters' minds. In each independent section, Faulkner employs different languages, such as the innocent and poetic babbling of Benjy; Quentin's gloomy, elegant, and somewhat paranoid monologue; and, when describing Jason, Faulkner deliberately downgrades his language to precisely reflect the uneducated image of this small-town youth.
By using the wristwatch passed down from Quentin's ancestors, the title borrowed from a monologue in Shakespeare's "Macbeth," the unfolding plot triggered by Caddie(who, serves as the catalyst for the plot, is intentionally rendered speechless in terms of the narrative structure), and the various struggles faced by the African American servant family. Faulkner explores themes of time, religion, race, and life, reflecting the spiritual landscape of the American South in the first half of the 20th century.
Hope I will be able to read it in English someday.
tiganeasca
Moderator
Thank you for your review. I can only imagine the difficulties that Faulkner poses to any translator; those difficulties would only be compounded by translating him for another culture. The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom are very difficult works, even for American readers and many--if not most--are so confused or bewildered by his language that they never finish the books. I truly appreciate your insights and thoughts on this; the book is a masterpiece of American literature. Although I think it rewards the careful and patient reader, it is unquestionably a challenge.
After numerous attempts in my early 20s, I finally picked up The Sound and the Fury last year, and everything clicked. A real stunner. At times, I just let the words wash over me and went with the flow. Very intense, tragic, and often hilarious. As a US citizen, whenever people wonder about our country's moral rot and how we "got here", I think of this book.
The Common Reader
Well-known member
Welcome to the Forum!
Daniel del Real
Moderator
Abdourahman Waberi, Passage des larmes
My first encounter with a writer from Djibouti didn't go as exptected. A nouvelle that fails in almost every aspect: plot, narrative technique, description of the landscape, etc. A man returns to his native land to complete a business intelligence task; you never know what his real duties are. Another man, who is currently in prison but still part of an islamic yihadist organization awaits for him, as he seems to know a lot from his past and present. This same man, finds in jail a manuscript about the life of Walter Benjamin, which makes him question his role in this yihad, but you never get to know if this has a real effect in his will and soul. Everything is incomplete, disjointed and predictable in this short novel.
Mariana Enríquez, Los peligros de fumar en la cama
This is the field in which Enríquez excels, the short story. This book was written before Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego. Both quite similar in themes and motives, you can tell she was a less mature writer in here. She's still very good at creating oppresive atmospheres, fantastical triggers which takes you to strained environments. Her ability to introduce depressive states, anxiety and mental illness in general as a day to day problem of her characters is quite unique; it creates some sort of suffocation state to the reader. Some of her premises are not new, especially in the largest story of the book which seems as a direct takeout from a Stephen King book. However, she manages to combine it with a very real and current problematic in latinoamerican coutnries, which is missing persons or desaparecidos, like we call it in México. There is a short story called El aljibe (the cistern) which is absolutely frightening, although it has a very predictable ending.
Totally recommended, hoping she can continue to write short stories and not being forced by her publishers to write novels.
My first encounter with a writer from Djibouti didn't go as exptected. A nouvelle that fails in almost every aspect: plot, narrative technique, description of the landscape, etc. A man returns to his native land to complete a business intelligence task; you never know what his real duties are. Another man, who is currently in prison but still part of an islamic yihadist organization awaits for him, as he seems to know a lot from his past and present. This same man, finds in jail a manuscript about the life of Walter Benjamin, which makes him question his role in this yihad, but you never get to know if this has a real effect in his will and soul. Everything is incomplete, disjointed and predictable in this short novel.
Mariana Enríquez, Los peligros de fumar en la cama
This is the field in which Enríquez excels, the short story. This book was written before Las cosas que perdimos en el fuego. Both quite similar in themes and motives, you can tell she was a less mature writer in here. She's still very good at creating oppresive atmospheres, fantastical triggers which takes you to strained environments. Her ability to introduce depressive states, anxiety and mental illness in general as a day to day problem of her characters is quite unique; it creates some sort of suffocation state to the reader. Some of her premises are not new, especially in the largest story of the book which seems as a direct takeout from a Stephen King book. However, she manages to combine it with a very real and current problematic in latinoamerican coutnries, which is missing persons or desaparecidos, like we call it in México. There is a short story called El aljibe (the cistern) which is absolutely frightening, although it has a very predictable ending.
Totally recommended, hoping she can continue to write short stories and not being forced by her publishers to write novels.
tiganeasca
Moderator
This is not what I wanted to read. I have been thinking that it was time to finally start reading this writer who I have known about for a long time. I had been planning to start with another book (a collection of his stories, Land Without Shadows) but this is still a depressing review. Thanks for contributing it, though.
Thank you for your reply. It was difficult for me at the very beginning. I read the first part(Benjy's narration) for 2 or 3 times before I continue to the second part. I was trying really hard to understand the meaning of each sentences. But at one point I attempted to immerse myself in the characters, allowing those stream-of-consciousness passages to feel like the inner monologue of my own reflections. And they started to make more sense to me. I have a feeling that Faulkner's technique made his expression closer to characters' experience themself(comparing to a more symbolic way of expressing it). At last, I do feel that great work like this transend culture boundaries.
Leseratte
Well-known member
Surviving the Benjy narrative means something, I think even for a native reader.
I read this book in 2015 and remember giving it a 2-Star rating. Needles to say, I dont remember much of it.
Daniel del Real
Moderator
Probably you should stay away from this book (Jayan didn't like it either) but not from the writer. Give it a try to a couple of short stories and then you can decide if you like it or not.
Ben Jackson
Well-known member
You're welcome to the forum.
When I read Sound and the Fury three years ago (after trying to start Light in August three years before by failing to go more than few pages), I was initially confused by Benjy's section, with it's recurrent imagery of water and, if I remember correctly, flowers, but when I arrived at Quentin's section, it was flowing and even with the fragmentary passages which reflected the genesis of psychological disarray of Quentin, I was still able to follow up (maybe because I was writing something similar myself after school hours). One aspect of Quentin's section that I truly loved was when his wristwatch stopped working, which may reflect the personal disorder of Quentin or the decline, both material and spiritual, of Compson family. It's my favourite Faulkner and I'm happy you loved it.
Ben Jackson
Well-known member
??????? The Magus--- John Fowles
We get to see a young Englishman Nicholas Urfe, accepting a teaching position in Greece, where he stumbles, after moments of depression and suicidal thoughts, Maurice Conchis, an estate owner. What follows is Nicholas' participation in a "god-game" somewhat theatrical performances which features masks and vitality of Greek theater. We also get to see Nicholas' existentialist concerns: the question of freedom and will; its language suggesting Camus, but also depicting the dualities of existence and psychology as advocated by Jung: art/life, reality and fantasy, sanity and madness, religion and humanism. One of the highlights of this novel's the beautiful description of landscape, especially the Greek landscape (Greece described as sensuous woman with enigmatic instincts, in line with Odysseus Elytis' ideology), even though I fault the somewhat not so brilliant sexual passages. Nicholas's battle for his survival and sanity's reminiscent of Harry Haller's in Steppenwolf (even the theatrical performance in The Magus is reminiscent of madmen theatre in Hesse's masterpiece). The only issue I have's is the ambiguous ending, it wasn't clarified. Otherwise, this is a very beautiful novel.
?? Bosnian Chronicle--- Ivo Andric
"Desfosses had stopped by an old plum tree that was gnarled and covered with green lichen."
The first in the monumental trilogy on Bosnia, the chronicle span seven years during the Napoleonic epoch, dealing with individuals in Travnik, a small town part of Ottoman administrative capital. We see the town in two worlds: Occidental and Orient, colliding. We see the arrival of Jacques Devill, a French consul who, we later discover, becomes the first consul to arrive in the town, the beautiful descriptions of foreigners, their families, servants, the despair and fear of sadness and four faiths opposing innovation and advancement. This beautiful novel, despite its been slow going, but the historical scope and psychological detail recalls the very best of Tolstoy (which apparently was Andric's influence).
We get to see a young Englishman Nicholas Urfe, accepting a teaching position in Greece, where he stumbles, after moments of depression and suicidal thoughts, Maurice Conchis, an estate owner. What follows is Nicholas' participation in a "god-game" somewhat theatrical performances which features masks and vitality of Greek theater. We also get to see Nicholas' existentialist concerns: the question of freedom and will; its language suggesting Camus, but also depicting the dualities of existence and psychology as advocated by Jung: art/life, reality and fantasy, sanity and madness, religion and humanism. One of the highlights of this novel's the beautiful description of landscape, especially the Greek landscape (Greece described as sensuous woman with enigmatic instincts, in line with Odysseus Elytis' ideology), even though I fault the somewhat not so brilliant sexual passages. Nicholas's battle for his survival and sanity's reminiscent of Harry Haller's in Steppenwolf (even the theatrical performance in The Magus is reminiscent of madmen theatre in Hesse's masterpiece). The only issue I have's is the ambiguous ending, it wasn't clarified. Otherwise, this is a very beautiful novel.
?? Bosnian Chronicle--- Ivo Andric
"Desfosses had stopped by an old plum tree that was gnarled and covered with green lichen."
The first in the monumental trilogy on Bosnia, the chronicle span seven years during the Napoleonic epoch, dealing with individuals in Travnik, a small town part of Ottoman administrative capital. We see the town in two worlds: Occidental and Orient, colliding. We see the arrival of Jacques Devill, a French consul who, we later discover, becomes the first consul to arrive in the town, the beautiful descriptions of foreigners, their families, servants, the despair and fear of sadness and four faiths opposing innovation and advancement. This beautiful novel, despite its been slow going, but the historical scope and psychological detail recalls the very best of Tolstoy (which apparently was Andric's influence).
Hamishe22
Well-known member
Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Aferlives takes place in Africa (today's Tanzania) during the era of German colonialism and WWI, and follows a group of characters as they interact with each other and with the political background. While many characters are the focus of the novel, it can be said that the main protagonists are probably Ilyas, a man who chooses to join the German army and his sister, Afiya, who is rescued from abusive guardians by her brother and then is horrified by his choice of joining the oppressive army. While there are other major characters and other stories that intersect, to me, this story is at the heart of the novel. And it is an incredibly compelling story told in a nuanced and emotionally impactful way. The novel doesn't shy away from portrayals of the horrifying and devastating atrocities of colonialism, while at the same time it avoids simplistic and one dimensional judgments of the native population who become its accomplices. While we connect with the moral clarity of Afiya, we never fail to sympathize with Ilyas and his choices either. If I had to say what is the singular accomplishment of this fantastic novel, I would say that it's this nuanced and complex relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed, and the other strengths of the novel (its story-within-story narrative structures and its cast of great characters) only accentuate this. Few literary works have attempted to truly understand the different ways that the victims of colonialism react to it in such a rich and polyphonic way and therefore I can't consider this novel anything but a masterpiece.
Aferlives takes place in Africa (today's Tanzania) during the era of German colonialism and WWI, and follows a group of characters as they interact with each other and with the political background. While many characters are the focus of the novel, it can be said that the main protagonists are probably Ilyas, a man who chooses to join the German army and his sister, Afiya, who is rescued from abusive guardians by her brother and then is horrified by his choice of joining the oppressive army. While there are other major characters and other stories that intersect, to me, this story is at the heart of the novel. And it is an incredibly compelling story told in a nuanced and emotionally impactful way. The novel doesn't shy away from portrayals of the horrifying and devastating atrocities of colonialism, while at the same time it avoids simplistic and one dimensional judgments of the native population who become its accomplices. While we connect with the moral clarity of Afiya, we never fail to sympathize with Ilyas and his choices either. If I had to say what is the singular accomplishment of this fantastic novel, I would say that it's this nuanced and complex relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed, and the other strengths of the novel (its story-within-story narrative structures and its cast of great characters) only accentuate this. Few literary works have attempted to truly understand the different ways that the victims of colonialism react to it in such a rich and polyphonic way and therefore I can't consider this novel anything but a masterpiece.
Leseratte
Well-known member
?? Kim l'Horizon- Blutbuch (Bloodbook )(read in German)
To avoid a mistake I myself made when I saw the title for the first time:
this is not a novel about blood shedding, but about gender fluidity. An autofiction, as the
author calls it, invoking French Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux.
The title refers directly to the lines the author uses to investigate her own fluid identity and her place in her family and ultimately in the world.. She goes back to her own childhood in the house of her grandmother and her parents. To me those were nightmare chapters. It is not so much that anything momentous happens, but in the way her sensibility perceives and relates to her grown ups, specially to grandma and mother. This line later includes, starting in the middle ages,(differently as usual where the genealogy is male) a long female genealogy from her mother´s side. The other line of investigation has to do with the Weeping Willow/ Copper Beech (Blutbuche in German) which grew in the garden of her parents and with which the narrator strongly identifies.
The whole narrative is addressed to her grandma, grossmeer as she calls her, mixing two of the official Swiss languages, German ( gross) and French (mère), But she states also that to talk to her grossmeer she had to erase her first. So the fourth part prematurely represents her grossmeers dementia, while the last section consists of a group of letters from Tessin addressed to grossmeer, written in English, a language the grandma doesn´t understand.
So, Blutbuch is above all a courageous and innovative book. It got the German and the Swiss Book of the Year Award in 2022. It seems to have not attracted much international notice yet and that may be due to two reasons:
Inside gender fluidity it speaks from a feminine perspective.
More than that it poises several translation difficulties: it is written in several lingos ( official German, spoken German, English, German mixed up with English among them.). Also there are several sophisticated wordplays
in the text. In short, in spite of not being a doorstopper its translation demands considerable work, ability and time.
To avoid a mistake I myself made when I saw the title for the first time:
this is not a novel about blood shedding, but about gender fluidity. An autofiction, as the
author calls it, invoking French Nobel Laureate Annie Ernaux.
The title refers directly to the lines the author uses to investigate her own fluid identity and her place in her family and ultimately in the world.. She goes back to her own childhood in the house of her grandmother and her parents. To me those were nightmare chapters. It is not so much that anything momentous happens, but in the way her sensibility perceives and relates to her grown ups, specially to grandma and mother. This line later includes, starting in the middle ages,(differently as usual where the genealogy is male) a long female genealogy from her mother´s side. The other line of investigation has to do with the Weeping Willow/ Copper Beech (Blutbuche in German) which grew in the garden of her parents and with which the narrator strongly identifies.
The whole narrative is addressed to her grandma, grossmeer as she calls her, mixing two of the official Swiss languages, German ( gross) and French (mère), But she states also that to talk to her grossmeer she had to erase her first. So the fourth part prematurely represents her grossmeers dementia, while the last section consists of a group of letters from Tessin addressed to grossmeer, written in English, a language the grandma doesn´t understand.
So, Blutbuch is above all a courageous and innovative book. It got the German and the Swiss Book of the Year Award in 2022. It seems to have not attracted much international notice yet and that may be due to two reasons:
Inside gender fluidity it speaks from a feminine perspective.
More than that it poises several translation difficulties: it is written in several lingos ( official German, spoken German, English, German mixed up with English among them.). Also there are several sophisticated wordplays
in the text. In short, in spite of not being a doorstopper its translation demands considerable work, ability and time.
Chandos MD
Member
?? Correction by Thomas Bernhard
I’ve been reading a lot from him recently—in total, I’ve read Frost, The Loser, Correction, Woodcutters, Wittgenstein’s Nephew, and Extinction. I’m starting Gargoyles today.
One theme shared by most of the novels I’ve read is schooling’s contribution to personality formation. A lot of Bernhard’s characters/narrators are failed academics (excepting the successful scientist in Correction) that bear the marks of academic striving in their personality structures, many of which emerge out of an intolerance of uncertainty (leading to obsessions with control, intrinsic perfectionism, moral rigidity, etc.). I’m in my last year of medical school now (the course load is extremely light during this year), and I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on how my personality has been shaped by the experience—this, I think, has made me especially receptive to Bernhard.
In Correction: “We never recover from school once we've left school, any school, we're branded by the school, i.e., we're destroyed, so Roithamer. We always enter a school only to be annihilated, the schools are gigantic institutions for the annihilation of the young, those who come to them for help are annihilated”
In Frost: “The fear of school is the worst fear there is. Most people are ruined by it. If not in childhood, then later on. It's still possible to die from fear of school at sixty”
The academic success I’ve achieved has required the entrenchment of maladaptive personality traits that have impoverished my life in other important domains. The final 30 pages of Correction tore me to shreds, all of my worst qualities are in that book. Terrific read.
I’ve been reading a lot from him recently—in total, I’ve read Frost, The Loser, Correction, Woodcutters, Wittgenstein’s Nephew, and Extinction. I’m starting Gargoyles today.
One theme shared by most of the novels I’ve read is schooling’s contribution to personality formation. A lot of Bernhard’s characters/narrators are failed academics (excepting the successful scientist in Correction) that bear the marks of academic striving in their personality structures, many of which emerge out of an intolerance of uncertainty (leading to obsessions with control, intrinsic perfectionism, moral rigidity, etc.). I’m in my last year of medical school now (the course load is extremely light during this year), and I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on how my personality has been shaped by the experience—this, I think, has made me especially receptive to Bernhard.
In Correction: “We never recover from school once we've left school, any school, we're branded by the school, i.e., we're destroyed, so Roithamer. We always enter a school only to be annihilated, the schools are gigantic institutions for the annihilation of the young, those who come to them for help are annihilated”
In Frost: “The fear of school is the worst fear there is. Most people are ruined by it. If not in childhood, then later on. It's still possible to die from fear of school at sixty”
The academic success I’ve achieved has required the entrenchment of maladaptive personality traits that have impoverished my life in other important domains. The final 30 pages of Correction tore me to shreds, all of my worst qualities are in that book. Terrific read.
Ben Jackson
Well-known member
While I haven't read Paradise, I really think this is his best work.