Recently finished books?

[Leseratte]

Anne Carson, "Antigonick".

As I said during our wirtual meeting, I don't like it and (what is much more important) I don't understand rationality behind this project. It's abridged and vulgarized version of Sophokles's "Antigone". The ancient tragedy is unique art form, which catch the moment of transition from object-oriented thinking to concept-oriented one, from thing to metaphor. Carson knows it, of course, but she dismisses all these features of original piece and just retells the plot. But plot as plot without its language and historical context is nothing here. What we have as result is very close to all these projects like "this and that for dummies".
NB: I did read paperback edition. The hardcover is piece of art with independent artistic merits, it includes illustrations and faximile-like text.

Anne Carson, "Norma Jeane Baker of Troy".

It's much much much better. Here we have not retelling, but variation of another ancient tragedy, "Helen" by Euripides. Carson merges two iconic images of beauty: Helen of Troy and Marilyn Monroe. And after it she merges this double image of protagonist with image of adviser/witness/raisonneur - Truman Capote. The result is original, stimulating and cunning. The problem (for me) is her refuse to mine the meaning or problems, which she puts on the display. I think it's her position, but here and in other works she just tickles, not mines her topics. Of course, it's postmodern approach, in some way, but ... I fill some kind of ... dissatisfaction, maybe. She does something cool, she writes something funny or original and ..... end of the book. There is this feeling of shallowness.

I'm still very much at the beginning of Autobiography in Red, but I'm going to test how much these observations are related to it . One remark of hers called my attention: she presents a series of ordered fragments and invites her readers to change the order of the fragments, as if they were sort of inside a kaleidoscope, which presents aleatory images when one shakes it. She actually uses the verb "to shake".

 

[Ленин]

Geoge R. R. Martin - A Storm of Swords (minor spoilers)

Third installment of "A song of ice and fire" series. I'm really enjoying the ride. The books are thick but George's writting flows smoothly. His world building is extremely creative and rich, his characters are complex and cunning, with the capacity for unimaginable horrible deeds but also for acts of unpredictable kindness. I find quite admirable how bold George is narratively. He just killed basically ALL the major players in this crooked game of thrones, or at least the players we thought were the major ones. Valar Morghulis. This term is all around this book. All men must die. I feel like this third book is some sort of ending of a initial trilogy within the series. The war of the five kings which began because of unfortunate happenings, misundestandings and a huge amount of greed, is "over". Valar Morghulis. All of the kings died except one and he is far from the big prize. A storm of swords is indeed a very appropriate title. Now we'll see the aftermath of this bloody war, with the kings of yore becoming mere feast for crows. And looks like there are lots and lots of crows in that world...

PS: I hope George finishes the series, but I understand his difficulty. He created a maze and is probably lost inside it.

 

[Liam]

?? Viktor Erofeev, The Pink Mouse, 5

I don't usually read satirical literature, but I loved this one. It reads like Alice in Wonderland on steroids, Russian-style.

A young girl loses her parents in a boating accident and descends to an underwater "kingdom" to get them back; her adventures stretch across 450 pages of picaresque insanity: talking animals, underwater bureaucracy, political intrigue, etc.

A book about the main character's coming of age, saying goodbye to childhood, discovering her nascent sexuality (not sex, but sexuality: breasts, menstruation, attraction to boys), and realizing toward the end that her parents possibly do not love each other (all part of her coming of age).

This seriously needs to be translated soon! I laughed so hard all through the novel, very funny! ?

 

[Stevie B]

Melancholy II by Jon Fosse

Although I've found Fosse's trademark repetition off-putting in the past, I didn't mind it in this book because it actually helped demonstrate the muddled thinking of the main character of Oline, an aging woman who forgets easily and who obsesses over daily tasks such as buying fish and going to the privy. The story also features gentle humor that made me smile. Although Melancholy II is barely 100 pages long, it took four or five sittings for me to finish it. I think this strategically patient reading approach helped me better appreciate the story as well as Fosse's poetic writing style.

I was reminded throughout my reading that the book was translated by former World Literature Forum contributor Eric Dickens. I have questions about the book that I'm sure Eric would have enjoyed answering if he were still with us. By the way, this month marks the seventh anniversary of his passing. I found this interview of Eric that was republished in an Estonian journal shortly after he died. It was nice to hear from him again.

Eric Dickens, Estonia's literary translator 1953-2017 - Eesti Elu

Interview with Andres Gutman, Estonian Life, August 2012Eric Dickens was a university student in England, in the mid-1970's, when he attended a lecture by a visiting Estonian academic. Until then, he had never even heard of Estonia. There was something in that lecture, however, which sparked an...

eestielu.ca

 

[Ленин]

Anne Carson - Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

- The Trojan war as a Hollywood farce, hoax, hoax, hoax. Norma Jeane Baker the harlot of Troy, "that WMD in the forked form of woman". The dreamy brunette watches the hoax, the hoax... she lies, she's not real, she's but a cloud but they cannot spot the difference. Between her and herself, her and... a cloud that made men lose their minds and go to war. For her. For her? Are they looking at her? Do they see the blood running down her legs, the tears? No. You're eyes are stuck in her big tities, are they not? Cloudy boobs... she's not real, she cannot suffer right? Let the cloud tities blind us, we don't want to see her crying. "...words stained with the very early blood of girls, with the very late blood of cities, with the hysteria of the end of the world. Sometimes I think language should cover its own eyes when it speaks." Anyway. Too many flowers plucked. She gave us three or four but we ripped out the entire fucking garden. What the fuck are we doing?


"She’s in a meadow gathering flowers
twirling her own small sunny hours.
When up rides a man on black horses.
Up rides a man in a black hat.
Up rides a man with a black letter to deliver.
Shall I make you my queen?
She’s maybe 12 or 13.
Rape
is the story of Helen,
Persephone,
Norma Jeane,
Troy."

 

[alik-vit]

Anne Carson - Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

- The Trojan war as a Hollywood farce, hoax, hoax, hoax. Norma Jeane Baker the harlot of Troy, "that WMD in the forked form of woman". The dreamy brunette watches the hoax, the hoax... she lies, she's not real, she's but a cloud but they cannot spot the difference. Between her and herself, her and... a cloud that made men lose their minds and go to war. For her. For her? Are they looking at her? Do they see the blood running down her legs, the tears? No. You're eyes are stuck in her big tities, are they not? Cloudy boobs... she's not real, she cannot suffer right? Let the cloud tities blind us, we don't want to see her crying. "...words stained with the very early blood of girls, with the very late blood of cities, with the hysteria of the end of the world. Sometimes I think language should cover its own eyes when it speaks." Anyway. Too many flowers plucked. She gave us three or four but we ripped out the entire fucking garden. What the fuck are we doing?


"She’s in a meadow gathering flowers
twirling her own small sunny hours.
When up rides a man on black horses.
Up rides a man in a black hat.
Up rides a man with a black letter to deliver.
Shall I make you my queen?
She’s maybe 12 or 13.
Rape
is the story of Helen,
Persephone,
Norma Jeane,
Troy."

What do you think about the book?

 

[Ленин]

What do you think about the book?

I love it, though I think its inferior to "Autobiography of Red" (which is my only reference of her so far). I like the way she writes, it gives me as a reader a certain feeling of freedom. I read her sentences almost as if I was a lightning bolt but even so they linger on me for hours. The thing is, I was a little bit obsessed with Marilyn's "mythology" in my teens so I read a lot about her. I came to "Norma Jeane Baker" with some baggage. Also her recent and much hated fictional biopic "BLONDE" is one of my favorite films of all time and while reading Anne's book, my mind created very vivid images mingled with the bittersweet ost of the film. I do undestand when you said that she refuses to mine the meaning of the problems and that her work can leave a feeling of shallowness, but I do not see that way (although I don't completely disagree with you). Her words are poignant and cut deep. Enough to let us brood and mine ourselves the meanings. But as I said, I came with some baggage so this may have made some difference.

 

[Ленин]

Nikolai Gogol - Viy

"But she rode on me, on me myself! By God, she did!"
- So, I stumbled upon the image below whilst searching for spooky stuff and it led me to this novella based on this creature of folk imagination coined by the people of Little Russia (Ukraine) Viy, the chief of the gnomes. It is indeed a spooky tale but also quite dreamy and sexual, about a boy seminarian and philosopher who happens to encounter a witch who hexes him to ride upon his back. My favorite moment btw. The imagery here is straight from a feverish dream, a demonically mixture of fear, pleasure, ecstasy and violence. Slightly reminded me of Nabokov, slightly (was he fond of Gogol?). Anyway, later on the boy is summoned by the father of a young girl, who was beaten and is on the verge of death, to read prayers for her. I liked it overall. I enjoyed the details of the seminarians' life, the sorroundings, the atmosphere, the way the small folk gather to tell stories, drink etc. But those moments where reality seems disjointed and everything waves and trembles like a dream embedded in vodka were my favorites.

 

[tiganeasca]

...Slightly reminded me of Nabokov, slightly (was he fond of Gogol?).

It's hard for me to believe that Nabokov was fond of anyone's work except his own but he did write a brief biography of Gogol which, if I recall correctly, referred to him favorably. And on the theory that he wouldn't have "wasted" his time by writing about someone he didn't respect on some level, I'd guess that your suspicion is correct.

 

[Ленин]

It's hard for me to believe that Nabokov was fond of anyone's work except his own but he did write a brief biography of Gogol which, if I recall correctly, referred to him favorably. And on the theory that he wouldn't have "wasted" his time by writing about someone he didn't respect on some level, I'd guess that your suspicion is corr

Interesting! Thanks for the info!!!

 

[Bartleby]

Heaven - Mieko Kawakami - 3+

A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro - 3++

 

[Daniel del Real]

Murakami H. The City and its Uncertain Walls

A very successful return to his roots, a novel which reminds a lot of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the world. As he explains in the epilogue, this was originally a short story he wrote in the early 80’s. He wasn’t satisfied the way it was written and decided to put it in a drawer, waiting to have enough skills to fully develop the idea. Much time passed and at the beginning of the pandemics he started to write it all over again.

By saying this, it’s obvious that there’s nothing new in The City and its Uncertain Walls (not that we expected at this point to have something transgressive in his literature). It’s the same Murakami with his recurrent themes, manias, phobias, characters and key elements. However, on the contrary to his latest novel of fantastical style Killing Commendatore, its structure and the placement of all its elements and characters is done in a more accomplished way.

This is a novel about solitude, the alienation of the individual who is behind the walls of a certain geographical (and mental) estate, walls that can protect and make you feel safer and at the same time cage you and turn you into a prisoner. Just like in Hard-Boiled Wonderland, it is situated in two different dimensions, one which is supposed to be “reality” and another which has a more oneiric consistency, a city which is surrounded by walls. However, we also see the walls in a metaphoric way in the real world and the issues and situations the main character faces. Duplicity plays a very important role in both universes and fluctuates from one to another.

Murakami is a master in creating multiple intriguing triggers within a single novel. Being a quite large novel (560 pp in the Spanish translation) it’s hard to maintain the storyline tension throughout the whole book; however, when you’re reaching a valley, he immediately knows how to uplift the interest of the reader and maintain the crest for some more pages.

Overall, I think it’s his best novel since 1Q84. Probably not a hard task since Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and Killing Commendatore were mediocre at best, but I think this is a good comeback that Murakami readers will surely enjoy.

 

[Leseratte]

Murakami H. The City and its Uncertain Walls

A very successful return to his roots, a novel which reminds a lot of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the world. As he explains in the epilogue, this was originally a short story he wrote in the early 80’s. He wasn’t satisfied the way it was written and decided to put it in a drawer, waiting to have enough skills to fully develop the idea. Much time passed and at the beginning of the pandemics he started to write it all over again.

By saying this, it’s obvious that there’s nothing new in The City and its Uncertain Walls (not that we expected at this point to have something transgressive in his literature). It’s the same Murakami with his recurrent themes, manias, phobias, characters and key elements. However, on the contrary to his latest novel of fantastical style Killing Commendatore, its structure and the placement of all its elements and characters is done in a more accomplished way.

This is a novel about solitude, the alienation of the individual who is behind the walls of a certain geographical (and mental) estate, walls that can protect and make you feel safer and at the same time cage you and turn you into a prisoner. Just like in Hard-Boiled Wonderland, it is situated in two different dimensions, one which is supposed to be “reality” and another which has a more oneiric consistency, a city which is surrounded by walls. However, we also see the walls in a metaphoric way in the real world and the issues and situations the main character faces. Duplicity plays a very important role in both universes and fluctuates from one to another.

Murakami is a master in creating multiple intriguing triggers within a single novel. Being a quite large novel (560 pp in the Spanish translation) it’s hard to maintain the storyline tension throughout the whole book; however, when you’re reaching a valley, he immediately knows how to uplift the interest of the reader and maintain the crest for some more pages.

Overall, I think it’s his best novel since 1Q84. Probably not a hard task since Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and Killing Commendatore were mediocre at best, but I think this is a good comeback that Murakami readers will surely enjoy.

Uncertain walls = lockdown?

 

[Daniel del Real]

Uncertain walls = lockdown?

Of course, being written during the pandemics and under the uncertainties of the moment, the walls became both, protection and imprisonment. After all, Japan was one of the countries who completely closed their borders and had one of the more strict severe measurements against COVID.
He even mentions the term "eternal pandemics" in one part of the book, but he does it just once or twice.

 

[Hamishe22]

Murakami H. The City and its Uncertain Walls

A very successful return to his roots, a novel which reminds a lot of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the world. As he explains in the epilogue, this was originally a short story he wrote in the early 80’s. He wasn’t satisfied the way it was written and decided to put it in a drawer, waiting to have enough skills to fully develop the idea. Much time passed and at the beginning of the pandemics he started to write it all over again.

By saying this, it’s obvious that there’s nothing new in The City and its Uncertain Walls (not that we expected at this point to have something transgressive in his literature). It’s the same Murakami with his recurrent themes, manias, phobias, characters and key elements. However, on the contrary to his latest novel of fantastical style Killing Commendatore, its structure and the placement of all its elements and characters is done in a more accomplished way.

This is a novel about solitude, the alienation of the individual who is behind the walls of a certain geographical (and mental) estate, walls that can protect and make you feel safer and at the same time cage you and turn you into a prisoner. Just like in Hard-Boiled Wonderland, it is situated in two different dimensions, one which is supposed to be “reality” and another which has a more oneiric consistency, a city which is surrounded by walls. However, we also see the walls in a metaphoric way in the real world and the issues and situations the main character faces. Duplicity plays a very important role in both universes and fluctuates from one to another.

Murakami is a master in creating multiple intriguing triggers within a single novel. Being a quite large novel (560 pp in the Spanish translation) it’s hard to maintain the storyline tension throughout the whole book; however, when you’re reaching a valley, he immediately knows how to uplift the interest of the reader and maintain the crest for some more pages.

Overall, I think it’s his best novel since 1Q84. Probably not a hard task since Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and Killing Commendatore were mediocre at best, but I think this is a good comeback that Murakami readers will surely enjoy.

Interesting because I personally think 1Q84 is mediocre but Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki is one of his best. I guess it still means I will most likely like this one though.

 

[Hamishe22]

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Doctor Zhivago is a kind of novel that precisely hits the spot for my literary taste. A classical style dealing with a modern subject matter, with a large rotating cast of very interesting characters whose lives are impacted and intertwined with the history and politics of their era, characters who are allowed by the author to be human enough to have their own philosophies and outlooks and are eloquent enough to express it, impossible tragic romances that are impacted by the world around them, all elements that ultimately culminate in a novel which captures an entire era and community in all its complexity. The greatest examples of this kind of novel are War and Peace and Middlemarch, and Doctor Zhivago really does feel like something that Tolstoy would write if he had survived to witness Stalin's USSR. It’s the tragic tale of a group of idealistic characters who are smaller than the authoritarianism of the times, and it's a monumental masterpiece.

 

[The Common Reader]

It's hard for me to believe that Nabokov was fond of anyone's work except his own but he did write a brief biography of Gogol which, if I recall correctly, referred to him favorably. And on the theory that he wouldn't have "wasted" his time by writing about someone he didn't respect on some level, I'd guess that your suspicion is correct.

Nabokov did in fact write a small book on Gogol that to my mind ranks as one of the greatest things he ever wrote and serves as a splendid introduction to Gogol for anyone who reads him in translation. https://www.amazon.com/Nikolai-Gogol-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0811201201

 

[The Common Reader]

Nikolai Gogol - Viy

"But she rode on me, on me myself! By God, she did!"
- So, I stumbled upon the image below whilst searching for spooky stuff and it led me to this novella based on this creature of folk imagination coined by the people of Little Russia (Ukraine) Viy, the chief of the gnomes. It is indeed a spooky tale but also quite dreamy and sexual, about a boy seminarian and philosopher who happens to encounter a witch who hexes him to ride upon his back. My favorite moment btw. The imagery here is straight from a feverish dream, a demonically mixture of fear, pleasure, ecstasy and violence. Slightly reminded me of Nabokov, slightly (was he fond of Gogol?). Anyway, later on the boy is summoned by the father of a young girl, who was beaten and is on the verge of death, to read prayers for her. I liked it overall. I enjoyed the details of the seminarians' life, the sorroundings, the atmosphere, the way the small folk gather to tell stories, drink etc. But those moments where reality seems disjointed and everything waves and trembles like a dream embedded in vodka were my favorites.

View attachment 2450

This is a wonderful appreciation of a fascinating work, also this image is a great find!

 

[Ленин]

Nabokov did in fact write a small book on Gogol that to my mind ranks as one of the greatest things he ever wrote and serves as a splendid introduction to Gogol for anyone who reads him in translation. https://www.amazon.com/Nikolai-Gogol-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0811201201

That's amazing!! I'll for sure read this book very soon

 

[The Common Reader]

That's amazing!! I'll for sure read this book very soon

Enjoy! I remember laughing myself sick over part of it. It is both highly entertaining and also extremely informative.