Recently finished books?

[Daniel del Real]

Miguel Delibes, Señora de Rojo sobre Fondo Gris +
A very brief novel but very concise and solid through beginning to the end. Delibes teaches a lesson on how to create an admirable female character, honoring his wife, a woman capable of stealing a simple with her simple presence. A nouvelle that can touch very deep feelings with a ease situations and a very agile prose.

Tomas Tranströmer, Baltics (re-read)
Just when you think epic chants are a question of the middle ages, Tranströmer takes us to his landscapes and flood us in the vivid images of his family from mid XIX century to the present days. A land he knows very well, inherited from people who carried it in their veins, his grandparents. Part three reminded me so much of The Waste Land, very mythic with a lot of cult references you have to slowly decipher to obtain the whole immensity of the poem. Magnificent work!

[sirena]

Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope

[Daniel del Real]

Laszlo Krasznahorkai, War & War

In this first trip to the land of eternal sentences (I consider From North a Hill... more like a prologue to his works) I found a novel I didn't expected; Korin's episodes are full of humorous situations, specially at the moment he arrives to NYC, was prepared for that. I didn't expect either to been able to read his prose that easily, having no trouble with the long sentences and paragraphs everyone had warned me about.
A lot of connections to other writers came to me: the first one José Saramago. Their narrative is similar in the punctuation as both separate the ideas by comas and not periods and both make it very readable and fluent. Also the figure of this historian/archivist brought back this character from All the Names, Don Jose, who is also an archivist and suddenly a finding in the archive shelves change his life.
Then there is the figure from Yukio Mishima, from whom I had foreseen a connection since I read From North a Hill. On different premises of course, but Krasznahorkai and Mishima, both have this constant purpose of finding beauty trough nature, observing every corner trying to see an aesthetic world.
I'll drop some more comments about the novel later. I still have pending the reading of Isaiah has come back probably will read it tonight

[kpjayan]

E H Gombrich - A Little History of the World : Bought it as a gift to one of my nephew, but I ended up reading it first. It also gave a break from fiction for a while. Beautifully written, concise history of the world in 40 short chapters.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

Laszlo Krasznahorkai, War & War

If this did not put you off from Mr. K. then I would recommend to go for the Melancholy of Resistance at some point in the future. And if you can find it, then I can only advise to watch Werckmeister Harmonies as company. This film is far up in my personal top 10 of the 2000s.

[Daniel del Real]

If this did not put you off from Mr. K. then I would recommend to go for the Melancholy of Resistance at some point in the future. And if you can find it, then I can only advise to watch Werckmeister Harmonies as company. This film is far up in my personal top 10 of the 2000s.

No way he put me off, I ended up liking it. Yesterday I read Isaiah has come, and I'm still re-reading it as I found it more dense on content than War & War. Also, I still don't know how this text is linked to a predecessor of War & War; I know Korin is present, but the topics dealt in here are in some way different than the ones is the novel.
I'll take a deep breath from LK right now, but for sure I want to read something else by him in a few months. So you think is better to read first MoR over Satantango? The advantage is we have a Spanish translation from MoR and Satantango must be in English, but hey, you're the expert here so I'll go for what you say.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

No way he put me off, I ended up liking it. Yesterday I read Isaiah has come, and I'm still re-reading it as I found it more dense on content than War & War. Also, I still don't know how this text is linked to a predecessor of War & War; I know Korin is present, but the topics dealt in here are in some way different than the ones is the novel.
I'll take a deep breath from LK right now, but for sure I want to read something else by him in a few months. So you think is better to read first MoR over Satantango? The advantage is we have a Spanish translation from MoR and Satantango must be in English, but hey, you're the expert here so I'll go for what you say.

Oh, storywise the Isaiah text happens just before the events in War and War, so for example it gets clear where he got his gunshot wound from . If you read the background info on his webpage you will find out that K. actually published excerpts from this prologue in several literary journals before War and War was published. It sets the mood in some sense, also Korin's motivations and worldview are detailed.

I read his books in this order: Satantango, Animalinside, MoR, Seiobo, From North..., War and War, Relations of Grace. I would say that all of them can be read independently of each other, does not matter if Satantango first or MoR. My personal opinion is that MoR might be the stronger book from the two. But they are very different even though both deal with the aftermath of communism on some level, so topicwise they are somehow related. MoR is more universal than Satantango and his most demanding book. So since MoR is available in Spanish, why not go for this one.

I am looking forward to reading Satantango a second time, this time in English.

[Stiffelio]

If this did not put you off from Mr. K. then I would recommend to go for the Melancholy of Resistance at some point in the future. And if you can find it, then I can only advise to watch Werckmeister Harmonies as company. This film is far up in my personal top 10 of the 2000s.

Would watching the movie if I haven't read the book ruin my reading experience later on, or are they somehow independent from each other? I ask because I've watched two terrific Béla Tarr movies based on LK's screeplays (Damnation and Turin's Horse) but I have on purpose refrained from watching Warckmeister Harmonies, as I might be reading MoR in the near future.

[Rumpelstilzchen]

Would watching the movie if I haven't read the book ruin my reading experience later on, or are they somehow independent from each other? I ask because I've watched two terrific Béla Tarr movies based on LK's screeplays (Damnation and Turin's Horse) but I have on purpose refrained from watching Warckmeister Harmonies, as I might be reading MoR in the near future.

Then you have not seen his best films yet I think watching the movie first is no problem. I actually saw it also before I read the book, for Satantango it was the other way around. Werckmeister Harmonies is the movie that started my enthusiasm for K. in the first place. Watching the movie first gives you an idea of some of the issues, but much has been left out (nevertheless the movie stands on its own), so the book will add to the experience.

[Daniel del Real]

Jorge Luis Borges, El Hacedor
Joseph Roth, The Emperor's Tomb
Andreï Makine, The Life of an Unknown Man

What can I say. Great readings this month, I couldn't be happier

[kpjayan]

Juan Gabriel Vasquez - The Secret History of Costaguana : I am in two mind. At one side, he did a clever job of mixing Panaman history into the fiction form in the pretext of correcting the injustice done by Joseph Conrad in Nostromo and redeeming himself in front of the 'jury of readers'. On the other hand, it lacked some of the fine fictional elements, getting into a history session, most of the part ( though the initial pages were very good). But, as a writer, he is brilliant. There were many brilliant passages.

Half way through the read, I had to give it a break and do some research on the "Panama Rail Road company" , the Panama Canal history and the history of independence of Panama, which helped the further course.

[Daniel del Real]

Juan Gabriel Vasquez - The Secret History of Costaguana : I am in two mind. At one side, he did a clever job of mixing Panaman history into the fiction form in the pretext of correcting the injustice done by Joseph Conrad in Nostromo and redeeming himself in front of the 'jury of readers'. On the other hand, it lacked some of the fine fictional elements, getting into a history session, most of the part ( though the initial pages were very good). But, as a writer, he is brilliant. There were many brilliant passages.

Half way through the read, I had to give it a break and do some research on the "Panama Rail Road company" , the Panama Canal history and the history of independence of Panama, which helped the further course.

I'm glad you read Vásquez. He is such a young promisory writer, someone who I think we'll be hearing a lot from him in future years. I agree with you he still has to polish his style in some aspects, but the he's got the main skills to make it through. He's got three novels so far; I've only read his last one, who deals with how his generation started witnessing the rising of drug trafficking in Colombia. Not a perfect novel, but very well crafted. I'll keep looking to get this novel, as I mentioned before, his works are not distributed in Mexico.

[Daniel del Real]

Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in Stone


Started a little weak but it gained presence as the story evolved. Exasperating to be the witness of the different occupations the city suffers (Italians, Greeks, Germans, even communists), all through the eyes of a young boy who is as helpless as the rest of the adults from Gjirokastër. The description of the city embedded in the hillside, all grey made out of stone it's absolutely marvelous.
Not the best Kadare I've read, but very illustrative and representative of a period of years of total distress not only for Albanian people but from Europe as well.

[Daniel del Real]

Jorge Luis Borges, El Otro, El Mismo
Peter Stamm, Unfinished Landscape

[kpjayan]

Juan Marse - Lizard Tails : Fascinating book. I loved the shifting of voice from realism to surrealism. Dont know if this wasnt widely read in the English speaking world. There are hardly any reviews in the internet.

[Clarissa]

Voyage au bout de la nuit - Céline.

A masterpiece - extraordinary use of language. One of the great 20th century writers - up there with James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Samuel Beckett. Quite quite extraordinary.

[Daniel del Real]

Juan Marse - Lizard Tails : Fascinating book. I loved the shifting of voice from realism to surrealism. Dont know if this wasnt widely read in the English speaking world. There are hardly any reviews in the internet.

Marsé is a major writer in the Spanish speaking world, along with legends like Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa. Unfortunately, he's not that well known worldwide, not as he should be. Don't know how much of his works are translated, but as Jayan said, the're not available and commented in the same proportion to the authors I previously mentioned.

Voyage au bout de la nuit - Céline.

A masterpiece - extraordinary use of language. One of the great 20th century writers - up there with James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Samuel Beckett. Quite quite extraordinary.

I can't believe I haven't read this book. This is one of my biggest debts that I really really want to pay off this year.

[MichaelS]

Juan Marse - Lizard Tails : Fascinating book. I loved the shifting of voice from realism to surrealism. Dont know if this wasnt widely read in the English speaking world. There are hardly any reviews in the internet.

Marsé is a major writer in the Spanish speaking world, along with legends like Juan Goytisolo, Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa. Unfortunately, he's not that well known worldwide, not as he should be. Don't know how much of his works are translated, but as Jayan said, the're not available and commented in the same proportion to the authors I previously mentioned.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll keep my eyes peeled - I'm one of the seemingly sizable number who've never heard of him.

And yes, Daniel, you definitely need to read Celine, that novel is a beast.

[Daniel del Real]

W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz +

Oh my, here comes another author I really want to read all of his works.

[Liam]

Tim Robinson, Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage
Hugo von Hofmannsthal, The Lord Chandos Letter