Recent Purchases/Borrowings

[kpjayan]

Christopher Isherwood : Prater Violet

Shankar - Chowringhee (translated from Bengali)

[Hamlet]

Life after God, by Douglas Coupland.

May review it later in, as it's an interesting read.

[Liam]

Not a book, but a Laszlo-related purchase: Bela Tarr's latest (The Turin Horse) on DVD. Will see what it's all about. I've already seen and loved Satantango and Werckmeister Harmonies but didn't particularly care for The Man from London, so I hope Tarr delivers the goods in this, reportedly his last feature film.

[Hamlet]

Liam, I'd be interestedd in seeing a thread on the Medieval period, if you're up for posting some basics, tracing out the lines, a few of the key texts, this may not appeal to you, and I know that in another thread somewhere on here I came across a comment where you said people would be bored by it, but I think it would interest many, certainly as a foundation to what follows.

I'll leave it up to you!

[Liam]

All right, I'll see what I can do, .

[Daniel del Real]

Sofi Oksanen, Purge

[kpjayan]

Sofi Oksanen, Purge

Good. I liked it. Let us hear how does it go with you..

[kpjayan]

Two massive books of leading Kannada Writer S L Bhyrappa ( translated in English). Bought it for a relative, by looking at the size and my aversion for thick books, I am not going near these for some time.

Tantu ( 1236 pages) , and Parva ( 950 pages) are considered to be significant works of Bhyrappa. I will eventually get them under my belt..

[Flint]

Leaving the Atocha Station, by Ben Lerner

[Hamlet]

I've been looking at a new British writer whose catching some press, Ned Beauman

BOXER BEETLE, was his first work, and now, THE TELEPORTATION ACCIDENT , he appears to be influenced by Chris Isherwood, Thomas Pynchon, SF and his own studies in philosophy, I've not read him yet, but may pick up a copy of his first novel if the local lib has it on the shelf.

Anybody else read him yet?

[Flint]

The Indecision (Benjamin Kunkel)

[Caodang]

Paradiso (José Lezama Lima)
Tres tristes tigres (Three trapped tigers) (Guillermo Cabrera Infante)
Plata quemada (Burned money) (Ricardo Piglia)

[Eric]

I'm looking forward to your opinion on "Purge", Daniel.

[Daniel del Real]

Paradiso (José Lezama Lima)
Tres tristes tigres (Three trapped tigers) (Guillermo Cabrera Infante)
Plata quemada (Burned money) (Ricardo Piglia)

Interesting triad of XX Latin American writers, all of them unexplored for me with the exception of one book by Piglia that left me cold and without a solid idea of his work. Have to accept the Cuban baroque style of such writers like Carpentier, Cabrera Infante, Lezama Lima, Sarduy etc. it's a little bit daunting; I tend to easily get bored with the extremely detailed description and the excessive forms these authors deal with (don't know why Cubans are specialists on this).

[Daniel del Real]

Sandor Marai, The Stranger
Horacio Castellanos Moya, El Arma en el Hombre (Weapon in Men)
Tahar Ben Jelloun, The Last Friend

[Caodang]

Interesting triad of XX Latin American writers, all of them unexplored for me with the exception of one book by Piglia that left me cold and without a solid idea of his work. Have to accept the Cuban baroque style of such writers like Carpentier, Cabrera Infante, Lezama Lima, Sarduy etc. it's a little bit daunting; I tend to easily get bored with the extremely detailed description and the excessive forms these authors deal with (don't know why Cubans are specialists on this).

Well, I admit their baroque style is a bit intimidating; but I've read Carpentier's "El siglo de las luces" and I sort of liked it, so why not to try

[Daniel del Real]

Well, I admit their baroque style is a bit intimidating; but I've read Carpentier's "El siglo de las luces" and I sort of liked it, so why not to try

Of course, I applaud your decision of try to read these authors, it's more my incompetence to deal with their characteristics. I mean it's proven they are masters of the Latin American novel.

[kpjayan]

Mario Vargas Llosa - The Dream of the Celt ..

I should start reading it soon.

[Flint]

Birds of Paradise (Diana Abu-Jaber)

[Eric]

Anthony Trollope: "The Way We Live Now" (It starts well)

Witold Gombrowcz: "Dagboken 1-3, 1953-1969" (Swedish translation of Gombrowicz' three volumes of published diaries)