Mirjam Donath's Blog, page 2
April 30, 2021
April 29, 2021
Up next / Joseph Conrad: Victory
The question of 'Why This Book':
Joseph Conrad: Victory (1915)
I'm going to start the answer from far far way. (Patience is the one thing you are going to need to read Joseph Conrad's Victory anyway.)
Why did I pick up this book? Because Joan Didion told me so. I don't want to pretend that I know many books of Joan Didion but I surely know her The Year of Magical Thinking, which I believe will be forever a classic and one of the best nonfiction ever written on loss and grief. It's so amazing t...
April 22, 2021
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor. 😢. The word "sorry" would not make much sense here, if I just wanted to apologize for not being able to find the greatest pleasure in reading your masterpiece, but for that I feel sorry only for myself. Spooked too, about my intellectual abilities, big time. I hope my parents will never find out about this.
The first time I heard about The Brothers Karamazov was from the pulpit. My father, a Lutheran pastor, interweaves literary, historical and philosophical references in his sermons. ...
April 12, 2021
April 4, 2021
March 28, 2021
March 17, 2021
Up Next / The Brothers Karamazov
The question of 'Why This Book':
Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
The first time I heard about The Brothers Karamazov was from the pulpit. My father, a Lutheran pastor, interweaves literary, historical and philosophical references in his sermons. The Brothers Karamazov appeared in many of his speeches. Now, show me a book recommendation stronger than the one coming from one's father! I wish I could recall the exact contexts in which he referenced to the book. I wish I could rem...
March 15, 2021
March 10, 2021
A Way of Man (Miehen Tie) - a Nobel-winning work that doesn't exist in English
Taata. It happens every time: we find treasure, as I found Silja, one of the great diamonds of Literature, and become fans of its creator, check out everything written by the same hand hoping to reexperience the magic of catharsis. A Way of Man is a great read. Next year I'll be rereading Silja. Then again I'll read another of your stories, even though I know it already: it will always be Silja that I reread.
I am rich. I have a collection of novels by Finland's only Nobel Prize Laureate in Li...
