Mia Sivan's Blog, page 8

Weekend Writing Prompt #197 – Call

This is the last boarding call for all passengers to New York. It’s not a story, it’s just a sentence I really really want to hear again and what I really really want? Is to treat it as no big deal.

Book Review: Pride and Promiscuity- The lost sex scenes of Jane Austen, by Arielle Eckstut

The ocean of Jane Austen’s fan fiction is wide and never-ending. Fan fiction isn’t easy and following in the footsteps of a great genius can be catastrophic. Just look at two examples of two excellent female writers who are great favorites of mine. They both tried to take on the eternal characters of Pride and Prejudice and use them, and both, in my opinion, have failed spectacularly: P.D. James’s utterly boring Death comes to Pemberley and Collen McCullough’s horrendous The independence of Miss Mary Bennet.

Of course, there are the opposite examples of the original and well written Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Graham-Smith, and Curtis Sittenfeld’s truly delightful Eligible. The book I am reviewing today is one of the more successful endeavors : a fun to read fan fiction. Pride and Promiscuity- The lost sex scenes of Jane Austen Published in 2003 is a collection of very short takes on different parts of the six published novels, and a short story touching The Watsons- an unfinished novel.

Jane at Netherfield is the hilarious beginning to the whole booklet and sets the right tone. It captures the original spirit of the relationship between Jane and the two sisters of Mr. Bingley while adding to it the promiscuity promised from the title.

Another cute little story, also a take on Pride and Prejudice and it is my favorite, is of Charlotte getting a present from Lady Catherine containing an old gown and a whip. Charlotte soon puts it to good use on Mr. Collins.

A great take on Emma is the episode (told here for the first time, of course) of Frank Churchill visiting a stiff, rigid Mr. Knightley. Churchill is his own charming self, talking endlessly of Emma, Jane Fairfax and the billiard stick in Mr. Knightley’s hands. The latter gets even more rigid, and it’s both funny and totally hot.

Mansfield Park’s Play is brimming with sex innuendos and naughty scenes in the original book. Here it gets an even more outrageous treatment. When Tom and Edmund try to fix on a suitable play they go through a funny list of rowdy titles (For example, Edmund asks for a play with no women in it and Tom suggests “The three lonesome deck-hands, or A Romance of the West Indies”). When the play “The curious cousins” is picked we have a delightful scene of a reluctant Fanny made to wear a French maid outfit and enter into a very real playacting with Edmund and Miss Crawford.

I found that the better stories dealt with the supporting characters. Thus, the bit that describes what Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy did while waiting for her slow walking aunt and uncle is not that great while the little story of Henry and Mary Crawford fascination with each other is much better. All in all, a delightful work that doesn’t shame the original but rather makes one wish to re-read it.

#MansfieldPark #Emma #bookreviews #JaneAustenfanfiction #PrideandPrejudice

Weekend Writing Prompt #164 – Syzygy

It’s not just one country that failed, bad luck, an oversight.It all has to align together, like in a syzygy, and then you get one fully-blown COVID 19 screw-up.

Word Prompt

Syzygy

Meaning- The nearly straight line configuration of three celestial bodies.

[image error]

Kaleidoscope

His world was a shifting kaleidoscope. Bright and loud. Words never seemed to make sense. The pain in his chest burst. Then silence.

In memory of Eyad Hallaq

Two Books to read when going to – Prague

,

Karlštejn Castle, a short train ride from Prague

I have no idea when ‘normal’ air travel will resume. I can’t help but wonder whether I’ll ever be as nonchalant about using it as before. But writing is a great way to re-visit beloved books and to reminisce about past travels.

This entry is about Prague (Czechia). The capital of the Czech Republic is a beautiful city with the best (and possibly) cheapest beer in the world. My advice is, start drinking when you get there and don’t stop until you leave. Don’t limit yourselves to the well-known brands (my favorite has to be Kozel) but try and taste local breweries as well. One that I recommend, which also has an excellent restaurant serving a selection of the brews is U Tri Rozi (the Three Roses).

But I got carried away, enough about beer. I’m here to discuss books.

The two books I cover today were written by French men. Both can be categorized as historical fiction, as they rely on true events and depict real people. I discuss here the English translations but since I read both books in Hebrew, my comments will not touch on the quality of the translation.

The second-best book to read before going to Prague is the 2009 Running. A Novel by Jean Echenoz, translated to English by Linda Coverdale.

Running is a very short book, a Prix Goncourt winner, that follows the life and career of the great Czech runner Emil Zatopek. This book characterizes itself as a biographical novel and as such allows fiction and facts to mix freely. This approach can be irksome to purists and sticklers to historical accuracy. The book was heavily critiqued for not portraying the facts correctly and for poor understanding of running. Still, the descriptions of Zatopek’s early running sessions in difficult terrain and wrong shoes are riveting. He is depicted as a reluctant runner, finding joy in the pain of the exercise more than anything. It was an early era of sports when one didn’t need to be reared by coaches from a young age, have access to enhanced diet and strict regime, in order to win an Olympic medal.  Read about Zatopek’s small apartment in one of the communist’s state drab blocks, then walk around Prague and remember he was living in one while winning the Olympics. It made for a stark contrast to his great achievements and worldwide fame.

The best book to read while in Prague is HHhH by Laurent Binet. (published in France in 2010, translated to English by Sam Taylor).

HHhH won the Prix Goncourt for a debut novel in 2010. The book follows the planning and execution of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich by the Czech resistance in an operation called Operation Anthropoid. Many historians regard Heydrich as the darkest figure within the Nazi regime. HHhH is short for: Himmlers Hirn hiest Heydrich, Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich.

Binet has an ars-poetic approach in his writing i.e, he shares with the reader his feelings and misgivings whilst writing this novel. He writes about his modern-day anxieties. Again, as in the former book about Zatopek, this approach can be off-putting, but it can also be refreshing. It’s up to the reader. I for one, was ensnared in Binet’s prose and accepted his style.

Binet gets more serious as the book progresses. He sheds light on horrors like the butchering of the entire village of Lidice as retaliation for the assassination attempt. His writing as he follows the anticipated convergence between the would-be assassins and their target is masterful. Then he follows their escape attempt all over Prague. Binet evokes a brutal Prague occupied by the Nazi Third Reich which was supposed to last for a thousand years (and lasted 12).

Walking around the beautiful ancient stone paved streets of a modern democratic Prague which is no longer occupied nor communist gives one hope for the future.  

#Prague #Goncourtwinners #biographicalnovel #historicalfiction #travel #greatsportsmen

Best book/s to read before going to – Porto

Prologue

This is a series about books to read as a tourist. I don’t mean travel guides, but fiction books. Writing and reading are great ways to re-visit beloved places and to reminisce about past travels.

I’m starting off easy, not with London or Paris that have loads and loads of books written about them. I start with Porto. Situated on the banks of the Duomo it is well worth a visit, (check the photo above).

Book/s to read when in Porto (Portugal).

I think that the second-best book to read before or during visiting Porto is : The Philosopher’s Stone, otherwise known as the first Harry Potter book. Yes, you read it correctly. Porto turned out to be a surprisingly Potteresque city.

I arrived to Porto in the beginning of September, just at the time when schools and universities resumed. I was standing outside the ostentatious building of the bolsa (the old Porto stock and commodities market) looking onto the plaza when I noticed a bizarre ritual performed by young people wearing orange capes and brandishing brooms, i.e, broomsticks. I watched fascinated as they performed a ritual that is quite prevalent in Portuguese universities. Later, we strolled in the busy streets and were surrounded by Tunas- groups of students playing and singing, all were wearing black capes (Trajes).

António de Oliveira Salazar was the dominant ruler of Portugal for close to 50 years, running it as a dictatorship. It’s quite obvious that Salazar Slytherin’s name derives from him. Too many coincidences made me research and find out that J.k. Rowling lived in Porto with her first husband. It’s very clear that Porto and Portugal feature in the Harry Potter books.

But that was just a discussion of the second-best book to read while in Portugal. A more apparent choice and one that is certainly infused with much more local flavor : The missing head of Damasceno Monteiro by Antonio Tabucchi.

This was the book I read while I was there. It was a real treat to read about the fat lawyer who lives in the Rua das Flores (The Flowers street) and then be able to walk up the Rua on that same day. It was fun to salivate over a caldo verde which is served in the book in a traditional restaurant, and hey presto to be able to order green soup my for lunch. The book also features the city of Lisbon which I visited later. It is a murder mystery, and has a political background that is both unique and universal (treatment of the Gypsy, i.e, minorities and refugees).

I’m not saying it’s a better book than Harry Potter. I’m saying that it’s a very Portuguese book. If you ever go to Portugal or just want a book that’s not your usual run-of-the-mill murder mystery- grab this one.

#BooksaboutPorto #HarryPotter