Olga Tokarczuk > Likes and Comments
I didn’t realize there were this many Tokarczuk books in English.Her short story, “Yente” is in this week’s New Yorker for anyone with subscription or maybe it can read as one a few free articles for those without subscriptions.
I haven’t read The Lost Soul (more of a picture book) but have read all the others, or rather will have when Books of Jacob is published. Flights is my favourite so far although Primeval and Other Times is extremely good.
Certainly a very worthy Nobel winner.
Yes that was my thought. We failed to name the translator.I have actually heard actual words spoken to me personally from her lips though. Even if it was “oi! where is Jennifer’s trophy”
True but neither did you mention or comment on any translators when discussing the books you liked.
I didn't comment on any other aspects of the books either. Not quite sure what your point is.
Is this like a brotherly game of chicken where you both resist mentioning the actual translators’ names for as many posts as possible? I guess, in fairness, Paul partially caved with a first name mention in message #5…
I am always intrigued by whether they do translate differently - and will likely never know - in that say Flights and Drive My Plow feel very different books in any case. One of Croft and Lloyd-Jones said they were each best suited to the book they translated (which is actually a little different though to saying they would have each translated the other book differently).
Yes but could they. The voice in the books is so different (Primeval Times is different again in Lloyd-Jones’s translation) that I wonder if that is really the case. It’s almost the opposite of Bernhard who despite having 25+ translators has an unmistakable voice.
Talking to a Polish friend, the narrative voices of Flights and Drive Your Plow are very different, unsurprisingly, in the original too.
Fixed it.Antonia Lloyd-Jones translated most of Tokarczuk’s books than Jennifer Croft, unless I missed some titles. 4 out of 6 above are translated by Lloyd-Jones.
There is a longer bibliography including a number of as yet untranslated Polish books on her Wikipedia page - I would post it but we are a long way from the top of the discussion now.
I’ve added all her work listed in Wikipedia.
My copy of The Books of Jacob has just arrived, and I plan to start reading it later today. I may be some time...
I have corrected the page count on the record for it here - a little trickier than usual because the pages count down rather than up, and I did opt to include the index which adds another 20 pages, but it is still well short of 1000!
Suitably scuffed I hopePhysically on a picture I saw recently it looked bigger that other Fitz novels in terms of page size?
Paul wrote: "Suitably scuffed I hopePhysically on a picture I saw recently it looked bigger that other Fitz novels in terms of page size?"
Yes, the page size is larger than standard, and also slightly larger than the last few Galley Beggar books.
I’m eager to see how the narrative is paced. I felt Ducks, Newburyport was a fast read for a 1000+ page book. Let us know if the writing is dense with lots of asides, Hugh.
I can't decide about 'The Books of Jacob' I liked aspects of others I've tried by her but I find the Jungian dimension a bit wearying. It was bearable in 'Drive my Plow' I think because the Blake and other references balanced it out, but found it unbearably heavy-handed in 'Primeval...' and abandoned that one half-way through.
Now life is back (temporarily?) to normal and I’m commuting 4-5 days a week, a physically hefty book isn’t ideal. May save this one for Christmas.
A few thoughts now that I am just over 200 pages into the main text. Firstly I have no issues with the pacing, but as with Flights the reader has to trust the author about how she chooses to navigate her way through a complex web of characters, ideas, places and religions - though this one has more of an overall structure. At times this is more than a little dizzying, but so far I have avoided the temptation to spend too long reading up on the background and chasing up the unfamiliar. It is very impressive, but I have no idea how to approach reviewing it.
My post will remain empty of Fitzcarraldo for weeks yet, but it seems all the UK subscribers should have had their copies last month. Did you email to find out why?
The thematic logic gets clearer further in - what confused me a little is that most of the first 100 pages or so is spent ensuring that some of the characters who dip in and out of the main story are established in the reader's mind before she introduces the main protagonist Jacob Frank and his coterie. The book does follow a broadly chronological sequence except when introducing new characters.
I am making decent progress, and now have less than 400 pages to go, but I am away this weekend and may not have much reading time, so probably won't finish before Sunday night or Monday...
You will still finish before the subscribers get a chance to start!
Paul wrote: "Meanwhile my post box remains emptyThe Guardian's take
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202..."
This review sounds like a book I will really enjoy!
I think I'd love it at 200-300 pages but I am not at all sure re 1,000
I saw yesterday that Jennifer Croft has written a book to be released by Charco in May 2022.https://www.thebookseller.com/news/ch...
That came out in the US in 2019.Fascinatingly she wrote it in both Spanish and English but they are different books, the Spanish one a novel and the English a memoir. She doesn’t regard either as a translation of the other.
She also gave her translators into other language free rein, with the request not to concern themselves with fidelity.
See eg https://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...
Paul wrote: "I think I'd love it at 200-300 pages but I am not at all sure re 1,000"Well it is at least subdivided into seven Books which average less than 150 pages each, but I am not sure any of them would really work as stand alone novels/novellas. I am pretty sure Ducks had more words - there are pictures and maps in this one too.
The last Book should suit you best - just 44 pages. The first is relatively short too but doesn't feature Jacob.
They should be published separately. I am quite tempted genuinely to do a Book Murderer and take some scissors to the book
If it ever arrives
Comparing it to Ducks is a bit like saying “well Covid isn’t great but the Black Death was worse”
Might it not be better to buy an e-book - seems very good value at 6.64
To throw in another reference you won't like, parts of it are a little reminiscent of Tyll, and our friend Athanasius Kircher gets a mention in Book One. It is a much more coherent and complete book than Tyll.
I assume subscriber copies have all arrived now - as Fitzcarraldo seem to be mass tweeting photos of the book in various bookshops
has anyone said anything to them?
I have tweeted them as it is quite poor really. Perhaps they are reprinting to put the translator’s name on the front.
Hi Paul, sorry that you haven't received your subscriber copy of BOOKS OF JACOB yet. Unfortunately, because of the size of the book, quantity of the print run, supply chain issues, and then a printing error, the book was on press for two months, and we only received final copies in early November. It took a while to get them to our sales reps, who fulfil subscriber copies, and because the book is so unwieldy it's taken the person who does the mailings there longer than usual. I think they've all gone out now but we will check on Monday morning and can give you an update then if you still haven't received it. Apologies again and we do hope you'll enjoy reading it when it arrives.
But they made sure stores got them before subscribers it seems. I support the presses I support because value the work they do, I don’t even need any perks, appreciated as they are, but don’t promise books a month before they’re released if that is not the case. I understand books taking longer to get overseas, although Charco and Blackwell books arrive in about two weeks, but UK sunscribers should have been at the head of the line, not the the back.I don’t think customer service is important, further evidenced by nicked up covers, but I will continue to subscribe because they publish good books.
Paul wrote: "That came out in the US in 2019.Fascinatingly she wrote it in both Spanish and English but they are different books, the Spanish one a novel and the English a memoir. She doesn’t regard either as..."
It was an on-line novel that started as a memoir it seems, and. now Charco will publish it. I hope it has the photos.
The US publication did have the photos, at least from Amazon previews.
So it was published as a book, not just an eBook or internet book? I can’t pull it up on the add book/author search above left.
It's listed on GR and as available from various booksellers online in the US and in the UK, including Blackwells.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
A friend reviewed it a little while ago.
Why did my search come up empty, I wonder? I double checked the spelling of Jennifer and Croft each time. It seems to have been popular with the GR readers, mostly 4 and 5 stars.
Unnamed is a new press to me.
Novels in English:
Flights
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Primeval and Other Times
The Books of Jacob
House of Day, House of Night
Children’s:
The Lost Soul
Novels not yet in English:
Podróż ludzi Księgi (Journey of the People of the Book)
E.E.
Ostatnie historie (Final Stories)
Anna In w grobowcach świata (Anna in the Tombs of the World)
Short story collections not yet in English:
Gra na wielu bębenkach (Playing on Many Drums)
Opowiadania bizarne (Bizarre Stories)
Poetry not yet in English:
Miasto w lustrach (The City in Mirrors)
Nonfiction not yet in English:
Szafa (The Wardrobe)
Opowieści wigilijne (Christmas Tales)
Lalka i perła (The Doll and the Pearl)
Moment niedźwiedzia (The Moment of the Bear)
Czuły narrator (The Tender Narrator)