What Are We Reading? 23 Nov 2020

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "A chilly morn in the south.....i miss the rain but dont mind the cold

In "What If The Sun", CF Ramuz explores the life of a swiss-french mountain village where the sun fails to shine...."

i think you will love Ramuz Andy, its a really different feel of a read, when its set in an alpine village, i just finished a short chapter where the villagers head out to find a missing man. Odd horns are blown, rifles fired, torches lit. I know the Valais area of Switzerland fairly well due to ski visits to Saas Fee and Zermatt but even so its another, rugged world, or two worlds. The cosy deep blue vineyard dotted geneva-lakeside and the harsher, rougher mountain people. Ramuz drops the lakeside into a few paragraphs and it warms the icy feel of the novel

[AB76]

Not to bang on about CF Ramuz but i recommend his novels in general to the ersatz TLS.
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz was a Romand writer(aka Swiss French), connected to the Paris scene of the 1920s and 1930s but his novels are all set around Lake Geneva and the Savoy area
He has been rediscovered in last 25 years or so, there is now a good musuem in his hometown, Lausanne and there are a couple of novels in print. "The Young Man From Savoy" and "Deborence" are worth reading, as well as "What If the Sun"
The only other Romand author in translation, Jacques Chessex, writes similar tales of the mountains and mystery. Chessex novel "A Jew Must Die" is set in same area of Romandie(aka Swiss French region of Switzerland)
Both Ramuz and Chessex were Protestant, like so many of the French Swiss historically, less so now

[AB76]

Watched first two episodes of "The Valhalla Murders" on bbc iplayer, its good, iceland in winter looks so savage and bleak( i have only visited during midsummer, drizzly and cool but no snow)

[Justine]

Bill wrote: "On last week's Lazy quiz, one "U" character I was surprised didn't come up was Mr Underhill, the alias Frodo used while traveling from the Shire to Bree in The Fellowship of the Ring..."

I've also since thought of Ugolino of Pisa, who was said to have eaten his children. He makes an appearance in Dante again in Chaucer - The Monk's Tale.

[MK]

CCCubbon wrote: "MK Alert! Not a book.....
I don’t know where you are based but if anyone would like to see rope being made you can in the Hawes Ropemakers, that’s Hawes in glorious North Yorkshire Dales."

CCCubbon wrote: "MK Alert! Not a book.....
I don’t know where you are based but if anyone would like to see rope being made you can in the Hawes Ropemakers, that’s Hawes in glorious North Yorkshire Dales."

I think that would be really interesting but I'm on a different continent. With Brexit looming I'm afraid that by the time that settles out, I'll be beyond international travel. So sad.

[AB76]

MK wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "MK Alert! Not a book.....
I don’t know where you are based but if anyone would like to see rope being made you can in the Hawes Ropemakers, that’s Hawes in glorious North Yorkshire..."

beyond international travel?

[Greenfairy]

I foolishly installed an updated version of the app.and it was awful..hard to navigate and features such as edit missing. Why are updates often so bad? If it's not broke dont fix it. Happy to say I have come back to the fold. I am going to contact the Grain again to insist that TLS comes back.Goodnight all.

[giveusaclue]

just testing if I have done this right.

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "MK wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "MK Alert! Not a book.....
I don’t know where you are based but if anyone would like to see rope being made you can in the Hawes Ropemakers, that’s Hawes in glorious Nort..."

They also have a ropemaking shed at the Bewdley Museum

[Lljones]

giveusaclue wrote: "

just testing if I have done this right."

Good job!

[AlbyBeliever]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the help with Christmas present ideas last week.

In return, here’s one to add to your lists, whether for yourself or someone else: ‘Troy Chimneys’ by Margaret Kennedy. I hadn’t heard of Kennedy before she was mentioned on Backlisted (although I believe ‘The Constant Nymph’ is fairly well-known). If ‘Troy Chimneys’ is anything to go by, though, she’s unjustly neglected.

It’s the story of Miles Lufton - his life during the Regency of the 18th century and the crack between his private and public personas. His public persona is that of a charming, ambitious, insincere MP, while his inner character of an idealistic dreamer periodically needs to be tamped down.

Describing the plot doesn’t really explain why I enjoyed the book so much, though. I think it’s that every sentence is so exquisitely crafted and every character is so wonderfully realised. Kennedy has a superb eye for humour and self-delusion but also writes with great feeling and empathy. She also plays with some fairly sophisticated framing devices and timeframes in a way that enhances, rather than detracts from the story.

Kennedy is probably the author I’m most excited to have discovered this year. Given that I first read Sylvia Townsend Warner, Nella Larsen and Muriel Spark this year, that’s some accolade.

If you like intelligent, gripping, well-written novels then please do give her a go. Has anyone else read her? I’d be very interested in hearing which novel of hers to read next.

[Alan]

Cephalopods came up in Justin's Weekly TLS. I must have seen the topic but, not knowing what the title meant and too lazy to find out, I passed on to other topics.
A couple of weeks earlier someone had recommended a Netflix film called My Octopus Teacher to me but I was leery about watching it. Documentary just means talking heads to me, and octopus teacher just looked like an oxymoron, and I've seen more than enough nature films.
But mustn't be ungrateful, and after a week or two of procrastination, I finally got round to giving it a look.
Narrator seemed to be a sort of burnt-out case wildlife film-maker, and had retreated to his childhood home in the Western Cape in an effort to recharge his batteries.
His house is right on the beach and he starts free-diving, chances upon an octopus, and goes back to visit her every day, and gains her trust, and she really is a teacher, showing him the fragility of life, and turning him into a part of the life under the sea rather than just a visitor to it.
A delightful doc, I was going to say, but as one critic says, it's more of a love story than a doc.
It was such a pleasure to come across this wonderful film after being reluctant to watch it, and recommend it heartily, especially with regard to the parlous times we find ourselves in.

www.imdb.com/title/tt12888462/

This is the book from the cephalopod thread [Monarchs of the Sea]

Going to read it ASAP.

[scarletnoir]

The Housekeeper and the Professor

This 'ere is a book review; however, as my enjoyment of it is influenced by personal experiences which you may not share, and is not academic in tone, you may wish to skip it.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa does what it says on the tin... it tells the tale of a housekeeper hired to look after a professor of mathematics. The professor suffered a head injury many years in the past, and as a result has a memory span of precisely 80 minutes. As the professor gets to know the housekeeper and her son, a genuine friendship develops between them, despite his memory problem. In addition, his enthusiasm for numbers rubs off on both his 'guests', as they start to appreciate the beauty of numbers, and to learn how to arrive at solutions to problems.

This is a charming and well-written book - but would everyone enjoy it? It's difficult to say... apart from the personal aspects, there are three main strands - mathematics, the teaching of mathematics, and baseball. Now, I have a considerable interest in the first two, but none in baseball; however, I do follow very closely other sports, and can therefore identify with the passion and excitement aroused as the characters listen to the ball games. These overlaps, coupled with the quality of writing, gave me significant pleasure and satisfaction.

Here are a couple of quotations:
Among the many things that made the Professor an excellent teacher was the fact that he wasn't afraid to say "we don't know." For the Professor, there was no shame in admitting you didn't have the answer, it was a necessary step towards the truth. It was as important to teach us about the unknown or the unknowable as it was to teach us what hat already been safely proven.
(Reluctance to admit ignorance, and a tendency to pretend to have a God-like omniscience are, unfortunately, quite common amongst teachers - perhaps especially at the elementary level.)

This may appeal to those of you with a 'personal' approach to knowing where your books are to be found:
The housekeeper who had pinch-hit for me had been methodical, and while I had been afraid to disturb the Professor's work and had barely touched the books in his study, she had picked them all up and stuffed them into the bookshelves... Apparently she had a single organizing principle: size. In the wake of her efforts, there was no denying that the room looked neater but the hidden order behind the years of chaos had been completely destroyed.

I should have liked to include a quote on how errors are good - because we learn from them. I'll edit it in later, if I find it.

The book, then, will appeal to those of you who like gentle tales of friendship, and who are not put off by numbers or baseball references. I certainly intend to look out more books by this author.

(A final digression: it pleased me that I was still able to derive the formula for the sum of the natural numbers - not difficult, really, but it's been a long time... no 'method' was used, just a consideration of examples. The brain, though, does not improve with age - unfortunately. I shall therefore need to give some thought to Euler's identity, whose meaning and significance are lost to me.)

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote hope you are ok

Thanks for asking - I am OK, but a ridiculous number of close friends, or friends of family members, have had major problems... hence the stress.

Things a little better, now, so the book review has appeared an hour or so ago.

[scarletnoir]

Alwynne wrote: " Children of Time the style's a bit clunky but the story's excellent and I have been able to look at things from a spider's perspective ever since! Worth trying for any arachnophobes out there.

Somehow, I don't think I'll get this for my wife, as a Christmas present!

[Gpfr]

scarletnoir wrote: "The Housekeeper and the Professor

This 'ere is a book review; however, as my enjoyment of it is influenced by personal experiences which you may not share..."

As I wrote before with regard to this book, I have no interest in maths or baseball (and little in sport in general), however I still found it a lovely reading experience. So if anyone who hasn't read it is feeling deterred - give it a try!

[Georg]

Alan wrote: "Cephalopods came up in Justin's Weekly TLS. I must have seen the topic but, not knowing what the title meant and too lazy to find out, I passed on to other topics.
A couple of weeks earlier someone..."

Thank you, Alan.

This site might be of interest to other cephalopodophiles:

https://octolab.tv/about-us/


there is a lot of information about the different species (iirc CCCubon missed that in the book), dozens of documentaries, and fascinating experiments.

[FrancesBurgundy]

AB76 wrote: "Not to bang on about CF Ramuz ..."

More banging on about Ramuz.

I read quite a lot of Ramuz a long time ago – I was looking into his use of Swiss French idioms and constructions. From those days I got the idea that La Grande Peur dans la Montagne was one of his best known works – translated as Terror on the Mountain by Milton Stansbury according to Wiki, but maybe no longer in print.

But probably where most people will have come across his work is as the librettist of Stravinsky’s L'Histoire du Soldat/The Soldier’s Tale . And I see the English translators of that were Michael Flanders and Kitty Black. Michael Flanders was the narrator at the first London performance in 1956.

Weren’t Flanders and Swann wonderful!

[scarletnoir]

AB76 wrote: "Watched first two episodes of "The Valhalla Murders" on bbc iplayer, its good, iceland in winter looks so savage and bleak( i have only visited during midsummer, drizzly and cool but no snow)"

You need to look at the Icelandic series Trapped, if you enjoy seeing Iceland in winter! It was shown on the BBC, but not available ATM - it can be streamed on Prime (apparently).

Lest we get crapped on from a great height for not mentioning 'books', may I take the opportunity to recommend other winter Icelandic tales, such as these three form Arnaldur Indridason:
Hypothermia
Arctic Chill
Strange Shores

plus just about anything by Ragnar Jonasson, for example

or by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, for example: The Day is Dark - where, if Icaland isn't cold enough for you, much of the action takes place in Greenland:

(BTW - we visited Iceland in late spring... not too cold, one nasty hail shower... we were lucky, I think.)

[AB76]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Not to bang on about CF Ramuz ..."

More banging on about Ramuz.

I read quite a lot of Ramuz a long time ago – I was looking into his use of Swiss French idioms and constructions. Fro..."

ah yes, the beauty of reading his french prose direct, you are fortunate in that regard Frances. Did he mix the swiss-french dialect with more traditional french styles?

[FrancesBurgundy]

AB76 wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote:

More banging on about Ramuz.

Did he mix the swiss-french dialect with more traditional french styles?."

As I wrote the previous comment I thought what a pity I no longer have a copy of my 'researches'. It was part of my degree and nowadays there'd be electronic copies all over the place. How could I not have kept it?

But as I remember he wrote in pretty standard French with some dialect words and certain unusual constructions - that's all I can say. I haven't even kept any Ramuz novels either.

[CCCubbon]

Georg. Octolab
Thank you Georg I have bookmarked the site and will be an oft time visitor.

[AB76]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote:

More banging on about Ramuz.

Did he mix the swiss-french dialect with more traditional french styles?."

As I wrote the previous comment I thought what a pity..."

gosh, thats a shame frances, in translation his style is light but with interesting ways of telling a story and of course mountain swiss life is always fascinating to lowland englishman like me. The area i live in has lots of small hills but hardly mountains.....

[FrancesBurgundy]

AB76 wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "

More banging on about Ramuz.

The area i live in has lots of small hills but hardly mountains......"

You might be interested in a comment I made here on October 30th. I'm trying to link to it without much luck so will post a question for our good mods in the other place.

It's message no. 10 here.

[Alan]

Thanks for the octopus link, Georg. Looking forward to learning a bit more about our eight-tentacled friends.

[CCCubbon]

Scarletnoir mentioned Euler’s Identity in his review of The Professor and the Housekeeper
In case anyone is interested to know what Euler’s Identity is all about I have added a photo and brief explanation over on photos. It is considered beautiful by mathematicians, my comment only says why without any proof.

[Justine]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Weren't Flanders and Swann wonderful!"

During the Sixties, my boyfriend and I often listened together to Flanders and Swann records; lines still come back to me often and make me smile.

[Justine]

Alan wrote: "Cephalopods came up in Justin's Weekly TLS. I must have seen the topic but, not knowing what the title meant and too lazy to find out, I passed on to other topics.
A couple of weeks earlier someone..."

I look forward, thanks to you and Georg, to days of exploring cephalopods. Also intend to restart Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness which I was very much enjoying about a year ago, but somehow wandered away from.

[Lljones]

Justine wrote: "Alan wrote: "Cephalopods came up in Justin's Weekly TLS. I must have seen the topic ..."

I can recommend another Cephalopodic title:

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf.

[AB76]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "

More banging on about Ramuz.

The area i live in has lots of small hills but hardly mountains......"

You might be interested in a comment I made here on Octo..."

thats interesting, thanks. i would imagine mountain and coastal living for the poor is very similar in this regard, women left behind, men working all hours on the sea or leaving the mountains to find work.
A Keyserling novel i read set on the Baltic coast had some haunting scenes of fisherwives pacing the beach waiting for news of sons and husbands, irish literature is full of that too, women waiting for men to return

[scarletnoir]

FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Weren’t Flanders and Swann wonderful!"

Indeed.

And if you care to look at my earlier post (no.11), you will find a link to one of their best-loved works!

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "As I wrote before with regard to this book, I have no interest in maths or baseball (and little in sport in general), however I still found it a lovely reading experience. So if anyone who hasn't read it is feeling deterred - give it a try!"

I hope you realise that I was in no way attempting to 'deter' anyone - I loved the book - but felt that the background to the friendship might be a bit too 'out there' for some readers.

I'm very pleased to have your support for this book, as someone not involved with maths or baseball! Thanks.

[FrancesBurgundy]

scarletnoir wrote "you will find a link to one of their best-loved works: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Weren’t Flanders and Swann wonderful!"

Digression re spiders and linking to comments in GR

I'm afraid I skimmed over that link the first time Scarlet, even though I'm one of the advocates for Lev Parikian on this site. Have watched it now and link to your post here just to show how my skills at linking have improved thanks to our dear mods.

I wasn't going to join in on the spider digression as I'm a bit of a purist about non-book related posts but at the time I did wish I could recommend my favourite spider - so just this once here it is:

Architrave or Daddy-Long-Legs spider

They just live quietly on your architraves (or ceilings etc). They grow really big but they can't run fast. They occasionally move very slowly around for a walk or to see their mate on their long legs. They have about 50 spiderlings at a time who seem to get eaten up by their relatives.

They will eventually colonise your house and eat up your flies, mosquitoes, bugs etc. If you touch one gently with your finger (or a stick) they shake uncontrollably for a few seconds. They are delightful and the only time I found one in the bath was when it fell in by accident. I rescued it of course but I can't rescue fast hairy ones.

[AB76]

Alwynne wrote: "AB76 wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "

More banging on about Ramuz.

The area i live in has lots of small hills but hardly mountains......"

You might be intere..."

yes, i read it last year after a tip off from Mach (the translator even responded to my emails asking some questions with a detailed reply)

the fisher folk are secondary to the overall tale but they play a part in the imagery and a reminder of the perils of the sea

its a brilliant summer read, evocative descriptions of white sand and heat, as well as being a very subtle commentary on the state of Wilhelmine Germany.
I wish more Keyserling was in translation! He was a Baltic-German but lived most of his life in Imperial Germany

[Gpfr]

scarletnoir wrote re The Housekeeper and the Professor: "I hope you realise that I was in no way attempting to 'deter' anyone ..."

Oh no, of course I didn't imagine you were trying to put people off - I just wanted to reassure that one could like the book while not liking maths or sport.

[Justine]

Lljones wrote: "

I can recommend another Cephalopodic title:

[book:Proust and the Squid: The Story and Scie..."

Yes, and Maryanne Wolf is truly one of the important researchers into how we read - from the physical-brain issues up. She's now exploring how the way we read from a paper page is different from the way we read from the screen, and the importance of making sure young children have lots of exposure to the former.

[Justine]

MK wrote: "Everyone will have to let me know if Zoom talks are not appropriate here - this from the Mysterious Bookshop in NYC

Free Virtual Event Tonight!

Join us this evening at 6 PM EST on Zoom for a conv..."

I'm a little late answering you, MK, but I think links to zoom talks are great!

[Andy]

Three coming up from me from the weekend..
Firstly, Beyond Sleep by Willem Frederik Hermans, translated by Ina Rilke.
Most of Hermans's novel is set in Finnmark, the former name of the northernmost county in Norway, these days the majority of it is the Varangerhalvøya Nasjonalpark. I have been planning a trip to this part of the Arctic for a while, could well be late summer 2021. Despite it being set in 1961 (my birth year), with its pretty much always adverse weather conditions of one sort or other, and savage mosquitos on every page, this is not the ideal book to read when planning such a trip..
Young Dutch geologist Alfred decides to write his dissertation in the far north of Norway, but soon discovers that travel there is far more dificult than he could have imagined.
This is far from being a usual sort of travel tale. I notice some reviewers talk about its slow pace, and lack of action, but for me, Hermans's digressions are what make it so memorable. Not only is this a character study of the protagonist Alfred, who it is easy to pre-judge, but also into the entourage, the team with him in the Arctic, his family as he grew up, and the Professor he met with prior to the journey.
But it is Alfred's show. Many readers will identify something of themselves in him as gradually his qualities begin to show instead of his weaknesses. He lacks in confidence as well as the skills and knowledge of what he encounters, but he refuses to give in. Hermans treats him roughly, but nonetheless he earns the reader's sympathy.

[Andy]

Dead Girls by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott.
This is a significant work of huge importance that concerns the murders of three young women during the 1980s, spread across different provinces of Argentina.
She uses a hybrid type of writing that does not have the form of an investigation or mystery story, instead more journalistic.
It is not the sort of book to enjoy, rather to feel better informed about a tragic system that existed (exists..) in which violence against women goes unpunished.
I guess it fits the category of 'true crime', one from which I have read books, and have no real desire to read many more.
I can read all sorts of dark fiction but somehow manage to separate it from the actual world; I have managed to construct a barrier. I can enjoy these books, in fact, when written well, they are amongst my favourite form of literature. Almada's earlier book, The Wind That Lays Waste, is an example of this. It was one of the best books I read in 2019.

[Andy]

And, River of Earth by James Still
Originally published in 1939, this was Still’s debut novel. He mainly wrote poetry; this being the result of an expanded short story. He writes vivid and poetic descriptions of the Kentucky mountains, and it’s primitive and destitute people, but without sentimentality. Seen through the eyes of an eight year old boy, rather than a plot, the novel portrays day to day life of a family, told with the harsh local dialogue.
As a story, it does not grip, but it has charm as a chronicle of tough Appalachian folk and their lives.

And behind them a little bull of a man came walking. He wore a mine cap with a carbide lamp atop. Thick his chest was, and a fleece of black hairs came curling out of his shirt.
He took off his cap and his head was as clean as a shaven jaw.
I thought how I would tell Uncle Jolly and Grandma about him. I spoke the words aloud to know their sound.
“A fella not five feet high came along, and I skeered him proper. A low standing fella.
Oh, he was a little keg of a man, round and thick, and double jinted.
A mountycat he thought I was, fixing to spring.”

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "Dead Girls by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott.
This is a significant work of huge importance that concerns the murders of three young wom..."

fascinating topic , gonna have a look for it now, i found lots of testimony from the Dirty War commission that the author Ernesto Sabato was part of, very grim reading about the torture and killing of young women by the argentine military

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "Three coming up from me from the weekend..
Firstly, Beyond Sleep by Willem Frederik Hermans, translated by Ina Rilke.
Most of Hermans's novel is set ..."

if you remember i read this in June, same time as the novel was set and the hypnotic idea of endless light,mossies and the clever patient prose were brilliant

hermans photos of a trip he made to Norway are here, with same locations as in the novel:
https://literatuurmuseum.nl/verhalen/...

as a kind of "tie-in" with the novel, these colour photos are superb

oddly this link is a lot less interactive than it was in june.....
will upload some i saved onto the photo pages

[AB76]

For Andy, re beyond Sleep
Four photos from Hermans trip to Norway uploaded for you, exact same locations as in the novel
So slow to upload but are in the "photos" section, tagged with Wf Hermans

[Greenfairy]

Justine wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Weren't Flanders and Swann wonderful!"

During the Sixties, my boyfriend and I often listened together to Flanders and Swann records; lines still come back to me often and m..."
A few years ago my mum bought a new carpet, the floor in her granny flat had a concrete floor and the carpet fitter hit a gas pipe,then the gas man knocked his exhaust pipe off on the road humps on the street outside...It all makes work for the working man to do...

[Andy]

Alwynne wrote: "Andy wrote: "And, River of Earth by James Still
Originally published in 1939, this was Still’s debut novel. He mainly wrote poetry; this being the resul..."

Coincidentally just started another Argentinian book published recently about femicide, Eartheater by Dolores Reyes, so very different. It short, so I’ll be finished and review it tomorrow.

[Andy]

AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Three coming up from me from the weekend..
Firstly, Beyond Sleep by Willem Frederik Hermans, translated by Ina Rilke.
Most of Hermans's ..."
I should have remembered, pardon me. Of course it was you who put me onto it. I can’t imagine though, with a topic so close to my heart, how it’s escaped me for so long.
Thanks for the photos also. I’ve travelled up in the Norwegian Arctic a couple of times, once as a young hitchhiker to North Cape, and then just a few years ago, I cycled home from Tromso. But this time I want to spend a lot longer up in the far north..looking forward to it. I have learnt some lessons from Alfred..

[Georg]

Just watched "The Book Shop" adapted from Penelope Lively's homonymous novel.
It is rare that a fílm adaptation captures the spirit of a book, This one did not only capture it beautifully, it also condensed it quite powerfully imo.

The downside: I was left with the same sad/melancholic feeling I had after finishing the book. They changed the end in the film, I think (if memory of the book serves me right) to mitigate that effect. Didn't work for me though.

[Justine]

Greenfairy wrote: "It all makes work for the working man to do...
"

:-)

[Francis]

In the past week I read The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan, an interesting novel where every chapter is narrated by a different character (none narrating two chapters). This allows a story to emerge slowly, the 'truth' slowly emerging as the lives of characters in a small Irish town in the aftermath of the financial crash intertwine. One of the narrative threads seems a little out of place and not fully in keeping with the read, but well worth a (quick at 150 pages) read.

Further to some discussion above/below about Obama's new book. I think BBC Sounds will have an abridged version read by the author out soon.

I have taken to listening to the BBC while walking/cooking, including Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler. I will try the Shardlake next, even if it is number 4.

[AB76]

Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Three coming up from me from the weekend..
Firstly, Beyond Sleep by Willem Frederik Hermans, translated by Ina Rilke.
Most ..."

No worries, it vividly reminded me of my visits in midsummer to the far North, i didnt go into Finnmark, i remained on the coast , the intensity of the light was remarkable until Tromso and then it became very cool and cloudy, unlike the weather Hermans describes which gets quite hot at times.

The difference between midsummer in Iceland and in Norway for me was that Norway actually felt cooler, the low cloud cover on the coast meant by the time i got near to the Russian border, i hadnt seen anything but rocks for 48 hrs

i travelled from bergen to kirkenes on the hurtigruten(coastal steamer), it was 28c and blistering at Bergen, 24c at Bodo and i was expecting t shirt weather all the way but after Bodo it was just grey, the mossies were not an issue

on the photos, that make so much sense if you are reading the book,almost haunting with that eerie light. Hermans looks so cool in the photo of him,my copy of the book has the mossie-infested hat on the cover but with no credits oddly. The entire collection includes images inside tents and some wonderful captures of the bleak terrain and the Sami people encounterd on the way. Colour photos make it seem like 2001 not 1960ish

Just spotted Puhskin press are republishing it in late Nov...thats good, new attention will be paid to this great novel