Ersatz TLS discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Weekly TLS
>
What Are We Reading?22 November 2021
The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig is a book in two extremely different parts – I was not aware when I started that Zweig left the work unfinished when he died, which explains the inconsistency. The first half is a gem. In Austria, following the first World War, a post-office worker in a small town is struggling to earn a sufficient income until her wealthy aunt invites her to come and visit her at a hotel in Switzerland. She enters a glamorous world of luxury. The prose is decadent, highly figurative and sometimes daringly imaginative (John Banville called the work ‘over-written’ in his review for the Guardian, but I enjoyed some of the more extravagant flights of fancy). The second half is a complete contrast. I feel the writing is extremely underdone, and I think it would have been for the best if the first part was left on its own as a novella. Still, I would consider reading more Zweig, especially if I can find anything more like the first section.Now onto Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize.
Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
I am on page 159/600. I have encountered at least 50 characters so far. First name, father name, family name, often also nickname(s). About 30 strands of narration were started only to be abandoned after a short time. I have also been taken to at least 50 places. Where nothing much happened.
There is no structure, there are hardly any indications whether the characters will play a role that goes beyond the first encounter (a few entirely forgotten and forgettable ones unexpectedly do turn up later).
I still have not the faintest clue about the main protagonist's personalities. What do they think/believe, why do they act/react in the way they do. Dickens's buildings have more character than any of them.
The word "rambling" could have been coined to describe this book. It doesn't go anywhere, least of all into a dimension I would call depth.
Maybe I am not sophisticated enough to get "it". For me it is tedious drivel of the highest order.
Ah, it could see it topping several lists I do not keep...
Georg wrote: "...A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize. Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
..."
I’m glad someone has spoken out about Dr Z. I thought it was an awful, wandering mess when I struggled through it a long time ago. On the other hand, they were able to extract enough of a story from it to create a memorable movie. Scenes from the movie have stuck in my head forever, and not a single one from the book. Is the fault with the translation? I doubt it. I think it owed its status to being smuggled out, in the depths of the Cold War, if I remember correctly.
..."
I’m glad someone has spoken out about Dr Z. I thought it was an awful, wandering mess when I struggled through it a long time ago. On the other hand, they were able to extract enough of a story from it to create a memorable movie. Scenes from the movie have stuck in my head forever, and not a single one from the book. Is the fault with the translation? I doubt it. I think it owed its status to being smuggled out, in the depths of the Cold War, if I remember correctly.
Georg wrote: "A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize.
Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
I am on page 159/600. I have encountered a..."
With Russian novels, there are usually clusters of people. Yes, (shudder) it may be helpful to keep a list.
Georg wrote: "Robert wrote(179): "Georg wrote: "Robert wrote (172): Bulgakov's A Young Doctor's Notebook deals with the home front during the First World WarHm. I have read A Country Doctor's Notebook at least..."
What specific meaning does "home front" have?
Robert wrote: "Georg wrote: "A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize.
Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
I am on page 159/600. I have..."
i agree.. lists when reading a novel with a varied number of characters is a good idea
Georg wrote: "A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize.
Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
I am on page 159/600. I have encountered a..."
I havent read this yet, i read a novella by Pasternak but havent taken the Zhivago challenge on yet, judging by the comments here, maybe its not worth it!
Bill wrote: "Georg wrote: "I'm almost tempted to read it on that account.Although it might have actually been one of the 2 or 3 Hornby books I have read. They are so forgettable..."
If only you had kept some..."
So here I am re-reading a Miss Silver mystery - Wicked Uncle. If I had only kept a list of reads, I might have passed it by (assuming I checked the list first). Of course I was some pages in when I realized I had read it previously. The problem is - I don't remember who the 'bad guy' was, so I will have to read it 'til the end to find out.
I'm with George when I comes to jotting 'that sounds like a book I want to read' on pieces of paper. I have a bunch here sitting by my desktop and more in the kitchen where I empty pockets after a visit to the library.
And - dammit - there's an Estate Sale this weekend which seems to have lots of vintage Dell-type paperbacks on offer. I just know I will succumb.
Robert wrote (207 and 208): With Russian novels, there are usually clusters of people. Yes, (shudder) it may be helpful to keep a list.Oh, there was a list with my edition. Only 24 characters were on it. I wish I had noted down the names of those who were only thrown in for a paragraph, or a page. Would have been a complete waste of time, but I could have given an accurate number for the characters who were completely irrelevant to the narrative, rather than my guess of around 50.
Dickens' books usually have a vast number if characters. I have never missed a list, or felt I need to draw one up. However peripheral they all have a personality and stand out, are memorable, on their own.
As to your second question:
I have always associated "home front" with more direct efforts. From women knitting socks to workers producing war-relevant goods like ammunition or uniforms, to volunteers caring for those who came back physically maimed and/or existentially broken.
Your post made me look up the definition. So I was wrong.
Russell wrote: "Georg wrote: "...A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize. Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher...."
I’m glad someone has spoken out about Dr Z. I thought i..."
I also loved the film (not least for the dashing Omar Sharif). Now that I attempted to read the book I am thinking "sow's ear->silk purse"
Georg wrote: "Robert wrote (207 and 208): With Russian novels, there are usually clusters of people. Yes, (shudder) it may be helpful to keep a list.Oh, there was a list with my edition. Only 24 characters wer..."
a girl i knew in Berlin had a grandmother who was awarded one of those medals by Hitler for the number of children she had, apparently when people asked her about what she did in the war, she would say there was no homefront, all german women were fighters in the total war. she sounded like quite a formidable lady!
Georg wrote: "I also loved the film (not least for the dashing Omar Sharif). Now that I attempted to read the book I am thinking "sow's ear->silk purse."The eyes have it:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=oma...
Georg wrote: "Dickens' books usually have a vast number if characters. I have never missed a list, or felt I need to draw one up. However peripheral they all have a personality and stand out, are memorable, on their own."For me, the names Dickens gives his characters constitute a kind of orthographic physiognomy that tends to fix them in my mind, often long after I've finished the novel: Lady Dedlock, Steerforth, and, my favorite, Wackford Squeers. Similar names from other writers: Maskull, Mustapha Mond, Oedipa Maas, and practically the entire population of Gormenghast.
The only author for whose novels I've found it necessary to keep a cast list is Ivy Compton-Burnett. The number of characters is generally not large, but ages and relationships tend to be important, and for some reason I find the names difficult to keep in memory in association with this information.
Bill wrote: "my favorite, Wackford Squeers"Not Dick Swiveller?
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
I finished one of the Bill Slider books tonight called One Under. Some in the series are better than others, this one of the better.
The author, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles likes to sprinkle her books liberally with quotes and the above is mentioned near the end of the book.
I looked it up to remind myself of Yeats’ poem
The Second Coming
I won’t mention any names - of whom I was reminded but you may read the whole poem over on A place for a poem, or listen on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI40j...
Bill wrote: "Georg wrote: "Dickens' books usually have a vast number if characters. I have never missed a list, or felt I need to draw one up. However peripheral they all have a personality and stand out, are m..."Dickens does use some wonderful names and to a lesser extent Hardy and Trollope too, though i am a bigger fan of the writings of Hardy and Trollope.
AB76 wrote: "Dickens does use some wonderful names and to a lesser extent Hardy and Trollope too,"I've read a few Trollope novels, but the only character whose name I can recall is the titular Phineas Finn.
Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Dickens does use some wonderful names and to a lesser extent Hardy and Trollope too,"I've read a few Trollope novels, but the only character whose name I can recall is the titular Ph..."
What about Obadiah Slope? I confess to not having read any of the books but do remember the tv series where he was played by the inimitable Alan Rickman
giveusaclue wrote: "What about Obadiah Slope?"Apres une Google search: I never read any of the Barchester novels.
The Way We Live Now and the first three Palliser novels. (To be sure, I don't recall any characters named Palliser, though I suspect there may have been one or two.)
Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English VillageClick to get the full effect at Amazon.
You may have to go here - https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Murder...
Georg wrote: "A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize.
Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
"
Russell is right to say that the film was a lot better than the book... I must have read this not long after seeing the film (1965), for comparison - and was seriously underwhelmed. It's far too long ago for me to recall the reasons, but unlikely to have been down to the large number of characters - I coped easily with Dostoyevsky at around the same time - so, probably, down to the formless plot you mention.
Nowadays, I do struggle a lot with books containing a huge number of characters, but that's old age for you.
Edit: having read a few more comments - although I am not a 'reader of Dickens', I do agree on his skill at inventing memorable names, and I suppose his ability to create memorable characters (based on film and TV adaptations). Unfortunately, as so often happens, when someone invents (or perfects) a technique, other less talented people follow - so since Dickens' time, we have had to suffer a large number of mediocre authors who try to invent memorable names for their anodyne protagonists. I suppose, though, that is preferable to using totally forgettable names, or names which are too similar - recently, I read a book where two characters had the same given name - 'John', or something equally common - so not helpful.
As for Dostoyevsky - in Russian novels, we have to cope with the use of several different versions of a name, which takes getting used to (my wife couldn't cope with this, and gave up!). However, FD nails characters so clearly and succinctly that the reader is rarely at a loss.
I know this book was mentioned before (probably by me!), but I thought a few of you might be interested to know that it has won the prize for 'the oddest book title of the year':
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
Georg wrote: "A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize.
Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
I am on page 159/600. I have encountered a..."
Zhivago is much better in the second half than the first. I too didn't have any real connection to the "plot" in the beginning, but when it moves into World War I and then the October Revolution, the novel becomes far more compelling. Pasternak would have been better off on focusing his story on the revolution and the dissolution it wrought, but he seemed to have tried to bury his controversial stance in a too large narrative.
I didn't have nay particular problem with the multitude of characters with their various names, or no more so than any other Russian or Slavic novel. I suspect that Pasternak wanted to show how Russia was winnowed down to bare bone micro-societies by the communist uprising. Entire families disappear to emigration, war or anonymous grave, other characters reappear as fervent revolutionaries, others discover a trenchant nostalgia for the empire in a former neighbor glimpsed on a train.
I don't think Pasternak is on the same level as Dostoy or Tolstoy or Turgenev or Gogol, and Zhivago is far from a perfect book. It's a little too much of a shaggy dog story trying to mask a propagandistic treatise. Perhaps he is down on a second tier with the Solzhenistens and Bulgakovs and Platonovs. Or a little bit lower with the Dovlatovs or Gorkys.
Have ordered two South Korean novels for reading in 2022, both modern and after enjoying Han Kang's novel of the south korean student riots and a north korean 1980s classic, i feel an affinity with the style and structure of Korean litThe two novels(both by female authors) are:
Machenbach wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Have ordered two South Korean novels for reading in 2022, both modern and after enjoying Han Kang's novel of the south korean student riots and a north korean 1980s classic, i feel an ..."there are quite a few other novels, that you mention, that i am interested in too and the short 40 page novels that a publisher has been issueing in last few years
i link the comments on Han Knag to people saying the same of Murakami, that he was quite un-Japanese in his writing and even Mishima was seen as a more modern semi-western influenced writer at times. The catch for any of us who do not speak or read Korean or Japanese, is that all these novels come to us through the translator and i am not sure how much this removes the eastern style and vocabulary.
Certainly the bulk of japanese literature up to Mishima involved a strong sense of quietude, a lack of plot with strong motifs and metaphors, a wonderful, enchanting style and so refreshing to read in my mid 20s. What i noticed with the North Korean novel i read and some short stories from Korea during the Japanese occupation, is an influence from the japanese style. Saying that there is also a gothic and unsettling trend from authors like Akutagawa and Dazai that mixed eastern folk tales with existentialism
on cleopatra's dildo's, is that a niche subject, makes me think of Carry on Cleo...
Mod
On the right of the page: 'Search discussion posts', below Group Home, Bookshelf, Discussions.
@ Paul (226):The revolution has just started. But I am throwing in the towel.
To quote only 3 of Mark Twain's 18 rules for literary fiction (in his hatchet job on J. F. Cooper):
2. They require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the "Deerslayer" tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.
3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.
4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.
If I substitute "Doctor Zhivago" for "Deerslayer" that neatly sums up my experience so far. And I doubt that, even if it gets better, it will get close to what I would call good.
I disagree with lumping him in with Bulgakov. He needs a category of his own.
@scarlet (224):
I am far from having a problem with Russian names, Rather the opposite, I love the added patronymic. And the female -a.
I mean: what would a non-Russian "Anna Karenin" be, compared to the grandezza of an "Anna Akardievna Karenina"?
@giveusaclue (215):
I vividly remember Alan Rickman as the wonderfully named odious Obadiah Slope. He was fabulous.
Paul wrote: "Berkley wrote: "I tried the Game of Thrones series but couldn't get into it. Modern fantasy after Tolkien has for the most part passed me by: I read a few things in that vein as a youngster, after ..."I feel the same, Middle Earth,Earthsea and Discworld were/are quite good enough for me thank you☺
AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize.
Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
I am on page 159/600. I have..."
I was less than impressed with it as well, I have been thinking of giving it a re- read, but then again so many books and so little time..
Greenfairy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Georg wrote: "A Russian classic, which got his author the Nobel Prize.
Tbh: I don't understand why this book even found a publisher.
I am on page 15..."
so true Greenfairy! so little time...
Georg wrote: "I am far from having a problem with Russian names, Rather the opposite, I love the added patronymic. And the female -a.I mean: what would a non-Russian "Anna Karenin" be, compared to the grandezza of an "Anna Akardievna Karenina"?
Yes, quite - and of course I did not suggest that you had this problem, only that some readers do.
In general, if the characters are well drawn and memorable, we the readers remember who they are. It gets confusing if they are too bland, or insufficiently well described for us to develop some sort of mental image (not pictorial - more of personality and, maybe, background).
MK wrote: "Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English VillageClick to get the full effect at Amazon.
You may have to go here - https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Murder......"
Looks like fun, I live on the edge of a very picturesque English village with a stream and willow trees, historic barns and ducks that hold up traffic when they cross the road. As far as I know there have been no
outbreaks of murder although our last Postmaster was unpoular, but he retired early - or so we understand ..
CCCubbon wrote: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
I finished one of the Bill Slider books tonight called One Under. Some in the series are better than others, this o..."
A slouching beast? Whomever can you mean CC ?😀
Georg wrote: "@ Paul (226):By all means, pitch it into the bin if it's not hitting on your wavelength. I wouldn't try to convince you otherwise, life is too short for boredom and frustration.
I think Pastornak's use of patronymics is very similar to Turgenev's and Lermonotov's, in which everyone has 2 or three nicknames, different diminuitions and different slanders depending upon whether they're hanging with the anarchists or the imperialists.
As for Twain....I have to say It's pretty hard to tell if a character is essential to the narrative if you haven't finished the book. It's really the same criticism that can/ought to be levelled at Dickens, who was a far better writer but employed a fair bit of rushed caricature in the place of character. People do walk in and out of lives at various times, and characters do reappear at unexpected times. Twain sure had a lot of opinions for a guy who wrote better than average children's novels.
I'm not making myself into the Pastornak apologist, horses for courses.
In my quest for Steinbeckian completionism, I read one of the valleys amongst his many peaks. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights It sure seemed like a good idea for Steinbeck to try to retell La Morte d'Artur, but he really had no idea how he was going to do it and where he was going to bring it. Only in the last of the 4 stories did you get a sense that it was John Steinbeck recounting the Arthurian legends in his own style. Beforehand, it was just a glorified Cliff's Notes.The influence of Thomas Malory on Steinbeck seemed clear. Whether it was the roving band of paesanos in Tortilla Flat, or the Round Table of drunks and vagrants in Cannery Row, Steinbeck often mined the idea of noble brotherhood, and destructive adventurism for irony and warmth.
That last story, of Lancelot and Lionel's Quest to escape Peaceful Boredom had that wry, tobacco-tinged humor that characterised Steinbeck's best writing. He hacked and hewed through the morass of Thomas Malory, eschewing the paint-by-numbers repetition. He created a sense of place, identifiable with a landscape, where Malory could only propose flimsy stage backdrops. The Lancelot tale was a glimpse of what could have been, a living representation of Arthurian legend that was lacking from Malory (Chretien de Troyes has more of a sense of being set in the world and not only in legend).
However, it stopped there as Steinbeck ran out of interest or energy or purpose. Clearly a post-humous publication, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, is really unecessary even for completionists. The letters appended to the story, between Steinbeck and his editors do little to show in what direction the book could have developed
Now, before getting to Christmas doorstop of a novel, I'm taking a quick dip into Japanese esotericism with Yasunari Kawabata's House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories
Paul wrote: "In my quest for Steinbeckian completionism, I read one of the valleys amongst his many peaks. The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights It sure seemed like a good idea for Steinb..."Informative post. I've often wondered about this book as it seemed like such un-Steinbeckian subject matter. Luckily, I have many more famous Steinbeck books to read first, so I may never have to decide if I want to try this one anyway.
Greenfairy wrote: "MK wrote: "Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English VillageClick to get the full effect at Amazon.
You may have to go here - https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Murdered..."
😊
Paul wrote (238): "Georg wrote: "@ Paul (226):By all means, pitch it into the bin if it's not hitting on your wavelength. I wouldn't try to convince you otherwise, life is too short for boredom and frustration.
I..."
Life (and book blogs) would be so boring without disagreement. And I rather like the opinionated guy who wrote better than average children's novels. Although his piss-take on European culture is outrageous. Who does he think he is, coming from a place that doesn't even have a culture to speak of at all! ;-)
Of course you are right when it comes to Dickens. But even his minor/unnecessary characters add spice to the meal. Whereas, imho, Pasternaks main characters make for thin gruel and the minor ones only add more water to that.
As 2021 enters its last few weeks, modern reading remains bang average but classic reading very good, consistent standardMy latest modern attempt is the genius from down under Gerald Murnane and his Collected Short Fiction from And Other Stories. The works date from mid 80s to the present times(so maybe not strictly modern!)
While i'm a big fan of Murnane, nothing of his i have read yet quite touches the odd, disciplined storytelling of "The Plains"(1982). Something so very Australian but also not Australian at all..
Back home yesterday to magnificently frozen Lake District, after my Brexit-allotted 89 days (out of a possible 90) in Spain, Portugal and France. My few days including a two hour wait at passport control in Portsmouth were enlivened by The Valancourt Book of World Horror Stories, Volume 1
. This is an excellent anthology of world horror. I look forward with great anticipation to the second volume, out in February 2022.
One reason why it works so well is that it encompasses the great variety there is in the genre. As the film reviewer and horror fan Mark Kermode says, don’t attempt to put horror into sub-genres, it is too difficult a task, and besides, what a regular reader of horror wants, is variety, and something a bit different. So, to travel the world seeking the folklore and resident evils so integral to the cultures of the countries, works really well in a short story format.
I’m going to just highlight my three favourites, though all of the stories were engrossing and entertaining.
From Mexico, Senor Ligotti by Bernardo Esquinca, from Ecuador, the slim few pages of Tiny Women by Solange Rodriguez, and from Hungary, a variation on the doll theme, The Time Remaining by Attila Veres.
It’s a bit like a worldwide Eurovision Song Contest, except far more enjoyable.
A special word for editor James Jenkins, who translated all but one of the stories himself.
Good to hear Neil Gaiman on Desert Island Discs this morning, though the questions he answered were hardly insightful.
MK wrote: "Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English VillageClick to get the full effect at Amazon..."
Sounds like fun - a small Christmas present for my wife, maybe - thanks!
Andy wrote: "Back home yesterday to magnificently frozen Lake District, after my Brexit-allotted 89 days (out of a possible 90) in Spain, Portugal and France. My few days including a two hour wait at passport ..."
Why the 2h wait at passport control, Andy? Up to 1h is not that unusual, but 2h seems excessive - was this Brexit-related, or something else? (Maybe someone should write a horror story set in an interminable queue for passport control...)
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "Back home yesterday to magnificently frozen Lake District, after my Brexit-allotted 89 days (out of a possible 90) in Spain, Portugal and France. My few days including a two hour wait..."
I think there’s more to be done after Brexit. Passports need stamping for example. There were only two booths open..
Previously I’ve been through in less than 30 minutes.
AB76 wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Further to all the great owl photos people have been posting, I was amused yesterday to see that Stanfords has 2 owl calendars this year, one big, one small:https://www.stanfords.co.u..."
Yes AB and GPFR, a good year for owls indeed.
A strong favourite for my book of the year is Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl, though I will wait until 31st December before confirming.
It obviously has some quite tremendous owls in it, but really is about the practicality of conservation, and has a superb location in the remote forests of Primorye.
Andy wrote: "Back home yesterday to magnificently frozen Lake District, after my Brexit-allotted 89 days (out of a possible 90) in Spain, Portugal and France. My few days including a two hour wait at passport ..."
Glad you got your 89 days Andy, in these covid times Brexit is merely another layer of bilge for any traveller but i would think you have managed an almost semi-normal 3 months(ish), yes? Like old times...?
A World of Strangers – Nadine Gordimer
A convincing picture of a racist society – South Africa in the late 1940s - from the easy opulence of a mining magnate to the bleak townships of “these natives”. Good quality, mid-century writing. You sense at once the confidence of the author, even though it was only her second published novel. The story becomes more engaging as it goes along. She tells it through the eyes of a young Englishman sent out by the family publishing firm. (There are perhaps more details of dress and decoration than might be remarked by a male author, but otherwise the male persona worked well.) The whole story felt deeply authentic.
Thank you to AB for the recommendation. Can you suggest a couple of others by NG? It may be a while before I get to them.
Currently getting into HE Bates’ Fair Stood the Wind for France, recommended here some time ago. More good mid-century writing.
A convincing picture of a racist society – South Africa in the late 1940s - from the easy opulence of a mining magnate to the bleak townships of “these natives”. Good quality, mid-century writing. You sense at once the confidence of the author, even though it was only her second published novel. The story becomes more engaging as it goes along. She tells it through the eyes of a young Englishman sent out by the family publishing firm. (There are perhaps more details of dress and decoration than might be remarked by a male author, but otherwise the male persona worked well.) The whole story felt deeply authentic.
Thank you to AB for the recommendation. Can you suggest a couple of others by NG? It may be a while before I get to them.
Currently getting into HE Bates’ Fair Stood the Wind for France, recommended here some time ago. More good mid-century writing.
Russell wrote: "A World of Strangers – Nadine GordimerA convincing picture of a racist society – South Africa in the late 1940s - from the easy opulence of a mining magnate to the bleak townships of “these nativ..."
the one i finished a few weeks ago "Occasion for Loving" is worth reading and i think her early short story collections are a great set of observations of 1930s and 1940s small mining towns in Transvaal (Gordimer grew up in such a place)
Glad you liked the novel Russell....i didnt get much interest in here for Gordimer, apart from you
Machenbach wrote: "my Nabokov obsession"Did you ever teach Nabokov? Or Banville for that matter?
Russell wrote: "A World of Strangers – Nadine GordimerA convincing picture of a racist society – South Africa in the late 1940s - from the easy opulence of a mining magnate to the bleak townships of “these natives”. Good quality, mid-century writing. You sense at once the confidence of the author, even though it was only her second published novel. The story becomes more engaging as it goes along. She tells it through the eyes of a young Englishman sent out by the family publishing firm. (There are perhaps more details of dress and decoration than might be remarked by a male author, but otherwise the male persona worked well.) The whole story felt deeply authentic.
Thank you to AB for the recommendation. Can you suggest a couple of others by NG? It may be a while before I get to them.
Currently getting into HE Bates’ Fair Stood the Wind for France, recommended here some time ago. More good mid-century writing.."
I must have missed AB's comments on this book because I've been thnking of trying something by Gordimer too - and since my 20th century reading has lately been centred on the late 1950s and early 1990s, this 1958 novel would fit right in.
And speaking of H.E. Bates, so would another 1958 book I have set my sights on, The Darling Buds of May, which I shiuld be getting to within the next few months.
Back to Gordimer, I was also looking at her 1994 novel, None to Accompany Me - anyone read that one?
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
Writers & Lovers (other topics)Real Life (other topics)
Conversations with Friends (other topics)
Sad Janet (other topics)
Headlong (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Gregory Galloway (other topics)Harry Crews (other topics)
Claire Oshetsky (other topics)
Paul Bannick (other topics)
Ivy Compton-Burnett (other topics)
More...
I wasn't keen on the first season, but from that point on I thought it was great, despite the mass disappointment with the final season. Unfortunately, the show followed the books so closely early on that I don't think I can read the books - I feel I'm just watching repeats.