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Weekly TLS
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What Are We Reading? 28 February 2022
Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Ramuz is getting a few mentions this week in our circle, so I thought I'd jump on board as well... The Reign of the Evil One by [author:Charles-Ferdinand R..."
Walser is a must read, i recommend his novel "The Assistant"
Somerset Maugham is a steelier, harder and darker writer than the suave image many are presented with in photos of him.The short stories in Collected Short Stories Vol4 (1951), mostly come from a dark and realistic place in the human pysche. Tales of desperation, revenge and murder, mixed with a storytelling panache that equals Graham Greene and most likely influenced Greene too.
Locations are islands and colonies around the tropics and some British locations. A theme develops around the human experience and boredom or dislocation, two of the longer stories in the mid-section look at penal situations and its pressures
A joy to read, am half way through
@ Lljones, what a wonderful picture to open this thread with - those sunflowers brought a smile to my face. Thank you for stepping in to oversee this discussion group.@ Anne - hope you are ok :)
I've finished a couple of Michael Connelly books - A Darkness More Than Night and City of Bones. Both reasonably compelling reads - the latter sees Bosch handing in his badge. Now I really want to know what happens next and I don't have the next one.
However, my TBR pile being what it is, it is probably for the best that I try and get through some other books.
I've started The Fear Index by Robert Harris, which I find myself quite engrossed in.
Others I am dabbling in are Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett and Exercised - The Science of Physical Activity, Rest and Health by Daniel Lieberman.
A couple of quick ones this morning.. thought I’d report back. The first in particular is of interest, though not to the squeamish..
Dead Pig Collector by Warren Ellis
A romantic encounter over a corpse disposal; a hitman arriving at his mark only to find out someone got there before him, and messed up. ..
Ellis pulls off a lot in a remarkably short amount of pages. His characters, two unlikely lovers, are sketched wonderfully, so much so that at the conclusion the reader really hopes they can make a go of it.
He makes the dismantling of a cadaver into something unexpectedly moving.
I see it referred to as a novella, but at 35 pages, it’s more of a short story.
Either way, it’s a whole lot of fun.
Though based in New York, Ellis is British, and works chiefly with screenwriting, where he has had some success. But I shall keep my eye out for his writing in the future.
and, The Spy by César Aira translated by Alfred J. MacAdam. Not Aira at his best, but that quirkiness is still evident.
This is a short story, published initially in Bomb magazine, and then freely available on the Electric Literature website.
In the first half of the piece Aira meditates on identity and the role of the actor in ‘the play of life’. It’s a sort of preparation for the second part, for which he must put on something of a false persona in negotiating over a kidnapping in a situation reminiscent of Argentina’s troubled political past.
Robert Walser comments on CF Ramuz in "Walks With Waler", the great Romand(Swiss French) author had just died and Walser says that Ramuz was most distinctive of the Western Swiss writers but was not so keen on his regionalist style.I guess a lot of that is probably lost on non-Swiss readers or writers but i actually feel with Ramuz that his regional focus is part of the attraction, he is bringing this relatively small world of French Switzerland to life
Elsewhere, "Aftermath" is a very well composed study of Germany in the decade after WW2. Written by a German, it offers views and opinions from the German post-war view, as opposed to a similar book written by a Brit.
Lastly, i have started Brian Moore's 1990 novel Lies of Silence set in troubles era Ulster. So far it hasnt really got going with the tension but it will be interesting to see how Moore writes about the Belfast he captured in the 1950s, a few generations later
Andy wrote: "A couple of quick ones this morning.. thought I’d report back. The first in particular is of interest, though not to the squeamish..
Dead Pig Collector by [author:Warren Ellis|1277..."
Very disappointed to realize that's not the true Warren Ellis.
I read Sam Selvon's "The Lonely Londoners" today. I've wanted to read it for a long time and it didn't disappoint: sad, funny, humane.
The Harz Journey and Selected Prose – Heinrich Heine – trans. Ritchie Robertson (Penguin, 1997)
I posted briefly on this before. I’ve now finished the book, and what an uncategorisable pleasure it was.
From the joy-of-nature in “The Harz Journey” through the satirizing of church establishments in “The Town of Lucca” and the fantasia (whimsy is too light a word) of “Ideas: The Book of Le Grand”, with its believable portrait of Bonaparte lording it in the newly conquered Rhineland, to the serio-comic study “History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany” extolling freedom of thought as a product of German Protestantism, and finally the “Memoirs” telling of his mother’s efforts to direct his education towards one useful profession after another, so terrified was she that he might become a poet, it is a record of a humane and liberal mind engaging enthusiastically with life.
I enjoyed reading it at intervals over a period of months. Some passages, it has to be said, were a heavy lift. Nor is it easy to give a summary of Heine’s outlook. The longest, most fully thought-out piece comes with a later preface disowning what he wrote. It was more about discovering the personality of Heine - a man of substantial learning and occasional anger who mainly expresses himself through a flowing stream of inventive and very charming humour.
To give just one example of his style, here is what he says, after conducting the French reading public from Spinoza and Liebniz to Kant and Fichte, about the unfortunate Schelling who could never bind his thoughts into a system:
“In fact it often seems to me necessary also to distinguish where his thinking ends and his poetry begins. For Herr Schelling is one of those creatures whom nature has endowed with more of an inclination to poetry than poetic potency, and who, unable to satisfy the daughters of Parnassus, have fled into the forests of philosophy, where they live in sterile wedlock with abstract hamadryads.”
On a darker note, Heine writes at some length, In this same piece from 1835, on the underlying forces in German life. He has a prescient warning for the French. You have more to fear from a liberated Germany than from the entire Holy Alliance. Someone will arise, a kind of philosopher of nature, who will feel anew the lust for battle of the ancient Germans. Take care not to fan the fire. Maintain your weapons. Do not laugh at my advice.
…..
I want also to thank @Georg for putting me on the track of Heine’s vivid piece about his first encounter with “Don Quixote”. Not included here, but I was able to find it, in a translation by Havelock Ellis, on Project Gutenberg. He is such a fascinating writer. His passionate and free-ranging response draws in poetry, politics and the later development of the European novel. He loved Scott.
I posted briefly on this before. I’ve now finished the book, and what an uncategorisable pleasure it was.
From the joy-of-nature in “The Harz Journey” through the satirizing of church establishments in “The Town of Lucca” and the fantasia (whimsy is too light a word) of “Ideas: The Book of Le Grand”, with its believable portrait of Bonaparte lording it in the newly conquered Rhineland, to the serio-comic study “History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany” extolling freedom of thought as a product of German Protestantism, and finally the “Memoirs” telling of his mother’s efforts to direct his education towards one useful profession after another, so terrified was she that he might become a poet, it is a record of a humane and liberal mind engaging enthusiastically with life.
I enjoyed reading it at intervals over a period of months. Some passages, it has to be said, were a heavy lift. Nor is it easy to give a summary of Heine’s outlook. The longest, most fully thought-out piece comes with a later preface disowning what he wrote. It was more about discovering the personality of Heine - a man of substantial learning and occasional anger who mainly expresses himself through a flowing stream of inventive and very charming humour.
To give just one example of his style, here is what he says, after conducting the French reading public from Spinoza and Liebniz to Kant and Fichte, about the unfortunate Schelling who could never bind his thoughts into a system:
“In fact it often seems to me necessary also to distinguish where his thinking ends and his poetry begins. For Herr Schelling is one of those creatures whom nature has endowed with more of an inclination to poetry than poetic potency, and who, unable to satisfy the daughters of Parnassus, have fled into the forests of philosophy, where they live in sterile wedlock with abstract hamadryads.”
On a darker note, Heine writes at some length, In this same piece from 1835, on the underlying forces in German life. He has a prescient warning for the French. You have more to fear from a liberated Germany than from the entire Holy Alliance. Someone will arise, a kind of philosopher of nature, who will feel anew the lust for battle of the ancient Germans. Take care not to fan the fire. Maintain your weapons. Do not laugh at my advice.
…..
I want also to thank @Georg for putting me on the track of Heine’s vivid piece about his first encounter with “Don Quixote”. Not included here, but I was able to find it, in a translation by Havelock Ellis, on Project Gutenberg. He is such a fascinating writer. His passionate and free-ranging response draws in poetry, politics and the later development of the European novel. He loved Scott.
The Guardian has an article on good books about Ukraine. I have read Bulgakov's The White Guard and Kuznetsov's Babi Yar, and can recommend both.
Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Ramuz is getting a few mentions this week in our circle, so I thought I'd jump on board as well... The Reign of the Evil One by [author:Charles-Ferdinand R..."
Durrenmatt wrote an excellent essay on theater, but I fear that I didn't care much for his plays.
Robert wrote: "The Guardian has an article on good books about Ukraine. I have read Bulgakov's The White Guard and Kuznetsov's Babi Yar, and can recommend both."Ah, that's good to hear. The Kuznetsov is on my shelf, but it's somewhat intimidating with its heft and heaviness
Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan C. SlaghtFirst of all - thanks to those who recommended this book - I think Andy and CCC, and probably others as well. It was a real pleasure.
Slaght recounts his 5 years of fieldwork and analysis, first of all learning how to detect the rare and huge Blakiston's fish owls in the Primorye region of eastern Russia. Once he and his Russian collaborators know where the owls are nesting, they devise and refine methods to trap them, and place rings and trackers on the owls, allowing Slaght to find out where they spend most of their time - their favourite fishing places etc.
The tale not only gives a good and well written description of the owls, though - we also learn about the characters who live there, the conditions on the ground, and the privations involved in such fieldwork - especially in winter. The research leads on to recommendations for owl conservation, passed on to logging companies and the local conservationists.
One unforeseen event split my reading of the book in two - the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. On finishing, I was left wondering whether the war, and the consequent withdrawal of westerners from such research projects (I assume), will seriously impact such conservation projects in future... the area also has a threatened tiger population.
It also begs the question of the degree to which famous westerners should distance themselves from Putin, whose habit of having opponents jailed or assassinated was well known even before his land-grabs in Crimea and Ukraine. For example, Slaght writes:
President Vladimir Putin has visited Primorye several times to oversee conservation efforts and personally hosted a global tiger summit in Moscow that attracted the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Naomi Campbell... So, should those two face criticism or sanctions? Just asking...
Re: impact on research, here in Denmark we were "asked" last week to withdraw from all research collaborations with Russian and Belarussian institutions. I would imagine the same message is going out in other countries.
Mod
The Bookseller's Tale by Martin Latham is a delight. On first picking it up, I thought it would be another of those books where the bookseller tells humorous tales about their customers, but not at all. It's a "history" of the book and reading - 'comfort' books, finding the right nook in which to read, chapbooks ... I'm about a third of the way through and loving it.
Veufveuve wrote: "Re: impact on research, here in Denmark we were "asked" last week to withdraw from all research collaborations with Russian and Belarussian institutions. I would imagine the same message is going o..."yes, i think an academic sanction and exclusion plan will be kicking in to punish the murderous invading regime.did you work with any Veuf?
Robert wrote: "Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Ramuz is getting a few mentions this week in our circle, so I thought I'd jump on board as well... The Reign of the Evil One by [author:Charle..."
i would say his short and interesting novels were his best works. i also read a collection of his essays which was interesting, Switzerland has produced some very interesting writers in its time
Next classic novel is Jean Luc Perscuted(1909) by Swiss French author CF Ramuz, who has been mentioned in these threads over the last few weeks.Ramuz wrote about the mountain communities of his native canton (Vaud) and neighbouring Valais, locations with French speaking majorities and German minorities on the shores of Lake Geneva.
His style and approach is almost parable like and enticing, alongside the unusual swiss french surnames. Nature and the currents of life are key concerns and the half a dozen books translated into english are recommended to the TLS by me.
I actually wasnt aware of this 2020 translation, its also one of his earlier novels
I love photos of writers at their desks...see photo section for one of CF Ramuz, at his desk
AB76 wrote: "Veufveuve wrote: "Re: impact on research, here in Denmark we were "asked" last week to withdraw from all research collaborations with Russian and Belarussian institutions. I would imagine the same ..."No, doesn't impact me at all.
I just picked up Pontopiddan's "A Fortunate Man" from the library. Crikey, it's a big book.
Veufveuve wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Veufveuve wrote: "Re: impact on research, here in Denmark we were "asked" last week to withdraw from all research collaborations with Russian and Belarussian institutions. I would imag..."yes, will be interested to see what you think of it, been on my list for a while
scarletnoir wrote: "Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan C. SlaghtFirst of all - thanks to those who recommended this book - I think Andy and CCC, and probably others as well. It was a real pleasure.
..."
Interesting review SN, particularly the last couple of paragraphs.
Next modern novel, in a good run so far is a Cuban one Havana Year Zero by Carla SuarezOrdered it from Charco Books and i my next three modern novels after this have all been anti-amazoned, order direct from the publisher. Although my reading plans can be awry...
Lessons from the Edge: A Memoir
by Yovanovitch, MarieJust put it on hold at the library - expected pub date in a couple of weeks.
Here's one for Mario The Cat Saw Murder: A Rachel Murdock Mystery
Could he have posed for it? Does Mario have a secret sideline? Who will tell?😉
Tam, still nothing on why Walser started to write in micro script style from "Walks With Walser".
Its an engrossing slim volume mind you, as he accompanies Carl Seelig on quite energetic strolls in Eastern Switzerland, in all weathers.I am getting quite well informed about the town of St Gallen and its walks, the amount of food they get through is astonishing too, hearty breakfasts, full lunchs and lashings of beer.
Swiss central in AB land right now...Walsers walks, the Ramuz novel and also the futurist art of Mario Chiattone.....
AB76 wrote: "Tam, still nothing on why Walser started to write in micro script style from "Walks With Walser". Its an engrossing slim volume mind you, as he accompanies Car..."oh well perhaps something will come up? Can I send you on a digression? If you are feeling like it... in the art direction, of a Swiss artist, Paul Klee, who is one of my favourites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee I just love his portraits of his cats, but mostly it is his adventure boathttps://i.postimg.cc/2yn637Jq/downloa... Happy Trails....
Mod
It wouldn't surprise me. 😉
(Speaking of Mario, see new post over on "My Family and Other Animals".)
Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam, still nothing on why Walser started to write in micro script style from "Walks With Walser". Its an engrossing slim volume mind you, as he ac..."I do like Klee, though my favourite Swiss artist is Vallatton. I have some books Klee wrote on the pile somewhere...sketchbooks and pedagogical ones
New Yorker article on Walsers miscroscripts(a way of avoiding writers block apparently):
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...
They: A Sequence of Unease – Kay Dick (1977, 2022)
In the garden there are high, trimmed hydrangeas. “They expressed ritual and care.” That first page sets the tone. Restrained language, afternoon tea. Only gradually do you realise what awaits people who read books, people who are in the arts, people who do not submit. Spooky and menacing. A small, well-crafted piece of jewellery, set on the quiet Sussex coast.
Thanks to Andy for the great review last month.
In the garden there are high, trimmed hydrangeas. “They expressed ritual and care.” That first page sets the tone. Restrained language, afternoon tea. Only gradually do you realise what awaits people who read books, people who are in the arts, people who do not submit. Spooky and menacing. A small, well-crafted piece of jewellery, set on the quiet Sussex coast.
Thanks to Andy for the great review last month.
AB76 wrote: "Veufveuve wrote: "Re: impact on research, here in Denmark we were "asked" last week to withdraw from all research collaborations with Russian and Belarussian institutions. I would imagine the same ..."We're hard at work on the 1950s Russian scare formula-- this revival started when Hillary wasn't elected President-- where we can't reach the Kremlin, but can hound each other.
MK wrote: "Here's one for Mario The Cat Saw Murder: A Rachel Murdock Mystery."A companion piece to Agatha Christie's
, where the 'witness' is a dog? (There is a very cute dog in the David Suchet TV adaptation - referred to by Poirot as a 'fox terror'!)
Tam wrote: "Can I send you on a digression? If you are feeling like it... in the art direction, of a Swiss artist, Paul Klee, who is one of my favourites..."One of my favourites, too - we saw a wonderful exhibition a few years ago - my memory is poor, but I think it must have been the one held at the Tate Modern in 2014 - our main reason for trips to London these days is to see such exhibitions:
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate...
We have a couple of reproduction Klees on the walls, as well as a few by his erstwhile Bauhaus colleague, Kandinsky. Of course, Klee had the honour of being included in the Nazis' exhibition of 'degenerate art', and books about him were burned:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/conten...
Just finished Room at the Top, my first time reading this famous 1957 novel. Much more lively and at the same time more clinical and self-aware than I'd been expecting or fearing - I think all these years, due to the "Angry Young Man" tag it was saddled with early on, I've had the idea that it was probably a kind of dreary screed full of resentment: an attitude I might sympathise with from one perspective but that didn't sound like a whole lot of fun to read. And that was there, but it was presented in such an analytical way that at no point did I feel disdain for the narrator/protagonist - he did all that for me. Also, I found the story itself completely involving as sheer soap-opera, while the narrator's penetrating observations - of the nuances of his own feelings, the social structure of his surroundings, etc - raise it far above that level. Sorry I put it off so long, now. The whole thing was pretty emotionally devastating, though, especially towards the end.
Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam, still nothing on why Walser started to write in micro script style from "Walks With Walser". Its an engrossing slim volume mind you, as he ac..."I did enjoy this:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2404425/...
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/im...
Russell wrote: "The Harz Journey and Selected Prose – Heinrich Heine – trans. Ritchie Robertson (Penguin, 1997)I posted briefly on this before. I’ve now finished the book, and what an uncategorisable pleasure it..."
I am now almost through "De l'Allemagne".
Heine once said something along the lines of his readers being the Sancho Pansa's to his Don Qixote. As it is I am still a very happy Sancho, enjoying his shenanigans. I never know beforehand the places he will take me to. But that makes the travelling so very exiting.
He makes me see things, he educates me, he makes me laugh.
I have never come across a writer who is so present. Should I read a biography? I might. Just to learn about his background, his life. I doubt I would learn much more about his person(ality) than what he himself tells me on and between the lines.
On the "disowning what he wrote": he did that very often. I am tempted to say: Kudos to him for it. It shows his honesty, his fearlessness and, of course, his attitude. Though I must admit that I felt a bit disturbed on one occasion: in his "Confessions" he relates that he had, eventually, "found God" (not that he had ever really "lost" him imo). No great surprise and very understandable: this was two years before he died, he had been bedridden for six years already at that time. But why did he, who had spent a good part of his (writing) life attacking the clergy now apologize for that?
It is easy to read into what Heine said about the forces in Germany a prediction of Nazism. Too easy.
He wasn't a prophet. He just had intuition. And with the same intuition he also foresaw that Communism would destroy the arts.
"Ideas: the book Le Grand" is one of my favourites. Mainly for his musings on the sublime and the ridiculous being so close together.
If you ever fancy reading more Heine I think you might enjoy two literary pieces:
"The Memoirs of Herrn von Schnabelewopski" (worth reading for the story of the truss-makers dreams of Biblical women and the reaction of his wife alone)
"The Gods in Exile" ( a bit gothic-y, a bit cock-and-bull with one absolutely hilarious plot twist, ending on a slightly melancholical note)
And "Heine on Börne. A Memoir." (translation: "Heine on Heine")
For anybody interested in German Romantic literature:
Read Heine's "The Romantic School"! Sure: you could get much more out of a scholarly work on that subject. But with Heine you will have a lot of fun while learning. He is unabashedly subjective/opinionated, often scathing. But he hardly ever fails in tempering his harshness with praise and vice versa.
To my reckoning, these are the books I’ve read in the last few months that are eligible for the International Booker, and have a chance of making the Longlist. It is announced on Thursday. Start with the ones I wasn’t very keen on..
Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda, translated from the Spanish (Ecuador) by Sarah Booker. A teacher loses her temper with annoying teenagers - branded horror, but rather a slow thriller.
Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen, translated from the Danish (Faroes) by Caroline Waight. Reliant too heavily on its setting in the Faroe Islands. The writing not compelling enough otherwise on a meditation about culture and identity.
Oldladyvoice by Elisa Victoria translated from the Spanish (Spain) by Charlotte Whittle. A ‘Zazie In The Metro’ for our sexualised times.
The Melting by Lize Spit translated from the Dutch by Kristen Gehrman. An overlong reflection back to adolescence, and a tragic incident that shaped the lives of those involved.
The Agents by Grégoire Courtois translated from the French by Rhonda Mullins. Speculative science-fiction that didn’t work at all for me.
And those that did.. counting down to my favourites..
The Liquid Land by Raphaela Edelbauer translated from the German (Austria) by Jen Calleja.Having lived away for many years, a woman returns to her rural home to bury her mother; hugely entertaining, and manages to broach serious themes of guilt from an intentionally ignored past.
To See Out the Night by David Clerson translated from the French (Canada) by Katia Grubisic. A disturbing set of short stories about people struggling to find their place in life; a lonely night shift worker, a homeless person, someone lost in grief, and another, suicidal. From the wonderful publisher QC Fiction.
New Year by Juli Zeh translated from the German by Alta Price. A mid-life crisis stroke verge of a nervous breakdown for a guy on holiday with his family in Lanzarote.
Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun translated from the Korean by Janet Hong. An unusually structured crime thriller, told in eight vignettes.
Brickmakers by Selva Almada translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Annie McDermott. A new translation of an older Almada book concerning a gay relationship in small Argentinian town riddled with homophobia, so much so that it ends in tragedy, but from the embers emerge strong women. Charco Press.
The Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid translated from the Hebrew by Yardenne Greenspan. A nameless historian prepares his PhD dissertation on the process of Nazis’ extermination techniques while supporting himself and his family by guiding high school students in Poland.
Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić translated from the German, though the author is Bosnian, by Damion Searls. A fictionalised memoir; along with his mother, Stanišić fled his home town of Višegrad in the former Yugoslavia (now Bosnia) at the age of 14, and settled in Germany. Timelines flit between the modern day and 1990s Yugoslavia as Stanišić describes his experience as a refugee.
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung translated from the Korean by Anton Hur. A melange of twisted fairy tales carried off by Chung's straight bat, totally deadpan - fascinating.
Rooftop by Fernanda Trías translated from the Spanish (Uruguay) by Annie McDermott. Clare, who narrates, lives in a run-down Montevideo apartment with her bedridden father and infant daughter. The only respite from the claustrophobia of their oppressive rooms is the rooftop. A blend of horror and the southern American writing similar to Flannery O'Connor, and it works really well. From the Edinburgh based, Charco Press.
Call Me Cassandra by Marcial Gala translated from the Spanish (Cuba) by Anna Kushner. Effeminate and bookish, 10 year old Rauli grows up in a Cuba suppressed by Fidel Castro. His drunken father and violent older brother enforce a gender stereotype from which he rebels; he prefers to wear dresses in a culture that prizes machismo. At times lost in a dreamworld, he sees himself as Cassandra, the Trojan princess of Apollo, cursed to utter true prophecies. He, or she, can see the demise of those around him, and indeed himself, as a young soldier in Angola, where he is dispatched to as part of a Cuban Intervention at the age of 17.
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Frances Riddle. Elena is a 63 year old widow suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease, who has doubts about the cause of the apparent suicide of her daughter Rita, who was her carer. Another from Charco Press.
The Sky Above the Roof by Nathacha Appanah translated from the French (Mauritius) by Geoffrey Strachan. 17 year old Wolf is arrested by police and sent to a remand centre after causing a road accident when driving without a license. He is trying to find his older sister who left home 10 years earlier after a heated argument. The writing has a deeply emotional poignancy, when from the precise one might have expected bleakness. Beautiful, and my favourite..
AB76 wrote: "Next modern novel, in a good run so far is a Cuban one Havana Year Zero by Carla SuarezOrdered it from Charco Books and i my next three modern novels after this have all been anti-amazoned, orde..."
I have this on my tbr list AB - must get to it soon - keen to get your thoughts.
I really hope our Anastasia is ok, with things getting worse and worse in the Ukraine. I donated money to refugees in the Ukraine over the weekend and will be looking to assist any refugees who arrive locally in the next few months (once Pritti Patel gets things sorted out)I hope Anastasia is in Poland,Romania, Slovakia or Moldova now and safe, with pets, kids etc
I dont really feel like reading any Russian themed books or novels either, my cold war reading will be halted for a few months i think. Its balancing a pragmatic, rational approach to the war and also the emotional impact of a pointless infliction of suffering on a free people
Russell wrote: "They: A Sequence of Unease – Kay Dick (1977, 2022)In the garden there are high, trimmed hydrangeas. “They expressed ritual and care.” That first page sets the tone. Restrained language, afternoon..."
Great that you enjoyed it.
I thought I might be alone, I know Tom Mooney didn't like it...
Andy wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Next modern novel, in a good run so far is a Cuban one Havana Year Zero by Carla SuarezOrdered it from Charco Books and i my next three modern novels after this have all been anti-am..."
its got off to a good start Andy, it reads well and i never knew about Muecci and his invention of a prototype telephone until now. Havana is such a wonderful setting for novels but i had forgtten the Malecon was built under Yankee occupation. (that was my research, not in the book)
Andy wrote: "To my reckoning, these are the books I’ve read in the last few months that are eligible for the International Booker, and have a chance of making the Longlist. It is announced on Thursday. Start ..."
I liked Juli Zeh's "UnterLeuten" very much."Corpus Delicty" was thought provoking. "New Year's Day" is a novel I wish I could claim at least half of my reading time back at full price. The other half I'd gladly bury.
I finished Malice
today. I thought it had a very layered plot, like one of those sets of Russian dolls that fit inside one another. To be honest the adjective that it made me think of is cold - the book didn’t have any warmth, all a little too clinically clever but know others enjoy them. There is the second in the series in my pile and I guess I will get around to reading it sometime maybe give the author another chance.
Mod
There is the second in the series in my pile and I guess I will get around to reading it sometime maybe give the author another chance..."
As I said in my earlier post re The Newcomer, it's quite a different atmosphere - much warmer and lighter.
Lined up for when i finish AFtermath 1945-55 is Guevaras "Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War" which has only just been published in english in 2021. I would have thought that anything like that on Cuba would have been in print for decadesThe vagaries of whats in print and whats not always puzzles me. Lessing, who was the darling of the literary world for a long period in the 2000s and had a lot of her back catalogue re-issued, seems to have had a lot of her non-fiction ignored, why the discrepence?
Likewise, it can be a real hunt to find some interesting gems from english language authors while their recent, inferior novels, are on every shelf
Georg wrote: "Andy wrote: "To my reckoning, these are the books I’ve read in the last few months that are eligible for the International Booker, and have a chance of making the Longlist. It is announced on Thurs..."Yes, I remember reading someone saying something similar when I first reviewed it..
On reflection it only had its moments. Good, not great.
Just looking at the Women’s prize for fiction longlist. I’m keen on Salt Lick.
But wanted to give a shout for This One Sky Day by Leone Ross. I really hope this goes on to be shortlisted. It’s a really clever novel set on what is most likely a group of Caribbean islands.
Ideal when watching the cricket from Antigua.
I thought it might make last year’s Booker.
She invents some great characters.
I may have called it Popisho in my review, it’s title outside the UK.
Andy wrote: "Just looking at the Women’s prize for fiction longlist. I’m keen on Salt Lick.
But wanted to give a shout for This One Sky Day by Leone Ross. I rea..."
the cricket looked a bit dodgy early on.....!
AB76 wrote: "Andy wrote: "Just looking at the Women’s prize for fiction longlist. I’m keen on Salt Lick.
But wanted to give a shout for This One Sky Day by [author:Leone Ross|3..."
Bit more solid now.
We are ranked bottom of the world..
Nice timing, watching cricket from the Caribbean.
Mod
Yes, I remember reading someone saying something similar when I first reviewed it..
On reflection it only had its moments. Good, not great."
If you're referring here to New Year, as I've said here before, I really liked it.
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Ersatz TLS
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The Reign of the Evil One by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz..."
Cheers AB.
I’ve read all translated Durrenmatt, enjoy those. Most of his plays also.
And a few from Chessex. Some of the others are on my vast tbr list, which I tier these days.. The rest I will look up.