What are we reading? 11/09/2023

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "I'm not sure it is possible... to find a definitive reason for the collabs, despite the great work by Nord and other historians in the excellent histories of the pe..."

i read that book on Brasillach, who at the time i didnt know, it was very interesting

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "Voyage au bout de la nuit – Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1932)

So far, this is proving to be an excellent read.

It is the story of a young soldier with front-line courier duties and his bottomless rag..."

there is something about the prose of Celine that has left mestill unable to read any of his novels, even Castle to Castle which has an interesting plot about the end of the Vichy collabs, huddled in various castles on the run.

i must try however to read "voyage" and its one of the cult books from my 20s, i still havent read

[scarletnoir]

Russell wrote: "Voyage au bout de la nuit – Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1932)

So far, this is proving to be an excellent read."

I have no personal view on Céline, since I haven't read any - but it's worth pointing out (especially in the context of recent discussions) that he is a controversial figure. From his Wikipedia entry:

From 1937 Céline wrote a series of antisemitic polemical works in which he advocated a military alliance with Nazi Germany. He continued to publicly espouse antisemitic views during the German occupation of France, and after the Allied landing in Normandy in 1944 he fled to Germany and then Denmark where he lived in exile. He was convicted of collaboration by a French court in 1951, but was pardoned by a military tribunal soon after. He returned to France where he resumed his careers as a doctor and author. Céline is widely considered to be one of the greatest French novelists of the 20th century but remains a controversial figure in France due to his antisemitism and activities during the Second World War.

[Paul]

Russell wrote: "Voyage au bout de la nuit – Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1932)

So far, this is proving to be an excellent read.

It is the story of a young soldier with front-line courier duties and his bottomless rag..."

You remind me that I've been meaning to read Celine again. I read Journey to the End of the Night many years ago and I thought it was fantastic. I have Death On Credit lying around somewhere around here.....

[AB76]

In the Cold War Period, there probably four major incidents that rocked the sly, brutal communist control in eastern europe

The 1953 workers uprising in East Germany
Hungary 1956
Czechoslovakia 1968
Solidarity and Gdansk Shipyard Strike 1980-81

The only one of these i have not read about in literature from the same period or later is Hungary '56. It clearly would have been a topic not to be mentioned if you wanted to live a quiet life but Kundera looked at 68, Polish authors wrote about 1980-81 and 1953 has been visited too but as yet nothing on Hungary 56

Magda Szabo sets The Fawn in 1954, despite writing the novel 4 years later, maybe to avoid any backlash and censorship

[MK]

I must be in a Memoir state of mind. I've finished R C Sherriff's No Leading Lady: An Autobiography where I discovered his passion and highest success were in writing plays, especially his first in the West End, Journeys End. The only book that is mentioned in this memoir (he calls it an autobiography) is a favorite here The Fortnight in September: A Novel. Several times he talks about the people he is successful writing about as the ordinary folks. The book was a really pleasant read.

But from there, I picked up the soon to be due back at the library, Getting Out of Saigon: How a 27-Year-Old Banker Saved 113 Vietnamese Civilians which is reading like a thriller. It's the story of a relatively novice banker being sent into Saigon in early April 1975 (April 30th was not so far away) to orderly shut down - as late as possible (there's a subtext here) - the Chase Bank there. While I expect there is some self-serving in the book, I'm looking forward to see if he can really pull off the closure and how he can save its Vietnamese employees.

Thanks to Clue, I've pulled Death in Bordeaux off the shelf and put it in the TBR pile. Sad to say I had tucked the Book Depository slip from 1915 in the book. I miss Book Depository but look on the bright side that I'm no doubt saving money.

Each Thursday I check out the Washington Post for book reviews, Here's a gift link for the book that I have already put on hold - https://wapo.st/3Rpz3Hq Title - .

Why is it that Haiti which had such a huge slave revolt so long ago is unable to create a viable country?

[MK]

Does anyone here have a good title about the Nobel family? Today I received an email from Bloomsbury featuring - . I've put it on my want list with the hope that it will sometime show up in paperback. But in the meantime, if anyone has another reading suggestion, I would appreciate it.

[AB76]

I'm 80% of the way through The Fawn by Magda Szabo(1959), the fourth of this great Hungarian authors novels to be translated in the last 15 years or so, released this year, translated by Len Rix.

I dont think i have ever read a novel by a woman that is so honest and disturbing in equal measures, there is nothing shocking or unpleasent in the actual story so far, it mainly depicts rural poverty, the effects of WW2 on Hungary(though only in small bits) and the communist years of the early 50s.

But its within the personal and familial relationships that a dead, cold hand lies over everything. Stripped, denuded of warmth and common bonds, there is something lacking at the heart of this world and its hypnotic.

The narrator, a young actress retells her story, moving backwards and to the present as the novel unfolds. Describing a poverty stricken background on the Great Plains, fame in communist Budapest as an actress, love affairs, her parents and their ways and manners. I found myself always expecting some elements of warmth but in the inner thoughts of this young woman is an icy calm, sometimes fiery rage but always a cold, hard surface where she remains detached and distant.

The translation is very good indeed, although a complete lack of footnotes is something that modern translations by Maclehose have in common. Place names are left hanging, without good Hungarian knowledge, you would miss the locations, plus there is not really enough on the 1940-1954 period which probably needs some attention.

However, these are small things when the novel is such a good read, very little really happens, its character rather than plot driven which as i get older, i value far more.

[[deleted user]]

scarletnoir wrote: "...From his Wikipedia entry:

From 1937 Céline wrote a series of antisemitic polemical works..."

That history of course is terrible, and I am glad to know it. On the other hand, there’s no sign of anything similar in this book, not yet anyway, and I can I think continue to enjoy the brilliance of the writing. Contrast something I read many years ago, the Journal 1939-45 of Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, who was probably even worse. There you really do have to wrestle with whether you want to be reading the cleverly written product of an appalling anti-semite. For my part, I think one should read just enough to learn for oneself what was regarded as normal and acceptable under Vichy, and then put it aside.

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "...From his Wikipedia entry:

From 1937 Céline wrote a series of antisemitic polemical works..."

That history of course is terrible, and I am glad to know it. On the other hand..."

Drieu was a vile human being, with the spine of a jellyfish. i notice a right wing publisher has one of his non-fiction works in new translation

i read a memoir by romanian fascist Corneliu Codreanu, which was also very difficult to read in its casual anti-Semitism and politics. my interest was in his character and the fact he was assassinated by the state. The amazon reviews for it were shameful, poisitioning him like some kind of visionary for todays problems!

[Tam]

I have had a very slow month of reading so far. I abandoned 'The Hearing Trumpet', by Leonora Carrington. I thought I would like it, she has nicely eccentric characters, but I could not work out the point of what she was trying to say. Grandma gets forced into a retirement home by her much disliked grandson, and family. Its a strange place, run a bit like a 'therapeutic 'cult'. But all the relationships with the fellow inmates seem to be a bit nasty somehow. I finally lost interest when she seems to be relaying an experience of being an emotionally neglected poor little rich girl. Not my cup of tea at all. It's a shame as I really like some of her paintings. I would have so much preferred it if she had written about her incarceration, and treatment in the mental health clinic that her family put her in, but maybe she was, and I just wasn't getting the references? I don't know...

Curiously though, Aeon came up with a 17 minute cartoon video of her and her friendships with other surrealist artist women which was good fun, https://aeon.co/videos/a-mindbending-...
And I really enjoyed it.

I have moved onto to 'The End of Days' by Jenny Erpenbeck, which I am enjoying so far. I have to thank Russel here, for mentioning the German philosopher Hegel, awhile back, which got me thinking about, and remembering, his books, which I probably haven't read for 30 years or so. Anyway the result is that it has caused me to reference him, rather to my surprise, in an article I have written on my blog about a visit to Dorset County Show. Thanks Russel for the unexpected input!... For those who are curious about such an unlikely juxtaposition https://jediperson.wordpress.com/2023...

On Tues we are off to meet the new grandson/sproglet, in Barcelona, (due on the 27th now). I have 'The Gran Tour: travels with my elders'... by Ben Aitken, found in our local church book exchange, to keep me company on the journey. Various other books are lying around, and trying to catch my eye, with an aura of melancholic neglect, and frantic occasional hand-waving at me, as I slide past them, but I'm not in the mood to read them. The most pompous hand-waving is coming from 'Faust'!...

The most polite hand-waving is from Elif Shafak's 'The Island of Missing Trees'. I like her a lot, but there is something amiss to me in her stories so far. All the women she portrays seem doomed from the start, and she doesn't seem to question it, or at least does not give her characters even the slimmest change of breaking free of patriarchal bondage, except in death. I find myself wondering where the hope is? Maybe that is the point she is making, but it seems, again, just a bit too melancholic for me to relate to at the moment.

[scarletnoir]

Tam wrote: "I have had a very slow month of reading so far. I abandoned 'The Hearing Trumpet', by Leonora Carrington. I thought I would like it, she has nicely eccentric characters, but I could not work out th..."

That's a pity - it's a book I've considered from time to time, as I find her paintings interesting as well. Not read your other choices either.

[giveusaclue]

Tam wrote: "I have had a very slow month of reading so far. I abandoned 'The Hearing Trumpet', by Leonora Carrington. I thought I would like it, she has nicely eccentric characters, but I could not work out th..."

Best wishes for the safe arrival of the new sproglet, mum and son.

[AB76]

Started The Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompson, my first read of his after an abortive train read of his Hells Angels book

The opening is pulled me in and the Puerto Rico location is interesting too, he started it in 1959, not quite sure when he finished it or wrote most of it.

[Gpfr]

giveusaclue wrote: "Tam wrote:

"Best wishes for the safe arrival of the new sproglet, mum and son...."

Warmly seconded!

And here's a Botticelli mother & child I saw in Strasbourg last month:

https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notic...

[AB76]

Just read an article including a mention of a Ukrainian professor who was held in captivity by the Russians in Donetsk. Apparently to keep sane he would give lectures to the rats he shared the cell with, to hear his own voice

It reminds me of Jozef Czapski teaching Proust in prison in the USSR and countless other imprisonments where people try to get through terrible times. The power of the mind and human spirit.....

[AB76]

First autumnal feel in the shires, which considering it is late september is remarkable, could be the warmest september on record on UK

After the brilliant Magda Szabo novel(which seems to have stirred no interest here at all. i guess its not a book prize nominee or a murder mystery novel), i have started The Rum Diary and Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

Baghdad Diaries 1991-2002 by Nuha Al Radi is an interesting account of life in the dark years of Iraq, the first section on the allied bombing of Baghdad, 1991, is very sad indeed

[Berkley]

MK wrote: "Why is it that Haiti which had such a huge slave revolt so long ago is unable to create a viable country?"

As you're probably aware, it's precisely because they staged a successful slave revolt that they were made to pay for it so exorbitantly for decades afterwards. No one on earth would have been able to construct a viable state under the conditions that were imposed on them, so, naturally, such a state has ever arisen - which has provided the usual suspects with a ready-made excuse to intervene whenever they feel like it.

[Berkley]

AB76 wrote: "After the brilliant Magda Szabo novel(which seems to have stirred no interest here at all. "

As usual, lack of comment doesn't necessarily imply lack of interest - I've added it to my list and might even get to it soon if I come across a copy, since I'm reading things from the late 1950s lately, off and on.

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "After the brilliant Magda Szabo novel(which seems to have stirred no interest here at all. "

As usual, lack of comment doesn't necessarily imply lack of interest - I've added it to my..."

good point Berkley.
i've been reading 1960s novels most in 2023, it wasnt a plan but of the 20 "classic novels"(written before 1980), i have read, nine have been from the 1960s

[giveusaclue]

Well, I finished reading

But would have great difficulty explaining it! Started with the immediate after effects of WWII in Tokyo, switches between 1995 and 2022 and briefly 2011. People have disappeared and our heroine is being asked to find them. The real baddy who appears at the beginning in the book in 1945 is after an asset but we don't know what that is until nearly at the end of the book.

All very confusing, I did enjoy it although probably not as much as the first in the series. I'm glad I persevered with it though.

[MK]

Is CCC among the missing?

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "Is CCC among the missing?"

That is a worry.

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "Is CCC among the missing?"

I have sent her a message hoping she is ok. Will report back if I get a reply.

[AB76]

giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Is CCC among the missing?"

I have sent her a message hoping she is ok. Will report back if I get a reply."

she posted at the beginning of this thread, so maybe she is on hols somewhere. i really hope she is ok if thats not the case

always love her posts and observations

[giveusaclue]

AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Is CCC among the missing?"

I have sent her a message hoping she is ok. Will report back if I get a reply."

she posted at the beginning of this thread, so maybe she ..."

Just got a message to say difficult time through family illness and hopes to be back posting soon. Hope all ends well for her and the family.

[MK]

giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Is CCC among the missing?"

I have sent her a message hoping she is ok. Will report back if I get a reply."

she posted at the beginning of this thread, ..."

Thanks

[MK]

Under "Who Knew" I thought I was pretty conversant in US History until I downloaded The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America. I had no idea that, among other accomplishments, Mrs. Anna Rosenberg was Assistant Secretary of Defense under George C Marshall.

From the author's page here is a 2 minute youtube synopsis - https://www.christophercgorham.com/th...

And another link - https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war...

She also took on the Right and Senator McCarthy. This piece of history gives me hope that the US will survive the Trump Era (although I'd prefer that aspartame got him first).

Needless to say, I am a fan.

[MK]

I know we are about to change, but for Slough House fans who want to listen to Mick Herron's latest (for free!) heres the link (available 'til mid-October) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00...

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "I know we are about to change, but for Slough House fans who want to listen to Mick Herron's latest (for free!) heres the link (available 'til mid-October) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00..."

I have the ebook downloaded ready to read!