Reading the 20th Century discussion
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What books are you reading now? (2024)
I'm reading The Children of the Dead. I started Monday, and have made all of 15 pages so far. Clearly this is going to displace my 16-year-old's reading of The Brothers Karamazov as the hardest book I've ever tackled. The language is gorgeous, though. And I think I might just have figured out how to let it crash over me without drowning. I THINK I have gotten a glimmer of what is going on, so I have some hope. My goal was to read 10 pages a day, which would let me finish in a little under 2 months. Apparently I'll need to revise that goal.
Mod
I'm tempted and intrigued by this - keep meaning to check out a sample in Waterstones.
Roman Clodia wrote: "G wrote: "I'm reading The Children of the Dead. I started Monday, and have made all of 15 pages so far. Clearly this is going to displace my 16-year-old's reading of The Brothers K..."Me too, I was contemplating reading it over the Christmas holidays, I love the imagery in the sections I've read online but there's no narrative momentum so might be a slog to get through several hundred pages.
Mod
www.goodreads.com/review/show/6838658031
Haven't started this yet but a friend took me to her library (where she is a volunteer) and we browsed the used books for sale shelves and I found one I'd read about, Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, edited by Emily Bernard.
Roman Clodia wrote: "I seem to be tagging along after Alwynne (!) as I've just finished My Good Bright Wolf: A Memoir by Sarah Moss - harrowing and brilliant:www.goodreads.com/review/..."
Think we're pretty much even in terms of overlap! You got to the Kushner before I did. Just relieved you thought this one was worth reading.
Jan C wrote: "Haven't started this yet but a friend took me to her library (where she is a volunteer) and we browsed the used books for sale shelves and I found one I'd read about, [book:Remember Me to Harlem: T..."Sound fascinating Jan.
Mod
Oh yes, so good and I agree that it gets even better after the first part on her childhood. I think it might be one of the most harrowing books about mental health/eating disorders I've read. And excellent on that Foucaultian stint on the psychiatric ward. I'm getting more and more interested in issues of gender, shame and 'madness'.
Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Just relieved you thought this one was worth reading."Oh yes, so good and I agree that it gets even better after the first part on her childhood. I think it might be one of the mo..."
I agree, the sections dealing with her hospitalisation were particularly arresting and horribly dispiriting. I really admire her ability to deal with personal issues while viewing them from a range of critical perspectives. She even made me want to read Arthur Ransome! I'm reading Dorothy Wordsworth's diaries now based on Moss's observations, quite engrossing, fascinating in terms of the figuring of relationships to the natural world.
I finished Lambda award-winning author Jon Macy's Djuna: The Extraordinary Life of Djuna Barnes a graphic biography. A decent, if slightly shaky, intro to Barnes's life and work, as well as an overview of bohemian New York post-WW1 and the literary/artistic circles dominating 1920s Paris.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Me too, also the courage it must have taken to write this with such vulnerability and openness.
How interesting about Dorothy Wordsworth - I've always loathed Wordsworth's poetry so much that I could never face her writing!
Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "I really admire her ability to deal with personal issues while viewing them from a range of critical perspectives."Me too, also the courage it must have taken to write this with s..."
So far lots of walks and thoughts about flora/fauna, and some brief entries along the lines of 'Drank tea' or 'Forgot what happened' which made me think of Molesworth think he was the character who said things like 'Forgot what did..'
Nowhere near as annoying as her brother's poetry, although there was one section from The Prelude about skating - iirc - that I liked but this was at school, so very dim memory.
Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "Just relieved you thought this one was worth reading."Oh yes, so good and I agree that it gets even better after the first part on her childhood. I think it might be one of the mo..."
If you haven't tried it then think you might find Emily Holmes Coleman's The Shutter of Snow well worth reading, definitely fits with themes around 'shame', madness and women's hospitalisation. I'm planning to read Suzanne Scanlon's Promising Young Women soon which also fits the bill.
Mod
Mod
www.goodreads.com/review/show/6848886050
Roman Clodia wrote: "I've read an ARC of This Immaculate Body and found it brilliant! It takes the trope of the obsessive and deluded stalker and gives it a literary makeover: www.goodreads.com/revie..."
That sounds fascinating, I finished Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story which I enjoyed reading but still mulling over my thoughts, I'm undecided as to whether her particular feminist vision is radical or slightly conservative.
I finished Olga Tokarczuk's The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story inventive and absorbing, I enjoyed puzzling over this one, and I liked her underlying commentary on misogyny in European thought. But I wasn't entirely convinced her arguments fitted together, I found them slightly confused/confusing - had similar reactions to earlier work.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
If anyone's interested in getting a sense of the style/tone of the novel, this New Yorker story's adapted from/reconfigures passages from it.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
I sped through Joanna Miller's debut novel The Eights for me it hit that sweet spot between literary and page-turner. It explores the friendship between four women undergraduates at Oxford in the 1920s, the highs and the lows, and the challenges of rebuilding a life in the aftermath of war. Likely to appeal to fans of writers like Alice Winn and/or vintage women's fiction/Virago novels and/or books like The Group, Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth and/or period dramas like Downton but without Downton's more conservative leanings. Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished The Pursuit of Love last week, and have finally had time to write my review. I'm on to Love in a Cold Climate now. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I listened to The Enchanted April as read by Wanda McCaddon. (For anyone who saw my post in the Midnight Bell topic about dreadful audiobooks, I had finished this well before my run of bad luck with the format. I have found McCaddon to be a solid audio narrator. Perhaps not crème de la crème, but reliably excellent.)Reading this made me realize that I have a growing interest in how female writers portray male-female relationships, especially marriage, and how those portrayals have changed over time. Funny how you can have an ideal gestating for a long time, and not even know it until a single experience brings it out. And once it's out, you want to know more right away.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Alwynne wrote: "I sped through Joanna Miller's debut novel The Eights for me it hit that sweet spot between literary and page-turner. It explores the friendship between four women undergraduates a..."I have been approved for this one.
I've been reading books for Spinster September this month, so yesterday I finished the latest book in the British Library Women Writers series, The Camomile: An Invention by Catherine Carswell. I thought there were some really interesting ideas buried within a less than engaging story. It wasn't my favourite in the series, but I did like it.
Today I am going to be starting Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee.
Tania wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "I sped through Joanna Miller's debut novel The Eights for me it hit that sweet spot between literary and page-turner. It explores the friendship between four women ..."Cross my fingers you don't hate it! I have the old VMC edition of the Carswell, I did dip into it but it didn't grab me, should probably try again. Reassuring you didn't find it that engaging either.
Mod
I have this too. It's going to be interesting reading it alongside The Rachel Papers 😉
Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "I sped through Joanna Miller's debut novel The Eights for me it hit that sweet spot between literary and page-turner."I have this too. It's going to be interestin..."
Well that improves my odds, reckon one of you has to like it! If not may have to go into temporary hiding.
There are some grating observations about other women scattered here and there - for instance Otto refers to someone as 'bovine' - but all seemed to be from specific character perspectives and I interpreted them as representing forms of internalised misogyny/class prejudice rather than reflecting the author's own views. And Dora's stunning looks are a bit over-egged at times.
I'm halfway through Mariana Enriquez's collection A Sunny Place for Shady People I think I like her short stories more than her longform work. It's a bit uneven but the first two stories were so good think it's going to be worth reading for those alone. Know you read it too R. C. and I think liked it but not going to revisit your review until I've finished and written mine up. I love that the title comes from Somerset Maugham's nickname for the Riviera and the idea of somewhere that can seem shiny on the surface but has a darker, sleazier side.
Mod
I did indeed like this - but won't say more till you're done.
I finished Argentine author Mariana Enriquez's latest short-story collection A Sunny Place for Shady People less graphic/more restrained than Our Share of Night these are closer to weird fiction than full-on horror. As usual Enriquez probes issues around gender, femicide, women's relationships with their bodies; Argentina's troubled past and challenging present. Some pieces felt a bit undercooked but there was enough here that stood out to make it well worth reading.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Anyone unfamiliar with Enriquez's work who'd like a taster can read the opening story here, for free:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
I just listened to the audiobook of The Secret Adversary read by Emma Fenney and can heartily recommend avoiding it. The book completely lost its charm in this performance. Granted that is partly the result of reading a formulaic work in late late middle age that one enjoyed in young adulthood, but the competent but uninspired performance sharpened the disillusionment.
Mod
What a shame! It's not the best Christie but Tommy and Tuppence are adorable.
I just picked up The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story at the library. I have been working my way through The Children of the Dead and loving it, but the text is so thick I really cannot manage more than a few pages a day. I may have to put it down in order to focus on the Tokarczuk, since that one cannot be renewed. Also, In the Hour of War: Poetry from Ukraine arrived for me.Moreover, I just started the audio of Milkman last night, because I did not expect The Empusium to show up this early.
When library holds attack.
Mod
I finished a fantasy novel by Mai Mochizuki The Full Moon Coffee Shop featuring a mystical coffee shop and shape-shifting cats. It's very much in the cosy mould, an increasingly popular subgenre for many readers of Japanese fiction in translation. It's very decent example of its kind but much of it revolves around astrology which I view as hokum - apologies to people who follow it. For anyone who likes this kind of book and doesn't have issues with astrology then it's a reasonable choice.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just read The Life and Loves of a She Devil / Fay Weldon . Relentlessly funny and such a good satire she anticipates the boom in cosmetic surgery by at least a decade . It's a picturesque delight . Has anyone read it ?
Mod
www.goodreads.com/review/show/6874555266
Roman Clodia wrote: "I've read The Eights that we've mentioned here before (thanks, Alwynne!) and would recommend it to those of us who love Virago and stories of women in the 1920s: www.goodreads.co..."
Glad you liked it, it's definitely a good commuter, late-night read, what's now called 'upmarket fiction' which lands between literary and commercial.
I finished debut fantasy novel from Korean author Jungeun Yun The Marigold Mind Laundry also classed as 'upmarket fiction' but not as satisfying. This was on the South Korean bestseller lists for months, seems the advance for the rights for the English-language version were far in excess of the amount paid for Han Kang's latest. It's the latest entry in the growing line of K-healing novels, a hugely popular genre in South Korea and doing well as an export. This is a decent example but found some elements a bit too trite/sentimental for me.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished Ann Liang's debut adult novel A Song to Drown Rivers Liang was born in Beijing but is now based in Australia and this was partly inspired by stories she heard from her mother. Set around 470 BCE, it's a retelling of the life of Xishi a legendary beauty - think China's equivalent of Helen of Troy, in more ways than one. An accomplished, literary page-turner I really enjoyed this one. Ignore some of the GR reviews/labels btw. It's not YA it was written for adults, it's also not romantasy - which seems to have thrown some readers who assumed it was - it does feature a love story and there are some magical realist scenes at the end but that's it.
Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished a debut novel by acclaimed Sichuanese poet/artist Yu Yoyo Invisible Kitties despite the icky title this is actually a surprisingly fresh, inventive piece that veers off into some intriguing territory.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished my second Claudia Piñeiro novel. I really did not enjoy the read itself, but after finishing I came to like it a great deal more than I had during the reading itself. Some books are like that.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Between my trip and being without cable/cell service for a few days I listened to Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War. Basically biographical about four journalists from between the wars. Most of it was kind of humdrum, like who cares about their affairs?, and then there was discussion of John Gunther's son's death.
I finished acclaimed Japanese author Suzumi Suzuki's novella Gifted her fiction debut which was considered for the Akutagawa Prize. It's a disciplined, sometimes oblique examination of the impact of grief/loss and a troubled mother/daughter relationship. I liked this one a lot and found her narrator's approach to coping with grief recognisable/relatable.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished Han Kang's We Do Not Part: From the International Booker Prize-winning author of The Vegetarian a complex compelling account of the aftermath of atrocities that took place on Jeju Island in the late 1940s, as well as a series of reflections on the cost of working with material of this nature.Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Nigeyb wrote: "Well that sounds like a must-read esp as I loved The Vegetarian - thanks Alywnne"That's great Nigey, glad you're a fan too!
Mod
Maxwell Bodenheim (1892-1954) cut a memorable Boho figure in Chicago and New York between the World Wars, but spiraled downward to a Cornell Woolrich finish, murdered along with his wife in a Manhattan flophouse in 1954. All 14 of his novels, of which Blackguard was the first, were published in a burst between 1923 and 1933. Blackguard is an interesting, not completely successful performance, but I am glad to have read it. It has status as a Chicago novel and a Jewish proletarian novel, but the main thrust is the interior life of a disaffected, talentless young poet, Carl Felman, whose high self-regard and low regard for everything and everyone else does capture a mood of the times (which would repeat 40 years later in the Sixties), even if Carl is not always the most pleasant fellow to spend time with.
Roman Clodia wrote: "Good to hear as I have an ARC of the Kang as well - I wasn't that keen on her last book but loved The Vegetarian too."The style does hark back to the last one, it's quite a palimpsestic piece, so echoes of a number of her earlier works. Some of the questions she's asking are possibly a bit naive, not really ones that can be answered. But I think it's an important book in terms of Korean history, and it does resonate beyond that, made me think of Spain and the attempts to deal with the legacies of the Civil War, including the projects to find and re-bury the lost dead.
Reading the 20th Century
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Link to my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...