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What are we reading? 20 March 2023
almost Equinox, enjoy the extra daylight:)
Mod
Yes, indeed, tonight at 22.24 and 24 seconds French time, 21.24 and 24 seconds UK time!
Here are some spring flowers to celebrate, growing on the lawns around our town hall.
Mod
The Interpretation of Murder by Jed RubenfeldSigmund Freud visited the US only once in his life, in 1909. According to a brief foreword by the writer,
Despite the great success of this visit, Freud always spoke, in later years, as if some trauma had befallen him in the United States.Rubenfeld imagines he became involved in a murder investigation.
I've just started this � we'll see how it goes.
Thanks G for the new thread.I have just finished Ann Cleeves' latest Vera book The Rising Tide. 50 years ago a teacher took a group of 6th formers to Holy Island for a weekend where bonds are forged. Every 5 years after that the former students meet there for a reunion. At the first reunion on of them storms off after a row and is caught by the incoming tide and drowns. Back to the present day when they may up again having forged different lives for themselves. Then one of them is found hanged - suicide or murder? You can guess.
It wasn't a fast moving book but I did enjoy it very much.
Mod
I enjoyed it, too.
Blossoms and daffodils are springing into the light, as yet no trees, though the horse chestnuts should be soon.Reading going well, in Black Like Me John Griffin supplies a dark narrative of life as a black man in the deep south, 1959. Using medication and a sun lamp, he successfully passes for black throughout the south, everywhere finding the bitterness of prejudice and hatred from the whites. Hitching lifts he is subjected to long dialogues from white men on all manner of sexual proclavities that they deem "you people" are all up to. One man calmly expresses the view that if you want to kill a black man in the south, you just do it and leave him in a swamp, its easy.
Canadian noir is new to me but David Montrose in The Body on Mount Royal supplies humour and high jinks, in a decidedly Anglo-Montreal setting.
In The End of the STory Argentinian author Liliana Heker writes of the dark torture chambers of the Argentinian regime in the 1970s, the narrator writes of a schoolfriend who has been abducted and is now being raped and tortured at the hands of the Argentine navy. Its interesting to see the leftist views of the narrator and her friend, a decade or so before having those views would have meant torture and death. Death is all around in the Navy basement, women being electrocuted and raped, this account may be fiction but having read the "Nunca Mas" testimonies, all this actually happened
I‘ve just finished reading Eleanor Scott‘s „War among Ladies � first published in 1928 and republished by the British Library (Women’s Classics) in 2022. It is centred on the female staff at a girls� school in the 1920s, specifically on the existential worries of older single women who are struggling to fulfil the requirements for their pension. Should they need to retire early ( i.e. before they have worked at least 30 years) because of ill health or their inability to continue to function adequately, they lose not only their complete pension but also the money they have been more or less obliged to pay in to an additional pension fund. They are left penniless. This system has considerable repercussions on the school’s academic performance, the girls� behaviour, and staff relationships, the latter resulting in a form of war (see title).
Eleanor Scott gives a remarkable insight into the social situations of these women ( e.g. their accommodation, landladies) and their younger colleagues - the characters are convincing, the story page-turning despite the mainly joyless content.
MK - thanks for your post as last post of the last thread.. I for one, am certainly interested by this book, and suspect others may be two.
The book in question, Retracing the Iron Curtain: A 3,000-Mile Journey Through the End and Afterlife of the Cold War by Timothy Phillips.
I had seem something about it a month or two ago, in a different guise though, with the title The Curtain and The Wall: A Modern Journey along Europe’s Cold War Border.
Five months on, and it gets a new title�
I've always been interested in the writings and descriptions of London through the eyes of immigrants from accross the empire, mostly from the 1950s when the first significant accounts were written and published. Many of the best african, Indian and west indian authors of this period ended up in the great city, documenting the way of life, the prejudice and the loss of illusions that sadly confronted them. Samuel Selvon was one of these writers, alongside Braithwaite,Salkey, Naipaul and Lamming who wrote about London. I read The Lonely Londoners a good decade ago and have chosen Moses Ascending(1975) as my next.
For anyone interested in a positive british view of the cultural effects of 1950s immigration, the three novels that Colin MacInnes wrote about West London are worth reading (City of Spades,Absolute Beginners,Mr Love and Justice, all written between 1956-1962)
The Guardian didnt seem to like this post at all....typical
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Betty Boo by Claudia Piñeiro (trans. Miranda France)You know those crime books where plot is everything and the 'characters' are pawns pushed this way and that by the author? Well, 'Betty Boo' isn't like that - no, not at all.
It starts with the murder of a wealthy businessman inside a gated community outside Buenos Aires. Pedro Chazarreta is found with his throat cut from ear to ear, in precisely the same way as his wife three years previously. Murder or suicide?
Lorenzo Rinaldi, the devious and unprincipled editor of the El Tribuno newspaper, decides to cover the story with a two-pronged attack: he appoints his inexperienced new 'crime correspondent' the so-called "Crime Boy" (whose name we never learn) to follow up the story from a journalistic POV, but also hires his ex-lover, novelist Nurit Iscar (the 'Betty Boo' of the title) to stay in the gated community and write background colour pieces. Crime Boy feels ill-prepared to cover the story, and co-opts the former crime correspondent Jaime Brena - sidelined by Rinaldi's machinations - to help. These three soon form a team to try to solve the mystery.
The major strength of the story lies in Piñeiro's ability to develop these (and other) characters, making them wholly believable human beings and providing plausible motivations for their actions. The writing is of a high standard and fluently translated; there are also some amusing and at times very funny passages.
One aspect I liked less lay in the style of punctuation: we get very long paragraphs - sometimes running to four pages or more - and dialogue is included within these with no quote marks. Even though these discussions often run on from one character to the next with no break, it is usually easy enough to figure out who is speaking - but it still looks daunting on the page.
In a book of this type, the structure is rather unusual: for the first 150 pages or so, not a great deal 'happens' - we get to know the protagonists, and the strange rituals associated with gaining entry into the 'community'; then the pace accelerates considerably and the bodies fall thick and fast. I rather feel that the first half could have been shorn of some digressions with no adverse effect. The plot - the reason for the mayhem - is nothing unusual, but I suppose the long lead in to the investigators - and therefore the reader - finding out much about the victim(s) helps to maintain suspense until towards the end.
Overall, then - I enjoyed this book very much. It could have been even better had some of the digressions been shortened or eliminated. I do intend to read more by this author.
I have Claudia Piñeiro on my to-read list but it'll be awhile yet before I get to her or anyone else from the 2000s onwards.My two most recent books were both from 1992: Iain Banks's The Crow Road and Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Both very entertaining page-turners but I think I would have enjoyed them even more if I had read them around the time they came out, when I would have been closer to the age group and life-experience of their protagonists, who are in their early 20s and at university. Tartt's book is more of a campus novel than Banks's, the latter only peripherally concerned with the lead character's academic career.
For audio book fans, I see from wikipedia that Donna Tartt herself did the reading for the audio book of The Secret History - does this happen often, I wonder, authors reading their own books aloud for the audio version? I might have to look for a sample online just out of curiosity to hear what she sounds like.
Berkley wrote: "I have Claudia Piñeiro on my to-read list but it'll be awhile yet before I get to her or anyone else from the 2000s onwards.My two most recent books were both from 1992: Iain Banks's [book:The Cr..."
I like Tartt and have enjoyed all three of her novels so far - 'The Little Friend' and 'The Goldfinch' are the others.
I read Banks' 'The Wasp Factory' probably soon after publication (1984), didn't like it and have not returned...
Andy wrote: "MK - thanks for your post as last post of the last thread.. I for one, am certainly interested by this book, and suspect others may be two.
The book in question, [book:Retracing the Iron Curtain:..."
I'm sure I mentioned a short bus ride from Lubeck to a small museum that was originally an East German border post. I still remember being told that the East Germans had to import their barbed wire from the west. And I see that little museum is still there today.
So often when we think of the East German border, it's Berlin we turn to. I am really looking forward to the book and the many smaller places that were affected.
Diana wrote: "I‘ve just finished reading Eleanor Scott‘s „War among Ladies � first published in 1928 and republished by the British Library (Women’s Classics) in 2022. It is centred on the female staff at a girl..."Thanks. I didn't realize the British Library also is doing this for women- although it looks as though they have not made it to this side of the Pond.
MK wrote: "Diana wrote: "I‘ve just finished reading Eleanor Scott‘s „War among Ladies � first published in 1928 and republished by the British Library (Women’s Classics) in 2022. It is centred on the female s..."It’s the British Library Women Writers series, to be exact: a series of novels written by forgotten female authors who were successful at the time of writing. I‘ve bought and read most of them (attractive covers!). Fascinating for insights into women’s lives and very enjoyable.
scarletnoir wrote: "I read Banks' 'The Wasp Factory' probably soon after publication (1984), didn't like it and have not returned ..."I came to Banks through his science fiction books. I'm only now going through his non-SF, except for The wasp Factory, which I read around the early 2000s, when I was starting to get into his Culture series and other SF. I've enjoyed them all, to some degree.
The only flaw in The Crow Road for me was that I didn't really like Prentice, the first-person narrator and protagonist. It didnt spoil the novel for me but it did take it down a notch or two from where I would have rated it otherwise.
Berkley wrote: "I have Claudia Piñeiro on my to-read list but it'll be awhile yet before I get to her or anyone else from the 2000s onwards.My two most recent books were both from 1992: Iain Banks's [book:The Cr..."
Have you been able to see the serial of The Crow Road? It was very good.
scarletnoir wrote: " I read Banks' 'The Wasp Factory' probably soon after publication (1984), didn't like it and have not returned...reply | flag"
I loved the Wasp Factory, but I can definitely understand how it could have been off-putting. Thanks all for the reminider that I need to give Banks another read.
Every year turns up some good literary finds and googling canadian noir led me to The Body on Mount Royal
, which is a rollicking read.Noir and crime novels always deliver the same ingredients, what i look for is a sense of place and possibly deeper thoughts on the nature of life and living. Montrose supplies that alongside the sharp action, without layering the text too much, its part a wry love letter to the city of Montreal and part a dry comedy of errors, packed into a sometimes violent crime situation.
There is a self deprecating humour at work, bungling is as much part of the plot as the other factors. Teed, the PI, is an ex-army and McGill man, with a penchant for bachelor cooking, the dames are curvy and alluring, oddly though this is an Anglo-Montreal novel, the sizeable english speaking minority in the city is where the characters come from, very few French-Canadians intrude. "Two Solitudes" as the canadian author Hugh Maclennan described the city and its language divide.
Paul wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: " I read Banks' 'The Wasp Factory' probably soon after publication (1984), didn't like it and have not returned...reply | flag"
I loved the Wasp Factory, but I can definitely ..."
I don't have a clear recollection - it was a long time ago - but sort of think that I found the book unpleasant to read AND pointless. I can do 'unpleasant with a point to it'. Maybe I missed something? The author didn't speak to me - we're all different.
As for SF, I haven't read any since my teens except by accident, so won't be returning to Banks via that route.
AB76 wrote: " The Body on Mount Royal, which is a rollicking read....though this is an Anglo-Montreal novel, the sizeable english speaking minority in the city is where the characters come from, very few French-Canadians intrude. "Two Solitudes" as the canadian author Hugh Maclennan described the city and its language divide."
That's a clever description. I may give this book a go.
As for Montreal-based murder tales, the multi-talented Kathy Reichs has written a whole series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, frequently based in both Montreal communities - and even offshoots. Reichs is a very highly qualified forensic anthropologist in real life, and has written many academic books and articles on the subject as well as assisting in the investigation into mass killings in Guatemala, Rwanda - and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
What to say about the novels? I read them mainly for the forensic science which is detailed and fascinating. 'Tempe' Brennan is an interesting and pleasant protagonist, but the plots are nothing special in themselves. What kept my attention was the totally authentic science... but you do get a feel for the language divide in the books. Tempe works in both worlds, and is bilingual.
scarletnoir wrote: "Paul wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: " I read Banks' 'The Wasp Factory' probably soon after publication (1984), didn't like it and have not returned...reply | flag"
I loved the Wasp Factory, but I ca..."
It's been a long time since I read The Wasp Factory. All I can say is that it made me read more Iain Banks. His other books are very different. Loved "The Crow Road" (which has one of the best opening sentences ever: It was the day my grandmother exploded.). And "Complicity".
He is also one of the writers who, like his fellow Scot Rankin, can convey a sense of place,
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: " The Body on Mount Royal, which is a rollicking read....though this is an Anglo-Montreal novel, the sizeable english speak..."
thanks for that SN...will google her
i dont think Montrose could write the same novel in 2023, 70 years ago Montreal had a stronger anglo presence and communities than now, with the language laws and the quebec nationalists being in power within the state for 4 decades, changing so much
giveusaclue wrote: "Have you been able to see the serial of The Crow Road? It was very good."No, but I'm curious to see it now. I'll probably wait a while, though - not sure it's a good idea to watch it too soon after reading the book. I think leaving a gap of at least a few months might help me to give the serial a more fair viewing. If I watched it now I'd almost inevitably judge it solely as an adaptation of the novel rather than on its own merits as a tv series.
Georg wrote: "He is also one of the writers who, like his fellow Scot Rankin, can convey a sense of place."Ian Rankin certainly achieves that with Edinburgh - which is why I found the two or three London-based stories less satisfactory.
I don't recall any 'place' in the Wasp Factory - I thought it all happened in some anonymous sand dunes. But then, memory has never been my strong point, and still less as I get older.
Georg wrote: "It's been a long time since I read The Wasp Factory. All I can say is that it made me read more Iain Banks. His other books are very different. Loved "The Crow Road" (which has one of the best opening sentences ever: It was the day my grandmother exploded.). And "Complicity".He is also one of the writers who, like his fellow Scot Rankin, can convey a sense of place"
Complicity will by my next Banks, as I'm taking them in chronological order. I may skip one or two along the way for now, as there are so many other books I want to read but I like his work so I'm sure I'll get to all of them eventually. Have you read his science fiction as well?
scarletnoir wrote: "That's a clever description. I may give this book a go.
As for Montreal-based murder tales, the multi-talented Kathy Reichs has written a whole series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, frequently based in both Montreal communities - and even offshoots. Reichs is a very highly qualified forensic anthropologist in real life, and has written many academic books and articles on the subject as well as assisting in the investigation into mass killings in Guatemala, Rwanda - and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
...
What to say about the novels? I read them mainly for the forensic science which is detailed and fascinating. 'Tempe' Brennan is an interesting and pleasant protagonist, but the plots are nothing special in themselves. What kept my attention was the totally authentic science... but you do get a feel for the language divide in the books. Tempe works in both worlds, and is bilingual.."
I like the concept and the Montreal setting so I'll likely give this series a try at some point. The Montrose book that AB76 has been talking about as well.
Two Solitudes is a good book, both in itself and as a window into the French/English question that is so integral to Canada's history. My next Hugh MacLennan will be The Watch that Ends the Night (1959), since the late 1950s is one of the eras I've been focusing on in my reading the last couple of years.
Berkley wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "That's a clever description. I may give this book a go.
As for Montreal-based murder tales, the multi-talented Kathy Reichs has written a whole series featuring forensic anthr..."
i havent seen that Maclennan around actually, the 1959 one, until about ten years he was impossible to find in Blighty. "Barometer Rising" remains a superb novel, one of the best i have read
Just added the 1959 novel to my list, thanks berkley
Going to extremely easy modern day Miss Marpleish types, I have just discovered Jan Durham's series set in Whitby. Definitely coming under the cozy reads description but enjoyable if you don't want to do any heavy thinking.I have just read
and have started on
Berkley wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "That's a clever description. I may give this book a go.
As for Montreal-based murder tales, the multi-talented Kathy Reichs has written a whole series featuring forensic anthr..."
In the wrong thread, should be over in Films, but some maybe interested by the Quebec crime adaptation of Three Pines, based on the Louise Penny novels.
I thought it was quiet well done. There’s six in the first series, and the stories are spread over two episodes. The first and last were good, not so much the middle one..
I’ve read two of the International Booker Longlist in the last few days, and whereas I appreciated both, I wouldn’t go so far as to say I liked them.. Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel .
This is a novel about nostalgia, looking back on life with the rose-coloured glasses, something that I myself do not like to do, a reason perhaps why I didn’t find it kept my attention. But it’s also about mental decline, and gives us all a chance to ponder on how we might deal with that condition should we ever be unlucky enough to suffer from it.
The narrator introduces Gaustine, a character intentionally vaguely drawn, who jumps: "from decade to decade just as we change planes at an airport�, a ‘vagrant in time�. Gaustine twists an idea the narrator had for a novel, into an actual project, to create ‘clinics of the past�, to assist in the treatment and care of people dealing with Alzheimer's and other forms of memory loss.
But the concept, which is hugely popular, becomes a victim of its own success. It isn’t long before entire nations embrace the idea, and want to turn back time to earlier eras. A whimsical thought-experiment, but one in practice strewn with cow-pats.
In setting the scene, the first part of the novel, Gospidonov is at his strongest. But follows various ruminations on different countries, some of which appeal, and others less so. Understandably, there is a lot of focus on Bulgaria, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
It becomes a much more personal narrative, something at times of an overindulgence.
The narrator’s own memory is beginning to fail him, and the author uses the tactic of a fragmented and jumbled account, and this isn’t easy to follow.
It’s relevance is undeniable, and another of the novel’s strengths; distressed by an immediate future many find difficult to face, a longing for the past has become a way out.
and, Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth translated from the Norwegian by
Charlotte Barslund
.
. I’ve clearly not learned my lesson that Hjorth’s writing really isn’t for me. This is the third of her books I have read, and I have been disappointed by all three.
Previews here are inaccurate. This isn’t a plot driven novel, rather one that examines a fraught and estranged mother-daughter relationship.
Johanna, a widowed painter of nearly 60 years old, with an adult son with a child of his own, has not seen or heard from her mother and sister for almost thirty years, finds herself in Oslo with work, with her mother living very close to her rented apartment.
Johanna’s intelligence and emotion are evident. Here, Hjorth excels, but there are large parts of meandering witter where the novel goes nowhere.
At half the page count, this would have a much better chance of gripping far more readers. I am not its target audience, but to ensnare people like me and carry me along is something a good author strives for.
and, a recommendation, that I just finished today, one of the latest from Valancourt.. Bezill by John Symonds.
This is a really interesting reissue of a forgotten novel of 1962. It crosses several genres, yet doesn't quite belong to any.
Geoffrey Pellerin travels to an English mansion, Bezill Tower, deep in the countryside, to serve as tutor to a sickly 15 year old epileptic, Herbert. The previous tutor departed under mysterious circumstances, but that more strange things await Pellerin on his arrival.
Herbert's widowed mother, Mrs Shakeshaft, is passionately fond of blood sports, and her peculiar companion, Mr Gayfere, has a curious interest in flagellation. There's a locked room in the tower, said to contain the belongings of Herbert's aunt, who now resides screaming in a mental asylum.
Herbert himself is far from a normal boy, though he finds a mentor in Pellerin.
As things steadily progress amongst the eccentricities, Herbert's distant mother charges Pellerin with another task, to explain to Hector the facts of life.
Is it a fantasy, as its previews suggest? I suppose so, but in a very small part only, in the same way that it is a ghost story, or a piece of horror. But to put that label on it does it a disservice. It would be misguided to embark on this book believing it to be that.
Though set in the early 1960s, the mansion that Pellerin tutors at seems set in a time much earlier than that, in the culture and attitudes of its inhabitants, and in its descriptions. As if as a reminder that it actually isn't, Symonds slips in the mention of a TV at one time.
There's a wonderful gothic atmosphere to the piece as a whole, and the fact that it all plays out without any criminal event, or scare, is beside the point, it entertains hugely, and it’s often darkly humorous. The few paragraphs that involve a supposed ghost seem to be a clever misdirection by Symonds, and its not the only one.
The book is a really good example of what Valancourt do so well, in the reissuing of a book that is very likely to be more appreciated now than it was when it was released.
All change on the book reading and starting my first Graham Greene novel in 5 years...Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History by Steven Zipperstein has been on my pile since 2018, studying the first real publicised "pogrom" in the era defined by anti-semitic violence in Imperial Russia. Its a short book but am looking foward to a study of why it happened and further enquiry into life in the Jewish pale. Hopefully i can find out the language divide in the Jewish population, the 1897 Russian census doesnt show Yiddish or Hebrew as languages just "Jewish" in Kishinev and Bessarabia.
Last year i read Greenes very short Congo Diary, written as he composed his 1960 novel A Burnt Out Case, it is Greenes second africa -set novel and i am looking foward to a trip back to Greenlandia.,...
I also watched the pathetic waffling of a disgraced ex-PM on tv.....
Andy wrote: "In the wrong thread, should be over in Films, but some maybe interested by the Quebec crime adaptation of Three Pines, based on the Louise Penny novels."I sampled the Inspector Gamache series by reading the first one - Still Life - but found the plot absurd and the characters uninvolving, so no more for me. We did also try the TV series - bad books can make for good TV, sometimes - but bailed after 20 minutes or so. It didn't take.
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "In the wrong thread, should be over in Films, but some maybe interested by the Quebec crime adaptation of Three Pines, based on the Louise Penny novels."I sampled the Inspector Gamac..."
I've only read one Louise Penny novel. That was enough.
Georg wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "In the wrong thread, should be over in Films, but some maybe interested by the Quebec crime adaptation of Three Pines, based on the Louise Penny novels."I sampled..."
I tried one once but so awful gave up after about 20 pages
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "In the wrong thread, should be over in Films, but some maybe interested by the Quebec crime adaptation of Three Pines, based on the Louise Penny novels."I sampled the Inspector Gamac..."
I read one or two early ones but they became progressively odder and I bailed too.
scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "In the wrong thread, should be over in Films, but some maybe interested by the Quebec crime adaptation of Three Pines, based on the Louise Penny novels."I sampled the Inspector Gamac..."
Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who found the whole idea of Inspector Gamache and Three Pines a little too much to swallow. Another, besides Janice Hallett, that I have struck off my list is Anthony Horowitz as I found his first one 'too cute by half.'
I'm back to tried and true at the moment with an Emma Lathen paperback for bedtime. Tomorrow while I wait in the Podiatrist's office, I'll have a Mario Balzic mystery -
- a series which I imagine is not well-known here. The setting is a rather down and out town in Pennsylvania. This one is one I had missed previously.
MK wrote: "I'm back to tried and true at the moment with an Emma Lathen paperback for bedtime."I read and enjoyed many of Emma Lathen's tales when in my teens, though I rather doubt that I'd be so taken now with a series in which the 'investigator' is a Wall Street banker!
(A quick check on Wikipedia reveals that "Emma Lathen" is a nom-de-plume: Emma Lathen is the pen name of two American businesswomen: economic analyst Mary Jane Latsis (July 12, 1927 � October 29, 1997) and attorney Martha Henissart (born 1929). The pseudonym is constructed from two authors' names:[1] "M" of Mary and "Ma" of Martha, plus "Lat" of Latsis and "Hen" of Henissart.)
Indian Nocturne by Antonio Tabucchi (trans. Tim Parks)The author's note at the start of the book begins:
As well as being an insomnia, this book is also a journey. The insomnia belongs to the writer of the book, the journey to the person who did the travelling... The 'insomnia' part certainly feels appropriate!
Tabucchi goes on to say that he made a journey to the places mentioned in the story, and provides a list... I checked them out on Google Maps, and sure enough, they are real places all right. Why include the list? Possibly because of:
the illusion that a topographical inventory , with the force that the real possesses, might throw some light on this Nocturne where a Shadow is sought...
Indeed... our protagonist travels to India, after receiving a mysterious message regarding a former friend, one Xavier (the exact state of their current relationship, if any, remains unclear). He follows the trail from Mumbai (Bombay) to Madras and then Goa... but this superficially realistic setting frames an entirely insubstantial narrative, in which the reader must infer - or invent - a great deal. Along the way, the narrator has a number of strange encounters with various people, some of which have a distinctly dream-like quality.
This is an unusual and beautifully written book which has been fluently translated. It has far more in common with Tabucchi's 'Requiem: a Hallucination' than with his more traditional novels which I've read (Pereira Maintains and The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro). I enjoyed it very much. As with 'Requiem', it is very short - 115 pages - and some may balk at paying £7.69; the e-book is cheaper, and no doubt 'pre-owned' (as they now call it) copies must be available.
Of course, it certainly won't appeal to everyone - and in a spirit of even-handedness, I offer you my favourite negative review from Amazon:
Very poor plot. No literary value. Don't waste your money or time.
... which made me laugh, though I can see why a reader wedded to plot would feel like that. It's a legitimate response, after all.
It was a 'toss up' between 'My Family and other animals' and 'Archaeology . . . ', and I chose the latter for a feel good piece from today's NYT. Take a look.
scarletnoir wrote: "Indian Nocturne by Antonio Tabucchi (trans. Tim Parks)The author's note at the start of the book begins:
As well as being an insomnia, this book is also a journey. The insomnia be..."
Wow, I only mentioned that 4 days ago and you've already read it.
I was a bit puzzled by "As well as being an insomnia...", because my German translation has this as 'As well as being the result/product of insomnia...'. Which is quite different. It didn't take long to find that the English translation is true to the original ("Questo libro, oltre che un’insonnia, è un viaggio").
No reason that I should feel cheated by the German translation, there was nothing obvious that marked it as substandard. But still...
scarletnoir wrote: "Indian Nocturne by Antonio Tabucchi (trans. Tim Parks)The author's note at the start of the book begins:
As well as being an insomnia, this book is also a journey. The insomnia be..."
i have read some Tabucchi but it wasnt that memorable, unlike classic italian lit, especially post war to 1970s, i am underwhelmed by most modern italian literature, well most modern literature.
Am so glad i havent attempted reading Shuggie what-its-name, Kevin Barry novels and all of that stuff, i just know i will loathe it
Georg wrote: ".Wow, I only mentioned that 4 days ago and you've already read it."It's a very short book! I have ordered two more by Tabucchi (and one more by Claudia Piñeiro) on the basis of the pleasure given by my recent reads. The Tabucchis should arrive today...
(BTW - have you read his 'Requiem'? I think you would enjoy it.)
AB76 wrote: "i have read some Tabucchi but it wasnt that memorable."I wonder which one(s) you read? I've read two moderately traditional tales, and two almost plotless efforts - but what appeals to me is the style of writing (the "author's voice"). I've noted before that if an author's style doesn't click with me, I can't read them no matter what the 'experts' may say. Perhaps it's the same for you? I know we like some of the same authors, and react differently to others: that's how it should be, IMO.
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You can distinguish an alligator from a crocodile by (view spoiler)
🐊
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "i have read some Tabucchi but it wasnt that memorable."I wonder which one(s) you read? I've read two moderately traditional tales, and two almost plotless efforts - but what appeals ..."
the danger for me is the "commute reads" as i called them when i was stuffed on hot, slow trains for an hour every morning trying to digest good books. Concentration was fine but i found fatigue bore down on me, with the warmth and the horrible smells of public transport. In some ways i should maybe read Tabucchi again, in a comfortable chair, in my own space....lol
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
The Leviathan (other topics)A Sort of Life (other topics)
A Sort of Life (other topics)
Smallbone Deceased (other topics)
Smallbone Deceased (other topics)
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Benjamin Myers (other topics)Katixa Agirre (other topics)
Stephen Dobyns (other topics)
Erika Fatland (other topics)
Kelly Barnhill (other topics)
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I was going to start by saying that tomorrow is the first day of spring. Then I did a little research. From the UK Met Office:
Astronomical spring
Astronomical seasons refer to the position of Earth's orbit in relation to the Sun, considering equinoxes and solstices. This is due to the 23.5 degrees of tilt of the Earth's rotational axis concerning its orbit around the Sun. Since the seasons vary in length, the start date of a new season can fall on different days each year.
Spring 2023: starts Monday, 20 March 2023; ends Wednesday, 21 June 2023
Meteorological spring
Meteorological seasons are instead based on the annual temperature cycle and measure the meteorological state, as well as coinciding with the calendar to determine a clear transition between the seasons.
By the meteorological calendar, spring will always start on 1 March; ending on 31 May.
So, happy 1st day of spring everyone!
After some talk of audiobooks and of the BBC's Book at Bedtime, FrancesBurgundy gave us a link to all the BBC's currently available abridged books. Here it is:
As always, enjoy your reading.