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Review thread: /topic/show/...

From Penguin

Ismail Kadare (1936�2024) is Albania's best-known novelist and poet. Translations of his novels have appeared in more than forty countries. He was awarded the inaugural Man Booker International Prize in 2005, the Jerusalem Prize in 2015, the Park Kyong-ni Prize in 2019 and the Neustadt Prize in 2020.

I like reading Ismail Kadare. This is the second book I've read. It is interesting to read about the Kanun. In this book, he sets an argument that the Kanun is more honorable than all the ways people kill each other now. I did not like the sexual content of this one. I found the story of the snake bridegroom very interesting.

I have enjoyed reading the other Kadare on the list more than this selection. I did appreciate the shaky balance between the interior thoughts of our main character, the fairytales and legends of the old world, and the confusion of a contemporary world in transition. As usual with Kadare, there is a tone of menace underlying his plot, but because the main character is just an artist, museum worker, simple citizen, the menace isn't quite as powerful as in some of his other books. I did wonder why Kadare wrote this particular Main Character and if he had found a bit of himself in Mark as an artist attempting to understand his country's traditions in relation to the transition from communism to capitalism.

I hadn't read anything by Kadare before, and I found this interesting on many levels (folklore, Albanian setting, reappearance of traditional honour-based social codes in unpredictable ways) but disappointing in other ways. I found Mark tedious and inconsistent as a main character, although his dreams were powerful. I was pleased to see that other people in the group prefer Kadare's other books, so I can hope for the same.

This was my second book by Kadare but I preferred Broken April which I found more intense and engaging. However, I did enjoy the political background that came through as I felt it helped add to the tension and the sense of stagnation, and the contrast with the blood feuds.

The counter chapters were intriguing, I enjoyed how the myths and legends were incorporated into Mark’s musings on the current situation. I didn’t much like Mark’s relationship or his obsession with sexual organs, I would have preferred the focus to remain on the other themes.

The structural metaphors here are not subtle, but overall I thought the book was effective. I learned a lot about Albania from this novel, which I liked, and I enjoyed the alternating reality and myth-telling/dream chapters and counter-chapters as a way of showing me the emotional state of the characters and the complexity of loyalties to the past and future. But as is often the case with translated literature, the prose is frequently a bit awkward and I wonder if he doesn't need a better a translator, with a more poetic vision, to re-create in English what is lauded as great literature, to be compared with Kafka on the fly-leaf.

Yay! I was worried I wouldn't finish before the 'deadline' and be able to post as we are leaving on a holiday tomorrow. The problem was that technology was not my friend and I was only able to access the book on my phone (my least fave way of reading a book).

Perhaps I read a better translation than Jenna. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the translator's name on the copy I read. I did not feel it suffered from the translation.

I think I can say that I am a Kadare 'fan girl'. I started with Broken April (4*) and then read The Siege (5*). I highly recommend 'The Siege" - not a list book, but SO good!

I enjoyed this book overall. The structure was interesting as was the story. Even though he wrote this while he was in Paris it felt like he had a intimate understanding of life in Albania at that time.

Valerie wrote: "Perhaps I read a better translation than Jenna. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the translator's name on the copy I read. "

Perhaps you did! I don't remember seeing the translator on mine either - it was an early 2002 hardback I got from the library and I read that it was actually translated to English from French, not the original.

I liked the Albanian myth/history bits but disliked the book's choppy structure. I listened to the audiobook and read and re-read several chapters but still got confused frequently. I understand the contrast between the country's dark past and the unknown future of newly independent Albania. But the whole thing (especially the ending) left me just ... [shrugs]

This is the first book I've read by Kadare and I didn't enjoy it. Based on what others have said here, I have hopes that I'll like the others more.

Jane wrote: "I liked the Albanian myth/history bits but disliked the book's choppy structure. I listened to the audiobook and read and re-read several chapters but still got confused frequently. I understand th..."

Yes, I agree that you will enjoy the other Kadare's more.