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Two Sherpas
Mount Everest, and all it means to royalty, explorers, imperialists, and two sherpas, perched on a cliffside, waiting for a man on the ledge below to move. A British climber has fallen from a cliffside in Nepal, and lies inert on a ledge below. Two sherpas kneel at the edge, stand, exchange the odd word, waiting for him to move, to make a decision, to descend. In those minutes, the world opens up to Kathmandu, a sun-bleached beach town on another continent, and the pages of Julius Caesar. Mountaineering, colonialism, obligation―in Sebastián Martínez Daniell's effortless prose each breath is crystalline, and the whole world is visible from here.
271 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2018
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February 26, 2024
Another Longlisted book for the Republic Of Consciousness prize 2024 and another opportunity lost to read a book I enjoyed. I seem to be in a deep reading slump and I am not sure it is only my fault. Ok, maybe it is me. Anyway, I will not be reading anymore literary fiction until the Booker International longlist is out in two weeks.
This novel or whatever it is frustrated me to no end. Sebastián Martínez Daniell thought to write a book about Two Sherpas who loose their client. While they look down towards the place the Englishman fell, they start thinking about all sorts of nonsense. Some would call it literature and complex ideas or whatever. I call them nonsense. Another author who screams, look at me how smart I am and how wonderfully I can write. I am trying so hard to be special that I also put some chapters about some random events in the Roman period. There might have been a point to that but I skipped those after 2 or 3 interruptions. And the thoughts the Sherpas had... it does not matter that only a philosophy/letter postgraduate would ever think like that. The prose is just unrealistic and has almost no connection or relevance to the setting. I also read in a review that even the facts attributed to Sherpas life are not checking out. Such as flushing toilets where there would not be any, view of the mountains in a town that has none. What I am saying is that the Two Sherpas feels like just of pretext for the author to show how smart he is and to expose his ideas. Rant over.
This novel or whatever it is frustrated me to no end. Sebastián Martínez Daniell thought to write a book about Two Sherpas who loose their client. While they look down towards the place the Englishman fell, they start thinking about all sorts of nonsense. Some would call it literature and complex ideas or whatever. I call them nonsense. Another author who screams, look at me how smart I am and how wonderfully I can write. I am trying so hard to be special that I also put some chapters about some random events in the Roman period. There might have been a point to that but I skipped those after 2 or 3 interruptions. And the thoughts the Sherpas had... it does not matter that only a philosophy/letter postgraduate would ever think like that. The prose is just unrealistic and has almost no connection or relevance to the setting. I also read in a review that even the facts attributed to Sherpas life are not checking out. Such as flushing toilets where there would not be any, view of the mountains in a town that has none. What I am saying is that the Two Sherpas feels like just of pretext for the author to show how smart he is and to expose his ideas. Rant over.
January 23, 2023
Profound and simple, both at once, and what a delight, what a joy to read this strange unpredictable mashup of life-and-death matters (mostly, death matters). The novel has such a waiting-for-godot-like sanguinity in its pages. Everything and nothing matter equally. An indescribable read. Sorry. I'm trying to describe it, a little, but it's impossible. Daniell is a joyous confident writer. Jennifer Croft is a genius. I say "genius" because of the adverb "Britishly" on p. 37. Honestly doesn't it make you wonder what the word was in the original Spanish if you can't go read the original and find out for yourself? It made me wonder. I thought it wondrous, as words go, and it's just one out of a whole book of words that make up a story that's as gripping and historical as Labatut's When We Cease to Understand the World only without the despair; and as riveting as Binet's Civilizations only without the galloping plot. Don't worry. You will never miss the plot. Or maybe you will, I can't say how you read, but for me however plotless the book seemed to be, I leapt forward eagerly and was delighted by every page. This is what literature is all about. Something new. Something true.
March 5, 2024
Shortlisted for the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize US & Canada
The foreigners who reach the summit believe that they have outperformed the species and, at least for an instant, see themselves as demigods. They celebrate, they hug, they take pictures (because they always take pictures, always relapse into narcissism, always take phenomonolgy down to the level of the souvenir).
Meanwhile, the Sherpas wait to one side, not making much of a distinction between ascent and descent; just silently grateful that none of these bumpkins broke a leg during the expedition. For them, for the tourists, we are pack animals, the older man would say. Creatures capable of doing with relative ease what for human beings constitutes a feat.They see us as mules, beings with bone structures suited to lugging great weights. They see it as perfectly logical for Sherpas to summit. They ought to think of us as Titans, deities with powers unattainable by mere mortals. But they don't. When they reach the summit, they're the ones who are the heroes. It is they who have achieved mountaineering glory, the — so-called — miracle of besting, of overcoming themselves. The fact that the Sherpa has undertaken the same labour not once, but three times, five times, ten times seems natural to the tourist, in the same way that it seems natural, unmeritorious that an elephant should be able to tear up a tree by its trunk
'Two Sherpas' is International-Booker winning Jennifer Croft's translation of Sebastián Martínez Daniell's 2018 novel 'Dos sherpas' and the latest and 39th novel from Charco Press - see my dedicated shelf for reviews of all of them.
It is a fascinating and distinctive book and opens mise-en-scène:
Uno
Dos sherpas están asomados al abismo. Sus cabezas oteando el nadir. Los cuerpos estirados sobre las rocas, las manos tomadas del canto de un precipicio. Se diría que esperan algo. Pero sin ansiedad. Con un repertorio de gestos serenos que modulan entre la resignación y el escepticismo.
One
Two Sherpas peer into the abyss. Eyes scouring the nadir. Bodies outstretched across the rock, hands gripping the precipice's edge. They seem to be expecting something. But not anxiously. Instead, with a repertoire of serene gestures that balance between resignation and doubt.
The two Sherpas are gazing at the figure of an English climber who they are accompanying on an attempt ascent of Everest, who has had a fall, in a not particularly dangerous spot (they were walking rather than climbing) and is lying, not moving, on a ledge some metres below them.
The first chapter says 'two Sherpas' but we are soon introduced to them as the young Sherpa, who was born in the Himalayan town of Namche and, although a teenager, has already submitted twice, and the old Sherpa, who isn’t that old, nor he is properly a Sherpa, having come to Tibet from the other side of the world when he was 27, but still qualified as an official mountain guide.
The story is told in 100 chapters, some as short as the first, others a few pages. The chapter numbering is sequential, except that some chapters have descriptive title rather than the number, so that the first eight are titled One; Two; Three; People from the East; Five; Six; Seven; and Versions of Buddhism.
The ones that would otherwise be numbered Four and Eight are diversions from the main story, discussing the potential origin stories for the Sherpa ethnic group (the name coming from ཤར shar ["east"] and པ pa ["people"]). However if there was a general logic to which chapters have numbers and which descriptive titles, it evaded me, as it wasn't consistently those that are part of the main narrative thread.
That thread itself - the story of how the two Sherpas decide to deal with their stricken client - is told over only a short period of time, and even fewer spoken words between them, just 68 in total The rest was silence; if the deafening noise of the wind ravelling over the ridges of the Himalayas can be considered silence.
But much of the narrative is taken up with their thoughts as well as commentary from a narrator, with different parallel threads, including:
- the history of the origin of the Sherpas expands to one of the attempts, by representatives of the British Empire in particular, to conquer Everest, and the associated fate of the sherpas they employ;
This is attributed to the aftermath of the failure of British explorers to be the first to either pole, seen as the last unconquered territories:
Until the aristocrat Francis Younghusband proclaimed that there was still a portion of the world to deflower with the imperial flag: the umpteenth home of the Union Jack ought to be Mount Everest. This notion became a matter of State. In 1921, a first expedition was launched. The mountaineer George Mallory was a member of the team. They studied the terrain, noted its challenges, decided to go home and get better prepared. The following year, they made a second attempt. One group made it to 8,300 metres. Monsoon season was just about to begin. An avalanche occurred. For a few hours. chaos reigned. The expedition sent a brief message to Base Camp to reassure their companions: 'All the whites are safe,' it says. Seven Sherpas died buried in the snow.
Ninety-three years later: 18 April, 2014. Another avalanche. Fourteen thousand tons of ice; sixteen dead. All Sherpas.
The message 'All whites are safe' (the 'the' in the novel is a transcription error in the novel or translation I think) is mentioned in this Guardian review of Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis, but the book also adds a counterpoint:
“All whites are safe" was the callous message that went down the mountain, but Mallory's colleague, Howard Somervell, was later to write, "Why oh why could not one of us Britishers [have] shared their fate. I would gladly at that moment have been lying there, dead in the snow. If only to give those fine chaps who had survived the feeling that we had shared their loss, as we had indeed shared the risk."
And the story takes us up, and includes, the documentary film Sherpa by Jennifer Peedom which makes a great companion to the book.
- but then also some detailed notes on Act 1 Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar;
"Rome. A street.
Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain Commoners"
The young Sherpa is rehearsing to play Flavius in a production, a minor part but one that carries the burden of opening the play, with the lines Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home, and the chapters on the play are in the form of notes to the actor playing the part and a discussion of the scene.
This enables the author to make points about the relationship between Pompey and Caesar and their respective supporters (with relevance to the Sherpas) as well as the link between the play’s opening words, and the older sherpas feeling towards 'these people' (the tourists who clutter the mountain, while the Sherpas carry their loads). The Shakespearean source also ties in with the theme of empire;
- a number of other tangential chapters e.g. one comparing the old and young Sherpas view of the same scene to Renoir and Monet's competing renditions of La Grenouillère in the early days of impressionism, and another that compares them to a vulcanist and nepunist respectively if the two Sherpas were geological pioneers
- the personal stories of each of the Sherpas.
This was actually the part that worked least well for me in relation to the rest of the novel, although the fault may have been mine as I was keen to return to the other threads.
For he young Sherpa we get some relatively straightforward family history, but primarily musings on his future as he aspires to leave the region and considers various international careers. Watching the documentary I learned how trainee Sherpas are much more educated now than previously, typically finishing high school, which then adds to their apprecation of the unfairness of their treatment, albeit here the young Sherpa is actually less hostile to the tourists, regarding his interaction with them purely as an economic transaction.
For the old Sherpa the second half of the novel includes a rather involved story of a young woman, Rabbit, he encountered while he was on holiday, and who was crying at the till of a convenience store, and his subsequent attempt to find out the reason for her distress. This seems to have been the indirect motivation for him to move from the coastal area in (one assumes from clues given) South America, and move to the Himalayan peaks of Nepal.
Which all makes for an absolutely fascinating mix and one told with, in Croft's translation, at times a deliberately archaic vocabulary (I had to look up 'lucubration' and 'propaedeutics') and rich prose.
The novel also has a backstory worthy of a book in itself. From interviews when the novel was published in Argentina, it originally began as part of another, never completed, novel. This was the story of an English ornithologist who traveled to a peninsula in the Baltic to study cormorants. The peninsula broke away from the land (shades of The Stone Raft) causing a potential war with Finland who saw the moving peninsula as a hostile act. The Englishman had a son who, to prove his worth, had decided to reach the top of Everest, and had hired two Sherpas to help him, and a scene of him observed by the Sherpas after he had fallen gave rise to this novel.
4.5 stars - that I didn't connect the 'Rabbit' story with the rest of the novel a reason I've rounded down but recommended and one I'd love to see on the International Booker list as it would make for some interesting discussions.
The publisher
Charco means 'puddle' in Spanish. It is also a colloquialism used in some Latin American countries to refer to the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, cruzar el charco means 'crossing the puddle' and is a way of referring to when someone is going overseas, or travelling between continents.
Charco Press was born from a desire to do something a little out of the ordinary. To bring you, the reader, books from a different part of the world. Outstanding books. Books you want to read. Maybe even books you need to read.
Charco Press is ambitious. We’re changing the current literary scene and making room for a kind of literature that has been overlooked. We want to be that bridge between a world of talented contemporary writers and yourself.
We select authors whose work feeds the imagination, challenges perspective and sparks debate. Authors that are shining lights in the world of contemporary literature. Authors that have won awards and received critical acclaim. Bestselling authors.
In short: the very best of contemporary Latin American literature. Brought to you in English translation for the first time.
The foreigners who reach the summit believe that they have outperformed the species and, at least for an instant, see themselves as demigods. They celebrate, they hug, they take pictures (because they always take pictures, always relapse into narcissism, always take phenomonolgy down to the level of the souvenir).
Meanwhile, the Sherpas wait to one side, not making much of a distinction between ascent and descent; just silently grateful that none of these bumpkins broke a leg during the expedition. For them, for the tourists, we are pack animals, the older man would say. Creatures capable of doing with relative ease what for human beings constitutes a feat.They see us as mules, beings with bone structures suited to lugging great weights. They see it as perfectly logical for Sherpas to summit. They ought to think of us as Titans, deities with powers unattainable by mere mortals. But they don't. When they reach the summit, they're the ones who are the heroes. It is they who have achieved mountaineering glory, the — so-called — miracle of besting, of overcoming themselves. The fact that the Sherpa has undertaken the same labour not once, but three times, five times, ten times seems natural to the tourist, in the same way that it seems natural, unmeritorious that an elephant should be able to tear up a tree by its trunk
'Two Sherpas' is International-Booker winning Jennifer Croft's translation of Sebastián Martínez Daniell's 2018 novel 'Dos sherpas' and the latest and 39th novel from Charco Press - see my dedicated shelf for reviews of all of them.
It is a fascinating and distinctive book and opens mise-en-scène:
Uno
Dos sherpas están asomados al abismo. Sus cabezas oteando el nadir. Los cuerpos estirados sobre las rocas, las manos tomadas del canto de un precipicio. Se diría que esperan algo. Pero sin ansiedad. Con un repertorio de gestos serenos que modulan entre la resignación y el escepticismo.
One
Two Sherpas peer into the abyss. Eyes scouring the nadir. Bodies outstretched across the rock, hands gripping the precipice's edge. They seem to be expecting something. But not anxiously. Instead, with a repertoire of serene gestures that balance between resignation and doubt.
The two Sherpas are gazing at the figure of an English climber who they are accompanying on an attempt ascent of Everest, who has had a fall, in a not particularly dangerous spot (they were walking rather than climbing) and is lying, not moving, on a ledge some metres below them.
The first chapter says 'two Sherpas' but we are soon introduced to them as the young Sherpa, who was born in the Himalayan town of Namche and, although a teenager, has already submitted twice, and the old Sherpa, who isn’t that old, nor he is properly a Sherpa, having come to Tibet from the other side of the world when he was 27, but still qualified as an official mountain guide.
The story is told in 100 chapters, some as short as the first, others a few pages. The chapter numbering is sequential, except that some chapters have descriptive title rather than the number, so that the first eight are titled One; Two; Three; People from the East; Five; Six; Seven; and Versions of Buddhism.
The ones that would otherwise be numbered Four and Eight are diversions from the main story, discussing the potential origin stories for the Sherpa ethnic group (the name coming from ཤར shar ["east"] and པ pa ["people"]). However if there was a general logic to which chapters have numbers and which descriptive titles, it evaded me, as it wasn't consistently those that are part of the main narrative thread.
That thread itself - the story of how the two Sherpas decide to deal with their stricken client - is told over only a short period of time, and even fewer spoken words between them, just 68 in total The rest was silence; if the deafening noise of the wind ravelling over the ridges of the Himalayas can be considered silence.
But much of the narrative is taken up with their thoughts as well as commentary from a narrator, with different parallel threads, including:
- the history of the origin of the Sherpas expands to one of the attempts, by representatives of the British Empire in particular, to conquer Everest, and the associated fate of the sherpas they employ;
This is attributed to the aftermath of the failure of British explorers to be the first to either pole, seen as the last unconquered territories:
Until the aristocrat Francis Younghusband proclaimed that there was still a portion of the world to deflower with the imperial flag: the umpteenth home of the Union Jack ought to be Mount Everest. This notion became a matter of State. In 1921, a first expedition was launched. The mountaineer George Mallory was a member of the team. They studied the terrain, noted its challenges, decided to go home and get better prepared. The following year, they made a second attempt. One group made it to 8,300 metres. Monsoon season was just about to begin. An avalanche occurred. For a few hours. chaos reigned. The expedition sent a brief message to Base Camp to reassure their companions: 'All the whites are safe,' it says. Seven Sherpas died buried in the snow.
Ninety-three years later: 18 April, 2014. Another avalanche. Fourteen thousand tons of ice; sixteen dead. All Sherpas.
The message 'All whites are safe' (the 'the' in the novel is a transcription error in the novel or translation I think) is mentioned in this Guardian review of Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis, but the book also adds a counterpoint:
“All whites are safe" was the callous message that went down the mountain, but Mallory's colleague, Howard Somervell, was later to write, "Why oh why could not one of us Britishers [have] shared their fate. I would gladly at that moment have been lying there, dead in the snow. If only to give those fine chaps who had survived the feeling that we had shared their loss, as we had indeed shared the risk."
And the story takes us up, and includes, the documentary film Sherpa by Jennifer Peedom which makes a great companion to the book.
- but then also some detailed notes on Act 1 Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar;
"Rome. A street.
Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain Commoners"
The young Sherpa is rehearsing to play Flavius in a production, a minor part but one that carries the burden of opening the play, with the lines Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home, and the chapters on the play are in the form of notes to the actor playing the part and a discussion of the scene.
This enables the author to make points about the relationship between Pompey and Caesar and their respective supporters (with relevance to the Sherpas) as well as the link between the play’s opening words, and the older sherpas feeling towards 'these people' (the tourists who clutter the mountain, while the Sherpas carry their loads). The Shakespearean source also ties in with the theme of empire;
- a number of other tangential chapters e.g. one comparing the old and young Sherpas view of the same scene to Renoir and Monet's competing renditions of La Grenouillère in the early days of impressionism, and another that compares them to a vulcanist and nepunist respectively if the two Sherpas were geological pioneers
- the personal stories of each of the Sherpas.
This was actually the part that worked least well for me in relation to the rest of the novel, although the fault may have been mine as I was keen to return to the other threads.
For he young Sherpa we get some relatively straightforward family history, but primarily musings on his future as he aspires to leave the region and considers various international careers. Watching the documentary I learned how trainee Sherpas are much more educated now than previously, typically finishing high school, which then adds to their apprecation of the unfairness of their treatment, albeit here the young Sherpa is actually less hostile to the tourists, regarding his interaction with them purely as an economic transaction.
For the old Sherpa the second half of the novel includes a rather involved story of a young woman, Rabbit, he encountered while he was on holiday, and who was crying at the till of a convenience store, and his subsequent attempt to find out the reason for her distress. This seems to have been the indirect motivation for him to move from the coastal area in (one assumes from clues given) South America, and move to the Himalayan peaks of Nepal.
Which all makes for an absolutely fascinating mix and one told with, in Croft's translation, at times a deliberately archaic vocabulary (I had to look up 'lucubration' and 'propaedeutics') and rich prose.
The novel also has a backstory worthy of a book in itself. From interviews when the novel was published in Argentina, it originally began as part of another, never completed, novel. This was the story of an English ornithologist who traveled to a peninsula in the Baltic to study cormorants. The peninsula broke away from the land (shades of The Stone Raft) causing a potential war with Finland who saw the moving peninsula as a hostile act. The Englishman had a son who, to prove his worth, had decided to reach the top of Everest, and had hired two Sherpas to help him, and a scene of him observed by the Sherpas after he had fallen gave rise to this novel.
4.5 stars - that I didn't connect the 'Rabbit' story with the rest of the novel a reason I've rounded down but recommended and one I'd love to see on the International Booker list as it would make for some interesting discussions.
The publisher
Charco means 'puddle' in Spanish. It is also a colloquialism used in some Latin American countries to refer to the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, cruzar el charco means 'crossing the puddle' and is a way of referring to when someone is going overseas, or travelling between continents.
Charco Press was born from a desire to do something a little out of the ordinary. To bring you, the reader, books from a different part of the world. Outstanding books. Books you want to read. Maybe even books you need to read.
Charco Press is ambitious. We’re changing the current literary scene and making room for a kind of literature that has been overlooked. We want to be that bridge between a world of talented contemporary writers and yourself.
We select authors whose work feeds the imagination, challenges perspective and sparks debate. Authors that are shining lights in the world of contemporary literature. Authors that have won awards and received critical acclaim. Bestselling authors.
In short: the very best of contemporary Latin American literature. Brought to you in English translation for the first time.
March 11, 2023
Two Sherpas peer into the abyss.
That's how this opens. And it gave me an inchoate feeling that perhaps I was stepping into a kind of Himalayan Waiting for Godot. Having closed this yesterday, I've been letting it simmer, and the feeling is still there. Not that this is some kind of duplicate, or even a homage. I don't mean that. But recall that feeling, the few hours experience of wondering who or what Godot is; the intellectual fun of that. Now, follow me, carefully, very carefully, inch your way on all fours, to where our Sherpas are. Eyes scouring the nadir. Bodies, outstretched across the rock, hands gripping the precipice's edge. It's an Englishman, their tourist, and he has fallen, down into a crevice, unmoving.
Let's leave our Sherpas there for a moment, and we too by their sides, all en tableau. Now consider a shuffled mélange of vignette, and history, biography, a few paintings, a play.
'So what is this play?' Why it's Julius Caesar, and our young Sherpa had the role of Flavius once. Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home! He opens, thus; and now, at the precipice, he thinks of other occupations, other lands, a young man's shifting dreams.
The old Sherpa, who is not really old, has, on the contrary, come from somewhere else. Once, at a little store, he sees a woman sobbing. He stumbles, not physically, but rights himself, and helps. The old Sherpa is not yet at the mountain, but he guides.
So the young Sherpa and the old Sherpa look over the edge. Like two artists, the author tells us, like Renoir and Monet, who agree to meet at La Grenouillère, and paint side by side.
By their sides, what do we see, how do we see the Englishman? Because there is history here, too.
Reading is a very subjective matter. This is what I like!
That's how this opens. And it gave me an inchoate feeling that perhaps I was stepping into a kind of Himalayan Waiting for Godot. Having closed this yesterday, I've been letting it simmer, and the feeling is still there. Not that this is some kind of duplicate, or even a homage. I don't mean that. But recall that feeling, the few hours experience of wondering who or what Godot is; the intellectual fun of that. Now, follow me, carefully, very carefully, inch your way on all fours, to where our Sherpas are. Eyes scouring the nadir. Bodies, outstretched across the rock, hands gripping the precipice's edge. It's an Englishman, their tourist, and he has fallen, down into a crevice, unmoving.
Let's leave our Sherpas there for a moment, and we too by their sides, all en tableau. Now consider a shuffled mélange of vignette, and history, biography, a few paintings, a play.
'So what is this play?' Why it's Julius Caesar, and our young Sherpa had the role of Flavius once. Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home! He opens, thus; and now, at the precipice, he thinks of other occupations, other lands, a young man's shifting dreams.
The old Sherpa, who is not really old, has, on the contrary, come from somewhere else. Once, at a little store, he sees a woman sobbing. He stumbles, not physically, but rights himself, and helps. The old Sherpa is not yet at the mountain, but he guides.
So the young Sherpa and the old Sherpa look over the edge. Like two artists, the author tells us, like Renoir and Monet, who agree to meet at La Grenouillère, and paint side by side.
By their sides, what do we see, how do we see the Englishman? Because there is history here, too.
Reading is a very subjective matter. This is what I like!
February 12, 2023
Two Sherpas is a wonderful novel where not much happens, but we see inside the minds of two men, one a young man at the beginning of his adulthood and the other who has many more years of experience from which to reflect back on.
They stand at the edge of a crevice looking down on their client, a British climber.
Over the course of the novel, what the to men say to each other could be written on one page, but instead, the pages contain their thoughts, their pasts, their aspirations, the current predicament.
A Little Known History
Some chapters, most of which are less than one page of text, rather than beginning with just a number, contain a title, for example between thee and five sits the following:
These chapters inform us of various historical facts, information that creates context around the two men. We learn how these people came to be called sherpas and how that name was a convenient way to refer to men whom they could use to assist them, without having to acknowledge their humanity.
A chasm between Flavius and Marrullus
The young Sherpa is in school and has plans for further study. He is taking a theatre workshop.
He will soon play the role of Flavius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The omniscient narrator talks about Flavius and Marullus, co-conspirators against Caesar who are out of touch with the lives and perspectives of the common people, they don't understand how commoners could support such a man, so they attempt to sabotage their ideas, they drive everyone away.
A Too Often Celebrated History
We also learn of the various expeditions to Mount Everest, of a western ambition to conquer, of casualties, of a hierarchy of importance, one that continues today, long after Caesar's Roman rule. We read of the loss of lives of local people in avalanches, of suffering families.
In effect, the novel itself is like an ascent, a trek that stops periodically to look back, to observe both the reality of current conditions, of local lives, and the persistent effects of imperialism. And then it looks down into the crevice, taking its time to dig deeper into the subject, into the influences that might have caused this dissonance, this treatment of people, this naming of others.
It uses as a reference, European philosophical and theatrical references, plotting them side by side with facts relating to 'people of the east', and this present situation, where one from the west lies deep in a crevice, outside his territory, being observed by two from the east.
Silence is a theme that occurs throughout the novel, one we are reminded of, as it repeats in the text, in metaphor and in reality on the mountainside. It is this theme of silence that lead me to follow up reading this novel with Abdulrazak Gurnah's excellent
, where he too uses it as a theme for dealing with the effect of prejudice of a colonial flavour.
Career Choices On the Edge
Throughout their time at the edge of the crevice, the younger man has considered and reconsidered his choice of future profession, his thoughts will take from contemplating engineering, to international relations, to playwright, to the line he must speak in the opening of the upcoming play.
Two Sherpas is brilliant, one of those books that from the opening paragraphs hooked me in anticipation. The juxtaposition of different elements, that narrates the story and shares references make the reader search to understand a multi dimensional perspective of past events, while maintaining a level of intrigue for the present situation.
Cover Art
I want to highlight the simplicity and brilliance of the cover art by Pablo Font, each time I receive one of Charco Press's books I like to linger on the cover design, and this one is a fabulous depiction of the story!
Highly Recommended, another great choice of Latin American literature, superbly translated by Jennifer Croft.
They stand at the edge of a crevice looking down on their client, a British climber.
Tourists... thinks the old Sherpa, who isn't old or, properly speaking, a Sherpa. They always manage to do something, these people - these tourists, he thinks. Then says. With an ambiguous gesture he indicates the void, the ledge where the body of an Englishman lies prone and immobile, and he says:
'These people...'
And so breaks the silence. If the deafening noise of the wind ravelling over the ridges of the Himalayas can be considered silence.
Over the course of the novel, what the to men say to each other could be written on one page, but instead, the pages contain their thoughts, their pasts, their aspirations, the current predicament.
A Little Known History
Some chapters, most of which are less than one page of text, rather than beginning with just a number, contain a title, for example between thee and five sits the following:
People From the East
Five hundred years prior, a nomadic people with a tradition of seasonal migration across the central Chinese province of Sichuan initiates a process of gradual westerly motion. In exile, they become pariahs: refugees who must seek their new station in the mountains. The locals baptise them according to their cardinal origins. People (pa) from the East (Shar): Sherpas.
These chapters inform us of various historical facts, information that creates context around the two men. We learn how these people came to be called sherpas and how that name was a convenient way to refer to men whom they could use to assist them, without having to acknowledge their humanity.
A chasm between Flavius and Marrullus
The young Sherpa is in school and has plans for further study. He is taking a theatre workshop.
It should be understood that climbing licences are a common phenomenon in the Nepalese school system: the Ministry of Education periodically prints supplements so that students who earn their keep as mountain guides can keep up with their classmates.
He will soon play the role of Flavius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The omniscient narrator talks about Flavius and Marullus, co-conspirators against Caesar who are out of touch with the lives and perspectives of the common people, they don't understand how commoners could support such a man, so they attempt to sabotage their ideas, they drive everyone away.
A Too Often Celebrated History
We also learn of the various expeditions to Mount Everest, of a western ambition to conquer, of casualties, of a hierarchy of importance, one that continues today, long after Caesar's Roman rule. We read of the loss of lives of local people in avalanches, of suffering families.
The foreigners who reach the summit believe that they have outperformed the species and, at least for an instant, they see themselves as demigods...For them, for the tourists, we are pack animals, the older man would say. Creatures capable of doing with relative ease what for human beings constitutes a feat. They see us as mules, beings with bones structures suited to lugging great weights. They see it as perfectly logical for Sherpas to summit. They ought to think of us as Titans, deities with powers unattainable by mere mortals. But they don't. When they reach the summit, they're the ones who are the heroes. It is they who have achieved mountaineering glory, the - so called- miracle of besting, of overcoming themselves.
In effect, the novel itself is like an ascent, a trek that stops periodically to look back, to observe both the reality of current conditions, of local lives, and the persistent effects of imperialism. And then it looks down into the crevice, taking its time to dig deeper into the subject, into the influences that might have caused this dissonance, this treatment of people, this naming of others.
It uses as a reference, European philosophical and theatrical references, plotting them side by side with facts relating to 'people of the east', and this present situation, where one from the west lies deep in a crevice, outside his territory, being observed by two from the east.
Silence is a theme that occurs throughout the novel, one we are reminded of, as it repeats in the text, in metaphor and in reality on the mountainside. It is this theme of silence that lead me to follow up reading this novel with Abdulrazak Gurnah's excellent
, where he too uses it as a theme for dealing with the effect of prejudice of a colonial flavour.Career Choices On the Edge
Throughout their time at the edge of the crevice, the younger man has considered and reconsidered his choice of future profession, his thoughts will take from contemplating engineering, to international relations, to playwright, to the line he must speak in the opening of the upcoming play.
"Home, you idle creatures, get you home!"
Two Sherpas is brilliant, one of those books that from the opening paragraphs hooked me in anticipation. The juxtaposition of different elements, that narrates the story and shares references make the reader search to understand a multi dimensional perspective of past events, while maintaining a level of intrigue for the present situation.
Cover Art
I want to highlight the simplicity and brilliance of the cover art by Pablo Font, each time I receive one of Charco Press's books I like to linger on the cover design, and this one is a fabulous depiction of the story!
Highly Recommended, another great choice of Latin American literature, superbly translated by Jennifer Croft.
January 24, 2024
Really excellent.
The Two Sherpas of the title contemplate the fate of their charge, an English climber who has fallen into a ravine of some sort.
Don't expect any resolution this is more about the kind of intellectual meandering I associate with WG Sebald - so that's good in my opinion.
The Two Sherpas of the title contemplate the fate of their charge, an English climber who has fallen into a ravine of some sort.
Don't expect any resolution this is more about the kind of intellectual meandering I associate with WG Sebald - so that's good in my opinion.
April 1, 2023
This is about a climber falling on Mt. Everest while being guided by two Sherpas in a similar sense to how The Passenger is about a plane crashing into the water and discovered to be one passenger short. Neither the falling nor the crashing is the point and the reader won't find out what ended up happening there. Plot itself is not the point.
Two Sherpas is perhaps really about what Daniell puts into the mouth of a theatre instructor talking about Shakespeare's Julius Caesar halfway into the novel, and it's a pretty good description of McCarthy's novel as well actually:
These authors are not formulating hypotheses of what happened to a fallen English climber, or to a missing airplane passenger. Such concern for plot is not what interests them. They are describing the inner worlds of humankind.
Two Sherpas puts the reader inside the minds of two men as they gaze down at a body, but they may as well be letting their minds wander in the shower. They seem to care about as much for that man's life as the British climber who in 1921, after an avalanche killed seven Sherpas, cared for the Sherpa lives when he radioed to Base Camp that, "all the whites are safe."
The teenage Sherpa thinks about being informed of his father's death, the Shakespeare play he will be appearing in, and amusingly changes career plans a number of times in the few minutes of time in which the book takes place as they gaze at the body. He wonders if the other Sherpa may have pushed the English climber for some reason. The older Sherpa, who is neither very old nor apparently actually an ethnic Sherpa, thinks about a difficult period in his life when, seemingly suffering from depression, he has an odd encounter with a young woman and her nearly catatonic husband who utters a few questions about if "the kings" ever cared for us. Does he connect "the kings" to the imperious Mt. Everest, uncaring about the fates of those on the mountain, in his mind at this moment? Is there a connection in the younger man's mind between Julius Caesar and the mighty Everest, between Brutus and the older Sherpa? Is that what leads them on their trains of thought at these moments? Maybe, who knows. The mind is a mysterious place.
Two Sherpas is perhaps really about what Daniell puts into the mouth of a theatre instructor talking about Shakespeare's Julius Caesar halfway into the novel, and it's a pretty good description of McCarthy's novel as well actually:
"So what is it this play is trying to tell us in its very first scene? It doesn't matter. The author is Shakespeare, and he, like Isaac Newton, does not formulate hypotheses: he limits himself to describing the psychic mechanisms of man."
These authors are not formulating hypotheses of what happened to a fallen English climber, or to a missing airplane passenger. Such concern for plot is not what interests them. They are describing the inner worlds of humankind.
Two Sherpas puts the reader inside the minds of two men as they gaze down at a body, but they may as well be letting their minds wander in the shower. They seem to care about as much for that man's life as the British climber who in 1921, after an avalanche killed seven Sherpas, cared for the Sherpa lives when he radioed to Base Camp that, "all the whites are safe."
The teenage Sherpa thinks about being informed of his father's death, the Shakespeare play he will be appearing in, and amusingly changes career plans a number of times in the few minutes of time in which the book takes place as they gaze at the body. He wonders if the other Sherpa may have pushed the English climber for some reason. The older Sherpa, who is neither very old nor apparently actually an ethnic Sherpa, thinks about a difficult period in his life when, seemingly suffering from depression, he has an odd encounter with a young woman and her nearly catatonic husband who utters a few questions about if "the kings" ever cared for us. Does he connect "the kings" to the imperious Mt. Everest, uncaring about the fates of those on the mountain, in his mind at this moment? Is there a connection in the younger man's mind between Julius Caesar and the mighty Everest, between Brutus and the older Sherpa? Is that what leads them on their trains of thought at these moments? Maybe, who knows. The mind is a mysterious place.
May 15, 2023
This was a remarkable book that really does play with the reader's grasp of time, in the space of what must only be a few minutes we get the life stories of the two Sherpas, a history of Everest and the attempts to conquered it, the psychology of the Brits who have to reach the top only to then turn around and find a new challenge, the author shows us how British Colonialism treated the Sherpas and he even manages to fit in a bit of Shakespeare. Not bad going cramming all that in to a few minutes of time.
The book's main focus is on two un-named Sherpas, one old and one young and the English chap they are guiding who has fallen, their lives play out as they are looking over the ledge deciding what to do. We see this accident from two different angles at pretty much the same time and bit by bit we witness their thoughts and doubts on what to do next. The chapters are very short, some only a few lines long, and it is by using these little snapshots the author is able to mess with time and fit in so much. The thoughts of the two Sherpas as they look down on the body were profound, exploring life and death and what it all means, you soon find yourself caring for these two and you wonder how they got to where they currently are, one of them is so young and the other isn't local, it was fascinating to find out their stories. The history of the mountain and the life of Tenzing Norgay after being the first Sherpa to reach the summit was full of interesting facts I hadn't heard before. Also of interest was the recent avalanches that took the lives of multiple Sherpas and that the treatment of these people hasn't changed since colonial times.
The older Sherpa does get the bigger story here, a brief meeting with a young lady called Rabbit takes up all the longer chapters, his awkwardness around her and the ensuing time together makes him feel more substantial than the younger Sherpa. Why they are both on the mountain soon becomes apparent and I did find myself forgetting about the poor Englishman whilst trying to unravel their story.
Croft has done a brilliant job of translating, I always wonder if the translator brings anything to the story and not knowing how to read the original text you gotta have a lot of faith and the fact that the book flows well and I got drawn in big time proves what a cracking job she has done.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2023...
The book's main focus is on two un-named Sherpas, one old and one young and the English chap they are guiding who has fallen, their lives play out as they are looking over the ledge deciding what to do. We see this accident from two different angles at pretty much the same time and bit by bit we witness their thoughts and doubts on what to do next. The chapters are very short, some only a few lines long, and it is by using these little snapshots the author is able to mess with time and fit in so much. The thoughts of the two Sherpas as they look down on the body were profound, exploring life and death and what it all means, you soon find yourself caring for these two and you wonder how they got to where they currently are, one of them is so young and the other isn't local, it was fascinating to find out their stories. The history of the mountain and the life of Tenzing Norgay after being the first Sherpa to reach the summit was full of interesting facts I hadn't heard before. Also of interest was the recent avalanches that took the lives of multiple Sherpas and that the treatment of these people hasn't changed since colonial times.
The older Sherpa does get the bigger story here, a brief meeting with a young lady called Rabbit takes up all the longer chapters, his awkwardness around her and the ensuing time together makes him feel more substantial than the younger Sherpa. Why they are both on the mountain soon becomes apparent and I did find myself forgetting about the poor Englishman whilst trying to unravel their story.
Croft has done a brilliant job of translating, I always wonder if the translator brings anything to the story and not knowing how to read the original text you gotta have a lot of faith and the fact that the book flows well and I got drawn in big time proves what a cracking job she has done.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2023...
January 5, 2023
Taking place over the span of 10-15 minutes and less than 15 lines of dialogue, this novel opens with two Sherpas peeking over a mountain ledge at the immobile body of the fallen Englishman they were previously guiding up Mt. Everest.
Throughout 100 chapters, the scope widens to the migration of the Sherpa people, the first ascent of Mt. Everest, an exegesis of the opening scene of Julius Caesar, the back stories of the main characters, the tragedies befallen the working Sherpas, but then always comes back to focus on our two Sherpas on the ledge.
Our young Sherpa is a high school student native to Nepal, we spend time in his head as he deliberates between future career choices and reflects on childhood memories in high detail. Our older Sherpa, who is not actually old and not actually a Sherpa, is actually a foreigner, a transplant to the area, that seems to harbor more hostility towards tourists and mountaineers than the locals. Isn’t that how it always goes? Though not explicitly painted this way by Daniell, I came to view him as a sneaky villain of sorts. His backstory felt the most extraneous of all the side plots and did little to shine light on his motivations and true character.
The quality of writing in this novel is incredible, however, having a dictionary nearby was necessary. Certain word choices felt intentionally obscure and left me puzzled at their selection when simpler yet still eloquent choices were available.
There’s a large focus on silence or the lack thereof in the mountains of the Himalayas. After our narrator points out a moment of silence, we constantly return to a phrasing that give or take small variations goes like:
“If the deafening noise of the wind raveling over the ridges of the Himalayas can be considered silence.”
This simultaneous silence and noise could be a fitting description of the novel itself with its extremely minimal narrative running concurrent to the depth that the side stories bring. It’s both/and.
Two Sherpas gives us much to ponder and left me with the knowledge that a reread would illuminate even more.
Throughout 100 chapters, the scope widens to the migration of the Sherpa people, the first ascent of Mt. Everest, an exegesis of the opening scene of Julius Caesar, the back stories of the main characters, the tragedies befallen the working Sherpas, but then always comes back to focus on our two Sherpas on the ledge.
Our young Sherpa is a high school student native to Nepal, we spend time in his head as he deliberates between future career choices and reflects on childhood memories in high detail. Our older Sherpa, who is not actually old and not actually a Sherpa, is actually a foreigner, a transplant to the area, that seems to harbor more hostility towards tourists and mountaineers than the locals. Isn’t that how it always goes? Though not explicitly painted this way by Daniell, I came to view him as a sneaky villain of sorts. His backstory felt the most extraneous of all the side plots and did little to shine light on his motivations and true character.
The quality of writing in this novel is incredible, however, having a dictionary nearby was necessary. Certain word choices felt intentionally obscure and left me puzzled at their selection when simpler yet still eloquent choices were available.
There’s a large focus on silence or the lack thereof in the mountains of the Himalayas. After our narrator points out a moment of silence, we constantly return to a phrasing that give or take small variations goes like:
“If the deafening noise of the wind raveling over the ridges of the Himalayas can be considered silence.”
This simultaneous silence and noise could be a fitting description of the novel itself with its extremely minimal narrative running concurrent to the depth that the side stories bring. It’s both/and.
Two Sherpas gives us much to ponder and left me with the knowledge that a reread would illuminate even more.
June 29, 2024
An almost plot-free book that somehow has a great deal to say about history, science, colonialism, sociology, and life itself.
March 4, 2024
The Englishman’s body lies still on the ledge. The old Sherpa and the young Sherpa look on.
“The Englishman was walking between them; the young Sherpa was bringing up the rear. They had come to a curve. To the left, the slope; to the right, the void. It wasn't complicated….The old Sherpa heard that tsk and turned his head. He saw that the Englishman was stumbling, moving his arms like rattan blades, wanting to regain his balance. A mistake. The best option, always, is to fall.”
During the journey up Everest, the young Sherpa reflects on his father’s death and his upcoming role as Flaivus in a local theater production of Shakespear’s Julius Caesar. And though he was currently working as a mountain guide, he considers the pros and cons of various fields of study he would like to pursue.
“In this sense, the young Sherpa would argue, the monetary covenant is simply an imposition in the circulation of gifts. In order to accomplish the ascent, the tourist has to pay, not to fulfil a commercial requirement, but rather as penitence, as loss: the price of attaining understanding. If the tourist pays, it is because that pecuniary release is what sets him on the path to revelation.”
On the trek up the slopes, the old Sherpa thinks back sentimentally to his chance encounter with the teary-eyed Rabbit. Also having just started work as a mountain guide, he reexamines critically the consequences of European colonialism and his role as a “porter” for western tourists.
“He would insist that the commercial equation that arises between tourist and Sherpa is riddled with asymmetries. He would suggest that the tourist, no matter how sizeable the fortune he pays, does so through a prism that condemns the Sherpas to objectification. The old Sherpa sees himself more as an artefact. In terms of classical economics, the Sherpa is neither demand nor supply, but rather merchandise, tradable goods; capital, at most. We are tractors, the old Sherpa would say. Machines capable of performing human tasks better and faster. Worse still, he'd say: we are machines predating the Industrial Revolution. We are animals. The tourists reduce us to animality….They see it as perfectly logical for Sherpas to summit. They ought to think of us as Titans, deities with powers unattainable by mere mortals. But they don't.”
“The Englishman was walking between them; the young Sherpa was bringing up the rear. They had come to a curve. To the left, the slope; to the right, the void. It wasn't complicated….The old Sherpa heard that tsk and turned his head. He saw that the Englishman was stumbling, moving his arms like rattan blades, wanting to regain his balance. A mistake. The best option, always, is to fall.”
During the journey up Everest, the young Sherpa reflects on his father’s death and his upcoming role as Flaivus in a local theater production of Shakespear’s Julius Caesar. And though he was currently working as a mountain guide, he considers the pros and cons of various fields of study he would like to pursue.
“In this sense, the young Sherpa would argue, the monetary covenant is simply an imposition in the circulation of gifts. In order to accomplish the ascent, the tourist has to pay, not to fulfil a commercial requirement, but rather as penitence, as loss: the price of attaining understanding. If the tourist pays, it is because that pecuniary release is what sets him on the path to revelation.”
On the trek up the slopes, the old Sherpa thinks back sentimentally to his chance encounter with the teary-eyed Rabbit. Also having just started work as a mountain guide, he reexamines critically the consequences of European colonialism and his role as a “porter” for western tourists.
“He would insist that the commercial equation that arises between tourist and Sherpa is riddled with asymmetries. He would suggest that the tourist, no matter how sizeable the fortune he pays, does so through a prism that condemns the Sherpas to objectification. The old Sherpa sees himself more as an artefact. In terms of classical economics, the Sherpa is neither demand nor supply, but rather merchandise, tradable goods; capital, at most. We are tractors, the old Sherpa would say. Machines capable of performing human tasks better and faster. Worse still, he'd say: we are machines predating the Industrial Revolution. We are animals. The tourists reduce us to animality….They see it as perfectly logical for Sherpas to summit. They ought to think of us as Titans, deities with powers unattainable by mere mortals. But they don't.”
July 28, 2023
I don’t know who chooses which books are to be published at Charco but some should give them an award. For the past week I’ve been reading novels from this publisher and all of them have been nothing short of fantastic (there’s still three more to go). Two Sherpas is no exception.
Structured as 100 short chapters, Two Sherpas covers a lot of ground. The main plot consists of two Sherpas discovering a dead English mountain climber and the narrative spins off into different directions: we get how Sherpas came to live in the Himalayas (the name Sherpa means People from the East), Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who managed to climb Mount Everest first but got little credit for it. We also get a backstory of the two main Sherpas, which slyly telling us that the younger generation are slowly trying to break away from their mountain life.
One of the main themes is though is Two Sherpas is a commentary/criticism of colonialism. There are chapters about the British rule of Nepal, and some snippets about the British Empire as a whole, which is embodied in this dead Englishman. Cleverly there are also sections about the Roman Empire which is integrated in the copy of Julius Caesar one of the Sherpas read when he was a student.
Sometimes things happens in synchronicity – while I was reading the book, I watched The Eight Mountains, which has a section about Sherpas and the book helped clarify some of the traditions one of the main protagonists brought with him from Nepal.
Two Sherpas is exactly what I like in a novel – inventive style and wide ranging topic-wise. Anyway it’s another top book by Charco.
Structured as 100 short chapters, Two Sherpas covers a lot of ground. The main plot consists of two Sherpas discovering a dead English mountain climber and the narrative spins off into different directions: we get how Sherpas came to live in the Himalayas (the name Sherpa means People from the East), Tenzing Norgay, the Sherpa who managed to climb Mount Everest first but got little credit for it. We also get a backstory of the two main Sherpas, which slyly telling us that the younger generation are slowly trying to break away from their mountain life.
One of the main themes is though is Two Sherpas is a commentary/criticism of colonialism. There are chapters about the British rule of Nepal, and some snippets about the British Empire as a whole, which is embodied in this dead Englishman. Cleverly there are also sections about the Roman Empire which is integrated in the copy of Julius Caesar one of the Sherpas read when he was a student.
Sometimes things happens in synchronicity – while I was reading the book, I watched The Eight Mountains, which has a section about Sherpas and the book helped clarify some of the traditions one of the main protagonists brought with him from Nepal.
Two Sherpas is exactly what I like in a novel – inventive style and wide ranging topic-wise. Anyway it’s another top book by Charco.
March 21, 2023
I feel like this book is the embodiment of "still waters run deep". The area is quiet... except for the howling winds rushing through the Himalayas. Or the Sherpas are not exchanging much in conversation but each has a vivid inner monologue going on. And that theme, I think, can be extrapolated out to include things like racism, imperialism, etc. -- things tacitly approved by those who impose them but there are many deep ramifications.
While it's not a traditional narrative because of the truncated chapters and differing viewpoints and topics, I feel like a layered narrative was there -- the lives of the two Sherpas, as well as a general history of some of the area and people there.
I also feel like the "everyman" terminology (young Sherpa, old Sherpa, Englishman, bureaucrat,...) lends it to being a classic tale for all places/times.
There's lots to ponder, so many parallels and mirroring in the text. And the very dry, very understated bubbles of humor....
I thought it was fascinating, beautifully intertwined, and translated to perfection. I really enjoyed this beautiful book.
While it's not a traditional narrative because of the truncated chapters and differing viewpoints and topics, I feel like a layered narrative was there -- the lives of the two Sherpas, as well as a general history of some of the area and people there.
I also feel like the "everyman" terminology (young Sherpa, old Sherpa, Englishman, bureaucrat,...) lends it to being a classic tale for all places/times.
There's lots to ponder, so many parallels and mirroring in the text. And the very dry, very understated bubbles of humor....
I thought it was fascinating, beautifully intertwined, and translated to perfection. I really enjoyed this beautiful book.
Read
August 3, 2019Entiendo todo: entiendo la concepción del libro, entiendo por qué hay lectores a los que este tipo de textos los puede conmover o atrapar, pero a mí particularmente no me atrae. No me conmueve. No podemos pedirle historia a un texto que no la tiene como prioridad, por así decirlo, pero es una cuestión de vínculo entre texto y lector: en mi caso, esa relación nunca se asentó. Al principio empecé Dos sherpas con cierto interés porque es un libro distinto y bastante particular, pero a medida que iba leyendo me iba cansando. Es una novela fragmentaria que salta en el tiempo constantemente. En un capítulo puede hablarte de los dos sherpas que miran el cuerpo del inglés y, al siguiente, de la historia de Roma. Pero el tema es que nunca me sentí suficientemente interesada por el texto, más allá de que reconozco y valoro las condiciones narrativas (¿literarias?) del autor. Como no sé qué puntaje ponerle, prefiero solo escribir lo que me pareció.
February 23, 2023
Incredibly layered. Masterfully translated.
April 7, 2023
now accepting recommendations for meandering books about silence
March 12, 2024
Mental noodling in the most thoughtful, delightful way, thanks to a narrative voice that's both erudite and understated, the result being quite amusing at times. Through this voice, the minds of Young (18) and Old (not old) Sherpa range far and wide, from the minutely personal to the existential, with the two being perfect foils for each other. Young Sherpa is ever the practical optimist, as the narrator shows in a moment when he was 8 years old and got a new pencil:
Just in case, he would not discard the old pencil; who knew, academic life worked through the accumulation of imponderables.The Old (not old) Sherpa is, in contrast, a regretful curmudgeon:
"Shall we get up?" the old Sherpa hears at the exact moment when, contemplating the figure of the fallen Englishman, he was already thinking that he would never find a way to reconcile his desire for egalitarianism with his misanthropy. So he responds "Sure". (This is the entirety of Chapter 66.)And then there were moments of pure narrative magic, as when wet clothes on a washline become exquisitely, existentially poignant:
The wind picks up. A gust comes from the north. A cloth (tablecloth, sheet, or tunic) is shaken, raised, and wrapped around the rope. There is something melancholy and then irreparable in that damp cloth, ever so slightly discoloured, victim of twisting and distortion. It seems impossible that it will ever be unknotted now. That from now on it will be like this: clinging to a rope in a suffocating embrace, strangling itself.
January 10, 2025
Tror ikke at denne boken vil være for alle, i og med at den ikke har noe særlig plot. For å si det så enkelt som mulig så handler det om to sherpaer på Mount Everest som ser ned i et hull der engelskmannen de har guidet ligger livløs. Hele boken handler egentlig bare om de få minuttene de står der. Samtidig tar boken opp så utrolig mye på den korte tiden gjennom sherpaene sine tilbakeblikk og refleksjoner. F.eks. Britisk kolonialisme, sherpa-folkets historie, karrierevalg og til og med Julius Caesar (for å nevne noen). Minnet meg litt om Samuel Beckett med en «Waiting for godot» vibe, men på sin helt egne unike måte. Så mange sitater som virkelig traff meg, tror jeg kommer til å tenke på denne boken en stund😌
Also det at den første boken eg leser i 2025 er 5 stjerner føler eg er et godt tegn💃
Also det at den første boken eg leser i 2025 er 5 stjerner føler eg er et godt tegn💃
May 21, 2024
This is yet another novel where the first half is heavenly and the second falls to earth, although fortunately not all the way down Mount Everest. In mostly very short chapters, the first half gives parts of the story of the two sherpas, as well as their very limited interaction high up on the mountain. The third-person somewhat omniscient narrator's voice is wonderful. The novel is fresh and entertaining.
And then the chapters start to lengthen, the stories (and the sherpas themselves) become less interesting, and the narrator seems to become more stuck up, especially in the ten-dollar words he sometimes uses. It’s not that the second half is bad, it’s just that the first half is too good to sustain. That'll teach a writer for being too good and original.
And then the chapters start to lengthen, the stories (and the sherpas themselves) become less interesting, and the narrator seems to become more stuck up, especially in the ten-dollar words he sometimes uses. It’s not that the second half is bad, it’s just that the first half is too good to sustain. That'll teach a writer for being too good and original.
December 27, 2022
“The two sherpas are, then, peering into the abyss. Their bodies outstretched over the rocks, hands gripping the edge of the precipice: lying in wait. Their gestures span the panoply of subtleties that aim to elude both the guilt of the executioner and the indignation of the victim.”
.
Two Sherpas by Sebastián Martínez Daniell and excellently translated by Jennifer Croft was a panoramic exploration melding together the world of fiction and non to create a novel that might have been one of the finest written that I’ve had the pleasure of reading this year. Insatiable, lyrical, and a bit of pretension SMD’s writing is phenomenal, its indelible ability to traverse the many landscapes visited within the novel without sacrificing its integrity was as gritty as the novel itself. Without a doubt this needs to be on the international booker award list for 2023
.
The novel starts with two sherpas, one young, one older ( but still young) looking over a ledge of Mount Everest where an Englishman has just fallen, his body lay askew, the two man above just observing. That’s pretty much it for that story line, the majority of the novel takes place within the minds of these two sherpas, while a small part rests on the little known facts about Mount Everest and the weight it has held on certain parts of history. It seems many smaller narratives come and go, much pertaining to imperialism, the exploitation of the mountain and the sherpas themselves. Nazi expeditions, British lies and cover ups, the history of Nepal and the history of the sherpas families are broached
.
The personal and most fascinating narratives that continue throughout involve a chance encounter on a beach resort between one sherpa and a woman and then a performance of Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar but only the beginning, with Flavius and the repetition of his line “Home, you idle creatures, get you home!” Possibly lending its meaning to the many who have fallen victim to Everest, or even the sherpas themselves. There’s so much to explore and unpack, a book of true literary genius
.
Two Sherpas by Sebastián Martínez Daniell and excellently translated by Jennifer Croft was a panoramic exploration melding together the world of fiction and non to create a novel that might have been one of the finest written that I’ve had the pleasure of reading this year. Insatiable, lyrical, and a bit of pretension SMD’s writing is phenomenal, its indelible ability to traverse the many landscapes visited within the novel without sacrificing its integrity was as gritty as the novel itself. Without a doubt this needs to be on the international booker award list for 2023
.
The novel starts with two sherpas, one young, one older ( but still young) looking over a ledge of Mount Everest where an Englishman has just fallen, his body lay askew, the two man above just observing. That’s pretty much it for that story line, the majority of the novel takes place within the minds of these two sherpas, while a small part rests on the little known facts about Mount Everest and the weight it has held on certain parts of history. It seems many smaller narratives come and go, much pertaining to imperialism, the exploitation of the mountain and the sherpas themselves. Nazi expeditions, British lies and cover ups, the history of Nepal and the history of the sherpas families are broached
.
The personal and most fascinating narratives that continue throughout involve a chance encounter on a beach resort between one sherpa and a woman and then a performance of Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar but only the beginning, with Flavius and the repetition of his line “Home, you idle creatures, get you home!” Possibly lending its meaning to the many who have fallen victim to Everest, or even the sherpas themselves. There’s so much to explore and unpack, a book of true literary genius
March 14, 2023
This was such an odd book--it takes place over like maybe one minute? Two? While these two sherpas look at the body of a fallen Englishman who they were guiding, but then it goes into their thoughts and their memories and stuff. One of the sherpas is "old" (as in not a teenager) and the other one is "young" and attends a local high school. They bring in bits and pieces of each one's past and the author brings up interesting points about being a guide and colonialism, but all in all I felt like it was too fragmented for me to love.
May 31, 2023
Yesterday, 30 May 2023, marked the 70th anniversary of Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay reaching the summit of Mount Everest, the first to do so successfully (and return).
I can think of few better ways to mark the occasion than to read this book.
The story is set on the mountain, near the summit, where an Englishman being guided by two sherpas has fallen, and lies on a ledge a few metres below. As the sherpas cling to the rock, contemplating an unlikely rescue, many things pass through their minds.
The sherpas are of markedly different ages. The older man has spent his lifetime on or around the mountain, but still he dreams of a different life, on the oceans maybe, or studying at a university far away. The younger man is still at school, preparing for a school production of Julius Caesar.
With the beauty of the mountain always there, Daniell adapts his writing to match the moment, the fall of a rock, a change in the weather, the fading of the light.
The Englishman lies helpless, dead maybe, and yet seems by Daniell's descriptions to be out of place, alien to the landscape, and from a life far away. He is barely refered to. He stands though as a metaphor for imperialism, amd its lingering after effects. The focus is on the Sherpas as an ethnic group, and how their history on the mountain. Particularly, Daneill comes back to April 18th, 2014, when 16 Nepali mountaineering guides, most of them ethnic Sherpas, were killed by an avalanche on the mountain, a fact often overlooked that it was the single deadliest accident in the history of the Himalayan peak.
I can think of few better ways to mark the occasion than to read this book.
The story is set on the mountain, near the summit, where an Englishman being guided by two sherpas has fallen, and lies on a ledge a few metres below. As the sherpas cling to the rock, contemplating an unlikely rescue, many things pass through their minds.
The sherpas are of markedly different ages. The older man has spent his lifetime on or around the mountain, but still he dreams of a different life, on the oceans maybe, or studying at a university far away. The younger man is still at school, preparing for a school production of Julius Caesar.
With the beauty of the mountain always there, Daniell adapts his writing to match the moment, the fall of a rock, a change in the weather, the fading of the light.
The Englishman lies helpless, dead maybe, and yet seems by Daniell's descriptions to be out of place, alien to the landscape, and from a life far away. He is barely refered to. He stands though as a metaphor for imperialism, amd its lingering after effects. The focus is on the Sherpas as an ethnic group, and how their history on the mountain. Particularly, Daneill comes back to April 18th, 2014, when 16 Nepali mountaineering guides, most of them ethnic Sherpas, were killed by an avalanche on the mountain, a fact often overlooked that it was the single deadliest accident in the history of the Himalayan peak.
June 29, 2024
Hard to say what this book is about but I enjoyed reading it all the same
January 29, 2024
Aqui acompanhamos os pensamentos e memórias de dois sherpas (ou um sherpa e um nem tanto) que acabaram de perder um de seus clientes em uma queda no Everest. Acho que este livro faz algo bem interessante com as noções de tempo e espaço, além de trazer questionamentos sobre a mentalidade colonialista da "conquista" de uma montanha e das expedições comerciais ao Everest. A edição brasileira é belíssima, com um projeto gráfico que intercala os capítulos com fotos, mapas e imagens das montanhas. Meu único porém é que achei que o estilo de escrita do autor funcionou melhor nos capítulos super curtos do que nos capítulos maiores.
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August 21, 2023dnf @64%
whilst I am a fan of a plotless book, I need something to grasp onto - characters, sentimentality, writing. with Two Sherpas, I found it to be a book about lots of ideas that together, didn't amount to much. granted I didn't finish the book, i couldn't make much sense of the themes and components. at the centerpiece, there are two Sherpas looking over a ridge at an Englishman who has fallen off. The "plot" of the book consists of just minutes, the actions that the two Sherpas take. Sandwiched in between are memories of the two Sherpas' lives and how they contrast from each other. And orbiting this there is a Shakespeare play, philosophy,and many, many passages about what exactly, idk.
by far the most interesting part about the book is the older Sherpas' views on tourism at Everest: "That's what they call us when we're not around: 'Porters'. He goes further: Beasts of burden. As necessary and at the same time as interchangeable as pitons, as harnesses, as rope."
Perhaps personal bias clouded my expectations, seeing as you hardly ever see translated books set in Nepal. Personally, I wish the entire book focused on the Sherpas' lives and the culture. It felt that the characters in the book never seemed like real people and the thoughts and monologues were more of the author's than the characters so there was a real disconnect there.
overall, it was too fragmentary for me to continue reading
whilst I am a fan of a plotless book, I need something to grasp onto - characters, sentimentality, writing. with Two Sherpas, I found it to be a book about lots of ideas that together, didn't amount to much. granted I didn't finish the book, i couldn't make much sense of the themes and components. at the centerpiece, there are two Sherpas looking over a ridge at an Englishman who has fallen off. The "plot" of the book consists of just minutes, the actions that the two Sherpas take. Sandwiched in between are memories of the two Sherpas' lives and how they contrast from each other. And orbiting this there is a Shakespeare play, philosophy,and many, many passages about what exactly, idk.
by far the most interesting part about the book is the older Sherpas' views on tourism at Everest: "That's what they call us when we're not around: 'Porters'. He goes further: Beasts of burden. As necessary and at the same time as interchangeable as pitons, as harnesses, as rope."
Perhaps personal bias clouded my expectations, seeing as you hardly ever see translated books set in Nepal. Personally, I wish the entire book focused on the Sherpas' lives and the culture. It felt that the characters in the book never seemed like real people and the thoughts and monologues were more of the author's than the characters so there was a real disconnect there.
overall, it was too fragmentary for me to continue reading
July 12, 2023
A very interesting structure and style. The whole of the work creates a gestalt that I think I "get." Western colonialism and arrogance is passing from the world. Maybe already done for. The rest of the world is taking over. But I can't say I understood the somewhat extended descriptions of the side "adventures" by either the Old Sherpa or the Young Sherpa. (I also have a quibble with the translation which seems to find it necessary to use pretty archaic or at least uncommon English words when a less pretentious vocabulary would do. These words often appear like a boulder sticking out of the path, interrupting the flow of the story, to its detriment.)
February 8, 2023
Claramente este libro no era para mí. Lo compré pensando que sería una cosa y me encontré con un tipo de literatura que no me gusta ni suelo leer. Aún así me obligué a seguir leyendo porque me apasiona el tema del Everest y los sherpas, pero son capítulos cortos con reflexiones sobre la vida en los que no ocurre nada, excepto pensamientos internos y divagaciones filosóficas de ambos sherpas.
Seguro que otro tipo de lector lo disfruta, no ha sido mi caso, pero eso no es culpa del libro.
Seguro que otro tipo de lector lo disfruta, no ha sido mi caso, pero eso no es culpa del libro.
February 20, 2025
2.5/5
"Postcolonial experimental literature" is a phrase I wish I could say more often in regards to my reading. Alas, I have fallen out of the rarefied (or stultifying, depending on your definition) environment that significantly concerns itself with such, so I tend to pick up what bits and pieces I can get from indie presses and translation awards. Charco Press is one of the former with a section of the latter mixed in, and when this work popped up with its intriguingly subversive subject material and elegantly coiffed cover, it seemed the exact type of lit worth making a 2+ hour round trip back to my former library stomping grounds for. Unfortunately, much as I'm no longer imbibing the mise en place that makes this sort of lit its bread and butter, I also don't have much patience for An Unnecessary Woman type mental shenanigans, where I look for a person and get a trumped up European latched onto the ego, superego, and id. To be honest, I could have given this another three star, but with the litany currently somberly shuffling behind me so far this year, I felt the need to break the streak to give myself some sort of differentiated feedback, even of the negative variety, I'm still eyeing more than one of this imprint's representatives, but I just hope my next pick is far more integrated in its intent and less Wikipedia summary in its confrontation of the ivory tower.
"Postcolonial experimental literature" is a phrase I wish I could say more often in regards to my reading. Alas, I have fallen out of the rarefied (or stultifying, depending on your definition) environment that significantly concerns itself with such, so I tend to pick up what bits and pieces I can get from indie presses and translation awards. Charco Press is one of the former with a section of the latter mixed in, and when this work popped up with its intriguingly subversive subject material and elegantly coiffed cover, it seemed the exact type of lit worth making a 2+ hour round trip back to my former library stomping grounds for. Unfortunately, much as I'm no longer imbibing the mise en place that makes this sort of lit its bread and butter, I also don't have much patience for An Unnecessary Woman type mental shenanigans, where I look for a person and get a trumped up European latched onto the ego, superego, and id. To be honest, I could have given this another three star, but with the litany currently somberly shuffling behind me so far this year, I felt the need to break the streak to give myself some sort of differentiated feedback, even of the negative variety, I'm still eyeing more than one of this imprint's representatives, but I just hope my next pick is far more integrated in its intent and less Wikipedia summary in its confrontation of the ivory tower.
July 16, 2024
Martínez Daniell criticises how privileged Western tourists see the Sherpas as mules, machines, means of transport. And then he proceeds to use the sherpas in his story to transport his euro- and anglocentric ideas.
Of course he is trying to criticise colonialism - but ends up creating a colonialist work of literature himself. I guess this book shows how permeated every culture is with Western concepts, the young sherpa using Biblical metaphors, all the references to European writers, philosophers, painters. It mostly just feels like the author is using a marginalised culture as a canvas for his pretentious musings about the world.
Everything I learnt about actual sherpas can be found on Wikipedia, blogs - or books written by sherpa authors. I couldn’t find any information on his background - did he travel to Nepal, did he interview sherpas? It doesn’t seem like it.
I skimmed through most of the second half but here are some of the names I remember:
Sherpa names:
- Nima Chhiring, Tenzing Norgay, Raju (both minor characters)
White dude names:
- Goethe, Hegel, Nietzsche (indirectly referenced but important), Shakespeare, Renoir, Monet, Amundsen and a whole bunch of other Western adventurers and mountaineers,…
It’s incredibly ironic to pretend to centre a marginalised group’s perspective only to end up using them as mules to reach your own literary summit.
Of course he is trying to criticise colonialism - but ends up creating a colonialist work of literature himself. I guess this book shows how permeated every culture is with Western concepts, the young sherpa using Biblical metaphors, all the references to European writers, philosophers, painters. It mostly just feels like the author is using a marginalised culture as a canvas for his pretentious musings about the world.
Everything I learnt about actual sherpas can be found on Wikipedia, blogs - or books written by sherpa authors. I couldn’t find any information on his background - did he travel to Nepal, did he interview sherpas? It doesn’t seem like it.
I skimmed through most of the second half but here are some of the names I remember:
Sherpa names:
- Nima Chhiring, Tenzing Norgay, Raju (both minor characters)
White dude names:
- Goethe, Hegel, Nietzsche (indirectly referenced but important), Shakespeare, Renoir, Monet, Amundsen and a whole bunch of other Western adventurers and mountaineers,…
It’s incredibly ironic to pretend to centre a marginalised group’s perspective only to end up using them as mules to reach your own literary summit.
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