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Θα ήθελα
O MΠAMΠAΣ BΛEΠEI ΠYΓOΛAMΠIΔEΣ. H MAMA ΔOKIMAZEI ΣTA KPYΦA ΠAΠOYTΣIA XOPOY. H MIA KOPH EXEI EYAIΣΘHTA AYTIA. H AΛΛH ΣTPΩNEI YΠOΔEIΓMATIKA TO KPEBATI THΣ. EΞΩ BPEXEI. OI AMYΓΔAΛIEΣ ANΘIZOYN. KI ENAΣ KOKKINOΣ MΠEPEΣ ΣTPOBIΛIZETAI ΣTON AEPA. ΠOIOΣ ΓPAΦEI, OMΩΣ, TIΣ IΣTOPIEΣ ΣTO ΘA HΘEΛA; OΣOI ΔEN EXOYN YΠOMONH ΓIA AINIΓMATA AΣ ΠANE KATEYΘEIAN ΣTHN TEΛEYTAIA IΣTOPIA. OΠOIOΣ, OMΩΣ ΔIABAΣEI TO BIBΛIO ΓPAMMIKA ΘA ANTAMEIΦΘEI ME THN ENOPXHΣTPΩΣH ENOΣ KATAKEPMATIΣMENOY, AΠOΔOMHMENOY MYΘIΣTOPHMATOΣ ME MIA ΠAPATAΞH KAI ΣYNYΦANΣH TΩN TPOΠΩN ZΩHΣ ΣHMEPA.H AMANTA MIXAΛOΠOYΛOY ΠAPATHPEI TON KOΣMO ΠOTE ME ΣYMΠONIA, ΠOTE ME OΞYTHTA, ΠOTE KAI ME TA ΔYO. OI HPΩEΣ THΣ EINAI AΞIAΓAΠHTOI KAI AΞIOΛYΠHTOI TAYTOXPONΩΣ. ΣYNAIΣΘANONTAI, AYTOΣXEΔIAZOYN ΣTIΣ ΣYMΦOPEΣ, AΛΛA TOYΣ ΛEIΠEI TO TAΛENTO NA ΣYΓXΩPOYN -TOYΣ AΛΛOYΣ KAI TON EAYTO TOYΣ.
208 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 2005
3 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Michalopoulou
15 books78 followersAmanda Michalopoulou (Greek: Αμάντα Μιχαλοπούλου) is a Greek author known for her novels, short stories, and children's books. She studied French literature in Athens and journalism in Paris and later worked as a contributing editor for Kathimerini. She began her literary career with short stories, winning the Revmata Prize in 1993. Her debut collection Life is Colourful Out There appeared in 1994, followed by award-winning titles such as I'd Like, which earned the National Endowment for the Arts' International Literature Award in 2008. Her novels include Octopus Garden and Bright Day, and her writing has been featured in The Guardian, Harvard Review, and World Literature Today. Widely translated into 20 languages, she currently teaches creative writing and divides her time between Athens and Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 7, 2020
Είπα ότι φέτος θα διαβάσω περισσότερη ελληνική λογοτεχνία και θεώρησα στανταράκι ότι θα μ' αρέσει η Α. Μιχαλοπούλου, γιατί έχω ακούσει τα καλύτερα.
Να φταίει το βιβλίο, να μην μου ταιριάζει το γράψιμο; Δεν ξέρω τι πήγε στραβά. Κάπου χαώθηκα με τις ιστορίες που, ναι μεν συνδέονταν κάπως μεταξύ τους, αλλά σε πολλές περιπτώσεις αδυνατούσα να καταλάβω αν η πρωταγωνίστρια ήταν η μάνα, η κόρη, η νεαρή μάνα,η άλλη κόρη κτλ.
Σκέφτομαι πάντως να της δώσω μια δεύτερη ευκαιρία γιατί σε καμία περίπτωση δεν μου φάνηκε ότι δεν είχε τίποτα να πει η γραφή της Μιχαλοπούλου.
Να φταίει το βιβλίο, να μην μου ταιριάζει το γράψιμο; Δεν ξέρω τι πήγε στραβά. Κάπου χαώθηκα με τις ιστορίες που, ναι μεν συνδέονταν κάπως μεταξύ τους, αλλά σε πολλές περιπτώσεις αδυνατούσα να καταλάβω αν η πρωταγωνίστρια ήταν η μάνα, η κόρη, η νεαρή μάνα,η άλλη κόρη κτλ.
Σκέφτομαι πάντως να της δώσω μια δεύτερη ευκαιρία γιατί σε καμία περίπτωση δεν μου φάνηκε ότι δεν είχε τίποτα να πει η γραφή της Μιχαλοπούλου.
July 11, 2020
Μικρή συλλογή διηγημάτων που συνδέονται μεταξύ τους με ήρωες που επανεμφανίζονται κι εξετάζονται σε διαφορετικές στιγμές της ζωής τους, υπό διαφορετικά πρίσματα, διαφορετικές συνθήκες, διαφορετικές επιλογές. Ελαφρά υπερρεαλιστική γραφή, θέλει αρκετή φαντασία για να μπει κανείς στο νόημα και να κατανοήσει το στιλ της συγγραφέα. Πολύ πρωτότυπες οι επαναλήψεις αντικειμένων, φράσεων και αποσπασμάτων διαλόγων σε όλα τα διηγήματα, που βοηθούν στη συνοχή και καλύτερη αντίληψη του έργου. Νοτ μάι θινγκ, δόου...
September 1, 2008
Michalopoulou writes that she set out to "write stories that would read like versions of an unwritten novel," but, with the final such "version," "I'd Like (Orchestral Version)" deflates that claim. It is something of a shame to have this appear on the jacket copy: it collapses the focus that the reader can bring to bear on the book's "stories," as even reading them as "stories" tends to do.
Forget about "versions of an unwritten novel," forget about "stories," and you will be better served. As a sequence of stories, the reappearance of "images" (though most often, as with the red beret, not images at all but things, which are most certainly not images unless in a photograph or film-- I mean to say that they simply appear in the text, that nothing is done with them, that they are not "images" in the poetic sense) begins to seem completely gratuitous and rather cheap as an effect, as does the second story's repetition of elements of the first. But read instead as a book, which is to say, something which is neither a novel nor a collection of stories, this sort of odd seeding of things, which then become images by virtue of their repetition in different settings (I realize that it is something of an arbitrary distinction, but read the book, and you will see what I mean-- the red beret appearing in one "story" calls the memory back to another "story," until the beret does actually begin to take on some of the aspects of the image) opens a window into the possibilities of literature.
Like Raymond Queneau, Michalopoulou is not afraid to completely flaunt the rules of literary fiction to achieve the same effects through a back door. Make no mistake: these stories frequently show their seams, permit peeks behind the curtain. Read separately, these "versions" or "stories" would fall flat absolutely. Try picking the book up and doing so. None of the resonances sound and none of the references connect. But read as the book that it is, in the carefully selected order it is presented in, Michalopoulou's multiplications begin to take on more and more meaning as she goes. When that last "version" comes, things finally click into place-- but this is no different really from a novel, and that is Michalopoulou's discovery. In this stark economy (the book is 129 pages), she manages many of the same emotional and affective effects that the novelist does, without having to observe the novelist's continuities and organizational rules.
The only real quibble that I have is probably a tangential one: why not connect things completely, seamlessly, in that last "version?" I do not mean that she should have wrapped everything up, I mean that in the run-up to this last version, she has made so many turns that become dead-ends, that her final "version" can't quite do everything it might have. The images might fit, the emotion might be there, but there is waste there, too. This is a messy book, a book that might easily have been ruined by further editing, but might also have been crystallized, sharpened, honed to a deadly edge. I suspect that many people will read it and see only the flash on the page, the fact that "these stories read like versions of an unfinished novel," the "uncanny repetition of certain details," (from the jacket copy) and fail to see that something new and worthwhile is being done here.
Forget about "versions of an unwritten novel," forget about "stories," and you will be better served. As a sequence of stories, the reappearance of "images" (though most often, as with the red beret, not images at all but things, which are most certainly not images unless in a photograph or film-- I mean to say that they simply appear in the text, that nothing is done with them, that they are not "images" in the poetic sense) begins to seem completely gratuitous and rather cheap as an effect, as does the second story's repetition of elements of the first. But read instead as a book, which is to say, something which is neither a novel nor a collection of stories, this sort of odd seeding of things, which then become images by virtue of their repetition in different settings (I realize that it is something of an arbitrary distinction, but read the book, and you will see what I mean-- the red beret appearing in one "story" calls the memory back to another "story," until the beret does actually begin to take on some of the aspects of the image) opens a window into the possibilities of literature.
Like Raymond Queneau, Michalopoulou is not afraid to completely flaunt the rules of literary fiction to achieve the same effects through a back door. Make no mistake: these stories frequently show their seams, permit peeks behind the curtain. Read separately, these "versions" or "stories" would fall flat absolutely. Try picking the book up and doing so. None of the resonances sound and none of the references connect. But read as the book that it is, in the carefully selected order it is presented in, Michalopoulou's multiplications begin to take on more and more meaning as she goes. When that last "version" comes, things finally click into place-- but this is no different really from a novel, and that is Michalopoulou's discovery. In this stark economy (the book is 129 pages), she manages many of the same emotional and affective effects that the novelist does, without having to observe the novelist's continuities and organizational rules.
The only real quibble that I have is probably a tangential one: why not connect things completely, seamlessly, in that last "version?" I do not mean that she should have wrapped everything up, I mean that in the run-up to this last version, she has made so many turns that become dead-ends, that her final "version" can't quite do everything it might have. The images might fit, the emotion might be there, but there is waste there, too. This is a messy book, a book that might easily have been ruined by further editing, but might also have been crystallized, sharpened, honed to a deadly edge. I suspect that many people will read it and see only the flash on the page, the fact that "these stories read like versions of an unfinished novel," the "uncanny repetition of certain details," (from the jacket copy) and fail to see that something new and worthwhile is being done here.
March 8, 2017
A delightful little book with recurring characters and artefacts which intercept each other. More than a "short stories collection" it is a non-linear text where time IS, defying our stubborn construction of causality.
June 12, 2008
A dazzlingly beautiful cycle of stories, all of them fragmentary and allusive. They come closest to all being traumatic recreations and workings-thru of some primal event that itself remains incomplete.... I think that's a little misleading, because I think the last story means to give the game away, but that's less interesting to me, and anyhow, the last story leaves out too much to really stand on its own.
That said, a really interesting, rich and rewarding collection. This one's a winner.
Matt
That said, a really interesting, rich and rewarding collection. This one's a winner.
Matt
October 2, 2024
Oscil·lant entre el 3.5 i el 4, el principi em va deixar lleugerament indiferent, però a mesura que passaven els relats anava millorant, el joc literari és molt interessant, la narració a vegades em fluixejava. Però en general una bona lectura, àgil però amb molts lligams per a anar descaragolant a través de la lectura.
August 12, 2020
3.5 /5
September 20, 2021
Está bastante bien, con su serie de historias entrelazadas.
October 3, 2024
No l’he entes
October 18, 2024
Està chulo i al final acabes entenent per on va (més o menys), però es nota que no està pensat per ser una novel·la unificada. Els detalls surrealistes són xulos i desconcertants.
December 19, 2025
Ressenya a Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRcwFx...
September 4, 2024
Referents: Rilke, Borges, Cavafy. Somewhat reminiscent of A Series of Unfortunate Events with its mysterious repetitions and somberness. An intriguing disappointment.
July 15, 2011
I started this book of short stories called "I'd Like" late on Saturday and finished it early Monday, which probably tells you how much I enjoyed it.
As the author, Amanda Micalopoulou, states in her afterword, instead of a general anthology; she ended up writing "stories that would read like versions of an unwritten novel", and indeed they do. That is not to say that the stories themselves are not self-contained, they all are, but there is a - sometimes bewildering - series of motifs and themes that occur throughout this book (often of the visceral type: a red beret, a broken little finger, bloodied feet, theft from corpses etc). Yet this fragmentation works, especially as there is a central core of two sisters called Stella and Christiana who interlink this loose narrative (despite the timescales of the stories meaning that these cannot be the same characters throughout the book as a whole). And of course the other constant is the author herself (not necessarily Amanda herself) who pervades this works with a touching sense of self doubt about her own writing. That particular device reminded me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut's appearances in his own fiction (under his own pseudonym of Kilgore Trout).
I am probably making this book sound complex and difficult, and it isn't. The stories are honest, fresh and interesting, funny and poignant, - and the overall sense one gets is of a profound awareness of the shared human condition with just a glimpse of redemption (although the short story "Story for fools" puts that squarely in our own hands rather than any wider God).
Really enjoyed this.
As the author, Amanda Micalopoulou, states in her afterword, instead of a general anthology; she ended up writing "stories that would read like versions of an unwritten novel", and indeed they do. That is not to say that the stories themselves are not self-contained, they all are, but there is a - sometimes bewildering - series of motifs and themes that occur throughout this book (often of the visceral type: a red beret, a broken little finger, bloodied feet, theft from corpses etc). Yet this fragmentation works, especially as there is a central core of two sisters called Stella and Christiana who interlink this loose narrative (despite the timescales of the stories meaning that these cannot be the same characters throughout the book as a whole). And of course the other constant is the author herself (not necessarily Amanda herself) who pervades this works with a touching sense of self doubt about her own writing. That particular device reminded me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut's appearances in his own fiction (under his own pseudonym of Kilgore Trout).
I am probably making this book sound complex and difficult, and it isn't. The stories are honest, fresh and interesting, funny and poignant, - and the overall sense one gets is of a profound awareness of the shared human condition with just a glimpse of redemption (although the short story "Story for fools" puts that squarely in our own hands rather than any wider God).
Really enjoyed this.
June 10, 2013
Very strong collection. The best story was "Teef," as it kept teetering between realism and fable. Sometimes the tendency is to exoticize the foreign, and since I don't know exactly about psychiatric treatment facilities in Greece, it's hard to tell the fabulous from the real. The story walks tightly on either side of the line and keeps the reader in suspense, while the narration is masterful and confident in exposition, but this confidence is upended in the dialogue. Michalopoulou is a gifted writer. I read the story "I'd Like" in the original Greek, and I can see the translation is very well done. But keep in mind, even the title to "I'd Like" does not translate smoothly as is the case in so many translations. Why is it that the manner in which we say "I'd like" differs so much between languages?
April 16, 2010
I'D LIKE is essentially about a family--Dad, Mom, Christina, and Stella the youngest who narrates the book. Direct dialogue rather than willful acts tells the nonlinear story but leads to some fuzziness and wonder. Michalopoulou writes that the stories makeup a family's biography (129). Their sequence and Stella's memories mix up biological time, so the reader must wade through the temporary confusion. The characters can be at times nameless impressions, signaled by a red beret, a talent for ballet, an occupation; the reader works hard to assign names to the speakers. I loved the tone--the mutual helpfulness and caring muted disharmony, which was expressed by emotional and physical distance--and the literariness of Stella.
September 18, 2010
This is a collection of thirteen short stories linked through imagery and ideas and recurring characters. Michalopoulou writes in her afterword that these stories talk about their own origins as well as of the fictional biography of their creator--an interesting intention, no doubt, but one that might have failed if each of these stories had not been masterfully crafted. As it is, each one is a gem. A brilliant collection from a very talented author.
December 9, 2012
Ok I i read this in Greek, and i simply consider it the best thing I have ever read by a greek writer. An absolute masterpiece, I'd like is a study on human wishes, thoughts and feelings, that everyone should check out. My favourite book.
December 15, 2014
I really enjoyed this short book of interwoven short stories and the way they built up on each other slowly, so that every time I read a new one I re-thought whom and what they were each about, and which ones were maybe dreams, or wishes, and which ones "really" happened. Yay, random library find!
May 17, 2008
a compelling display of pyrotechnics in prose poetry. the author is totally feisty, too.
May 26, 2008
worth finding
more refreshment
couldve read alot more of these...
more refreshment
couldve read alot more of these...
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews