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Problems of Translation: or Charlie's Comic, Terrifying, Romantic, Loopy Round-the-World Journey in Search of Linguistic Happiness
"...A MERRY, YEARLONG CHASE AROUND THE GLOBE...."--Kirkus Reviews
"A comic masterpiece" "Poignant" "Pretty much perfectly done"
and A Shelf Unbound 2015 Notable Book
Charles Abel Baker--short story writer and a "most unlikely middle-aged hero"--sets off around the world on a quest to see one of his short stories translated into ten different languages and back again into English, a sort of literary version of the old party game "telephone." In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Siberia, China, India, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, and more, Charlie's round-the-world peregrinations are comical, romantic, and at times hair-raising.
Problems of Translation is a cloak-and-dagger adventure, a love story, and a bracing ride for the language buff. Its naïve hero's quixotic mission will ultimately transform Charlie and those around him. And along the way, Charlie--lonely, divorced--comes to love and be loved by a generous, complicated woman, and at last to understand what drove him to undertake this journey.
Who knew that literary translation could be so perilous? So romantic? So downright funny? A rousing hybrid and a great read, Problems of Translation is as stimulating as it is entertaining.
"An insanely amusing adventure that has a deep love of language at its belly-shaking core."-Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure and A Super Sad True Love Story
From Portland Book Review, Four
"...a zany and surprisingly philosophical adventure....This is a complex book that touches on language, culture, and the human desire to search for connection and meaning in life. One part midlife crisis, one part old-timey spy film, and one part romance, Problems in Translation is a multilayered story that readers - particularly those who love book related humor - will enjoy."
"Jim Story's name says it he was meant to be a writer...I hope everyone reads this book!"-Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief and The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
"In this comic masterpiece...we take a wild ride...through the underside of the literary world...as [Charlie] stumbles and careens into all kinds of trouble in and obsessive pursuit of hid Dream."-Robert Roth, author of Health Proxy; editor, co-creator of And Then
"A fascinating look at the issues of translation, publishing, and an unglamorous middle-age."-Edith Grossman, author of Why Translation Matters; award-winning translator of Cervantes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and others
"...Marvelous touches of...poignancy that don't...delay the progress of the story toward it's delectable conclusion...pretty much perfectly done."-Ron Story (no relation), Emeritus Professor, UMass Amherst; author of Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel of Love
"A comic masterpiece" "Poignant" "Pretty much perfectly done"
and A Shelf Unbound 2015 Notable Book
Charles Abel Baker--short story writer and a "most unlikely middle-aged hero"--sets off around the world on a quest to see one of his short stories translated into ten different languages and back again into English, a sort of literary version of the old party game "telephone." In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Siberia, China, India, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, and more, Charlie's round-the-world peregrinations are comical, romantic, and at times hair-raising.
Problems of Translation is a cloak-and-dagger adventure, a love story, and a bracing ride for the language buff. Its naïve hero's quixotic mission will ultimately transform Charlie and those around him. And along the way, Charlie--lonely, divorced--comes to love and be loved by a generous, complicated woman, and at last to understand what drove him to undertake this journey.
Who knew that literary translation could be so perilous? So romantic? So downright funny? A rousing hybrid and a great read, Problems of Translation is as stimulating as it is entertaining.
"An insanely amusing adventure that has a deep love of language at its belly-shaking core."-Gary Shteyngart, author of Little Failure and A Super Sad True Love Story
From Portland Book Review, Four
"...a zany and surprisingly philosophical adventure....This is a complex book that touches on language, culture, and the human desire to search for connection and meaning in life. One part midlife crisis, one part old-timey spy film, and one part romance, Problems in Translation is a multilayered story that readers - particularly those who love book related humor - will enjoy."
"Jim Story's name says it he was meant to be a writer...I hope everyone reads this book!"-Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief and The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
"In this comic masterpiece...we take a wild ride...through the underside of the literary world...as [Charlie] stumbles and careens into all kinds of trouble in and obsessive pursuit of hid Dream."-Robert Roth, author of Health Proxy; editor, co-creator of And Then
"A fascinating look at the issues of translation, publishing, and an unglamorous middle-age."-Edith Grossman, author of Why Translation Matters; award-winning translator of Cervantes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and others
"...Marvelous touches of...poignancy that don't...delay the progress of the story toward it's delectable conclusion...pretty much perfectly done."-Ron Story (no relation), Emeritus Professor, UMass Amherst; author of Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel of Love
371 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 21, 2015
8 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Jim Story
2 books4 followersAuthor of the recently published novel The Condor's Shadow, now climbing the charts with many five-star reviews on Amazon as well as the formerly much-acclaimed novel
Problems of Translation, or Charlie’s Comic, Terrifying, Romantic, Loopy Round-the-World Journey in Search of Linguistic Happiness
, Jim Story is a novelist, short-story writer and poet.
A former Okie blues singer as well as Russian history professor, Jim has published short stories, essays, reviews and poetry in Confrontation, The Same, Karamu, Folio, Pindeldyboz, Helicon, Aspen Anthology, Berkeley Poetry Review, Steelhead Review, Now, Paper Boat, Hyn Poetry Anthology, Poets, Big City Lit, Long Island University Magazine, And Then, and Home Planet News, for which he served several years as Executive Editor. He’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (for a series of poems called “Notes of a Forty-Year Old Country Boy”), won a Best New Writers Award from Poets & Writers, and held a residency at the Edward Albee Center in Montauk, Long Island. He has studied with Ben Fountain at a Zoetrope Conference in Belize in 2007 and with Jim Shepard at Sirenland in Positano, Italy.
A story called “Milwaukee Dawn” appeared this past June 2015 in BigCityLit.com. Forthcoming publications may include a collection of short stories called Love and Other Terminal Diseases and a novella called Wounded by History, which National Book Critics Circle award winner Ben Fountain has already called “swift, profound and engaging.” Also coming up (and probably sooner!) are Professor Fairweather Hits The Skids as well as The Second Okie Migration to California, and maybe even a memoir! His cultural and literary blog can be accessed at jimcstory.com by clicking on Today’s Story.
Born in Oklahoma and raised on a ranch in the San Joaquin valley in California, Jim holds a PhD from Columbia University, a certificate from the Harriman Institute, and has taught at Whitman College in the state of Washington, as well as Long Island University (Brooklyn Center) and Lehman College in New York. Jim, a former San Joaquin Valley Small Schools Tennis Champion in high school (singles and doubles), is an enthusiastic follower of tennis and jazz. He lives in New York City, where he is currently at work on his next novel.
A former Okie blues singer as well as Russian history professor, Jim has published short stories, essays, reviews and poetry in Confrontation, The Same, Karamu, Folio, Pindeldyboz, Helicon, Aspen Anthology, Berkeley Poetry Review, Steelhead Review, Now, Paper Boat, Hyn Poetry Anthology, Poets, Big City Lit, Long Island University Magazine, And Then, and Home Planet News, for which he served several years as Executive Editor. He’s been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (for a series of poems called “Notes of a Forty-Year Old Country Boy”), won a Best New Writers Award from Poets & Writers, and held a residency at the Edward Albee Center in Montauk, Long Island. He has studied with Ben Fountain at a Zoetrope Conference in Belize in 2007 and with Jim Shepard at Sirenland in Positano, Italy.
A story called “Milwaukee Dawn” appeared this past June 2015 in BigCityLit.com. Forthcoming publications may include a collection of short stories called Love and Other Terminal Diseases and a novella called Wounded by History, which National Book Critics Circle award winner Ben Fountain has already called “swift, profound and engaging.” Also coming up (and probably sooner!) are Professor Fairweather Hits The Skids as well as The Second Okie Migration to California, and maybe even a memoir! His cultural and literary blog can be accessed at jimcstory.com by clicking on Today’s Story.
Born in Oklahoma and raised on a ranch in the San Joaquin valley in California, Jim holds a PhD from Columbia University, a certificate from the Harriman Institute, and has taught at Whitman College in the state of Washington, as well as Long Island University (Brooklyn Center) and Lehman College in New York. Jim, a former San Joaquin Valley Small Schools Tennis Champion in high school (singles and doubles), is an enthusiastic follower of tennis and jazz. He lives in New York City, where he is currently at work on his next novel.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 6, 2016
Problems of Translation is an amusing, quirky story with characters to match. You will love the affable and charming writer, Charles Baker, who is at the helm of this wonderfully inventive story. His labor of love takes has him traipsing the world and experiencing a kaleidoscope of serendipity and sucker punches. Superbly written. It kept a smile on my face from beginning to end. Suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride!
November 14, 2015
Review written for and published by Portland Book Review on October 28th:
In Problems of Translation readers follow writer Charles Abel Baker as he tours the globe to follow up on an ambitious project. A lover of language, Charlie has an idea: to translate a short story into ten different languages, and then back into English. When a big name editor rejects his book idea, Charlie decides to see his idea come to life on his own. Little does he know that the editor decided to steal his idea, and has sent a hit man after him to make sure Charlie doesn’t succeed. Luckily, Charlie has his own guardian angel dogging his footsteps. What follows is a zany and surprisingly philosophical adventure as Charlie globetrots while pursuing his dream.
The pacing of the book is slow, but steady, and is certainly never boring. Charlie falls in and out of various adventures and life threatening situations as he visits Russia, China, India, and Mexico to name a few of his stops. He deals with missing cats, plane crashes, earthquakes, and other near misses. These adventurous sequences are interspersed with quieter scenes – discussions on translation philosophy with the various translators, introspective dreams, and musings of the meaning of life. While the sheer number of the philosophical introspection may slow the pace a bit too much on occasion, they are often laced with in-jokes that the linguist and classical book lover will find amusing.
The other part of the book follows the two ex-CIA agents sent to follow Charlie and the men behind them. These sequences let the reader take a step back to take a peek at the larger picture of what is going on, as well as letting readers see the humor in Charlie’s complete obliviousness. The irony of course being that in his pondering the deep, philosophical big picture, Charlie manages to miss the big picture of the world around him.
This is a complex book that touches on language, culture, and the human desire to search for connection and meaning in life. One part midlife crisis, one part old-timey spy film, and one part romance, Problems of Translation is a multilayered story that readers – particularly those who love book related humor – will enjoy.
December 14, 2016
This book reminds me of the movie Forrest Gump - remember how Forrest just happened into different circumstances, cultural references were made, it was quirky storytelling, etc? You get that in this book.
Charles is a 60-something year old man who has a life of regret and humiliation and is looking for personal redemption. He has a creative idea of playing literary telephone with one of his short stories that takes him around the globe and on some surreal adventures.
The story is laced with "fortunate coincidence." Sometimes I was thinking this is quite the tale, other times my thoughts were how you just can't make this stuff up, and the rest of my thoughts were that this is just too absurd to be true.
The foiling of Charles' attempts to get his story translated was odd, but then the foiling of the foil's attempts was beyond odd. As a reader, I didn't really buy in to this sabotage on top of sabotage. The initial sabotage was hard enough to believe!
Of course Charlie would encounter some natural road blocks to his mission. But the ones he encountered along the way were crazy.
Overall, I felt like there were some answered questions and absent details to fill in a few gaps about Charles' life post academia and his financial situation. Charles is one lucky and fortunate man - read to find out exactly how. I was absolutely compelled to read the book to finish, and the clean ending made it worth it. Clever storyline but just a bit over the top for me.
Charles is a 60-something year old man who has a life of regret and humiliation and is looking for personal redemption. He has a creative idea of playing literary telephone with one of his short stories that takes him around the globe and on some surreal adventures.
The story is laced with "fortunate coincidence." Sometimes I was thinking this is quite the tale, other times my thoughts were how you just can't make this stuff up, and the rest of my thoughts were that this is just too absurd to be true.
The foiling of Charles' attempts to get his story translated was odd, but then the foiling of the foil's attempts was beyond odd. As a reader, I didn't really buy in to this sabotage on top of sabotage. The initial sabotage was hard enough to believe!
Of course Charlie would encounter some natural road blocks to his mission. But the ones he encountered along the way were crazy.
Overall, I felt like there were some answered questions and absent details to fill in a few gaps about Charles' life post academia and his financial situation. Charles is one lucky and fortunate man - read to find out exactly how. I was absolutely compelled to read the book to finish, and the clean ending made it worth it. Clever storyline but just a bit over the top for me.
April 30, 2017
Oodly quirky novel that I can't put into any specific genre. Very improbable, both the interference to keep the protagonist from reaching his goal, as well as the wrap-up of all the threads, but an interesting read none-the-less.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews