Reading German Books in 2020 discussion
Group Reads
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Q1 2020: Esther Kinsky - River
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I am ordering it now on Abebooks. Hope it doesnt take too long. Thanks for making this aspect quarterly.
It’s in my TBR, but it’s one that I think will challenge me. So group support will be most welcome. Any idea of discussion datea?
If we want to join in, when should we aim to have the book finished? Or will the discussion be about segments of the book?
Lizzy Siddal (Lizzy’s Literary Life) wrote: "It’s in my TBR, but it’s one that I think will challenge me. So group support will be most welcome. Any idea of discussion datea?"We have not really set a discussion date. I think it is best to come only on here once you finished the book. Not that I think this particular one will have spoilers, but I think, we want to treat it like a book club where you go when you done all the reading.
maven wrote: "If we want to join in, when should we aim to have the book finished? Or will the discussion be about segments of the book?"I think it's best to only come on here once we finished reading the book. Like in a bookclub :)
Hello, finally getting to all the missed videos and bookish things after returning from holidays. I’m planning to read this with you. Shocked to find that there is actually a copy of this is my library system here. Put it on hold today.
Hi Mel and Britta!I will join in for the group read, River. It sounds very interesting. I will read it in February and check in to see if you have any discussion topics then. Talk to you later!
I’m in on this as well. I have the book, and started reading it.
Began reading River. Hoping will be able to renew at the library so I can read at a slower pace
H wrote: "Began reading River. Hoping will be able to renew at the library so I can read at a slower pace"It does require a slower pace, I am also reading this rather slowly
My copy arrived yesterday. Very much looking forward to starting this. Out of interest, how many pages are you reading a day/week Melanie?
Christiane wrote: " I'm curious how this sentence is translated into English. It's at the end of the third-least paragraph of chapther 19, "Oder".The translation is:
"the ferry sign had rust holes and stood at a skewed angle to the river."
I just finished this today and sorry to say I also found it a struggle to get through. The book seems to fit with the author's own words in Chapter 22 Hackney Wick, where she describes some photographs: "They gave no hint of a narrative, revealed no intensity of feeling, no suspense of any kind, no loose thread of some drama to pick up."
I am quite relieved to see that I am not the only one who did not get along with this book. I gave up after a couple of chapters because I was utterly bored by it.
I am only partially into River and will have more to say later. But I did find one thing I took as a joke that I think Kinsky couldn’t resist: she is in Mrs. Stoller’s shop. (p 150) The woman is observant, reads a book in Hebrew script, sitting on a stool in a food shop with old fashioned middle European food, tinned, over sweet borscht. ‘..when you got close you you could tell her beautifully coiffed dark-haired wig was a red herring.” The herring thing jumped out at me ;herring definitely belongs in a shop as this.Mrs stiller is obviously old. Kinsky broke style there and made a joke I think. Okay, reading more...
I stand corrected. whoops. Hadn’t thought about the translator possibly having fun or leading me to a wrong track which i tend to follow sometimes. Thank you.
I finally finished it and man alive this was a struggle. I dnfed almost 1000 times and I cannot believe it took me nearly 4 weeks to read it. I have nothing good to say other than that I was bored, annoyed and frustrated in equal measure. Good riddance.
Sorry to say, but I dnfed it as well and brought it back to the library today. Better luck next time. I'm curious what will be the next group read.
You all make me really curious! :-) I will go and get it from the library today.At the same time you don't make me feel very confident that I will actually finish it. Let's see!
Imagine you have the opportunity to interview the English translator, what would you ask him? (I ask because he’s agreed to do a Meet The Translator interview on my blog Lizzy’s Literary Life in March.)I’m only a couple of chapters in and will send questions at the end of February. So pitch in, if you wish.
My only comment at this stage is I’m not sure if I’m reading fiction or non-fiction. The blue cover on the Fitzcarraldo edition suggests the former, but I’m not so sure.
Lizzy Siddal “My only comment at this stage is I’m not sure if I am reading fiction or non-fiction.’\’Do you think this might fall into the category of creative non-fiction? I have been reading this as a very lengthy prose poem so far. An experimental form?
H wrote: "Lizzy Siddal “My only comment at this stage is I’m not sure if I am reading fiction or non-fiction.’\’Do you think this might fall into the category of creative non-fiction? I have been reading t..."
Could very well be. I’ll have more time to give to it after next week, so I’ll bear that thought in mind.
Lizzy Siddal (Lizzy’s Literary Life) wrote: "Imagine you have the opportunity to interview the English translator, what would you ask him? (I ask because he’s agreed to do a Meet The Translator interview on my blog Lizzy’s Literary Life in Ma..."How did the translator deal with all the things that are just hinted that? So much is left unsaid, yet it is there asking us to instil meaning into something (or not). I really wonder how you translate that...
I read is a coupe of day ago, but it was not my cup of tea.I liked individual scenes, but over 300 pages of descriptions of the landscape were tiring. The book has no storyline, no tension. I felt like the waterfowl that had been described several times "stared clueless". I see the theme "intermediate realm" (?) But is this all?What should I be told? Why is the background for the use of an intermediate apartment not mentioned or the destination of the move? I would also have liked to arrange the hikes in terms of time (which decade, for example), but apart from using an old Polaroid camera (which is already outdated when purchased), nothing suggests a time classification. I was also bothered by pure observation. The narrator hardly speaks to people, she describes what she sees, doesn't understand some things, but never asks. So everything stays in a London fog. A book that only lives on language (very poetic, sophisticated, that is true) is too little for me.
Latest news: the English translation has just won the 2019 Schlegel-Tieck Prize!I’m still reading .... very slowly it is true.
I read today that it’s best to approach each chapter as a photograph. I think I’ll give that a try.
Christiane wrote: "Lizzy Siddal (Lizzy’s Literary Life) wrote: "Latest news: the English translation has just won the 2019 Schlegel-Tieck Prize!"Luckily, they, and Shakespeare, are dead and will not know..."
Naughty!
Though it does beg the question as to whether a translation has merit, even if the original is - shall we say - less than inspiring ....
I am waiting for this from my local library but now I have read some of the comments here I am wondering if it is worth the wait!
Christiane wrote: "Lizzy Siddal (Lizzy’s Literary Life) wrote: "Though it does beg the question as to whether a translation has merit, even if the original is - shall we say - less than inspiring ..."Good question...."
I’ve heard many writers say that the translator has improved their book! Who knows, perhaps translator feedback improves the writing skills of the author further down the line?
I have found another Kinsky in my TBR. A novella - Summer Resort. I’ll give her a second chance. I always suspected River wasn’t my thing.
Rosamund wrote: "I am waiting for this from my local library but now I have read some of the comments here I am wondering if it is worth the wait!"Please do at least give it a try! I´m around page 120 and I like it. I read it more slowly than a plot-driven book, but somehow the tone has clicked with me. I still got a big part to read so I do not yet know about my Overall Review, but up to now I am glad I started it.
I agree. It’s worth reading. Slow, yes but rather charming and worth a meandering, contemplative read.
I agree. It’s different, but something is going on with this book.
Christiane wrote: "Lizzy Siddal (Lizzy’s Literary Life) wrote: "I’ve heard many writers say that the translator has improved their book!"I've thought again about that, and I'm a step further now: I cannot "blame" t..."
“So, if someone would translate the translation back into German, maybe it would be a much better book ;-))”
😂😂😂
I think discussion is possible, even if the text has been improved. Because the themes would stay the same. (Mind, I’m only at page 77, so still have to identify them.)
Nope, this was not for me. Many of the 'walks' just bored me, and boy, oh boy, is she (Kinsky) taking herself seriously. And not a speck of humor anywhere to be found.
Britta wrote: "Nope, this was not for me. Many of the 'walks' just bored me, and boy, oh boy, is she (Kinski) taking herself seriously. And not a speck of humor anywhere to be found."The lack of lightness really ground me down.
Britta wrote: "Nope, this was not for me. Many of the 'walks' just bored me, and boy, oh boy, is she (Kinsky) taking herself seriously. And not a speck of humor anywhere to be found."I´m curious to hear more from you if you mention it in one of your Videos :-) and also whether you will now actually read "Hain". I saw that "Hain" is 100 pages shorter and my library has it, so I will give it a try.
I am reading the german original (yes, still reading it, page 200, will I finish in march??) and therefore cannot comment on the translation; but I found the discussion here very interesting considering that Kinsky herself is a translator. And she has even written a book about translating: Fremdsprechen (I think it´s only available in German and I would guess you cannot really translate it as all the examples would get lost...)And, even more interesting, Kinsky commented on translating Olga Tokarczuk in an interview, saying that she never chose to translate her work, but that this work came in a package with other pieces of writing she really wanted to translate. And that she thinks Tokarczuk´s language is not interesting enough. Before saying that she made a comment about Tokarczuk´s latest work "the books of Jacob" saying stuff that to me sounded somehow like what some of us here think about her own "River":
"es schien mir so ein Sammelsurium, mal ganz ehrlich gesagt, von verschiedenen Beiträgen, in denen ich überhaupt keine Linie, Struktur erkennen konnte. Mir gefiel die Sprache nicht. Mir gefällt ehrlich gesagt dieser Ansatz nicht, dass sehr viel von hier und da zusammengeklaubt wird und dann in so einen Text eingebuttert, so hab ich es empfunden."
my humble translation ;-) :" it seemd like such a hotchpotch, if I´m being honest here, of different entries within which I could not recognize any line, any structure. I did not like the language. Honestly, I don´t like this approach that a lot is taken from here and there and then mixed together in such a text, that´s how I felt about it."
Link to full German interview: https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/...
Glendalough wrote: "Britta wrote: "Nope, this was not for me. Many of the 'walks' just bored me, and boy, oh boy, is she (Kinsky) taking herself seriously. And not a speck of humor anywhere to be found."I´m curious ..."
I'm not sure about Hain yet. For the moment at least, I need a break from Esther Kinsky :-)
Britta wrote: "Glendalough wrote: "Britta wrote: "Nope, this was not for me. Many of the 'walks' just bored me, and boy, oh boy, is she (Kinsky) taking herself seriously. And not a speck of humor anywhere to be f..."I can totally understand that! Well, now 'Hain' is not accessible for me due to the library closures anyway...
My interview with Kinsky’s translator, Iain Galbraith, is now online (incorporating questions from Christiane and Melanie.)https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/202...
(With apologies to Iain for the ridiculous url. Wordpress playing games with me.)
I have finally completed this first quarter group read. I deliberately took the whole quarter as if pushed it may have been a DNF. I agree there is no humour, no plot and is sometimes boring. But I enjoyed the rambling way in which it was told and was happy to amble along with a couple of chapters here and there.Thanks Lizzy for the enlightening review with the translator. Made the last couple of chapters more interesting with his remarks un mind.
Finished it yesterday! Sometimes it felt like a task, then again like an adventure where I never knew to which place I would be taken in the next chapter.I agree with Penelope that I had to read it over a longer time otherwise I would have DNFd it. But taking it in doses, I gave it three stars. I liked the chapters about rivers outside of London most actually, and I LOVED the one about the Neretva!
Thanks to Melanie and Britta for making me read this ;-) and thanks to Lizzy for the interesting translator interview!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...