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What are we reading? 27th September 2021
Thank you for this lovely introduction to the next couple of weeks reading, Anne.We had a sudden gust of very strong wind here this morning, it roared down the chimney. It has been reported that there was a mini tornado not far away and I guess we caught the edge. The huge weeping willow tree in next door’s garden didn’t like it and half of the top came crashing down, mostly into our garden.
It looks so very odd now like half a haircut with one sharp broken branch pointing to the heavens.
All my fuchsias were dashed to the floor off the bench and I had to gather them, calm their ruffled leaves and took them away in the greenhouse along with e the bonsai pots, warm and settled they are giving sighs of contentment now.
Mod
I wish I knew! ;-)
(Welcome back...)
Great intro Anne!Czech classic Gods Rainbow by Jaroslav Durych(1955)
is fascinating me. It has a gothic feel, autumnal indian summer shade and light, as a 60 something man walks through the a deserted district of the Sudetenland, where the German population were expelled from a year earlier. There is a sense of the horror of darkness, the cold hand of death but also a wry Czech humour and leavens the uneasy subject matter. The savage French conquest of the Algerian Sahara makes sobering reading in A Desert Named Peace(Columbia University Press)
Andrei Tarkovsky's Time Within Time: Diaries 1970-86 is a journey into the mind of a great auteur before his untimely death
Lastly i picked up a copy of Chinese Thought in Waterstones this afteroon, a Pelican book on Chinese philosophy and ideas before 1949.
Unread books? Eeek....easily more than 113!.
i have boxes in my loft which contain some of my Grandfathers old books which i never got round to unpacking, so i would estimate maybe 200. I have a new bookcase 75% empty and another one stacked with unread books (lol), plus my small loft is stacked with books too. Thankfully i am purchasing a lot less books in last 2 mths and i hope to continue that
Anne wrote: "How many unread books do you have on your bookcases/ereader/in storage?"That's difficult. Do you count the ones that you abandoned mid-read? I have plenty of those.
Anne wrote: "How many unread books do you have on your bookcases/ereader/in storage?""What a wonderful intro Anne,
Popping my head in amidst the busyness of new term, where reading for pleasure takes a back seat. A quick examination of Goodreads suggests 157 unread books, of which the majority are on e-readers. That does not include the academic ones, however!
Currently nearing the end of Macbeth by Jo Nesbo; light reading, which may be based on the Scottish play at least partly. For me it lacks depth, and does not quite work. Though now I must go read the Bard.
SydneyH wrote: "Anne wrote: "How many unread books do you have on your bookcases/ereader/in storage?"That's difficult. Do you count the ones that you abandoned mid-read? I have plenty of those."
i tend to "move on" books that i half read or dont like, the only books which are shelved are ones i liked....so that keeps the totals down on bookshelves
Mod
99 for me 😉
Lovely intro, Anne - thanks!
SydneyH wrote: "That's difficult. Do you count the ones that you abandoned mid-read? I have plenty of those."
Nope. Definitely only those you haven't read at all. The point, I think, is the promise of a transporting read which makes us keep on buying the damn things. That's not possible for a book you've already discarded.
Nope. Definitely only those you haven't read at all. The point, I think, is the promise of a transporting read which makes us keep on buying the damn things. That's not possible for a book you've already discarded.
Francis wrote: "Popping my head in amidst the busyness of new term, where reading for pleasure takes a back seat. A quick examination of Goodreads suggests 157 unread books, of which the majority are on e-readers. That does not include the academic ones, however!
..."
Lovely to see you here.
..."
Lovely to see you here.
Anne wrote: "SydneyH wrote: "That's difficult. Do you count the ones that you abandoned mid-read? I have plenty of those."Nope. Definitely only those you haven't read at all. The point, I think, is the promis..."
best one is finding a slightly dusty one at the bottom of a pile that you read and love, after knocking it down the pile for 3-4 years
CCCubbon wrote: "We had a sudden gust of very strong wind here this morning, it roared down the chimney. It has been reported that there was a mini tornado not far away and I guess we caught the edge. The huge weeping willow tree in next door’s garden didn’t like it and half of the top came crashing down, mostly into our garden...."
Yikes, that's no joke. I hope you're all okay.
Yikes, that's no joke. I hope you're all okay.
Anne wrote: "Definitely only those you haven't read at all. "Ah, in that case I don't think I have any shelved that I haven't read at all. I have a pile of new things I haven't touched, currently has three new books, not including the Gabo I'm currently reading.
How many unread books do you have on your bookcases/ereader/in storage?Not a serious question for me: if I can count them, I don’t have enough. The number for me would easily go into 4 digits. Some of my unread volumes were acquired in the 1980s, with perhaps a few from even earlier.
I'm becoming dimly aware that the wider world has begun discussing new books for autumn which means I now have gloomy forebodings that somehow my book group is going to make me read the new Sally Rooney (nuff said) and the new Richard Osman (seems a great guy, but his books are not for me). I'm pretty sure my book group doesn't know Jonathan Franzen though, so sigh of relief there.
Of the currently fashionable authors of fiction (i.e., the ones whose books make the “most anticipated books of fall / winter / spring / summer” lists) Rooney is probably one of the few I’ve read who I think it would be the least painful to read again. I thought Conversations with Friends went down fairly enjoyably, and I found that I derived a perverse pleasure from not getting most of the references to contemporary culture she dropped in – one of the features of her writing, I assume, that make her so “relatable” to readers considerably younger than me. (For example, I had to look up Richard Osman.)
A final word from me about Zweig and Chess Story...First of all, it was not my intention to start some sort of polemical discussion about this author, or his book... and I was most surprised by the reaction(s). As I didn't care for Zweig's style (or content) I shall not be reading him again...
The problem arose from my comment about a very short passage, which Mach has reproduced... re-reading my original comment, there is far more about the inaccuracies in describing chess tournament play than there is about the camps. All I said was:
I was also unhappy at the suggestion made by one character that the Gestapo method of total isolation was in some way worse that incarceration in a concentration camp. This claim seemed in poor taste - and the patience shown by the Gestapo also appeared improbable, to put it mildly.
Now, Mach disagrees that Zweig was attempting to create a 'hierarchy of torture', but that was the way it read to me. This led to a discussion of how much Zweig knew - or didn't know - about the camps, hence the discussion of timelines.
Zweig, like many authors, was a letter writer and a diarist. It is entirely possible that his intentions regarding the character of Dr. B and his comment have been clarified therein, and if so I would be grateful to any Zweig scholars out there if they could provide us with a definitive answer. It is also possible that Zweig's 'timeline of knowledge' can be discerned from such documentary evidence. I did discover one reference to the timing of the book's publication, if not its writing (claimed to be 1938-1941 by Wikipedia):
This is melodrama, but of a very high order—the tension of the narrative rising inexorably with the stranger’s gathering psychosis. There is an unmistakable urgency, too. It feels less finished and reserved, more naked, than almost anything else Zweig wrote. Biographical readings are perilous, but with Zweig, a master biographer, they seem essential, and it is hard not to see in this story of mental disintegration a self-portrait. Its author had recently sailed to South America, where he relieved the isolation of his new life by playing his way through a book of famous chess games. He mailed the final typescript of the story to his publishers the day before he killed himself. From a very interesting article:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
If that is correct, Zweig knew as much as he was ever going to about life under the Nazi regime at the time of submission, though as he was about to commit suicide he could not have been very clear-headed at the time. But how much did he know? Well, apparently:
Stefan Zweig was an incessant correspondent but as the 1930s progressed, it became difficult for him to maintain contact with friends and colleagues. As Zweig's correspondence all but ceased with the outbreak of World War II, little is known about his final years.
https://www.amazon.com/Stefan-Lotte-Z...
So the defence that Zweig didn't know much about the camps, even in 1942, is possible, though it does seem unlikely.
However, if the throwaway remark about the camps is in any way defensible, I rather think that Mach's suggestion that it represented the views of the sophisticated but unworldly Dr. B seems far more acceptable. If we assume that Zweig wished to present Dr. B. as a representative of a weak formerly dominant class who allowed the Nazis to take over, then the comment simply represents the character's ignorance and foolishness, rather than Zweig's own.
If anyone is interested in Zweig, then I strongly recommend the New Yorker article, which contains many interesting insights, such as:
Zweig had spent his life running away from home, but once exile became a way of life—once there was no secure base from which to escape—the strain wore on him. He lived his final years in a state of continual flight. He secured British citizenship, but then decamped with Lotte to New York. The city, full of refugee intellectuals, should have been ideal, but it depressed Zweig: there was no respite from brooding about the fate of Europe. After a tour of South America, he decided that Brazil would be a fresh start. (He even wrote a book in its praise, “Brazil: A Land of the Future.”) But it’s hard to imagine anyone less suited to life there. The recently collected “Stefan and Lotte Zweig’s South American Letters,” edited by Darién J. Davis and Oliver Marshall (Continuum), gives a picture of the daily trials the couple endured. Zweig was isolated from everything that gave his life meaning, deprived of books and like-minded colleagues; the climate was bad for his spirits and for Lotte’s fragile health. Furthermore, Brazil was a dictatorship, with growing anti-Semitic leanings. The regime was proud that a famous writer had taken refuge there, but Zweig was attacked for his apparent complicity.
And:
Zweig, as a prominent literary exile, was often asked to lend his voice to anti-Nazi and Jewish causes. He was anything but outspoken, however, and his silence frustrated other writers of the time and has been much criticized since. Klaus Mann, who failed to get him to contribute to an émigré journal he was running, was disparaging of Zweig’s decision to remain “ ‘objective,’ ‘understanding,’ and ‘just’ toward the deadly enemy.” Hannah Arendt, reviewing Zweig’s memoir years after his death, wrote that “not one of his reactions during all this period was the result of political convictions.” Zweig tried to justify his silence, writing in his memoir, “I hate emotional public gestures on principle,” ...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
That will be my final comment on Zweig. Phew!
Anne wrote: "I've given up any pretence at serious reading and am astonished to find myself reading – and enjoying – Ann Cleeves's Vera books. I caught a TV episode of one some years back and didn't think it was much good at all..."Thanks for the excellent introduction!
As for Vera - I really dislike the TV series and don't watch it - I have never read any of the books... on the other hand, Cleeves has written another series set in Shetland, also adapted for TV, which I much enjoy... perhaps the gritty Scots cop is just more believable than the batty female detective - a 'type' which has rarely worked after Christie's 'Miss Marple' and the definitive interpretation by Joan Hickson.
Mod
A non-fiction book I'm reading at the moment (so not one of the 20) is Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey Into Muslim Europe by Tharik Hussain, one of the books I mentioned getting from Stanfords. The writer, a travel writer, a British Muslim of Bangladeshi origin, realised while on holiday in Bulgaria that there were more long-established communities of European Muslims than he had been aware of. So he went on a trip with his family in the western Balkans to find out more. One guide he took was 'the great medieval Ottoman traveller, Evliya Celebi'. I was seriously perturbed when I read the following sentence to discover that this 'medieval' traveller was in fact travelling in the mid-17th century! There's another use of medieval referring to the 16th century. Surely an editor could have caught this? These quibbles aside, I'm enjoying the book.
Unlike AB, I don't systematically read more than one book at a time, but when I'm reading non-fiction, I do often have another book on the go. I've been reading Malice by Keigo Higashino. I've read and liked several of his other crime novels. This one is not so much a whodunnit as a how- and why-dunnit.
Howdy folks! I've been lurking these past few weeks between vacations and rotavirus, reading and enjoying the various debates.The book I took with me to read in Paris, lounging with my feet up in Jardin du Luxembourg was James Baldwin's
which vaccilated somewhat betwen brilliant and frustrating.Very sermon-like, at turns it riveted your attention and then made you ask yourself "When will he stop talking?" It tracks the family of a storefront preacher in Harlem. When it focuses on John, clearly an avatar for Baldwin himself, it's compelling and so real. When it changes subject to John's preacher father, the narrative chills and becomes distant. By necessity, I suppose as Gabriel is a distasteful person perfectly embodying the hypocrisy of zealotry, the unearned ease of absolution and the fragility of moral turpitude. His story serves as a foil to give more veracity to John's personal conversation with his god, but the book spent too much time inhabiting Gabriel. It was a little too much old testament, not enough new testament. John's acceptance of himself and his barely submerged homosexuality are clearly going to lead him away from his father's religiosity, but you can see that his epiphany is more real than Gabriel's ever was.
Good, wonderfully structured but a bit uneven, so not quite great.
Paul wrote: "Howdy folks! I've been lurking these past few weeks."Welcome back. I'm reading Of Love and Other Demons, and I think I remember you were one of the Gabo fans here, so I thought of you.
Gpfr wrote: "Further to the unread books question and to the proportion of fiction vs non-fiction we read, I went back through and counted. Of the 99 unread books I have, 20 are non-fiction.[bookcover:Minarets..."
i wonder how many of us are multiple readers (more than 2-3 books at one time...)
i tend not to read all 3 or 4 books on the go every day, i mix it up and some books, like Jeffersons "Notes on Virginia" i have been reading in small doses since March. I dont read in bed, havent for over 20 years....
AB76 wrote(#20):i wonder how many of us are multiple readers (more than 2-3 books at one time...)I couldn't cope with being pulled hither an thither from one century to another, from one place to a completely different one.
I have, some years ago, managed to read non-fiction books parallel to novels.
The rate fiction : non-fiction varies widely. Between 200 : 1 and 30 : 1 at a guess.
But that doesn't matter, as long as I enjoy both.
Georg wrote: "AB76 wrote(#20):i wonder how many of us are multiple readers (more than 2-3 books at one time...)I couldn't cope with being pulled hither an thither from one century to another, from one place to..."
i guess i'm not always reading two fictional novels together, as my ratio of modern to classic is almost 10 to 1 in favour of classic novels. I find it quite easy to move about locations, centuries etc, as i never read all 3 or 4 books at once, there is a seperation there.
In some ways the non-fiction remains distinct, like compartmentalising fiction from non-fiction. But it helps when the non-fiction is the French Sahara in the 1850s and the fiction is the Sudetenland in 1947, like the current situation. I generally would avoid reading fiction and non-fiction about the same era or topic. I also make sure i keep variety in my fiction reading, i havent read 2 or 3 novels by the same author in a row ever and i rarely read two novels from the same country in a row either(last time was 2007)
i have always been blessed with a good memory,which helps reading 3 or 4 books at once...though as i get older, its sure to fade
Oh dear.Simon Winchester at Five Books on "The Best American Stories":
It is a story of intellectual determination and the ability of a man to find love simply in what he does. It is a book about love of learning. ... To me, Stoner is almost the perfect novel. It is very little known but anyone who reads it is completely captivated by it. It is a wonderful, wonderful book.https://fivebooks.com/best-books/simo...
SydneyH wrote: "Welcome back. I'm reading Of Love and Other Demons, and I think I remember you were one of the Gabo fans here, so I thought of you."
Yup, I am unabashed in my love for Gabbo and even find his non-fiction compelling. I've never yet tried his short stories though, so I'm looking forward to how you find them . I remember PaleFires/Pam of the old TLS halls was a big supporter of both Of Love... as well as Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Bill wrote: " How many unread books do you have on your bookcases/ereader/in storage?Not a serious question for me: if I can count them, I don’t have enough. The number for me would easily go into 4 digits. S..."
Blimey, 4 digits! That is probably more than my stock of "bought-read-loved-kept" books!
We have these "church mouse" sayings in Germany (a church mouse would starve for the lack of nourishment that can be found in a church).
I am very confident I would win if there were a competition for the least number of books anybody here possessed.
BUT: I have the ultimative "curated" personal library ("curated" being another "now" word I always wanted to employ at least once ;-))
Bill wrote: " I had to look up Richard Osman...."
Ah, sorry, Bill. Richard Osman was a very localised reference. I don't know if he's made it to the States. He is a funny, clever, likeable guy who works mainly in British TV. He published a crime novel, The Thursday Murder Club, last year which, inexplicably - I took a look at the first chapter - headed straight to the top of the bestselling lists. He's just published another one.
Ah, sorry, Bill. Richard Osman was a very localised reference. I don't know if he's made it to the States. He is a funny, clever, likeable guy who works mainly in British TV. He published a crime novel, The Thursday Murder Club, last year which, inexplicably - I took a look at the first chapter - headed straight to the top of the bestselling lists. He's just published another one.
Mod
The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps
'The Phantom Atlas' is an atlas of the world not as it ever existed, but as it was thought to be. These marvellous and mysterious phantoms - non-existent islands, invented mountain ranges, mythical civilisations and other fictitious geography - were all at various times presented as facts on maps and atlases. This book is a collection of striking antique maps that display the most erroneous cartography, with each illustration accompanied by the story behind it.
scarletnoir wrote: "Cleeves has written another series set in Shetland, also adapted for TV, which I much enjoy..."
I'm not sure if you mean you read the Shetland books or watched the TV adaptation. I read and enjoyed the first four Shetland books, although I thought the character death in the fourth book was bizarre. Also read the fifth Shetland book which I found relatively disappointing.
Miss Marple isn't batty! You can use all sorts of words to describe her, but that isn't one of them!
I'm not sure if you mean you read the Shetland books or watched the TV adaptation. I read and enjoyed the first four Shetland books, although I thought the character death in the fourth book was bizarre. Also read the fifth Shetland book which I found relatively disappointing.
Miss Marple isn't batty! You can use all sorts of words to describe her, but that isn't one of them!
Anne wrote: "Bill wrote: " I had to look up Richard Osman...."Ah, sorry, Bill. Richard Osman was a very localised reference. I don't know if he's made it to the States. He is a funny, clever, likeable guy who..."
I do believe that it was his popularity that made his book sell so well and it will be interesting to see if the same is true for the second.
I struggled with the first, does he really think that those of us of mature years think and act in that way, more and more exasperation set in and I will not read another.
Maybe in time he will develop into a fine author but he has much to learn and the instant success might not serve him well.
Anne wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Cleeves has written another series set in Shetland, also adapted for TV, which I much enjoy..."I'm not sure if you mean you read the Shetland books or watched the TV adaptatio..."
If the Vera series is true to the books I'd rather give them a miss.
I only watch it because I love Brenda Blethyn.
On another note: I find your introductions here a pleasure to read. Well compiled, thoughtful, interesting,
With all respect to SamJordison: you are well placed to give him a run for his money in that respect.
This is great. Another brilliant introduction to the week!Due to one of Andy's also brilliant reviews, I have started a reread of Angela Carter's Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories. Enjoying them immensely. Again. (After about twenty years, I think.)
Georg wrote: "Bill wrote: " How many unread books do you have on your bookcases/ereader/in storage?Not a serious question for me: if I can count them, I don’t have enough. The number for me would easily go int..."
Of course there is the e-book/physical book issue, where somebody might have a modest bookcase with 20 books in it but 250 on kindle or whatever
I sometimes wish i had gone e-book mad , it would mean more space in my house but i just cant countenance reading on a device.
Mod
"I do believe that it was his popularity that made his book sell so well and it will be interesting to see if the same is true for the second..."
I haven't read either of his books, but noticed a headline in The G. saying how fast the new one was selling.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...
Regarding the number of unread books question: Oh dear... I used to be church mouse about books, as Georg puts it, but, yep, things, or shelves' contents, have gotten out of hand. And not just due to Mr B, who has bought a lot of books since March last year. Who could blame him, eh? Not me. Who has bought... you get the idea.
I suspect I am rather near Bill's scale now, even counting fiction only.
@ gpfr: The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps sounds extremely tempting indeed.
@ scarlet: Forgot to write, earlier, that I liked your kicking stance locked-in story! Convenient about it being a building site anyway, too... ha.
Its not easy to find much detailed info about the Sudeten German culture, in particular the Bohemian Germans living from Protestant majority Asch all the way to the capital Reichenberg.Apparently Konny Henlein was more in favour of a move towards federation with Austria for the Czech Germans but KH Frank was influential in turning the Sudeten German Party more towards Nazi racial policy and a union with Germany.
Eventually events in Germany moved the Sudeten German Party into the German orbit and the end of Czech rule in the Sudetenland in 1938 followed.
Paul wrote: " I remember PaleFires/Pam of the old TLS halls was a big supporter of both Of Love... as well as Memories of My Melancholy Whores"'twas me who kept banging about Of Love and Other Demons... (I have Memories... on the shelves but unread atm).
@gpfr: yes "fille de ferme/restaurant/supermarche" is indeed what was presumably attempted here in the translated title, with a bit of a spinster connotation too. Still sounds weird to my ears.
@MsC: loved your intro. And yep, I liked the first 4 of the Shetland book series, not so much the other 4.
[I have some eye issue atm, and cannot really read or write on the screen, so will continue to make myself scarce for the time being...]
Hushpuppy wrote: "Paul wrote: " I remember PaleFires/Pam of the old TLS halls was a big supporter of both Of Love... as well as Memories of My Melancholy Whores"'twas me who kept banging about Of Love and Other De..."
i wish all of you with eye issues the very best, i am yet to be blighted by such things but i know as a reader, eyes are vitally important and to have that pleasure impacted must be very trying.
I have just aquired, on my 'ugly' cathedral pilgrimage (it was just mediocre, to my mind) on my way there, in the High Wycombe hospital bookshop, 'All the light we cannot see', by Anthony Doerr, for a quid donation to the hospital trust. These second hand book stores seem to be popping up in all kinds of unexpected places. Anyway has anyone read this book? I think I would be happier reading his more recent book 'Cloud Cuckoo Land' but it's not the one that appeared for me. Any thoughts welcome on either...The last book I have read has been really rather difficult for me to process. That is 'The Forty Rules of Love', by Elif Shafak. It is a rewriting of the history of the Sufi poet and philosopher, Rumi. But I have really taken against it on some level that I find it hard to fathom. She is an interesting writer, and I admire her in many ways, but she portrays pretty much all the women in this book as victims, of mostly male ambitions and expectations. There is not one iota of hope for them, in their various positions in the story.
The poor adopted girl, who enters Rumi's household as a young girl, with only the ability to speak to ghosts, as her accomplishments, (!) is led to a horrendous marriage with Rumi's 'guru' type side kick 'Shams'. She loves him, and he denies her his love, even after having agreed to marry her. It seems so cruel to meter out such a negative story for a female protagonist... she dies...
My knowledge of Sufism is that it is quite a kind and benign religious teaching. Mostly gained through reading tales of Mulla Nasrudin, which is a sort of Bhuddist type teaching, through short, and often funny, parables of how a proper life might be conducted. I don't know why she came up with a book that seems to totally undermine her own stated, political, self...I am at a loss really, Shafik seems so feminist in her interests, but somehow continues the story of women being victims of male defined history, with very little hope at all... in her version of the retellings of other famous peoples stories. Any illumination as to this would be welcome. I remain perplexed...
Hope you sort out the eyes Hushpuppy... go all out for preserving 'the windows of the soul' as it needs to see where its going to....
scarletnoir wrote: "Anne wrote: "I've given up any pretence at serious reading and am astonished to find myself reading – and enjoying – Ann Cleeves's Vera books. I caught a TV episode of one some years back and didn'..."She has written another series:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/an...
Set in North Devon. I read the first and wasn't madly impressed
Tam wrote: "All the light we cannot see', by Anthony Doerr"I really liked it, I think lots of other people had a sort of 'meh' response. I think probably we have a bit of a WWII fatigue for serious novels which may have contributed. I think it was in present tense as well, and some people don't seem to like that.
Paul wrote: "both Of Love... as well as Memories of My Melancholy Whores"Of Love is gorgeous. Thanks @Hushpuppy if you prodded me into acquiring it. I'm a big advocate of Memories of my Melancholy Whores as well.
Mod
"I really liked it..."
I liked it, too.
Gpfr wrote: "I liked it, too."Ah, good. I remember Mach thought it was just okay.
Mod
Gpfr wrote: "author I'd never heard of, Gabbo/Gabo"Yep, Gabriel Garcia Marquez for anyone else who was wondering. That's a common nickname among fans.
I usually score the shelves of my very small library. It is less time-consuming than finding anything interesting online there. "All the Lights we cannot See" is staring at me at virtually every visit. I know, very roughly, what it is about. And I cannot really explain why I have, for about 2 years now, given it a miss.
Maybe the title reminds me of other books in a (very broadly similar) category which I have so much disliked. Like "The Book Thief", eg.
I just do not want to read it. At all. Which is completely irrational, in a way.
Read the review of his new book. Now that's easy: I am sure I would not like that. So maybe my instinct about the previous one is right.
Shafik seems so feminist in her interests, but somehow continues the story of women being victims of male defined history, with very little hope at all...
I haven't read any of Shafak's books, so I may not be entitled to comment. But I think feminist "interests" cannot change reality.
And the reality is that history is not male "defined" but male dominated and that women have been victims of that reality through the centuries.
Nowadys victims of rape, domestic violence etc call themselves "survivors". I understand that they might feel less powerless by doing that. But, in the end, I think it is counterproductive. When you have a victim you have a perpetrator. When you define yourself as a survivor the perpetrator and the violence involved are moved out of view. Just my thoughts, feel free to correct me, anybody...
Great intro, Anne.
Unread books - Not a lot that I bought myself, maybe two or three dozen, as I tend to buy a book when I’m enthusiastic and I want to read it straightaway. But there is no shortage of other books in the house as there are the ones I inherited from my father, the one third of his library that was my share, which I’m still working through 25 years later, plus the entire library of our readaholic son, on shelving down in the basement.
Multiple books - I don’t seem to have any trouble having several on the go at once, except that if there are two novels they can’t both be in English or I get confused, but it’s fine if one is in French, as my brain seems to allocate different languages to different receptors.
….
The Last of the Wine – Mary Renault (1956)
I saw this fairly lengthy novel recommended by Ruth Padel, the eminent classicist and poet, as one of her five favourite books. It was my first by Renault, and while it would certainly not make my short-list I quite enjoyed it. Set in Athens in the years following the disastrous expedition to Sicily, it describes a society in which love between two men can be regarded as the primary and highest form of love, with the taking of a wife distinctly secondary. There are believable portrayals of Socrates and Xenophon and Plato as a boy and young man, and of a crowd of others. However, a good hundred pages go by before the pace picks up, and she uses a deliberately dated style which did nothing in itself to transport this reader back to ancient Greece (“gave me leave…bade me…girt…dispraise…base of soul…you young fool…Great Poseidon!”). At times it read like a too-literal translation. For example:
“My mother, when returning I rode into the courtyard, stood looking at me in silence.”
“He thought we complained together against him.” (meaning, complained to each other)
Alongside it I read Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War in the magnificent pocket edition prepared by Sir R.W. Livingstone (OWC, 1943). This, in contrast, did not read like a translation at all. Decades of warfare, purposeful speeches, broken treaties and merciless executions are related, without sentiment, in a flowing succession of measured periods. Thucydides was himself a failed Athenian commander who prudently lived in exile for many years. He died before the end of the war. In this version the narrative ends as news arrives from Sicily that both the fleet and the expeditionary army have been annihilated. No wonder there is an air of doom.
Figuring prominently in both books is the brilliant, wealthy, audacious Alcibiades, the Athenian orator and general who was also, from his youth on, a head-turning beauty. I was interested to see how he came across in Plutarch’s Lives, in the translation overseen by Dryden, and, for a modern account, in the chapter on him in Heroes by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (2004). Each is about 50 pages. LHH stitches the whole story together from numerous sources, filling in the gaps with plausible speculation, and it is a heck of a story: at one point he is condemned to death in his absence for blasphemy (probably not guilty) and treachery (all too true) but he nonetheless engineers a return home to rapturous acclaim. She portrays him as a fantastically able leader of men who became an ambitious chancer of the I-Alone-Can-Fix-It variety. Hers is a smooth professional job. But for style I preferred the vigour of the Plutarch.
Unread books - Not a lot that I bought myself, maybe two or three dozen, as I tend to buy a book when I’m enthusiastic and I want to read it straightaway. But there is no shortage of other books in the house as there are the ones I inherited from my father, the one third of his library that was my share, which I’m still working through 25 years later, plus the entire library of our readaholic son, on shelving down in the basement.
Multiple books - I don’t seem to have any trouble having several on the go at once, except that if there are two novels they can’t both be in English or I get confused, but it’s fine if one is in French, as my brain seems to allocate different languages to different receptors.
….
The Last of the Wine – Mary Renault (1956)
I saw this fairly lengthy novel recommended by Ruth Padel, the eminent classicist and poet, as one of her five favourite books. It was my first by Renault, and while it would certainly not make my short-list I quite enjoyed it. Set in Athens in the years following the disastrous expedition to Sicily, it describes a society in which love between two men can be regarded as the primary and highest form of love, with the taking of a wife distinctly secondary. There are believable portrayals of Socrates and Xenophon and Plato as a boy and young man, and of a crowd of others. However, a good hundred pages go by before the pace picks up, and she uses a deliberately dated style which did nothing in itself to transport this reader back to ancient Greece (“gave me leave…bade me…girt…dispraise…base of soul…you young fool…Great Poseidon!”). At times it read like a too-literal translation. For example:
“My mother, when returning I rode into the courtyard, stood looking at me in silence.”
“He thought we complained together against him.” (meaning, complained to each other)
Alongside it I read Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War in the magnificent pocket edition prepared by Sir R.W. Livingstone (OWC, 1943). This, in contrast, did not read like a translation at all. Decades of warfare, purposeful speeches, broken treaties and merciless executions are related, without sentiment, in a flowing succession of measured periods. Thucydides was himself a failed Athenian commander who prudently lived in exile for many years. He died before the end of the war. In this version the narrative ends as news arrives from Sicily that both the fleet and the expeditionary army have been annihilated. No wonder there is an air of doom.
Figuring prominently in both books is the brilliant, wealthy, audacious Alcibiades, the Athenian orator and general who was also, from his youth on, a head-turning beauty. I was interested to see how he came across in Plutarch’s Lives, in the translation overseen by Dryden, and, for a modern account, in the chapter on him in Heroes by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (2004). Each is about 50 pages. LHH stitches the whole story together from numerous sources, filling in the gaps with plausible speculation, and it is a heck of a story: at one point he is condemned to death in his absence for blasphemy (probably not guilty) and treachery (all too true) but he nonetheless engineers a return home to rapturous acclaim. She portrays him as a fantastically able leader of men who became an ambitious chancer of the I-Alone-Can-Fix-It variety. Hers is a smooth professional job. But for style I preferred the vigour of the Plutarch.
Georg wrote: "I usually score the shelves of my very small library. It is less time-consuming than finding anything interesting online there. "All the Lights we cannot See" is staring at me at virtually every vi..."Except that there are no abused women in Shafak's book, they, the women, are undone, by unrequited love, or just indifference because the men have their thoughts on other manly/spiritual quest type things.. Its a different sort of imbalance, and one I find disquieting... at least.. but mostly for the lack of a portrayal of 'hope'...for the women... even Pandora got a pass for this.. for letting hope out of the box... as a salve to the soul...
Georg wrote: "I usually score the shelves of my very small library. It is less time-consuming than finding anything interesting online there. "All the Lights we cannot See" is staring at me at virtually every vi..."did you see my comments on "The Method", in the last weeks thread Georg?
SydneyH wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "I liked it, too."Ah, good. I remember Mach thought it was just okay."
I disliked it intensely, and so did Cardellina/Miri (can't find the relevant TLS conversations right now, but found this instead: https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...)...
You're welcome re Of Love...
In turn, I picked Memories... from some second hand bookshelves based on your rec!
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
I, Claudius (other topics)Imperium (other topics)
Caligula (other topics)
Don Quixote (other topics)
Medea (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Colson Whitehead (other topics)Robert Aickman (other topics)
Simon Raven (other topics)
Fernando Pessoa (other topics)
Fernando Pessoa (other topics)
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I want to open with a message for @Sandya: Sandya, if you're reading, I'd like to say how sorry I am that you have left ersatz TLS. We're a better group when you're a part of it.
Autumn hasn't quite arrived here, but I think the Indian summer has just had its last hurrah. It's been lovely. I've given up any pretence at serious reading and am astonished to find myself reading – and enjoying – Ann Cleeves's Vera books. I caught a TV episode of one some years back and didn't think it was much good at all, but here I am gobbling up tales of murder in a closely described Northumberland landscape. I think it's probably the location that swung it for me, though Vera grows appealingly as a character in each novel too. Next up will be Wyrd Sisters and I'd just like to say to @Greenfairy, who recommended it, that I too think Small Gods is Terry Pratchett's standout book. Although Night Watch is pretty damn good too.
I'm becoming dimly aware that the wider world has begun discussing new books for autumn which means I now have gloomy forebodings that somehow my book group is going to make me read the new Sally Rooney (nuff said) and the new Richard Osman (seems a great guy, but his books are not for me). I'm pretty sure my book group doesn't know Jonathan Franzen though, so sigh of relief there. I'm not a Franzen hater, mind, but mention of his name always makes me think of poet Wendy Cope's piece, Exchange of Letters, which she wrote in response to this ad which appeared in the NYRB:
Anyway, I've just made my autumn purchases from new books already published earlier this year: Damon Galgut's The Promise, James Robertson's News of the Dead, and What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad. And I threw in Collins Pests, Diseases & Disorders of Garden Plants for good measure.
My overwhelming impression from the last thread is that people were on the move everywhere, either literally (crossing seas to decant daughters at universities, hauling camper vans off to Spain, crossing seas to reconnect with family, making pilgrimages to ugly cathedrals) or figuratively (I much enjoyed the tour around Paris to find Rodin's sculpture of Balzac, and was dizzy to find that powerhouse reader @AB76 appeared to be in Algeria, Italy and the Czech Republic simultaneously.) But reading continued as usual amongst the arrivals and departures. We all heaved a sigh of relief for @Veufveuve:
There has been quite a bit of discussion about Zola recently and @Bill added his two cents worth:
Andy sent a pertinent recommendation from the camper van:
You can follow Andy's three month journey in Spain here:
https://safereturndoubtful.tumblr.com/
@Shelflife_wasBooklooker recommends:
@Gpfr is in India: (I leave you to guess literally or figuratively)
@CCCubbon is continuing the meaty read that is Ancestors: A prehistory of Britain in seven burials by Alice Roberts, and has set up a special topic thread dedicated to ancient archaeology which you can find here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
And, amidst all the comings and goings, I loved this quiet moment between @CCC and @AB76. AB reported that he had:
To which CCC replied:
And finally, @MK shows herself a true ersatzer:
It's not the 30 books that displays the colours of an ersatzer; it's the fact she had to buy two more bookcases. For some reason this set me off on a tour of my bookshelves where I was suddenly minded to count how many unread books I have. The answer: 113.
How many unread books do you have on your bookcases/ereader/in storage?
Happy reading, all.