Drew > Recent Status Updates

On the simplest level the three chapters of the novel (strange that these very long sections are called chapters) represent thesis (Ivan), antithesis (part 2, the dream sequence), and synthesis (part 3).

The prompt when updating a book Status is “what are your thoughts?“
What are my thoughts on indeed? That I’m overwhelmed, that it’s all too much, that Ingeborg Bachmann is deservingly considered one of the most powerful wielders of the German language.

I’ve never read a bad book by Olga Tokarczuk, and this one is better than most. It’s a sparkling variation on Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, and flows with all the crystal fluency of an Alpine stream.

There's something overstuffed and show-offish about this, even when it's most impressive. In comparison the later novel, Transcription, is impressively restrained.

The images of Nice in wartime are so rich and moving.

The protagonist is an overintellectualising twit. But that's kind of the point.

Ivan is a bit of a dick.

Just when I was enjoying you, all pink and yellow, I had to leave you at home because you’re just too big and heavy.

It’s got an absolutely gorgeous cover. It’s also very short these are both marvellous attributes. The first 50 pages are a hoot.

I love the way that le Clézio introduces apparently essential facts in passing as the novel progresses, changing our perspective on everything that we've read up to that point. Each time he does it, the novel's past bucks, flexes and resettles as we reinterpret what we know in the light of the new information. Welcome to the rodeo.

I'm having a really hard time getting through this one. I really don't know why it's such hard work: the constantly shifting viewpoints maybe? The acrobatically expressionist thought-world? The tricky American-English translation which is often chewy and dense?
Childhood, Youth, Dependency really is one of my favourite books bar none, so I'm a bit mystified why this one is such a slog.

A beautiful captivating book so far.

I’m about halfway through here, and still quite perplexed about what is going on, who everyone is, and why I should care. Clearly, there is a big gap between her earlier trilogy and this book, but I’m not sure whether this is a question of her style changing completely, a translation problem or a combination of the two.