Reading 1001 discussion
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233. The Afternoon of a Writer (Peter Handke) [French] **
My first book read in 2014 makes me feel like I am hung over, even though I didn't drink much on New Year's Eve. It describes a writer, afflicted for months with the proverbial block, who goes out meandering about town, dealing with all sorts of people, stopping at a pub, meeting with a translator friend, then going home to rest and realizing that he exists. Throughout this short novel, things are described as if seen through the eyes of a writer (that should have fixed his block!), which generates a lot of tedious digressions, providing an uneasy read and a feeling of staggering around, as drunk. I was definitely expecting better from somebody who co-scripted that wonderful Wim Wenders movie, The Wings of Desire.
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234. The Good Soldier Svejk (Jaroslav Hasek) [French] *** 1/2
Joseph Svejk, a Czech soldier in the waning Austro-Hungarian empire, is an idiot. We follow him in his peregrinations from Prague to the World War I eastern front at the nowadays-border of Ukraine and Poland, via Budejovice and Budapest. Everywhere he goes, disaster strikes, either upon himself or upon others. Generally well-meaning, at times possibly mischievous, Svejk always peppers his conversations with his countless ridiculous stories which, almost à la Scheherazade, end up delaying some form of punishment or cause his listeners to edge a bit closer towards insanity. Littered with interesting characters (Feldkurat Katz is quite hilarious; the volunteer Marek is downright annoying), this unfinished novel has its very funny moments, but also some more tedious parts; several intended jokes would probably be funnier if we fully understood the historical context and references. This unfinished novel echoes another unfinished novel published a few years later (The Man without Qualities by Musil) in portraying a decaying, corrupt and outdated Austro-Hungarian empire. Probably better read in small doses, but nonetheless entertaining.
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235. The Garden Party (Katherine Mansfield) [English] *** 1/2
One of the shortest works in the List at barely 13 pages, this short story focuses on the preparations of a garden party which are disturbed by the news that a chap from the neighbouring poor side of town had died in an accident. Most affected is Laura, a sensitive young girl with compassionate views which go against the grain of established social conventions of the time. I would classify this somewhat as a critique of class distinctions and behaviours at the beginning of the 20th century, with a somewhat open-ended conclusion, which leaves you wondering exactly what goes on in Laura's little not-yet-fully-matured head. Well written and definitely better than Virginia Woolf, whom envied Mansfield for her skills.
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236. The Daughter (Pavlos Matesis) [English] *** 1/2
An account of life during German Occupation in rural Greece in World War II by a retired minor actress, who appeared at first to be a reliable storyteller only to discover that she was most likely delusional. This covers a variety of themes, including some of the reasons why Greece is still now reeling from the ravages of the GFC (the book was written in 1990). An interesting change of perspective occurs at about three-quarter of the way, which leads to an ending where it becomes unclear to distinguish truth from fabrication. Quite enjoyable read, offering a different perspective from other Resistance stories I have encountered.
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237. The Witness (Juan Jose Saer) [English] ****
WARNING (and spoiler alert): Contains cannibal and orgiastic scenes.
A young sailor on a Spanish ship in the sixteenth century survives an attack from an Indian tribe and spends ten years with his captors. Not really understanding at first why his captors spared him, he becomes the witness of the tribe's way of life, with its many incomprehensible habits. Upon his return to 'civilization', he sets out to live a more 'normal' life, and ends up writing his story. This was an enjoyable surprise; the story is very well written, at times poetic, at times philosophical. You can feel hints of Borges in some of the descriptions or some of the philosophical reflections. The narrator tells his tale in a very objective and thorough manner; this almost makes accept some of the atrocities being described. A very interesting exploration about cultural differences, cultural identity and the wavering nature of memory.
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Re-read. Ignorance (Milan Kundera) [French] ****
Irena lives in Paris with Gustaf, a Swedish man older than her, after having fled Czechoslovakia 20 years before with her first husband, Martin. Josef also fled Czechoslovakia, but for Denmark, where he met and married his wife, who is now dead, and he still hasn't gotten over her absence. Both Irena and Josef meet by chance at the airport in Paris while on their way to Prague, for the first time after the end of the communist regime. But they already have met more than 20 years before, at the start of an affair that did not happen. I won't be adding more here, as it would spoil the rest of the story. This is a story about nostalgia; the link with ignorance comes from the origins of the Spanish word used for nostalgia. It is vintage Kundera, master at blending the arts of the novel, the essay and poetry into one single flowing material. There are a few unexpected twists in this story, which help overcome the disappointment of his two prior French efforts (Slowness, Identity). Quite happy to have re-read this.
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238. Pastoralia (George Saunders) [English] *** 1/2
Five short stories and a novella focusing on characters stuck in their own misery and dreaming to dare, to achieve a better life: a spineless troglodyte working in a prehistoric-themed amusement park; a male stripper supporting his lazy sisters and mum and having to deal with the unexpected return of his aunt's corpse; a nerd seeking some self-help tips at a seminar in order to get rid of his sister; a naughty kid dreaming of causing more mischief suffers a tragic accident; a single, middle-aged slightly picky barber seeking love; two underachieving dreamers witnessing a tragedy about to happen, pondering on whether to do anything about it. There are passages which reminded me of some people I know. If this is a "satiric vision of contemporary America" as a review on the back cover states, I would be very worried. Funny, caustic and sad at the same time. Quite enjoyed.
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239. The Life of Insects (Viktor Pelevin) ***
Curious short novel where the protagonists are at times humanized insects or "insectified" humans at a seaside town in Crimea, shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain. This is a multi-layered novel, full of symbolism and thinly-veiled criticism about Russian society. Some chapters were quite entertaining (especially the first and the ninth) but others were a bit of a drag, especially those involving Dima and Mitia. I normally enjoy these types of books quite a lot, but this time, it didn't really do it for me. Or maybe I should re-read it in the future.
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240. By the Open Sea (August Strindberg) ****
Every time I go to Stockholm, I never miss all the Strindberg quotations embedded on the pavement of Drottninggatan. It made wonder why the Swedes has so much reverence for this author. Now I understand.
Axel Berg is sent as a fisheries inspector at a small isolated village in the Stockholm archipelago. His airs and behaviors of intellectual and gender superiority cause all the village and a young love interest to league against him, which leads him eventually on the path of insanity. I absolutely loved the descriptions of this part of Sweden, which I visited on a short cruise; so vivid were they that I could almost recognize the locations. Strindberg's writing reminding me a lot of Zola's, by the richness of the descriptions and the psychological developments of the characters. True, Axel Borg is a misogynistic cad, perhaps the mirror of Strindberg's oft-cited opinions on women; but these views belong to another era (just like the "niggers" in Twain or the slightly misogynistic and homophobic tone in Hemingway) and should not devalue what is otherwise a very good example of a literary classic.
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241. Homo Faber (Max Frisch) *** 1/2
Walter Faber, an engineer working for UNESCO, makes a couple of unforeseen decisions during a work trip which will affect hos won fate and those of three women closely linked to him. To say more would probably reveal too much of the plot and interesting twists in this story. Written almost as a journal, with several jumps in time backwards and forwards, in order to explain or postpone the explanation of some events. Very readable story about a modern man who ends up the victim of fate despite being in control of his own decisions.
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242. Spring Flowers, Spring Frost (Ismail Kadare) *** 1/2
At the end of the millenium in Northern Albania, a painter is involved involuntarily by his girlfriend in a murder committed by his brother. This is done against a background of Albanian society extirpating itself out of communism and tempted in some areas to reconnect with its past, as exemplified by the resurgence of the Kanun, an immemorial code of honor similar to the Italian vendetta. The story is interspersed with counter-chapters, detailing folk tales, Greek mythology events or possible versions of the truth from some events in the story, in a style that is reminiscent of Kundera. This is a multi-layered, at times poetic text which provides an idea of the struggles of the Albanian people in their transition out of communism. It will probably require a re-read at some point and it made me learn a thing or two about Albania, which was only renown to me until now for its tractor factories and its corruptible soccer players.
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243. All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy) ***
John Grady Cole, bereft from the death of grandfather and from the divorce of his parents, leaves on a coming-of-age quest with his fellow rancher friend Rawlins, crossing the Texan border into a hitherto unknown Mexican land. A picaresque novel full of horses, violence and some form of injustice. It took some time to get into this novel. One irritating factor was the constant omission of apostrophes in the dialogues, which I guess was one way for the author to yield more authenticity to its characters (I'm usually not a stickler for these things, but it didn't work for me in this instance). The plot was interesting, but I struggled to keep interest at many points during the novel. Probably not my favourite type of novel.
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244. The Optimist's Daughter (Eudora Welty) * 1/2
A middle-aged woman, living in Chicago after having left the South, returns to New Orleans to her dying father. After his death, she goes back to her home town in Mississippi and has to deal with her bitchy (and younger) stepmother, a cavalry of obnoxious and hypocrite relatives, neighbours and acquaintances, and surging memories of her past and of her parents' past. Yaaawwwwnnnn... As we say here in Australia, it was "boring as bats**t". The dialogues between the relatives, neighbours and acquaintances, albeit as realistic as what you normally hear at funeral wakes, were an absolute drag to read. Fay, the stepmother, is one of the most repulsive characters I have seen in a novel and I wish that the author in the end made Laurel (the daughter) smash her head with the breadboard (spoiler alert: it does not happen); this would have made the novel more interesting. This was obviously a novel about memory; in my case, it will probably be about how quickly I can forget reading this. Finally, this novel has won a Pulitzer Prize; there must have been slim pickings that year...
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245. The First Garden (Anne Hébert) ***
WARNING: My rating might be slightly biased, as the author was born less than 10km from my hometown.
I was quite happy when the randomizer elected to choose this novel, one of the only written by French Canadian (or, rather, Québécois) authors (the other being The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy). However, I was slightly disappointed when I finished reading it, as it was definitely not as good as I expected, considering its presence on the List. It follows Flora Fontanges, a theater actress living in France, who returns to Quebec City after a 20-year absence when she was offered a role in a Beckett's play and her daughter, compulsive runaway, wants her to reunite there. Throughout her sojourn in Quebec City, she relives in her mind through various sightings not only her own difficult past experiences, but also fictitious experiences as lived by various women across the history of Quebec City. Hébert's writing style is somewhat similar to Marguerite Duras, which short, simple and at times poetic sentences that serve the purpose of creating an atmosphere, a set of emotions in the mind of the reader, rather than stating the emotions as lived by the characters. This was quite interesting until the end of the novel, when Flora reunites her runaway daughter; it felt like the ending had no real "ending" purpose or, worse, it didn't seem to add anything else to the story: it was neither really open-ended nor conclusive. I liked though the reminiscence aspect of Quebec City throughout history, as I clearly associate the various locations and could clearly imagine the scenes being depicted.
Two more comments: firstly, this book will be hard to find in any other language than French. There was an independent publishing house (http://www.houseofanansi.com/) which produced an English translation, but it appears out print now (there is an e-book version though, it appears); secondly, personally, I think the editors of the List might not have chosen her best effort: I believe that Kamouraska (which I have read and is frequently included in the high school corpus) or In the Shadow of the Wind (Les Fous de Bassan) would have been better choices.
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246. Martin Chuzzlewit (Charles Dickens) *** 1/2
This is standard Dickens, with his incredibly witty pen, his characters with peculiar names and sometimes overblown traits and his meandering plots at times opaque, at times threadbare. Here we follow the story of Martin Chuzzlewit, an old rich man spending the rest of his life deflecting various approaches from his relatives and other covetous people to obtain part or all of his riches. As Dickens indicated in his preface, this story purported to show how selfishness could propagate; it left a cast of memorable characters, from the hypocritical Pecksniff to the murderous arch-villain Jonas Chuzzlewit, the loquacious swindler Tigg Montague (or Montague Tigg), the alcoholic "nurse" Mrs Gamp, the ever jolly Mark Tapley and the ultra naive good-hearted Tom Pinch. As usual, a very enjoyable read, but definitely not his best.
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247. Fugitive Pieces (Anne Michaels) ****
Even half-a-century after the end of World War II, new Holocaust stories are being woven, quite often with different materials and textures than the previous ones. Fugitive Pieces traces the story of Jakob Beer through his "memoirs", from his rescue by Athos Roussos, a geologist who happened to be working at the archaeological site of Biskupin while the Nazis were rounding Jewish families in the area, to his demise in a car accident in Athens with the late love of his life, Michaela. It is an extremely lyrical and multi-layered text, which combines the poetry of science and poetry in itself, full of meaningful metaphors, about love, exile, memory. However, like many other readers, I was somewhat disappointed with the second part of the novel, focusing on Ben, which did not add that much to the strong, lyrical first part (apart that we learn a little bit more about Jakob and Michaela's final moments). Nevertheless, a beautiful read.
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248. The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien) *** 1/2
This is a collection of short stories about (possible) events in the Vietnam War involving the author and the Alpha Company. As the author explains by defining "story-truth" and "happening-truth", the line gets often blurred between reality and fiction in these stories. This nevertheless makes for some entertaining stories and some heavy reflections about the war and its impacts on those who fought, survived and they things they are still carrying. I especially enjoyed "The Things They Carried", "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" and "Speaking of Courage".
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249. The Country Girls (Edna O'Brien) ** 1/2
A coming of age story, set in the late 50s in Irish country, focusing on Caithleen Brady's teenage years, where she loses her mother, gets up to no good under the influence of her friend Baba and succumbs to her immature juvenile hormones to lock herself in a dalliance with the middle-aged French resident, Mr. Gentleman. Fair enough, this was pretty controversial at the time (and place) it was written, but reading this half-a-century later, it does absolutely nothing to me, except a sudden rush of boredom. Not much of a twisted plot (fairly linear), very few surprises and too many Irish stereotypes. The second part of the trilogy, which is also on the List, better be better, to be sure...
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250. The Black Prince (Iris Murdoch) ***
A somewhat dense novel, full of Shakespearean and Greek mythology references, centering on an apology written by Bradley Pearson, a failed aspiring writer, who has been convicted of the murder of his friend and rival Arnold Baffin, after having a short, perhaps imaginary and idyllic, dalliance with Baffin's daughter, Julian. The first 200 pages were a struggle to get through, but things became decidedly more interesting from the moment BP suddenly fell in love with Julian. Even after all the postscripts, offering various perspectives on the truth, ambiguity pervades this story and one cannot definitely establish what is the truth. Nevertheless, not too enthralling, but yet enjoyable enough for an average rating. Maybe could have been better with some Shakespeare pre-reading and a deeper knowledge of all things Platonic and Aristotelian.
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251. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (Peter Handke) ** 1/2
Joseph Bloch, an ex-soccer goalkeeper, apparently loses his job, goes on a drifting, meandering binge where he, amongst other things, strangles a young cinema attendant, for no reason. While reading, I could feel the influence from the absurd style (which I like) and the Nouveau Roman style (which I also like); however, in Handke's hand, these two influences feel a bad painter who mixes his colors wrongly. After the last sentence, I thought: "What was the exact purpose?" True, it might be to make us feel like we are in some sort of interior trip through the senses of Joseph Bloch. But even on that basis, I think it's a fail. But at least it was a bit better than The Afternoon of a Writer.
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252. The Woodlanders (Thomas Hardy) *** 1/2
Late 19th Century, in the woodlands area of Wessex. A timber-merchant's daughter, promised for a valiant, but poor forest worker and neighbour, gets swayed by a gallivanting doctor who has just settled in the area. This leads to a few little tragedies, some comical moments, but a somewhat disappointing ending (I would have preferred a slightly tragic ending, rather than this dubious redemption). A novel about class mobility and marital obligations, with a sylvan setting. The plot has got many interesting twists and turns, and it is quite well written. That's my second Hardy (after Tess, some years ago) and I quite enjoyed this. At times, it reminded me of Zola, but also of Barbey d'Aurevilly, who wrote novels dealing with some fantastic themes and located in Normandy and Brittany, leaving the same atmosphere of isolation, the same type of characters.
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253. The Safety Net (Heinrich Böll) *** 1/2
Over the years, I kept a habit of discarding any old electronics cables, cords and wires in a dedicated bag, just in case I might suddenly need one on a new piece of hardware where one such cable, cord or wire was required or missing. Every time I need to visit this bag, I am confronted by an inextricable mess of intertwined cables, where many ends are seen without discerning exactly where the rest of a cable might lie or which end belongs to which other end.
After I read the first two chapters of The Safety Net, I felt I was actually sifting through my bag of cables. There were tons of characters (luckily, there was a helpful list at the beginning, which I used almost until the end) with various interactions and importance in the main plot and sub-plots. It became easier to follow the stories as the chapters went on and became shorter and probably more to the point. It was quite interesting to be allowed the various perspectives offered by several characters, each one being specific mesh(es) of the overall safety net (some solid, some not so solid). I read The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum in college and did not really like it back then (the only thing I remember was that the old fart with whom she had an affair started to develop some acute BO problems after the affair was made public). However, this book has given me hope that there is probably more good Böll than bad Böll to be read off the List.
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254. The Devil and Miss Prym (Paulo Coelho) * 1/2
I hated this book. A morality tale about good and evil, it felt like Who Moved My Cheese blended with a manichean plot à la Lost, with some Hillsong Church music in the background and the occasional appearance of the Daffy Duck devil and angel. Not a fan of Catholic wishy-washy preachy stuff (disclosure: I was born and raised as a Catholic, but lost faith in my late teens, partly due to the hypocrisy and refusal of the Church to evolve; I would now describe myself as an atheist with buddhist affinities; apologies if I offend anyone with my comments).
Finally, Viscos is not such an isolated, unknown spot as Coelho would describe it. It is located on a mountainous road between Lourdes and Luz-Saint-Sauveur, which then bifurcates towards le Col du Tourmalet, a very popular climb during the Tour de France (it featured 82 times since the beginning of the race; alas, the Tour won't go through Viscos this year). So, sometime in any given July, Viscos would be bloated with visitors and cycling enthusiasts (and possibly Saint-Savin and Ahab) who would line up the sides of the its main road to cheer the riders through.
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255. Eugene Onegin (Alexandr Pushkin) ***
A "novel in verse", Eugene Onegin is a little tour de force enclosing some social commentary on Russia at the beginning of the 19th century and the story of a bored dandy who attracts love, snubs it, gets into a duel, wins, meets again with the snubbed one now married and desperately falls in love. While the plot is rather common, it is the effort of putting this story into verse which make the novel interesting. The translation I read (in French) was from Jean-Louis Back's, who chose rhythm over rhyme. I have never been a big fan of free verse and, even if this was not totally free (these were tetrameters, after all), I felt that I was missing something without the rhymes. I should have read the translation by André Markovicz, which is fully rhymed (but harder to find).
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256. Virgin Soil (Ivan Turgenev) ****
A tragic love story set in the background of the nascent revolutionary movement in Russia. Right from the start, the opening quote sets the tone for the rest of the book ("To turn over virgin soil it is necessary to use a deep plough going well into the earth, not a surface plough gliding lightly over the top.") and applies to the efforts of Markelov, Nejdanov and Solomin and their fragile underground movement, as well as the characters' traits and their interactions/relationships. It is a brilliant portrait of Russia shortly after the emancipation of the serfs and during a period where social troubles emerge. Nejdanov, as a tortured soul, is as great a character as Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. I love Russian literature, and I have been disappointed by Fathers and Sons and Spring Torrents; this novel restored my faith in Turgenev and puts him close to par with the other greats of his era.
I would probably have scored this novel an additional half-point were it not for the dubious translation I have read. It appears to be an old one (1911) from R. S. Townsend, which the current editor(s) (it is a 2014 re-edition) seem to have manipulated: some unexpected words (e.g. shillings instead of kopecks), some strange turns of phrase, some sections which do not flow as well as the rest of the text. It was not unreadable, but it felt awkward at times.
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257. Heartbreak Tango (Manuel Puig) *** 1/2
A story of heartbreaks, secrets, envy, treason and revenge centering on the life and death of Juan Carlos Etchepare, a dissolute heartthrob who succumbs to tuberculosis. Many tangos are danced between the characters, where they lead and follow each other in a web of deceit, secrets and lies, depicted in a mosaic of points of view and documentary evidence (police reports, letters, even a trip to the confessional). Most characters have bad traits, but Mabel and Celina are especially bad. Probably a novel style at the time, which has been perused often thereafter. Quite enjoyable.
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258. A Heart So White (Javier Marias) ***
A recently married interpreter stumbles across a few family secrets he had never guessed at and goes on to find the truth about these, without thinking of the consequences of the truth. I was a bit ambivalent about this novel. While the plot and some of the leads were interesting, there were two main reasons why I couldn't rate this higher. First, I felt that the narrator was way too verbose, that irritated me a fair bit and made for slow pace reading. Second, I was a bit let down when I found out what the secrets were; I was expecting something more convoluted or twisted than the secrets that were divulged in the end. Nevertheless, it has reinforced another message which I have heard a few times in recent times: I really need to read (any) Shakespeare.
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259. Cain (Jose Saramago) *** 1/2
Cain, having killed Abel his brother and being banished by god to err between past and future biblical events, is pissed off at god and tries to exact some revenge. A rather iconoclastic and light-hearted view of some questions major religions had (and still have) about the nature of god as told in the old testament and the Talmud. A short, quick, enjoyable read. There are two stylistic aspects whose purpose is still a bit of a mystery to me. The first is the absence of any capital letters to refer to any of the characters (including god) and the places in the novel. The second is lack of structure or delimiters/paragraphs when relating the various dialogues in the novel. These choices were deliberate and most likely served a narrative purpose, but which one?
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260. Bonjour Tristesse (Françoise Sagan) ***
Cécile, a seventeen-year-old with fleeting ideas on love inspired by Raymond, her gallivanting father, expects to spend a wonderful summer with her dad and his mistress, when an old friend from her mum's reappears and manages to conquer Raymond. Cécile then undertakes to break this relationship with a devious scheme where everybody could get hurt, even herself. Interesting depiction of forthcoming generational changes, somewhat announced by novels like this or the invention of the bikini some years before. Quick read.
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261. The Year of the Hare (Arto Paasilinna) *** 1/2
A picaresque short story involving a disillusioned journalist whose life takes a sudden turn when he finds an injured hare which he decides to keep with him. A suite of various (and often funny) adventures which often expose the advantages (and inconveniences) of trying to live a simpler life, away from the modern life. Many little smile-inducing passages.
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262. All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque) ****
A harrowing fictionalized account of the life at the front during World War I, viewed from the German perspective. Very graphic, both from the depiction of the action and physical injuries and from the description of state of mind of the narrator and his fellows trench comrades. This is right up there with Solzhenitsyn's Red Wheel cycles (August 1914; October 1916; March 1917; April 1917). I wonder whether the French perspective (Barbusse) is just as good. Absolutely compelling.
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263. Labyrinth of Solitude (Octavio Paz) ***
In this essay, Paz defines the Mexican identity, as seen in the early 50s, through the prisms of history, philosophy, linguistics and ethnology. This is quite an erudite and challenging book, but nevertheless quite interesting to read and showed me Mexico and, by extension, Latin America under a different light. However, its presence on the List is highly questionable, considering that this is an essay, not a novel. I am sure that other writings from Paz could have been substituted here. If the intent was clearly to include an example of an essay, maybe it would have been wiser to include a more representative and accessible example, such as the original template for the genre, Montaigne's Essais. Even Kundera, in many passages of his books, conjugates essay and poetry much better than Paz would have done.
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264. Snow (Orhan Pamuk) *** 1/2
An exiled Turkish poet returns to an isolated part of the motherland under the pretext of writing an article about a wave of suicide among local Islamist girls. In fact, he returned there with the aim of rekindling an old flame, but ends up with his life turned upside down due to a snow storm and a fake revolution started by a theater troupe and a corrupt army officer. An interesting, eye-opening novel about the frictions created between secularism and fundamentalism in Islam. Quite poetic in parts, quite slow in others, quite often intriguing because of the narrative techniques used, blurring to some extent the line between fiction and reality, both within the plot and the novel itself. And it's a pity that the green notebook has been lost forever, as I was curious to read the 19 poems that came to Ka while he was in Kars.
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265. The Kiss of the Spider-Woman (Manuel Puig) *** 1/2
Valentine, a Marxist revolutionary, and Molina, a homosexual, end up sharing the same cell in jail during the Argentine military dictatorship. Their relationship, almost antagonistic at first, develops until Molina's release, in one of many superimposed spider webs in the story (the police wanting to know the location of Valentine's acolytes, Molina attracting Valentine's sexual favors, Valentine wanting Molina to deliver a message to his comrades). Puig uses again multiple narrative techniques (stories within the story, "scientific" footnotes, police reports) to support the plot development, which works at times, but sometimes create some annoying lengthiness (I didn't like much Molina's retelling of the movies). If I gave 3.5 stars for Heartbreak Tango, I would probably give 3.75 for this novel.
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266. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami) ****
Vintage Murakami novel, with lonesome characters to whom the world seems to fall apart, only to bring them into a parallel universe where everything is made right (to an almost complete extent). The usual elements are there, the musical references, the literary references, the influential role of sex as a device to instill rules linking reality and this parallel universe, characters out of this world and probably borrowed from David Lynch's worlds. A page-turner, where even the most mundane and boring aspects of life are made interesting and filled with some tension, where the fate and motives of many characters are left untold, unanswered, leaving the reader to himself/herself to figure out what the hell actually went on. One day, I hope, we will know more about undercover Ushikawa, before his demise in 1Q84...
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267. Kristin Lavransdatter (Sigrid Undset) ****
This lengthy novel was set in Medieval Norway and traces the life of Kristin Lavransdatter against the religious, political and social background of the time. The author's accurate depiction of the context of the era yields much genuineness to the novel. But it is mainly through the character development and the exploration of their emotions that Undset creates this masterpiece. This was a definite page-turner and, as others have stated, almost a medieval soap-opera. I read this book in French and, unfortunately, this was based on an old translation dating back to the 20's. It appears that many small revisions and omissions have seeped through the work, which made for some difficult reading at times. For example, some family relationships were incorrectly stated (one mistook a son for a nephew), while some pronouns were incorrectly used (e.g. qui (who) instead of que (what)). Nonetheless, a definite classic.
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268. American Pastoral (Philip Roth) ***
This book caused me to experience some conflicting reactions while reading it (hence, the average rating). There were many elements in the plot which I liked and kept some reading tension throughout. There were also some quite humorous moments (for example, the hamster-skin coat episode). I also enjoyed the main theme of the book which revolves around the conflict between the American Pastoral/Dream and the awful American reality that many, just like the Swede, try to ignore. However, there are some aspects which irritated me a fair bit. While reading the first 40-odd pages, I developed the impression that it was just another of those stereotypical verbose Jewish stories, similar to several scenes in Woody Allen movies (but the latter are definitely much better), where a lot is being said that adds little substance to the story (some might use the less charming moniker "verbal diarrhoea"). Another striking example of this was the chapter which culminated in the discovery by the Swede of Orcutt dry-humping Dawn and of the latter's unfaithfulness. For me, that whole chapter was unnecessary and a waste of my time. Finally, like others mentioned, I was curious to find out what happened to the Swede between that fateful dinner night and the chance meeting with Zuckerman at the Mets game, regardless whether it happened for real or it was the result of Zuckerman's literary fantasies. How many Roths do we have to go through on this List again?
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269. Grimus (Salman Rushdie) *** 1/2
This was my first Rushdie, as it was his. I never expected a novel like this. At first, the reading was burdened by the playfulness of the language (frequent use of anagrams, different use of punctuation, disconnected and rambling dialogues) and by the setting of the action, which was definitely disconnected from reality. But from the moment that Virgil and Flapping Eagle make their way towards K, it started to make more sense, to the point where I found some plays on words quite inventive, at times funny. This is not an easy read; there are many erudite references which are not obvious to detect sometimes, and the text is full of symbolism, linking what would not appear significant to more significant ideas. Of the many themes in the book, one can isolate immortality vs reality, the power of knowledge, etc. Whether science-fiction or modern allegory, this is nonetheless a text which requires more than one reading and plenty of reflection.
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270. A Town Like Alice (Nevil Shute) ***
There are many good elements to this story: a chance inheritance from a long lost relative, a few harrowing war stories, a love story that almost never had a chance to start but flourished in the end. However, while I thoroughly enjoyed the first part, retelling the death march throughout Malaysia of Jean Paget at the end of the Japanese and the chance meeting with Joe Harman, also POW and future beau, the second part, where Jean and Joe are reunited and get set on developing the Midhurst station and the town Willstown into a town like Alice Springs, felt too much like a fairytale story, where nothing goes wrong and everybody is happy; there was very little plot tension in that second part, and this annoyed me greatly.
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271. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields) *** 1/2
The novel felt like the flicking-through of Daisy Goodwill's life scrapbook by multiple persons who have been present (and sometimes absent) throughout her life, spanning most of the 20th century. Poetic at times, it dealt mainly with memory, the search for one's own identity and, to some extent, the evolution of women's roles during the 20th century. Reminiscent to some extent of, but much, much better than, 'The Beggar Maid' from Alice Munro. Who knows, maybe Shields should have received the Nobel Prize in her lifetime. Go figure.
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272. Animal's People (Indra Sinha) **** 1/2
A fiction loosely based on the events following the Bhopal gas tragedy on the mid-80s, this novel, structured around tapes recorded by the main protagonist, Animal, retells the efforts of the affected population to obtain justice against the Kampani responsible for the poisonous gas leak which engulfed Khaufpur. It was a real language feast, where English, French and colorful local expressions were intermingled to yield genuineness to the main character, whose traits would have been molded by the bitterness of his experience and his "animalistic" conditions. Animal's datura-induced hallucination is one of the most vivid and best written description of a drug experience I have ever read. A difficult topic dealt with in a light-hearted way. One of my favourite reads this year, it made me laugh on many occasions. Apologies to some of the passengers of Emirates flight 414 between Dubai and Sydney on 27/09/14, whom I may have disturbed by an uncontrollable burst of laughter when I read the passage where Animal was struggling to keep Monsieur Méchant under control.
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273. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson) ***
A well-known story since my early exposure to it through a Daffy Duck cartoon, I was probably expecting more from reading it. True, it is an interesting tale about how humans are inhabited with good and evil, maybe too about the dangers of scientific experiments, with an interesting narrative structure. But the writing style is heavily Victorian, too much for my liking. Even though it's a short novella, I struggled to enjoy it because of this latter aspect.
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274. The Master of Ballantrae (Robert Louis Stevenson) ***
This story tells, through the family servant, of the lifelong antagonism of two brothers, Henry and James, the Master of Ballantrae. Through various somewhat far-fetched twists and turns (the Master seems to have nine lives, like a cat), the brothers end up being interred deep in the woods of upstate New York. I once again struggled with the Victorian style of writing, although it was not as painful as Dr Jekyll. The story up to the departure from Scotland was a bit dour to read; however, things got more excited once the brothers reached New York, transforming a two-star into a three.
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275. The Forsyte Saga (John Galsworthy) *** 1/2
The Forsyte Saga traces the evolution of an upper-middle-class family through the end of the Victorian era until the end of World War I, revolving mostly around the antagonism between Soames and Young Jolyon. The novel touches a lot of topics and themes (art vs/as property, for example) and is quite enjoyable. However, while this offers a good view of the transition out of the Victorian era, I would have preferred to get an even broader view of social changes in that period instead of the narrow upper-middle-class view, perhaps something in the same view as Zola's Rougon-Macquart saga, which has characters from the same family scattered across a broad cross-section of social classes.
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276. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) ***
A classic of American literature, it depicts the trials and tribulations of Huckleberry Finn when he sets on a raft done the Mississippi River with Jim, a "runaway nigger", to escape civilization. Often considered as a children's book, reflections on morality and on the lingering racism prevailing after the abolition of slavery exude from the adventures of Huck, Jim and, late in the novel, Tom Sawyer. While some of the adventures were quite entertaining, I found it at times hard to read because of the use of dialects (even though this yields genuineness). Of the two, I still prefer Tom Sawyer.
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277. Fingersmith (Sarah Waters) ****
This is a Gothic novel set in the Victorian period revolving around the fates of two orphan girls, Susan Trinder, growing up in the London Borough in a den of thieves, and Maud Lilly, raised in a mental asylum, then with her uncle in an isolated mansion outside of London. Their seemingly unrelated lives move closer when Sue sets to become a maid for Maud as part of a swindle orchestrated by Gentleman, frequent visitor to the den, aimed at obtaining Maud's inheritance. Subsequent events, leading Sue to be interned in a mental asylum, show that the swindle affects more than just Sue and that the history of the girls is much more intertwined than it appeared. The novel is full of twists and turns; the use of two different narrative point of views adds to the intrigue. It was a definite page-turner, with a glimpse on some of the social issues prevailing in the Victorian era. Some has referred to this novel as a lesbian novel; this is clearly not true. Granted, the main protagonists develop a lesbian relationship; however, this is more an accessory to the plot than a means to an end.
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278. Memoirs of a Peasant Boy (Xose Neira Vilas) ***
This is the story in diary format of a young peasant boy growing up in Galicia in the 1940s. While exploring the themes of poverty and inequality through the eyes and language of a child conveys a certain charm to the novel, I do feel that it does not highlight sufficiently the Galician condition as it was back then; I would have loved to learn more about Galicia and its place within Spain in the 1940s. A quick read, with a few laughs and a few emotional moments.
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279. The Graduate (Charles Webb) ***
Ben graduates with prospects of Ivy League, but becomes disillusioned with everything on his return home. He then gets seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, the archetypal Mrs Robinson (nowadays, we have Stifler's mum). After weeks of torrid nights with the said lady, he entangles himself in a life conundrum and decides that the best way of sorting this out is to try and marry Mrs Robinson's daughter, Elaine. A short novel, mostly in dialogues, which reads like a movie script. Well, it ended up that way a few years later. If the intent was to show the brewing rebellion of the 60s generation, the movie got the point across much better than the book. Neither liked nor disliked.
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280. The Birds (Tarjei Vesaas) ****
Seeing reality through the thoughts of a man with a mental impairment: a daunting literary proposition which Vesaas achieves marvelously. This novel, full of symbolism and poetry, depicts the relationship between Mattis and his sister, Hege, being transformed through a series of minor events, leading to a tragic denouement. Its reading generates varied emotions, through laughter, pity, irritation and sadness. A short read with some heavy questions ("Why are things the way they are?").
232. Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino) [English] ***1/2
This was not my first encounter with Calvino: I loved The Nonexistent Knight and The Cloven Viscount from the Our Ancestors trilogy; I didn't really like If on a winter's night a traveler. Yet Invisible Cities was a quick, enjoyable collection of city descriptions, draped by a dialogue between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. The descriptions, each different and bearing a feminine city name, remind me a lot of Borges and also Queneau (Exercises in style). This is a book that requires a re-reading and, like others have already done, the drawing of some sort of a plan, to fully understand the structure of the book (we are getting good hints with the 11 types of cities, arranged in a sort of symmetrical pattern) and all the possible links and overlaps between the descriptions. A reflection about the fluidity of existence, memory, space and time.