The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv by Andrey Kurkov, translated by Rueben Woolley

Hello - just a heads up that this is now on NetGalley in the UK!

I was able to find one review of this online (an English language review of the German translation): https://www.complete-review.com/revie...

Owen wrote: "Hello - just a heads up that this is now on NetGalley in the UK!"

Thanks - that's handy given it isn't published for 6 weeks or so

do we know if this has an American publisher lined up? (Deep Vellum perhaps?)

Deep Vellum would make sense since they did Grey Bees but I haven't heard anything about this one.

Paul wrote: "Owen wrote: "Hello - just a heads up that this is now on NetGalley in the UK!"

Thanks - that's handy given it isn't published for 6 weeks or so"

There was a Tweet from MacLehose this afternoon saying that all Netgalley requests for either this one or Standing Heavy will be accepted.

I think I'll just see what others make of this one, I like but don't love his writing, solid but not especially exciting, and the description didn't grab me.

I agree here. I’ve only read death and the penguin and I thought it was ok

Robert wrote: "I agree here. I’ve only read death and the penguin and I thought it was ok"

I quite liked that one, but very much a hurried commuter read rather than a novel to savour.

Perfect description (and I did read it on my work commutes)

Wish I had seen that tweet Hugh as I just got Standing Heavy on Kindle

I'm not able to request either one on Netgalley. Perhaps they are only available to UK users.

Has anyone been able to get a copy of this?

I didn't have any luck on Netgalley with this or the Gauz.

I have it yes

Gumble wrote: "I have it yes"

That's good. I've been unclear on its release date. Goodreads has 2-March for the e-book and 27-April for the MacLehose hardcover. Blackwell's has 4-April for the hardcover. MacLehose's website has 4-April for both the e-book and hardcover.

I wonder if the hardcover was moved up from 27-April to 4-April. It's unclear (to me) whether the e-book has been published. It's still available on Netgalley (even though I wasn't approved), which suggests it hasn't been published yet.

I will not get to this until after Easter.

Amazon has it 4th April. I have a Netgalley but no plans to read a 400 page book in an ecopy so will wait till the physical book arrives. I have only this left to read from the longlist.

The last book for me and I find Michael O at The Complete Review has previously reviewed the German version. So I look up his review to get a feel for what to expect…

“It's all nice -- despite a former-KGB presence, and the fairly tough times many people seem to be having in contemporary Ukraine, there's almost no edge at all to anything here.”

Nice! Nice! That’s something you say about biscuits….

nothing happens in this. just a lot of the same repetitive conversations and driving people with kidney stones over bumpy roads.

That’s nice.

Just realised I have read two of the authors previous books - I p-p-picked both of them.

I quite liked the first but found the follow up very weak - more like an attempt to cash in on the success of the first

The first 20 pages of this have not grabbed me at all but let’s see.

The first 20 pages were quite nice I thought

A man is at Jimi Hendrix's hand's grave and another man comes up to say "you don't know me but I'm your KGB handler, but thanks to tailing you I too grew to love Jimi Hendrix". That's nice.

And yes he is of course most famous for those books (or at least until recently where he's become a more political figure)

Yahaira wrote: "nothing happens in this. just a lot of the same repetitive conversations and driving people with kidney stones over bumpy roads."

The last one of his I read was very similar in that case, Grey Bees lots of driving but with bees not kidney stones!

Alwynne wrote: "Yahaira wrote: "nothing happens in this. just a lot of the same repetitive conversations and driving people with kidney stones over bumpy roads."

The last one of his I read was very similar in tha..."

I was mildly interested in the Bees book when I saw it nominated for a translation prize. But if it's more of the same I'll probably skip it.

Well that was different - certainly not the sort of book I would normally read

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The best word I can use to describe the novel is whimsical perhaps followed by way-too-long. What it is not is either literary or really of anything other than passing contemporary relevance and I am rather baffled to its inclusion on the longlist other than as a nod to the author’s far more worthy but ineligible (as non-fiction) diaries.

And Paul I think this is one of the book’s where “nice” does apply - the other two I have read feature a racist/sexist/fat-shaming security guard and a (flatly translated) caste based honour murder

I would I think more use the word “poor” for my experience so far.

Just finished it and thankfully finished the list. These judges should be barred from ever judging a book prize in future. Unless sponsored by a biscuit company.

Explain the biscuit thing. You haven’t mentioned that before.

Actually this most reminded me of Patrick Nice with his preposterously fortunate stories.

that ended with a thud

The Complete Review review other noting the real life author character seems to completely miss that this is effectively a sponsored ad for Lviv featuring a cast of real characters and even commissioned by the Mayor.

This would be better placed to win next year

After each dragon Taras would feel charmed by the languishing and pregnant silence of any thoughtfully phlegmatic beauty he came across, and he would take her by the hand and lead her to a café, and she would go, easily and wordlessly submitting to the path he’d chosen. But no, right now, he had no wish to think

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "The Complete Review review other noting the real life author character seems to completely miss that this is effectively a sponsored ad for Lviv featuring a cast of real characters and even commiss..."

Yes agreed. From page 1 the over-naming of the streets in the city struck me, which made sense when I got to the dedication at the end.

Guardian review of this one sums it up well

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/202...

The reader finds that despite the promise of the setup, we’ve moved away from The Lives of Others and closer to Scooby-Doo.

Kurkov’s laconic masterpiece Death and the Penguin worked by mining an absurd situation for pathos and balancing it with darkness. Whimsy was a barely noticeable flavour in a cocktail of other ingredients. I confess I didn’t have so much appetite for Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv. It’s partly a question of timing: with Ukraine facing a threat so much worse than inundation by a possibly allegorical sea, the world of the novel feels cute and its jeopardy abstract.