At Russia beyond the Headlines Phoebe Taplin reports that Uzbek writer popularizes Russian literature in London in her Q & A with Hamid Ismailov.
His most recently translated book is the 'reality novel' A Poet and Bin-Laden, which: "combines documentary, poetry and fiction".
I actually have a copy, so I do hope to get a review up; meanwhile, see the Glagoslav publicity page, or get your copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
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Brooklyn, he finds, is: "rather embarrassingly civilised", and he's "too old for Manhattan" -- "It's just too noisy, too quick".
So says Martin Amis, in a nice long Financial Times profile by Martin Dickson.
He also: "don't mind saying a bit" about his work in progress.
(Does he ever mind saying a bit, or a lot, about anything ?)
It's: "set in an unnamed Auschwitz" -- and, well, at this point in his career one can no longer be sure about anything he writes, but maybe it holds some promise.
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A few days ago E.J. Van Lanen, of the newly founded Frisch & Co., posted a piece explaining Why I Publish Ebooks, or the Future of Literary Translation, suggesting that the e-format might be a promising approach to dealing with some of the issues that plague getting books in translation published in English.
It's a quite detailed post, and well worth your attention, both for its discussion for the traditional US (print) model of publishing translations -- often necessitating reliance on outside funding, which comes with its own set of issues (boy, does it ever) -- as well as in considering the possible advantages (and disadvantages) of e-publishing.
(Among the interesting/amusing points: his sums as to the costs of e-publishing a book differ ... shall we say: markedly from those of traditional print publishers, who have been moaning for years (in explaining their pricing) that it's not (much) cheaper to do it that way than it is in print.)
Frisch & Co. aren't the only experimenters; Le French Book, for example, is:
a digital-first publisher that brings France's best crime fiction, thrillers, novels, short stories, and non-fiction to new readers across the English-speaking world. If we love it, we'll translate it.I'm not sure that 'best' is the right word for the books in their (initial) selection, but 52 serial shorts-concept -- which involves authors with some name-recognition, such as Yann Queffélec, Tatiana De Rosnay, Didier Van Cauwelaert -- sounds like a good lead title and sampler.
Meanwhile, mega-bestselling French author Marc Levy has never really caught on English (see my review of All Those Things We Never Said), but e-publisher Versilio have now brought out a whole batch of his books in translation, almost all just in e-formats.
A few weeks ago, Gabe Habash and Jim Milliot wrote about how International Titles Finding New Ways into the U.S., which is also worth a closer look. E-books are one part of it; another interesting approach is foreign publishers not looking to sell foreign rights, but rather publishing translations themselves -- mainly in e-formats. But even some English-language publishers are having a go at foreign markets -- Australian Text is apparently bringing the wonderful-sounding Text Classics stateside -- damn, I want to see those books !
(I take this opportunity also to remind you of longtime local favorite, the African Books Collective, which basically takes advantage of print-on-demand to make a wide variety of African publications readily available abroad.)
Frisch & Co. kindly sent me their first offering, the good-looking Anatomy of a Night by Anna Kim -- see their publicity page -- but I have to admit I still have the damnedest time reading e-books, much preferring to pick up the printed books scattered and piled all around me. I can see the appeal of the format (and the reading devices), but I haven't been won over yet -- in fact, I can still barely stand them. Add a Comment
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The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Bernard Turle's Diplomat, Actor, Translator, Spy, yet another beautiful little volume in the Cahiers Series.
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I haven't been able to find anything about who started Lucky Penny Day, or why.
Which leads me to realize that creating these "national days" is a pretty serious free-for-all. CLEARLY WE NEED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT AND COME UP WITH SOME NEW ONES.
Anyway, despite the dubious nature of this "holiday", I shall point you back to my old post about Jennifer L. Holm's Penny from Heaven anyway, because I'll use any old excuse to highlight a good book:
Add a CommentMy affection for Holm's characters just sort of crept up on me—I hadn't realized how much I cared about them until Something Bad Happened and I found myself crying.
The story itself starts off quiet and lightly comic: Penny tells the reader about her various family members and has some adventures with her cousin Frankie. She does mention the fact that her mother hardly ever talks about her father, and never talks about the circumstances of his death—that in itself was enough to alert me to the fact that there was Rough Stuff Ahead.
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...I wrote about Aaron Hartzler's Rapture Practice:
Capital-b Belief is something that I have immense respect for, but I’ve never felt like I’ve succeeded in completely wrapping my mind around it. Maybe it’s one of those You Know It If You Feel It things? But this book, despite the vastly different life experience that it depicts—...when I say we believe that Jesus is coming back, I don’t mean metaphorically, like someday in the distant future when the lion lies down with the lamb and there is peace on earth. I mean literally, like glance out the car window and, “Oh, hey, there’s Jesus in the sky.” There will be a trumpet blast, an archangel will shout, and Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds.— has come the closest to helping me understand something that I’ve spent years trying to grasp.
Loved it.
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...with BookMooch and PaperbackSwap (and some nice shout-outs to Flux and Orca, too) at Maine Crime Writers:
I’m still operating on the same material budget I had when I took on the job as Hartland Public librarian in 2006. I don’t need to tell anyone what inflation has done to book prices, etc. since then. One of the first things I discovered when looking for better ways to build a collection was online swapping sites.
I love it.
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Yesterday they announced that Lydia Davis wins the Man Booker International Prize 2013, as she becomes the fifth winner of this biennial would-be Nobel alternative, awarded: "to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language".
What stands out immediately, of course, is that this is now the third time in a row that the prize has gone to a North American author (after Alice Munro in 2009 and Philip Roth in 2011), and that four of the five prizes have gone to English-writing authors (longtime -- nearly a quarter of a century -- US resident Chinua Achebe took the prize in 2007, and only Ismail Kadare bucked what became the trend, in 2005).
Obviously, written-in-English fiction has a home field advantage, exacerbated by the fact that there have never been clear guidelines as to who should be eligible -- recall that in 2005 judge Alberto Manguel 'lamented' that they couldn't consider the likes of Peter Handke, António Lobo Antunes, Michel Tournier, and Christa Wolf, among others, because not enough of their books were available in English (see my previous mention), yet this year authors such as Marie NDiaye and Intizar Husain made the cut, more than two of either's books in English translation you're unlikely to find in any bookstore in the continental US (or insular Britain).
I think Davis is a fine choice, but the Man Booker International Prize obviously has a serious identity problem on its hands.
This choice already makes it hard for them to keep their international credibility, at least internationally; one more time down this road and they'll lose any remaining credibility -- which isn't the kind of pressure that should be hovering over any literary prize.
For all the whingeing that goes on about the Nobel-awarding Swedish Academy and its predilection for obscure, non-North American authors: from abroad, this has got to look considerably worse.
It was an interesting group of finalists, with seven of the ten authors with books under review at the complete review -- though not, regrettably, Lydia Davis (though I am a fan).
I guess I really will have to finally get around to putting up a review of the marvelous The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis -- but go ahead and get your copy first (really -- it's worthwhile); see the Picador publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Note also that the winner's name was leaked -- a Times of India report (since removed, but originally here; remnants visible here) had the report about three hours before the official announcement -- I'm curious to hear what happened there.
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The Guardian prints an edited version of Atiq Rahimi's keynote speech to the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference which I mean(t) to point you to -- but they note that 'the full transcripts of all the speeches' are available at the Edinburgh World Writers' Conference site and I can't believe I've never seen this trove.
Yes, there's not just Rahimi's speech in full but, for example, all the keynote speeches on The Future of the Novel, and sure I'd like to comment on the Rahimi and some of the others but who cares what I have to say -- if you haven't seen this stuff just dive in there -- a holiday weekend is approaching in the US, right ? well, this seems a good site to explore in that time -- I think that's what I might be doing.
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Via I'm pointed to Debra Kamin's report in The Tower, which claims that The Greatest Living Hebrew Writer Is Arab.
No, it's not an exposé revealing that, say, Amos Oz is actually Arabic (whatever that might mean ...); rather, she's making the claim for ... Sayed Kashua.
Second Person Singular-author Sayed Kashua is certainly an interesting young writer (emphasis on the young -- he has three books under his belt, but writing-wise still a long way to go), but let's be clear: he's not anywhere near the top of the Hebrew-writing pantheon.
Like nowhere close (there are a lot of really good Hebrew-writing authors.)
Still, I do really like hearing this:
I have a very strange feeling that my fourth novel will start in Hebrew, and then it will turn into a mix of Hebrew and Arabic, and it will end with Arabic.That could be something ..... Read the rest of this post Add a Comment
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In Haaretz Zvi Bar'el reports (a bit melodramatically ?) that Egypt's songs of revolution have given way to a literature of despair.
A lot of the article focuses on the to-do around minister of culture Alaa Abdel-Aziz, rather than 'the literature of despair' (which I'd love to hear more about ...).
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The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Ricardo Güiraldes' 1926 Argentine classic, Don Segundo Sombra: Shadows on the Pampas.
This is one reason I love going to used bookstores -- for finds like this.
I paid a dollar for this 1948 volume (list price: one shilling and sixpence).
Back then it was the first book by a Latin American author to make the Penguin Books paperback series (as volume 638).
Nowadays -- well, you can find it if you seek it out, but otherwise you're unlikely to stumble across it.
Sure, it's not a book you need to stumble across -- but it's an interesting and not insignificant work, and certainly anyone who reads Argentine fiction should be familiar with it (as all the authors of those books they're reading are).
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Avenger (Halflings Novel, A), by Heather Burch
Black Helicopters, by Blythe Woolston
Dear Life, You Suck, by Scott Blagden
Going Vintage, by Lindsey Leavitt
If You Find Me, by Emily Murdoch
Impostor, by Jill Hathaway
Period 8, by Chris Crutcher
Shadow on the Sun, by David Macinnis Gill
Wasteland (Wasteland - Trilogy), by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, by Meg Medina
You Know What You Have To Do, by Bonnie Shimko
New paperbacks (that I've read):
A Touch of Scarlet, by Eve Marie Mont:
Emma's narration never really gels into a consistent, believable voice. She ranges from snarky-casual to super-duper stiff and formal (with the occasional infodump), and there's a lot of telling rather than showing, especially when it comes to the interactions and relationships between the characters. Michelle's storyline (along with the student protest and the alternaprom and the end of Dr. Overbrook's arc) never completely integrates with the rest of the story, and so it feels at best, like it should have gotten its own book, and at worst, extraneous. (And, in terms of plotting, very afterschool-specially.)
The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden), by Julie Kagawa:
Like so many Mysterious Vampire Heroes before him, [Kanin} is cold and aloof, but betrays his carefully hidden feelings through regular Eyebrow Quirks and Faint Smiles. He’s fond of long-winded exposition, tortured by a guilty past, doomed to forever obsess about righting the wrongs he’s done, says things like “My road must always be traveled alone,” and probably wears a lot of black silk shirts.
Masque of the Red Death, by Bethany Griffin:
While the atmosphere really is wonderfully done—Araby's narration fittingly shares that muffled, deadened quality—and I very much appreciated Griffin's writing, I can't say that Masque of the Red Death was an entirely enjoyable read. (Which isn't necessarily a necessity in a book, of course. But, you know. It's a factor in recommending it to other people.)
The Selection, by Kiera Cass:
Add a CommentAmerica is infinitely slappable, as are BOTH love interests. (Duh. OF COURSE Maxon falls for her, so there's a love triangle!) The characters act more in keeping with what is convenient for the storyline—for instance, when America tries to warn Maxon about the super-duper bitchitude of one of the other contestants, he pulls the I'M ROYALTY AND YOU'RE NOT, THEREFORE YOU CAN'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT routine, even though up until then, he'd sought out her opinion about stuff like that—than with their own personalities, and most of America's major decisions seem to be based more on who she's angry with at the time than in any sort of logic.
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Over at BookRiot today, there's a post about personal reading rules:
When I started thinking about this piece, I thought about it as just a list of my (many!) seemingly arbitrary rules for reading. Once I got started, though, I discovered that those rules actually tell you so much about me that they double as personality traits. In fact, they say so much about me that I’m actually a little uncomfortable sharing them now, but I’m going to anyway because I’m done with the piece; this paragraph is actually, chronologically, the last one I’ve written, and who wants to waste all that effort?
Which (obviously) made me think about my own set of personal reading rules.
1. I'm a note taker. If I don't have pencil and paper at hand—or am too lazy to get up and go find pencil and paper—I will dog ear pages. Yes, that's right, I AM AN UNREPENTANT DOGEAR-ER.
1a. Since I realize that this confession will probably result in you all shunning me forevermore—you're totally going to cross the street to avoid me at BookExpo next week, aren't you?—I'm going to go ahead and ADMIT ALL: Yes, I even dogear library books. (I always un-dogear before I return them, though.)
1b. If it makes you feel any better, I dogear the BOTTOM of the page, not the top.
1c. I don't write in books. Ever. I do use the Note feature on my Kindle a hella lot, though.
2. When Josh gets ready to read a new paperback, he preemptively breaks its spine, and I flinch every single time.
3. Halfway through any given hardback, the book jacket starts driving me bananas and I take it off and throw it behind the couch. I retrieve and replace when I'm done reading.
4. The only genre I seem to be capable of reading without going into Literary Analysis mode? Vaguely smutty historical romances.
5. I've said this before, but it should be included: I'm a really, REALLY visual reader. When I'm wrapped up in a book, it's like I stop seeing the words and have an actual movie playing in my head: therefore, I had to stop listening to audiobooks in the car because I kept running stop signs.
6. I'm a vocal supporter of Putting The Book Down If It Isn't Working For You, but I find that I rarely actively do that myself. More often, I realize months later that I set something down and never returned to it.
7. I'm a one-book-at-a-time girl. And I always have at least two back-ups in my bag, JUST IN CASE.
So. YOUR TURN.
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We could go with characters who LOVE Sherlock Holmes, like Ingrid from Peter Abrahams' Echo Falls books, or Christopher from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time or Colin Fischer from er, Colin Fischer.
Or we could go with books in which Doyle appears/is mentioned, like Jenny Davidson's The Explosionist* or the one where he teams up with Oscar Wilde to solve a mystery (I haven't read it, but have been meaning to for ages), or the series where he works with Charles Dodgson to solve mysteries. (<--I have no idea if those are any good, but I totally just ordered the first one, because HELLO, HOW COULD I BE EXPECTED TO RESIST THAT TEAM?)
Or one of the versions of Young Sherlock Holmes, like the one with the Bieber hair or the Shane Peacock series (which I haven't tried yet... should I?). Or Old Sherlock Holmes, as in the fabulous Mary Russell books.
Or books his brother, Mycroft, appears in, like the Thursday Next books (LOVE the new cover on The Eyre Affair), or the Quinn Fawcett ones that I haven't tried. Or Nancy Springer's series about their pretend sister, Enola.
BUT. As is probably evident by the image to the right, I'm going with Neil Gaiman's story 'A Study in Emerald', which appears in Fragile Things:
A Sherlock Holmes story set in the world of H. P. Lovecraft. Loved it so much I've been babbling about it to everyone who will listen regardless of whether they A) are interested or B) know who H. P. Lovecraft is. Loved it so much I immediately ILLed Shadows over Baker Street, the collection it originally appeared in. I'm waiting with bated breath. (Or I would be, if I wasn't busy obsessively playing Okami.)
WHEW.
So, I'm sure I missed your favorite: tell me all about it in the comments!
_____________________________________
*OH MY GOD I LOVE THAT BOOK SO MUCH HAVE YOU READ IT WHY NOT GO READ IT I'LL WAIT RIGHT HERE OH MY GOD DIDN'T YOU JUST LOVE IT SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
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As I always get a giggle out of Travis Jonker's One Star Review Guess Who posts, I figured I'd swipe the idea and post the occasional one-star Amazon review of a much-lauded YA title.
So, can you guess what book this disappointed reader is reviewing?:
Click on through for the answer! Add a CommentEven though this book is written for a young adult audience, I would not recommend it to all teenagers. First of all, the book is quite wordy. The language is pretty sophisticated and the dialogue sounds more intellectual than an average teenager would use. Second, the students at the prep school use marijuana, drink beer, and smoke cigarettes, although [HEROINE], the main character does not. Third, the book's "humor" may not appeal to everyone. While some people may find [HEROINE]'s pranks "good clean fun," this would not be universally true. Personally, I didn't think it was funny when [HEROINE] spied on people, stole keys, snuck into places she wasn't allowed to go and pulled pranks against the school authorities. She may have been showing her rebellious side, which is a common teenage trait, but I think [HEROINE] went a little too far. The consequences for her actions, in my opinion, were not equal to the severity of the crime.
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Via The Modern Novel weblog (which I hope you're following -- lots of good foreign literature coverage to be found across the site) I find the results of ABC's experts'-poll of las mejores novelas españolas desde 2000 -- the best Spanish novels since 2000.
(It seems pretty clear to me that this is a poll of the best Spanish (as opposed to Spanish-language) novels -- and it would be pretty outrageous if it weren't (quite a few Latin American novels strike me as obviously superior to some of this stuff) -- the confusion presumably arising from the presence of we-all-know-he's-Peruvian-right-? Mario Vargas Llosa atop the list.
But Vargas Llosa has been a Spanish citizen since 1993, and they clearly have no problem claiming him as one of their own; longtime Spanish resident Roberto Bolaño, who surely might have placed a book or two on any Spanish-language list, on the other hand is ignored.)
A surprising number of these books are under review at the complete review (and The Infatuations would be ... if I could get my hands on a copy):
- 1. The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
- 3. Your Face Tomorrow by Javier Marías (only the first volume under review at this time)
- 4. Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas
- 5. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
- 7. Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piñol
- 8. Montano (Montano's Malady) by Enrique Vila-Matas
Needless to say -- I disagree with the experts. Add a Comment
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As they begin to beat the drum for the 23 July 2013 longlist announcement of the Man Booker Prize -- or pettily try to steal the thunder from today's Man Booker International Prize announcement ... -- The Independent offers Natalie Haynes: Confessions of a Booker judge, as she relates what it's like wading through all the submitted titles.
First off: the piece does contain some actual news, as Haynes reveals that there are apparently 150 titles in the running this year (submissions plus called-in titles).
Judges have done a poor job in recalling the precise number over the years, but they're usually not too far off the mark in their public pronouncements, and 150 would be more than usual.
Still, it's probably best to wait for official confirmation regarding this number -- poor form, by the way, that the official site doesn't have more frequent news-updates providing this sort of information.
Haynes mentions what is truly outrageous about the prize, too -- but does so unquestioningly:
It robs you of the chance to talk about books, too: I'm not allowed to tell you which books have been submitted for the prize, so I can't discuss them with anyone but my fellow judges.Why isn't she allowed to tell ? Why don't they publish the full list, so that we can tell whether they're actually dealing with what might be the cream of the crop, or whether in fact the publishers have offered up their Man Booker-flavoured (or so they think and hope) dregs.
As I repeat every year: it's impossible to take a literary prize seriously if they don't tell you who is actually in the competition. (And given the Man Booker's ridiculously limiting submission options this is a much bigger issue and problem with this prize than with most.)
Haynes says:
The question I am most frequently asked about prize judging is, "How do you read all those books ?" In close second place comes, "Where the hell do you put them ?"But really the only question should be: what are the books ? (followed, I suppose, by: Why can't you tell us ?)
Clearly the judges have been instructed to present the Man Booker as open-to-everything so that those annoying genre discussion don't flare up again (though they presumably will, once the longlist is revealed), and so Haynes claims:
And the Booker is a broad church. We've been sent thrillers, love stories, family sagas, war novels, spy novels, detective novels and sequels (another consequence of the second Mantel victory ?).It would sound more convincing if we were told the actual titles -- many a dryly super-'literary' novel can have elements that might be described as thriller-like, or contain a love story of sorts .....
Just tell us what the damn books are already. Add a Comment
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PalFest 2013 -- the Palestine Festival of Literature -- runs 23 through 30 May
Among the participating writers from outside the region are China Miéville and Gillian Slovo, and M. Lynx Qualey, of the weblog Arabic Literature (in English) is also participating -- and will presumably be reporting extensively at her site.
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In The Korea Times Chung Ah-young reports on Korean young writers trying to make it to global scene, as:
Han and Hae were among 38 writers who have been sent to overseas residence programs supported by the LTI since 2003. They have been dispatched to some 20 regions in the United States, Germany, Spain and France. The writers are supposed to participate in various events to promote Korean literature and build up friendships with foreign writers.It's an interesting approach -- I wonder how it will work out.
See also the (limited selection of) Korean literature under review at the complete review. Add a Comment
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The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Poems in Occitan by Aurélia Lassaque, Solstice and Other Poems.
Occitan -- yes, that's the lenga d'òc (i.e. langue d'oc).
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From the Irish Times:
Add a CommentThe Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt complained at Stormont that the teaching guide for Bog Child was evidence of bias and the worst kind of “politicisation of the classroom” under Sinn Féin’s direction.
Mr Nesbitt called for the book by the late London-Irish author Siobhan Dowd and the teaching notes supplied by the North’s Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) to be removed.
In response, the CCEA did not directly criticise Mr Nesbitt but said the book was not on the curriculum. It said it was one of a list of suggested books that teachers could use in the classroom for 14-year-old students.
...
“Let me be clear, this is not an attack on the book,” said Mr Nesbitt. “I have not read Bog Child, so have no opinion on its value as a piece of literature. But I have read the teaching notes, as endorsed by the Department of Education and I am stunned by what I read,” he added.
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Oh.
OH.
OH MY GOD, I LOVE THIS BOOK.
And I have no idea how to write about it.
Ten pages in, I was all, "HEY, COOL! THIS IS SO WICKER MAN-Y! I LIKE."
Then, I came to the end of the first part. And my eyes got all big and round and I was all (much more subdued, but no less blown away), "Oh, hey, this is VERY Wicker Man-y."
And then, partway through the second segment, I thought, "Wow. Hello, Cloud Atlas."
After that, I stopped thinking about anything except the story—stories—in front of me, and I read and read and read until there were no more pages to read. And I was crying.
I still feel dazed.
It's not going to be for everyone. I GUARANTEE that some readers are going to want to throw it at the wall. (Perhaps you have already done so?) But something about it resonated with me. It's not just that I'm impressed by the structure—I am—or that I love Sedgwick's writing and skillful atmosphere creation—I do—or that I was blown away by how each segment was so different, but how (even discounting the physical details: the names, the flowers, the hare) each one was also so clearly part of a larger whole.
All of those things are a part of why I loved it, but there was something... BIGGER, yet less tangible beyond that. I think it was that even though the premise doesn't jive with my own personal, in real life worldview—I'm one of those who can't wrap my mind around anything beyond conceived/born/live/die/dead*—that the idea of these two people finding each other over and over again was genuinely, heart-wrenchingly beautiful.
Even though [SPOILER] it was a tragedy almost every time.
But, compared to the love that began—and ultimately ended—their story, the tragedy that followed them felt inconsequential. [/SPOILER]
Or something.
As the footnote below explains, I have a hard time with the metaphysical.
It's just a gorgeous, gorgeous book.
So good that it has apparently made my brain implode.
____________________________
*Which reminds me of a conversation I had years ago:
Family Friend Who Is Way Into Astrology: And so since you have so much Libra in your chart, that means that etc., etc....
Me: I dunno. I just have a hard time buying the idea that I am who I am because of where the planets were when I was born.
FFWIWIA: Oh, that's just because you're a Gemini. You're all about the intellectually concrete.
Me: So I don't believe in astrology because... I'm a Gemini?
FFWIWIA: Yes.
Me: But...
____________________________
Author page.
____________________________
____________________________
Book source: ILLed through my library.
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