What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (12 Viewers)

[David Kronenbourg]

a translation from Spanish? I find long sentences to be very common in books that are translated to English from Spanish. There isn't the same flow in English and it can be hard enough to get your mind into a rhythm when you're reading.

Portuguese. He's known for writing extremely long, unbroken sentences which are often several pages long.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Just started The Bell Jar.

After years of not getting around to it. Pretty great so far.

 

[rettucs]

Just started The Bell Jar.

After years of not getting around to it. Pretty great so far.

superb book. I read it in a single sitting about a month back.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Ha! This thing has gone mad

 

[Jim Daniels]

Lots of double posts!

 

[Scientician 0.8]

Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller.

This is a short enough memoir of a childhood growing up in Zimbabwe(then white minority rule Rhodesia), Malawi, and Zambia. It's beautifully written and deals with some difficult subject matter, abuse, infant death, war, poverty, and the racist, colonial mindset that led her family to stake a claim to a piece of Africa even when it was clear to almost everyone that the era of European domination of Africa was over. She portrays her family, particularly her mother, warts and all. It's not misery lit though. For every passage that's riven with sorrow there are ones that made me laugh out loud. Some of the vignettes reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' work. I'd like to read more African literature, preferably written by black African authors. These white European African childhood novels and memoirs (despite the undeniable quality of many of them) seem to be ten a penny and can only really portray a small subset of life on that vast and vastly fascinating continent.

The author has a number of other books, some of which plough a similar furrow so I might order a couple of them.

 

[IFF]

sounds interesting

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai
I'd been meaning to read this for ages and finally got around to it - a bit disappointing. My doubts about it first arose when the author turned up to deliver a doomy monologue in that useless Bela Tar film last year, The Turin Horse. I'm not really into these Patrick-McCabe-Meets-James-Herbert kinda novels that you can imagine Tom Waits wishing he had written. Its enjoyable enough but yer man is inclined to go off on lengthy, verbose tangents about fuck all as little displays of his writing ability. The horror is well enough done and is quite exciting when he leaves it in the background, when he gets into it in more detail the effect falls apart. It was a translation, I suspect maybe some of what I disliked was a result of that but I'm not sure.

On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin
This was much better. I started off with high hopes which were dashed early on when I realised it was going to be one of those "this happened and then that happened and they would do this until 6 years later this happened and that happened etc" all the way through the characters lives. I loved the whole idea of it though, I have a weakness for sentimental stories of this sort so by the time it came around to the heartbreaking ending I was won over again. Still, I wouldn't be in a mad rush to read any more of his books.

 

[Nate Champion]

The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai
I'd been meaning to read this for ages and finally got around to it - a bit disappointing. My doubts about it first arose when the author turned up to deliver a doomy monologue in that useless Bela Tar film last year, The Turin Horse. I'm not really into these Patrick-McCabe-Meets-James-Herbert kinda novels that you can imagine Tom Waits wishing he had written. Its enjoyable enough but yer man is inclined to go off on lengthy, verbose tangents about fuck all as little displays of his writing ability. The horror is well enough done and is quite exciting when he leaves it in the background, when he gets into it in more detail the effect falls apart. It was a translation, I suspect maybe some of what I disliked was a result of that but I'm not sure.

Satantango bloke?

Wow, dissing Bela Tarr. I haven't seen that one. But in general I like his more recent stuff like Werckmeister Harmonies as opposed to the almost unbearably oppressive Damnation. Satantango is one of the few film experiences that everyone should see.

There's a really neat looking edition of Satantango on hardback out by New Directions coincidentally.

Currently reading:
Volume 3 of In Search of Lost Time: The Guermante's Way. I really liked the second one Within A Budding Grove. Almost halfway through GW, and I'm getting more into it. It's frequently hilarious although sometimes the prose can be to bilious. Bloch is such a great character. Such a punk. Try to read about 100 or so pages a week. The aim is to read all six volumes this year which will be the spine of my reading year. Think I'll do something like this every year.

Tipping through Grace Paley's Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, initially published in 1968. Picked this up for a euro. Horrible sleeve though. This is another one from Donald Barthelme's lists. Apparently they were neighbours and big pals. he would route through her appartment for mislaid stories. She was notoriously lazy.
Anyway, it is in a Barthelme vein creating it's own quirky, small world except the stories here seem to have similar, overlapping characters and more cohesion in tone. And it's more human feeling. There's one called Faith in a Tree which is outstanding. Also, she sometimes hits that Cheever sense of mystery which blows the value of the stories out.


Also, John Fante's The Wine of Youth. Selected stories. Started off well, but his limited writing range in terms of content and style is starting to manacle my interest a little.

Just started John Hawkes' The Beetle Leg, his second novel. Absolutely loved The Lime Twig. Automatically became one of my favourite novels ever. This is a curious (comic?) western. Dense poetic, sensual style yet again, it's difficult to figure the action though. Obvious Faulkner influence, yet much tighter than that crazy cat would allow. He wrote this when he was twenty three which is just mental. I reckon Cormac McCarthy might have read it.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Satantango bloke?

Wow, dissing Bela Tarr. I haven't seen that one. But in general I like his more recent stuff like Werckmeister Harmonies as opposed to the almost unbearably oppressive Damnation. Satantango is one of the few film experiences that everyone should see.

There's a really neat looking edition of Satantango on hardback out by New Directions coincidentally.

That seems to be him. I haven't read any of his other books or seen any other Bela Tar films. To be honest I left The Turin Horse half way through - the music and the incessant 10 second loop of wind effects were driving me up the wall.

Currently reading:
Volume 3 of In Search of Lost Time: The Guermante's Way. I really liked the second one Within A Budding Grove. Almost halfway through GW, and I'm getting more into it. It's frequently hilarious although sometimes the prose can be to bilious. Bloch is such a great character. Such a punk. Try to read about 100 or so pages a week. The aim is to read all six volumes this year which will be the spine of my reading year. Think I'll do something like this every year.

It took me about a year to read it too. The 2nd and 4th I liked best

 

[Nate Champion]

That seems to be him. I haven't read any of his other books or seen any other Bela Tar films. To be honest I left The Turin Horse half way through - the music and the incessant 10 second loop of wind effects were driving me up the wall.

Well, he's quit making films now. Maybe it was your walk out that did it.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Re-reading City of Bohane by Kevin Barry.

Even better 2nd time around. The language is amazing.

 

[washingcattle]

Re-reading City of Bohane by Kevin Barry.

Even better 2nd time around. The language is amazing.

It's good craic alright.

 

[Jill Hives]

The Dinner by Herman Koch - 8
A quick read that made me chuckle a few good times and thankful that I don't have children.

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse -- the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

The Fermata by Nicholson baker. Pervy.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I read that after someone here made an intriguing reference to it - Jill or Lili I think. I didn't realise it was going to be filth from cover to cover.

 

[Jill Hives]

I'd love a paperclip that stopped time.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Yeah, not me. My only interest in erotic fiction is in writing it.

 

[rettucs]

The Fermata by Nicholson baker. Pervy.

marks out of 10?

 

[David Kronenbourg]

marks out of 10?

haha, i'm only about a third of the way in but so far 6. i don't think i've gotten to the proper filth yet.