What Book Did You Read Last Night??? (5 Viewers)

[IFF]

Read a few alternative translations and tell us which is best.

translation seems to be an artform in itself.
i recently read farewell, cowboy by olja savicevic and i felt the translator did a superbjob in capturing the poeticness and descriptive of the original work.

of course, without me knowing croatian, it could have been originally rubbish and all the texturing and beauty of the novel is in fact the translators work and not the authors.

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i finished "their lips talk of mischief" by alan warner on sunday.
good novel, humourous though i think it kind of ran out of steam towards the end.

 

[Richie]

The Mark and the Void (Paul Murray) - it's a bit of a mess, but he has enough of a gift at writing comic farce to keep it moving along.. There's clearly a wealth of material for social satire and scrutiny in the banking crisis / bailout era but I feel like it needs more of a light touch and a tighter focus, there were whole chunks of narrative in this that felt like they were a primer for people who couldn't remember the news circa 2008 (and the main character sometimes feels like he's mostly there to be a cipher for this). Wouldn't go nearly as far as that Irish Times review (I wonder if putting a female literary critic character who fawns over the latest Booker prize winner in the book might have triggered a bit of prickliness there) as I did find sections of it quite funny and incisive but a bit disappointed overall.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Here, did you finish Bros K in the end? I need to go back to it and start writing family trees so I knew who the fuck everyone is.

 

[Jim Daniels]

The Mark and the Void (Paul Murray) - it's a bit of a mess, but he has enough of a gift at writing comic farce to keep it moving along.. There's clearly a wealth of material for social satire and scrutiny in the banking crisis / bailout era but I feel like it needs more of a light touch and a tighter focus, there were whole chunks of narrative in this that felt like they were a primer for people who couldn't remember the news circa 2008 (and the main character sometimes feels like he's mostly there to be a cipher for this). Wouldn't go nearly as far as that Irish Times review (I wonder if putting a female literary critic character who fawns over the latest Booker prize winner in the book might have triggered a bit of prickliness there) as I did find sections of it quite funny and incisive but a bit disappointed overall.

I loved Skippy Dies, but I'm feeling some reluctance here. Not sure why, maybe its the subject matter. Will probably wait for the paperback. My sister said I could have her copy, but I'm not biting...

 

[David Kronenbourg]

The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow. Superb crime novel about a former hitman who gets pulled back into the life. Going to be WIlliam Friedkin's next movie apparently.

 

[rettucs]

The Mark and the Void (Paul Murray) - it's a bit of a mess, but he has enough of a gift at writing comic farce to keep it moving along.. There's clearly a wealth of material for social satire and scrutiny in the banking crisis / bailout era but I feel like it needs more of a light touch and a tighter focus, there were whole chunks of narrative in this that felt like they were a primer for people who couldn't remember the news circa 2008 (and the main character sometimes feels like he's mostly there to be a cipher for this). Wouldn't go nearly as far as that Irish Times review (I wonder if putting a female literary critic character who fawns over the latest Booker prize winner in the book might have triggered a bit of prickliness there) as I did find sections of it quite funny and incisive but a bit disappointed overall.

next on my list. Will get to it at the weekend. Looking forward to it.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

LA Confidential was terrific, continuing the action now with this:

 

[Lili Marlene]

I started reading THE BOOK OF THE SEASON

It is easy to read and entertaining and pretty flimsy tbh

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I started reading THE BOOK OF THE SEASON

It is easy to read and entertaining and pretty flimsy tbh

Ugh, my dad has a copy of that and keeps trying to fob it off on me. Why would I want to read a 1,000 page novel by a first time writer?

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

LA Confidential was terrific, continuing the action now with this:
View attachment 10920

Why's my picture sideways?

 

[Jim Daniels]

Re-reading this for the week that's in it.

Comfortingly creepy

 

[Jim Daniels]

Shirley's is quite short, so I'll be tucking into this next

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf

Good Halloween reading for arachnophobes, creepy as fuck.

Started this today, excellent so far. They've just double-crossed the devil so the spiders can't be far behind.

 

[Jim Daniels]

Shirley's is quite short, so I'll be tucking into this next

That Evie Wyld was great - very tense, uneasy reading, beautifully written. Alternate chapters too, which is a style I really like.

 

[Cornu Ammonis]

Getting this read before the film comes out:

 

[David Kronenbourg]

I finished The Winter of Frankie Machine yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Just started The Power of the Dog which I like so far. Probably take me ages to finish because my reading has been really bad recently.

Also got two new volumes of Thomas Ligotti short stories, which I’m looking forward to getting stuck into.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

Next: Redcliffe by David Storey
...
It sounds like I should have read The Idiot first.

Radcliffe by David Storey

Weird fucking book, and not in a good way. Weird people being weird and/or horrible at each other for no apparent reason e.g. saying bizarre shit, shitting in sandwiches, unpleasant sexual encounters, people carrying hammers around with them. All written in a really awkward style.

The Immoralist by Andre Gide
This was much better.

 

[David Kronenbourg]

Radcliffe by David Storey
View attachment 10977
Weird fucking book, and not in a good way. Weird people being weird and/or horrible at each other for no apparent reason e.g. saying bizarre shit, shitting in sandwiches, unpleasant sexual encounters, people carrying hammers around with them. All written in a really awkward style.

Ha that sounds great

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

The cover is the best thing about it

 

[Jim Daniels]

The new Kevin Barry novel is fantastic. Highly entertaining so far - pretty much all dialogue too.