Stefan’s Comments (group member since Jul 03, 2010)

Stefan’s comments from the And Other Stories Lithuanian-Language Reading Group group.

Hi,
Leslie (reading@) is away this week, so I'll jump in with some news:

The Lithuanian Embassy in London has kindly come up with a rather fascinating book to give away to the contributor of the most interesting comment in this reading group since 10 August (when Jan received Venclova's poems for his comment on Paulina Pukyte). And Other Stories will pick a winner around the 15 September.

The book is "Vilnius: City of Strangers" by Laimonas Briedas. I hope this whets your appetite (from the publisher's website):

Obviously, using personal voices to bring history to life is nothing new – but what is accomplished here is something very unique, and very specific to the story of Vilnius. Emerging from the cumulative narrations of all those who came and reflected upon it is the staggering drama of how utterly, radically and consistently Vilnius has been a city of change. Borders, languages, religions, tolerances, intolerances, nationalities, names, alliances, essential myths, ethnic make-up, position in Europe – all of these things swirl as if being churned in some cosmic blender.

http://www.baltoslankos.lt/index.php?...

Yes, Catherine, the short pieces in English in the pdf on her author page are all complete. Perhaps the brevity is the author's way of keeping us hungry for more?

Give-away:

A poem rests and dreams about itself,
and our task is to disturb these dreams,
to lead it out of them
- Tomas Venclova, transl E. Hinsey

A signed copy of Tomas Venclova's wonderful poems in English translation, 'The Junction' (publ. Bloodaxe), is being offered by the Lithuanian Embassy to the person who posts the most interesting comment / review (as selected by And Other Stories) by 10 August.
All our four Lithuanian authors can be read in English too on our site. Happy reading!

http://www.lithuanianembassy.co.uk/in...

Hi Jimmy,
Not yet, not as a one-author book! Which is why we wanted to include her in our reading group. Dalkey Archive Press have 'The Allure of the Text' in their Best of European Fiction 2010.

As she - and Paulina Pukyte - write short pieces, you can certainly get a good feel for her writing from the two pieces you can find translated on our website:
http://www.andotherstories.org/giedra...

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Hi,
I'm really happy Daiva Parulskiene introduced me to Paulina Pukyte's work.

I love the way one piece is a story, another is cultural commentary and yet another is a 'found' dialogue. Except of course that the boundaries aren't cut and dry.

I love the wicked humour and the serious thought in the pieces. I love being confronted with a mind that refuses to simply accept the mores and norms of the society she finds herself in, but can laugh at the absurdities she finds in Britain (where she lives) and elsewhere. The outsider's take on things is also about having grown up outside of the Western capitalist system, outside of a world of 24/7 advertising and so on.

I don't love the fact that I can't read all that much of her work. There are the pieces in Romas Kinka's translation that we have put up on her page on our website, and a few more pieces:
http://www.andotherstories.org/paulin...

What do you think?
I'm especially asking readers of Lithuanian - I'd love to hear your thoughts on her whole books! (And if you don't read Lithuanian, let us know what you think of the extracts.)