Read Women discussion

Okay, I'm not starting with People in the Room though I'll get to it soon. First will be Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend, which I admit I've already started.

Then:
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (France)
Blue Self-Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre (France)

Oh my. Finished Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend and immediately had to start the second in her series ~ So good! ...So now reading The Story of a New Name #2 of Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. Her writing is so so good and the translation is truly terrific. I just wish the covers weren't so quaint.

Sara wrote: "Oh my. Finished Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend and immediately had to start the second in her series ~ So good! ...So now reading The Story of a New Name #2 of Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. Her wri..."

Wow, you’re off to a great start for 2020! I admit, the covers are a turn-off for me, too, lol.

Sara wrote: "Oh my. Finished Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend and immediately had to start the second in her series ~ So good! ...So now reading The Story of a New Name #2 of Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. Her wri..."

I had just the same reaction when I read it. Immediately had to get the 2nd (and then the 3rd & 4th.) So great to see you enjoying it just as much. But yes...those covers.

Just finished Blue Self-Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre (France). This was a tough one ~ a short book, novella length, but written in a stream-of-consciousness style that the structure-loving portion of my brain found too effective at times as my mind wandered entirely off the page and into it's own dream state. I'm not sure if that means that the writing was really powerful or something else. Anyway, not for the faint of heart, but an interesting experience for those who are up for an unconventional writing format of sentences that often go on for more than a page and paragraphs that prevail page-turn after page-turn. If nothing else it made me realize how much I love, and rely on, punctuation and grammatical structure.

Sara wrote: "Just finished Blue Self-Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre (France). This was a tough one ~ a short book, novella length, but written in a stream-of-consciousness style that the structure-loving portion of..."

Blue Self-Portrait is on my list for this challenge. Did your mind wander as a result of something you read, leading you into thoughts about that (which would be a positive thing as it is thought provoking reading)? Or do you think your mind wandered because the story wasn't holding your attention? I haven't loved anything that I've read in this challenge so far. I am starting to wonder if my criteria for choosing the works was off.

I think my mind found the pattern or rhythm of the stream-of-consciousness delivery so familiar that, independent of the content, it was like, “I know how to do this...” and went and imitated, doing its own thing. I realize this sounds a bit nutty, talking about my mind in third person, but it was an interesting experience. I wouldn’t recommend reading this book for the story, as there isn’t really one. But if you are looking for a very different reading experience, give it a try. But don’t be fooled by its short length, it may take some time to get through. It turns out that following another person’s internal thoughts isn’t nearly as easy as formulating one’s own.

Finally finished Elena Ferrante's The Story of a New Name . Though I still understand why the world likes these books so much, I have to admit that the who's-sleeping-with-who melodrama of this longer "chapter" in the series really lost my interest. But I did find the ending very satisfying; and a good place for me to stop with Ferrante's stories, at least for a while.

As I was shelving books while volunteering at my local library, I came across They Were Coming for Him by Berta Vías Mahou. Noting that it was a WiT book, and that it had something to do with Albert Camus, but knowing nothing about the author I thought I'd take a gamble and give it a try. It was really interesting. Very dense at times, and definitely not a "light" read, I felt well stretched, but in a good way. The translation, and no doubt the original writing, was excellent. One that I look forward to re-reading again soon, just to absorb more of what I'm sure I missed the first time around.

On to
It's been a really long time since I read any Virginia Woolf, but reading Norah Lange's People in the Room I kept thinking it was similar, in all the best ways. By the end I was so fascinated and mesmerized I finished it and immediately flipped back to the beginning to read it again.

Okay, I'm not so good at chronicling my WiT books here, but I did read People in the Room through a second time , and enjoyed it immensely, and promptly put it on my "books-to-return-to" shelf.

I then moved on to The Factory and loved it;

Trysting and loved it;

and Out which I adored!! It was so incredibly suspenseful. Really violent, but really excellent. See my comments if you're interested.

And then I read August which was middling at best. Eh, you can't win them all.

Now I'm reading:
The Man Who Couldn't Die: The Tale of an Authentic Human Being
Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems
and
Our Lady of the Nile

I'll let you know the results... someday.

Finished Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems and enjoyed the English translations quite a bit. I don't read Spanish, so I feel unqualified to rave too much, but there is a graceful weight to the English versions that I liked.

Finally gave up on The Man Who Couldn't Die: The Tale of an Authentic Human Being
I really wanted to like it, really liked the cover and generally enjoy Russian authors, but this one I just couldn't get into. I am suspicious about the quality of the translation as I kept getting tangled in clumsy sentence structure and/or kept falling asleep. Can't win 'em all.

I finished reading Our Lady of the Nile. As literature, it's not outstanding (I gave it 3 stars), but as a window into a few women's lives in a totally different part of the world than my own, it succeeded entirely. And after all, the goal of this WiT challenge for me is to virtually "travel" and get to know some women who I don't encounter in my tiny life. Glad I read it.

I completed this one... not sure I can recommend it. I gave it three stars. I really don't know how I feel about it. It seems very Russian to me, but not "classic" Russian. I guess that's more what I'm accustomed to. It takes place in the late 1960s and early 70s. It felt very 70s to me. With this crazy unreliable narrator that mostly one doesn't like, and all the family members that you just feel sorry for surrounding her. Multiple husbands, two children, and others. And the repeated closing sentence of chapter after chapter: "But that's not my point."
It makes me wonder if that sentence is a direct translation or if there could have been another way to say it. I'll probably never know. We really do put ourselves in the hands of the translator every time we read Women in Translation.

Really enjoyed Tomoka Shibasaki's , though I don't really have any words to describe it. Several times my attention was drawn to similarities in the writing style to the other Japanese writers I've read during this WiT adventure, and I am definitely starting to sense a similar flavour -- at least in the Japanese WiT titles that I've selected thus far. This is a great way to travel and experience people I'll never cross paths with in real life. Nice!

Sara wrote: "On to
It's been a really long time since I read any Virginia Woolf, but reading Norah Lange's People in the Room I kept thinkin..."
This sounds very interesting. I added it. It looks like you're really experiencing a lot of different voices from around the world with this challenge!

Sara wrote: "Really enjoyed Tomoka Shibasaki's , though I don't really have any words to describe it. Several times my attention was drawn to similarities in the writing style ..."

This does look look strange, I'm going to give this one a try, thanks for the recommendation. I know what you mean about the writing style. I've only read a few Japanese novels but I've also read many samples recently (before deciding whether to add to my library list) and there does seem to be a distinct 'flavour'! And it's one that I seem to be drawn to at the minute

Looks like you have had some good reads so far!

Hannah wrote: "Sara wrote: "Really enjoyed Tomoka Shibasaki's , though I don't really have any words to describe it. Several times my attention was drawn to similarities in the w..."

I hope you enjoy it. I basically read it in two sittings--very fast for me. There are no chapters, though there are some natural pauses so one need not feel pressured to keep reading. I just found the style and story very propelling in spite of the fact that there's really no action or suspense. Architecture and one's sense of place are major themes and are both topics that appeal to me immensely.

Anita wrote: "Sara wrote: "On to
It's been a really long time since I read any Virginia Woolf, but reading Norah Lange's People in the Room I..."

Yes ~ Mission accomplished, even if I give up now (which I have no intention of doing). If you're the one who came up with this challenge, kudos! and thanks. I know that spending a year deliberately and consciously reading more women-in-translation will likely have the added advantage of changing my reading consumption for life. It's definitely making me feel more connected to women around the world during this strange year of extended quarantine, adding to my experience of "we're all in this together"-ness.

That credit goes to our resident book fairy godmother, Carol. She has been a real treasure trove of reading ideas, challenges, lists, prompts... everything. We tried a WiT challenge as a quarterly challenge last year (the quarterly challenges are another of her many gifts to us) and she saw the group's response as a clear indicator that we needed to rotate it in as a yearlong challenge. I agree, reading habits have changed for life thanks to this group specifically :)

And thank you for sharing your books and adding to our reading pleasure as well

I've fallen quite far behind on my WiT reading goal, but I have finally finished one of the first books that made it to my WiT list for this challenge:

Five stars.
Really wonderful, like much great art, it weaves in and out, building slowly through lovely detail, sometimes abstract, catching curiosity, and then eventually crescendos with a marvelous, thunderous, outpouring of meaning and emotion. Stunning. Highly recommended.

Mirror, Shoulder, Signal
Okay. This one took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get into. I started and restarted it 3 or 4 times, and then I had to force myself to finally sit down and just keep reading because I was at the end of the number times I could renew it from my public library (serious eye-roll). I was more than half-way through before I felt like something, anything, had actually started to happen. Throughout the first half I wondered at the author's choice to repeatedly describe in detail the main character's need to pee. (??) But, yes, the last half did read much smoother, though somehow messier, than the first half. However, no, I can't say anything actually happened until literally the last two pages. Decidedly not worth the wait.

Another reviewer here on Goodreads notes that Nors says (in her own words) she likes to "write books about middle-aged, childless women on the brink of disappearing--or you could say--on the brink of losing their license to live. If a woman has kids, she will always be a mother, but a woman who has chosen not to procreate and who now no longer is young and sexy is perceived by many as a pointless being." This book makes me wonder if she's ever sat down and actually met, actually listened to any middle-aged, childless women, actually asked any about their lives. Is this Nors experience of womanhood? I'm not sure what the aspects of womanhood that she finds appealing/interesting to examine in her novel say about her. I am also a middle-aged, woman who has long chosen to embrace a single life and focus my creative energies on something other than human procreation. I found Nors portrayal of her main character cliched, ridiculously self-absorbed, annoying, and even somewhat insulting. It's a shame that she didn't choose to use her clearly capable writing ability to celebrate a three-dimensional woman rather than focus on regurgitating some seriously patriarchal clap-trap about the inevitability of the loneliness of spinsterhood. My rating: 2-stars

Sara wrote: "
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal
Okay. This one took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get into. I started and restarted it 3 or 4 times, and then I had to f..."

Uff! One to skip. Thanks for the honest review, Sara.

I really liked Mirror, Shoulder, Signal and found it both moving and humorous.

Story wrote: "I really liked Mirror, Shoulder, Signal and found it both moving and humorous."

I'm so glad it was enjoyable for someone out there. I love the design of all her books so was disappointed when she didn't click with me. Alas ~ not all books are for all people. That's one of the things that makes me love reading, and love the magic when a book really speaks to me.

I've just started Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, have read only one chapter and am already blown away by how breathtaking the writing is! Wow! Can't wait to see where this adventure takes me.

I felt similarly Sara, really loved that one!

Sara wrote: "I've just started Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, have read only one chapter and am already blown away by how breathtaking the writing is! Wow! Can't wait to see where t..."

I felt the same way. I love stories about feisty old ladies.
I also loved Flights by the same author. She has such a wide range in her writing.

Drive Your Plow Over is one of my favourite books from this past year. I hope you love the rest of it Sara.

Sara wrote: "I'm so glad it was enjoyable for someone out there. I love the design of all her books so was disappointed when she didn't click with me. Alas ~ not all books are for all people. That's one of the things that makes me love reading, and love the magic when a book really speaks to me.

It is magic when that happens, and I can see that had I read Mirror, Shoulder, Signal at a different time or even in a different mood, I might have been annoyed by it.

I read Nors' So Much for That Winter and really liked it then tried to re-read a section a year or so later and wondered why on earth I'd liked it.

So definitely, we need the right book at the right time for the magic to happen :)

Okay, it's been a while. I did finish and thoroughly loved Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. It has instantly made it's way onto my "favorites" shelf and I'm looking forward to reading everything Olga Tokarczuk produces.

Then I tried and got very bogged down in A Kitchen in the Corner of the House by Ambai. I struggled and struggled with the stories in this volume and am finally giving up after about 1/3 of the book. I enjoyed one story, but the rest I found very difficult to understand due to the amount of vocabulary that was not translated into an English word that I knew. I found that too many of the non-English words were not explained or defined for me and left me confused as to their significance and meaning. This was a very sad experience for me, especially as I look to translated works to help me experience and understand cultures outside my own. This translation just didn't quite reach far enough back over the linguistic divide.

However, though behind in my reading goal, I'm not giving up. I'll try Brenda Lozano's Loop next.

Sara wrote: "Okay, it's been a while. I did finish and thoroughly loved Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. It has instant..."

Sara, I loved that novel. I also really enjoyed her Flights, which is nothing like Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead but equally fantastic. She became one of my favorite authors this year. Very talented with a very wide range.

Tamara wrote: "Sara wrote: "Okay, it's been a while. I did finish and thoroughly loved Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I..."

Me too! Me too! I can't wait for The Books of Jacob to come out next year.

Sara wrote: "Okay, it's been a while. I did finish and thoroughly loved Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. It has instant..."

And me! Loved plow and couldn't get through a kitchen. Well done for sticking it out Sara, I wanted to love it but I did not

Wow! So glad we've all discovered the jewel that is Olga Tokarczuk! May she live long and be fruitful ~

This was a fun challenge, in spite of the fact that I aimed way too high and didn't reach my personal "challenge number". Thanks to the moderators for hosting and all for the conversations. I'm especially appreciative of y'all for the idea of encouraging us to deliberately read more books by Women in Translation. A habit I will continue into the future. Cheers & happy New Year all ~