Reading the 20th Century discussion

New year, new discussion thread for 2023


So, what are you reading now?

I finished Tillie Walden's short graphic novel A City Inside which works really well as a piece for a new year to come.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished the final Ripley novel - blissful!

www.goodreads.com/review/show/2982140118

Also Rachel Kushner's first novel, Telex from Cuba which is strangely dry, given that her next two books were both 5-stars for me:

www.goodreads.com/review/show/5175625346

My last two books of 2022!

My last book for 2022 is Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. It is loosely based on events that occurred in the American South in the early 1970s.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I have begun reading the German classic Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin.

I finished Pollak's Arm this afternoon. It was moving to read a fictional account of the real Ludwig Pollak recall his life spent in the study and preservation of art, the best that humankind is capable of producing, to a man sent from the Vatican to bring Pollak and his family to safety, knowing the SS is coming the next day to round up all the Jews in Rome for transport to concentration camps-the absolute worst of which man is capable.

I’m starting The Pachinko Parlor now.

I finished rereading Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes one of the books I was obsessed with as a child, although then I had visions of a glorious future on the stage! It was still fascinating albeit for different reasons including the wonderful queer subtext.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I was hoping to finish The Mitford Murders today, but no such luck. Also reading The Easter Rebellion by Max Caulfield.

Alwynne wrote: "I finished rereading Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes one of the books I was obsessed with as a child, although then I had visions of a glorious future on the stage!"

Ooh, Ballet Shoes! I loved that too and know I have a battered copy somewhere, shelved next to The Owl Service, I recall in my mind. Must search it out.

I'm starting Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution now that it's been endorsed by Alwynne - fun so far!

Roman Clodia wrote: "Alwynne wrote: "I finished rereading Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes one of the books I was obsessed with as a child, although then I had visions of a glorious future on the stage!"
..."

That's weird, mine is next door to The Wizard of Brisingamen!
Hope Babel's turns out to be one of the books we agree about! But think even if it annoys you - and there are a number of annoying elements - there's plenty to chew on.

Haha!

Babel is perfect holiday reading, I'm racing through it. Love the Dickensian allusions and all the linguistics stuff, and while it's a wee bit YA about race and imperialism, it's stuff we can get behind so I'm not minding.

I just listened to the Babel preview on Audible. It does sound like a fun read. I wonder how much local knowledge & events it requires. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to distinguish the real people and places from the fantasy. :-)

I just finished Quartet in Autumn and The Cemetery in Barnes. Liked both books for different reasons. My guess is I would benefit from a second reading of Cemetery.

I'm not sure what I will read next, but will check out the Buddy reads.

Debra wrote: "I just listened to the Babel preview on Audible. It does sound like a fun read. I wonder how much local knowledge & events it requires."

It *is* fun, Debra, but built on a solid intellectual foundation though I don't think readers necessarily need to know that - in fact, Kuang has done an excellent job of translating linguistic, rhetorical and postcolonialist theory into a hugely immersive book.

I think she's a great storyteller and has some lovely characters including a couple of snarky young women who have to dress up as men to survive male Oxford (shades of Woolf's A Room of One's Own). I can't stop reading it!

I loved The Cemetery in Barnes.

I finished Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution - first book of the year!

Huge fun but with a serious foundation but also doesn't take itself too seriously - thanks Alwynne!

www.goodreads.com/review/show/5200098502

Roman Clodia wrote: "I finished Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution - first book of the year!

Huge fun but with a serious foundation but also d..."

Brilliant, and great review. My first book of the year wasn't quite as satisfying, Inio Asano's manga Solanin

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

But my re-watch of all the Studio Ghibli movies is going swimmingly.

I started Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way by Caseen Gaines yesterday. This was published in 2021. On the Updates I saw that a friend was wanting to read When Broadway Was Black: The Triumphant Story of the All-Black Musical that Changed the World. Now, I'm trying to find the difference between the two. I think it is supposed to be published in February. They are both about the same musical from the 1920s by Sissel and Blake.

I've just finished Rosewater (2017), which is my real world book group's latest read. We're discussing it on Thursday.


Rosewater is set in Nigeria in the second half of the 21st Century. Tade Thompson convincingly evokes Nigerian culture and society and Rosewater is a really inventive, gritty and original slice of modern science fiction with an imaginative scenario peopled by characters who are convincingly flawed and confused. There are also clever and amusing allusions to colonialism and global politics.


Review here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


4/5




Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2019
Winner of the inaugural Nommo Award for Best Novel, Africa's first award for speculative fiction
Shortlisted for the Kitschie Award for Best Novel 2019
John W. Campbell Award finalist for Best Science Fiction Novel

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless - people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumoured healing powers

Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again - but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realisation about a horrifying future

Nigeyb wrote: "I've just finished Rosewater (2017), which is my real world book group's latest read. We're discussing it on Thursday."

Nice review. As I mentioned in the comments, "Wormwood" is an intriguing name for the trilogy based on the properties and uses of the herb.

Yes, good point Debra


Wormwood is the name given to an alien in the book

I have finished My Life and I: Confessions of an Unliberated Housewife, 1966-1980 by Betty Bendell which was a lot funnier than I had expected. It's a collection of columns that she wrote for various magazines from the 60's to the 80's. Interesting as a period peice too.

Nigeyb wrote: "Yes, good point Debra


Wormwood is the name given to an alien in the book"

I associate it with the Bible and The Screwtape Letters.

Of course - thanks Alwynne

Vermouth, and the Scrubs

My first book of the year is a five-star read! It's the German classic Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf by Alfred Döblin. It is in fact amazing. It is a grim tale. Read it to the end and see what you think. I recommend it.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The book I have begun now is an Italian classic. I like it. It's good. It's Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo.

I loved Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius. It's a short, clever, insightful book


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

5/5





In this joyous and illuminating book, the million-copy bestselling author brings together an unlikely pairing to explore the story of their creative genius

What could possibly connect Prince, the great twentieth century singer songwriter, and Charles Dickens, the great writer of classics usually stuffed into the hands of adolescents too early? What could these two geniuses, one born in 1812 in England, and the other in 1950s Minneapolis, have in common?

For Nick Hornby, Dickens and Prince are two artists that compare to no others. At the young age of 24, they both had their breakthroughs, Prince with '1999' and Dickens with The Pickwick Papers. At 26, Prince released 'Purple Rain' and Dickens' Oliver Twist was published, and, by 30, both artists were huge stars.

No one else had such a relentless work ethic and produced such a staggeringly original and enormous body of work. Where did their magic come from? How did they use it? And, in the end, did it kill them?

Tracing their lives, from the early years to their relationships with women, their finances to their inability to stop working, Dickens and Prince is a brilliantly surprising and joyous uncovering of the essence of a very particular and unique type of genius.

That's such a quirky and unexpected pairing!

Roman Clodia wrote:


"That's such a quirky and unexpected pairing!"

And yet it all makes perfect sense in the context of the book

I have just finished I'm Glad My Mom Died (heart breaking but really really good) and now reading The Offing.

I finished a recent reissue of Maxine Clair's acclaimed Rattlebone which falls somewhere between a collection of linked stories and an episodic novel set in a Black community in 1950s Kansas. An impressive, memorable piece of writing.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I reread Emily Carroll's gothic collection Through the Woods full of wonderful images and great use of colour.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I've completed Zeno's Conscience by the Italian classical author Italo Svevo.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Next up is the Cuban author Alejo Carpentier and his book The Kingdom of This World. Set in Haiti, it is a book of historical fiction about life under the violent and superstitious rule of the black King Henri-Christophe.

I forgot to plug in one of my devices yesterday and so picked up a different device (purchased at the 40-50% off sale) and started reading a historical pictorial book, Chicago in the Great Depression.

I finished a graphic novel from the Canadian duo Isabelle Arsenault and Fanny Britt Jane, the Fox & Me which revolves around an isolated girl who's bullied at school so buries herself in books and finds a companion in Jane Eyre. The storyline didn't quite convince but the artwork's marvellous and I really enjoyed the sections recreating scenes from Jane Eyre

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished The Kingdom of This World by the Cuban author Alejo Carpentier. It is both violent and chockful of magical realism. This typifies the time and culture under the rule of the black Haitian king Henri Christophe in the early 1800s, which is what this book of historical fiction is about. Sorry, that got longwinded.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Now I have begun another by Alfred Döblin because I was so impressed by his magnus opus Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf. This time I'm reading his nonfiction title Journey to Poland. It deals with both his Jewish background and his travels.

I finished a graphic novel by acclaimed manga author Jiro Taniguchi, A Journal Of My Father, an accomplished, moving exploration of a fractured relationship between a father and son in post-WW2 Japan.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I’m glad you liked Berlin Alexanderplatz, Chrissie. I wanted to, but I just couldn’t get into it. I love books about the European Jewish experience before the wars, between the wars, and after WW2. One of my favorites books is Everything is Illuminated, which is nothing like the movie. The movie took out everything that made the book so magical and moving to focus on the humor.

I’m reading the Urdu classic River of Fire, transcreated by the author. It was so slow going the first 100 pages I almost gave up. The novel spans the history of India from 350BC to 1958 so every page sent me to Google to look up historical rulers, religious leaders, wars, ancient cities that are now called something else. At about page 100 we jump to the British Raj and the story took off. Still a fair amount of Google checking, but I’m glad I stuck with it.

And I’m one week into the year long War and Peace read.

I highly recommend Reise in Polen by Alfred Döblin. If you have the slightest interest in Judaism, it is a must read.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Since this morning I have been reading To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield. It is nice and long, almost 700 pages and is a book that has a remarkable central protagonist. Just my cup of tea! At least that is what I am thinking now. Ii is set at the end of the First World War.

Chrissie wrote: "I highly recommend Reise in Polen by Alfred Döblin. If you have the slightest interest in Judaism, it is a must read.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

This group read To Serve Them All My Days a few years ago. Here are the discussion threads
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Jill, thank you very much!

I read another novel by Buchi Emecheta, this time her acclaimed novel The Joys of Motherhood which is set in Nigeria from the early 20th century through to WW2 and beyond. Moving and fascinating on issues facing women, she's excellent at exposing and exploring tensions and ambivalence, as she charts the life of a woman caught between her traditions and the world created by colonialism.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished The Mill House Murders but found it a bit of a slog. I loved the setting and the grisly flourishes but it's very much a puzzle piece and I prefer my crime to have more developed characters and social commentary.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished Ian Penman's book on Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors eccentric and messy but oddly compelling.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I have enjoyed sinking into another world, the world of To Serve Them All My Days written by R.F. Delderfield. It seems you've has this as a group read. It wasn't available to me then.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Now I have begun Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Curious to see what I will think!

I was a bit nervous about revisiting Bruno Schulz in a new translation but the stories were just as good as in the versions I first encountered. Nocturnal Apparitions: Essential Stories is part of an ongoing series from Pushkin Press showcasing the work of significant writers, next up is Gertrude Stein.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The comparisons to Knausgaard should have been a warning that I wouldn't entirely warm to Lydia Sandgren's award-winning debut Collected Works it works well as a kind of cultural history/lifestyle survey of a particular grouping in Swedish society and that I did find interesting. But as a novel I was less invested, it's extremely long and the plot and characters fairly minimally represented, essentially a variation on the middle-class relationships in crisis narrative. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished and highly recommend Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. I prefer it to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, for which it is kind of a retelling.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Now I need a nonfiction. I have picked up Back in the Day: A Memoir by Melvyn Bragg.

I finished Chicago in the Great Depression. A nice trip down memory lane - not that I was there in the Depression, but a pictorial of Chicago highlights.

Started Helene Hanff's Underfoot in Show Business - a memoir.

Tom Crewe's debut novel The New Life didn't really live up to my expectations. For a book featuring a lot of sex, and set in a period of history I find otherwise fascinating, it could be surprisingly dull and overly simplistic in its message.

Link to my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Currently reading She Knew She Was Right which is a collection of short stories, some of them autobiographical. Ivy Litvinov was born in London, but then moved to Moscow. She was married to Stalin's Foreign Minister. Read the first four which are connected, and so far enjoying them.