Untranslated Lit: El Aleph (The Aleph)

El Aleph (1949) is a collection of short stories by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. The stories are poetical, metaphysical, deep. My favourite ones are Deutsches Requiem, La Espera (The Wait) and El Aleph (The Aleph).

Contemporary Reads: Digging to America

Digging to America (2006) is the latest novel by American writer Anne Tyler. You can read many reviews on this novel by clicking here.

Modern Classics: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote is the masterful reconstrunction of a horrid mass murder that took place in Kansas in late 1959 when ex-convicts Perry Smith and Dick Hickock killed a whole family in their rural home.

Capote offeres us a study in depth of the crime, its effect on all those involved up to the criminals' execution. Exceptional.

Contemporary Reads: The Testament of Gideon Mack

The Testament of Gideon Mack (2006) is the latest novel by Scottish author James Robertson. It tells the unlikely story of atheist Church of Scotland minister Gideon Mack who after having fallen from a cliff-face and gone missing for three days claims to have been rescued and cared for by the Devil. When he confesses this publicly he is discredited and treated as a lunatic until his death soon after.

Another Scottish writer, Irvine Welsh has described this novel as a parable of the relationship organised religion, the supernatural and mental illness. It is indeed a wonderful novel that will have readers asking themselves many a deep question.

Untranslated Lit: La Prochaine Fois

La Prochaine Fois (2005) is the fourth novel by best-selling author Marc Levy. Serious critics in France often dismiss Levy's work as unliterary and easy to read. I am inclined to agree and if he wrote in English I probably would not read his novels. However, I would recommend it for advanced students of French such as myself who are trying to improve their reading skills.

The story is about enternal love and reincarnation set in an artistic milieu. The mystery of a long-lost painting by an obscure Russian artist is engaging enough.

Other books I have read by the same author: Et Si C'était Vrai and Où es-tu?

Modern Classics: Surfacing

Surfacing (1972) is Margaret Atwood's second published novel. A nameless young woman returns to the small Quebec island where she was raised to search for her missing father. With her comes along her boyfriend, Joe, and a married couple, Anna and David.
As the days pass, each characters' individuality is exposed. The protagonist begins to drift in and out of reality, remembering painful episodes of her past.
After her father is found dead (by drowing), she runs away from her friends and hides until they leave the island. She decides to stay there in communion with Nature.
This novel explores themes such as powerless of expression through language or the alienation of women (the protagonist/narrator has been married in the past and had a child whom she considers her husband's but not hers); and motifs such as the American expansion or Canadian national identity (the Québec setting is no accident).
This is a short but rich novel that has been hailed by critics as one of the major works in North American literature and probably one of the most canonical Canadian books.
Other books that I have read by the same author: Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride and The Blind Assassin.

Contemporary Reads: The Tenderness of Wolves

The Tenderness of Wolves (2007) is the first novel by Stef Penny. Set in Canada in 1867, much has been made of the fact that Penney has never been to North America. I do not think that is the problem with this novel. The setting is convincing enough. I just found the book a bit long for what it is and was not particularly fond of the style.

If you want to read a more positive review, please click here.

Contemporary Reads: Everyman

Everyman (2006) is the latest novel by Philip Roth. It is a book about death and physical decay or illness but it is not really sombre or pessimistic. What I admire about this book is the fact that this meditation on death does not resort to religion or philosophy. I am also completely puzzled as to how Roth has made it worked so well.
This is a great novel and I look forward to reading earlier works by this author.

Contemporary Reads: The Wasp Factory

The Wasp Factory (1984) was the controversial debut of Scottish writer Iain Banks. It is the story of sixteen-year-old Frank who lives on a Scottish island with his father, a retired scientist. His brother, Eric, has just escaped from a mental institution and is on the loose. Frank himself is a very unstable character, to say the least. He has killed three children and several animals.

At the end of the book Frank discovers that he is not a man. His father had told him that a dog had bitten off his penis when he was younger, but in truth, Frank is in fact female. His father had been using male hormones to disguise this as part of a sick experiment.

With graphic violence and a disturbing plot this novel received mixed reviews when it was first published in the UK. It has since been hailed as one of the must reads of the 1980s.

Contemporary Reads: In Between the Sheets

In Between the Sheets (1978) was the second book of short stories written by Ian McEwan. As its title suggests, the stories are largely about sex. They are shocking and at times uneasy. As can be expected, they are nowhere near the quality of his most mature works but still worth reading for his fans.

Modern Classics: Seize the Day

Seize the Day (1956) is a novel by Saul Bellow charting a day in the life of 44 year old Tommy Wilhelm. Wilhelm lives at a New York City hotel with his elderly fater, Dr Adler, after having separated from his wife following an affair he had. He has also recentently been laid off his sales job. Another guest at the hotel, Dr Tamkin - who claims to be a psychologist and a poet - convinces Wilhelm to enter a joint stock market venture that would result in Wilhelm losing his money.
Although the novel is about 1 day we learn much of Wilhelm's past: He once tried to make it as a screen actor in 1930's Hollywood. His "scout" Maurice Venice turned out to be a pimp. We also learn much about Dr Adler's relationship with a son he does not or perhaps cannot understand. Dr Adler is a hard working Jewish professor. He is stern and at times difficult and refuses to help Wilhelm.
While looking for Dr Tamkin, Wilhelm goins into a chapel where a funeral is taking place. The novel ends with Wilhelm crying at the stranger's funeral.

Contemporary Reads: On Chesil Beach

On Chesil Beach (2007) is Ian McEwan's latest novel. It is a short novel largely devoted to Edward and Florence's wedding night in the early 1960s. Through a series of analepsises (flashbacks) and the use of stream of consciousness, we soon understand the importance of that night for a couple of newlyweds who are only 22 y/o at that time. He, a recent history graduate from a rural background; she, a promising violinist from a typically academic and politically conservative Oxford environment.

Britain in the early 1960s was still a country pretty much sexually repressive were most youths would arrive to marriage being very naive about sex. McEwan takes us back to that time brilliantly. Even the likes of me who were born at a much later date very soon into the novel begin to understand what these two characters are going through that night.

Tragedy strikes when Edward comes too quickly and Florence - feeling guilty - runs off to the beach. What ensues is an argument in which she declares herself frigid and even suggests that they should have a sexless marriage. She even says that she would be happy for him to procure sex elsewhere. He finds the idea unbearable and that night they part for good.

On the last few pages we follow Edward's life as a singleton throughout the years and can even guess a certain regret at not having accepted Florence's offer.
Another doubtless triumph by Ian McEwan.
Other books I have read by the same author: The Cement Garden, The Child In Time, Enduring Love, Amsterdam, Saturday and Atonement.

Untranslated Lit: Où es-tu? (Where are you?)

Où es-tu? (2001) is the sencond novel by Marc Levy. It is the story about two young lovers, Philip and Susan who are separated when Susan decides to move to Honduras to carry out humanitarian work. Only meeting occasionally at Newark airport, the young couple gradually grows apart.

Eventually, Philip marries journalist Mary and has a child, Thomas. Meanwhile, Susan also has a child, Lisa. When Susan dies during a hurracane, Lisa comes to the States to live with Philip's family.

On Lisa's graduation date, Susan reappears. We learn that she did not die during the hurracane. She decided not to bring her daughter back to Honduras as she thought she would have a better chance of growing up with Philip and his family in America.

Other books I have read by the same author: Et si c'était vrai (Just Like Heaven).

Contemporary Reads: The Child In Time

The Child in Time (1987) is one of the early novels by Ian McEwan. It tells the story about how children's author Stephen and her wife, Julie, had her 3-year old daughter, Kate, kidnapped. How their marriage suffers and they only come to terms with it after their separation and Julie's new pregnancy.

We also learn about Stephen's parents' life in old age and as a young couple. And there is also the storyline about Stephen's first publisher, Charles, who later becomes a government minister and a favourite of the Prime Minister only to resign at the top of his game and retire to the countryside where he'll end up committing suicide.

This is a novel essentially about children and parenting but also a great reflection on Time and its passing.

I'm an inconditional of McEwan's and I am yet to read a book by him that would prove me wrong.

Other books I have read by the same author: The Cement Garden, Enduring Love, Amsterdam, Saturday and Atonement.

Plays: Doll's House

A Doll's House (1879) was Ibsen's first major success. It caused great scandal at the time due its ending: its protagonist Nora abandons her family after her husband discovers she had forged her dead father's signature to borrow money. She did it to finance a trip to Italy that would save her husband's life.

A realist play about women's role in Victorian society that shows Ibsen's concern with women's rights, or human rights in general.

Modern Classics: Tempest-Tost

Tempest-Tost (1951) was the first novel by Robertson Davies. It eventually also became the first in his Salterton Trilogy together with Leaven of Malice and A Mixture of Frailties. They are all set in the fictional town of Salterton in Ontario, Canada.

This novel is about an amateur theatre group which is trying to put together a summer production of Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Maths teacher Hector Mackilwraith falls in love with the young and beautiful Griselda Webster. When Hector is absent half way through the play and passes out backstage, everyone thinks he has tried to commit suicide.

This novel attempts to be comical without quite managing to do so successfully. However, I do look forward to reading later works by Davies, particularly The Dertford Trilogy written two decades later.

Plays: The Tempest

The Tempest (c 1610-1611) is one of the late romances written by William Shakespeare.

A shipwreck, magic, an island on the Mediterranean, spirits and assasination plots are all elements of this play with a happy ending here love and reconciliation are possible. Prospero with his magic controls the destinies of Miranda, Ferdinand, Ariel, Caliban, Alfonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Trinculo, Stephano and Boatswain. Thus, Prospero could be read as an autocratic playwright whose plotting and stage directions lead to a happily resolved endind.

"O brave new world, that has such people in't."

Other works I have read by the same author: Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III.

Modern Classics: White Noise

This is the second or third time I have read White Noise (1984) by Don Delillo. It is a dark, tremendously funny, novel about the greatest human fear: death.

Part campus novel, part thriller, part family drama, this is the story of academic Jack Gladney and his fourth wife Babette and all their children. Jack is the man who introduced Hitler Studies to North America. Both Jack and Babette are afraid of death although they try to keep it from each other. Babette has been secretly exchanging sex for a new experimental drug with Willie Mink. The name of the drug is Dylar and its purpose is to combat the fear of death. Once Jack finds out, after the whole family suvives an "airborne toxic event", he shoots him.

I have tried with other works by Delillo like Underground and Cosmopolis but have not been able to finish either. White Noise, however, is one of the modern American novels I have enjoyed the most.

Plays: Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler (1890) is a play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Its protagonist Hedda Tesman (née Gabler) is one of the most fascinating characters in literature I've ever come across. She is manipulative, intelligent, unpredictable, ambitious, dishonest and suicidal.

This play is one of the best ones I've ever read. There'll certainly be more Ibsen on this blog soon!

Contemporary Reads: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is the first novel by Khaled Hosseini. I found the book interesting as I thought it explained quite well the contemporary history of one of the countries that has featured more prominently in the news since 9/11, Afghanistan.

One day, Afghan emigré to the USA Amir receives a phone call from his father's best friend, Rahim Khan, in Pakistan. This event prompts him to remember his childhood in Kabul, his fleeing to America via Pakistan after the Soviet invasion, his settling in America, his marriage to fellow Afghan Soraya, and the death of his father Baba. The most interesting part of his account is his relationship with his Hazara servant Hassan. Hassan and Amir were brought up together and were best friends. They are both motherless and raised by their fathers. Their friendship is nuanced by their different social class and ethnicity. Hassan grows up illiterate whereas Amir will eventually become a published author in the USA. The two "friends" are split after Hassan is raped by Hitler-admirer Assef while Amir witnesses hiding and does not intervened. Hassan and his father Ali leave the house in shame. Baba never does find out why.

Amir learns from Rahim Khan that Hassan was his half-brother and that he had left an orphan in Taliban-ruled Kabul. He rescues the child, Sohrab, from the twisted Assef who surely enough had ended up joining the Taliban. Amir adopts his nephew and with Soraya all three become a family in San Francisco.

Half way through the book we get a glimpse of the Afghan emigrant experience in the USA, which I found quite enjoyable too. However, what I most enjoyed about the novel are the first chapters that depict Amir's and Hassan's childhood in pre-Soviet and pre-Taliban Afghanistan.

I did not care much for the last chapters and the "not-without-by-nephew" saga which I found too much soap opera like for my taste.