Lots of short fantasy fiction this month, perhaps everything in the first section except the May Sarton novel and Eugene O’Neill play, balanced by a complementary pair of Holocaust memoirs.
NOVELS, STORIES & A PLAY
Ocean of Story, Vol. 1 (11th cent.), Somadeva, tr. C. H. Tawney, ed. N. M. Penzer
(“Penzer is a maniac”)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (1927 / 1941), H. P. Lovecraft – the beginning of Lovecraft’s
comic masterpiece. Yes, also cosmic,
sure, why not, but mostly hilarious.
The English Teacher (1945), R. K. Narayan
1984 (1949),
George Orwell – decades ago I had not understood this novel as a response
to the Blitz. To totalitarianism,
obviously, but Orwell also wonders if London will ever really be rebuilt, if
rationing will ever end. It was a good
question.
The Palm-wine Drinkard (1952), Amos Tutuola – another lively folktale
pastiche novel, like the Brazilian one, Macunaima, I read last month.
A Shower of Summer Days (1952), May Sarton – Sarton has caught my attention
as a Maine writer, but that was her old age.
For some reason here, earlier, she wrote a quite good Irish country
house novel which is also, as my wife pointed out, a comic remake of Elective
Affinities.
Long Day's Journey into Night (1956), Eugene O'Neill – so much poetry quoted in
this play. When I last read it, let’s
say thirty-five years ago, what did I know about Swinburne or Dowson or
Baudelaire. Or anyone. I had heard of Shakespeare.
Elric of Meliboné (1972), Michael Moorcock – funny, but not as funny as
Lovecraft. Last read at least forty
years ago. A friend collected the
Lovecrafts and Moorcocks, while I assembled Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray
Mouser books. An education in the classics.
The Living End (1979), Stanley Elkin
Wakefulness (2007),
Jon Fosse
Olav's Dreams (2012),
Jon Fosse
Weariness (2014),
Jon Fosse – aka, the three novellas bundled together, Trilogy, or as it says at the top of every
odd-numbered page, Triology. The
Dalkey Archive blurb claims a “rich web of historical, cultural, and
theological allusions” which was utterly invisible to me. I especially enjoyed the oblique murder story,
or more correctly the obliqueness of the murder story.
You’re awful, the Girl says
You’re the worst guy in the whole of Bjørgvin, she says
No one’s worse than you, she says
No everything is awful, she says (p. 100)
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed (2017), Mariana Enriquez – highbrow horror from
Chile. It is always interesting to see
what is going on in the literature of the South American south, even if the
recently resurgent genre is not really for me.
It can’t scare me (see Lovecraft above) but it can still disgust me.
POETRY
Ovid's Heroines (25-16 BCE / 1991), Ovid / Daryl Hine
Ovid's Elegies (16 BCE / 1599 CE), Ovid / Christopher Marlowe
The Owl and the Nightingale (12-13 cent.), anonymous, tr. Simon Armitage
Collected Poems 1921-1951 (1952), Edwin Muir
I hope to write about the Ovid books soon. They are not at the level of Metamorphoses,
but what is.
MEMOIR
Smoke over Birkenau (1986), Liana Millu
Still Alive (1992/2001), Ruth Kluger – please see Dorian Stuber’s blog
for notes on both of these books.
IN FRENCH AND PORTUGUESE
La condition humaine (1933), André Malraux
Bacchus (1951),
Jean Cocteau
Rhinocéros (1959),
Eugène Ionesco
Still plugging away at Bom Dia!, my Portuguese
textbook.
Hm, I am not sure if I saw the connection between 1984 and the Blitz, either. That would be a good reason to re-read that book.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you enjoyed The Palm-wine Drinkard? I may read it for Nigeria as part of my Reading the World challenge. :)
I'm with your friend, I collected Moorcock. He was in holiday in Cornwall, the next county down from me, and was spurred to write his first book by the sight of St. Michael's Mount, a favourite trip for us. I'm still slowly reading Ovid's Metamorphoses, and having a whale of a time. I've even reread a few stories as I go, it's just so entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI went to Dorian Stuber's blog and have noted some books. You see my grandad was from a large family of Hasidic Jews, numberering 250 plus souls, yet at the end of the Holocaust the Polish Jews were all dead, and only my great gran, my grandad and two sisters, and a cousin in New York survived. At the moment I am reading "Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland" by C R Brown, an awful book of the ordinary men from Hamburg who became monsters. I will get to the books you read in time.
ReplyDeleteDidn't realise that you read Narayan's book. So what did you think? I read it last year or maybe the year before.
ReplyDeleteIs there a particular author that prompted your study of Portuguese? Or who you're particularly looking forward to? There are so many great and overlooked writers on both sides of the Atlantic (including Africa): Pessoa, Antunes, Andrande, Quieros, Lispector... or are you going the full Camoes?
ReplyDeleteMarian, my first clue was that the 1984 London was literally being bombed, by Eurasia, or is it Eastasia? And then I saw the food rationing and the cheap, quick apartment buildings and realized Orwell was wondering if or imagining that it would always be like this, permanently post-war.
ReplyDeleteMy only caveat about The Palm-wine Drinkard is that I can imagine some readers who hate the surrealness or randomness of the folktale structure, or miss "rounded" novelistic characters. But I enjoyed it for what it was, and it's a must for anyone pursuing Nigerian literature.
Clare, what a sad family story. Dorian has become a real specialist in Holocaust literature, frequently reading more works, so he is a superb guide. The two memoirs I read last month are notable for describing the experience of women in the labor camps. They complement One Hundred Saturdays which I read earlier this year.
I should try a history or two, like Ordinary Men, but at least with a memoir I know the writer survives.
Yes, Ovid has been wonderful. The Martin has been great, and the Golding, although sometimes too tangled, has had some marvelous poetry, too.
I'm going to try some of the memoirs for the very reason you mention. I'm finding Ordinary Men grim and heart-rending, the casual ordinariness is hard to take. I have several versions of the Metamorphoses, but am mainly reading an annotated version translated by Rolfe Humpries, but will reread several versions, including Martin, which I have and Goldring, which I have in ebook edition. I have decided that Metamorphoses is right up there with War and Peace, Jane Austen's novels and Middlemarch that is it is among my top five books. I want to read more Ovid too.
DeleteWonderful. The pinnacle of Roman literature.
DeleteI assumed the Humphries version was good. his Lucretius is outstanding.
It is. I must look for his Lucretius. Thanks for the suggestion.
DeleteI enjoyed The English Teacher and hope to read more Narayan, several more, even. But I do not have much to say about it.
ReplyDeleteJoseph, I can point you to this post for the history of why I am studying Portuguese, although the short answer is: no particular writer, or maybe Tom Zé, or maybe Pessoa, who I have in fact now read in Portuguese. I have even read Camões in Portuguese, but just a few passages in a poetry anthology.
Portuguese had to go when my time became filled with doctor's offices but I am working on rebuilding my Portuguese and hope to be reading it again soon. I doubt I will ever be up to Antunes or Lispector, but with enough time and study, maybe, maybe.