I don't normally post about every book I read, but this one deserves a mention.
I loved every single page of it, a magnificent achievement.
Bought this one a few weeks ago . It's sitting next to my bed just now .
Currently reading a couple of books side by side - one on the kindle , ' The Salt Path ' by Raynor Winn [ yep , another of my Mrs' Book Club selections ] and Jo Nesbo's ' The Knife ' in hardback .
Never realised he'd written another ' Harry Hole ' story so I added it to my collection the other day , three pounds and ten pence off of Ebay - bargain .
Mukasonga is a French-Rwandan writer who as a Tutsi had to flee her home country a few years before the 1994 genocide. 37 members of her family were among the half a million killed. While the horrors of that year lurk in the background, most of this book, set in 1979 in a school for privileged daughters of Rwanda's men of power, has a light and delicate tone.
Occasionally, the writing/translation seems to sacrifice authentic dialogue so that the author can explain local history and customs (one girl tells a fellow Rwandan, "I'm Veronica, but my real name is Mutumuriza, which means 'Don't Make Her Cry', as you know"), and some of the plot momentum is a bit hurried, but overall I thought this was an intelligent and thought-provoking book, in which the girls' world shows us a microcosm of the tensions that would soon tear apart the country.
Written by a 50-something pyhsicist and ex-punk rock-climber and consisting of 113 short chapters, Nocilla Dream mixes pre-existing factual scientific material with interlocking, connected-but-isolated characters and stories, and even imagined biographies and real world characters such as Borges and Che Guevara. The first part of a highly unusual and influential Spanish trilogy of what the author called post-poetry, and set in various liminal locations (a desert in Mexico, Singapore airport, a Spanish gas station etc),the fragmented stories reflect our globalised and online world, as each swings alone but together in the wind and comes to rest like the shoes strung up in the branches of a desert tree, which is the book's central image. References to Spanish punk bands and rock-climbing sit alongside dreamlike prose-poems that reminded me of Ballard. I loved it and have quickly ordered the other two parts.
Greatest Cockney Rip Off wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 11:53 am
Is he? Now that's something I didn't know. Must check that out. What they all went through in Spain and Holland was nothing short of horrific.
Done a bit more research,its actually Victoria Park cemetry,now called Meath Gardens,which is a short walk from Bethnal green tube.
I found out my Grand dad was in the 95th(or what they become),the Rifle brigade (prince consorts own) in ww1.
Was in the Finsbury rifles at first,but ended up in them.They became the RGJs,and are now the Rifles again.
Very interesting Regt.
For some strange reason I have an urge to read Malcolm X's autobiography. Anyone on here read it?
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I would recommend "Malcolm X: A Life of Re-Inevntion" by Manning Marable over the famous "Autobiography" which was told to Alex Haley and published after Malcolm's death.
Written by a 50-something pyhsicist and ex-punk rock-climber and consisting of 113 short chapters, Nocilla Dream mixes pre-existing factual scientific material with interlocking, connected-but-isolated characters and stories, and even imagined biographies and real world characters such as Borges and Che Guevara. The first part of a highly unusual and influential Spanish trilogy of what the author called post-poetry, and set in various liminal locations (a desert in Mexico, Singapore airport, a Spanish gas station etc),the fragmented stories reflect our globalised and online world, as each swings alone but together in the wind and comes to rest like the shoes strung up in the branches of a desert tree, which is the book's central image. References to Spanish punk bands and rock-climbing sit alongside dreamlike prose-poems that reminded me of Ballard. I loved it and have quickly ordered the other two parts.
Agustin Fernandez Mallo ~ Nocilla Experience
Stylistically similar to 'Dream', this time the 112 short chapters consist of numerous cut-up and unresolved narratives mixed with NY Times articles, scientific theories, excerpts from interviews with the likes of PJ Harvey, Beck and a repeated quote from Apocalypse Now. This time the motifs of deserts, trees and isolation are replaced by rooftops, the steppes of Armenia and radio broadcasts. Where Borges loomed large over Dream, the ghost of experimental Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar literally haunts Experience.
These books won't be for everyone but I find them fascinating, and will probably reread them once I get through the last part of the trilogy.
I won't bang on about it any more, but I've now finished all 3 parts of the trilogy and I don't know how I didn't read this sooner. Absolutely wonderful and essential for anyone interested in experimental 'fiction'.
The Old Man of Storr wrote: ↑Fri May 28, 2021 12:23 pm
First time with a Kindle - while it's Ok it could never replace the physical book format for me -
Biggest problem for me is I'm not going to be aware when the last page is going to arrive .
I'm fairly sure that there is a setting you can access, that tells you in percentage terms how far you've gone through the book.
It was certainly a feature of the one I had (which has lapsed into disuse, I must confess).
"War in the West: Germany Ascendant." James Holland.
I really like Holland on TV. He's informative, knowledgeable, personable and looks at the 2nd WW through different eyes. His book however is a disappointment. He keeps on throwing in individual experiences from different combatants and then drops them like a hot potatoes. I keep waiting for them to come back - and they don't. At least TOMOS gets a mention
and whilst he compares apples with apples - the RAF with the Luftwaffe for example - he keeps on banging on about luck and how lucky/unlucky both sides were at certain junctures. It meanders all over the shop and it's very hard to keep track. One min there's the Norway campaign and what happened in Scandinavia, then its off the France and the Netherlands, then the naval war at sea.
I really want to like this book. I'm 300 pages in and feel like it is a real struggle.
prophet:marginal wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:57 pm
I'm fairly sure that there is a setting you can access, that tells you in percentage terms how far you've gone through the book.
It was certainly a feature of the one I had (which has lapsed into disuse, I must confess).
Yeah , I posted that when the Kindle format was completely new to me - Jen stuck a few books on it for me so I read a few - still don't know how to return to the beginning of a book .
Not actually bought a book for my Kindle as of yet , I probably never will [ but never say never ] - I don't think they're good value for what you get , obviously some of them are free - however , I love the feel and sense of ownership of a real book . The Kindle still has its place I guess .
Anyway - finished ' Knife ' in around 4 days , one of those ' easy to read ' books which I like to indulge myself in from time to time .
I have three James Kelman novels in my collection , never read any of them , so this morning I picked out ' Dirt Road ' for my next read .
The Old Man of Storr wrote: ↑Thu Jul 22, 2021 9:06 am
I have three James Kelman novels in my collection , never read any of them , so this morning I picked out ' Dirt Road ' for my next read .
I read this on holiday in the Canaries. It's quite unusual for Kelman, being set in the States rather than around the pubs, bookies and tenements of Glasgow, but I liked it a lot. I shall say no more.
Yeah , I posted that when the Kindle format was completely new to me - Jen stuck a few books on it for me so I read a few - still don't know how to return to the beginning of a book .
Not actually bought a book for my Kindle as of yet , I probably never will [ but never say never ] - I don't think they're good value for what you get , obviously some of them are free - however , I love the feel and sense of ownership of a real book . The Kindle still has its place I guess .
Anyway - finished ' Knife ' in around 4 days , one of those ' easy to read ' books which I like to indulge myself in from time to time .
I have three James Kelman novels in my collection , never read any of them , so this morning I picked out ' Dirt Road ' for my next read .
Go to home page. the book you are reading will be at the top of the list.
Right click, you will receive a dropdown menu.
Downclick until you get to start from the beginning then hit the centre.
Based on the early adult life of Friedrich von Hardenberg (later to become famous as the German poet and philosopher, Novalis), this is a skillful and evocative historical novel made up of 50-odd short chapters, and written in precise intelligent prose, sometimes funny and often poetic. Not that much happens (but when it does the impact is felt) though the small details of late 18th century life for a lower rung aristocratic family are vividly shown. I found it slow going at first but reading the last two-thirds over this weekend I got much more into it. It seems Fitzgerald is a highly respected writer who I've overlooked completely, so I will definitely be reading more of her novels.