First up are two for review from new publisher Peirene ,they are stones in a landslide by Maria Barbel a modern classic from catalan it follows a life of a Conxa through her life and touches the spanish civil war and lost loves .The second is beside the sea a french novel by Veronique Olmi that follows a mother visit to the seaside with her two kids and what happens there .Now both these have got good reviews so far on different blogs going to have to work on something special for these ,many thanks to Meike and peirene for sending me these great to support a new publisher of translated books ,also believe Meike looking for other books that are short to be translated .
next are three great finds at my local Oxfam ,they are –
The engineer of human souls by Josef Skvorecky ,this is a thick book from the acclaimed czech writer it follows Danny an exile from a police state and follows some of Josef own story ,now this is going to one side for my 2011 challenge .
The sorrows of war by Bao NInh ,this novel tells the story of a north Vietnamese solider during the Vietnam war ,be interesting to see the other side of the coin in regards to the Vietnam war ,this also won the Independent foreign fiction prize .
One day of life Manlio Argueta ,now this is really exciting to me ,Argueta is a el Salvadoran writer this book was in the top ten latin american novels of 20th century by modern library ,it follows a day in the life of a pheasant farmer in El Salvador .
Now this is Andrew Kaufman’s Debut a short Novel just over a hundred pages ,it follows a flight from Toronto to Vancouver ,the main characters are Tom and his superhero wife ” the perfectionist” ,the problem is that tom’s wife is unable to see tom after being hypnotized by her ex another superhero by the name of Hypno so since they were married see hasn’t seen tom ,thing he has run off she has decide to move towns to make her life perfect again as she is the perfectionist ,during the flight we find out via flash back how the pair meet and ,all about the bizarre collection of superheros from true superheros to slight faults like the girl who is always falling or the chip with a chip on her shoulder .
But the chip on chip’s shoulder weighs so much that only her super-strength could remove it ,but she can’t use until she gets rid of the chip and she she can’t get rid of the chip without using her super strength .she appears no stronger than any regular .
Tom sets out to find out how to become visible again ,first off meeting another couple of people who are truly invisible the blue outcast that is paint blue so he can be seen ,but gets no help there all his superhero friends are no real help so this flight is the be all and end all of the marriage .It took an afternoon to read this book ,it’s a wonderfully quick read ,the writing is crisp and very ,very funny it is such a long time since i have laugh so much whilst reading a book ,Kaufmann has a quirky humour it reminded me of the early 90’s Canadian comedy series” kids in the hall .The question is what makes a superhero in this book is it special powers ? or are we all superheros and don’t know it and are just awaiting our superhero name ?
WINSTONS SCORE –
Well racoon seems best for this book ,crafty ,funny looking and very mischievous
I got this book via twitter from telegrams P.R also andrews new book “the waterproof bible ” thats due out next month
I VE TIMED THIS POST TO COME OUT JUST AS THE FIRST MATCH KICKS OFF THE WORLD CUP IS UNDER WAY ,
THE WRITERS –
There are a number of south african writers i ve read over the years but in thinking of this post i realised they were all white even thou most protested against apartheid at the time and lived in exile ,i want to discover a new voice from south africa so i did some research and came up with – firstly Yvette Christanse who escaped apartheid via Swaziland then australia now living in N.Y.C ,sibusiso Nyembezi his the rich man of Pietermaritzburg is consider a classic of Zulu fiction .some writers I ve read include Nadime Gordimer her books are fairly tough to read ,J M Coetzee the multiple booker winner is probably south african most well-known writer my favourite of his is life and times of Michael K ,Damon Galgut is a great new voice i discovered recently .I also have a novel from archipelago books by the well-known Afrikaners writer Breyten breytenbach .Any suggestions welcome
COETZEE
world cup memories –
I remember there being much fanfare when south africa being allowed back into world football as many people saw them as the first african team to win the world cup i do see them being one of three that may the other two being Ghana and Ivory Coast ,now memories of south africa at world cup ,is the really close came against spain in 2002 where they lost 3 -2 but pushed spain all the way in 2002 they scored a great win over Slovenia ,Lucas Radabe was a cult hero to Leeds fans leading to the Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs calling themselves after Lucas’s old south african club .
GOALKEEPER – CHARLES DICKENS ,the keeper on the whole is a giant and has generally a lot of experience and a pair of safe hands ,so my No1 is mr dickens are greatest novel writer a man of the people his books still ring as true today as the day they were written .so dickens is our David James .
RIGHT BACK – W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM ,now like keeper in england the right back tends to stick around in the team from Kenny Samson to Gary Neville ,so Maugham seems an ideal fit not a huge star but in a lot of ways he has huge influence ,he is books were beautifully written and his autobiography is one of the best guides to writing ever written by a successful writer .
CENTRE BACK 1-PATRICK HAMILTON ,now there are two types of centre backs the graceful and the bruiser ,now bruiser suits Hamilton he wrote about dark bars and rough nights in seedy london so he is our enforcer at the back .our terry butcher of writers
CENTRE BACK 2-H G WELLS , the godfather of modern sci-fi and a great storyteller he wrote books on a lot of subjects and has influence most sci-fi writers and george Orwell whois own name is an homage to H G so Wells is are graceful intelligent defend the writers Rio or ledley king .
LEFT BACK -PATRICK NEATE ,left backs tend to be fanciful and stylish ,so Patrick Neate seems a perfect fit a writer with playful stories and a real passion for the written word he started book slam who’s podcasts i listen to ,so our writing Ashley Cole is mr Neate .
RIGHT WINGER- WILL SELF ,now our last right-winger was Beckham so will self fits him perfectly a ambassador for the written word with real flair and a ability to keep in the public eye ,from Dorian to the book of dave Will always impresses with his clever word man ship just like Beckham .
DEfENSIVE MIDFIELDER – Agatha Christie the mistress of crime would be great as see had a wonderful eye for detail and ability to solve a case so like Barry or Hargreaves an ability to keep control of the game is essential with put showing off and that is just what Agatha did in her wonderful books spinning the story without being to showy
PLAYMAKER-J G BALLARD – now our lampard has to be Ballard he was the master of the spectacular stories from a interpretations of his Saigon childhood and war to environmentalism in drowned world ,consumerism and high-class living in super Cannes ,JG books where fast paced and wonderfully weaved and that is what a playmaker should do so Ballard is the writing Lampard .
LEFT WINGER – GEORGE ORWELL ,now who else could i pick the troubled england position by a writer that troubled minds with his forward thinking and ability to pass politics to everyman through his novels ,so our Arraon Lennon is Orwell a man who always wrote from the heart and this is what we hope Lennon does .
STRIKER -IAIN MCEWAN now he is our tall writer always dependable like McEwan his writing is spectacular but he is consistent he has wrote books that sell well for lit books his latest is his best in a while ,so the writing peter crouch is McEwan tall thin and always there .
SOLAR
STRIKER -WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE now our bard fits Rooney perfectly the plays he wrote still have great meaning ,they sum up england to a tee and ask any one name an english writer they ll say Shakespeare ask any football fan name an english player nowadays they’ll say Wayne Rooney our goal threat and one of the best players england has ever produced .
MANAGER -ITALO CALVINO ,like our current manager a master of tactics the italian writer Calvino wrote great plots and clever words play and in a number of different way just like Fabio Capello seems to be doing at the moment .
so there is my 11 hope it helps non football fans understand a bit there other halfs passion and maybe why people love the game so much ..
C’MON C’MON TEAM ENGLAND !!!!!!!!!!
THE MEMORIES –
loads but here we go in no order really ,Beckham scoring against Greece to help us qualify in 2006 a wonderful goal that set dreams alight ,linaker goals in Italia 90 ,Gazza tears at the same world cup ,Pearce missing then scoring penalties Keegan missing out an early memory ,Platt performances in 90 ,Beckham in 2006 like a man restored after the disgrace of being sent off .all back to new orders world in motion or three lions from baddle and skinner .
This was Puig’s last novel ,he wrote numerous novel prehaps his most famous was the kiss of the spider women which was also made into a highly acclaimed film ,he lived in exile in both italy and mexico ,he also worked as a screenwriter ,he had a close friendship with the translator of this book and most of his books Suzanne Jill Levine ,his works are currently being republished by dalkey archive in us ,the edition i read was the Faber version from the 1990’s
The book –
the book centres on to elderly sister in their eighties as they live in an apartment in Rio De Janeiro in exile from Argentina ,there is a colourful cast of characters surround them ,from a man fascinated with a teenage maid ,violence and the undercurrent of sexual tension then one sister gets an invitation from a son and goes away to visit and the rest of book is in the form of letters about their day to-day life ,.
Lucerne october 8 1987,
dear Nidia;
Here I am writing from devil’s hill .who would have thought it a week ago .The trip was good ,luckily i Insisted on travelling economy class ;it was empty in the back and a sweet varig stewardess gave me a row of five seats and I went to sleep as soon as they took the dinner tray away ………….
the first of the letters in the later stages of the book between the sisters .
My view –
Now this was a book of two halves for me the first which i really didn’t enjoy i found Puigs narration and dialogue a bit all over the place at times and found my self losing my way in the story .but the second half when the sisters visits family aboard and what happens was wonderful the letters are so well written and seem so realistic almost like the letters my own grandmother wrote that lost art of penmanship ,so if your willing to work through the hard first hundred pages the second half is wonderfully rewarding ,I ll read Puig again he has a certain talent for sexual tension and a challenging writing style .
score –
three toe sloth as it is strange and very slow but an amazing creature a bit like this book .
For last two days I ve had a real reading block for the first time in a while ,was trying to get through a short Saul Bellow novella but just couldn’t get in to it so put it to one-sided and tried I saw ramallah from my arabic reading challenge and that didn’t grab me ,so said on twitter was having problems and mar a good friend on twitter suggest ya only have one and that was the new Zafon tried 2 pages and was grabbed so spent afternoon looking for something eventually settle for either Bolano’s nazi literature in america or 84 charing cross road by Helen Haniff and decide on Bolano that has done the trick shot through 80 pages this evening no problem .now this is a question what does everyone else do when they ve readers block .
Now like australia it is really hard to name all the amazing writers from the U.S so i m, going to name some of my favourites here ,classic wise there are two that leap out to me Walden Henry David Thoreau ,his account of spend a year (well more actually ) in a log cabin by a lake ,this book is about the simple life being a good neighbour and caring for the natural world and probably one of my ten desert island books if i had to choose ten books ,as fresh today as when it was written. the other is twain not so much the finn and sawyer books thou they are great his innocent abroad is a wonderful glimpse at travel in the europe at 1860’s . Now slightly more up to date is Steinbeck ,no Fitzgerald is a good writer but in my opinion Steinbeck is the better writer and seems to have caught the depression era so wonderfully ,my favourite is cannery row a tale of down and outs struggling to get by ,but doing so .then there are the giants of post war literature mailer ,Updike and Roth i have enjoyed books by all these writers mailers naked and the dead is one of the best fictionalized accounts of ww2 ever written ,Updike rabbit series paints the post war years so well through one mans life-like him or loathe him or both rabbit is one of the best american characters ever written ,Roth’s plot against america is well wroth reading as a great alternate history ,now some other favourites writers and my favourite books include – Raymond Craver (elephant ), Paul Auster (mr vertigo ),Jonathan Letham (motherless Brooklyn ) .I like a lot more but these are ones i have really enjoyed .
the walden cabin
World cup memories –
I can’t start talking about usa in world cup without mentioning Alexi Lalas ,the long red-haired player from the 90’s ,he stared in the 1994 world cup ,a lot of the us players over the years have played in europe ,Cobi Jones from 1994 played for Coventry and numerous others ,i remember the game in france 1998 were America played Iran an amazing swapping of gifts and a good tempered game shows the power of football at its best bring these two polar opposite countries together for 90 minutes
Jeremy Simpson is a hugely successful businessman ,setting up the british base of Swiss based office furniture company ,he has also worked in the paper industry for a finnish company ,and achieved an honour from finnish Government the order of finnish lion ,similar to our honour system in uk ,it was an honour for someone not from Finland to be awarded it .
The book –
We join the books two main characters Nicholas and Charlotte on valentines day when they both receive an invite to an up market swiss hotel in Zürich by a group calling them the knights of the temple of Solomon to attend a symposium,there both intrigued and are joined on the trip by theo the three of them all been involved in academic research involving or connected to knight Templar folklore or history ,in Zürich they meet the leader of the modern knight Templar a dark foreboding figure the grand master ,Nicholas then meets a fellow Brit who appears to be a friend of the Templars but is really a british intelligence officer ,that recruits them to help expose the Templars ,as the story unfolds they find a shocking plot they have to run to pass on the information whilst avoiding the clutches of the Templars at every turn .in a tale where nobody appears to be how they first seem .
they were immediately engulfed by a welcoming committee of the Templars ,men women dressed in mock silver mesh material ,over which they wore white tabards with large red Templar crosses emblazoned on the front and back .they gave their names and were immediately assigned rooms and their luggage whisked away ………….
the arrival in Zürich to the Templar symposium .
My view –
When Quartet first ask if I was interested in this I must admit it didn’t jump out but ,i had a think and tour the site set up for the book by Quartet and thought I d give it a whirl my main concern was the Dan Brown mention as i reads ten pages of one of his books and tossed it away for being poorly written and slightly OTT,well what a surprise this was it was wonderfully paced and read in a couple of days you can tell the writer has visited the places mention and in the style mentioned ,he also has an interest in Templar folklore and how it is interpreted in the modern-day ,the book is fairly believable with well round characters if the dan brown readers want to read a better paced and more realistic book they can’t go far wrong with this ,I found it a refreshing change myself .now for the score .
the score –
Badger
Badger –they look a bit like they’ve a knights tabard on ,come out a night so reflect some of the darkness in this story but are also are solid and robust like the story itself .
a quick round up of some books this week at winstons towers –
for arabic challenge
Cities of salt Abdelrahman Munif ,the Jordanian’s book is part of my arabic reading challenge and is highly contervisal in the arab world it follows the growth of the oil industry in the arab peninsular and the effect of this on the villagers of the area ,banned in a number of countries i m looking forward to this book i love stories of change .
For bread alone by Mohamed Choukri follows Mohamed’s struggle for survival ,the family travel to Tangiers for a better life along the way 8 of his siblings die of neglect and malnutrition ,this book is consider a true classic and is translated by Paul Bowles best known for his novel sheltering sky also set in north africa .
for amy's challenge
Burma boy by Biyi Bandele this is a book for amy reads Nigeria month ,the book follows a 14 Burmese boy during the second world war fighting the japanese ,Biyi Bandele grew up in the north of Nigeria and his father fought in second world war in Burma and inspired this story .
new from telegram
three sisters by bi feiyu ,the book follows three sister and there different approaches to the changes in china post Mao ,Feiyu is a highly respect writer having won the chinese booker (lu xun ) ,the book comes out in July from telegram books .
Now there are loads of australian writers available in england to many to list so i m highlighting some of my favourites and some i m going to read in next twelve months ,I ll start with what many consider the original australian classic and a book i start reading on my e reader but have decide to actually buy a copy of ,its Marcus Clarks -for the term of his natural life ,the account of richard Devine a man from a well to do family that ends up being transported to Tasmania ,the account is partially based on real accounts of the time ,this book is very powerful ,the next is Patrick White and his book the solid mandala a tale of two brother that are polar opposites personality wise and is told in different chapter by each brother a truly wonderful book by a somewhat overlooked writer ,tim Winton is a writer who’s books i have so enjoyed in the last few year ,breath a story of surfing and growing up was wonderful ,his masterpiece cloud street i have yet to read but always need a rainy day book .David Mahlouf is another writer that writers beautiful books ,Peter Carey I ve read most of Peters books my favourite is true history of Kelly gang ,Carey’s books have a wonderful way of mixing history and fiction ,they tell of high adventures at times and always different ,now I intend to read the slap soon Christopher Tsiolkas novel that follow events at a bar b q and an event that affects people at the bar b que ,Peter Careys new novel and nick caves second novel .
THE WORLD CUP –
Now australian football at world cup for many years was effected by their inclusion for many years in the Oceania qualifying group which lead to them playing the 5th place team in south american group which was a hard task and lend to australia missing a number of world cups .they have played in two world cups 1974 were they got knocked out first round and 2006 in germany where they got through qualifying to play in last 16 ,the best game for me was a 2-2 draw in the last group game against Croatia as a number of players on both teams could have played either country so it was a grudge match so to speak and end in a draw send Croatia home and australia to a very close game against eventual champions italy .
Paul Leppin was born in Prague in 1878 he started writing in 1900 and wrote for the next forty years ,he liked to shock the bourgeois with his mischievous songs poems and books .He was part of the Jung Prag (young Prague ) a collection of artists and writers from Prague ,that included Hugo Steiner ,Oskar Weiner and Raine Maria Rilke .Kafka described him as the bard of the painfully disappearing old Prague .he died during the second world war managing to survive as a jew living in occupied Czechoslovakia .till 1944
THE BOOK –
The book follows Blaugast a middling clerk ,with an unhealthy desire for the dark streets and brothels of Prague ,this leads to a slow downward spiral for Blaugast ,he hooks up with a young prostitute Wanda she moves in with him and they begin a strange uneven relationship that throughout the book gets stranger and stranger,there is flash backs to his earlier life where we find he has always had trouble with relationships and not the best childhood ,as the book progress Blaugast health and appearance are falling apart but as this happens his sexual appetite seems to increase .
With Wanda ,though it was different. the wishful thinking of his youth ,his body’s secrets ,seemed to find fulfillment in her.health and abundant energy were found in her store,the infallible defense of a simple creature who combats the rebellions of the flesh with casual ease.It wa the unbroken strength of a pheasant ancestry that could handle such foolhardiness ,arrogantly managing any complication .
the opening of chapter 5 Blaugast singing the virtues of Wanda .
My view –
This was Leppin’s last book was scheduled to be published in 1938 but never saw light of day to a in 1984 ,the english translation by twisted spoon with Cynthia A Klima at helm .the book shows the darker side of the beautiful city of Prague at the eve of world war two ,Blaugast is a weak man who succumbs to easily to temptation and become s drawn in to downhill ride to hell ,Leppin seems to also be saying something about the present situation he was in and maybe how easy it is for a person or country to drift into decline and succumb to the easy options .a gripping book from start to finish one of the best books i ve read set in the pre war era a perfect companion to Isherwood .
the score
a Prague rat
I choose a rat they come out at night, have a lot of sex and have come to simple decay and decline seemed perfect for this story .
First up are two for review from new publisher Peirene ,they are stones in a landslide by Maria Barbel a modern classic from catalan it follows a life of a Conxa through her life and touches the spanish civil war and lost loves .The second is beside the sea a french novel by Veronique Olmi that follows a mother visit to the seaside with her two kids and what happens there .Now both these have got good reviews so far on different blogs going to have to work on something special for these ,many thanks to Meike and peirene for sending me these great to support a new publisher of translated books ,also believe Meike looking for other books that are short to be translated .
