Month: August 2010

great new project

~ winstonsdad ~ 2 Comments

I received a e-mail from James Alsono the other day from the polyglot project a new venture initially with classic books where you can try to read in the original language and then use their tools to translate words you aren’t very sure of .This includes don Quixote ,which is how james found me now I know Richard is read along in spanish with us so this may help if you want to see how the orignal was written and help improve your spanish there is also works in german english and french to work on .

what makes a good translation

~ winstonsdad ~ 17 Comments

Now all morning I ve been wondering if I got it wrong after reading a review of King of Tulza that anz lit lover pingback to mine ,Now oddly enough when I look yesterday there was no reviews on non dutch blogs came up in first few google pages .But she had a totally different opinion on this book to myself ,which I considered one of the best books I ve read this year so far .Now Lisa of anz lit lovers refered to the translation as clunky ,where as my feeling was Paul Vincent had managed to retain a real dutch feel to the prose ok maybe the grammer isn’t great in places, but it is written as a view of a dutch officer should in  a high pressure situation and would we expect it to be perfect ,well I’d say no, but that is my humble opinion .Having spent many a day and night in Nijmegen where the writer is from at times it felt like I was in a bar on the waterfront on the Rhine with Arnold op de Haar ,so is it a feel of the original language or a totally grammatically correct version people want maybe I m wrong I know I often am but I just love when the translator is able to capture the original essence of the writers voice like Milce where I felt the creole tones of Haiti fall of the page .Felt I had to put why I felt the translation work for me forward to everyone .

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR ?

King of Tuzla by Arnold Jansen Op De Haar

~ winstonsdad ~ 3 Comments

Arnold is in his late forties and served as an officer in the Dutch army which took him to the former Yugoslavia during and after the wars there ,after he left the army he became a poet ,Journalist and novelist ,King of Tuzla is his second book and was published in 1999 in Netherlands ,but republished now by Holland Park Press a new publisher that publish the books both in dutch and english translation editions .THE king of Tuzla ,well when I first heard about this book I went to myself Tuzla? I know that name well after a few pages of Tijmen story the main character in the book a serving officer in the dutch army and he is based in Tuzla air base in Bosnia as part of the U.N peace keeping force ,I went yes ,it is amazing how quickly a name that was in the news nearly every day for a few years can have been forgotten by myself .Know those of you who reads my blog regularly will know I have an interest in this area of europe and in the people after spend time working with refugees in early nineties in a factory in Germany .Any way back to the book we join Tijmen on the base on patrol at what at the time the book is set just after the Balkan wars is a very fractured and tense country ,we get to view the day-to-day life of a peacekeeper ,What Arnold has wonderfully done is included little stories from the locals about their lives and the effect the wars have had on them . Tijmen struggles at times coping but manages to do so but is a changed man due to the experencies .The later parts of the book are told by Tijmen via diary entries looking back on his time as king of Tuzla

The house next to Galib’s place stood empty for a year .His former neighbour had fled to Germany .For thirty years Dragan had dropped by every evening after work ,and eaten with the family .Dragan was more than a neighbour ,he was a friend Dragan ,who played his harmonica for them Dragan with whom he went fishing in the river every saturday ,His household effects had been divided up among the villagers .

a neighbour lament his neighbour who left due to the war .

The book is a cracking read and I flew through it in a couple of days. Arnold is obviously written this book from the heart and at times feels like a memoir more than a novel the local characters that are written about as well as the troops seem based in part on real people that he obviously meet over his time as a peacekeeper .The translator on this book is Paul Vincent a well-known Dutch translator who has previously won the David Reid poetry translation prize for translating Hendrik Marsmans poems .Arnold also writes a weekly colunm for the holland park press that is worth reading . I look forward at some point to reading more book by Arnold

Elias Khoury in discussion

~ winstonsdad ~ 1 Comment

I read YALO for the arabic reading challenge I have found a clip of Elias discussion his other book white mask a book that cause a storm in Palestine at the time it was published in the mid 80’s

If you get a chance to read Khoury ,I would his books are powerful books about that Palestine experience and the human condition under pressure .archipelago and quercus publish some of his books

Don quixote week 4 a florentine interlude and a escape from moorish hands

~ winstonsdad ~ 10 Comments

Well I never ,the novel the tale of inappropriate curiosity  within a novel that start last week continued the Florentine tale that the Priest is reading as our hero slept in the bed in the inn ,is a tale of women love and honor in florence and is a wonderful piece of metafiction ,as it even seems written by a different hand than that of Cervantes ,I was well and truly enchanted with the story of Anselmo ,Camila ,Lothario and leenalo ,and was annoy when the don interrupted it ,he awakes slash a red wine skin and thinks it is the blood and head of huge giant he had been dreaming of engaging in battle ,but then we return and find that Camila has been found out and promise fidelity well for a time ,the priest strangely like this story of infidelity ,next there are som e arrivals at the inn where don sancho and the priest are held up and we enter in to another tale told by on of these new guest don Fernando and a lady and the captive Ruy who’s tale of escape from the moorish world we are being told his capture and attempts to escape the moors ,a tale of daring and the sea .

the two tales we end and start in this section show with out a doubt Cervantes talent and also his continuing influence on the modern written word ,the novel with in a novel is still being used as a tool in modern fiction in books such as kaviler and clay by Michael Chabon .

WHAT HAVE YOU ENJOYED ?

WHAT INFLUENCES ON MODERN FICTION DO YOU SEE ?

Tales from Dayrut by Mohamed Mustagab

~ winstonsdad ~ 5 Comments

Mohamed Mustagab grew up in Dayrut in the upper Nile region of Egypt ,he was involved in the construction industry before becoming a Journalist ,He Has a number of collections of short stories published in English he died in 2006 aged 68 ,he was also general director of the academy of arabic language in later life .This collection of short stories focus on the town of his birth it ,which is a poverty stricken area but with a rich character as portrayed in these stories and the novella ,we meet numerous characters from the village ,there is a murder in Bughayi bridge where divers and the police discover numerous body parts as the crowd of onlookers grows the bride gives way,after there has been a lot of honor style killings ,some stories are funny like the JBR’s telling of a clan and Jabir the camels they keep ,eating camel meat and drying the sinews ,the book last part is a novella called The secret history of Nu’man A bd al -Hafiz which tells of nu’man becoming a man having his circumcision which doesn’t go quite to plan  and marriage wonderful evocative story of a small town man the description of his life ,even down to the dowries that were passed on by the families on his marriage .

1. forty pounds to be paid in its entirety immediately following the winter hold on irrigation ,meaning the case when umm Nu’mans supply of clamped salted fish had run out .

2. six kilos of buuya wheat or eight of Australian wheat .

3.five ratls of clarified buffalo butter or seven of cow’s .

4.A goat or sheep for slaughter .

the list of dowries items .

The is a real beauty in Mustagab’s writing a man looking back on the characters and environs of his childhood in the town of Dayrut ,the stories are some times edging into the surreal and at times have a real dark satire element ,the area he is talking about is a place rich in spirit and beliefs . This gives a great view of an area of Egypt I didn’t know anything about .As ever Humphrey Davies does a wonderful job on translation but what else would you expect from the prize-winning translator ,the book is published by the american university press of Cairo .This is my third read for the arabic summer reading challenge from arablit blog .I ve some more arabic books as well to read over the next month or two as well.

2011 100years of tolstoy ,lets have a war and peace readalong to celebrate

~ winstonsdad ~ 21 Comments

Now 2010-1 is Tolstoy’s centenary year he died in november 1910 ,so I ve enjoyed doing my summer Don Quixote read along I want to do a war and peace read along at start 2011 last 20 weekes I d say ,I m think of using the New ,well out in October Oxford World Classic centenary tie in updated version of the definitive translation by Louise and Amy Mandelker .Now like Don Quixote this has been one I ve started a few times but never got more than couple of hunderd pages in ,now with a nice new edition and a confidence in doing a read along I want to ,this book is the masterpiece of russian literature and I know I should have read it already and always feel a pang in my heart that I haven ‘t so if you want to join in let me know and we can wrestle through the Napoleonic wars with the Rostov’s and Bolkonskys together in the winter of 2011 guys and gals.The new edition is available in both hard and Paperback hopefully in october see here

The imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

~ winstonsdad ~ 6 Comments

I first heard about this six months ago on a Abc book show podcast and interview with Tom Rachman ,it really appealed to me as the short stories in the book are interlinked around the fact that all the people in the stories work for an international paper Based in Rome ,Rachman himself is an ex pat american that lives in Rome having worked for a number of years as a journalist in particular for the international herald tribune which must be a slight template for the novel .In the book we meet the staff of the newspaper eleven of them in all in between each story you get a little bit of history of the paper from its early days in the fifties to modern-day ,the staff range from the work shy obituary writer who lurks and tries to avoid work as much as possible .foreign correspondents ,my favourite is the old arabic correspondent based in Cairo Winston ,from his name you know this guy is very old school he only speaks in english and is unwilling to chase down  his stories .Rachman has an eye for detail in the modern world and through the constant mentions of Blackberries is an obvious crackberry guy . As the stories testify the world of newspapers is a shrinking world and for a small paper like this one a real struggle to get by sometimes in the increasing world of web-based news where the information is on hand straight away .

1954 Corso Vittorio Rome

The paper was established on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele a broad East West thoroughfare lined with dirty white travertine churches and blood orange Renaissance palazzi .many of the buildings in central Rome were coloured as if from a crayon box: dagger red ,trumpet yellow ,rain cloud blue .

At the start of the first notes the are between the chapters illustrating the papers history ,here its base in Rome .

 

 

The characters seem real enough and would imagine Rachman has taken bits of people he has met over his time as a journalist .A stunning debut is let down slightly by a dreadful cover on the uk version ,That I feel doesn’t represent the book at all .The book mirrors in style if not content Tsiolkas the slap which I reviewed a few days ago on the blog ,both use different narratives and characters centred round a central theme in this case the paper ,Rachman’s characters on the whole are more even than Tsiolkas but the subject matter maybe a lighter in this book than in the slap .The book is also promote on Rachmans beautiful site .The book is published in the uk by Quercus .

The T.B.R shelves

~ winstonsdad ~ 31 Comments

Yesterday I organized my shelves downstairs removed books read and put on shelves books stacked by them that I ve yet to read and intend to in next few months well year probably ,there is well over a hundred including library books .

Top shelf includes santa Evita a group read on Frances blog in october ,desert le Clezio that I am really looking for forward too also Bao Minh sorrow of war north Vietnamese war memoir .

this shelf is mainly books from my around the world in 52 books challenge which I’ve let drift although I ve read books from 45 countries so far this year ,the bad girl by Mario Vargas Llhosa is one I m looking forward to on this shelf also my second Kadare the siege .

More from around world challenge ,highlight snow Pamuk be my 3 Pamuk have loved others I ve read ,Gunter Grass diary of a snail that Sebald liked in Campo santa and my second favourite german writer .

these are mainly recent buys Haildor Laxiness independent people is a highlight and good buy for 30p ,the new Makine and sunset oasis are ones I’ll be reading this month .

and these library books and others I want to try to read a couple from my arabic reading challenge ,and bei feiyu three sisters a new voice from china that Stewart a booklit really rates .There is 15 new countries that I haven’t read since I ve blogged ,so I ll hopefully have 60 countries that I ve read books from by end of the year .

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR REST OF THE YEAR ?

HAVE YOU ANYTHING YOU REALLY WANT TO READ BEFORE END OF THE YEAR ?

The Last Will and Testament of Senhor Da silva Araujo by Germano Almeida

~ winstonsdad ~ 9 Comments

Germano Almeida is a Cape Verdian writer that studied law in Lisboa ,and a champion of his homeland Cape Verde and its struggles after independence when it fell under a one party system he user humour and satire to do this .The book starts as a group of people to hear the reading of the will of Napumoceno Da Silva Araujo ,he was a respect store owner and stand up figure in Cape Verde ,But little do the people realise his will is 387 and all of it has to be read aloud as the reading unfurls the history of  senhor da Silva and the island he grew up on ,his loves loss people he meet and thing he did ,his foibles ,a illegitimate child ,the face of this respect business man is changed for ever in the people gathered there .but we also learn how generous he was to his fellow islanders he love to be a kind benefactor ,He loved to drive his Model T ford that was the islands first that he had specially imported for himself .

The reading of the last will and testament of sr Napumoceno Da Silva Araujo ate up a whole afternoon .When he reached the one hundred and fiftieth page ,the notary admitted he was already tired and actually broke off to ask someone bring him a glass of water ,And as he sipped it ,he complained that deceased ,thinking he was drafting his will ,had instead written his memoirs .

the opening of the book .

Almeida seems to have brought humour and thoughtfulness to the story of Senhor Da Silva Araujo ,as the will unfolds the character leaps of the page ,a larger than life businessman ,and what drove him to write this will come memoir .As he wants to make his mark on the world and this will he wants to be his lasting testimony to who he really was .Part of me wonders if this is a Cape Verdian tradition this will come life story ,I hope it is what a way for family histories to be passed from generation to generation by written and oral readings ,Almeida is a lawyer so I wonder if this is a combination of various people he has had dealings with as the main character seems so believable .The book is Published by New Direction the US publisher ,I was sent it by My good friend Simon over at insidebooks that also read and reviewed this book a while ago .The translation is one of these best Portugese translation I have ever read and was masterfully done by Shelia Faria Glaser.

do first impressions matter ?

~ winstonsdad ~ 20 Comments

I m just reading a book by a Egyptian writer that has sat on my shelf since last year it has a slightly underwhelming cover ,but so far I m finding the prose wonderful ,This made me question do I judge to early on some books .If I hear about a book via a podcast ,good review or some one who’s opinion I respect ,I will get the book regardless of the cover .This came to my mind after a discussion on twitter to-day about do we judge by cover to often I ll hold my hand up ,that I do a lot of the time .

 now this is the Egyptian cover I find it a little to cartoonish ,and maybe not in keeping with the book

This is another book I read a while ago ,that cover just dosen’t seem to fit the book ,I want to read this after hearing the writer talk about it on ABC’s book show .

What do you do ?

Are you put off by a cover ?

Human love by Andrei Makine

~ winstonsdad ~ 11 Comments

Andrei Makine is a russian born  writer currently living in exile in France ,he also now write in french ,as well as poems in Russia ,He has written numerous novels ,he has been supported by Alain Maisse who is a fan of Makines work .The book centres on Elias Almeida a man born in Angola in the 60’s as a child he sees some horrors ,he grows to be a solider and gets caught up in the political turbulence that engulf southern africa ,with influences from russia and cuba ,he becomes indoctrinated in communism and marxist ideals ,meets an attractive white women ,the book sees his struggles and the struggles of his homeland Angola and the other countries  like Zaire around Angola as he starts to fight  ,this also take him top russia where he first meets anne a student at the time .they fall in love but he has to return to Africa

A revolution , the instructors used to say ,is not just the matter of explosives .It takes long and meticulous preparation .Initially the “popular masses” must be worked on in depth creating both networks of fighting men and looser ones of “fellow travellers ” and “sympathizers ” essential to success of the uprising

Elias remembering being taught about revolutions .

This book is about many things race ,love ,communism Makine has tried to tackle russia’s involvement in Africa through one man’s tale .His style is highly readable Elias comes across as a man trapped by who he is and where he is from ,he glimpse different life at times and becomes disillusioned with the doctrines he has been taught when he sees the suffering that it can cause ,as he shes what he calls fat cat Africans on the circuit talking about what he is putting in to place through fighting in the wars. He has he struggles with this concept .Makine as ever is translated by Geoffrey Strachan who has translated all his books .If you want an inside tract to African politics through a soldiers eyes this book is ideal .the book made me think and remind me of the news images in the early 80’s from Angola ,Nambia and Zaire as war’s raged  on but the general population was forgotten at times .

Don quixote week 3 -a preist and a barber

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

well the adventures continue afoot ,this time the guys are caught up by a priest and a barber that want to rid the knight errant off his devil that has made him made ,Don continues to promise to help the fair maidens ,a really funny scene this week is where don threatens to his head ,and sancho tells him not too pure slapstick .

WhAT HAVE YOU ENJOYED THIS WEEK ?

The book has con found many film makers .One of it’s most famous disciples being the errant american director Orson Welles ,he spent a lot of time and money trying to make a version of don Quixote ,i found this spanish clip of him in the sixties

love the scenery in this video feels like it may have done in Cervantes time .

Four walls by Vangelis Hatizyannis

~ winstonsdad ~ 6 Comments

Vangelis is a greek writer living in Athens in 2001 he won the best new writer in Greece the diavazo prize ,the french translation of this particular book won the Laure bataillon for translation ,his follow-up novel stolen time has also been translated in to english by Marion Boyars .The book focuses on Rodakis a young man returning after traveling the world to his dead father’s house ,initially he decides to become a builder ,but is slowly drawn back to his father’s buisness ,which was beekeeping and honey selling ,in doing so he uncovers old wounds in the area what was his father’s secret recipe ? Also he is persuaded to take in a young women to look after .he ends up getting trapped by monks and in four walls !

S rodakis ,long since dead had been a bee keeper with enough hives to keep half the island in honey .There was a time when he had so many orders that he couldn’t keep up with them ,for ten years in a row ,he was literally overwhelmed with work ,and he no longer sold unlabeled honey whole sale .he devolped his own packaging in metal tins and pasted specially printed labels bearing his name with the picture of a bee under it and under the bee the legend –

PURE HONEY – FROM UNTRODDEN FORESTS

A description of his fathers business success

The book jumps in place like Vangelis doesn’t know where to take the story ,but the characters are enjoyable Rodakis is a man facing a decision carry on with the life he had away from the island or embrace the island and live in his family tradition ,in the later stages of the book where Rodakis is held slightly echo Kafka and there is always a sense of good versus evil as an undercurrent to the text .It shines a different light on greek island life than the one I have often seen portraied in films and books ,it brings them in to modern world kicking and screaming

Winston’s score

After couple of books that I just couldn’t score here is one I can giving it a solitary bee score ,as rodakis is like a solitary bee ,hard-working but in lots of ways alone in the world .