Month: January 2011

The Italian Job

~ winstonsdad ~ 24 Comments

These are books for my Italian week which I ll be starting to read next week and posting week after and for the year-long books in Italy challenge Have a couple of other Italian Noir novels on way from Library so looking forward to spend time in Italy this month well at least in Books .The two I’m most nervous about are Foucault’s pendulum and if on a winter’s night a traveller .These two are meant to be challenging to say the least .I will also be doing an Italian cooking post about the food and wine I love from Italy .Also at end be talking about the translators and what they brought to the books .

So have you read any of these ?

What yopur favourite Italian dish ?

Library cuts ,hope there not too bad

~ winstonsdad ~ 11 Comments

A piece in last weeks guardian about local government cuts mention that libraries are the soft belly to be cut .Well for me this would be a nightmare on a tight budget Library books make most of my reading material ,as I read some obscure titles my local library system and there online ordering is a god send for me .as with the book in the picture I watch a recent programme on Italian noir that evening ordered the book to borrow from library and picked up this week .My local library is a small sub library with friendly helpful staff and a good small selection ,my hope is this doesn’t get cut ,there is a large library in the centre of Chesterfield where I live this is one of the best stocks libraries in the UK due to its high rate of borrowing the fifth in the UK .but to get there is a bus ride and I don’t always have time to get there .so hoping my library that is five min walks from my house is kept .

ARE YOU GOING BE EFFECT BY THE CUTS ?

HOW OFTEN DO YOU USE YOUR LIBRARY ?

The book of chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agulusa

~ winstonsdad ~ 15 Comments

This was a reread for me I read this just after it came out in 2007 and wondered if on second reading would be as good as the first and I m pleased to say yes this book is firmly in my favourite african books of all time .Jose Eduardo Agualusa is a Angolan  writer he lived in Brazil briefly but now divides his time between Lisbon and  Luanda he has written 7 novels so far this was the 2007 Independent foreign fiction winner .

The book is a series of interlocking stories  or vignettes that are set in modern-day Angola and involve Felix Ventura an albino weaver of new histories for people ,these stories are narrated by a gecko that is a reincarnation of a dead man ,Well as you see this is firmly in magic realism or african mysticism ,Felix is a type fixer helps people rewrite their lives change there histories ,he is also albino which from what little I know in some parts of africa is a bad omen or a good omen but in felix’s case it seems to give him an air of detachment from the people he deals with .The strength of the book lies in the way it deals with Angola’s  past at times violent and how these people look to the future .Felix is so good that one person decides to search into his new past with shocking results .

Once ,when I was in my old human form ,I decided to kill myself .I wanted to die ,completely .I hoped for eternal life ,heaven and hell ,god ,the devil .reincarnation ,all that stuff ,was no more than slowly woven superstition ,devolped over centuries and centuries ont mans greatest terror .There was a gun shop right by my house .

The gecko remember his past life .

Dreams also interweave the books ,Like dreams the new histories rewrites people are never the same and always different .This book is funny in parts and very poignant in others ,such a bright book from such a dark stories and the sadness of Angola’s  past is a real work of art .Like my fellow blogger Kinna rereading this is a timely reminder of the need to read more Lusophilla literature .The book was translated by Daniel Hahn who shared the Independent prize as the translator . for ,me this is a bridge between the african village fiction I love and the latin american magic realism I love ,in parts I remembered Borges or Marquez in others Okri came to mind .

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK ?

HAVE YOU A FAVOURITE LUSOPHILE NOVEL ?


WINSTONS COFFEE AND MUFFINS WAR AND PEACE START

~ winstonsdad ~ 18 Comments

Right first of be starting war and peace readalong tomorrow be reading 150 pages every two weeks and starting from tomorrow the first discussion to be on the 24th jan on first 250 then every second monday for two weeks .I ll be using the Oxford University press new edition For Tolstoy’s centenary year .

Looking forward to loads of discussion on a book that I really should have read before now AND THE OUP version is the most up to date edition as well .Sorry for delay been busy month work wise .

 

In post this week .I received a Israeli classic Khirbet Khizeh by S Yizhaer this 1949 novella is written about an expulsion of a Palestine village during the 1948 war and is considered a classic of modern Hebrew literature, Yizhar is described as a liteary genius by David Grossman .Many thanks to Henry at granta for sending it ,He has a wonderful blog on drinks you might want to check .

 

Come dine with writers

~ winstonsdad ~ 18 Comments

I love to watch the show come dine with me ,shown here in the uk it involves four or five in old episodes people going a three course meal and then mark each other ,part the entertainment is the food and the other part is the chat ,well I thought what would be the best writers to do this with ?so I came up with three .

HARUKI MURAKAMI –sure later this year well all be Murakamied out with the challenge running but sure he would be a fascinating dinner guest how his mind work and maybe the chance of Japanese food would be great mix .also his taste in music isn’t half bad as well .

JAMES JOYCE – Joyce like Murarkami is a deep thinker and a complex guy with a wonderful way with words ,but I feel there would be loads of drink on his night as well the black stuff would flow and people relax and maybe eat some of the traditional Irish dishes I grew up eating when on holidays at my grans when young ,like soda bread mmm

 

winner 2010 sofi oksanen

 

 

SOFI OSKANNEN – She looks pretty and I ve never tasted Baltic cooking be interest what she’d make also ,sure she is also a passionate person to chat with that is one of the main things I got from Purge is her passion for the people she wrote about .

WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY ?

Mordechai’s moustache and his wife’s cats by Mahmoud Shukair

~ winstonsdad ~ 13 Comments

source – library

Mahmoud Shukair was born in Jerusalem mount scopius in 1941 ,studied philosophy at university and was Palestine minster of culture from 97 -00 ,he has also been a Journalist and is currently working on the  mahmoud Darwish prize ,he has a great site in arabic that I translated via  google .Mordechai’s moustache is a collection of stories and Vignettes his first collection to be translated in to english by Banipal books .

The book has four longer short stories ,all funny and poignant in their own ways ,a talk about the Columbian pope star Shakira hows family originate from Palestine originally ,a tale about will the brazilian footballer Ronaldo come to Palestine ,the title story a funny tale set on a board post a touch of gallows humor .But the main part I loved was the Vignettes these were total gems ,they remind me of Ben Okri describing the process when he wrote his ultra short stories for tales of freedom as being like fiction Hakiu ,well I think these are like that ,these are like postcards of life under fire  a Polaroid of Palestine some of these made me belly laugh the man sing to a women that had moved ,others were dark a murder scene by a fountain,you jump in and out weather it shopping ,loss .It is clever mix the palenstine situaton leads to a dark humour which is wonderfully caught in the title story .the stories are vivid are vibrant

Mordechai was a simple man .There were tens of thousands like him in Tel Aviv .However ,he insisted that there were few like him there .He liked to live an easy , comfortable life , not disturbing anyone and not being disturbed by anyone .that,s why Mordechai continued to be like by his neighbours ,for he did not disturb them .mordechai joined the army and left it .

opening of title story .

Most of the stories were translated by Issa Bouletta ,who’s retired gentleman I read a couple of years ago another book worth reading .the book is short 110 pages .a  wonderful view of a fractured land and its people

Have you read any Palestine fiction ?

So long a letter by Mariama Ba

~ winstonsdad ~ 14 Comments

source – library

Mariama Ba is a Sengalese writer and activist for femmist roghts in here native country ,she struggle to get herself a good education as the feeling was at the time that girls could not get taught ,she later married a Member of parilment and got divorced from him end up bring there nine children up by herself .So long a letter was her debut novel and was described by the nigerian academic Abiola Irele the most deeply felt presentation of the female condition in african fiction .

So long a letter as the titles suggest is told in the forms of letters ,the letters are between two old friends Ramatoulaye a schoolteacher that had recently lost her husband and her best friend Aissatou .we discover via the letter there married life how they met and how they spent a long and happy marriage together til her lat husband decided to take a second wife  Binetou ,this upsets Ramatoulaye she struggles to cope with this in the male dominated society of Senegal .

On the third day ,the same comings and goings of friends ,relatives ,the poor ,the unknown ,The name of the deceased ,who was popular ,has a buzzing crowd ,welcomed in my house that has been stripped of all that could be stolen ,all that could be spoilt .mats of all sorts are spread out everywhere there is a space metal chairs have been hired for the occasion take on the blue hue of the sun .

Ramatoulaye describes the scene of her late husband Moudo funeral .

The insight in to everyday African life for a normal everyday African women is wonderful and terrifying at the same time ,the toughness of the islamic system they follow having to share a husband are things that we never really encounter here ,Ramatoulaye comes across as such a strong person ,some of Mariama own spirit seems to have rubbed off on this character .This is great starter for female African fiction and rightly deserves it place on the African writer series classic .It gave me an insight into the islamic world and multiple marriages in Africa .at 90 pages long it is an afternoon read or as I did a pocket read for those spare minutes of the day when you need a small book in your coat pocket to read .I enjoyed the style the book was written in the letter format is a clever way to let you into the head of the two main characters and is a under used format in fiction .The book was written in french and translated by Modupo Bodo-Thomas ,and was first published in english in 1981 and won the Noma awards .

Have you read this book ?

What should I read next from a African female writer ?

Blank gaze by Jose luis Peixoto

~ winstonsdad ~ 7 Comments

SOURCE – LIBRARY

Jose Luis Peixoto is a Portuguese  writer that grew up in the southern Alentejo region in Portugal  ,he is a journalist ,poet and critic ,he teaches languages and contemporary literature .he has a love of heavy metal and gothic music one of his other novels was a collaboration with the gothic band moonspell .he has written seven novels with this his début in English his latest in english is piano cemetery .

Well the main ingredients for Blank gaze are a Shepard ,a pair of Siamese twins ,an old man 120 years old Gabriel and a blind prostitute as you can see a strange mix all set in a southern portuguese village that is unnamed .when I first read the dust jacket II was expecting something  a little off the wall,but much to my size the novel is homely told in little tales as we see the village life births deaths and marriages through the eyes of the people who live there and a narrator .these moments are all caught vividly through Peixoto eye ,this is very much somewhere the writer new and char caters he grew up knowing adding to a real sense of reality to the prose .

People are a small part of the world ,and I don’t understand people .I know what they do and the immediate motives for what they do and the immediate motives for what they do , but to know this is to know what’s plain to see ,it’s to know nothing at all .I think : perhaps they exist ,with no explanation for it ; perhaps people are pieces of chaos on top of disorder they enclose .

some of Peixoto poetic writing .

This book has a real poets voice through out it and this has been wonderfully retained by Richard Zenith in the English translation .It in parts reminded me of stones in a landslide which I had read earlier in the year a similar sort of village isolated and timeless ,but there is a lot more wit in this book than stones in a landslide .I feel Peixoto is a talent to watch only in his mid thirties he may be the next big Portuguese writer to break through to the English market hopefully .

HAVE YOU REREAD HIS BOOKS ?

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURIE BOOK FROM PORTUGAL ?

some musical christmas gifts

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

I tend to get money for christmas from parents so spent it buying some new cd’s as the tbr pile is huge my love of music is bigger than my love of books I have well over a thousand cds and another couple of hundred on my i tunes ,I read three music magazines a month and used go to a lot of gigs when in my youth ,so my cd bounty is –

 

Midlake -The courage of others ,this is the third album from midlake a heavy mix of folk ,soft 70’s rock and Jethro Tull .I like the previous album still bit up in air about this one .If they were a writer they’d be Walt whitman .

The phantom band – the wants ,I loved loved checkmate savage their debut a heady mix of Scottish bands past and present in a way it was like a taster of all the bad loved ,this is like a full pot of The phantom band wonderful ,if they were a writer they be Alasdair Gray as like him there full of ideas and multi talented .

R.E.M -Reckoning ,This was the one R.E.M album I d not got on cd and is wonderful to hear seven chinese brothers and camera in fact all the album I prefer the early more distorted style ,If they were a writer they’d be Jonathan Frantzen ,the biggest on the block and new albums and books always looked over with a fine tooth comb .

MGMT – congratulations ,MGMT like the uk Klaxons and Aussies empire of the sun ,seemed to have bridge dance and rock so well ,dreamy lyrics and wonderful videos ,if they were a writer they’d be Hebert Selby jr groundbreaking and a little on the edge .

Tom waits – Nighthawks at the dinner ,usually every year I add one of toms old albums to my cd collection ,not many left now ,love him or hate him they broke the bourbon soaked mould when they made tom a unique songwriter and musician mixing jazz ,musical ,avant grade and rock ,if he were a writer he’d be Charles Bukowski soak in gin and whiskey and smoked over a burning pack of lucky strike

Bob Dylan -live in 75 the rolling thunder revue ,the last of the bootleg series I needed and my 47 Dylan album only a few left to get ,Nick Hornby said in 31 songs everyone should have some Dylan ,I love him he is the greatest American singer hands down ,if he were a writer well he’d be himself !!! or Philip Roth at a push .

I also got new i pod nano to listen to these on .

What music did you get ?

Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

source – library

This was the last choice for 2010 of the now named wolves reading group of Frances ,Richard ,Emily and el fay .this book by the nobel winning Columbian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a first hand narrative of the return to his native chile of the Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin .Littin produce the most well-known and most popular in Chile Chilean film in 1969 El CHacal de Nahueltoro ( Jackal ofNahueltoro ) a true story about a pheasant that killed several children in chile .he has also directed films based on Alejo Carpentiers novel and one of Marquez own short stories .After the coup that saw Allende disposed in his homeland Littin went to Mexico firstly then spain (very like Bolano who also lived in both these countries ) .After the fall of Pinochet the military leader a list of Exiles that could return was released but Littins name wasn’t on the list so the book follow his decision to return anyway and make a striking film called Acta General de chile  he managed to get three european film crews under false filming schedules  to enter the country  and he returned as a Uruguayan businessman to direct the film which followed how people fought against Pinochet in chile ,at this time this was still a sensitive subject with in chile and could have led to Littin being arrested .we see him and his assistant go through and meet people but to find out what more happened maybe you should read the book .

When the immigration officer opened my passport ,I knew that if he were to look into my eyes he would discover my deception .There were three counters ,all attended by men in uniforms .I had decided to pick the youngest because he seemed to be working the fastest .

Littin’s nervous entry to Chile .

The book was taken from notes Littin kept at the time and worked into this Narrative non fiction by Marquez if in his fiction he may be the master of Magical realism may I suggest this is a work of über realism ,he really caught for me the tension and fear that Littin had in returning to his homeland to make this film at every turn there was a real sense of foreboding ,strange as reading up on Littin before the book I knew the film had been made and the back cover told me that due to the strength of the book and  film that 15000 hundred copies of this book where burnt in Chile .Now to my disappointing the film seems very hard to get hold off .A real shame the other half of what seems to artworks would work wonderfully together .But not to take away from this book which I thoroughly enjoyed and as one of the last books I read last year .Gave me an insight into a subject I knew a bit about but found a little more about and this is what you needed from good Narrative non – fiction .the book was translated by Asa Zatz .

happy new year ,plans for 2011

~ winstonsdad ~ 20 Comments
happy new year from us all

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL .

Well first full year of blog gone by its been an eventful year on the blog .I passed my two main challenges so as a new year dawns it time to consider personnel challenges  ,which I tend to stick to I ve sign for some great reading challenges for Italian books ,Murakami ,Bolano and reading the Myth .so my personnel goals are –

To read 130 plus books last year I managed 127 so this is reachable ,the is usually a couple of days each month I don’t read and should so will try to pass this .

Reach 90 countries Last year I read books from 61 countries have review 58 and have 3 left to review .Want add depth to world reading more this year so less new and more from new writers from places I ve read from this be end of every month starting with Italy in Jan then Hungary in feb .I ll read 4 or more books from each country and doing a couple thematic post on the country .

Also hope to comment better on other blogs and meet new bloggers .

What your plans ?