Month: November 2015

Kendrick Lamarr Who and don’t forget the fall

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Well it is that time of year when the Uk music Magazines run the end of year lists, I have always been a huge fan of these list. I use it to see how my dwindle current taste is doing but also maybe to find a gem that has been missed from the last year and when the same record came second in both Mojo and Uncut and it was one I maybe didn’t grasp me in the reviews earlier in the year, so off to Spotify to listen and it was the opposite to earlier in the week when Benjamin Clementine won the Mercury prize ( I first mentioned him the week the winning album his debut album came out ) , this is the other side the how did that pass me by . The album is To pimp a butterfly by Kendrick Lamarr I ‘ve always had a liking for rap and hip hop from the early days of it hitting the uk in the early 80’s so this is a mix of what I love best of the genre clever lyrics, poltics , spoken word and jazz .

But missing the lists was The fall now I didn’t listen to John Peel as much as I did when I was teen in those last year, but at the time we didn’t know it was going to be the end. But I did worry for his favourite bands like The fall as he was the main person to play Mark E smiths unique brand of  Mancunian rock is a mix of Punk, Poetry, ladism, Drink and ever changing band members, So this year saw well Album 31 from the studio Sub Lingual Tablet is classic fall what more can you say. If you not heard Mark E smith go have a listen with a back catalogue of 60 plus albums there is a whole journey awaiting you.

Winston’s covers how to read a Novelist

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Another day another library book arrives I sometimes get carried away on the library catalogue system.but this is one for me plan to pimp up the reviews for the blog add a bit of blind as this blog slowly clock up it 600th review two to go. I feel need to learn a little bit about reviewing not enough to lose my own voice but enough.to given my own voice a sound of the knowledge Base I have but sometimes struggle to convey in words. So this book is a collection a reviews interview and pieces about writers from John Freeman many years in the lit world.

The other woman by Therese Bohman

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The Other Woman by Therese Bohman

As I said in yesterdays covers post, I have read a couple of great books from Sweden by female writers this year, this being one of them the other being Wilful disregard by Lena Anderson which I reviewed earlier in the year. It was because I enjoyed wilful diregaerd so much I choose to review this from Other press.Also two great books from world editions from sweden as well it has been a great year for Swedish fiction on the blog .

The other woman is a take on being the other woman like it says on the cover. This is story of the affair told from the female perspective , we see this affair start and how it slowly grows through her eyes. The two main characters work in a hospital , she is a general dogsbody in the kitchen and he is a doctor , she finds out his name  Carl Malmberg and also that he is married  . He captures her eye one day and then they begin to spiral near each eventually coming together in a bang. The affair begins as they meet in secret, but is it all she hoped are dreams and reality the same

Occasionally I have wondered what it would be like to have an affair with one of them. particularly the tall handsome consultant who comes in for lunch all too rarely. I have thought about where we would meet, imagined him at home with me, even if the idea of him in my tiny apartment among my things is an unlikely scenario.I picture him sitting on my sofa, we are drinking a glass of wine , chatting. Perhaps we are discussing literature, which turns out to be a shared passion.

She daydreams of meeting Carl after seeing him where she works .

It is easy to see this as a standard love affair, which has been covered many times in fiction from The end of affair one my favourite Greene novels , through books like Lady Chatterley’s lover, which for me is like this book accept the roles are flipped the male is the one in the role of authority and the narrator is the lowest of the low in this world they live in. Also wilful diregard saw a may to december romance which this novel  is as well.What makes this stand up is the narrator’s voice and the overall world we are drawn into where even in a modern setting Class and social standing still there like in Lawrence’s day.

We get out of the car, he locks it, and we dash through the rain to the apartment block and , inside, over to my door. He stands behind me as I open up, I can feel his eyes on my back. I have rarely felt more present in the moment, I register everything – the grain of the wooden door frames, his scent, the key sticking slightly in the lock before it turns – while at the same time I am acting entirely on instinct .

The dream now is real he does come to her apartment .

For me the main character the unnamed narrator of the book is more than we first see , yes she works in the kitchen .But this woman is one that reads important books ,  she talks about the books she readsones like, notes from underground , Death in Venice and even the huge Magic Mountain she describes how on a course she sees everyone around her reading what she call banal books compared to her. She is a woman wanting to be more than a partner in bed, which it turns out is what she has become.We see a ugly duckling  wanting to be a swan in the world can see do it ?

He is a perfectly ordinary lover too. After I have asked him if he wants to come back to my place, and we have stood outside my door drunkenly searching for topics of conversation to fill the time between both of us thinking that we want to kiss each other and actually doing so, and we have kissed our way through the hallway and into bed, he makes love to me in a way that is kind of functional .

No books to discuss and no fireworks with Carl really .

Add to this a confident of the narrator called Alex , whom she starts to tell about the affair but is this Alex all they seem ? Then there is also the senses that Bohman does so well to ignite through her prose which in Marlaine Delargy translation come through so well. Also the sense of a detached style I have found a lot the last few years in Nordic fiction we almost look into this world of class, love, social standings like a voyeur feeling part of it but not able to touch it .Carl maybe see her as an object in a way even in the way he picks something for her to wear at one point. But for the narrator there is a whole other story and this affair is maybe just the start of her real life .This is Therese Bohman second novel to be translated to English I will be seeking out her first Drowned to read.

Have you a favourite female writer from Sweden ?

Swedish fiction

Translator – Marlaine Delargy

Source – review copy .

 

Winston’s covers 6 more Swedish female writers

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I saw this second hand today after finishing The other women by Therese Bohman, abother great female voice from Sweden . I saw this a tale of two wives whom spend summers holidays with their families together Bella and Rosa then the dynamics change when Bella disappeared for a better life  abroad . How will Rosa cope with the lost of her friend . Sound good …

Winston’s cover 5 the Turkish Nobel

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I brought this back from librar after work yesterday a new book by Orhan Pamuk is always worth reading he for me is knew of those nobel winners that win for consistent books not fireworks but just good books every time and this is a epic charting forty years of a Boza sellers life through Istanbul from the 70s to 2012 a time which saw the city grow families strained and the role of woman in Turkey change

Decompression by Juli Zeh

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Juli Zeh

Well here we go I’m trying to break new ground with my reviewing style, with a book that in some ways sums up what  about reading fiction in translation is about for me. that is discovery of books I wouldn’t maybe read if they were in English as much as I agree with the women in translation project and am all for more books by women getting translated, I can never draw myself away from the lit I grew up with which is Burroughs, Kerouac , Burgess and well on the whole male writers, So Juli Zeh isn’t a writer I would usually be drawn too but it is german lit month, I had tried an earlier book by her and failed after a few pages. But the synopsis of this one appeal to me.I was suprised to enjoy this more than I expected too.

As for me, I’m keeping my mouth shut. I’m not talking about literature, I’m not talking about dying. We’re both making an effort. This is going to be a lovely vacation. I won’t provoke him, and he won’t let himself be provoked. armistice

From Jola’s diary on the first day there …

The book is about a take on the classic  love triangle. We have  Jola, she is a beautiful soap star, but with a yearning for more than that entails. She has gone with her Husband Theo to Lanzararote to learn to scuba dive (hence the title of the book ) for her new film about a famous Model come underwater photograph. Thus step in Scuba instructor and third in the ;love triangle of this novel Sven he has been paid a great deal to bring the attractive Jola up to speed on her diving.What follows is a love affair but also given the dangers of being underwater a lot can happen.Will these two break Sven’s peaceful world.?

The love triangle is perhaps one of the oldest stories in fiction and in the world in general. From wuthering heights , Doctor Zhivago and through to even Harry potter a love triangle makes a good plot line.But what lends it strength is the characters that make up the three sides so who do we have here Spolit brat Jola, stunning an actress.But also rather like the lead characters in the Peter Stamm novel from earlier in the month given all the success there is something missing at the heart of this woman.

We don’t have to be on vacation. The old man could get to work on writing a book about the island. I can train for Lotte. That’s the beauty of being in the arts. You can call everything work, and then you can realize it’s shit without being disappointed.

Jola again from her diary she is quite shallow really.

Then we have Sven the classic Laid back drop out yes he studied Law but he then left all that behind to move to the sun and teach diving. One can imagine a number of Characters like this. I loved the bit where he googled the couple, that was maybe one of the pieces that gave this such a modern feel.

Three hundred and eighty-four thousand hits on Google. That was a shock. Even though I didn’t know exactly why it frightened me . In the background, a software program was uploading data from my dive computer. If Antje appeared in the doorway. I could click on the other screen in a flash. I didn’t feel like explaining what I was doing and why. Googling clients wasn’t really my style.

I loved this so now .

Last is the triangle is  Husband Theo , for me I kept thinking Arthur Miller for some reason, I don’t know why but I got that juxtaposed position of his Marriage to Marilyn  Monroe  with Theo’s and Jola’s . He  is in the middle of a huge bout of writers block and has been lashing out at his wife. Maybe drawing Jola into the Arms of Sven whom she has tried to lead astray.She is scared of him as the firrst quote suggests.

As soon as she was finished installing the navigations devices, Jola jumped onto land, pulled Theo off the bench, and sang. “Sailing, Sailing, over the bounding main,” in his face. He lurched into motion , grumbling , a burned down cigarette.

Theo a broken man lashing out at times.

This is a classic tale given a warm setting and almost  like putting a pan of water on boil we wait for the screen to start bubbling and boiling as the three  main characters  start cooking.Juli Zeh has mixed the love triangle  genre and given it the pacing you would expect from a thriller when reading it. In Sven the main narrator she has a laid back character capturing his life falling apart by the arrival of these two. I watch the film version of inherent vice and felt Sven was rather like Doc the lead character in that drawn into a world and situations he didnt’ quite want to be in .

German Literature

Decopression bY Juli Zeh

Translator John Cullen.

Winstons covers 4 Infinte fail ?

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infinte jest

Todays cover is one of those rare failed to reads for me. I was struck by Jonathan’s post here. Where he spoke about failing and trying again which is something I didn’t do with Infinite Jest I tried a few summers ago when there was a mass reading called the Infinite summer which I tried, but stuggled when Wallace start on about tennis , I have mention this before call this a silly scarred childhood of watching wimbledon after school at a family friends house when I would rather be at home or even outside. Lets face it Tennis in those days was a bit drawn out, any way this book was already in my mind after watching the trial to a forthcoming film The end of tour which is about a long interview he gave when a fellow writer joined him on the later stages of the tour for this book .The end of tour looks great what do you think ?

Winston’s covers 2 same old story or is it

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I started Ivan Goncharov same old story last night here is my edition of what is considered his masterpiece Oblomov. I have been lucky to get the new translation of same old story to read from Alma books.I do like this old penguin cover it.is rather creepy I found.

Inspiring translated fiction

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Well Amanda did comment the other day saying she didn’t want me to stop the blog as I inspire people doing it. I said no she said I need to blog as I love it so I decide to carry on but with changes short post like yesterday’s cover posts and longer more in depth reviews  probably twice a week. I have been doing more reviews which was the reason I was busy when Amanda wanted to chat. My reviews will changed I have decide to try and read a bit more on how to review books something I haven’t ever done to try and improve the style and way I review books. So my next review may be a few days a way as I will spend a few days working on it . Anyway its translation Thurs get out there and let’s talk about translated books and inspire people to pick up translated books from around the world Thanks to Joe for his email of review tips I really appreciate that.

Stepping back , sorry Amanda

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I was busy typing last nights post when Amanda was trying talking and I said wait  as I’m busy doing a post. When I finally got to chat the moment to chat had passed, this isn’t the first time this has happened. I have got that caught up in this book blogging world that I didn’t talk to my wife , what the fuck is wrong with me . Well as I had trouble sleeping last night, as  I felt so bad about not talking to my darling wife last night . What if something happened, what  I would remember is  the fact I was busy typing away about a book, well sometimes things are more important in real life and looking back my favourite post this year on here for me it  was the one on Amanda and I trip to york, not the books .In a way the books are like a hamster wheel, that  I have got caught in I love reading but lets face it I am and never will be a decent reviewer, passion goes so far. I have step back this last 12 months I have from twitter and now feel I will do the same with blogging if this blog carries on it will be either a post once in a blue moon or just about amanda and I life and not a book blog any more.There are many great book bloggers out their a lot more translated blogger from when I started.So the next time amanda wants a chat I will chat.

Nicotine by Gregor Hens

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Nicotine by Gregor Hens

German Non-fiction

Original title – Nikotin

Translator Jen Calleja

Source – review copy

Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You can’t be twenty on Sugar Mountain
Though you’re thinking that
you’re leaving there too soon,
You’re leaving there too soon.

Now you’re underneath the stairs
And you’re givin’ back some glares
To the people who you met
And it’s your first cigarette.

Neil young mentions that first cigarette in his song Sugar mountain.

Well after Gregor kindly choose five German books of short length last week, I finally get to his book. Gregor Hens is German writer and translator. He has translated books by the Likes of Jonathan Lethem , Rawi Hage and Will Self’s Umbrella, he lives in Berlin . Will Self also did a wonderful forward for this book about his relationship with cigarettes and smoking which inspired my post here .I so pleased that Fitzcarraldo decide to translate this book this is what small press do so well be brave and publish books like this.

I’ve smoked well over a hundred thousand cigarettes in my life and each of those cigarettes meant something to me. I even enjoyed a few of them. I’ve smoked ok, great and terrible cigarettes. I’ve smoked dry moist, aromatic and almost sweet cigarettes, I’ve smoked hastily and other times slowly and with pleasure. I’ve scrounged , stolen and smuggled cigarettes.

I like Gregor have smoke all sort from French, German, Russian and British cigarettes in my time as a smoker.

Well Nicotine was written by Gregor two years after he stopped smoking himself . This book  is an autopsy of a smoker , bu not a dead one .A retrospective of a smokers life, the how, when and where. But h also he expands it out to the wider concept of trying to stop smoking as a person but also the way it has sprung up to a whole raft of stop smoking ideas . The book follows him from his first cigarette ,in fact  even before back to  his family journeys in a car with his family of smokers. Through the packets of cigarettes he has brought in the past. The rituals of smoking that every smoker has. Cigarettes and culture from Twain talking of always trying to give up. Italo Svevo. even to Smoke one of my favourite films. This is a look back at being a smoker.

So why the last cigarette? Why should I smoke it? Why should I enjoy it like Cosini? I’ve already shown how strong I am! If I’m able to renounce a lifetime of any kind of smoking pleasure. Every possible cigarette, if I’ve decided this am sure of it, why not this one too? Why, when I ‘ve already come to terms with this resolution long ago, do i open the rubbish bin in the kitchen and retrieve the half-empty packet that had been thrown away a few minutes ago?

That moment you finally let go, I can’t remember the last one but the days leading up and not feeling well.

I think it is easy to say I connected with this as like Gregor I am now an Ex smoker, not quite two years but ten months is the longest I have ever stopped. I even feel now like Gregor does in the book I can look back at the autopsy of my smoking life from those first cigarettes, to like Gregor packets in fact one of the ones he mentions a few times in the book Peer Export , which is a german brand which has jumbo packet which was smoked by the step father of my ex German girlfriend. This is maybe the first of a new genre the ex smoker works. With smoking becoming a more and more anti social habit, I feel we will see more and more of books like this of writers tackling kicking the habit and their journeys.So if you have ever given a bad habit up or just like well written non fiction this is your book. This is a journey to the heart of nicotine through a blacken lung back up to the clear light of day.

Have you a favourite book involving smoking ?

The incorrigible optimist club by Jean-Michel Guenassia

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The Incorrigible Optimist club by Jean-michel Guenassia

French Literature

Original title -Le Club des incorrigibles optimistes

Translator – Euan cameron

Source – review copy

 

 “Immigrant Punk”

Upon arriving to the melting pot
I get penciled in as a goddamned white
Now that I am categorized
Officer gets me naturalized
Now that I’m living up in God knows where
Sometime it gets hard without a friend
But as I am lurking around
Hoptza! I see another immigrant punk!
There is a little punk rock mafia
Everywhere you go
She is good to me and I am good to her…

Legalize me! Realize me!

I choose Gogol Bprdello they capture what it is to come fromeast to west so well in their music and this would suit that back room !!

I had intend to try to review just german books this month but as we all know events on Friday in Paris have led me to review this book now rather than next month. What better to remember what a great city and spirit the French and the people of Paris have than a huge 600 page epic debut novel. This book won the Goncourt prize that is voted by students when it came out. It’s writer is a writer born in Algeria, he has been a screenwriter before writing this epic about life in  Paris in 1959 trying to capture a spirit of the time in this book.

“I’m no longer Czech. I’m not French. I’m stateless. It’s the worst scenario. One doesn’t exist. I do have a glimmer of hope of seeing my brother again. He’s American. We phone once a year to wish each other a happy new year . He’s a foreman in the building trade. He has a family. He lives well. But he can’t afford to come to Eruope.I’ll put in another request next year and the following one.

A  club of men fragment change the country’s name it could be any time in the last fifty years.

 

This is a story of one young boy Michel  a 12 year old in the cusp of becoming a young man but in some ways still a kid. he isn’t you’re normal kid he loves to read and take pictures and is drawn to the arty west bank and to the local Bistro , where he is playing table football with his mates. But at the same time drawn to the men that come and go from this bar Bistro to a back room with a pencil written sign that of the title of the book this mix of french intellectuals and refugees from East european draw this young man into their world of escape from the iron curtain as they sit play chess and talk about their lives life in the Iron Curtain .Meanwhile we sees how the war in Algeria touches Michel as his older brother is called to the front .So from Igor Leonid , thou his mother and his brother who just miss what their son and brother is getting from  these guy as the likes of Kessel and Sartre are their and in the air as they speak.

The Marinis, in their corner of the room, were gathered around grandfather Enzo. They were waiting. Franck, My brother, had made up his mind which side he was on.He was talking in a hushed voice to Uncle Baptiste and grandmother Jeanne. My father appeared, carrying an enormous cake with chocolate icing, and began singing “Happy birthday Michel” . The Marinis joined in the chorus

Michel Birthday and family tensions as the family gather for his birthday one the few times they are all together.

This book reminds me of what we all love in Paris that spirit of talking and discussing the world in the bars and bistros of the left bank. That is the world that was rocked by Friday night the new Michel’s gunned down. Paris and the way it has except people leaps off the page, the sad  thing is will this forever change for me I hope. So if you want a remind why Paris is such a great city. Right to the book Michel is a character I have come across a lot in american fiction, but he is more round than any character I have read in an American novel about growing up. Michel world comes alive that cafe those guys him listen absorbing and growing as he listens to the guys lives and stories is just ooze into you that socialist spirit of France at the time I want to go and reread my Sartre and finish the huge book by him on Freud I’ve had on the backburner for a few months.