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Archive for December, 2024

Favourite Books of the Year 2024

Posted in Favourite Books of the Year, Year of Reading, tagged on December 31, 2024| 25 Comments »

I always write this post at the beginning of the New Year, after the last day of the old year is done and dusted, because I always read till the eleventh hour. But this year, I’ve just stopped reading halfway through December, and so I thought instead of waiting, I’ll write this post now itself. So, here are my favourite books from this year. I mostly read books which have been published years back and I rarely read new books which are published in the current year, and also half the time I read books that no one else reads, and so this list is filled with old books and unknown books.

Favourite Covers

Short Stories

(1) Collected Short Stories of Aadhavan – Wonderful discovery for me. Aadhavan is an exceptional short story writer. I was so inspired that I wrote a separate review in Tamil for this book.

(2) Cathedral by Raymond Carver – My first proper Raymond Carver collection. The Master is good, he is amazing, he is exceptional. Not for nothing is he called the Master.

(3) The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story edited by John Freeman – Exceptional collection. Discovered so many wonderful short story writers through this book. Do read this one.

(4) It’s Getting Dark by Peter Stamm – I think Peter Stamm is a better novelist than a short story writer, but I loved this collection. The book cover was incredibly beautiful and this book deserves a place in the favourites list just for that 😊

(5) The Collected Short Stories of Ismat Chughtai (translated by Tahira Naqvi) – So happy to read the great Ismat Chughtai’s short story collection, finally. Her most famous story ‘Lihaaf‘ (‘The Quilt‘) is there. There are many other wonderful stories too.

(6) The Collected Short Stories of Rashid Jahan (translated by Rakhshanda Jalil) – It is a part of Rashid Jahan’s biography. Never heard of her before I read this book. Such an inspiring person and an amazing human being. A great writer too.

Novels

(1) The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett – Read two books by Sarah Orne Jewett and loved them both, but decided to include just this one. Beautiful writer, forgotten writer, deserves more readers.

(2) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain – Finally read Mark Twain’s classic novel. Then got into a Mark Twain spree and read a few more of his books. Huckleberry Finn is wonderful.

(3) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – Finally read Oscar Wilde’s great novel. Fascinating story filled with beautiful sentences and amazing quotes. Heartbreaking story too.

(4) The Spring of the Tiger by Victoria Holt – My first Victoria Holt book. Gripping page turner, beautiful writing, suspense, romance, amazing revelations, they’re all there. Hoping to read more by her.

(5) Skellig by David Almond – Wonderful, surprising discovery for me. Exceptional book. Went and read two more David Almond books after this and loved them both. David Almond came and said that he loved my reviews 😊 I almost fainted when I saw his comment 🙈

(6) Basti by Intizar Husain – Finally got to read this masterpiece by Intizar Husain. Read more books by him after this.

(7) Umrao Jan Ada by Mirza Muhammad Hadi Rusva – Finally read this book, one of the great Urdu classics from the 19th century. Then went and watched the movie. Both were exceptional.

(8) The Women’s Courtyard by Khadija Mastur – Surprising discovery for me. Wonderful story which puts women characters in the forefront. Later discovered that it has been adapted into a famous TV series. Hoping to watch that sometime.

(9) The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason – Beautiful story set in the Burma of the 19th century. Book was languishing in my shelf for years. Finally got around to reading it. It has an incredibly beautiful cover too.

(10) Memoirs of a Bitch by Francesca Petrizzo – The tale of the Trojan War and the aftermath told from Helen’s perspective. Exceptional. This book is virtually unknown and it was originally written in Italian. I don’t know why good books stay unknown. This book deserves more readers.

(11) By the Lake by John McGahern – My first McGahern. Beautiful story. Very Irish. Incredibly beautiful cover. Hoping to read more by him.

(12) Love and Summer by William Trevor – My first William Trevor. Another Irish legend. Hoping to read more.

(13) The History Teacher of Lahore by Tahira Naqvi – Tahira Naqvi has translated most of Ismat Chughtai’s works into English. Was surprised when I discovered that she has written a novel herself. It was beautiful. Her writing was a pleasure to read. It is not often that a translator makes a great novelist, but this one does. Hope she writes more.

Nonfiction

(1) Roughing It by Mark Twain – I think probably Mark Twain’s longest nonfiction book. It is hilarious. Subsequent generations of American humorists have widely borrowed from him and are in his debt.

(2) A Rebel and Her Cause : The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan by Rakhshanda Jalil – Never heard of Rashid Jahan before. Beautiful person, exceptional life, wonderful writer.

Plays

(1) The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde – Read most of the popular plays of Oscar Wilde, and this was my most favourite. It was laughter all around. Wilde’s sense of humour and amazing one-liners were exceptional. Want to watch the film adaptation sometime.

Comics

(1) Amère Russie (‘Bitter Russia’) (story by Aurélien Ducoudray, art by Anlor) – Beautiful love letter to mother’s love. Cried after I read it. This book proves that you can tell amazing, deep, moving stories through the comic medium. Book is originally written in French. English translation is not available. Hope they translate it. It deserves more readers.

(2) The Dark Jungle (‘La Giungla Nera‘) (story by Paulo Morales, art by Dante Spada) – Fascinating mystery set in colonial India. The artwork was breathtaking.

(3) Bikini Atoll (story by Christophe Bec, art by Bernard Khattou) – Scary, horror story about what happens in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. Will put the best horror novels to shame. In addition to the entertainment, it is also very thought-provoking.

New Writers

Read these three books by new writers and they were all beautiful.

(1) A Nostalgic Silence by Rakhshanda Zahir – A beautiful story set in modern day Pakistan which describes contemporary life seen through the eyes of a young girl who is in school. A beautiful coming-of-age story.

(2) A Symphony of Soul by Alizay Shah – A beautiful collection of meditative, contemplative poems on love, loss, memory, solitude, exploring the inner self, with every page adorned by Picasso style art.

(3) A Dream by Wajeha Abbasi – A beautiful story of a young woman who tries to chart her own way defying society’s and her own family’s expectations.

Most Beautiful titles

(1) The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by Silke Scheuermann – One of the most beautiful titles ever! How can you resist a title like that? I read the book just for the title 😊

(2) If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino – Such a beautiful title. Unfortunately, the book bombed for me, inspite of it starting brilliantly. But the title, it is so beautiful.

Most Beautiful Covers

(1) The Hour Between Dog and Wolf by Silke Scheuermann – How can a book have such a beautiful title and such a beautiful cover too? The book designers are exceptional.

(2) It’s Getting Dark by Peter Stamm – Can read the book just for the cover. Exquisite depiction of a winter landscape. Can’t stop looking at it.

(3) A Country Doctor by Sarah Orne Jewett – Classic cover, looks like an impressionist painting by Claude Monet.

(4) The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason – Beautiful, classic cover. We can almost feel that we are in a Buddhist monastery and the cool breeze is caressing our skin.

(5) By the Lake by John McGahern – Beautiful nature scene. If this is how Ireland looks like, I envy the Irish.

(6) The Wild Goose by Mori Ogai – Looks like a beautiful, classic Japanese painting.

Have you read any of these? Which were your favourite reads from this year (2024)? Which are your favourite titles and your favourite book covers?

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Book Review – The Night I Die (story by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, art by Marcelo Salazar and Marcio Freire)

Posted in Book Review, Comics, Crime Fiction, Detective Mystery, tagged , , , , , on December 14, 2024| 2 Comments »

When I was a kid, the local newspaper had a thick Sunday magazine. One section of the Sunday magazine was entirely about books. I used to look forward to that Sunday magazine every weekend. Once, there was an article in it by a local mystery novelist about the history of detective fiction. It started with Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Then it talked about hard-boiled detective fiction and described Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. After that the article mentioned Mickey Spillane and his detective Mike Hammer. I’ve never heard of these two before. I couldn’t find Mickey Spillane’s books at the library. I hoped that one day I could find them and get to read a Mike Hammer book. Sometime back the comics publisher that I subscribe to brought out a Mickey Spillane / Mike Hammer book. I was surprised and excited and today I finally got around to reading it.

Front Cover
Back Cover

A hard-boiled detective mystery follows a standard plot. There is a private investigator. One day a beautiful, mysterious woman walks into his office and says that she is in danger and needs his help. After that one thing leads to another, many shady characters appear on the scene and try to kill our private investigator and this mysterious woman. The events move at a startling pace, there is a lot of cool, stylish dialogue, and towards the end the needle points at this mysterious woman, who it appears orchestrated the whole thing. Occasionally, though the needle of suspicion points at her, the mysterious woman turns out to be innocent. This is the typical story in a hard-boiled detective mystery. This is the exact story in the present book. Whether the mysterious woman turns out to be bad or innocent – that, I won’t tell you. You’ve to read the book and find out 😊

I enjoyed reading ‘The Night I Die‘. The artwork was beautiful and the story had a noir feeling throughout. Sometimes the violence was too much – I don’t know whether Mickey Spillane wrote this in the original books or whether this is a modern day representation of his story. The dialogue and the narration were cool and stylish and were a pleasure to read. I’m not sure whether other Mike Hammer comics are there. This appears to be the only one. I’m hoping to read one of the Mike Hammer novels one day and see whether it is better.

Have you read any Mickey Spillane / Mike Hammer books?

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Book Review – Geronimo (story by Matz, art by Jef)

Posted in Bande Dessinée, Book Review, Comics, French Comics, History, Native American History, tagged , , , , on December 12, 2024| 2 Comments »

The comics reading adventure continues 😊 Today’s comic is ‘Geronimo‘. Story by Matz and art by Jef. I’ve wanted to read this for a long time. I’m glad I finally got to read it.

Geronimo was a native American. He was an Apache. Initially he was a shaman or a spiritual leader of his tribe, but because of the circumstances, he ends up becoming a warrior. Initially the Mexicans attack his tribe and kill most of the women and children and his tribe goes to war against the Mexicans. Geronimo performs great feats of bravery in that war and that is when he is given his new name Geronimo. Soon the white colonizers from the north do bad things to the tribe and the Apaches get caught between these two enemies. What happens to Geronimo and his Apache tribe forms the rest of the story. It is the age old story of foreign colonizers coming and occupying the land and driving the natives out, and then painting the natives as uncivilized barbarians in their history, while the natives are driven to remote corners of their own land and have to struggle to make ends meet. It is a tragic story which has been going on since the dawn of time, which continues till this day.

Front Cover
Back Cover

I didn’t know much about Geronimo before and I learnt a lot of history through this book. The popular perception of Apaches is that they are a violent, ruthless people, but this book showed Apaches in a totally different light. It made me want to read a longer book about Geronimo and the history of that time. I have a 1993 movie based on Geronimo’s story and I hope to watch that sometime.

Have you read this book? Do you know about Geronimo?

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Book Review – Amère Russie (‘Bitter Russia’) (story by Aurélien Ducoudray, art by Anlor)

Posted in Bande Dessinée, Book Review, Comics, French Comics, tagged , , , , on December 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The comics reading adventure continues 😊 Today, I decided to pick ‘Amère Russie‘. The story is by Aurélien Ducoudray and the art is by Anlor. I’m not sure how the title translates into English. ‘Amère Russie’ translates to ‘Bitter Russia’, but I don’t know whether that was the interpretation the creators intended or whether there is something else there. If you know French, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. I read this book in Tamil translation.

The time is the 1990s. Ekaterina has a son who is serving in the Russian army and is in Chechnya. She hasn’t heard from him for a long time. She goes to the local army office and asks them about her son, whether he is dead or alive. She is repeatedly rebuffed by the people there, and so one day, she decides to take the matter in her own hands. She decides to go to Chechnya and find her son herself. She takes her dog with her for company. The adventures she has on the way, what happens after she reaches Chechnya, and whether she finds her son or not, form the rest of the story.

Front Cover

‘Amère Russie’ is a fast-paced, gripping story. It is intense, moving, and heartbreaking throughout – it is a story about war, after all. But there is some humour interlaced in between, and that added a light touch to the story. At one point, the Chechen commander says, “We’ve to really admire the Russians. They are really smart. They’ve built buildings which will last centuries. Even when they try to bomb their own buildings, they’re not able to destroy them.” In another scene, he says, “For these Russian guys, waging war is like going to work at the government office. When the bell rings, they start firing bullets and exploding bombs, and when the bell rings again, they close shop.” I couldn’t stop laughing when I read these two parts 😄

Back Cover

I loved most of the characters in the story. They were all beautiful, flawed, human. One of my favourite characters was a young Chechen woman called Asia. She was a warrior and a sniper and she had a quiet strength which was beautiful to see. And when the time comes, she shows incredible bravery while facing adversity and it stirs your soul.

The evolution of Ekaterina from a mother who is ready to do anything to get back her son from the war front, to someone who becomes the mother of every young person who crosses her path, was very beautiful to see. Towards the end, in addition to her own son, she has another Russian son whom she saves from the Chechens, she has a Chechen son whom she saves from the Russians, she has a Chechen daughter who fights for her people’s freedom, and she has puppies who look up to her as their mother. When I reached the end of the book, I started crying and couldn’t stop crying. Mothers are beautiful. Their love is infinite. Their love is universal. This book is a beautiful tribute to mothers.

The artwork by Anlor is incredibly beautiful. It is a perfect blend of the classic comics style with the intensity that is required for a war story. The devastation in Grozny and other parts of Chechya is depicted so vividly and it is heartbreaking to see.

I loved ‘Amère Russie’. It is one of my favourite reads of the year. When I started it, I had no idea that I’d love it so much. I’m glad I read it.

Have you read ‘Amère Russie’? What do you think about it?

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Book Review – The Dark Jungle (‘La Giungla Nera’) (story by Paulo Morales, art by Dante Spada)

Posted in Book Review, Comics, Italian Comics, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 10, 2024| 1 Comment »

The comics adventure continues 😊 Yesterday, I decided to read ‘The Dark Jungle’ (‘La Giungla Nera‘). Story by Paulo Morales, art by Dante Spada. The book came out originally in Italian and I read the Tamil translation.

The story is set in colonial India of 1860 in Calcutta. A young British woman is talking to her friend. It is the middle of the night. She asks her friend to take care of her dog. She then goes to meet her lover. But at the meeting point, she sees something horrific, and she is kidnapped by some unknown assailants and she disappears. A young police inspector is summoned to his captain’s office in London. This young man is progressive and embraces new ideas and modern science to solve cases. He is sent to Calcutta. His captain in Calcutta asks him to take over this case. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.

I didn’t have great expectations out of the story. Many stories set in colonial India written by European authors tend to portray India as a land filled with snake charmers and sleazy thieves and thugs and elephants, with the occasional exotic beautiful princess thrown in 😄🤦🏽 Some people still think that India is like that 😄 So I went in without any expectations, but I was curious about the story. Once I started reading the story, I was pleasantly surprised. The story was gripping, I couldn’t wait to turn the page to find out what happened next, the depiction of Indians was realistic and good, there were good and bad Indians and there were good and bad British guys. There was mystery, detection, beautiful romance, heartbreaking horror, and surprising revelations. The bad guy in the story looked like Draco Malfoy. And the ending was beautiful and satisfying. It was exceptional. The book exceeded all my expectations.

The artwork was stunning. Dante Spada, take a bow! The use of light and dark and different shades of grey was brilliant. It was like watching a black-and-white noir movie. I think the artist used pointillism in many of the panels and probably throughout the book (sometimes it was hard to tell) and it was incredibly beautiful. (‘Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.’ – from Wikipedia)

There was a surprise for me in the middle of the story. Our young inspector takes the help of two people to solve the cases. One man is called Tiger Sandokan. Another is Sandokan’s friend Yanez. Sandokan and Yanez were two famous characters created by Emilio Salgari. He wrote a series of novels featuring these two, in the 1890s and early 1900s. These stories are very popular in Italy and they’ve been made into movies and TV series. The most popular of those TV series came out in the late 1970s, starring Indian actor Kabir Bedi as Sandokan. I knew about these two characters before, but I’ve never read any of their stories or watched the TV series before. So I was pleasantly surprised to make my acquaintance with these two here. Sandokan and Yanez were cool characters and the banter between them is hilarious. Their friendship with our young police inspector is also beautifully depicted. Never thought I’ll get around to reading a Sandokan story. Glad I did.

I loved ‘La Giungla Nera’, the Dark Jungle. It was beautiful, exceptional, and the artwork was stunning. Very pleasantly surprised. I highly recommend it. I’m not sure whether an English translation is available. It sometimes amuses me when an Italian comic is available in Tamil and not in English 😄🙈 If the English translation is available, hope you’ll pick it up and read it and enjoy it as much as I did.

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Book Review – Two French Comics (story by Christophe Bec, art by Bernard Khattou)

Posted in Bande Dessinée, Book Review, Comics, tagged , , , , on December 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The comics reading adventures continue 😊 This time I decided to pick two French comics, both by the same author – artist team. The stories were by Christophe Bec and the artwork was by Bernard Khattou.

The book on the left in the picture is called ‘Bikini Atoll‘. I’m not sure what the English title of the book on the right is. I read them both in Tamil translation.

In ‘Bikini Atoll’, the story starts with an event in 1946, when the American government exploded an atomic bomb in Bikini Atoll and devastated the environment there. 65 years later, a group of tourists visit the island there. There is no one in the island now, because the original inhabitants have all left. Then one of the tourists goes missing. And a Lovecraftian monster comes out of its lair. And the horror begins…

The moral of the story is that don’t explode an atomic bomb in a beautiful place like the Bikini Atoll. And if for some reason you do, don’t go and visit that place later. You don’t know what you’ll find. There’s a high chance you’ll find a horrible, scary, mutated monster there and it will come after you and all your worst nightmares will come true. Can’t blame the monster. You’re the one who exploded the bomb.

In the second story (the book on the right), a mother and daughter are driving a car on the highway and going home. The daughter spots a girl with long, dark hair walking by the side of the road. It is the middle of the night. They stop the car and try talking to the girl and find out whether she needs help. Well, a girl walking on the highway alone in the middle of the night – this is not going to end well, right? That is, for the people in the car 😄🙈 What happens after that forms the rest of the story.

I enjoyed reading both the books. I think I liked the first one more, because the plot was linear and straightforward, while the second had a more complicated plot. But I liked them both. They were both scary. The artwork was beautiful and dark and depicted the mood of the story perfectly.

The covers are so beautiful, aren’t they? Especially the cover on the right – I found it so scary.

I’m glad I discovered these two books. Hoping to read more by this writer–artist duo. These are perfect reads for this winter season – can cosy up under a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate, and enjoy being scared by these two stories.

Have you read these two books? Do you like comics?

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Book Review – Three Comics starring Mister No (story by Mignacco, art by Di Vitto and Cipriani Fodera)

Posted in Book Review, Comics, Italian Comics, tagged , , , , , , on December 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

As promised, I decided to read comics to get out of my reading fatigue. I picked up these three, which had a main character called Jerry Drake aka Mister No. I don’t exactly know why he is called Mister No, because Jerry Drake sounds better. This series is published by Sergio Bonelli, which is a legendary comics publishing house in Italy, who are the creators of Tex Willer. So the stories were originally written in Italian. I read the Tamil translation.

So Jerry Drake (or Mister No, if you prefer that name) is a Vietnam war veteran who ends up in Brazil as a tourist guide. He has a small plane using which he flies his tourists and shows them the beautiful scenic spots. During this, they accidentally stumble upon something which puts them in danger and how Jerry and his guests come out of it is the story.

I wasn’t sure about this series when I started reading. But I told myself, what is the worst that can happen. I’d have wasted a few hours of my time. I could be doing worse. But I was pleasantly surprised when I read these stories. The plots were excellent. The stories had a good start, there was some unexpected stumbling into adventure, the scenes moved smoothly, we wanted to find out what happened next, sometimes there was a surprise towards the end, and the good guys win in the end. It was everything a comic is expected to be. There was variety too. Each of the stories was different. In the first one (top left in the picture), a tourist gets into trouble, in the second one (top right in the picture) Jerry Drake helps a few people find out more about the survivors of a plane crash, and in the third one (bottom in the picture) there is a beautiful weaving together of fact and fiction, reality and legend. I enjoyed all the three of them. The first story was the most exciting, the depiction of native Americans in the second one was very good, and the third one was the most sophisticated story, I think.

I’m glad I dipped into this series. I read comics only once in a while, when I’m not able to read anything else (I have a huge unexplored comics collection at home – I’m still a kid at heart 😄🙈) and many times it is hit and miss, but this time it was good, surprisingly good. Hoping to read more books from this series.

Do you like comics? Which are your favourite comics?

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Book Review – The Clown by Heinrich Böll (Translated by Leila Vennewitz)

Posted in Book Review, German literature, German Literature Month, Literature Month, Nobel Prize Winners, tagged , , , , on December 5, 2024| 11 Comments »

I liked my first Heinrich Böll book, ‘The Train Was On Time‘, very much. And so I thought I’ll read another one and so picked up ‘The Clown‘.

Hans is a clown. That is not a metaphor. He is an actual clown, that is his job. Not like the clown who comes in Stephen King’s ‘It’ and does bad things, but a traditional clown who entertains audiences with stage performances. He is also the narrator of our story. When the story starts, we learn that Hans’ partner Marie has left him for another man, his last performance has been reviewed badly in the paper, and things are going from bad to worse for him. Hans tells us about his past and present, while he tries to keep his head above the water, and what happens next forms the rest of the story.

There is good news and bad news. The good news first. I liked the first part of the story very much. Till around 40% or halfway, I enjoyed reading it. Hans sense of humour was nice and fun and made me laugh. The description of Germany during the Nazi times and after the war was interesting, in the way people adapted to the dramatic new reality, in which erstwhile Nazis suddenly professed affection for Jewish people or suddenly turned to religion. Anything to survive and climb the slippery pole of power, right? One day you are a Nazi, next day you are the biggest supporter of the Jewish people, all hypocritical and laughable, but unfortunately, this is how things unfolded. The way Heinrich Böll described German society of that time through Hans’ voice was interesting. One of my favourite scenes was the one in which Hans’ father pays him a visit and tries to help him. It was a beautiful scene. Hans’ father turns out to be a beautiful person – a flawed person but a beautiful person. There was another character I loved – Derkum, who is Marie’s father. Derkum is a beautiful person, a honest man, a fearless man, and doesn’t care about money or status.

Now the bad news. I don’t exactly know what happened, but halfway through the story, the book was hard to read. I wasn’t sure what the main character was doing, I wasn’t sure where the story was going, the pages weren’t moving, and I had to plough through. I took multiple breaks to break the monotony. I thought things will improve, but they didn’t. Occasionally, there was an interesting scene, there was a beautiful paragraph, but it was hard to read. Finally, somehow, I got through it, and I was relieved. I understood that the central message probably was that the narrator refuses to compromise on his life and his art, while other people do, and these other people lead comfortable lives, while the narrator loses everything and literally ends up begging on the street. This is the price one has to pay if one doesn’t wish to compromise. This probably is the point of the story. But the way it is depicted in the second half didn’t work for me. I also didn’t understand why Hans doesn’t take his dad’s help. His dad comes to visit, talks to him like a friend, initially offers him help with strings attached, and later offers him help without any strings. Hans doesn’t take it. What else is a parent supposed to do? I was actually disappointed with Hans. He asks many people for help. Nearly everyone refuses. The one person who offers to help him on his terms is his dad. And Hans refuses that. I didn’t understand that.

I enjoyed ‘The Train Was On Time’. But this one, ‘The Clown’, I liked parts of it, but parts of it were underwhelming.

I think with a few underwhelming books coming one after the other, I feel that the problem is with me. I’m probably having reading fatigue. Need to take a break from reading and go out and enjoy the sun, go to the beach and watch the waves, take the bus and go to a part of the city I haven’t been to, or just do something different to come out of the fatigue. I’m not an outdoors person, I’m a homebody, and I avoid doing all this, and I love staying at home, and so I have to muster up some energy and step out of my comfort zone. At the very least, I think I should read something simpler, like a comic or a children’s book or a mystery.

Some of my favourite parts.

“I gave up talking long ago to anyone about money or art. When these two things meet, something is always wrong: art is either under- or overpaid. In an English traveling circus I once saw a clown who was twenty times better than I am as a craftsman and ten times better as an artist, and who got less than ten marks a night: his name was James Ellis, he was in his late forties, and when I invited him for supper — we had ham omelet, salad, and apple pie — he was overcome with nausea: it was ten years since he had eaten so much all at once. Ever since I met James I have given up talking about money and art.”

“What I find particularly embarrassing are films about artists. Most films about artists must be made by people who would have paid Von Gogh not even an ounce of tobacco for a picture but only half an ounce, and later would have regretted even that because they realized he would have sold it even for a pipeful of tobacco. In films about artists the suffering of the artistic soul, the poverty and the wrestling with the demon, are always put in the past. A living artist who has run out of cigarettes, can’t buy shoes for his wife, is of no interest to film people because three generations of nincompoops haven’t yet confirmed that he is a genius. One generation of nincompoops would not be enough for them. “The turbulent searching of the artistic soul.” It is embarrassing, such a thing does exist…”

I read this for ‘German Literature Month‘ hosted by Caroline (from ‘Beauty is a Sleeping Cat’) and Lizzy (from ‘Lizzy’s Literary Life’) which is celebrated through the whole of November.

Have you read ‘The Clown’ or any other book by Heinrich Böll?

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Book Review – Nothing But Ghosts by Judith Hermann (Translated by Margot Bettauer Dembo)

Posted in Book Review, German literature, German Literature Month, Literature Month, Short Stories, tagged , , , , , , on December 2, 2024| 6 Comments »

I read Judith Hermann’s first short story collection ‘Summerhouse, Later‘ a long time back and loved it. So I thought I’ll read her second collection ‘Nothing But Ghosts‘ now.

This book has seven stories. Each of them is around 40 pages long. So they are not really short stories but long stories. Most of the stories are a square (or a rectangle, if you like that shape more). That is, there is a woman and a man, who are friends, or sometimes lovers or partners, or sometimes their relationship is undefined. They meet another woman and a man. And what happens between these four people, the conversations they have and the ballet they dance is the story. Sometimes there are more people. Sometimes there are less.

My favourite story in the collection was the first one, ‘Ruth (Girlfriends)‘. It was a triangle, that is there were three main characters in it. It is the story of two women who are close friends, and then one of them betrays the other. It is heartbreaking. It made me think of the Ivan Turgenev stories I used to read when I was young – after reading them, I used to shut myself in my room and cry. They had a similar plot – about how a man betrays his beloved. Instead of a man, in Judith Hermann’s story it is a woman. I always wondered why people betray their closest friend, what is the point in that. It always breaks my heart when I read a story like that.

I felt that compared to Hermann’s first collection ‘Summerhouse, Later’, this one was a bit underwhelming. But that first story, I loved that. Eventhough it was about betrayal.

Some of my favourite parts from the book.

From ‘Cold-Blue‘

“Magnus refuses to be annoyed. That’s the nice thing about him, the thing that Jonina really loves. It is hard to upset him, to upset his equanimity, you can’t rattle him; he rarely imputes anything bad to people. He is polite, decent and serious; he knows how to listen; if you ask him a question, he answers it; if you ask him something in the morning at breakfast, he will answer too. He would never say, ‘I’m tired, I don’t want to talk right now; I’d rather read.’ And of course this tempts her, too. There is something stubborn, something stoic and inflexible about him; his politeness is an armour that’s almost impossible to pierce.”

From ‘Acqua Alta‘

“Actually I find travelling difficult. For no reason I get anxious two or three days before the start of a trip; it all seems senseless to me, the distance, the foreign places, the continents no different from what I can see from my window at home. Four weeks in a strange country. What’s the point, I think, what could possibly be different there, what good will it do me – in an absurd way, I feel as though I’ve already seen it all. It’s impossible for me to feel secure and carefree in strange cities; there’s nothing I’d like more than to stay in my hotel room, lock the door, and not go out at all. Of course I don’t stay in my hotel room; I do go out. Still the feeling of anxiety rarely leaves me.”

From ‘Nothing But Ghosts‘

He : “If you don’t have a child, then you don’t know, for instance, what it’s like to buy him a pair of little blue Nike sneakers.”

She : “What’s it like?”

He : “Well, it’s like this – it’s hard to describe, but it’s nice. These sneakers are so small and tiny and perfect, a perfect copy of a real sneaker. You buy these tiny sneakers, blue and yellow with sturdy laces and cushioned soles in a perfect little shoe box, and you take them home to your kid and put them on for him, and he runs off in them. He simply runs off in them. That’s all.”

I read this for ‘German Literature Month‘ hosted by Caroline (from ‘Beauty is a Sleeping Cat’) and Lizzy (from ‘Lizzy’s Literary Life’) which is celebrated through the whole of November.

Have you read ‘Nothing But Ghosts’ or ‘Summerhouse, Later’? What to you think about Judith Hermann’s stories?

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Book Review – We’re Flying by Peter Stamm (translated by Michael Hofmann)

Posted in Book Review, German Literature Month, Literature Month, Swiss Literature, tagged , , , on December 1, 2024| 6 Comments »

After reading ‘It’s Getting Dark‘, I decided to read another Peter Stamm book. I read this one, ‘We’re Flying‘. This is also a short story collection. It is a combination of two short story collections which originally appeared in German. So it is double the size of a typical Peter Stamm book.

I’ll just write about the stories I liked the most.

‘The Hurt‘ is about a young man who goes to stay with his grandparents in the mountains during one summer and the experience he has and what happens when he returns back a few years later and tries to reconnect with people he met before and how much things have changed. The moral of the story is that we can’t go back to the past, however much nostalgic we feel about it, because people have changed, the world has changed.

‘The Letter‘ is about a woman who is grieving over her husband and then suddenly while going through his things, she discovers a secret about him and it turns her world upside down. Makes us realize how much we don’t know about the closest people in our lives.

‘Years Later‘ is another story where a man tries reconnecting with his past. It doesn’t go well. In the end, he feels that maybe he was the villain in the story, atleast one of the villains. Can’t go back to the past. Never. There is an old saying in my place, Never search for the origin of a river, or the origin story of a saint. You won’t like what you discover.

‘Summer Folk‘ was my most favourite story from the book. It is about a writer who goes to a quiet place to find solitude so that he can write. The resort where he finds a room, there is no one there. The woman who manages the place looks mysterious. What happens there forms the rest of the story. Loved the ending, very beautiful.

‘Seven Sleepers‘ is about a young man who is a vegetable farmer and what happens when he falls in love. It was my second most favourite story in the book.

‘The Suitcase‘ is about a man whose wife is serious and ends up in the emergency room and how he handles the situation.

I enjoyed reading ‘We’re Flying’. I still think that Peter Stamm is a better novelist than a short story writer, but many of the stories in this book were still enjoyable.

I read this for ‘German Literature Month‘ hosted by Caroline (from ‘Beauty is a Sleeping Cat’) and Lizzy (from ‘Lizzy’s Literary Life’) which is celebrated through the whole of November.

Sharing some of my favourite parts from the book.

From ‘Go out into the Fields‘

“You don’t paint them to show them off. You don’t exhibit your sketches. When your friends call on you in your studio, they want to see the big pieces you will exhibit, the landscapes with mythological or biblical scenes. They pass judgments that are baffling to you. You ignore them. You’d rather do it wrong in your way than do it right according to the prescription of those twenty people. They all know better, give you advice, as if you didn’t know that you can’t pull off the big things, and why you can’t. The biblical figures, the mythological figures, basically they don’t interest you. Your true love is for the sketches, the little mood pieces. If you could manage to depict the moment in just the way you sensed it, so that the boy in Trouville would recognize his village. That he might see the beauty of the village, the beauty of the moment. But who cares about such things?”

From ‘In the Forest‘

“You have to learn to live without expectations, that’s the only way of getting by. Patience by itself isn’t enough, because in fact nothing happens. In the forest there is no future and no past, everything there is either instantaneous or takes place over periods that cannot be measured in mere years. Sometimes Anja imagines what it was like when the whole country was covered with forest. Then she climbs up the lookout tower, peers down at the city, and sees nothing but trees. She sees the trees in the parks and gardens and along the streets, envoys from a past or future time, and everything in between loses its brashness and its significance. Even the old town, the houses that are many hundreds of years old, seem no less provisional to her than her shelter of branches and canvas.

Eventually the ice will return and efface everything that people have built and made. Glaciers will lie over the land for thousands of years, rivers of ice miles deep, and what they will finally leave behind will be a new landscape; there will be new rivers and valleys, the moraines will form chains of hills, enormous piles of rubble that will soon be colonized by the first pioneer plants. Trees will grow on the humus, a thin forest to begin with, then ever thicker. Wild animals will come over the mountains in the south : insects, birds, deer and antelope, and with them their predators, foxes and wolves and lynxes and the first man. And then it will all be as though nothing had happened.”

Have you read ‘We’re Flying’? Which is your favourite Peter Stamm book?

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