A Work in Progress

Little Reunions by Eileen Chang

I wish I had a better visual frame of reference when it comes to China, particularly WWII-era China.  I have a vague idea in mind, but I have no background when it comes to film or even Chinese literature really.  Reading books like Little Reunions by Eileen Chang (Xiao tuan yuan translated from the Chinese by Jane Weizhan Pan and Martin Merz) always makes me feel not only ambitious but a little proud when I have tackled them, even if I've not fully grasped what Chang was doing.  I can tell I am in the presence of a literary master but feel only on the periphery of appreciating and understanding her writing. 

Little Reunions is not exactly a hard read, but it is a dense and challenging one thanks to its structure.  For me it required perseverance and disciplined daily reading to get through it.  It's such a lush, rich read, but I don't think my own mental visual library was sufficient to match it.  So very much happened, yet I am not sure I can explain it except in wide overarching swathes.  I can generally explain but I think the beauty is in the small details and descriptions.  The story is told in these, what for me seems, flashes of memory.  She moves from place to place and scene to scene, and while the switches are almost seamless, you almost don't realize time has passed or where she is in her storytelling.  There is not really a proper beginning, middle and end as you expect in novels, and the cast of characters is huge.  Like a Russian novel the names or honorifics vary, making that eight-page character list very helpful in orienting yourself.  One character might be referred to just once or twice and another many times but by more than one name.

A little background--From what I have read Little Reunions is Chang's most autobiographical novel.  She was born in Shanghai to an aristocratic family.  Her mother was educated abroad and preferred to live there rather than China.  Her father, on the other hand, was an opium addict with conservative views that clashed with Eileen.  Her literary career began early and she enjoyed great success until the mid-1950s when she fell out of favor with the government.  At that point she emigrated to California where she worked as a researcher in Berkeley and continued to write.  Little Reunions was written in 1976 and published in China in 2009, but this is the first English translation.  Apparently her executors were given a 600-page handwritten manuscript, but I am not sure how much editing was involved to create the final work. 

The translator's note mentions the English title of the novel is meant to reflect "Chang's musings on her life".  The story centers around Julie, who at the start is a schoolgirl in Hong Kong just before war breaks out.  Born in Shanghai, her mother and father have separated.  Her mother seems to be out of her life more than in it, and it's obvious that their relationship is fraught with tension.  Her father is an opium addict living with his concubine.  Julie has been instructed to call them Second Uncle and Second Aunt (Rachel).  She has one brother, Julian, who makes numerous appearances yet it feels he is off stage most of the time.  The narrative is 'stories' (I'm not sure what to call them since the narrative flows even if the scenes are constantly moving around in  time) of her life and of her family and relationships with two men, but in particular her first husband Chih-Yung.  She is so often separated from her mother and husband and family, hence the "little reunions" when their lives reconnect again and again.

I have some very vivid images in my mind from this book, and some very visceral responses to her relationships (Chih-Yung mostly had other wives and lovers scattered all over China, and Julie's mother could verge on cruel), yet at the same time this is a story that is also very elusive.  It follows Julie over the course of years as she lives in Hong Kong and returns to Shanghai during the war.  She goes to school and embarks on a writing career with one of her books even being adapted to a movie.  There is a very deep connection with her family and her ancestors.  And there is her trials with lovers.  The descriptions are amazing, but I feel my attention was focused too much on trying to make sense of the narrative--seeing the trees for the forest sort of situation.  Read once for story and then again for the parts that make it up?   

It is not, perhaps, the best place to start with her work, but it is certainly very compelling at the same time.  I'm going to pick up her short story collection, Love in a Fallen City, next.  In a review I read, her writing was compared to that of Eve Babitz Anais Nin and Eileen Myles (I have the first two writers' books on my TBR piles and now will look at Myles as well)--"Chang draws the reader into her inner realm with direct, yet lyrical, prose that allow events, scenery, and characters to  mod the story." (Los Angeles Review of Books).  That same review mentions a collection of essays by Chang, Written on the Water, that the reviewer calls "something of a blueprint for Little Reunions", so it seems a natural next step (along with the short stories) for me to get into and understand Chang's life and work.  The book was a tease into her world, and now I want to know more.  Maybe after I am more familiar with her, it will be time to revisit Little Reunions and I will have a firmer mental idea and better visuals for really seeing into her writing.  As expected NYRB has started off the year with a very provocative and amazing work.

Ten New Books I Want to Read!

My library holds list has been maxed out all year and there are no signs of it waning as there are so many great-sounding books coming out.  It is a constant shuffle of moving books on and off (and adding titles to my 'virtual later shelf').  How to whittle it down to just ten?  But here are ten forthcoming books (what better way to start the week off) I can't wait to read.

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje -- "From the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of The English Patient: a mesmerizing new novel that tells a dramatic story set in the decade after World War II through the lives of a small group of unexpected characters and two teenagers whose lives are indelibly shaped by their unwitting involvement." (May 8).

Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman -- "'Stage four. Surgery. Recovering.' While those are the simple words that once described Dr. Francine Burk’s situation, the reality is much more complex. Her new reality is bacon rinds for breakfast and feeling unduly thrilled by her increasing ability to walk across a room without assistance. And it’s being offered a placement at a prestigious research institute where she can put to good use her recent award money. With the Foundation’s advanced technological resources and a group of fascinating primates, Francine can begin to verify her subversive scientific discovery, which has challenged the foundations of history―her Theory of Bastards. (April 24).

Basic Black with Pearls by Helen Weinzweig -- "Shirley and Coenraad’s affair has been going on for decades, but her longing for him is as desperate as ever. She is a Toronto housewife; he works for an international organization known only as the Agency. Their rendezvous take place in Tangier, in Hong Kong, in Rome and are arranged by an intricate code based on notes slipped into issues of National Geographic. He recognizes her by her costume: a respectable black dress and string of pearls; his appearance is changeable. But something has happened, the code has been discovered, and Coenraad leads Shirley (who prefers to be known as “Lola Montez”) to the last place she wants to go: her home city, the city of her impoverished immigrant childhood. In Toronto, Shirley will seek her lover in a series of locations that echo back to her the trauma of the origins she’s long since left behind in her life of upper-bourgeois stability. Eventually, her wanderings lead her back to her own house, where she discards her pearls, and trades in her basic black for a dress of vibrant multicolored silk."  A lost feminist classic--I am hoping it might be my April NYRB selection!  (April 17).

Orchid and the Wasp by Caoilinn Hughes -- "In this dazzlingly original debut novel, award-winning Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes introduces a heroine of mythic proportions in the form of one Gael Foess. A tough, thoughtful, and savvy opportunist, Gael is determined to live life on her own terms. Raised in Dublin by single-minded, careerist parents, Gael learns early how a person’s ambitions and ideals can be compromised— and she refuses to let her vulnerable, unwell younger brother, Guthrie, suffer such sacrifices." (july 10).

All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church -- "A powerful novel about a gutsy showgirl who tries to conquer her past amongst the glamour of 1960s Las Vegas—and finds unexpected fortune, friendship, and love." (March 6).

Straying by Molly McCloskey -- "From “an extravagantly gifted writer who deserves to be widely read” (Rachel Cusk, The Telegraph), this intimate, quietly stunning novel tells the story of a young American expat who settles in Ireland in the late 1980s, marries, and lives through the consequences of an affair." (February 20).

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James -- "Vermont, 1950. There's a place for the girls whom no one wants--the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming--until one of them mysteriously disappears. . . .   Vermont, 2014. As much as she's tried, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister's death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister's boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can't shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case." (March 20).

The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman -- "Conceived while his father, Bear, cavorted around Rome in the 1950s, Pinch learns quickly that Bear's genius trumps all. After Bear abandons his family, Pinch strives to make himself worthy of his father's attention--first trying to be a painter himself; then resolving to write his father's biography; eventually settling, disillusioned, into a job as an Italian teacher in London. But when Bear dies, Pinch hatches a scheme to secure his father's legacy--and make his own mark on the world." (March 20).

The Balcony by Jane Delury -- "What if our homes could tell the stories of others who lived there before us? Set in a small village near Paris, The Balcony follows the inhabitants of a single estate-including a manor and a servants' cottage-over the course of several generations, from the Belle Époque to the present day, introducing us to a fascinating cast of characters. A young American au pair develops a crush on her brilliant employer. An ex-courtesan shocks the servants, a Jewish couple in hiding from the Gestapo attract the curiosity of the neighbors, and a housewife begins an affair while renovating her downstairs. Rich and poor, young and old, powerful and persecuted, all of these people are seeking something: meaning, love, a new beginning, or merely survival." (March 27).

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager -- "The Last Time I Lied follows a young woman as she returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago." Why do I love these 'cold case' dipping into the past sorts of stories . . . ? (July 10).

State of the Nightstand: February 25

Not much movement in the pile.  Maybe this is not a good idea to look at it every weekend and see how the reading is progressing.  I'm not sure whether this is spurring me on to accomplish more or depress me to see how little I am finishing.  To be fair the Chang is slow going and I am dedicating lots of reading time to it.  I am determined to finish this month and I am looking forward to it not being in next week's pile and for the Kempowski to float up to the top.  Sara Moss should also be making an exit and a new prompt book (as yet not much thought has occurred for the next possible read) taking its place.  Do you spot two newcomers?  The 'sad' thing is my library pile almost rivals these.  And just today on a whim I pulled two books from my own piles, both books by Spanish authors, that I am contemplating reading . . . soon.  I guess you will have to check back to see what happens.

Tired of Winter Weekend Reading Notes

If I didn't already have far too many books in reading progress at the moment I would look for the book on my shelf that had the hottest, most sultry, sunshiny setting I could find.  Let's just visualize that for a second.  A beach, the hot sun shining down, sweat on the brow but the ocean just feet away.  We're under a beach umbrella maybe, with just our toes poking out, but we can hear the waves coming languidly in.  We have a cool refreshing drink nearby and a book in hand--maybe a book with an icy setting since it is so hot out we need to feel the coolness in our minds (only in our minds).  Let's just soak up some of that sun and heat for a moment. 

Ah.  I needed that.  It has been a wintry-mix-every-other-day sort of week.  I have had to put those yaktrax on the bottom of my shoes on several mornings to avoid falling on the ice.  I can handle cold and I can work with snow, but ice is a problem.  It just keeps coming every other day as we seem to be right in the middle of colder north winds and warmer south winds.  One more day tomorrow of it and then nothing until mid week when another burst arrives.  February has been a sloppy, messy, cold month and I am sorry to even talk about it, so let's move on to a far more interesting topic--books.

Although I was hoping to accomplish more reading, I am still determined to finish three more books this month, including my first NYRB of my 2018 subscription.  Fewer books than last month, but then February is a short month.  I was probably a little too enthusiastic in my starts and might have to reassess the reading pile and be more realistic in what I can actually manage and what I want to read most at the moment.  I definitely need some quiet hours in a coffee shop maybe to sit and read without distractions!

***

Lots of interesting--good and bad--bookishness this week.  Like the nasty weather, let's get the bad over with first.

I am shaking my head in disbelief and chagrin over this.  I truly think this country's leaders have lost their way and certainly the more important priorities these days.  But when "we" choose a leader who does not even read, then I guess we all have suffer the fallout. 

And we definitely need this kind of wake-up call, too!

***

Here's a list of books you might not often see (maybe it needs to go up above under the 'bad news' section?).

Check out these great and iconic New Yorker covers.  Someday I want to choose one of their covers to order from their print shop and have framed for my wall.

If you are in London in March, please check this out for me and tell me what it's like--a bookstore after my own heart!  I wonder which books they are going to stock?

Here's a list of the "greatest living crime novelists' favorite crime novels.

Along with reading and maybe finishing a few books this weekend, I plan on writing a few postcards, too (I have even started once again with Postcrossing).  So I will leave you with these very cool literary postcards I came across this week (and I even ordered a few of them!).

Despite the cold and ice, the sun is shining today, so I will at least imagine warmth.  Happy reading and writing or sunshining (as in sitting by a sunny window with a book and warm beverage in hand) this weekend everyone!

Baker's Dozen of Jack Reacher Readalikes

Lee Child is coming to give a lecture at my university in April.  I already have my ticket and a copy of Gone Tomorrow on my bedside reading pile to read (very soon) in anticipation.  I have never read any Jack Reacher novels, though I know they are hugely popular.  Knowing how often I reach for women authors it is not surprising really, but I am looking forward to finally making his acquaintance.  I am working on putting together a display of Jack Reacher-like stories at the library where I work and have a pile of books to include in the case, but male authors and protagonists seem to dominate the genre.  So I have been looking for women writers to add to the mix and I have come up with a few that look like worthy additions to the mix.  If you are a keen reader of this subgenre, do let me know how close I have come to picking books/writers that offer the same reading thrill as Lee Child.  (And suggestions are always welcome, of course).

Legal Tender: A Rosato & Associates Novel, Lisa Scottoline - "In the second thrilling novel in New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline’s Rosato & Associates series, a successful lawyer now finds herself on the opposite side of the bench when she’s framed for murder."

Touch & Go (Tessa Leoni), Lisa Gardner -- "Ten minutes after walking the elite Back Bay townhouse and investigator Tessa Leoni already doesn’t like what she sees. Signs of an abduction. Clearly the work of professionals. At best, the entire family has been kidnapped. At worst…"

The Neighbor: A Detective D.D. Warren Novel, Lisa Gardner -- "A young mother, blond and pretty, vanishes from her South Boston home, leaving behind only one witness—her four-year-old daughter—and one suspect—her handsome, secretive husband."

The Jump, Martina Cole -- "You might break out, but you'll never be free.Donna Brunos will do anything for her husband. Including breaking him out of prison.She believes her beloved Georgio when he tells her he's been framed for armed robbery. But planning the jump opens Donna's eyes to a shocking world where the man she married is not who he seems. Now Donna is in danger - and in serious need of an escape of her own..."

A Place of Execution, Val McDermid -- "On a freezing day in December 1963, Alison Carter vanishes from her rural village, an insular community that distrusts the outside world. For the young George Bennett, a newly promoted inspector, it is the beginning of his most difficult and harrowing case--a suspected murder with no body, an investigation with more dead ends and closed faces than he'd have found in the anonymity of the inner city, and an outcome that reverberates through the years."

Postmortem, Patricia Cornwell -- "Under cover of night in Richmond, Virginia, a monster strikes, leaving a gruesome trail of stranglings that has paralyzed the city. Medical examiner Kay Scarpetta suspects the worst: a deliberate campaign by a brilliant serial killer whose signature offers precious few clues. With an unerring eye, she calls on the latest advances in forensic research to unmask the madman. But this investigation will test Kay like no other, because it’s being sabotaged from within—and someone wants her dead."

If Only She Knew, Lisa Jackson -- "It begins on a dark stretch of highway in northern California. Caught in a blinding glare of headlights, two vehicles swerve and crash—leaving one woman dead, and another in a coma. When the surviving woman awakens, her memory is gone and her face has been reconstructed. Her family tells her that her name is Marla Cahill—but they’re all strangers to her. "

Cop Town, Karin Slaughter -- "...an epic story of a city in the midst of seismic upheaval a serial killer targeting cops and a divided police force tasked with bringing a madman to justice Atlanta 1974 As a brutal murder and a furious manhunt rock the city's police department.  Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the job will also be her last She s determined to defy her privileged background by making her own way wearing a badge and carrying a gun But for a beautiful young woman life will be anything but easy in the macho world of the Atlanta PD where even the female cops have little mercy for rookies."

A Dark and Twisted Tide, Sharon Bolton -- "Award-winning author Sharon Bolton has once again crafted a tightly plotted, utterly unpredictable thriller around one of the most compelling characters in crime fiction today, intensely private London police officer Lacey Flint, whose penchant for keeping secrets is only matched by her determination to uncover those of others."

Mean Streak, Sandra Brown -- "Dr. Emory Charbonneau, a pediatrician and marathon runner, disappears on a mountain road in North Carolina. By the time her husband Jeff, miffed over a recent argument, reports her missing, the trail has grown cold. Literally. Fog and ice encapsulate the mountainous wilderness and paralyze the search for her."

Birdman, Mo Hayder -- "In his first case as lead investigator with London’s crack murder squad, Detective Inspector Jack Caffery is called on to investigate the murder of a young woman whose body has been discovered near the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, south-east London. Brutalized, mutilated beyond recognition, the victim is soon joined by four others discovered in the same area—all female and all ritualistically murdered. And when the post-mortem examination reveals a gruesome signature connecting the victims, Caffery realizes exactly what he’s dealing with—a dangerous serial killer."

Fragile, Lisa Unger -- "Everybody knows everybody in The Hollows, a quaint, charming town outside of New York City. It's a place where neighbors keep an eye on one another's kids, where people say hello in the grocery store, and where high school cliques and antics are never quite forgotten. As a child, Maggie found living under the microscope of small-town life stifling. But as a wife and mother, she has happily returned to The Hollows's insular embrace. As a psychologist, her knowledge of family histories provides powerful insights into her patients' lives. So when the girlfriend of her teenage son, Rick, disappears, Maggie's intuitive gift proves useful to the case--and also dangerous."

Breaking Creed, Alex Kava -- "Ryder Creed and his dogs have been making national headlines. They’ve intercepted several major drug stashes smuggled through Atlanta’s airport. But their newfound celebrity has also garnered some unwanted attention.  When Creed and one of his dogs are called in to search a commercial fishing vessel off the coast of Pensacola Beach, they discover a secret compartment. But the Colombian cartel’s latest shipment isn’t drugs. It’s human…"

I have read a few books by a couple of the authors, but I have not read any of these particular titles!  A whole swathe of fiction that is completely open to me.  Maybe a new discovery here?

Three Floors Up by Eshkol Nevo

In an interview with author Eshkol Nevo, he notes that as he was writing Three Floors Up (published in Hebrew as Shalosh Komot in 2015 and translated by Sondra Silverstein), a book he wrote in "five explosive months", he was not in love with his characters, that they were flawed and as he wrote he found himself resenting them.  Resenting them, yet also "understanding them deeply."  I found Nevo's earlier novel, Homesick, utterly engaging, yet I struggled with his latest book.  Stylistically it reads quite smoothly, but I found it hard to engage with his characters and briefly thought of setting the book aside.  Life is messy and their lives are at times very messy, and I could not quite connect with them. 

Time and again, however, I have learned that a little perseverance with a 'difficult' text (or difficult characters) will in the end offer its own rewards.  Although I never quite warmed up to the people living in this apartment building in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, I was impressed by the way the story was created and told and the interconnectedness of lives so independent of each other yet also so aware--like planets orbiting each other and sometimes crossing paths and shedding light and then bouncing off back into their own worlds none the wiser. 

The novel is made up of three stories, literally and figuratively--each one set on a different floor of the apartment complex.  Each story is told in a confessional style, which I found intriguing.  Each character narrating his or her story to someone we never meet.  There is no judgement and no conversation between the 'confessor' and the 'listener' (maybe the reader is more than just a reader/observer but literally the listener and maybe even 'judge'?), so the reader never hears a response, but must connect the dots from listening to these inner monologues and hints that other characters on other floors might drop in their story. 

It wasn't until the third story where things began to fall into place and the structure of the story came into focus and gave me that little moment of enlightenment and appreciation.  The last narrator brings Freud into her internal conversation and mentions the id and the ego and superego "containing all our impulses and urges".  Freud and his theories dividing the psyche into three floors much like this apartment complex mirror each other nicely.  No worries, as Freud only offers a hint or nudge, and then the action moves on.  With each new story and as the reader moves up each floor, things become more clear and in the end there is a satisfying resolution.  So, while the narratives are only loosely connected, each new one moves things along creating a whole picture.  There is something nicely satisfying in the symmetrical telling of the story and the progress towards a tidy ending that gave me a better appreciation of the struggles of the characters.

No two lives are ever the same and each floor, each story was different and compelling.  On the first floor lives Arnon, a retired officer who served in the First Intifada, and his family.  He is obsessed with the idea that one of his neighbors has abused one of his daughters.  The obsession begins to take over his life and affect his relationships with those around him.  "Talking about this stuff is unpleasant" he tells his friend, a writer, so he will just spill it out as long as it doesn't end up in a book.  There is no happy ending for Arnon, and his life and relationships are in left in a muddle.  He wants his friend to give him a happy ending, to sort out his life and the reader is left wondering what will happen to Arnon and his family. 

Up a flight of stairs and we meet Hani whose husband travels frequently abroad leaving her alone with their young family.  You can feel the tension in Hani's narration.  She has no one to talk to.  While her husband's world is broad, Hani's seems to become increasingly narrow being always at home with no one to talk to.  Her story is told through installments in a letter she is writing to a friend who is living in the US.  It feels real, and maybe for Hani it is, but as her story is revealed the reader questions if what she is telling her about her life is actually happening.  There are glimpses of Hani's life in the third story through vague interactions, but it's never quite resolved if what she thought happened really did.

Finally it is Devora, a recently widowed retired judge, who will bring the story full circle.  She had a strong relationship with her husband who was also a court judge, but one that perhaps needed all her effort and energy and which suffered in their disagreements over their only son.  One day she comes across an old answering machine from earlier in their life together that has his voice on the outgoing message.  A link to him and their happy life, she begins talking into the machine, as if to him.  Through her short messages the reader finds that their life was perhaps not so happy and comes to understand why her son severed all ties with his parents.  She finds peace and resolution through political activism, through the rallies and protests happening outside her windows.

For me, this is a novel that I have come to appreciate more after finishing and allowing time to let it percolate.  I love Nevo's storytelling style, even if some of the reading was a bit uneven.  It's very cleverly presented and quite rich in retrospect.  He is a writer I will definitely be revisiting.

Teaser Tuesday: The Extra

Ever since I took a couple of Israeli Literature classes a few years back I have been interested in reading books by Israeli/Jewish writers.  I have accumulated a stack (still growing) of new books by authors I was introduced to in class but had gotten away from reading (not a lack of desire, of course, just a case of too many books and too many interests and never enough reading time).  I've just finished a novel by Eshkol Nevo (must write about it soon) and decided I will keep reading books from that part of the world this year.  One of the nice things about having a particular interest ad plans to read further in a particular area is that I always have a stack of suitable reading material, and knowing those books are at arm's reach means I have incentive to stay on track and finish books in a timely manner.

I'd been thinking of my choice for some time and while I had a stack of several really good books, one of which was a recent award winner, I loved A.B. Yehoshua's The Lover and have been keen to read more of his work.  His newest novel, The Extra (Nitzevet translated by Stuart Schoffman), came out in 2014 and was translated from Hebrew into English in 2016 and is now handily in paperback.

The story concerns a forty-ish woman, a harpist, now living in the Netherlands who must return home to Jerusalem after the death of her father.  Noga's decision to remain childless caused a rift in her marriage that ended in divorce, so returning home to her old life will cause a stir in her settled world.  During her stay in Israel she finds work as an extra in movies, television and opera.  "These new identities undermine the firm boundaries of behavior heretofore protected by the music she plays, and Noga, always an extra in someone else's story, takes charge of the plot."

This sounds wonderfully appealing to me and I am curious how this "wrinkle" in her life will redefine her.  Women reinventing themselves at later stages in their lives is a theme I have been immensely interested in, and this should be an interesting take (and not that it matters, but always is something of a curiosity) Yehoshua is a male writer so I wonder how he will handle the story.

As I have literally only picked up the book to start reading, the teaser is as much for me and the novel opens:

"At four in the morning the cell phone rings, its alarm forgotten from the day before, yet she doesn't turn off the wistful melody planted in the gadget by an elderly flutist who wanted to be remembered during her long visit to Israel.  Nor, when quiet is restored, does she curl up under her parents' warm quilt to resume her interrupted sleep.  Instead she tugs lightly on the levers of the electric bed and elevates its head, so that while still lying down she can scan the dawning Jerusalem sky, in search of the planet for which she was named."

There is nothing like the promise of a new story, is there?!

State of the Nightstand: February 18

Hmm.  They've grown it seems.  Maybe time to reassess?  Lots of progress but only one novel finished, and another one very close.  A new NYRB added, an ARC added.  Nothing reshuffled out but need to spend time with those books that have been sitting and waiting so patiently.  I could use a little time off to spend with my books!

A Few Bits & Bobs for the Weekend

Just a few odds and ends to start the weekend off with.  I had hoped to catch up on writing about a few books I recently finished but the week has been busy and not only has my reading time been a little wonky but I've not been online much either. 

I am not a big fan of Valentine's Day, and curiously this year seemed even more lowkey than normal (maybe because it landed on Ash Wednesday?), but I did indulge in a litle Valentine for myself.  Did you see the t-shirt version of this tote bag?  I bought one as a treat for myself.  I love their t-shirts and might have to get another one soon, but sheesh (be warned) they run small--talk about 'slim fit'!

Back when it was first released I read Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (but apparently never wrote about it properly).  It has been made into a movie and is due to be released in April and the trailer looks absolutely charming.  I can't wait to see it and think I might reread it if I can find my copy.  Oh, and I didn't know Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop was also being made into a movie!

And I had no idea Rosamund Pilcher's Coming Home (another favorite, very favorite, comfort read) was also adapted to the smaller screen.  I love the story so much, do I dare watch the movie?  (Look how young Keira Knightley looks!).

Have you heard about the newly created Staunch Book Prize?  It is "the hunt for original thrillers"--an award for a book in the thriller genre in which "no woman is beaten, staled, sexually exploited or raped".  It does sound refreshing and I can't wait to see which  books make their shortlist, which will be announced in the fall.

I listened to the Audible teaser for the true crime original West Cork and I think I am hooked. It is free at the moment, so I am off to download it to play while out walking (and maybe the weather will soon cooperate and make it more pleasant to walk outside--one can dream anyway!).

Here's a list of just ten books to read for Black History Month (I've only read the Toni Morrison).  Now that I think of it, I really should pick up a book to read in honor of the month.  Something to think about this weekend.

And in honor of St. Valentine's Day, there is this list of romance novels based on other novels you know and love.  I have the novel by Amanda Quick that I really need to get to sometime soon--it looks like a good distraction from the cold!

I should probably not be thinking of any new books (and a number of them landed in my mailbox this week, and then there are at least four holds at the library to pick up this weekend, too) considering how my night table is literally groaning under the weight of in progress books, but we'll see later this weekend how things shake down.

Stay warm (or maybe in your part of the world, stay cool!) and happy reading this weekend.

February NYRB: All for Nothing

Time for a little fanfare as my newest NYRB subscription book came in the mail yesterday.  I knew I would not be finished with the January selection, Eileen Chang's Little Reunions, but I am actually quite pleased with my progress in it.  I was a little apprehensive about the book, as it seemed a little formidable when I first picked it up.  The story comes with an eight page index of characters and while not especially chunky, those 320 or so odd pages are filled with dense print.  It is a novel that requires, for me at least, steady concentration and is not a book that is especially dippable--one to read a little and set down for a few days. 

To that end I have very religiously been reading about six pages daily.  I realize that sounds like very little effort, but that is what has made it so manageable.  Sometimes facing a difficult or long text makes me not want to pick it up until 'I know I will have a chunk of time to spend with it'.  As my reading is done mostly in small daily doses here and there throughout the day, there never seems to be a time where I get unlimited free reading.  So six pages is eminently manageable.  And now I am nearing the halfway mark.  Often I want to spend even more time with the story and look forward to the next six pages, so with continued dedication I will finish it (even if it takes me longer than the month between NYRB books that arrive in the mail).

I am hoping that works the same with Walter Kempowski's All for Nothing (Alles Umsonst, translated from the German by Anthea Bell).  Actually I have the UK edition of this book, which I started to read a couple of years ago for Caroline's Literature and War Readalong.  I quite liked what I read, but it was a case of too many books and not enough time.  I meant to get back to it, and now I will.  In length it is about the same as the Chang (but with no extensive character list), but there are shorter chapters and lots of text breaks so I hope to read more in each sitting and will be starting today. 

All for Nothing was Kapowski's last book and was only published in 2006, so a fairly recent one compared to many other NYRB selections. 

"In East Prussia, January 1945, the German forces are in retreat and the Red Army is approaching. The von Globig family’s manor house, the Georgenhof, is falling into disrepair. Auntie runs the estate as best she can since Eberhard von Globig, a special officer in the German army, went to war, leaving behind his beautiful but vague wife, Katharina, and her bookish twelve-year-old son, Peter. As the road fills with Germans fleeing the occupied territories, the Georgenhof begins to receive strange visitors—a Nazi violinist, a dissident painter, a Baltic baron, even a Jewish refugee. Yet in the main, life continues as banal, wondrous, and complicit as ever for the family, until their caution, their hedged bets, and their denial are answered by the wholly expected events they haven’t allowed themselves to imagine."

Walter Kempowski was a boy of fifteen when he witnessed this mass exodus of German population in 1945.  His own father had been conscripted by then and died in battle on the Baltic coast.  It sounds as though Kempowski used autobiographical material in his writings.  He had spent eight years in prison for being found guilty of collaborating with American intelligence and when he was released he was deported to the west as by then the Iron Curtain had fallen.  In her introduction Jenny Erpenbeck writes, "he developed an unsentimental, strikingly precise style that leaves it up to the reader to assess and evaluate what is presented."

I'm really looking forward to reading this.  He sounds like an important writer who was quite prolific, though I don't think much of his writing has been translated into English.  Hopefully there will be more to come. 

If I accomplish one reading 'goal' this year it is to get through all my NYRBs!  They can be substantial reads, but they are worth all the time and effort and in the end the most rewarding, too.