Entries from November 2009
Conversations in Bolzano, November 2009, 7/10.
Written by Sándor Márai, published by Penguin Books.
Artful and witty, this novel would make a perfect pièce de theatre. SM describes a couple of days in the life of Giacomo Casanova, during which the famous adventurer and womanizer meets again, in unexpected circumstances, the only woman he might have truly loved. Using conversation and soliloquy as a literary expedient, the author explores the personality of this fascinating historical character. Casanova sees himself as an intellectual, a writer who, though not having yet written a line, is accumulating experience to make his writing more compelling and inspired. In fact he is a rather superficial fellow with a penchant for theatrality who takes himself very seriously rather than the profound researcher of the human soul he purports to be. SM is great at capturing the irony of the constrast between Casanova poetic prowess and his soullessness.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 7/10, Hungarian, Mittel-european, Person History, Sándor Márai
Zeitoun
Zeitoun, November 2009, 8/10.
Written by Dave Eggers. Published by McSweeney’s Books.
A rare non-fiction book, but one that tells a story so incredible that it may as well have been made up. This book follows a Syrian-American family in the lead up to and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Told in clear and concise language, one feels that the author’s sympathy for the family could have clouded his view, but overall I felt that the approach taken was evenhanded. The book benefitted from stating at the outset that it was a work of nonfiction, which meant that the reader did not have to guess what was real and what was not (a particular problem in other works by the same author). Although not a particularly short book, I felt that it could have used some beefing up in certain places, particularly towards the end, when some of the analysis that I would have liked to have seen into the aftermath of Katrina was lacking.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 8/10, American, Dave Eggers, Nonfiction
Selected Writings, Volume 2, Fictions, November 2009, 7.5/10.
Written by Friederich Dürrenmatt, published by University of Chicago Press.
D.’s stories are remarkably diverse in tone register and style. Some take place today, others in a hypothetical orwellian future, others in Greek times. They involve Minotaurs and sales representants, profets and gangsters. Some are incredibly comic, others morbid, yet all feel like anguishing nightmares, because the dominant theme in each of them is the conflict of the individual with a monstruous world. In most stories, the individual is defeated and can only bear his situation thanks to self-deceit. For example, in “The City”, one of my favorite stories, the main character attempts to rebel against the orwellian “administration,” an amorphous entity that controls the city, but is subdued into accepting a job as a guardian, a seemingly powerful role. Except that the guard is confined to living incognito in the same pitch dark dungeon as the prisoner and cannot be distinguished from the prisoners other than from his knowledge of being the guard, because he has a weapon. He cannot use it however, because he is incognito. Guard and prisoner are alike: are all the prisoners guards and viceversa? The thought dawns on him but is soon deflected, because it is only the illusion of having power over others that makes his situation bearable. But the doubt lingers on.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: 7.5/10, Dürrenmatt, Germanophone fiction, Short Stories, Swiss
