OK, the book of the day is definitely a short novel by the French author: Christian Bobin. He is a new author for me, I've read on the web, he sells his short books in more than 100 000 samples.

The book's French title is La folle allure (sorry, I couldn't find any English version). It is about a young girl, she is also the storyteller, she and her family is a member of a circus, but she run always away, she wants to be free, she make quite silly things.

The book is only 120 pages, I'm going to finish it today.

****

OK, let's try again. I was going to read all day long last Sunday, but finally I couldn't manage it. And the week after was quite busy ,so I still haven't finished the novel by Drago Jancar I mentioned last week. Maybe it sounds stupid, but I have only one problem with it, the book has soooo small letters, that makes me slow by the reading, and I dont' like it.

But the week, of course wasn't without reading. I've read some Slovenian short stories by contemporary, young writers (born in the 1960's). It was quite surprising, there wasn't any mention of the Balkan-war, the stories, the situations, the characters were mostly from the every day life. OK, it was maybe the conception of the editor of this book (it was a collection of short stories from different authors) to select these stories, and I know very well, Slovenia had a quite and peaceful 1990's, (they have a quite different history than other ex-Jugoslavian countries), but it was still a bit surprising.

This antology is a part of a series, called "Little Europe" (or it's maybe better to say "Small Europe") of the Hungarian publisher Jelenkor, and I've discovered for myself some authors (an their works) I've never heard before. French, Austrian, Dutch, Polish (etc) authors.

Sounds exciting.

(And I know, I still should write a review of two books: Frater Gregorius and The True Histroy of the Kelly Gang. Well, maybe next week.... )

I'm currently reading a Slovenian histrical fiction, set in the end of the 18. century: Katarina by Drago Jancar. The story is about an almost 30 year old woman and about a pilgrimage. The book reminds me of the wonderfull lyrical novel by Istvan Szilagyi: Ko hull apado kutba [Stones Are Falling Into Dwiddling Well] (unfortunatelly an another exciting Hungarian novel isn't translated into English). I'm over 100 pages now (it's a quite long novel), and I'm curios, how will became this pilgrimage the greatest thing of Katarina's life. (Or even not...)

As I know, Drago Jancar is an excellent essayist, writes several books about the (Central)-European cultur and mentality. Some of his works are avaible in English.

More later... I'll be back soon!

Lion Feuchtwanger: Raquel:The Jewess of Toledo (1955)

The story of La Fermosa (Dona Raquel) is a famous Spanish story from the end of the 12. centrury. She was the paramour of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Toledo for almost seven years. Her life with the king and her dead is adopted in several literary works, like in the chronicle of Alfons X, or in a play of Franz Grillparzer and of course, in the historical novel of Lion Feuchtwanger.
In his novel Feuchtwanger deals with the circumstances of the murder. Raquels father, a successful and envied Jewish merchant is the financial adviser of the king. He is a confident, straight, sometimes stubborn man, and typically NOT an everybody’s darling. But Catille and Toledo are still the lands of tolerance in this time, Jews, Christians, and Muslims live together, or try to live together. Althought the king is an undecided man, he seems to be very easy influenced, and he is quick-tempered someone. He likes to follow the knightly virtues (his mother-in-law is Eleanor of Aquitaine), and of course he wans to be a great Christian king. But after the Disaster of Alarcos(1188) people gets angry and the Jews are blamed for the loss of the battle, and a little group of kinght who are sent to protect Raquel and her father kill them in cold blood.
As I said, I think, this stories is more about the circumstances. The relationship between Raquel and the king is really schematic. As a female reader from the 21.centruy I would have enjoyed the story more from the point of view of Raquel.

More reviews by me for
The German Reading Challenge...
Fall into Reading 2009 Challenge
The Decades Challenge 09...

Daniel Kehlmann: Measuring the World

2006

So many Geniuses in only one book, Gauss, the two Humbolds, Goethe, Kant, Daguerre, Bonpland.....

The Measuring the World is an amusing and very pleasant novel about two great German scientists: Carl Friedrich Gauss and Alexander von Humboldt. Two parallel lives, two parallel stories in the really best period of the German spirit. They have much in common, but still they have quite different lives.

Gauss is the son of a gardener, he has very big luck when his teacher discovers this boy is an extremely smart someone. Alexander von Humboldt is a noble man, a nephew of a duke and his family is befriended with Goethe, so he can get the best education without any problem. But despite of the different origin, both become professor.

Gauss is thinking always about the problems of the mathematics, he is more a theoretical man, he lives in Göttingen, he has a family, a “normal” life with all the usual problems, Humboldt is more a practical someone, he wants to make about everything statistics, he spends many years in Latin America, but he has no family (except his famous brother Willheim von Humboldt and his family) It looks like Gauss can to find his place in the world easier. Although he is thinking always about the world would be better for him 100 years later. (It funny, how this fictionalized character of Carl Friedrich Gauss is thinking and talking about the real technical inventions of the 20. century.) Goethe is like a god for Humboldt, Gauss hates the great man from Weimar, he thinks, the poet is a very stupid someone.

The end of the 18. and the begin of the 19. century is a great time of the European culture. So, it’s a bit strange when a story is from a cynical, a sceptical point of view. But it's an interesting idea: the greatest scientists of that era maybe didn’t think the same about these years like we do now, 200 years later.

And the end of the story shows a quite interesting perspective, when Gauss’s son travels to America. It’s right that those years were fantastic for the European culture, but maybe it was the last time, and great things happened later only on the “new continent”. 

This review was written for The German Reading Challenge

Elena Ferrante: Troubling Love
1999.

Reading the book Troubling Love by Elena Ferrante I just tried to imagine Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in the story. I wanted to bring near to me the typical Italian (typical Neapolitan) people and their passionate way of talking. But I'm affraid this trying wasn't really succesful.

Troubling Love is a story of a mother-daughter relationship. I would say, it reminds me a bit of The Piano Teacher by Elfride Jelinek, and I think, it's still very different too.

Delia is the first person narrator of the story, a single woman, over 40. She is a comic book artist. The story starts with the information, that Delia’s mother has died. She was found in the sea, almost naked, she was wearing only a very expensive bra.

After the funeral Delia tries to find out, what has happened really with her mother.
She recollects many important (and mostly traumatic) scenes from her childhood. The life of her mother, father, uncle and a man, named Caserta, who was maybe the lover of Amalia, maybe not. Delia wants to find out, why her mother was wearing brand new expensive lingerie, that was very unusual.

And she wants to find Caserta’s son, the boy (now a man) plays az important role in her memory, but she don’t know why. (They meet in the story, but really accidently and under quite strange circumstances.)

After all, she can recollect all the repressed memories of her childhood, the conflicts of the adults, and she can explain herself what happened with her mother. (It’s a bit uncertain, because it is just her version, and we can't be sure, it is the true one.)

And after all, she discovers, when she wants to understand her mothers life, her feeling and motivations, first she have to understand herself.

Was it a good book? Or a bad one? I don't know. I would say rather, it was a novel not really my taste.

OK, after the 24 hour read-a-thon, here is my normal Sunday Salon post for this Sunday.

As I mentioned last week, I discovered some interesting new books on my favourite publisher's site. This company publishes usually the really really best of the contemporary Hungarian literature, for example it is the publisher of the books written by Imre Kertesz, Peter Esterhazy and Peter Nadas.

And that's why I'm a bit confused. I've found among the newest books a novel by a young French writer Anna Gavalda. As I can see, she's going to be more and more popular here in Hungary, but reading the plot of her stories, I think, her works are no more just simple (and really simple, almost stupid ) romantic stories. It's not that quality like the works by the other authors .

OK, I know, I should have a try, let's see what kind is her style really. I know, many of the greatest novels in the history have quite simple spot, and still they are great work.

But, I have a question to you, fellow Saloners, have you heard about Anna Gavalda? Have you read any novel by her? What are your experiences?