The Remains of the Day

Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day (1989)

Somehow it’s a very sad story. There is an English butler, Mr Stevens, who has his philosophy of the importance of dignity. It looks like sometimes, it is the most important thing in his life. His whole life is intended for this principle. Of course, when someone serves other people for a lifetime, it can be an important principle quite easily. But reading Mr Stevens’ reminiscences of his life in Darlington Hall, there is a dissonance between what he says and what other people (we, the readers too) may think about him.

In the main line of the story, we are in the 1950’s, Darlington Hall the former home of the noble Darlington family has a new owner, an American, Mr Faraday. The feelings, that everything has changed after the ww2 extremely, is still there. The good old, “classical” English life seems to be over forever.

Mr Farraday encourages Stevens to borrow a car to take a well-earned break, a "motoring trip." And Stevens receives a letter from an ex-colleague, Miss Kenton (Mrs. Benn) at the same time. So Stevens starts this motoring trip, and he is going to visit Ms Kenton, and hopes, that the woman wants back after 20 years to Darligton Hall.

This trip is very strange. Stevens meets (mostly) accidentally a lot of people, and he can’t talk about other themes, only just about dignity. He is sometimes very ridiculous, and still we feel also sorry for him.

During this trip we can read also Stevens reminiscences about the life in Darlington Hall in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Lord Darlington was a friend of the Germans, he wanted to help the diplomatic talk between the UK and Germany, and there was a conference in the 1920’s in Darlington Hall also with American and French guests. It’s sometimes hard to decide, what kind of man Lord Darlington was. (And Stevens opinion even doesn’t help us.) Was he an old-fashioned gentleman, who wants to help the loser of a war? An amateur diplomat? Or he was someone who turely sympathized with the Nazi ideas? I think, he was an easily influenced man, a bit stupid someone. But Steven idealises him. He notices, that other people have a different opinion, but he thinks Lord Darlington was a good man. But he doesn’t dare to speak about it, this is just his “internal” opinion. There are situations, when Stevens denies, that he was the butler of Lord Darlington.

I feel sorry for Stevens is many situations. He thinks, he is indispensable at an international conference, he has to work even more than perfect. But while he wants to fill the expectations of his employer and the guests, his father dies, and the housekeeper, Miss Kenton leaves Darlington Hall. The people leaves him, who really needs him, really want to be with him.
Very sad, but still a wonderful story.

(This review was written for the challenge: Fall into Reading 09)

Take a look at my list for this challenge here...

Love after war

Bernhard Schlink: The Reader (1995)

First of all I have to admit, I don’t like the stories about teenage boys with the first love and the first sexual experiences. By starting to read this story I’ was a bit afraid, it will more focus on this motive.

The novel starts with the first meeting between the 15 years old boy Michael Berg and the 36 years old Hannah Schmitz in a West German city, in 1958. The story is told by Michael (later, when he is over 40), and the first part of the book is really about the relationship between these two people. The distance between them is not only because the age difference, but they are from two different worlds too. Michael is a son of a philosopher and Hanna is a tram conductress, and she is from Transylvania. This part of the book is easy to read, but it changes very soon, during the second part of the book.

In the second part we met with our protagonists in a court room. Michael attends a law school, and with a group of other students he observes war crimes trials, and Hanna is among those middle-aged women, former SS-guards in Auschwitz, who are now the defendants of a trial (a holocaust survivor writes her memories, the charges against Hanna and the other women base on that book).

That makes the age different between the protagonists a bit more different. Hanna was already an adult during the WW2, she was an active member of that society, she has her own experiences about that regime. Michael is a member of an other generation. He knows the era of the Nazis was terrible, but his knowledge is indirect, his generation has not its own experiences about it. The situation for Michael’s generation is easy: everyone who lived in the regime before is guilty. The life is easy: someone is a sinner or a victim. But Michael discovers through his feeling for Hanna, it isn’t so simple. Of course, what Hanna did is a serious crime, and everyone, Michael too, keeps just Hanna to sentence for prison.

The book is mostly about Michael thoughts. Moral considerations, the question of crime and punishment, the difference between the generations, the difference between common and individual sins. The easy read at the beginning turns into maybe the biggest moral problems of our era.

It’s still important in the story the feeling between Michael and Hanna, it’s important till the end of the book, but all with these circumstances it’s is in an unusual and a very serious context.
Excellent novel.

I would like to recommend some similar books in the topic the ww2 form the point of view of a younger generation:
Morbus Kitahara by Christoph Ransmayr English version: The Dog King (see on amazon...)
Arnyas foutca [the Main Street of Shadows] by László Márton
And a novel about the problem of the common and the individual sins:
Penize od Hitlera [Hitler’s Money] by Radka Denemarkova

(This review was written for the challenges: Fall into Reading 09 and German Reading Challenge 2009)

His story - her story

Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad (2005)

I love the idea of this book. Telling the famous story about Odysseus' journey from the point of view of his wife, Penelope.

Penelope's name is traditionally associated with faithfulness, because she keps her suitors at bay in Odysseus long absence. She is like a statue of the faithfulness in the stories have been told during many-many centuries.

In the book Penelopiad she is a vivid character, although she is already dead, or better to say: her soul in Hades. Now, in the 21. Century. She knows many things about our life and compares it with her time several times. She tells us her own story but from a point of view of the 21. Century. She always contradicts the old myths. She knows myths, legends, the stories of epic poems are sometimes quite different to what has really happened. The adventures of Odysseus sound really good, but these are mostly just fictions, products of the poets' imagination.

These are stories told in the men's world. And what is with the women's world? The male poets' imaginations about women's life are sometimes nonsense.

Are there really only just two ways? The way of the wife (Penelope) and the vamp's one (Helen of Troy)? Is there a type of women, for whom men are fighting? And is there an another type of women, who are waiting for men end the fight? (Well, it looks like the main point in the men's world is: fighting.)

Penelope tells a story about her life which wasn't a fairy tale. But she was still the daughter of Icarius (a king) she was the wife of Odysseus (another king).

An totally another perspective is the Chorus' one. This is from the twelve maids killed by Telemachus, (the son of Odysseus and Penelope). The voice of the Chorus is quite sarcastic and wants to point to the value of the women's life (the worthless of women's life?) in the Greek myth. Those women's life who aren't goddesses, or queens or other noble and famous or extraordinary someone.

So, I love this novel, it's really a bright idea, and I love the opinion of this book, myths are just fiction of people, and now there is an other one.

The book was published as part of the Canongate Myth Series. Other book of this series is for example the Weight by Jeanette Winterson, which is a bit different, and it's more about the eternal desire of storytelling.

And I would like to mention an other book, which is related to Atwood's novel. It's the novel A pillanat [The Moment] by Magda Szabo. It's about the idea not Aeneas arrived in Italy to establish a new homeland after the Trojan War, but his wife. This story also contradicts to the well-known myth from the point of view of a woman.

(This review was written for the challenge: Fall into Reading 09)

Take a look at my list for this challenge here...

Enjoyable fiction about the past

Philippa Gregory: The Other Boleyn Girl (2001)

Actually, I have a problem with the title of this novel. Of course, before reading, I thought, Anne is the famous Boleyn girl and Mary is the other one. But after I’ve finished this books, I’m a bit confused. Who is the other one?

Well, the novel is a historical fiction. I think, the main characters and the main events are well known. King Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, George Boleyn, The Duke of Norfolk, etc.

The novel starts with Anne’s arriving at the court and ends with her execution. It’s told by Anne’s sister, Mary Boleyn. And that’s why I’m a bit confused. The narrator is Mary, but the story she tells us is Anne’s life in the court. It looks like Mary tells us a story about Anne, about the other Boleyn girl.

But anyway, on which girl’s life is the story more focused, the choice of the narrator is perfect for a historical fiction. Mary Boleyn is (almost) always there where something important (something “historical”) happens, but she is mostly just an eyewitness of the event and not the protagonist. Excellent point of view for a narrator.

Beside that we can read about a famous story from this perspective, we can also learn the life of Mary Boleyn. (And yes, I think now, she is the other one.) We can read about the time she was the mistress of the king, about her first and - of course - about her second marriage. Etc.

However Anne’s life is more interesting. At least for me. Things we can learn about Mary sound sometimes quite stupid. Just think of the opinion, a son is more important than a daughter. Everyone at the court has this opinion, even Anne and Lady Boleyn too. Everyone, except Mary and her husband. They think about it like the modern people, like us. That makes sometimes the story a bit ridiculous. Are only Mary and William Stafford “clever” and all the other people in the story “stupid”?

Nevertheless the book is still enjoyable, because my reading focused more on the historical segment of the book, and not the relationship between Mary and William.

I think, Gregory's way of storytelling pulls the reader into world of the novel very suggestive. And that makes the fiction about the past OK.

(This review was written for the challenge: Fall into Reading 09)

Some Hungarian historical fiction

Some weeks ago Gavin asked me, are there any Hungarian historical fictions translated into English?

On the site www.historiannovels.info I've found only three books.

Peter Esterhazy, Celestial Harmonies (2000):

"A literary novel about five centuries of Hungary's aristocratic Esterhazy family, in which the first half is a non-linear melding of many generations into a kaleidoscopic narrative, and the second half is a linear story about the Esterhazys beginning in 1945 when their estate was confiscated by the Communists."

It's not a tipically or a "classic" historical novel, it's more a play with the famous name "Esterhazy", meanwhile the reader learn many thing about the time after ww2. I'm really curious what kind of experience a non-Hungarian with this book would have.

Geza Gardonyi, Eclipse of the Crescent Moon (1899)

About a Hungarian peasant boy who becomes a hero during the siege of the town of Egér, Hungary, by the Turks in 1552.

As I mentioned, this is maybe the most popular historical novel in Hungary. The reason is simple this was for many decades the compulsory reading for children in age 12.

Mor (or Maurus) Jokai, The Nameless Castle (1896)

About the Hungarian army during the war against Napoleon in 1809

I've never read this story but I've seen the tv-adaptation. It's an adventure story. But I can imagine Jokai's ironical storytelling about a French diplomat meets the Hungarian circumstances.

****
Other books:

Mor (or Maurus) Jokai, The Golden Age in Transylvania(1852)
A wonderfull tragic story about a man, a great politician, a reach aristocrat, a noble man amoung petty, powe-hunry people in the 17. centruy. A story about a man who loved two women. One of my favourite Jokai's novel.

Mor (or Maurus) Jokai, The Lion of Janina: The Last Days of the Janissaries (1854)
Unfortunatelly, I don't no too much about this story. This is a historical novel, and there is a Turkish word in this story, wich became the title of a postmodern historical novel, written by Janos Hay.
I'm going to read this book next, I'll tell more about it later.

Mor (or Maurus) Jokai, A Hungarian Nabob (1853)
I have my own theorie, why this book isn't a historical novel, but it's still set in the first half of the 19. centruy and the reader can learn many things, about the so called "reform-era" (1825-1848)

And yes, there was a Renaissance of the historical novels in the late 1990's in Hungary, there are some excellent works, but unfortunatelly, they are transleted mostly into German only.

One historical event, several point of views

E. L. Doctorow: The March (2005)

One historical event, several point of views. The March by E. L. Doctorow remind me sometimes of Sandor Marai’s novel about the hours after Caesar’s assassination. We can learn during reading that book what kind of thoughts had the residents of a spa town after Caesar death. Everybody has his own opinion, the patricians, the innkeepers, the bakers, the eunuchs, even Caesar’s doctor, or the people who are left out of the conspiracy. So, we can read several little personal stories about the great man and the big historical event.

And that is, why I think, Doctorow’s book is something like Marai’s one. We can read in the book The March several little personal stories about the American Civil War. About Sherman’s infamous march in 1864. This is the central plot of the book, the central story actually told by other stories. Doctorow mingles fictional characters with real ones. We can learn Sherman’s point of view about this March. But also the fate of many soldiers and civilians.

Many people take part of this march for this or that reason. Dr. Wrede Sartorius is a European doctor, interested only in his profession, in the healing, I would say, he hates war and army. He aims to help not only the Northern but the Southern soldiers and civilians too. Emily Thomson, a well-born Southerners joins to this march after her father’s death. She became a nurse working with Sartorius.

Pearl is young girl, a “white Negro” an illegitimate daughter of a plantation owner became a drummer of the army first, later a nurse, also in the “hospital” of Wrede Sartorius. I like her character. She is much more smart than she looks at the first time. And I think, her life, her chances to live a happy live represents the humanity in the story mostly.

And there are another characters in the book like Archie and Will escaped from the prison by the start of the march. Some reviewers say they are comic figures, but I have another opinion. They are such annoying characters. Especially Will. He is not a good man. He harms innocent people’s life. Like the photographer and his assistant. Well, I know, this is the brutality of the war.

At the end from the personal stories we can get a compact story, which is fuller and much more to say, as the narrator trough an only one point of view (from an outsider’s perspective) would have told the event.

(This review was written for the challenge: Fall into Reading 09)

The Sunday Salon: Booker Prize, Vuelta a Espana and still History

Looking at the short list of the Man Booker Prize 2009, I must say, history, or better to say the historical fiction is still in.

And that's very OK , because I' ve spent my last three years researching this genre. I would be very sad if this would go out of fashion.

Oh, no, just kidding. I know, historical fiction will never go out of fashion.

The way of storytelling may change constantly (just remember the book with the first person plural narration, I've mentioned recently...) but the theme: the past will be always interesting for the present.

So, I started the post not coincidently on this way. The week behind me I've spent with historical fiction again. There is a period in the Hungarian history which is quite beloved for writers (either in the 19. cetury or nowadays) . The period of those 150 years (cca. 1526-1699) when Hungary was split into three parts. I'm currently reading a novel by the famous storyteller from the 19. century, Mor Jokai about the start of this busy period. This novel is about the important statesman, Frater Georgius (George Martinuzzi, 1482-1551).

I think this period is for the Hungarian historical fiction writer like the Tudor-era for the English authors. And somehow, Frater Georgius was a dominant charater of this years in Hungary like Thomas Cromwell in England at the same times. (Well I know, the comparison is a bit bizarre, but still interesting.)

About another books:
I finished this week Possession by A. S. Byatt. A review is coming... maybe tomorrow.
And I'm going to read The March by E.L. Doctorow.

But today I'm going to spend my time not with reading books, but with reading the live tickers about the 14th stage of the spanish cycling tour Vuelta a Espana. I'm hearing for Ivan Basso, but I hope Cadel Evans will also have a better day then yeasterday.

Nice and easy story with happy end

Somerset Maugham: Theatre
1937


A nice and easy story about a famous actress middle 40 falling in love with a young man.
Julia Lambert is a celebrated actress in London in the late 1920's, early 1930's. She is even the most talented and the best actress in whole England. But she is 46 years old.

Old... old... old.

One day she meets a young man Tom Fennel, the new bookkeeper of Julia's and her husband's company. The boy is nice and sweet and very self-confident. It's a bit strange for Julia, that Tom doesn’t adore her like a goddess, she is just a new love (new girlfriend) for him. But she enjoys the affair. Tom also enjoys this relationship, he is a real snob, he loves the parties, the dinners, the picnics with important and famous people, with the members of the aristocracy. He loves all this, and not Julia.

So, Julia falls in love with Tom, but Tom falls in love with a young and ambitious actress, Avice Chrichton. The girl doesn't love Tom, he is for her like Julia for Tom, just a chance to get a great life, for a great career.

Meanwhile Julia and Tom broke up, Julia plays in the theatre terribly, she needs some time without acting, and she starts thinking about her life. She have to think about it, even her son criticizes her, she hasn’t a real own character, she is just from the characters she used to play.

In the new season Avice Chrichton gets a role in the new play in Julia's company. It's perfect for Julia to show she is still a great actress, she is even more better then ever, the plan is perfect, and she implements the plan perfectly. She ha a great success. So, it's a story with happy end.

Something familiar

Isabel Allende: The House of the Spirits
(1982)

First of all I had to admit, I don’t like the magic realism, or better to say, I never liked the maybe most famous novel with elements of magic realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But reading The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende it was an utterly other experience.

The House of the Spirits is a difficult story with many-many important characters, so I try to summarize the story, but I'm not sure, I'll manage it perfectly. Let's see:

The story is set in Chile and it includes almost the whole 20. century. This story is about the three generations of the family Trueba , more exactly about the three generations of women in the family Trueba.

Clara Trueba (née del Valle) has paranormal power, as a young girl she could predict a death in the family, and after her oldest sister Rose (an extraordinary beauty with green-hair) has died accidentally by poisoning, she stops to speak for nine years, and she starts again when she predicts Esteban Trueba (the former fiancé of Rose) will marry her.

Clara gives birth to three children, to a daughter, Blanca, and a twin boy Jaime and Nicolas.

Her husband, Esteban Trueba, the main male character of the novel is a hard man, he used to work very hard even as a child, and he is very proud he has become a rich man. The Truebas have the hacienda Las Tres Marias, he has changed it with hard work to a prosperous estate.

He has principles, the most important he has many respect to private property, and he hates socialists, but the son of his foreman, Pedro Tercero is a socialist and in love with Estebans daughter, Blanca. He hates Pedro Tercero too and wants to kill him, especially after it has became clear, Blanca is pregnant. Esteban forces his daughter to marry the French count Jean de Satigny, it's an unhappy marriage, not only because the husband is homosexual. (Blanca discovers it only just with months after their marriage.)Oh, and not to forget, Blanca was told, Pedro Tercero is dead, he is killed by her father. (But it's of course a lie.)

Meanwhile Esteban Trueba starts his political career, as one of the conservative members of the Parlaiment. But after many-many years, when Blanca's daughter Alba is already a student, the Conservative Party lost the votes, and the People Party, (the socialists) wins.

Esteban is fearing of a communist dictatorship (like in the Soviet union), he gives money and guns for a military coup of the socialist government. But it grows out of control, and it becomes really a dictatorship, (although the rich people can continue their life like before the socialist government.)

Jaime, the son of Esteban has killed during the military coup (the other son, Nicolas is sent by his father abroad, because of the scandals he ha made by his strange ideas).

Blanca (she has an affair with Pedro Tercero since some years again) is hiding his lover (he had an important role in the socialists government), Alba tries to help other people, but soon she is made the personal prisoner of Colonel Esteban Garcia (an illegitimate grandson of Esteban Trueba). In pure hatred of her privileged life and eventual inheritance García tortures Alba repeatedly.

But Esteban managed to free Alba with the help of Transito Soto an good old friend (a prostitute with influence) from his days as a young man.

Esteban and Alba lives in the big house of the Truebas alone. Clara has died some years ago, Blanca and Pedro Tercero managed to flee to Canada, Jaime is dead, Nicolas is far from his home, we know nothing about him...

So, Esteban and Alba start to write the memoirs of their family based mostly on Clara's diaries. Alba continues it alone after the dead of her grandfather.

And this memoir is basically the text of the novel we just finish to read.

I mentioned, I don't like the magic realism. It's too strange for me, but this novel The House of Spirits is something I like. I would say, it's more familiar to an European who likes family stories, than the other works by Latin -American authors.

The post was written for The Decade Challenge 09

The Sunday Salon: a day in Florence

Spending a day in Florence.

In virtuality.

Spending this Sunday in Savonarola’s Florence, end of the 15. century.

Although I spend many time with reading, it happens quite rarely, that I read continually almost a day long. And just only one story.

A study of the philosopher Agnes Heller mentioned the book The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, and I thought it could be interesting.

As a young girl my favorite era (or better to say my favorite topic) in the history of art was the Renaissance in Florence. Just exactly in Florence. I never wanted to do anything with the same period in Rome or Milan, my interest focused only this one town in Italy, Florence. So I might say I know quite well the political and cultural circumstances within the protagonist of this novel lived.

The Birth of Venus is a story about a young lady, Alexandra Checci, a smart and gifted daughter of a rich textile merchant, who’s life is about painting and learning. But she is a woman, painting and learning weren’t “comme il faut” even in the Renaissance for a them (for us!), as this book says. That causes some of the conflicts in this story.

The book has four parts and there is a mini- happy- end at the end of every parts. That’s make sometimes the problems the novel wants to show us a bit unserious for me. Even the motive, Savonarola’s leadership end that moment when Alessandra gives birth to her daughter is just too fairy tale-like.

On the other hand it remembers me on the movie Dangerous Beauty, but I would like to say this is just among my first impressions; I have to think about it exactly why I see it so. I know this other story plays in Venice in the 16 century, but the motive, on what ways can be a woman can bea woman an artist is somehow similar to Dunant’s book.

Other themes:
I’m currently (re-)reading the Tranquility by Attila Bartis and I started to read A Room with a View by E. M. Forster. (More soon!)

Sorry for skipping some Sundays recently, I’ve spent this year's July with watching the Tour the France and writing a blog about it.

The Sunday Salon: Book Week, John Lukacs and some new books by female authors

Have you ever been in Budapest?

Do you know what does it mean Gerbeaud?

Do you know the works of the historian John Lukacs?

Do woman write historical stories different?

(Gerbeaud)

The Gerbeaud is a legendary cafe in the heart of the city, established in 1858, which is a” must seen” place, if you visit Budapest. It is on the Vörösmarty Square, the traditional venue for the Hungarian Festive Book Weeks, an exactly 80 years old event, and organised always on the first weekend of June.

(People on the Book Week)

It is quite important for our cultural life, the publishing of books by important authors are scheduled mostly for this event usually. There are published special anthologies for this weekend, with the best/ most important poems or short stories of the year. The stars of the cultural life sign their books, there are several readings, etc.

The absolutely hit of the Book Week this year was for me the new book by John Lukacs. Or better to say: the absolutely hit was for me to see John Lukacs, here, in Hungary.

He is a historian born in Budapest but living in the US, and as I know his work Five Days in London was a hit in 2001 in America. I’ve read only one book written by him: A Thread of Years. It’s a historical work written in a quite unusual form, there are for example dialogues in the book between the writer and an other someone. The lesson of this book is maybe: writing about the past is not only just enumerating some dates.

His new book , Last Rites is a biographical work. He tells us for example his fellings about returning home to Hungary, past and present, the good old life in Budapest before 1945 and the today are mixed in this texts, with a typically (typically Hungarian?) bitter-sweet nostalgia.

Well, 1945 is an important date here in the eastern part of Europe. And there are two new (puzblished recently in Hungary) books, written by female authors connected with this date. One of them is Penize od Hitlera [Hitler’s money] by Radka Denemarkova, a Czech author. It'1s a book about a life of a little village somewhere in Czech Republic, about common and individual sins, about the "gravity" of the past. I think, the title of this book is a bit misleading, this story is about the situation after 1945. The bad years haven't finished with the end of ww2, there were another terrible situations after it too.

And not only in the Czechoslovakia. The book I started to read this weekend, Train to Triest is written by a Rumanian author* Domnica Radulescu, is about a young girl, living in Rumania in the ‘70s, her parents are teachers, and the first 100 pages of the book is mostly about fears.

Living in freedom and democracy we can’t imagine what it means for example: it isn’t allowed to have a typewriter at home.

On the other hand some chapters of the book remember me the famous book Childhood by Nathalie Sarraute.

*(Domnica Radulescu is living since 1983 in the US. )

Difference

John Fowles: The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969)

I think, if a foreigner like me wants to learn about the Victorian era, one of the most important book is The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles.

For me the absolutely protagonist of the novel is Charles Smithson, this 32 years old (or not even old, just only 32 years!) British gentleman living in the middle of the 19. Century. Maybe it’s better to say: the protagonist is the sense of duty of Smithon, the battle between duty and real feelings. And it’s not only about the engagement between him and the young and rich Ernestina. It’s about Charles whole life and the common mentality of this era.

And that’s why I’ve said, it’s an important book. Ok, it’s a pastiche, it wants to tell us a story ( a love story) about an unusual love in a quite rigid period of the European history, and because of this is a pastiche, it also makes jokes about its topic.

But I think, if we want to write about the past, about the life of the people in ancient eras, the most important is to point out the differences between past and present. The French Lietenant’s Woman tells us a story from a point of view of someone living in the middle of the 20. Century. Just 100 years, but so many differences. And what is really fantastic in this book, it points out that we maybe use the same words, but we mean different things. For example duty or piety had an other meaning those days, the now.

And when the meaning of the simple words is different, the whole life is different too.

(This post was written for The Decade Challenge 09 )

The Sunday Salon: A bit belated post

Uh, I’m always confused with those "long weekends". The whit Monday seems to be like a gratis Sunday for me, and it could be one on the reasons for this belated Sunday Salon post.

On the other hand, on Sunday I was soooo tired, and the next day was a quite busy one, but I really wanted to write a new post.

I finished the novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles on Sunday second time within a year. I love this book, and yes, it’s about representation of the past in a novel for me again. I like it, because it finds the difference between the past and present in the difference of the meaning of some usual words. We use maybe the same words like the people one and a half century before, but we’re thinking different, so our life is completely different.

Then I started to read Terra Amata by Le Clezio, and I had to notice, I've read mostly books from the 60’s and the 70’s recently, so it’s time to start my The Decade Challenge participation too.

And today is Tuesday, a day to spend in the central library of Budapest. I like its building, the atmosphere, (and yes, the book too) and as a country girl I'm always glad to visit such an important and serious institute.

Happy reading!

The Sunday Salon: Hot dreams with Brutus

Last time (oops, it was a while ago) I’ve mentioned the novel Castorp by Pawel Huelle.

I’ve finished it, of course, and I liked it. Somehow I had to remember myself constantly, it’s not a Mann’s novel, the atmosphere was so familiar.

The story is quite simple, Hans Castorp (the protagonist of the Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann) spends two years in Danzig (Gdansk, now in Poland), he studies civil engineering at the university, this is the first time, he is alone and far from his family. He is a bourgeois, he is very sophisticated. In every aspects. So it’s not accidental, what happened with him on the magic mountain. (In Mann’s book.)

He is too sophisticated and it’s a bit funny when his German mentality meats with some Central-European grotesque situations. His conclusion: there is no system in the world.

The book of this weekend is a novel by Sandor Marai. [Something has happened in Rome]. It’s about the hours after the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Maybe interesting, that the historical novels of Marai (who spends ca. 50 years in exile after ww2) were published here, in Hungary just some years ago.

During the reading (the book is from a library) a can see notes on the pages, and I’m a bit sad about it. Not because of the notes, but it’s contents. The reader before me has interpreted the story that way, every motive has a connection to Marai’s live.

For me it isn’t important. For me is more important that the structure of this story is not a real novel it’s more like a screenplay. For me is more important, that every character has an opinion about Caesar, but these are quite different.

Well, and why this strange title of my post? Because yesterday, maybe it was the influence of this book’s theme, but I had a quite hot dream a with Brutus (Tobias Menzies, from the HBO series Rome), I don’t know why especially with him.

Caesar was much more sexier.

The Sunday Salon: My destiny

It looks like the 17. century will be my destiny.

Last time I mentioned The Meeting at Telgte by Günter Grass (here is my review ), and now, this Sunday, wich is nearing to its end, I've been spend the whole day with two books about Transylvania in the 17. century.

The first one is a contemporary book Bestiarum Transylvaniae by Zsolt Lang, and it's a bit familiar with the novels of the magic realism, and its structure is a bit strange: there are short stories (strong connected with eachother) about mythical birds, it's really hard to speak about it.

The another book is written in the 19. centruy. "The Widow and her Daughter" by Zsigmond Kemeny is a masterpiece of the classic realism. It's about an abduction of a young woman. It was a famous case in the 17. centruy, and caused the die out of a noble family.

Is it the "real" story or just modified through the fantasy of the writer? I don't know and I don't want to care about it. It's an enjoyable book.

But I have a question (some questions) for you.
Have you ever read a story set in the 17. centruy?
And was it an old book, or written in our time?
And when you've read both types, which was more interesting?

Happy reading!

The importance of being a poet

The Meeting at Telgte [Das Treffen in Telgte] by Günter Grass

( 1979)

The reason why I’ve read this book was quite simply: I was curious, is there any connection between this novel and the other one, The True Story of Jacob Wunschwitz by Laszlo Marton, who is the Hungarian translator of Grass’ book.

As I mentioned already, the "Jacob Wunschwitz"(unfortunatelly, it isn't any English translation yet) is a starting point for my researching about historical novels, and Grass’ story is set (almost) in the same place and the same period: Germany in the 17. century.

I have to admit, I’ve read only one book by Grass before, The Call of the Toad, I think, it isn’t among his most famous works. Even not The Meeting at Telgte.

Unfortunately, when I wouldn’t have any special aim with this book (see above), probably I would have never finish it.

The story is about poets and other learned men are meeting in an inn in Telgte, near to Ostnabrück and Münster, where the Peace of Westfalia (1648) was signed. Because this story is played in the middle of the century (exactly in 1647), I think, it’s easy to find a connection with the 20. century, and the WW2, which was an another “good” time thinking about the role and importance of arts.

I think, it’s a bit like The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse, it’s an allegory about the European culture too. The poets are talking about poetics and linguistics problem (for example: we can read about the dispute why is better the “Hochdeutsch” dialect for being the official German language), but they also write a proclamation about the peace, and that is the point I think, it’s a bit ironic story: are those some poets so important personalities that the politicians will care about their opinion?

There is a Hungarian poem about the poet should lead the people to Canaan, it’s written in the middle of the 19. century, and shows the romantic ideology about the role of artists. As I know, it’s a typically Central-European attitude and connected with the revolutionary movements in this period. But hundred years later, when this book was written, it seems to be ridiculous (and 150 years later even more ridiculous), and I think, that is the theme of The Meeting at Telgte. The irony how Grass writes about this ideology.

And I think, that is also the weakness of this book. It’s more about a though, about an idea, and less about characters. I can remember the names of the protagonists (these poets existed in the real life) but hardly of their traits. Except only one, the innkeeper. This woman is called sometimes Courage, which is a quite interesting reference to Brecht’s famous work: Mother Courage and Her Children.

Summing up, The Meeting at Telgte has an interesting theme, but the way Grass writes about it, I think, it’s not for me.

(This review was written for the German Reading Challenge and The Decades Challenge)

The Sunday Salon: Differences in our global village

I'm currently reading a Hungarian novel about is really hard to speak for foreigners. Even that's why I think, it's worth a bit talking about the problem. Well, this book is the Dzsigerdilen [possibly English pronunciacion: jiggerdealen] by Janos Hay (1960-).

At first, there is a problem with the title. It's supposedly a word with Turkish origin, but the only place it can be found is an another novel (from the 19. centruy by "the greatest storyteller", Mor Jokai).

The synopsis of the story can be told in some worlds. There are four boys, living in the end of the 17.century, in love with the same girl, and they want to do someting to earn her love. It's a bit childish and a bit more like the stories from the age of chivalry. After decades only one of them boys is still alive, and he can get the girl (she is a divorced woman already), but unfortunatelly they are not happy together after all.

Just a simple story, and full with motives (mostly) young boys would like to read with peasure (figthing for freedom and love, etc). And because of the story is set in the 17. century, there are lots of references to the history of the Pannonian basin. Or to be more precise, there are lots of references to historical novels from the 19. and the early 20. century.

Some weeks ago we're talking about Russian short stories. I read recently a little clever summary about Chekhov's stories, and I've learnt these are full with references to other Russian stories a non-Russian maybe doesn't know. But these stories I think, are still enjoyable without this knowledge too. But I try to imagine into the place of a non-Hungarian, who has never heard of the novels of Mor Jokai or the story of the Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Geza Gardonyi.

So, I think, Hay's novel would be quit stange, chaotic and ununderstandable for this reader.

The question is now: altrough the world is just a "global village", could you mention books, which is really-really understandable only in that corner of the world where you live?

Another book I'm reading is based on a common (hi)story, it based on the famous book Methamorphoses by Ovid. This is The Last World by Christophe Ransmayr. Cotta (a real person, Ovid wrote him some letter from ther exile in Tomi) get's the news one day: Ovid is dead. He travel to Tomi inmediatelly to find the manuscript of the Methamorphoses. But he finds himself in a miracolous place, where the people seem to be to him sooo familiar...

The Sunday Salon: The top of my TBR-list (part 2)

First of all, thanks you all for your good luck wishes, I passed my very important exam last Monday. It was really an adventure, there was a general strike at the railways, and the buses were too crowed, but I could fortunately manage to travel to the university (it is 300 kms away from my home).

Now it's holiday and I have time thinking about the next year.

Last time I mentioned 3 books, which are on the top of my (international) TBR-list.

The Diary of a Bad Year by J. M. Coetzee. I like Coetzee's books, recently I've read Foe by him, The motive, a book is in important role in a story makes this work exciting. (As I know, the new Coetzee-book based on an another novel by him.)

And that is the reason why I would like to read The English Patient by Michael Ondaantje. I was rewatching the movie some weeks ago, and just thought, hey, there is a book in the story, maybe it would be interesting in the novel, in the text too.

And the third book The Last World by Christophe Ransmayr. This is a paraphrase of the Metamorphoses by Ovidius, and I've read this book already, but I started to re-read it, because I think it's a really fascinating book. This is my book for this Sunday, a virtual travel to the Black Sea to the place of Ovidius' exile.

And what kind of Hungarian books I've read recently? I hope, I'll write some post next week about it.

The Sunday Salon: TSS-post on Saturday

Just a short post.

Still busy days, but fortunatelly, there are only few days till Christmas, and I hope, I'll have more time for blogging.

Not only Christmas, but the end of the year is nearing too, and I'm thinking much about what next year. What king of books I would like to read 2009.

Here is the top 3 of my international TBR -list for the next year:

1.Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient

2. Christoph Ransmayr: The Last World

3. J.M. Coetzee: Diary of a Bad Year

About the reasons, I'll write next week.

But now I'm too exciting about my last exam, can't concentrate another things.

Anyway, happy reading!

The Sunday Salon: Back to short stories

Preparing for an important exam in two weeks at the university, I started this weekend to read short stories from the 19. century.

First of all Maupassant’s stories, and some others written by Gogol and Chekhov.

French literature was always more sympathetic to me than the Russian, but these two authors are among my favourites.

Reading the story The Cloak by Gogol, I was thinking about there is always about the grotesque and the sarcasm of Gogol’s stories. But for this poor man, Akaky Akakyevich the new cloak was really really everything. For the other people maybe just an average new article of clothing, but for him the whole world. That’s why I’m susceptible to see it rather as a sad story than a funny one. On the other hand the sentences about the department reminds me a bit of Kafka’s world.

Books I mentioned last Sunday:

Lust by Elfriede Jelinek. I haven’t finished it, which seems to be a bad omen, I might not like this book.

Quite different is the situation with Emma (Jane Austen), after reading 3 chapters, I have now a lot of questions thinking about them.

And that’s why I really like to read.

Happy reading!