The Sunday Salon: a German novel on ww2

Hello everyone,

I had a long-long break in writing my Almost Insider blog.

Now I'm back.

As you know I'm reading mostly historical novels, mostly about history of Central-Europe. This Sunday I would like to talk about a German novel on the ww2 by Arno Surminski. The original title is Vaterland ohne Väter, what means, homeland without fathers. It's about a 62 years old woman, who's father has fallen in the ww2, somewhere near to Stalingrad.

She is retired, has lot of free time to researching about the life of her father. Fortunately one of her relatives finds the father's diary and some photos of him and his companion-in-arms. It starts the "time travel" into the past.

It the book beside the narration of the protagonist, there are quotes from real letters from this time. From letters of soldiers and wives, children, eyewitnesses, or even quotes from the most important political persons of that years.

And most of the chapters have quotes from memoirs of Napoleon's campaign in 1812.

We learn a lot about the young man Robert Rosen and his mates trough the documents have found, but mostly there are just the imagination of his daughter, how he was, what he felt, how he met her mother, etc.

So, I'm over 60 pages, it’s still 400 to come.

Happy reading!

Read-a thon #2

Still the Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann.

It sounds maybe funny, but the biographies of the two scientists Gauss and Humboldt are like the parallel lines. One day they'll meet.

What a great idea writing about Gauss' life like one of two parallel lines. Really funny.

It's 7:24 pm here (CET). I'm getting now a bit slower, I'm now at the 100. page, because I read also the posts of other read-a-thoners.
Interesting posts (mini-challenges):

Readathon Mini Challenge: Guess the Book Covers!
Where in the World is the Read-a-thon?

Previous read-a-thon posts:
My pile
#1

Read-a thon #1

I started to read finally an another book: Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann. It's a historical fiction about Carl Friedrich Gauss, the matematician and Alexander von Humboldt the naturalist and explorer (he was the younger borther of the great Prussian stateman)

The novel was a great success in Germany and I have some idea why. After 60 pages I have to say, it is very amusing. The portrayal of Humboldt is a bit more like a caricature and the childhood of Gauss is a quite sad story, because he is much much much much much more clever than the other people, even when he is only 8 years old, and that makes him so sad.

I think, this book will be my "book of the day".

My read-a thon pile you can find 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.

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.

The Sunday Salon: Back to the past in different ways

One of the reasons why I have so little time to write about books is my mother, after many many years feels strong and healthy again , so we made some one day trips this summer to the places she since years hasn't visited.

Last week we were in Budapest. It's for me something usual, I spend each month a few days in the capital, but she wasn't here since 15 years. Not a few times!

And this week we visited Keszthely, the nice town at the Lake Balaton. And that's why I write in the title of this post: back to the past in different ways. Maybe it's a bit unusual, but for our family the Lake Balaton is not really about lying on the beach all day long, there are so many nice places around the lake....

(Festetics Palace - Keszthely)

And one of them is Keszthely, and its wonderful baroque palast (owned by the noble family Festetics till the 1940's), built in the 18. century.
The palace is really monumental and it has a nice park with English style.

It was a day like living in the past.

On the other hand, I read The Passion by Jeanette Winterson recently, and somehow, I don't know what to think about it. I never heard of Winterson before, and her book is a quite unusual historical novel, if any, to be said, about a man and a woman during the Napoleonic Wars. And I would like to know, what do you think about her and her works?

Oh yes, and currenly reading:
historical short stories by Gyula Krudy.

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: 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: Possibly an another historical novel

Yesterday I thought this Sunday I’ll spend with reading The Meeting at Telgte by Günter Grass, and I'll maybe writing a review about it. It's just a short novel, it's set in Germany at the end of the 30 year war. Poets meet at this place, they are talking about art and linguistics, etc. Just a quite unusual book.

The reason why I started to read this book was the person of the translator, László Márton. He wrote the novel The True Story of Jacob Wunschwitz, which is a starting point of my researching about the “new” or the “postmodern” historical novel. Although the novel of Grass is a bit older, and I’d rather say it's a modern and not a postmodern work, but there are other common points: the place and the period - Germany in the first half of the 17. century.

But now I feel it a bit boring (not the Márton’s but the Grass’ book), I think this day is not it’s day, I’ll read maybe something different.

Possibly an another historical novel.

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: Giving up

Hello fellow Saloners,

in the last 2-3 TSS-posts I’ve mentioned the novel The Bridge over the Drina by Ivo Andric. I think this Sunday is the day, I give up to finish this book. At the beginning I’ve found the idea great, writing stories about the common people living in the near of this bridge over the Drina (in Bosnia and Herzegovina), from the time building this bridge in the 16. century till the early 19. century. But the single stories, I don’t know, well, there were sometimes quite long and boring, so, after two weeks hesitating, I’ve decided not to read this book more.

There is an another situation with the book Sinistra Zone by Adam Bodor. It’s a collection of short stories, about a quite severe and danger place somewhere in Rumania. The relationship between the characters are morbid and absurd, the atmosphere of the stories is very unpleasant. But still interesting, even because of the morbidity.

Because Bodor is one of the most talented short story writers in Hungary nowadays, I'll write about his work next week a bit more.

The Sunday Salon: Is history really hot?

I ususally read a lots of litblogs, and sometimes I used to see the little logo of a reading challenge: history is hot. 

So, I just started thinking about my relationship to the historical novel. 

The reason is I’m currently reading The History of the Siege of Lisbon by Jose Saramago, which is not a typically historical novel (or a typically postmodern historical novel?), but history, and the way, the methods writing about it is an important context in the book. 

Or even the other „story” (better to say: stories), I’ve written about some week ago, and I’ve haven’t finished yet, The Bridge over the Drina by Ivo Andric, it’s that kind of books too. It’s about a bridge over the Drina (what a big surprise! J ), we can read several short stories connected to this brigde. I think, this stories mostly like ballads, with a tragic end, like the young bride, who committed suicide falling down from this bridge. The book contents stories from four centuries, started when the area was part of the Ottoman Empire till when it was art of the Austian-Hungarian Monarchy. But it’s mostly about common people, the point of view of the common people about the permanently "changing of history". 

On the other hand, I just started thinking, what kind of novels I’ve read recently. For example the story about the young pregnant unmarried girl (!) in the early 17. century. Or The True Story of Jacob Wunschwitz by Laszlo Marton, which is a paraphrase of the Kleist-story Michael Kohlhaas. 

Or The French Lieutant's Woman by John Fowles. 

When I was a little child, I used to read stories by Mor Jokai, “the great storyteller” in Hungary, he lived in the 19. century, and of course he wrote quite pathetic novels, about tragic heroes and the revolutions and the fights for the freedom, etc. But I loved these books, even the portrayal of the heroes. Of course, I was a child. 

An another favourite was for me Henryc Sienkiewicz, the author of Qou vadis?,  but I loved the novel: The Kinghts of the Cross. An another pathetic and sometimes terribly sentimental story, but when I was reading, I could really-really imagine the life in the 15. century. 

And when I see what kind of stories I read nowadays, there are mostly quite ironic, but still in strong relation with the history, I must say, yes, history is really hot for me. 

And what’s with you, dear fellow Sunday Saloners?