This was a book club read - not something I would've picked up myself. It's probably one for hardcore Pasolini fans and completists, as it seems to beThis was a book club read - not something I would've picked up myself. It's probably one for hardcore Pasolini fans and completists, as it seems to be just glued together with author's name. It includes short stories, script ideas, newspaper columns and other miscellaneous writing that promised to give the reader the feel for Rome from 1950s-1960s.
The picture wasn't particularly deep, or even particularly transgressive (and I was, at least, promised transgressive. There were some descriptions of teenage Roman ragazzi that felt a little too erotic to be entirely comfortable, but that's about it.
There was one touching story about two boys escaping the city, which is why in the end the whole thing gets three stars.
Other than that, it made me think of the whole concept of 'capturing the spirit of the city' and how disingenuous it really is. There are as many spirits of each city as there are inhabitants. It is very tempting to believe those giant proclamations, especially when made by great writers, because they summarise the city so neatly. And we forget it is impossible to sum up a city, and most generalisations are impossible, and there is no truth.
Yes, this is the conclusion of this review: There is no truth. Goodnight. ...more
Why, no, I have never read His Dark Materials before. It was not a thing in Poland and after seeing that nonsensical film I was not exactly inspired tWhy, no, I have never read His Dark Materials before. It was not a thing in Poland and after seeing that nonsensical film I was not exactly inspired to read it.
However, when I was in New Your a few weeks ago, my friend there practically forced these books on me. And then it got really cold, the water in our pipes froze and reading some good children's fantasy novel seemed like the best idea.
This series is definitely improving as it goes on. I liked this better than the first part. The first few chapters brought back that feeling of excitement I used to have when starting a new book as a child.
Of course it is a lot of fun. But gosh, children book writers are ruthless, aren't they? They just kill the characters willy nilly, as if they were solely responsible for teaching all the children of the world about mortality. Have some mercy on my heart.
So while I enjoyed this one better than the first one, I had to take off one star for not so subtle (subtle, ha, ha, see what I did there?) religious symbolism. It's like Narnia in reverse and could we please keep strong religious messages out of children's books?
Also, I missed the fully fleshed world from the first book. This world seemed somewhat stunted. But hey, at least Lyra is a lot less annoying here....more
I don't think I learned why people believe weird things, just that they do (which I already knew).
It also mentions how these beliefs don't listen to rI don't think I learned why people believe weird things, just that they do (which I already knew).
It also mentions how these beliefs don't listen to reason, because that was never the point, but the author also proceeds to tell you how to logically refute every moronic argument of creationists or Holocaust denials. As if the lack of logical counter-arguments was ever the problem.
I did enjoy the history of the evolution theory denialism in the US which from the European perspective is really shocking....more
The Soviet Union was the worst place for Chernobyl to happen, and for the same reasons that’s why it happened there. The agrarian society suddenly pusThe Soviet Union was the worst place for Chernobyl to happen, and for the same reasons that’s why it happened there. The agrarian society suddenly pushed into the atom age, ignorant and stubborn. The corruption, favouring the party line over competence, fixing any problem with a kludge, but via central planning. And the Soviet man ethos of sacrificing oneself on the altar of the country. Russia has always had many souls to spare. This book is as bad as some of the most horrific apocalyptic/dystopian novels out there. But of course, unless you’re an actual psychopath, you’re not going to get any titillation from it as you would from fictional disaster scenarios.
Alexievich received a Nobel Prize for literature, even though one might ask if she is actually a writer. We don’t read any of her words, only the words of her subjects. She is a collector of oral histories and her artistry lies in selecting, editing and pacing them. And, one could add, her ability to completely remove herself. She doesn’t even fact-check her subjects, not even in footnotes. Whether what they are saying is true or not, it’s their truth and she lets them say it. She doesn’t ease you in, either. She opens with a story of such a level of horror it left me crying on my morning commute. But what did I expect? It’s a story about a nuclear disaster and the Soviet Union. Not that it gets easier after the first story, it’s all sadness, horror and disaster with occasional glimpses of melancholy and black humour.
There is a story about a man who was one of ‘liquidators� (part of the Chernobyl clean-up team). When he returned, he binned all his clothes but his little boy loved his dad’s hat, so he let him keep it. The boy wore it all the time and a few years later he died of brain cancer. There are stories of children who talk about death casually, the Chernobyl children - children born to die. There are stories of earnest heroism of the common people and the calculating cynicism of the officials. It’s a patchwork picture of people fighting an invisible enemy, the kind the Soviet Russia didn’t prepare them for. The kind that is hard to believe, because everything looks the same, the fields, the forests, the sky, their pets and their gardens, and yet it’s all poisoned, and tainted. It has to be left behind.
READ THIS BOOK NOW. I’M NOT GOING TO ASK YOU TWICE.
(PS. I read it in Polish translation by Jerzy Czech but the English translation is also excellent from what I've seen)...more
"The Corner is rooted in human desire - crude and certain and immediate. And the hard truth is that all the law enforcement in the world can't mess wi"The Corner is rooted in human desire - crude and certain and immediate. And the hard truth is that all the law enforcement in the world can't mess with desire."
I have this flaw in my character that I am extremely judgmental. I try to fight it. I try to tell myself I don't know the circumstances. I can't see the whole picture. But no matter how hard I try, there is always that voice in my head that keeps saying "why can't people just get their shit together". You know, go get a job, stop selling drugs, leave that abusive relationship, don't join a gang, don't do drugs. Just say 'no', right?
I will tell you this - no one has managed to do more for my personal improvement than David Simon and Ed Burns with this book of theirs. I can almost feel I am a better person now. 'The Corner' is a documentary of one year of the Corner of West Fayette and Monroe in West Baltimore. People getting high, people selling drugs, people getting in trouble, people shooting each other, kids having kids - you know the statistics. Now, Simon and Burns show you the people behind the statistics. They don't patronize or infantilize their subjects. They humanize them. They tell you like it is, they don't try to justify them, or blame everything on the system.
This is not an easy read because the portraits of Fran, DeAndre, Gary, Blue or Fat Curt hit a little close to home. Well, of course I like to think that if I were born in the ghetto I wouldn't let that happen to me, I would just work hard, and try hard, and I wouldn't get in trouble.
Because I am so strong-willed, right? I can't fucking manage two days without chocolate but I would make it out the ghetto.
As the authors say: "Yes, if we were down there, if we were the damned of the American cities, we would not fail. We would rise above the corner. And when we tell ourselves such things, we unthinkly assume that we would be consigned to places like Fayette Street fully equipped, with all the graces and disciplines, talents and training that we now possess."
If this book doesn't bring you close to tears, I don't want to know you, you must be a bad person.
Now, on the other hand, this book also made me want to become a dope fiend. Just a little bit, you know. Imagine I could swap all these conflicting desires and needs I have for just one need and desire - to get that blast. Just that. No other emotional and material needs. No need to find love or a more fulfilling job or start family or make more money, just get a blast. A simple goal, achievable on a daily basis. Yeah, fucks you up good in the end, but it doesn't matter because what matters is to get a blast. This is a very simple code: get a blast and never say never because you never know how far you will go to get a blast.
Oh God, this book was great. Can David Simon go and live somewhere else for a year and write me another one like that? That's all I want for Christmas, thank you. The language was beautiful and literary, and full of slang at the same time and somehow it didn't sound like your dad trying to be hip. You might listen to a hundred rap songs, and you won't have a clue. You can watch all the 'urban movies' you can download in the whole wide internet and you still won't understand. Read this book and you might just begin to have an idea.
I remember I used to date a boy who, knowing my almost legendary loathing of Coelho, bought me this book as a joke. I honestly can't believe this was I remember I used to date a boy who, knowing my almost legendary loathing of Coelho, bought me this book as a joke. I honestly can't believe this was published. It doesn't even make sense!
Each time he came over I would greet him with a quote from the book and we would meditate over it for a bit.
- This was another installment of Men&Books in my life. I will write a proper memoir with this theme one day....more
My second, after Nemesis, book by Roth. Clearly, I read them the wrong way round, as ‘The American Pastoral� is the original 'Nemesis'. It’s the same My second, after Nemesis, book by Roth. Clearly, I read them the wrong way round, as ‘The American Pastoral� is the original 'Nemesis'. It’s the same story of an all-round American Golden Boy broken and destroyed, although here it’s women who do the breaking and destroying. The Swede, our Golden Boy is undone first by his daughter and then by his wife. But then he remarries and has three sons and life is good and wholesome again. It’s almost comical the way every single woman in this book is responsible for the downfall of at least one good man. I was ready to get all angry at Roth as I had this preconceived notion he was misogynistic but then I thought deeper of this book, and an alternative interpretation occurred to me. I honestly don’t know if this is what Roth meant but Barthes told me the author was dead, so hear me out. Maybe all these angry, imbalanced, violent women just had it up to here with patriarchy, oppression, capitalism. Maybe the angry women and the angry blacks (who also feature in this novel to the main character’s puzzlement, after all, they had it so good before) had it up to here with these upstanding citizens, American Golden Boys and their freaking American Dream � they are out to destroy it.
I don’t know if Roth is or isn’t a misogynist but there is enough ambiguity about him to make sure that Nobel Prize is never going to happen. John Sutherland said it quite nicely in Love, Sex, Death and Words:
“One of the things that hobbles the Nobel Literature Prize is its founder’s instruction that it should be awarded to the author of ‘the most outstanding work in an ideal direction�. There is argument about how idealisk (in the old dynamitard’s original Swedish) should be translated. But the basic instruction is clear � the laureate should be on the side of the angels. The ‘idealisk� criterion probably also explains why Philip Roth (many things � but no angel) has never been honoured. It also explains why, lest some bombshell is dropped later, the committee usually aim to get in just ahead of the undertaker (the two of them practically got jammed in the door with poor Harold Pinter, the 2005 honoree).�
All that aside, Roth’s prose shines. Even the lengthy passages devoted to describing in painstaking detail the process of glove making are somehow endearing. Other passages, especially the scene and the aftermath of the almost-incest incident were very powerful. I found the writing less annoying than in Nemesis and I even enjoyed the framing narrative, although it would be nice if Roth hadn’t forgotten what he was doing and closed the frame in the end as well.
A quick note on the proposed film cast � Ewan McGregor? No! He looks nothing like the Swede. You know who looks like the Swede? Tom Hardy. I know he is a bit on the short side but as Swede’s wife Dawn, Miss New Jersey 1949 was supposed to be tiny just cast Reese Witherspoon and anyone will look tall next to her. Also, Reese would be an excellent choice, she has exactly that short, tiny lady charisma I imagined Dawn to have.
* edit: I reread this review just now and I wonder if my (and Sutherland's) comments about the Nobel Prize still hold true vis a vis Handke's award last year....more
I got this book from my library because it said it was nominated for Booker Prize and I just wanted some real literature and not the fluff that my libI got this book from my library because it said it was nominated for Booker Prize and I just wanted some real literature and not the fluff that my library offer consists of mostly. Then I found out it was about a weirdo who digs up tunnels. When I started reading it I realised the said weirdo is also the narrator so I would have to struggle through 260 pages of his ramblings. I thought "Oh no, what have I got myself into?" - being obsessive-compulsive as I am I just need to finish every book I start.
Luckily before I knew it I was drawn into Mick Jackson's most elegant prose. He created an intriguing fictional character loosely based on the real fifth Duke of Portland. His Grace's curiosity of a child, obsession with tunnels, his own body and its organs, all his eccentric ways make it quite of a page-turner even if there is not much of a storyline. It was disturbing at times and laugh out loud funny at others. My favourite funny bit must be when the Duke discoveres a worldwide conspiracy involving whalebones and women.
All in all, definitely a character-driven novel, but what a character. ...more
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