I read an English translation with the title Evasion, translated by Elfreda Powell. This edition is 201 pages. A favourite story scenario of a group ofI read an English translation with the title Evasion, translated by Elfreda Powell. This edition is 201 pages. A favourite story scenario of a group of very different people come together under extraordinary circumstances, in this case two groups, wealthy sophisticated Parisians and rural French peasant farmers. And within each group a diverse collection of characters. What I love the most is the positivity of the characters embracing the other. Françoise Sagan never disappoints....more
What a History book. Always good to look through and reread the text which relates to each iconic graphic cover and images that span the twentieth cenWhat a History book. Always good to look through and reread the text which relates to each iconic graphic cover and images that span the twentieth century to early 2000s. There's the LIFE magazine cover May 1970 of the Tragedy at Kent State. The TIME cover of a multiple identical photo of Richard Nixon interspersed with images of the Vietnam War, the headline asks the question, "What if we just pull out?". There is the 1965 Sunday Times Magazine cover image of Dunkirk in 1940, the photo by German photographer Hugo Jaeger. His colour pictures lay buried for years in a tin box in Baveria, published for the first time in 1965. So, so much history in this book....more
As I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhoAs I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhood. They can't smell their own bad breath.
The 2nd Calvino I've read. The Path to the Spiders' Nests is set in Italy during WWII. I read The Path to the Spiders' Nest together with Within the WThe 2nd Calvino I've read. The Path to the Spiders' Nests is set in Italy during WWII. I read The Path to the Spiders' Nest together with Within the Walls and The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles, Book 1 and 2 of The Novel of Ferrara by Giorgio Bassani, which is also set in Italy during after post-WWII. They are all very different stories. The underlying structural similarity is the outsider in society compounded by experiencing the turmoil of the country during WWII. All five stars....more
A must for anyone interested in the time of The Weimar Republic. A book about the collaboration of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. 'The Partnership: BrA must for anyone interested in the time of The Weimar Republic. A book about the collaboration of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. 'The Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women, and Germany on the Brink.' by Pamela Katz The three women, Helene Weigel, Elizabeth Hauptmann, Lotte Lenya. � 'When Hauptmann first read The Beggar's Opera, she quickly realized that the acerbic portrayal of a society devoted to money, one in which everyone - whether lord or thief - was equally corrupt.' 'It was a tale, as Brecht was quick to realize, that also exposed the fact that most bandits are bourgeois in nature. And conversely, a bourgeois man is also a bandit. It is impossible, Brecht believed, to desire and achieve material wealth without some form of theft. The Beggar's Opera revealed the dangers of a society that valued money over equality and justice.' � Referring to The Beggar's Opera, 'In a profit-driven world, misery has indeed been transformed into a commodity. By portraying man's fate as a function of economic and social structures, Brecht displayed a quintessentially twentieth-century perspective.' � 'The melodic, even romantic, rhythms underscoring the harshly unromantic text - was the product of two men with a profoundly shared goal. It was not that Weill was more romantic and Brecht more cynical, so that the natural contrast between them created an interesting effect. They both wanted to expose the hypocrisy of society and its institutions, they both wanted to reflect mankind in a satirical mirror, and they both consciously used textual and musical means to heighten the power of their work.' � 'Fortunately for Brecht, Weigel also believed that a woman's freedom was impossible to achieve without a total rejection of bourgeois morality.' � 'In a trully democratic society, no one had the right to preach from on high.' � Kurt Weill referring to Brecht, said "For the more powerful the writer, the more he is able to adapt himself to music, and so much the more is he stimulated to create genuine poetry for music." � Chapter 8: The Bourgeois Bandit "The bourgeoisie's fascination with bandits rests on a misconception: that a bandit is not a bourgeois. This misconception is the child of another misconception: that a bourgeois is not a bandit."   Bertolt Brecht. 'Notes to the Threepenny Opera.'...more
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