What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Another daunting book, and I think his best, is Absalom, Absalom!.

Agreed. A very difficult yet rewarding read. The only book I've read that's on the same plane of difficulty (multiple, intersected, hard to tell one from another narrative planes & voices) is Mario Vargas Llosa's Conversation in the Cathedral.

[Ganondorf]

I was actually surprised, when looking at the copy of Finnish translation of The Sound and the Fury at the local library that there actually they had used italics for indicating jumps back and forth between time in Benjy's narration. I believe this is somewhat similar to what Faulkner himself wished (although he had suggested use of colored ink instead) and I was under supposition that very few editions have complied with his wishes. So this may be a good opportunity for me as I have never read the book yet, as easy pathway in. And I've heard that The Sound and the Fury is even more difficult to read than Absalom, Absalom, in fact it has consistently appeared on the list of most difficult books to read, ever.

[Mandryka]

BTW, you may notice my username here refers to a Novella by Faulkner that was later incorporated into his novel, The Hamlet.

Jewel has a spotted horse which he bought from Snopes.

[Mandryka]

I was actually surprised, when looking at the copy of Finnish translation of The Sound and the Fury at the local library that there actually they had used italics for indicating jumps back and forth between time in Benjy's narration. I believe this is somewhat similar to what Faulkner himself wished (although he had suggested use of colored ink instead) and I was under supposition that very few editions have complied with his wishes. So this may be a good opportunity for me as I have never read the book yet, as easy pathway in. And I've heard that The Sound and the Fury is even more difficult to read than Absalom, Absalom, in fact it has consistently appeared on the list of most difficult books to read, ever.

It's a bastard because you can't totally trust the italics. In fact, the time jumps seem not a great problem -- the problem is sometimes to tell who's speaking, especially in Quentin's chapter. But I don't think it's a big deal. The difficulty of TSATF is, IMO, not so much reconstructing a chronological narrative, it's trying to understand what on earth Faulkner is trying to say. At the end, for example, or in the discussion between Quentin and his father. 

[vers la flamme]

@Mandryka, I absolutely will take up your suggestion to retry with TSATF, just perhaps not this year. I'm sure it's a brilliant book. As I Lay Dying was nowhere near as difficult as it is sometimes made out to be. Of course, I do also plan on reading Absalom, Absalom!

Love that there are so many Faulknerians here on GMG. He remains an author about whom I know very little, having read only the one book, but I have been interested in—and daunted by—his work for a long time. (Should there be a Faulkner thread like the Dickens thread we have...?) Excited to read Light in August when it gets to me.

Still reading Kafka; currently, The Metamorphosis.

[vers la flamme]

Hit or miss, these Kafka stories, but a few of them are truly poignant: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and A Hunger Artist all completely blew my mind. A good many of the shorter stories, especially those in the first person, I couldn't make heads or tales of.

[Mandryka]

Hit or miss, these Kafka stories, but a few of them are truly poignant: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and A Hunger Artist all completely blew my mind. A good many of the shorter stories, especially those in the first person, I couldn't make heads or tales of.

Have you read his letter to his father?

As far as making sense of them, I find them all hard from that point of view, maybe because I don't have the god gene. But I enjoy not being able to make sense of them.

[Mandryka]

Last night I started William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying



So far, I'm really enjoying this. Though I may not always understand everything that's happening, it's not nearly as difficult as I was expecting.

Well I'm half way through, I was beginning to lose patience with the realist narrative and gothic and the sheer absurdity, the nonsense, of the trip. And then . . . .Addie's chapter made me prick up my ears. What the fk is that about?

[vers la flamme]

Well I'm half way through, I was beginning to lose patience with the realist narrative and gothic and the sheer absurdity, the nonsense, of the trip. And then . . . .Addie's chapter made me prick up my ears. What the fk is that about?

Yess, that was the best chapter in the book for me. When I first read it, I thought, she's pure evil, the way she describes taking pleasure in torturing kids, banging the preacher, hating her husband and her kids and whatnot. But of course there's more to it than that. If you have an hour to kill, I enjoyed this lecture on Youtube by Arnold Weinstein; the part about Addie's chapter (I can't remember the time stamp, sorry) was quite illuminating. (It's morning here and I need more coffee, maybe we can talk about this more intelligently later in the day.) Anyway here's the lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3WD1Xf2EcY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXXDMbZT8zE

But finish the book first, of course. I lost patience at the halfway point too, the river bit was particularly trying for me, but it's all well worth it in the end.

[Artem]

Hit or miss, these Kafka stories, but a few of them are truly poignant: The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and A Hunger Artist all completely blew my mind. A good many of the shorter stories, especially those in the first person, I couldn't make heads or tales of.

I love Kafka's novels. The Castle, The Trial, Amerika are my absolute favourites. But I just could not get into his short stories at all. His diaries were far more interesting to read.

[vers la flamme]

I love Kafka's novels. The Castle, The Trial, Amerika are my absolute favourites. But I just could not get into his short stories at all. His diaries were far more interesting to read.

Interesting! Sounds like I need to read Castle and Amerika, and reread Trial.

(Just noticed an unintended and very bad pun in my post—"heads or tales", referring to short stories )

[vers la flamme]

Just started Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy



So far, so good. I found this at a Goodwill thrift store for $1. Seems it may be an easier read than Beyond Good & Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

[Spotted Horses]

It is a rite of passage. I read a fair bit of Nietzsche when I was around 20 years old. I have never felt the slightest temptation to read any of it again.

[Artem]

Read this two back to back. Haruki Murakami is one of those authors who's short and long form work is equally great. I love his short stories. These two collections are the latest translated into English. Men Without Women came out several years ago. Except one great story, it's mostly superficial writing. I didn't like it. The latest one "First Person Singular" is much better and is closer to Haruki Murakami's earlier work. It has that fleeting sense of mystery found in the everyday life. I feel encouraged after reading his latest collection that he can still produce great work.

[vers la flamme]

Read this two back to back. Haruki Murakami is one of those authors who's short and long form work is equally great. I love his short stories. These two collections are the latest translated into English. Men Without Women came out several years ago. Except one great story, it's mostly superficial writing. I didn't like it. The latest one "First Person Singular" is much better and is closer to Haruki Murakami's earlier work. It has that fleeting sense of mystery found in the everyday life. I feel encouraged after reading his latest collection that he can still produce great work.

Personally, I loved Men Without Women. It was my first of Haruki Murakami's fiction. All of the stories resonated with me, unlike The Elephant Vanishes which I read last month, which was more hit or miss for me.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Lady Chatterley's Lover. D. H. Lawrence.

[Mandryka]

But finish the book first, of course. I lost patience at the halfway point too, the river bit was particularly trying for me, but it's all well worth it in the end.

Maybe the novel is a study of the power of parents to manipulate children.

[vers la flamme]

This morning I started William Faulkner's Light in August



So far, I really like it. If As I Lay Dying is a saga of the Bundren family and their tribulations following the death of the family's matriarch, Light in August appears to be a saga of a city, the fictional Jefferson, Mississippi (where the story of AILD ends). We see how newcomers to the town interact with its longtime denizens, and the subtle ways in which the town changes with their arrivals. But I'm still in the first fifth of the book or so, and it's a long one—my copy is over 500 pages. I'm finding it a page turner, but I reckon it will take me some time. Narratively, it's much more straightforward than AILD. It does follow several different characters, but the third-person omniscient narration seems to be rather easier to follow.

Was Faulkner interested at all in Thomas Hardy? I can't help but find parallels between the worlds created by these two authors, Hardy's Wessex and Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, though these may be only superficial similarities.

[SimonNZ]

Finished these two:



that was a second reading of Founding Brothers which I wanted to do after recently watching the John Adams miniseries

started:

[aligreto]

Somerset Maugham: Don Fernando





This has been my most unsuccessful read as far as Maugham is concerned. I have read it before and was not engaged with it. This time around I am still not enthused by it. Why? It is a work of nonfiction. It is a combination of his own thoughts and impressions of Spain in the Golden Age, its culture, history, food, literature and national characteristics. It is also something of a travelogue. Maugham discusses in detail things that I have no interest in. It is akin to a collected series of essays. Others may find it intriguing and compelling.