What are you currently reading?

[Mandryka]

You'd actually be ordering "or what"!  India Song is subtitled "Texte - théâtre -  film". The book is meant to be read as such (as the theatrical-cinematographic writing is rather peculiar - the action, or absence thereof,  being narrated by four "off" voices, not enacted by the actors themselves). Its genesis is theatrical, as it was a commission from Peter Hall for the Royal National Theatre in the early seventies--it seems the play was never produced. Duras went on to make the film in 1975, with the wonderful  Delphine Seyrig and Michael Lonsdale among the cast. It has been regarded by some as a masterpiece, but by others as the most boring film ever made, or as "no content and all style" by the NYT on its release.

The film was released on DVD by Benoit Jacob (http://www.benoitjacob-editions.fr/cataloguevideo.html), but seems to be OOP at the moment:

[asin]B002MD2Z1K[/asin]

The gilding of the lily is that Duras went on to make another film, Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert, which uses the soundtrack of India Song with completely new images. This one has never been released on DVD, and I've never watched it. AFAIK, the actors no longer appear on screen in this version.

I've just found out that both films are available complete on YouTube. I'll finally be watching Son nom de Venise... sometime soon. 

https://www.youtube.com/v/ubUIAIzLKxQ

https://www.youtube.com/v/asr1h3OEoWM&t=288s

Duras's completely imaginary Calcutta in colonial times is actually the abandoned and dilapidated Château Rothschild in Boulogne-Billancourt outside Paris. 

Amazing, such bold creativity. Thanks.

That makes two great female French writers I've discovered this year: Sarraute and Duras. If I had more confidence in written French I'd do a degree in French literature. Maybe I should work on my spelling and grammar a bit this coming year, I know it's doable.

[JBS]

Aaron Sorkin wrote it better

Was this before or after she married Leopold?

[SimonNZ]

Was this before or after she married Leopold?

I thought she must be unaware of the connection but in one bit halfway through she says that every answer to bizarre requests from the players has to be "yes" and then acknowledges her namesake.


Started: Simon Winchester's Exactly on precision engineering




looks like in America this is titled The Perfectionists:

[Crudblud]

Charles Rosen's The Classical Style

Picked it up yesterday at a bargain price (along with the Hackett edition of Descartes' Discourse and Meditations) at my favourite book shop here in Sheffield. Already falling in love with it.

[dissily Mordentroge]

Similar experience. I'm reminded of a quote of Joyce regarding Ulysses
"Bullshit sells"?

Got one quarter of the way through and threw it at the wall. To me it signalled the beginning of a profound period of decay in Western Culture.

[Mandryka]

This book has the energy of a first novel by a great writer. A memorable account of a man's decline and fall into madness. I intend to read more early Le Clezio.

[SimonNZ]

A secondhand bookshop I go to has a copy of The Book Of Flights ( Le Livre des Fuites), which I've been considering, but I'm not sure if that's the best LeClezio to start with.

Have you read that one?

[Mandryka]

No, the only other one I've read is Désert, and that was a long time ago, and very different from Le Procès-verbal. Oh, and I think I read some of his kid's stories.

I have a feeling that Le Clézio changed, became more "mystical" -- which doesn't appeal to me. That's why I want to explore the earlier books. The next one I'll read will be Le Déluge I think. I may have a go at Désert again.

[Mandryka]

Great stuff. I read it many years ago, and was really impressed. The novel is also the first in Duras's "Indian Cycle" (for lack of a better term), as the character of Anne-Marie Stretter appers again in Le Vice-Consul and later becomes central in the extraordinary India Song (book, play, film).

I couldn't get on with The Vice Consul. I didn't like the Vice Consul's character, and I abandoned it after a description of teenage scatalogical antics in a pensionnat. I have started this though, and it looks very promising indeed.

[ritter]

I couldn't get on with The Vice Consul. I didn't like the Vice Consul's character, and I abandoned it after a description of teenage scatalogical antics in a pensionnat. I have started this though, and it looks very promising indeed.

That's a nice one, with the texts she wrote for Libération. She recorded some excerpts (in her unmistakeable, seductive voice) as La jeune fille et l'enfant. I've had it on cassette since it was first released, and I think that is the only format ever released (no transfer to CD AFAIK, and not on YouTube either).

[Mandryka]

This seems a bit spoiled by the music.


http://marguerite-duras.blogspot.com/

[SimonNZ]

still going with Winchester's "Exactly", but finished these two in the meantime:



I would have preferred Hillbilly Elegy to be more sociology and less autobiography, but it was still a good read

[stingo]

I would have preferred Hillbilly Elegy to be more sociology and less autobiography, but it was still a good read

Agreed. Serving two masters wasn't the best course I felt.

I'm reading The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

[j winter]

A nice little Christmas treat, Isaacson's recent bio of Leonardo da Vinci.  I have no more than a poor layman's understanding of Renaissance art, so I've been looking forward to this one.  It's outstanding so far, very readable.  And the physical hardcover is nice as well, lots of color illustrations on good paper.

[Ken B]

Death in Captivity
Michael Gilbert

A murder mystery set in a POW camp. First published in 1947 or so. Very enjoyable.

[LKB]

Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB

[Karl Henning]

Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB

Embracing my inner ankylosaur....

[j winter]

Rereading The Rise and Fall of The Dinosaurs by Steven B. ( I can't remember the last name and don't have the book at hand atm. )

This second time through I'm just as impressed as l was with the first reading. One of the best science books I've read in fifty years.

Digging,

LKB

I actually have that on Audible, may finally be time to give it a listen.... I'm a sucker for a good popular science book...

[Alek Hidell]

Steve Brusatte is his name:

[asin]0062490435[/asin]

As for my own reading, just finished:

[asin]0993597505[/asin]
This is a self-published book and is a bit amateurish, but the author is admirably interested in getting at the truth (e.g., the myth of the "Chernobyl divers"), there are a lot of good photos of the abandoned city of Pripyat, and the explanation of the circumstances of the accident are probably about as clear as something so complex can be.

And I'm about to begin:

[asin]0393321282[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

^ what is "the myth of the "Chernobyl divers""?

I'll be very interested to hear what you think of the Hoover, and what new information or opened files the author might have had access to.