What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Of these I've only read Zamyatin and Bulgakov, strongly preferring the latter—Master & Margarita is a brilliant book, as is the shorter Heart of a Dog which I read for the aforementioned Russian lit class. (Coolest class in college, one of the few I remember in much detail.)

I've seen Heart of a Dog dramatized as a play. Excellent. The White Guard, his other novel, is very good too.

Grossman who you didn't mention in this post but did elsewhere.

Life and Fate is one of the greatest 20th-century books.

Can't say I know of the others you mentioned.

Nadezhda Mandelstam was the wife of the poet Osip Mandelstam (imprisoned in Gulag on Stalin's direct order, where he died) and wrote two volumes of memoirs about his husband and what life was like in the USSR: Hope against Hope and Hope Abandoned. Worth reading.

Bulat Okudzhava was a Russian / Soviet songwriter, singer and writer of Georgian / Armenian backgground. I've read and very much enjoyed his novel  Nocturne: From the Notes of Lt. Amiran Amilakhvari, Retired (the Romanian title was translated differently and much shorter: The JOurney of the Dilettantes)

[Florestan]

On another note, here's a cool list for book lovers: https://www.dw.com/en/buddenbrooks-to-hooligan-links-to-100-german-must-reads-and-their-publishers/a-46289646

For Robert Musil I'd have chosen The Man without Qualities, for Joseph Roth I'd have chosen Radetzky's March, for Hermann Hesse I'd have chosen Steppenwolf, for Ernst Junger I'd have chosen On the Marble Cliffs.

[Ganondorf]

Finished re-reading Pride and Prejudice a couple of days ago. What a book!

[Brian]

Thanks for the Gontcharov rec, I will definitely investigate. Petersburg by Bely is an incredible riot of a book.

[steve ridgway]

Astounding Science Fiction May 1942 from archive.org

[vers la flamme]

Just finished rereading Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle.



I enjoyed it much more this time around. I think the first time around I was expecting more dystopian tropes, like some kind of underground resistance movement that the characters are intimately involved with, but there's nothing of the sort to be found (besides a subversive book-within-a-book which ultimately plays into a very Dickian conclusion). Instead this book concerns itself primarily with the mundane, everyday interactions of a handful of people in an alternate reality. A surprisingly subtle book. Anyway, I need to read more Dick. Fascinating author.

[vers la flamme]

Irène Némirovsky's posthumously published, incomplete epic, Suite Française



I was initially drawn to this book, as one might expect, by the Bach connection of the title, but after learning more of the circumstances behind the writing and publication of this book (some 60 years after it was written), I decided that I had to read this. I'm about halfway into the novel and enjoying it so far. It has an ensemble cast of characters, all involved in one way or another in the exodus from Paris to the provinces during the German invasion of France in World War II. There are some extremely harrowing scenes described here. I'm a bit of a budding WWII junkie and I suspect I'll find something to appreciate in any book on the subject, fiction or non, but I guess I must admit that it doesn't quite live up to what I was expecting. I can comfortably blame this on the fact that the author only had the chance to finish about a third of what she was planning to write before she was murdered in the Holocaust. And, of course, my thoughts may change by the end of the book. It seems that I find about half of the many characters much more interesting than the other half.

[André]

Finished this one by Tom Gauld (light reading)

[Mirror Image]

This biography on Strauss:

[vers la flamme]

Irène Némirovsky's posthumously published, incomplete epic, Suite Française



I was initially drawn to this book, as one might expect, by the Bach connection of the title, but after learning more of the circumstances behind the writing and publication of this book (some 60 years after it was written), I decided that I had to read this. I'm about halfway into the novel and enjoying it so far. It has an ensemble cast of characters, all involved in one way or another in the exodus from Paris to the provinces during the German invasion of France in World War II. There are some extremely harrowing scenes described here. I'm a bit of a budding WWII junkie and I suspect I'll find something to appreciate in any book on the subject, fiction or non, but I guess I must admit that it doesn't quite live up to what I was expecting. I can comfortably blame this on the fact that the author only had the chance to finish about a third of what she was planning to write before she was murdered in the Holocaust. And, of course, my thoughts may change by the end of the book. It seems that I find about half of the many characters much more interesting than the other half.

Finished; while I did enjoy the book I'm sad that I didn't connect with it as much as I'd hoped to. Must return at a later date.

[Karl Henning]

Now that I'm back in touch with my Nook (as it were) I am re-reading Our Mutual Friend in earnest

[aligreto]

Somerset Maugham: Cosmopolitans


   


This is a series of short stories commissioned by the magazine Cosmopolitan. The commission was based on strict space considerations in the magazine so these stories are naturally more terse that Maugham's more normal flowing style. Also as a result of said restrictions Maugham pared back his descriptive language. As a result of these constrictions the stories make for interesting reading when compared with the greater body of his work [well, for a Maugham fan anyway].

[Florestan]

Endo's Silence has just arrived.

Just finished this. Bleak and tough but impresssive. Raises a lot of difficult questions and challenges for me as a Christian, to which I have only theoretical answers. The moral dilemma of the protagonist is atrocious.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Just finished this. Bleak and tough but impresssive. Raises a lot of difficult questions and challenges for me as a Christian, to which I have only theoretical answers. The moral dilemma of the protagonist is atrocious.

Glad to hear that you found Silence by Endo impressive and powerful. As we discussed in January, the values in the moral dilemma are apples and oranges. Impossible to choose one over the other. Yes, the book is very challenging, emotionally and theoretically.

[Florestan]

Glad to hear that you found Silence by Endo impressive and powerful. As we discussed in January, the values in the moral dilemma are apples and oranges. Impossible to choose one over the other. Yes, the book is very challenging, emotionally and theoretically.

One of the most interesting issues the book raised for me is this: to be a Christian in a Christian country is relatively easy, in the sense that at least nobody will force you to make impossible moral choices and least of all to renounce your faith* --- maybe the true test and trial is to be a Christian in a non-Christian, even anti-Christian, country, where your faith is challenged daily and where your choices may affect not only your life and soul, but those of many others as well.

Truly a disturbing, thought-provoking book, this one.

*although there is tension and even open conflict between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity of the State, as the cases of Kierkegaard and Tolstoy clearly prove.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

One of the most interesting issues the book raised for me is this: to be a Christian in a Christian country is relatively easy, in the sense that at least nobody will force you to make impossible moral choices and least of all to renounce your faith* --- maybe the true test and trial is to be a Christian in a non-Christian, even anti-Christian, country, where your faith is challenged daily and where your choices may affect not only your life and soul, but those of many others as well.

Truly a disturbing, thought-provoking book, this one.

*although there is tension and even open conflict between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity of the State, as the cases of Kierkegaard and Tolstoy clearly prove.

I also read the book, many years ago, in different perspectives, especially in terms of cultural centralism. The protagonist believes that his/Christian belief is universal, absolute, and true. He naturally and strongly believes that Japanese were believing in a wrong god whereas his God is true. He thought that he was helping the people in Japan- attempting to convert their belief- though the much of latter didn't appreciate his "help." Could one possibly consider that the tragedy could be partially due to the self-centered messianism in his belief?

[SimonNZ]

i haven't read the book I've only seen the film, but yes to that last post: they weren't merely "being christian in a non-christian land"

(also a joke I'd make in other contexts about "being christian in a non-christian land" would be: "fucking immigrants - why wont they assimilate to to our culture?")

TD:



I'd started this before and put it aside but now I'm properly into it and after it takes some time to change up through the gears I'm now starting to see why it is Pulitzer-worthy.


and for when I'm wanting something lighter to dip in and out of:

[vers la flamme]

Raymond Carver, Cathedral



The last of Carver's three major story collections for me to read, though there is also the compilation Where I'm Calling From which combines the other three books and adds a handful of new ones, so I suppose I'll have to read that one eventually. As for Cathedral, so far so good. I found the story "A Small, Good Thing", a rewrite of "Bath" from What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, just crushing. I've loved every bit of Carver's work so far. Wish there were more of it.

[Florestan]

I also read the book, many years ago, in different perspectives, especially in terms of cultural centralism. The protagonist believes that his/Christian belief is universal, absolute, and true. He naturally and strongly believes that Japanese were believing in a wrong god whereas his God is true. He thought that he was helping the people in Japan- attempting to convert their belief- though the much of latter didn't appreciate his "help." Could one possibly consider that the tragedy could be partially due to the self-centered messianism in his belief?

This idea crossed my mind too, but on close inspection it doesn't hold much water.

Rodrigues did not set out for Japan in order to convert them; he did it first in order to help those already converted, who were left without priests, baptism, confession and church services, and second in order to find out what really happened to Ferreira. During the whole book he doesn't try to convert a single person, he only administers baptism to and hears confession from nominal Christians. Moreover, when Ferreira tells him that the Japanese Christians turned the Christian God into something else, believing in a wrong sort of god, he doesn't believe it. What you say about attempting to convert their belief- though the much of latter didn't appreciate his "help." might apply to St. Francis Xavier and his immediate followers, ie to the very first Christian missionaries to Japan. But then again, according to the book, the latter were actually succesful, particularly in the Nagasaki area, where at one time there were 400,000 Christians and the authorities were tolerant or even benevolent.

The dire circumstances of Rodrigues and the Japanese Christians were a direct result of harsh and cruel persecutions but the book is silent (pun) about what caused them. After all, the vast majority of Japanese Christians were poor and destitute peasants who barely made ends meet on a daily basis and desired nothing but to be left alone to peacefully live their miserable life . What extreme danger could they pose to the warlords, the authorities and the Buddhist hierarchy so that they had to be crushed mercilessly?

Inoue tells Rodrigues that he (Rodrigues) is directly responsible for the suffering of his fellow Christians and that if he hadn't come to Japan they woud have not suffered, but this is pure sophistry. Firstly, the persecutions began long before Rodrigues set foot on Japan soil; secondly, it wasn't on Rodrigues' orders that the peasants were crucified in the sea or hanged upside down, but on Inoue's. If the intention was to punish Rodrigues, or break down his will, why such cruelty against people who were not responsible for his deeds?

[Florestan]

Re-reading this



Yevgeny Zamyatin --- We

The world it depicts is every bit as bleak and depressive as that of Silence. probably more so --- because in a world of conflicting religions, cultures and countries there is still room aplenty for personal and free choices, actions and creativity, while in a world where there's only one state, one religion (or rather a complete lack thereof) and one culture, all of them organized strictly and exclusively on rational and scientific principles, notions such as "personal", "free", "choice" and "creativity" are regarded and derided as primitive, obsolete and even dangerous.

It's obvious to me that Zamyatin understood Dostoevsky only too well. We is The Demons fast-forwarded a millenium.