What are you currently reading?

[Ratliff]

I loved it the first time (in college) and was disappointed reading it again 6-7 years later...now you're tempting me to try a third 

May have been an expectation game. The second time I read it I expected it to be the summation of all wisdom in the universe. The third time I just found it a great story.

[Jo498]

Of the three Dostoyevsky novels I have read, the one I liked most was The Idiot.
C&P and BK were the other two.

I have not read all of the shorter novels/novellas (I really should catch up on them, I think I have them all on my shelves but don't even clearly remember which ones I have not read/finished) but of the "big 5" (or 6 if one adds "The gambler") I think these three are the best ones (and I read them all at least twice). The Youth is somewhat disappointing, I think, and The demons does have some of the most intense episodes (and it is of course overall the darkest and most disturbing one although I guess we have become somewhat jaded in the last 150 years with darker and more disturbing stuff) but it also takes a long time to get going and is sometimes as "preachy" as the teachings of Sosima (or maybe one should say, politically too close to late 19th century Russia).
I found the first part of The Idiot, from the chance meeting of Myshkin and Rogoshin in the train or at the station until Nastassya Filipovna's birthday party one the the most brillant and breathless streaks of narration I ever encountered. It has to lose a little steam afterwards but if pressed, I might also take this one as my most favorite.
Nevertheless, I think Crime & Punishment is the most accessible of the big 5 because of the comparably straightforward storyline and not quite as sprawling dimensions and cast.

[AlberichUndHagen]

I have started the second part of Joseph tetralogy: Young Joseph.

[Florestan]

I found the first part of The Idiot, from the chance meeting of Myshkin and Rogoshin in the train or at the station until Nastassya Filipovna's birthday party one the the most brillant and breathless streaks of narration I ever encountered.

Absolutely agreed --- and I'll go even further and say that The Idiot grips the readers by the neck on the first page and never let them go until the last. Although I strongly disagree with Dostoyevsky on Catholicism ("This is not a Christian religion!" interjects Myshkin, but imo the condemnation applies much more to Calvinism/Protestantism than to Catholicism), I think The Idiot is a masterpiece.

And you can call me weird but I think that The Demons --- at least in the first part --- shows Dostoyevsky at his most humorous. The introductory pages on Stepan Verkhovensky had me laughing out loud.

[Jo498]

Yes, the fate worse than death (or even worse than being the concubine of a cynic bonvivant) for FMD is to get married off to a catholic Pole. (I am not saying to whom this happens to avoid spoilers)
When I read the Demons in my early 20s I certainly found the beginning very slow and it is also confusing that the narrator suddenly drops out after a while. I am not aware of FMD using this device anywhere else (but it does not seem uncommon in general in 19th century literature)
There is quite a bit of humourous Dostoevsky in the shorter pieces (but I haven't read most of them and only dim recollections of the ones I read). And also in the big ones, e.g. the Marmeladovs in C & P do have some comical features and also the old Karamasov.

[accmacmus]

I've had that one on the shelves waiting to be read for some years now. I'll be interested to know how you rate it.

Ficciones is one of my favourite books, and Aleph is extremely good too. One story (Story of the warrior and the captive) made me cry.
I am sure that you are aware, but in case you aren't, the book consists of short (some very short) stories plus some musings by Borges.
I love the format as it demands less effort rather than your standard novel.

[Wakefield]

I've had that one on the shelves waiting to be read for some years now. I'll be interested to know how you rate it.

Some time, I listened to the great Guatemalan (Mexican by adoption) writer Augusto Monterroso saying: "Jorge Luis Borges is the greatest writer in Spanish since the Spanish Golden Age." And I instantaneously agreed with his dictum.

As "Fictions" is a book of short stories, I recommend you to try the "Theme of Traitor and the Hero", a sort of humble compilation of many themes deeply loved by Borges.   

[SimonNZ]

Thanks to you both for those replies. I've read a few stray stories by Borges but need to give him the attention he's due.

[Mandryka]

Yes, the fate worse than death (or even worse than being the concubine of a cynic bonvivant) for FMD is to get married off to a catholic Pole. (I am not saying to whom this happens to avoid spoilers)
When I read the Demons in my early 20s I certainly found the beginning very slow and it is also confusing that the narrator suddenly drops out after a while. I am not aware of FMD using this device anywhere else (but it does not seem uncommon in general in 19th century literature)
There is quite a bit of humourous Dostoevsky in the shorter pieces (but I haven't read most of them and only dim recollections of the ones I read). And also in the big ones, e.g. the Marmeladovs in C & P do have some comical features and also the old Karamasov.

Yes, I remember vaguely all those anti polish passages, and a debate about whether Russia is Slav or European.


Re The Idiots, I found it very hard, maybe I was just too young or not in the mood at the time for the narrative complexities, or maybe the English translation I used isn't so good. (Has angine read it in French?) I saw it in London as. play, done by a Leningrad theatre with English subtitles, over three nights. It was . . . grizzly.

Re Karamazov, if anyone's in the mood for making a list, I'd appreciate a list of the great metaphysical detective stories, stories where searching for the truth about a crime is concurrent with searching for the truth about the meaning of life. Examples are Karamazov and probably Crime and Punishment, Brighton Rock, maybe A la recherche du temps perdu, maybe The Trial, I bet there are many more.

[SimonNZ]

Finished:

I was worried for the first quarter that this was going to be a manipulative pull-on-the-heartstrings two-hankie weepie, but was glad for the directions it took with the lead character's rapid rise in intelligence, and in its handling of the inevitable conclusion.

[JBS]

Finished:

I was worried for the first quarter that this was going to be a manipulative pull-on-the-heartstrings two-hankie weepie, but was glad for the directions it took with the lead character's rapid rise in intelligence, and in its handling of the inevitable conclusion.

That was required reading in ninth grade English for me. TBH I barely remember anything about it beyond the basic plot.

Did you ever see the movie version?

[SimonNZ]

Haven't seen the movie. Would you recommend it? I'd hesitate because I could easily imagine a film version leaning heavily on the sentimental potential of the story.

[JBS]

Haven't seen the movie. Would you recommend it? I'd hesitate because I could easily imagine a film version leaning heavily on the sentimental potential of the story.

I remember even less of the movie than of the book,  so I can't tell you.

[milk]

That was required reading in ninth grade English for me. TBH I barely remember anything about it beyond the basic plot.

Did you ever see the movie version?

Does that movie have the Ravi Shankar soundtrack? If so, it's excellent.

[SimonNZ]

I thought you must have been joking, but you're right. Somehow I'd never heard of this Shankar soundtrack. Will definately check the film out now, thanks!



TD: adding this to the various things on the go:



Reading chapters out of order, interesting to learn that the character of Charlie (!) in The Little Drummer Girl is based very closely on his own sister minus the recruitment stuff.

[vers la flamme]

I'm almost done with Wuthering Heights. Enjoying it pretty well so far. I've never read it before and am usually not much for Victorian novels, but this one is quite different.

I'm also midway through Gary Lachman's book about Swedenborg. Pretty good too.

[JBS]

https://medium.com/@craigsnyderphila/the-whispering-majority-d67092d31577

[vers la flamme]

Started Mann's Buddenbrooks a few days ago. Really loving it so far. I find it an easy read coming off of Wuthering Heights, which I really enjoyed, but found dense at times. I'm a big fan of these kinds of multigenerational books...

Really 2020 is the year of me getting back into fiction, after years of not reading much at all, and what I did read was exclusively nonfiction. I feel like a little kid again, getting immersed in the worlds of these stories. Quite exciting. If this is anything like how I was getting into classical music a couple of years ago, I suspect this will be a longstanding obsession.

[Carlo Gesualdo]

I was reading l'aventure polyphonique de Nicolas Gombert by Paul van Nevel quite interesting but stop because , my eyes are tired, don't have a good eye sight like before, I'm not blind but my vision suffered to a point were it's pain streaking hard to reads whiteout intense light and having m nose pop in the book, I' 43 years old life  unfair, but  I also have to purchase  new glasses need them at all sake, once It were SO HUMILIATING, I though m father was talking to my sister I come outside and say animal my sister, I call her friendly animal because she lack in manners not because she a woman(i'm no sexist) but this time  I did not realize I mistaken an elderly woman for my sister on my street , my father was so laughing at me, and I did  hide inside and said oh no oh no excuse me lady I mistaken you for my sister I felt real bad...

Now when I see this lady I coward inside, that not so funny and stop calling my sister animal

[AlberichUndHagen]

Started Mann's Buddenbrooks a few days ago. Really loving it so far. I find it an easy read coming off of Wuthering Heights, which I really enjoyed, but found dense at times. I'm a big fan of these kinds of multigenerational books...

Really 2020 is the year of me getting back into fiction, after years of not reading much at all, and what I did read was exclusively nonfiction. I feel like a little kid again, getting immersed in the worlds of these stories. Quite exciting. If this is anything like how I was getting into classical music a couple of years ago, I suspect this will be a longstanding obsession.

Buddenbrooks is definitely a gem. My only complaints really are the first 20-30 pages or so. I seem to run to this often in Mann's work (the beginning being the weakest part) such as in Buddenbrooks and Magic Mountain. Joseph is an interesting case in that the beginning section was more interesting than the real beginning of the story itself so it kind of applies here too but once again, for ex. this second part of Joseph and his brothers has been very, very interesting and enjoyable. Although since I've only read about 1/3 of the entire tetralogy I can't tell if things continue to be as good.