What are you currently reading?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

An incredible book! I just reread it last winter, and think I might reread it again this winter.

Just finished Zola's Thérèse Raquin. I was absolutely blown away by this one, too... much more of a psychological thriller, with none of the socio-economic examinations of Germinal, but not really the worse for it. I loved all of the characters, even the incredibly screwed-up ones... Zola continues to quickly grow in my estimation. Very happy to have given him a shot after thinking he wouldn't be for me. My embargo against French literature has come to an end...

Red and Black is waiting for you!  😄

[SimonNZ]

Half way through:

[AnotherSpin]

An incredible book! I just reread it last winter, and think I might reread it again this winter.

Just finished Zola's Thérèse Raquin. I was absolutely blown away by this one, too... much more of a psychological thriller, with none of the socio-economic examinations of Germinal, but not really the worse for it. I loved all of the characters, even the incredibly screwed-up ones... Zola continues to quickly grow in my estimation. Very happy to have given him a shot after thinking he wouldn't be for me. My embargo against French literature has come to an end...

My copy of Raquin featured an excellent translation by Robin Buss, who did the translation of The Count of Monte Cristo which I read and loved so much earlier in the year, and this one was also very good. Going to read his translation of L'Assommoir very soon.

What prompted you to resort to such radical measures?

[AnotherSpin]

[Bachtoven]

[Mandryka]

Anyone read Mr B? @Herman

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-George-Balanchines-Twentieth-Century/dp/1847087736/ref=sr_1_1?crid=7TFB7Z0YA6U6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.teKYJogonUyzJs2nvsvKww.fln5zZv_0v19QBnjf1Fv5_DTPmPkF3H7MQsBOKyz_60&dib_tag=se&keywords=Homan+%E2%80%9CMr.+B%E2%80%9D&qid=1720782235&s=books&sprefix=homan+mr.+b+%2Cstripbooks%2C50&sr=1-1

[ritter]

Anyone read Mr B? @Herman

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-George-Balanchines-Twentieth-Century/dp/1847087736/ref=sr_1_1?crid=7TFB7Z0YA6U6&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.teKYJogonUyzJs2nvsvKww.fln5zZv_0v19QBnjf1Fv5_DTPmPkF3H7MQsBOKyz_60&dib_tag=se&keywords=Homan+%E2%80%9CMr.+B%E2%80%9D&qid=1720782235&s=books&sprefix=homan+mr.+b+%2Cstripbooks%2C50&sr=1-1

Bought it last month, still haven't read it...

[Florestan]

Red and Black is waiting for you!  😄

Which of course is nothing at all like Zola. 

[vers la flamme]

Which of course is nothing at all like Zola. 

I'm quite aware of that Le rouge et le noir is indeed waiting for me on my bookshelf; I think I will read it very soon.

Currently rereading a book that I read not too long ago and really loved, by one of Zola's disciples: Joris-Karl Huysmans' À rebours. Just an unbelievable, very weird, very special novel. As in Énard's Compass which I started reading and gave up on last month, I wish I could read every book and look at every work of art mentioned by the narrator of this book.

[AnotherSpin]

I'm quite aware of that Le rouge et le noir is indeed waiting for me on my bookshelf; I think I will read it very soon.

Currently rereading a book that I read not too long ago and really loved, by one of Zola's disciples: Joris-Karl Huysmans' À rebours. Just an unbelievable, very weird, very special novel. As in Énard's Compass which I started reading and gave up on last month, I wish I could read every book and look at every work of art mentioned by the narrator of this book.

It seems to me that by the time of his most significant works, Huysmans was far removed from Zola. However, maybe Zola's influence survived in the sense of the opposite.

[vers la flamme]

It seems to me that by the time of his most significant works, Huysmans was far removed from Zola. However, maybe Zola's influence survived in the sense of the opposite.

Actually I was surprised to see how much of Zola's influence remains in this book. The character of Des Esseintes could easily have been a creation of Zola's—the effete last scion of a degenerate aristocratic family. It's a very "Naturalist" idea, the lingering deleterious influence of generation after generation of decadent living. (However it's unlikely Zola would have depicted him so sympathetically, or in as much extreme depth.)

[AnotherSpin]

Actually I was surprised to see how much of Zola's influence remains in this book. The character of Des Esseintes could easily have been a creation of Zola's—the effete last scion of a degenerate aristocratic family. It's a very "Naturalist" idea, the lingering deleterious influence of generation after generation of decadent living. (However it's unlikely Zola would have depicted him so sympathetically, or in as much extreme depth.)

I read À rebours in Russian translation a long time ago, and remember poorly. I don't know if naturalism and decadence are so directly connected.

[vers la flamme]

I read À rebours in Russian translation a long time ago, and remember poorly. I don't know if naturalism and decadence are so directly connected.

As literary movements, I would say they are pretty diametrically opposed, I agree; though the two movements do share some amount common ground in subject matter. I just mean that in terms of a textual affinity between two writers, I can see the line of influence between Zola and his erstwhile devotee. Maybe in this case it would be better to say that while Zola could have written the prologue to À rebours, none but Huysmans could have written the rest of the book.

[ritter]

Will be starting tonight James Baldwin's collection of essays (with autobiographical touches) Notes of a Native Son.



This will be my first approach to this author, recommended to me by my son (who found another essay book, The Fire Next Time, very interesting).

[Spotted Horses]

His last book; the only one I haven't read yet; and not a book I am drawn to, from what I've read about it.

It is not his best work, in my view, but it wasn't his last. It was published in 1954 and was followed by The Town, The Mansion and The Reivers.

[San Antone]

It is not his best work, in my view, but it wasn't his last. It was published in 1954 and was followed by The Town, The Mansion and The Reivers.

Oh, you're right!  And those three I've read and enjoyed; The Mansion and The Town complete the Snopes Trilogy (one his greatest characters/families), and those books suffer somewhat from the 20 year gap in creation.  I have often wished he had begun them in the same creative flurry of The Hamlet.

The Reivers is one of his lighter books, a true comedy.

None of that changes my view of A Fable.  I might read it someday but am in no hurry. I re-read Faulkner every year, i.e. the Mississippi books.

[Spotted Horses]

Oh, you're right!  And those three I've read and enjoyed; The Mansion and The Town complete the Snopes Trilogy (one his greatest characters/families), and those books suffer somewhat from the 20 year gap in creation.  I have often wished he had begun them in the same creative flurry of The Hamlet.

The Reivers is one of his lighter books, a true comedy.

None of that changes my view of A Fable.  I might read it someday but am in no hurry. I re-read Faulkner every year, i.e. the Mississippi books.

If you've never read it how do you know you don't like it?

I agree that the first book of the trilogy is the most effective. I don't know if he conceived it at part of a trilogy when he wrote it.

The non-Mississippi book I've come to admire is Mosquitoes.

[San Antone]

If you've never read it how do you know you don't like it?

Because I've read about it. 

One of my other favorite writers, Cormac McCarthy also lost me with his late books, The Road and the last two which were published last year. Sometimes a writer can go down an conceptual path that doesn't interest me.

The non-Mississippi book I've come to admire is Mosquitoes.

Yes, that was recently suggested to me by someone whose opinion I trust.  It takes place in New Orleans, which as a Louisianan is interesting right off the bat. But the rest of this year will be taken up with other books by him.  Maybe next year.

[Karl Henning]

Reading (not for the first time) a novel in manuscript by @Cato :
The Seven Souls of Chaos — A Center of the Universe. Several children begin their loose skein of mutual association as they enter school in Dayton, Ohio. 

[Cato]

Reading (not for the first time) a novel in manuscript by @Cato :
The Seven Souls of Chaos — A Center of the Universe. Several children begin their loose skein of mutual association as they enter school in Dayton, Ohio.

Hi Karl!  Many thanks for revisiting this book!  A book about children, but not for children!