Eduardo Mendoza – Mauricio, Choices
June 15, 2008
We already know Mendoza as the author of funny crime stories, like “The Adventures of Ladies Hairdresser”, so it`s the right time to get to know him better as a brilliant observer of Spanish society.
Mauricio, the main hero, is already known from “Adventures of Ladies Hairdresser” but this time he`s quite ordinary, a brilliant and intelligent dentist, who is induced to take part in the local government election. Mendoza forced him to do so in order to have enough reasons to show a rather merciless section of the Spanish society, of his beloved city Barcelona.
Mendoza wouldn`t be himself if if he wouldn`t mix Mauricio up in complicated romances and would force him to choose between two very attractive women. The local government selection is all in all a boring stuff, but to choose a woman and moral choices is something that rivets the reader`s attention.
Summarized by Fusinha
Pierre Mérot – Mammals
June 14, 2008
A novel of contemporary ennui, centered on uncle’s life, Mammals
The mammals
A dominating female that psychologically castrates her husband and uncle’s brother, fails to exercise the same powers on our main character. Not because this one is a strong individual in terms of social achievement, but because he chose to be the contrary.
A laid back individual that watches the human race doing all the tricks they were trained for. Like landing in a proper job, finding a long-term mate and paying for some small space they call apartment.
Solitaire, often unemployed, the uncle is drawn to alcohol, but he is harmless to the others. Not very often, though, he has brief episodes of envy for the normal life: a house in the suburbs, a pretty wife, kids, a dog and “some low key cancer”.
A sad novel with a funny twist, Mammals
Most certainly, Mérot is not a flawless author, but is for sure refreshing after so many unsatisfying lectures picked up after reading upraising reviews.
Simone De Beauvoir – All Men Are Mortal
June 13, 2008
She’s more famous for her personal life than for her literary activity and when her works are mentioned, it’s always the feminism impregnated ones. But apparently she wrote other kinds of things as well. All Men Are Mortal
It can be seen with the naked eye that Simone has something from her beloved Jean Paul (Sartre). After all, she is believed to have been reading his volumes before they were sent further for publishing. Plus, she’s got verve.
The high interest and cultivated background in philosophy provided her the fertile ground for tackling a subject of this nature. And there’s plenty of fictional history inside, epic narrative sequences and colorful dialogues. As a mere plot spoiler, the main characters are a young actress and an immortal man whose voyage through time left him with countless memories to tell and plenty of reflective thoughts to share. So we are faced with an existentialist array of ideas, not novel ones at all, but none the less the book wraps up into a nicely told story.
Amos Oz – Fima
June 6, 2008
You can say that Amos Oz is a moralist who can describe tragedy of feelings, history and complicated paradoxes of life. It`s very possible that “Fima” is firstly a unique satire about Israel from late 80s, secondly with schlemiel as its main hero. Schlemiel, this eternal smack who is always spilling out the tea, that we already know from different novels, fits perfectly to this kind of literary games. Fima dreamt up that he`s Israel`s prime minister and has difficulties in finding the right person for the right position in his government. Of course, this problem appears when the other obstacles go away. Those “other” are mostly women who are very attracted by him. He doesn`t know if it`s because they love him or feel sorry for him or maybe because of his poetical past. As a result he tries to make all their wishes and desires come true what causes even bigger problems.
Summarized by Fusinha
Gary Shteyngart – Absurdistan
May 30, 2008
This edition starts with three pages of appraisals. Additionally, both the front and the back covers are filled with similar quotes from Time, New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, you name it. I hope everybody can do like me and cunningly skip all these and dive into the book itself.
The synopsis is surely intriguing and whoever gets a glimpse of it would like to know more, ending up by picking the book off the shelf and throwing it in the basket case.
It’s all about the humor and, whether it is terribly dark, burlesque, satiric or ironic, Gary succeeds in putting together a storytelling that will keep your fingers turning the pages until you realize you reached the end. Obviously this won’t actually happen, but you get the idea. It’s catchy, funny, witty, and while I personally think it has its flaws, it all glues together quite nicely. The kind of a best selling book that is pretty good, despite its commercial success. Sometimes there are too many divagations, too many metaphors, too many descriptive scenes. The momentum is somehow pushed and pulled sideways, cause there’s drama and subtle existentialist issues inside as well, which are not always welcome. But if your critic eye is not in a bad mood that day, you’ll just enjoy the reading and fall in love – or at least sympathize, c’mon – with the central character. And that will do.
All the happy families – Carlos Fuentes
May 20, 2008
Master of Spanish literature who will celebrate this year 80th birthday, finally decided to do this, what every decent writer thinks of – pertain to the first sentence from Lew Tolstoy`s “Anna Karenina” and develop it on his own way. Tolstoy starts with the statement that: “All the happy families are similar, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This sentence opens for the writer many new doors and gives plenty of possibilities.
Fuentes did realize it very well, that`s why he wrote sixteen different stories of different families and divided them with choirs which sound and look like poems written by American representatives of Big-Beat generation.
After lecture, putting all the plots and pieces together – it requires from the reader plenty of attention and it`s not so easy – we are given a picture of Mexican society torn apart. A society convincingly different from the one we already know from other charming novel “Summer with Laura Diaz”.
“Violence, violence” are last words of the book, dangerously coexisting with Tolstoy`s sentence. When family falls apart, everything falls apart.
Summarized by Fusinha
Evocation, by Aleida March
May 1, 2008
Letters, notes, poems, fatherhood, Evocation is for sure meant to cast another light upon the guerrilla leader.
On 21st of March we posted on Literary Agenda a link to an article covering the launch of Evocation- My life with Che, by Aleida March
I did some research myself, only to realize that there are no English articles referring the book. Could be because it hasn’t yet been translated into English?
Aleida March (Cuba, 1936), currently the Director of Che Guevara Studies Center, became the second wife of the Cuban legend in 1959 and they spent together eight years. Their children encouraged her to write the book, forty years after Che Guevara‘s death, in Bolivia.
Already published in Italy, Spain, Greece, Serbia, Evocation will be present in Japan soon. I wonder if there is going to be released also in US, as until now I didn’t find any source that confirms this. I will post an article as soon as the book will hit the shelves.
Give Me (Songs for Lovers) – Irina Denezhkina
April 14, 2008
Irina, a pretty girl in her early twenties, is already an international acclaimed writer. The short stories are located in nowadays urban Russia and the recipe used is not at all sophisticated. The main ingredients are teenagers, rock and roll, cheap alcohol, violence, swear words, sex and occasionally, love
The storytelling is more appropriate for sketches rather than stories, in which she fools around with her creative toolbox, it’s a little bit like taking a photo and playing with it in photoshop for a while, applying different filters and effects just to see what comes out.
One story called ‘Vasya and the Green Men’ stands out from the crowd, a very sweet cream of whimsical fantasy.
The English translation, Give me: (Song For Lovers) doesn’t leave in your mouth any special aftertaste, however, reading the original Russian version might be a completely different cup of coffee.
Death at Intervals, Jose Saramago
April 14, 2008
It was when I realized that it gets more and more difficult to choose a book from the bookstores when the idea of Literary Agenda was born. Too much emphasis on the cover, on all those “A brilliant masterpiece, says Famous Newspaper” bling-bling paragraphs on the front cover, back cover, first pages, everywhere.
After I felt in several ‘compelling’ traps and paid some good money on disco-books (I’m not saying that books are expensive, just that I paid too much for some products that did not satisfy my expectations), I decided it must be me. I am not in touch with the latest literary news.
Literary Agenda is still in its early days, but it did help me slalom through the new releases and chose better.
It makes me happy to find out that Jose Saramago gives us a new novel, Death at Intervals
It doesn’t come as a complete novelty that Saramago deprives his characters of a vital function. After an pandemic of blindness
The discovery that death is still a possibility in a neighbouring country gives rise to nocturnal border-crossings. Language ceases to fulfill its descriptive function: “New Year, New Life” is hardly appropriate on 1 January, when death itself has died. [The Independent]
Having concluded that simply snatching mortals away without warning is not only cruel but also leaves a lot of loose ends, she begins to send little violet warning letters. The population’s reaction is predictably hysterical and the handwriting analyst contracted to examine the letters concludes, brilliantly, that death has the handwriting of a serial killer. [The Guardian]
Mario Vargas Llosa – The Language Of Passion
April 8, 2008
First of all, don’t get turned off by the title. The Language of Passion it’s not another book about love. And this is not a novel either. Llosa is a guy who was always keen to make his political and social opinions public. This book is a collection of essays and editorials – grouped under the title ‘selected commentary’ – which appeared in El Pais (and a few other affiliated publications) during the nineties and, as himself notes in the opening page, covers a broad range of topics. So he’s not only dwelling with political issues – undoubtedly his favorite – but also with social, moral, religious, historical, economical or geographical ones.
Each piece was written in a different country and city, as a reflection of his thoughts on a given subject, into which he, apparently just stumbled at that time. They don’t look like newspaper articles, but rather like small pieces of literature. Maybe that’s the trick, to take the reader onto a journey he/she usually only experiences while reading an entire novel.
For people used to his books this will definitely show a completely different face of the author. He’s a witty, smart, feet on the ground person, unlike the characters in his books and his reasoning is always straightforward, whether or not the public is willing to agree with him. As a politician, to be fair we should better call him an ex-politician, the way of exposing sickness, crime, discrimination, hatred, stupidity, prejudice, falsity will always be picturesque and easy to follow. At the same time, as a gifted writer he can transcend his own inner feelings of happiness, sorrow, sympathy or pity into stories that reach a wide public, as the audience of a big newspaper is. Therefore, if you are interested in seeing how this famous writer actually thinks outside his fiction books, this collection is definitely a nice experience.