My first book 'Les Bienveillantes' by Jonathan Littell is grandiose. If you read easily in French and haven't read it yet, then go out immediately and buy it. 'Les Bienveillantes' won le prix Goncourt and le grand prix de l'Académie Francaise this year - something that leaves me a little wary usually, but this is definitely a great book. Jonathan Littell is the son of the novelist Robert, and although totally bilingual, he chose to write the book in French and beautifully written it is too. Published by Gallimard, it is a BIG book in every sense of the word; 900 pages of small type on good quality paper makes it a heavy book, especially for night readers such as myself.
'Les Bienveillantes' ('The Kindly Ones' is its temporary English title) tells the fictional story of Maximilien Aue, an SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) during World War 2 who is posted to the Eastern Front and is then muted to deal with the problems in the concentration camps, trying to improve conditions of the prisoners so they are able to work in the factories turning out munitions for the German army that is almost defeated.
It is interesting to read a book from a German point of view on the last war - it doesn't however excuse the horrors that happened or explain them; it is simply the story of a young bourgeois man who gets thrown into something he cannot handle - physical sickness, drunken orgies, homosexuel relationships - he loses his mind trying to come to terms with the horror that is thrown at him daily, and continually harking back to an incesteous affair with his sister.
It is a terrifying book, some of the descriptions make one feel weak at the knees, but worth every single page.
After finishing such a book, I then needed something light and silly and found it in two books I was offered for Christmas - Molvania (A land untouched by modern dentistry) and Phaic Tan (Sunstroke on a shoestring) - both published by Atlantic Books under the Jetlag travel guide. A spoof on Lonely Planet. Both are ficticious - loosely based on Eastern Europe and Asia, but are a hoot! There is a new one out based on South America. They are written exactly like a guide book but the information is complete rubbish (or is it?) - great to flip through and to have a really good laugh - as Bill Bryson said 'Brilliantly original and very, very funny'.
And finally, I have just finished 'A short history of Tractors in Ukrainian' bz Marina Lewycka and published by Penguin. The story in told by the younger of two sisters - the elder born during the War in German-occupied Ukraine and the second born ten years later in post-war Britain. It is the story of their widowed emigré father who falls for, and marries, Valentina, a Ukranian gold-digger 40 years his junior, who only wants marriage for the passport. It is very drole, the family trying to make the father see that Valentina is only after him for his pension and his passport and the descriptions of Valentina are lovely with her boil-in-the-bag cuisine, amongst other things. There is also the darker side of the story - the escape of the family from the Ukraine which is reveals through the story, but a good book about families, skeletons in the cupboard, and a most delightful read.
24 comments:
Am a night reader, same as you Louise, half an hour before lights out, which makes for pretty slow progress. Am still working through the Christmas prezzies, like Sue Townsend (Queen Camilla) - very sharply observed - and Stephen Clarke (Talk to the Snail), which is well informed as ever, but a bit laboured in places.
Les Bienveillantes sounds fascinating: I've made a mental note of that. But me and the missus were puzzling your reference to the officer being "muted" and have decided that a certain long-term francophone is lapsing into franglais, using an anglicized version of the French verb "muter" for moved or transferred. Unless of course his new job really did quieten him down, though that seems improbable considering the conditions he found.
I found "Tractors" entertaining and certainly a quick read but I wasn't altogether sorry when I reached the end. It started to get repetitive and I thought Valentina was overdrawn and ultimately less than believable. I liked the character of the old man and his history of tractors was very well-sustained. But it's not a book I see myself ever reading again, which is my main criterion for judging something as really good. I'm a voracious reader and can get through a novel in a couple of evenings. Rereading a favourite can sometimes be like eating comfort food. A sort of literary boeuf carrotte!
Guilty! The franglais does slip through every now and then and 'muted' slipped through the net - transferred is right! I don't know when the book will be published in English - it's a big job - probably in the autumn for the Prizes? I hope they put a good translator onto it, as that can make or break a book.
Agree with you, Bill, that 'Tractors' does ramble a bit - as you say it isn't 'great book' stuff and not a re-read, but a welcome interlude after Littell's book, which is a dark beast indeed.
It will be interesting to see if Littell can repeat this performance - it is his first book and took him four years to get it together. Apparently everyone has 'one book in them' - the art of being a writer must surely be to produce further quality books? Not easy to follow on from a masterpiece.
You're so right about the importance of a good translator. I just finished Christophe Dufossé's novel, "School's Out," which won the Prix Premier Roman and has been very well-reviewed. I'm afraid it was lost on me. I persevered but by the end I couldn't wait to put it down. I suspect the translation had something to do with that. All the same, I'll keep my eyes open for an English version of Jonathan Littell's book.
It's a wide-open question as to whether everyone has one book in them. Is hitting the jackpot first time, as Littell appears to have done, a flash in the pan? Can he reasonably be expected to produce a masterpiece every time? It's fascinating to look at the early works of an established author and see how far he or she has come. Starting with a bang may be a mixed blessing.
It occurs to me that perhaps Jonathan Littell might translate his book himself, which could give us the best of all possible worlds.
I haven't been able to read a good book for about two years. I was so preoccupied with my marital problems, that my brain just stopped working. I can only cope with the likes of Ruth Rendell and P D James at the moment. Don't get me wrong - they are good authors in their genre - it's just that they don't require much concentration.
If I took a photo of my bedside table you would see that - like Hell - it is paved (cluttered?) with good intentions. A couple of classics - L'Etranger, Germinal and then the Cambridge History of France; the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language; Le Nom de la Rose and the Bible. I'm dipping into Jeremy Paxman's The English and reading P D James' The Lighthouse too. Normally, I'd read a novel in a couple of days...but I've been reading this one for - oh - ages...
I just could not cope with Les Bienveillantes. Nope. Sorry.
OK. That should have read 'like the road to Hell'. Serves me right for being pretentious...
Me too, Gigi - my divorce book theraphy was pretty basic stuff - just to escape for a little time each day from all the problems. My Mum used to send me the most awful trash from England, until she realised the postage costed more than the books cost to buy!
Littell's book, as I've already said, is a great book I thought, but definitely not a read if you aren't concentrating and as it is nightmarish, definitely not one to read if you feel a bit/very low.
It would be perfect if Littell translates his own book, as you say Bill. Perhaps he will. Difficult to follow such a book as this, and unfortunately he will be under pressure to start churning stuff out and will probably be criticised for the follow-up. It must be awful to 'have' to write a best-seller every year - not many can do it - someone I think comes very near and is one of my favourite authors is Joyce Carol Oates; amazingly diverse and invariably good books.
She's not someone I've ever been able to get into. Have you come across Barbara Trapido? Consistently good, except for her last one, which I couldn't finish. She hasn't produced anything for about three years.
That's weird...I could have sworn I'd read Joyce Carol Oates but it seems I haven't.
I shall add that to my bedside table-from-hell :-)
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea,though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
NT PSALM 23
"NT Psalm 23" ?
What does "NT" mean, Anonymous ? New Testament and/or Not True ?
I too, was wondering why Psalm 23 appeared here, Colin.
Methinks someone is trying to save that wicked wayward soul of yours, Louise. Now who could that be, one wonders ? Someone whose own literary horizons are blotted out by Jane Austen and similar ?
Annoyingly, there are few if any syntax or punctuation clues. But that's because it's probably a cut-and-paste job, going by the manicured look, what with all those posh semi-colons an'all.
Cautinary note:maybe the prim perpetrator,be it he or she,has finally opened up his/her prose style,know what I mean?Console yourself with the thought that verse and worse appears largely to have dried up.
One has to hope that my trademark logo above doesn't inspire him/her into a new round of creativity. Perhaps I ought to replace "sweet hippo" with a more aggressive beast. Verse that is peppered with "sweet alligator" might look a bit peculiar (not that the charge of peculiarity would ever weigh heavily on that particular individual's head - one that dreamt up the idea of inserting Psalm 23 into a review of modern literature).
I'd better stop now - or we risk yet another outbreak of William McGonagall from the supporters' club .......
I fear it too late to save my wicked soul, but you never know!
PS
Today's Telly asks
"Which books can you not live without and why?" under "Your View". Here's what I have just sent off, written off the top of the head, so to speak.
It was during an unbroken 2 year stint in W.Africa, during which I experienced a particularly fierce bout of homesickness that I was introduced to "The Lord of the Rings" - an extraordinary literary feat, if ever there was. But I also discovered another comfort blanket: Anthony Trollope's "The Warden" and "Barchester Towers". There's a surprisingly modern feel to the storylines, despite the Victorian setting, with its timeless theme of the new broom versus the traditionalists, the dynamic versus the meek etc. And this was a rare occasion when the subsequent TV series enhanced the experience of having read the book, thanks to Alan Rickman as Obadiah Slope, Donald Pleasance as Reverend Harding, and especially Nigel Hawthorne as the Archdeacon.
"I Claudius" was another instance where the TV series made me want to go back and re-read the book.
A small and rare puff for science: "The Double Helix" by Watson and Crick is not just a humbling account of scientific genius at work. It has a soap opera quality too, given the rivalry (not to say skullduggery) in that duo's dealings with the tragic Rosalind Franklin. I once showed a video of the made-for -TV film (Geoff Goldblum plays the garrulous Watson) to a class of 6th formers. Some -including the teacher - were almost in tears when Watson and Crick finally unveil their model to their rivals, and all the jealousy and backbiting evaporates at they gaze in wonder at the simplicity and elegance of what they had conceived on mere fragments of information, much of it "intelligence gathering". A triumph not just for science, but of the human spirit too, acquisitive winning mentality an' all.
It's rather a blanket question, isn't it? Books you can't live without ... does that mean you will never be able to buy another book? Will you be sent to the middle of nowhere? And it all depends on one's mood - I have books that I have adored reading, but perhaps don't want to re-read at the present time. And I couldn't possibly restrict my list to a dozen or so books, but the Telly seems to love this kind of question/answer game, don't they? Getting more like the Mail every day!
Yes, there's a racy quality about the Telegraph these days - probably the result of Will Lewis's apocalyptic style of management. The staff are probably all wondering if they'll still have jobs this time next week.
But I'd take the Telly in preference to the Times anyday. Their makeover seems a bit of a damp squib to me. And I'm not just talking about the lime-green, which has all the authority and impact of the kitchen in a 1950s prefab.
I'd be sounding off about their policy of restricting comments on particular topics to just 10, except I don't want to be typecast as someone who's always sounding off ......
What's all this about restricting comments to 10 per blog? I must admit I rarely read the Telly blogs now, so am not very up to date...who posted the comment?
I would have thought the Telly would be better off having less bloggers and a better content personally. Restricting comments to 10 is pretty stupid - it sometimes takes that much time for a blog to get off the ground and people reacting...however, nothing surprises me any more!
Sorry. Didn't make myself clear there, Louise. It's the Gnu Times that restricts comments to 10, at least on certain topics, like the one on climate change that appeared recently. It's OK until the 10th comment is received, but when number 11 goes up, number 1 drops off. If it's a busy thread, and you return, say, an hour after posting, you don't know if yours has appeared or not. Presumably none of it's picked up on Google, since once it's dropped off the bottom, it can't be retrieved.
I've used the comments box to lodge a protest, but either it didn't appear, or I blinked and it was gone.
PS If you want an example, Louise, there's a facility for leaving comments on today's story on Prince Harry in the Times which has already reached its max of 10 comments. Try adding one more, and see what happens.
Note too that the Times still can't be bothered to put a time and date on each comment. Personally I think they still hanker for the days when our letters began with "Sir", and ended "I remain, sir, your obedient servant" ......
Clicked on your link, Colin ... well, when I read it, everyone was having a go at Arabela, but as Arabela's comment had been trashed, I have absolutely no idea what she said!
Isn't it crazy ?! You'd think the Times would be inundated with protests? Or maybe it is, and the complaints are being ignored.
Granted the Telly has gone downmarket, but it is, I believe, become the gold standard for how a paper should look online, with its web page layout, its engaging with the reader, combined with lots of opportunities for us to interact.
The Times has tried to get the same look, but hasn't managed to achieve the same tempting smorgasbord of this and that. As for the interaction, their heart's clearly not in it. The editorial staff are probably too much in awe of the heavyweights, like Kaletsky, or the grandees like Rees-Mogg to be bothered with anything that you or I might say.
It probably is inundated by complaints on a blog - but after 10 they drop off the edge of the page!
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