I legitimately laughed out loud throughout reading this book and read parts to my husband. I, too, was fascinated by the translation from the French and how it managed to stay funny. I suspect if I could read the Albanian it would be howlingly funny.
The reverence and fear for the tape recorder: priceless. The wife's journey--brilliant. And planted so perfectly in the opening pages. By the end of the book, I was a little in love with both scholars.
I've never read anything like this book; I'm not typically drawn to farcical novels but maybe I've been wrong not to be?
This is an amazing description of this novel, Rebecca! Whoa! You yourself are 100% amazing, to be diving into all this reading in translation with such panache and thought. I do have one novel to suggest -- THE SAFE HOUSE, by Christophe Boltanski, translated by a wonderful young translator, Laura Marris. (She's also recently translated The Plague with great beauty.) The Safe House is (according to the University of Chicago description) an "ingeniously structured, lightly fictionalized account of [Boltanski's Jewish] grandparents and their extended family [during World War II, in Paris]. The novel unfolds room by room—each chapter opening with a floorplan— introducing us to the characters who occupy each room, including the narrator’s grandmother--a woman of “savage appetites”--and his uncle Christian, whose haunted artworks would one day make him famous." I'm sure you already have more suggestions than you need! but if not, this one is great!
I've been assuming the books on this list are too obscure to find but I just checked and my local public library has several Kadares. (Mostly in ebook but still). Thanks for the tip!
Loved this one! I'm new to Kadare's work, so it's wonderful to learn he's written many other novels. The Fall of the Stone City is up next for me.
Aside from the humor, certain images remain for me. The bored and spoiled wife in her bath. The scholars watching the highlanders emerge from the freezing fog on the plain ("Are these men, or am I having visions?"). That poor ruined tape recorder.
Someday I hope you'll talk more about why the idea of an omniscient narrator is ridiculous to begin with. In the meantime, I'm grateful you've slowed down a little on this project :)
I legitimately laughed out loud throughout reading this book and read parts to my husband. I, too, was fascinated by the translation from the French and how it managed to stay funny. I suspect if I could read the Albanian it would be howlingly funny.
The reverence and fear for the tape recorder: priceless. The wife's journey--brilliant. And planted so perfectly in the opening pages. By the end of the book, I was a little in love with both scholars.
I've never read anything like this book; I'm not typically drawn to farcical novels but maybe I've been wrong not to be?
This is an amazing description of this novel, Rebecca! Whoa! You yourself are 100% amazing, to be diving into all this reading in translation with such panache and thought. I do have one novel to suggest -- THE SAFE HOUSE, by Christophe Boltanski, translated by a wonderful young translator, Laura Marris. (She's also recently translated The Plague with great beauty.) The Safe House is (according to the University of Chicago description) an "ingeniously structured, lightly fictionalized account of [Boltanski's Jewish] grandparents and their extended family [during World War II, in Paris]. The novel unfolds room by room—each chapter opening with a floorplan— introducing us to the characters who occupy each room, including the narrator’s grandmother--a woman of “savage appetites”--and his uncle Christian, whose haunted artworks would one day make him famous." I'm sure you already have more suggestions than you need! but if not, this one is great!
I've been assuming the books on this list are too obscure to find but I just checked and my local public library has several Kadares. (Mostly in ebook but still). Thanks for the tip!
I am finally getting to this book and, as predicted, am chuckling all the way through. It's so weirdly delightful. Guess I love Albanian lit now.
Loved this one! I'm new to Kadare's work, so it's wonderful to learn he's written many other novels. The Fall of the Stone City is up next for me.
Aside from the humor, certain images remain for me. The bored and spoiled wife in her bath. The scholars watching the highlanders emerge from the freezing fog on the plain ("Are these men, or am I having visions?"). That poor ruined tape recorder.
Someday I hope you'll talk more about why the idea of an omniscient narrator is ridiculous to begin with. In the meantime, I'm grateful you've slowed down a little on this project :)