This is a witty book about how we define success, and how we might strife for what the term commonly entails instead of asking ourselves what makes usThis is a witty book about how we define success, and how we might strife for what the term commonly entails instead of asking ourselves what makes us happy. Protagonist Barry Cohen is a wealthy hedge fund manager in New York, but when his 3-year-old son is diagnosed with autism, his marriage becomes strained. As he then also is confronted with an SEC investigation, Barry boards a Greyhound to flee his life and search for his college sweetheart.
Shteyngart plays with the classic American trope of travelling westward, not only hinting at the settlers who pushed the frontier, but also at literary works like On the Road. While the settlers and Kerouac's characters are (different kinds of) explorers, Barry's travels have a regressive streak: Yes, he does leave his old life behind, he sees much of the country and meets many people, but he does so to avoid reality, not to embrace it. Still, his outer movement corresponds with his inner movement, and his experiences shape him and push the narrative forward.
An interesting and recurring theme in the text are expensive watches, which are works of art and stand for beauty, but also signal wealth and status as well as passing time. So pay attention regarding what happens to Barry's watches over the course of the story! :-) On top of that, it's pretty intriguing to compare the standards for success in which the Indian family of Barry's wife believes with those of Barry.
I liked how Shteyngart discusses how Barry lost track of himself, how he started chasing status and wealth and gets terrified when it turns out that his son is not fitting the norm, that he can't compare his kid's achievements with those of other children. The value of his son is not defined in comparison to others, he has to be seen him for who he is as an individual, as a person with many qualities who defies being evaluated by the superficial standards Barry has always adhered to.
All in all, I have to say that the idea and the ambition of the novel were better than the execution: While Shteyngart certainly is an excellent, smart and funny writer, I found the book a little lengthy. Still, I defintely want to read more of his books....more
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 Oh, you poor, narrow-minded snobs who think that just because a book has pictures in it, it must be shallow! NLonglisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018 Oh, you poor, narrow-minded snobs who think that just because a book has pictures in it, it must be shallow! Newsflash: "The medium is the message" never meant that the carrier defines the content, but that every carrier has specific qualities that allow messages to be conveyed differently, and that the carrier has an impact on the way a message is sent and perceived - which brings us to what makes a successfull graphic novel. Nick Drnaso finds wonderful ways to let his language and his drawn images with their specific qualities work together in order to create one coherent work of art instead of just piling up words and pictures.
The story focuses on Calvin, a surveillance specialist in the air force. He wants to help out his childhood friend Teddy, who had a nervous breakdown because his girlfriend Sabrina mysteriously disappeared. When it becomes clear what happened to her, Calvin and Teddy become targets of the news media and conspiracy theorists...
An important theme in the book is loneliness: The dialogue often consists of polite, but empty phrases, many images show just one person in a lonely room, hall or street, the story hints at different dimensions of alienation, and the coloring is very bleak and within a limited range. In this context, Drnaso discusses how and to what ends acts of violence like abductions, murders or mass shootings are committed in the media age, how the news cycle spins and how victims and their families are victimized a second time as a consequence of sensationalist reporting and the way some viewers react to it. When the pressure mounts, Calvin and Teddy react very differently, and Teddy even becomes susceptible to conspiracy theories that re-enforce his feelings of pointlessness and desperation.
I liked the quiet minimalism Drnaso employs to tell his story, and which contrasts directly with the loud media outrage he depicts. He draws with very few lines, there is nothing that wouldn't be necessary to tell the story. The reader has to look very closely at the faces to see the nuance in the expressions - and it is the need for nuance, for close attention and an acute awareness that this author wants to highlight in his story.
It's easy to see the merit of this book, and I'm all for including different forms of storytelling in the Booker list as long as the quality justifies it - in this case, it does....more
Regener liest aus "Herr Lehmann", "Neue Vahr Süd“, "Der kleine Bruder" und "Meine Jahre mit Hamburg-Heiner“ - pointiert, witzig und mit dem, was man iRegener liest aus "Herr Lehmann", "Neue Vahr Süd“, "Der kleine Bruder" und "Meine Jahre mit Hamburg-Heiner“ - pointiert, witzig und mit dem, was man in Norddeutschland unter Charme versteht! ;-) Man könnte dem Mann einfach stundenlang zuhören....more
Roger Willemsen streift durchs nächtliche Bangkok, er trifft Arbeiter, Straßenverkäufer, Bettelelefanten und Go-Go-Girls und futtert auf dem NachtmarkRoger Willemsen streift durchs nächtliche Bangkok, er trifft Arbeiter, Straßenverkäufer, Bettelelefanten und Go-Go-Girls und futtert auf dem Nachtmarkt Insekten mit Mozart-singenden Thailänderinnen. In einem solchen Format konnte Willemsen seine Stärken ausspielen: Seinen Enthusiasmus, seine Zugewandtheit und seine Beobachtungsgabe. Dieses Buch ist kein Reiseführer und keine Kulturstudie, es ist eher eine Sammlung von Vignetten und Beobachtungen, verfasst im typischen Willemsen-Duktus....more
"Thought for despair? No! I am part of a living struggle. And without struggle, there is no movement, there is no life."Will this man now finally get"Thought for despair? No! I am part of a living struggle. And without struggle, there is no movement, there is no life."Will this man now finally get his well-deserved Nobel Prize, for God's sake?!
It's actually bizarre to even rate this, the memoir of a man who was once thrown into a maximum security prison after writing a play in an African language and staging it with local workers and peasants. Today, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is considered one of the main contestants for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and his writings on Kenyan culture and about the consequences of the British rule over his home country are invaluable for everyone trying to understand African history or colonialism in general.
This is the first time this memoir is published in English, in a re-edited version, although its original version in Gikuyu was already put out in 1982. Ngũgĩ wrote most of the text secretly on toilet paper in his prison cell in 1978, as a means of resistance, to uphold his own sanity and intergrity, and as a testimony to let others know about the faith of political prisoners under the authoritarian Kenyatta regime.
Jomo Kenyatta was the country's first black head of government and played a significant role in the transformation of Kenya from a colony into an independent republic. Born in 1891, he experienced the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial era - and this man's policies were just as contradictory as Kenya's history (see Ngũgĩ's highly interesting postscript). In his memoir, Ngũgĩ strongly criticizes the man who jailed him and many of his fellow intellectuals, describes the connection between colonial atrocities and the wrongdoings of the Kenyatta government, and elaborates on the power which the ideology of colonialism still holds over the Kenyan people, from poor peasants up to the head of state.
From his prison cell, Ngũgĩ fights the colonial "culture of silence and fear" and its "aesthetic of blind trust and obedience to foreign economic, political, and cultural occupation and encirclement" with many acts of resistance, his art being one of them. After dozens of years of being indoctrinated that they are worthless and that their actions are futile, Ngũgĩ sees Kenyan culture and creativity as the constructive force that will enable Kenyans to overcome the legacy of the "colonial Lazarus":
"It's the history of Kenyan resistance culture, a revolutionary culture of courage and heroism (...). It's a creative, fight-back culture unleashing tremendous energies among the Kenyan people." "(...) even behind the barbed wire and stone walls of the colonial Jericho, they (the Kenyan people) went on composing new songs and singing out a collective defiance that finally brought those walls down."
In contrast, "(b)eyond drinking whiskey, drugging themselves into sexual fantasies, whoring each other's spouses, and gunning lions and natives for pleasure in this vast Happy Valley, the settlers produced little."
The text has a peculiar structure, containing foreshadowings and flashbacks, providing historical and political context, giving insights into the physical and psychological measures applied to subdue or even destroy prisoners, and letting the reader get really close to the author: The way Ngũgĩ talks about his feelings, his pain, but also his strength is powerful and highly impressive. The memoir is closely connected to his novel Devil on the Cross, which he also wrote in prison (but it is not necessary to know the novel to appreciate this book).
Full disclosure: I didn't know much about Kenya before reading this book, but now I want to learn much more about this country which is located around 10,000 km away from me - and I want to read more Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. This is a fascinating book, and it is almost impossible to put it down....more
Helge Schneider spielt für Elvis "La Cucaracha", klaut im Bio-Markt, fährt Nissan Micra mit Pete York und filmt Stichlinge mit der Infrarotkamera, wähHelge Schneider spielt für Elvis "La Cucaracha", klaut im Bio-Markt, fährt Nissan Micra mit Pete York und filmt Stichlinge mit der Infrarotkamera, während seine adelige Frau Tallulah Soja-Schnitzel brät und sein Sohn Paul, der in Detroit lebt, Eminem eine scheuert. Wird Helge sich einen dritten Hubschrauber kaufen? Wann besucht er die Putzfrau im Weißen Haus? Und lässt er endlich die Penisverkleinerung durchführen?
Am besten ist das Ganze natürlich als Hörbuch: Wenn Schneider in typisch-lakonischem Tonfall vorliest, macht er extensive Pausen, raschelt mit dem Papier, räuspert sich, verliest sich, spricht dem "lecker Leitungswasser" zu und muss selbst über seinen Text lachen - und natürlich gibt es auch musikalische Einlagen.
Alles, was man so über Stuckrad-Barres Lesungen hört, ist natürlich absolut wahr - dem, der's nicht glaubt, sei dieses Hörbuch empfohlen (wer's glaubtAlles, was man so über Stuckrad-Barres Lesungen hört, ist natürlich absolut wahr - dem, der's nicht glaubt, sei dieses Hörbuch empfohlen (wer's glaubt, braucht keine Empfehlung, der hört es sich sowieso an, is klar). Panikherz ist einfach fantastisch, und die vorgelesenen Ausschnitte sind hervorragend ausgewählt - außerdem kann dieser Autor sehr gut vorlesen. Aber dieses Lesungs-Standard-Repertoire ist hier ja nur das halbe Programm, es gibt unter anderem noch einen Crowd-Surfing-Wettbewerb, mehr oder weniger erhellende Infos zum Zusammenhang zwischen Jena und Fulda, einige Ratschläge von Udo Lindenberg zum Thema gelungene Live-Auftritte und Stories, die einem glasklar vor Augen führen, warum man nun wirklich nicht mit Stuckrad-Barres Sohn tauschen möchte. Zwischendurch singt Clueso "Cello", "Chicago" und "Gewinner" (fände ich normalerweise mittelschwer schlimm, stört mich hier aber seltsamerweise überhaupt nicht).
Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow is an expert on the sociology of religion, the study of communities, and rural sociology. In "The Left Behind", hPrinceton sociologist Robert Wuthnow is an expert on the sociology of religion, the study of communities, and rural sociology. In "The Left Behind", he is trying to find the sources that prompt the anger that is brewing in rural America, and why rural communities have overwhelmingly voted for Trump. What makes his approach so appealing is that Wuthnow, who was himself born in a small community, is always empathic, but never apologetic. His research defies the stereotypical notion that small-town people are simpletons, but he is also very critical of the strategies rural communities are currently employing to protect their lifestyle.
Wuthnow and his research team conducted over a thousand in-depth qualitative interviews in rural areas. One of their main findings was that rural people are particularly community-oriented, and that they are trying to preserve their communities that have come under pressure due to factors like job loss, a shrinking population and the brain drain. It is highly interesting to learn what these rural communities attribute their decline to, what conclusions people are drawing and how they ultimately rationalise voting against their own interest.
Wuthnow tackles reactionary tendencies regarding topics like race and homosexuality, he talks about factors like religion, anti-government impulses, the highly valued "common sense", independence and abortion. While he clearly did not conduct his research to serve some ultimate purpose, it appears that this book could be a tool for people who are not familiar with rural America to better understand the concerns of rural communities, and for rural Americans themselves to critically reflect whether their current strategies to fight the rural decline are really effective - because in the end, the vitality of rural communities lies in the interest of every American, no matter where they live.
Mariupol is currently under attack -AGAIN. Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2017 English: She Came from Mariupol "11 years after the end of the war, my moMariupol is currently under attack -AGAIN. Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair 2017 English: She Came from Mariupol "11 years after the end of the war, my mother committed suicide in a small West German town, not far from a settlement for homeless foreigners, as the former forced laborers were called at the time. Except for my sister and I, there was probably not a single person in the world who still knew her, and neither had we, my sister and I, actually known her. We were children, my sister was just four and I was ten years old when, on a day in October in 1956, she left the apartment without a word and never came back."
Natascha Wodin was born in 1945 as the child of former Soviet forced laborers, and she grew up in German DP camps (that is, camps for “displaced persons”) and later in a Catholic girls' home. Her depressed, severely traumatized Ukrainian mother had told her children nothing about their origins or her experiencenes during the war. In “She came from Mariupol”, Wodin documents the search for her roots - the Prize of the Leipzig Book Fair for Fiction is irritating insofar as the book is not fictional or autofictional. Rather, Wodin takes her readers along as she researches her own family, she describes her feelings and thoughts and discusses how she put the individual pieces of information together.
This creates a mosaic of individual fates, the pattern of the arrangement being determined first by the Russian Civil War, the Soviet dictatorship and then by the Second World War. Wodin's self-image changes with the emerging images of her family, and this second level creates an even closer connection to all the dead and (so far) strangers in the family that Wodin is gradually tracking down, diving three generations into the past.
Many books have been written about the Second World War and its aftermath, but few about the plight of the Soviet forced laborers who were ostracized in their homeland after the end of the war because they had worked for the enemy (although it wasn't their free decision), and about their fate in Germany, the land of their former tormentors, where they were also discriminated against. Many of these people found themselves caught in two dictatorships within a short timespan, threatened by the abuse of power, war, and hunger. This is how Wodin writes about the famine during the Russian Civil War:
"Many eat dogs and cats. After all the dogs and cats have been eaten, it is the humans' turn. One hears of women who lure children into their homes with food and kill them to make minced meat and roasts. When Matilda cuts jelly, which she bought at the market, into pieces at home, she comes across a child's ear. You take it to the police, but they can't find the perpetrators. There's a story of a woman who killed her baby, cooked the meat and set the soup in front of her three other children to eat. She herself went out and hanged herself in the shed."
Wodin has found a particular, oscillating language to describe these horrors without any intentional, tasteless shock effects. This book is disturbing and deeply sad, but that Natascha Wodin has managed to grapple with her own family history and to employ it as an example of the destiny of many others who haven't played much of a role in the official history books, that is admirable and brave. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in European history and thus, in the European present.
(I translated the passages from the German edition, so please note that the translation done by a professional in the English edition will certainly do the original text more justice. My intention was to alert English-speaking readers to the existence of the book and its soon-to-be-published translation.)...more
This book didn’t hurt, but it also didn’t do anything for me. A fragmented narrative in the style of a memoir about a young woman named Thandi who losThis book didn’t hurt, but it also didn’t do anything for me. A fragmented narrative in the style of a memoir about a young woman named Thandi who loses her mother to breast cancer and gives birth to her first child, this story is ripped apart by centrifugal forces – so duck down, reader, Clemmons’ free-flying ideas and ruminations might hit you in the head, and instead of an epiphany, you might just get a headache. Let’s look at some of the topics Clemmons meditates on:
- South Africa Thandi’s mother was born in South Africa, and we hear some random things about the country – this could have been absolutely fascinating, as Thandi’s mother was mixed-race (the very existence of mixed-race children used to be illegal in South Africa), but beware, it is not. So if you want to learn more about this country, do yourself a favor and read Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood instead.
- Losing a parent to illness Unfortunately, watching a parent die slowly from a severe illness is something I happen to know quite a bit about, and while people deal with this very differently (which could make this book highly interesting), it never became clear to me how witnessing the slow demise of her mother affected Thandi. Dreams, thoughts, and recollections randomly pop up, and Clemmons mixes in some psychological facts about grief, but everything remained rather abstract to me. If the great emotional insight here is supposed to be that losing a parent means to live on with a constant void, that’s quite a let-down.
- Child and marriage Even Thandi’s unwanted pregnancy and her marriage simply made me shrug, probably because Clemmons does not connect these events well to the topics of loss, grief, and race. It feels like Thandi does not manage to venture to the bottom of her psyche and her motivations, and as we hear the story from her point of view, she as a character remains vague – too vague to really care about her.
All in all, I found this pretty underwhelming – where are the new ideas? Where is the emotional depth? To be fair, I listened to the audiobook, so maybe the photos and graphs included in the printed version would have made the book more enjoyable....more
Sven Regener ist zurück im Kreuzberg der frühen 80er Jahre, und seine Helden Frank Lehmann, Erwin Kächele und Karl Schmidt sind auch wieder mit dabei.Sven Regener ist zurück im Kreuzberg der frühen 80er Jahre, und seine Helden Frank Lehmann, Erwin Kächele und Karl Schmidt sind auch wieder mit dabei. Zusammen mit Hausbesetzern, (Möchtegern-)Künstlern und Mediennasen bevölkern sie die Wiener Straße, insbesondere das mittlerweile legendäre (und natürlich absolut fiktive) Café Einfall - Sven Regener ist einfach ein genialer Chronist von Mikrokosmen.
Ist das alles super-aufregend und neu? Nein, aber es ist eine brillante Milieustudie, unterhaltsam und charmant, und es fühlt sich ein bisschen an wie ein Treffen mit alten Bekannten. "Wiener Straße" ist ein historischer Roman und ein Heimatroman, aber eben nicht so, wie man sich diese Gattungen klassischerweise vorstellt - hier liegt die Innovation in Regeners Büchern.
Mit diesem Text war Regener nun erstmals für den Deutschen Buchpreis nominiert. Nachdem ich dieses Jahr die gesamte Booker-Longlist und Teile der Goldsmiths-, National Book Award-, Costa- und National Book Critics Circle Award-Listen gelesen habe muss ich leider festhalten, dass der Großteil der Titel auf der Liste zum Deutschen Buchpreis im Vergleich recht bemüht daherkommt (ich habe vier komplett und Auszüge aus allen gelesen). Wie poetisch ist Die Kieferninseln, wenn man es mit Lincoln in the Bardo, Autumn oder Montpelier Parade vergleicht? Wie wagemutig ist Schreckliche Gewalten, wenn man Solar Bones oder H(A)PPY gegenüber stellt? Ich habe nur ein Buch entdeckt, das beim Booker oder Goldsmiths mithalten könnte: Das Floß der Medusa.
Ganz ehrlich: Da schätze ich Regener - er gibt nie vor zu sein, was er nicht ist. Er ist ein Meister der Figurenzeichnung, er hat die Beschreibung eines Milieus perfektioniert, seine Texte fließen natürlich und sind in ihrer Ruhe und geringen Ereignisdichte perfekt komponiert. Die forcierte Pseudo-Kunst, über die sich Regener in "Wiener Straße" lustig macht, war bei seiner Konkurrenz um den Deutschen Buchpreis leider ausführlich zu besichtigen. Die einzigen deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsschriftsteller, die soziale Milieus derzeit auf Regeners Niveau beschreiben können, sind Clemens Meyer und Heinz Strunk....more
Showmaster, comedian and actor Hape Kerkeling is a national treasure, and this travel memoir about his pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago firmly helShowmaster, comedian and actor Hape Kerkeling is a national treasure, and this travel memoir about his pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago firmly held the number 1-spot on the bestseller list for 100 (!) weeks. What makes Kerkeling so popular is (at least in my opinion) that no matter what he does - be it impersonating Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, playing whacky politician Horst Schlämmer or hosting "Strictly Come Dancing" - he always radiates a positive, empathic attitude without being shallow. He laughs with people, not about them, and he has a brilliant ability to detect and play with quirks.
This talent to observe and interact with all kinds of people is what makes this book fun - on his adventure, Kerkeling meets different pilgrims from all over the world, and he also turns out to be a very nuanced and critical observer of himself. His voice is highly recognizable when he writes about his experiences, and the reflections and personal conclusions he adds build still another layer on top of his narrative.
I would certainly not claim that Kerkeling shares earth-shattering insights with us or that his spiritual reckonings are of any scientific or theological merit, but that's not what he is intending to do here in the first place. Kerkeling wrote this book after a severe illness, and he moves his body in order to move his mind, to leave behind kilometers and unneccessary mental baggage - this is not a new idea, but it is also never getting old. In fact, to face and master such a challenge is quite an achievement, and I highly enjoyed to be taken along by reading this text.
I am pretty sure that knowing Kerkeling and his work (my generation basically grew up with him) changes the reading experience of this book, and I would actually recommend listening to the audiobook which is read by the author himself. Nevertheless, I guess that this book is also fun for people who don't know him, as it gives readers an idea of what it means to walk from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela....more
This novel does make you feel like you're surfing from one hyperlink to the next, or like pacman eating away liberal ruminations on a gigantic discussThis novel does make you feel like you're surfing from one hyperlink to the next, or like pacman eating away liberal ruminations on a gigantic discussion board - but does this make for a good book?
Let’s talk about the story: There is none. Well, there are some recurring characters, but it’s not like this book is about them, they just serve the purpose to string together random internet- and silicon valley-related anecdotes, facts, and opinions. Some of them are new and interesting, most of them are ramblings against the hype around technological devices built by underpaid laborers in the third world and marketed as quasi-religious artifacts, against gentrification, tech companies that are run like cults, social media as platforms enabling hate speech and bullying - you get the idea.
It’s not that Kobek is wrong, and sometimes he is even very funny, it’s just that most of the novel is incredibly boring because the author is stating the obvious. The text is the printed version of an internet rant, and while the formal concept works surprisingly well, it still gets tedious.
Nevertheless, everyone hating on the high priestess of assholery, Ayn Rand, gets extra points from me: "Her endless novel Atlas Shrugged was about 800 pages long. The book was about money is awesome and rich people are awesome and everything is awesome except for poor people who are garbage who should die in the gutter." Pretty nice explanation for what objectivism actually means....more
In Germany, we have a successful New York-born comedian whose name is Gayle Tufts and who thinks of herself as a progressive liberal. Her logic is thiIn Germany, we have a successful New York-born comedian whose name is Gayle Tufts and who thinks of herself as a progressive liberal. Her logic is this: As she is anti-Trump, she would never travel to a so-called “fly-over state”, because people there are gun-slinging, born again maniacs who enjoy making hatred great again – oh, and by the way, she has never actually been to the Midwest. Progressive liberal? I beg to differ. There’s nothing progressive or liberal about ignorant and condescending stereotypes. Nevertheless, the great American divide seems to be constantly growing.
As someone who actually did live in the Midwest (although not in Nebraska), I really appreciate the idea to publish a compilation that mirrors the people who live in the heartland. As any thinking person might have assumed, there are very diverse people in Nebraska, with different hopes, dreams, ideas, opinions, trials and tribulations, and – shocker! – at the core, they are people just like us (sounds obvious, but we seem to live in times where this needs to be explicitly stated).
The book contains close to 100 little artistic pieces – short stories, poems, pictures and photographs – by Nebraskans that form a mosaic of the state. Surely, this book is also a marketing tool for the publisher, which is, incidentally, a book publishing service. But you have to admit that this is a pretty cool piece of advertisement: Writers could partake in a competition to be part of “Misbehaving Nebraskans”, and the best pieces were included in the final book. Young and old, men and women, black and white, professional artists, workers and high school students – the book tries to reflect as many diverse voices as possible.
There is just one topic that this book does not touch: Politics. There’s love, sex, cancer, family, murder, discrimination, nature and the supernatural – but zero politics. Now that’s a shame – have we come to a point where even touching upon the topic is too dangerous, even for a publication with a blurb that states “Nebraskans love to vigorously debate who we are”? Come on then, Nebraskans, let’s debate!
Beyond that, I had a hard time determining what was so specifically Nebraskan about these Midwestern artistic pieces – could these stories and sketches not also be from, let’s say, South Dakota or Kentucky? (Honestly, I don’t know.) I would have loved to learn more about the specific character of Nebraska, the spirit that renders the state unique.
All in all, I think it is a great idea to compile artistic work from a particular state in such a manner. Maybe other states will follow this example?...more
New Orleans in 1918/1919: Jazz is on the rise, construction for the great industrial canal begins, and the city is terrorized by an ax murderer – all New Orleans in 1918/1919: Jazz is on the rise, construction for the great industrial canal begins, and the city is terrorized by an ax murderer – all of these things really happened, and Nathaniel Rich mixes fact with fiction when he interweaves three narrative threads circling around those events.
Isadore “King” Zeno is a struggling jazz musician who tries to break through as a cornet player while finding ways to provide for his family. While King Zeno is a fictional character, Rich mixes in a lot of historic references: In 1918/1919, there was indeed a particularly inventive cornet (and trumpet) player making a name for himself in New Orleans – Louis Armstrong. He played with other gifted jazz musicians like Kid Ory (the name of Zeno’s wife is Orly, and Kid Ory is also mentioned) and his idol King Oliver (who is also one of Zeno’s inspirations). Back then, Armstrong was married to his first wife Daisy Parker (Daisy is the name of Zeno’s mother-in-law). It is also correct that New Orleans jazz musicians at first mainly played in Storyville, the red light district, before more respected establishments became interested in booking them as their popularity rose.
The building of the canal is also a fascinating aspect of the story: This deep-water shipping canal connects the Mississippi to Lake Pontchartrain, and it first broke during Hurricane Betsy in 1965, and then again during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, thus flooding huge parts of the city. Rich tells the story of how the canal was built, inventing a female head of the building company who is involved in crime and corruption. He talks about the first predictions of what might happen if the canal breaks, and he finds powerful images for the plight of the black workers who dug at the construction site.
Most surprisingly, the “Axeman of New Orleans” was an actual serial killer who terrorized the city at the time, but while Rich fictionally resolves the case, the real axeman was never caught. I wanted to criticize Rich for connecting the threads of the story in the most implausible way, until I found out that the real axeman (or someone claiming to be the axeman) did in fact write the letter Rich tells us about, and unbelievably, it was published in a newspaper and did really say:
“I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it out on that specific Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.”
Until now, all of this sounds stellar, so as an alert reader, you might ask yourselves why I gave this book only three stars. While Rich manages to find some strong and haunting images, other parts are shaky and feel contrived. It is not elegant to let a person who is obviously dying declare “I am dying”, but it gets worse when this person declares multiple times that he is dying until he finally dies (and judging from what happened, he should have been dead long before that). Some characters, like the son of the construction company owner, remain one-dimensional and crude. Another example of a scene gone wrong would be when one of the policemen picks up his colleague, and then this happens:
“See I caught you eating pie.” He stuck a fat finger into the cream on Bill’s cheek and put it in his mouth. “I was shaving.”
He eats his colleague’s shaving cream? Or he would eat cream pie from his colleague’s face? No, people, he clearly wouldn’t. To add one last example, why is there randomly one singular sentence like this thrown in: “Lost in a daze, on a hazy crazy malaisy Friday.” Such playful choices made sense if Rich tried to transform jazz music into his language throughout the book, but he doesn’t.
These flaws are particularly sad because this novel has so much potential and could have been much stronger – In fact I blame the editor, not the author. An editor should have helped to manage the material and make the story and the language more consistent. Still, I can’t really hate on the text, because the story itself is great, the setting is great, and the narrative imagination that ties all threads together – logically, but also with slightly varying themes and poetic images - is also great.
This could have been absolutely amazing, but then it fell a little short. Still, I would love to read more by Nathaniel Rich. ...more
Re-watching the movie while waiting for "Joker" to finally hit theaters! Joaquin Phoenix made me read this! :-) I think the guy has an amazing ability Re-watching the movie while waiting for "Joker" to finally hit theaters! Joaquin Phoenix made me read this! :-) I think the guy has an amazing ability to seek out great roles in edgy, unique films with unusual storylines. For his lead role as Joe in "You Were Never Really Here" (in some countries released under the title "A Beautiful Day"), Phoenix won the Award for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival 2017, and director Lynne Ramsay collected the Best Screenplay Award.
The movie is based on Ames' novella, which is a neo-hardboiled crime novel about Joe, an ex-Marine and former FBI agent who now works as a hitman saving young women and girls out of forced prostitution. Joe's weapon of choice: A hammer. When one of his jobs goes wrong and he finds himself caught in the dynamics between a corrupt politician and the mob, Joe fights back in a way only a man with nothing left to lose can.
Ames intentionally plays with clichés, but he pulls the strings and does not let himself get strangled by genre archetypes. Joe is one of the scariest good guys ever, and "he was aware that he was not completely sane, so he kept himself in rigid check, playing both jailer and prisoner." Mind you, there's more: "He had come to believe that he was the recurring element - the deciding element - in all the tragedies experienced by the people he encountered." And I have not even started on the things that have turned him into a self-hating Robin Hood.
So if you like to read dark crime and revenge stories, this is just the book for you. The movie trailer perfectly captures the spirit of the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6smn......more
Winner of the Costa Best First Novel Award 2017 (not sure why though) This is a book about the consequences of abuse: Eleanor Oliphant has severe problWinner of the Costa Best First Novel Award 2017 (not sure why though) This is a book about the consequences of abuse: Eleanor Oliphant has severe problems connecting with other people and even with herself, which results in her loneliness and her drinking problem. The novel slowly reveals the source of her anxieties and her ill-fated coping mechanisms, and shows how she finds a way to deal with her past (let’s not kid ourselves, did anyone actually think that this is the kind of book that doesn’t close with a happy ending?). The claim that Eleanor is just a quirky, socially awkward character who suffers from loneliness (which is what the blurb and some reviews suggest) is rather misleading – her loneliness is just a consequence of a personality marred by abuse, and to say so is not a spoiler, because it becomes obvious very early on.
Catalysts for her change are mainly the two characters she befriends, literally by accident: Her co-worker Raymond and grandpa Sammy have both also experienced profound sadness, but they have overcome it with the help of their loving support systems – so they have the emotional resources to now help Eleanor.
You certainly cannot blame the book for excessive subtlety or nuance: Honeyman takes the direct route to Obviousville, and there are some points she will hammer home no matter what (friends are important, change is possible, yada-yada-yada). If you compare this book to something like Gwendoline Riley’s First Love, which also deals with abuse, it becomes clear that Honeyman paints with very broad strokes. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to say that the picture she creates isn’t appealing: It is fun to read this book, and to write about a sad person who suffered a terrible fate while at the same time keeping up an overall light-hearted spirit of hope is an achievement in itself. Also, Eleanor is an endearing character, even though it becomes all-too-clear why other people have a hard time dealing with her. Or to put it differently: For people who don’t know her backstory, she is obnoxious, but the reader does root for her the whole time. Beyond that, Honeyman’s truths may be a little on the calendar motto/cliché side of things, but well *sigh*.
Bottom line: This is not required reading, but it is also no waste of time. Overall, I don’t possibly see how Gail Honeyman could beat Karl Geary's Montpelier Parade for the Costa First Novel Award 2017. Update: In fact, she did beat Geary and Brooks. How in the world did this happen?...more
Nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction 2018 Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2017 (Update: I just changed my rating from 4 tNominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction 2018 Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2017 (Update: I just changed my rating from 4 to 5 stars - months after reading it, this book is still haunting me!) So much for the Costa being about light entertainment - this nightmarish horror-version of a fairy tale, populated by teenage prostitutes, severely disfigured war veterans, and coked-up nobility, plays in one league with A Little Life when it comes to dark story arcs and haunting imagery (so in case you think Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which is shortlisted in the same category, is severe social commentary and/or you're one of those people who are inclined to write stuff like "oooohh, the feels!" in your reviews, don't read this, you'll never sleep again). The topic of Xan Brooks' debut is human cruelty, and as he is a tremendous writer, he will unsettle you in ways you never thought possible.
England, 1923. Orphaned Lucy Marsh finds herself in a country struggling with the social aftermath of WW I and an economic slump. The 14-year-old lives with her grandparents, and as their public house does not earn them enough money, they make Lucy work as a prostitute, meeting once every week with disfigured war veterans in a nearby forest. Those veterans have officially been declared dead, as their injuries were so severe that they were initially not expected to survive. Lucy's relationship with these veterans and the rich family whose charity provides them shelter is at the core of the book.
What makes this story particularly inventive is that Brooks employs the imagery of a fairy tale: The four veterans are named after characters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Toto), there's a dark forest, orphans, evil parents and grandparents, a castle, a prince (who is actually a villain), a magician with a supernatural power, and something like a ball, but with jazz and cocaine. The familiar stereotypes are so twisted that they become nightmarish and scary. The disabled veterans (some of them multiple amputees, some of them lost their faces and wear masks) are criminals raping children, but they are also outcasts who lost everything in the war and feel like they can't go back to their families and burden them, and they have and will become victims in other ways as well; Lucy is without protection which puts her in danger of being taken advantage of; and the factors of power and class will set the whole microcosm on fire.
Unfortunately, there are some parts of the book where Brooks gets sidetracked and is lost in all his ideas - it's not that these ideas are bad per se, but there are just too many of them and the story partly loses focus and intensity (although I am not sure whether I really want this book to have more intensity, thank you very much). The connection between part 1 (The Forest) and part 2 (The House) is also a little flawed and lacks some stringency, but it did not bother me too much.
This novel is extremely hard to digest and frankly, there's a part of me that wishes I'd never read it. Nevertheless, this is no doubt a great book, and it is daring move by the Costa judges to include this in their selection....more
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