Recent reading
Oct. 2nd, 2014 09:49 amThe Dubious Hills by Pamela Dean
A fantasy book about a people where knowledge is divided up between people, so that you have to ask someone else about things we take for granted. The main character knows about pain, for example, so that nobody else can even feel pain. This is an intriguing set-up, but I'm not sure it worked for me. For example, in the book pain includes feeling sad and hurt. And also nobody can imagine things, because the person who knew about that is dead. But...if you can't feel sad/hurt, and can't imagine things, are you still recognizably human? I feel like the narrative cheats a bit--like, when the main character uses a metaphor, isn't she using her imagination? Anyway. I didn't actually finish this, because the characters and plot didn't grip me enough. But it's an interesting and original book, even if (for me) it didn't completely succeed in what it's trying to do.
The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda [read in Swedish; originally in Catalan]
For my book club at work. Set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, though it's mostly about the protagonist's private life. Whoever wrote the back blurb for this must not have read the same book I read? The back says "they were very much in love". What I read was a book about a woman who marries an asshole. I will attempt to describe their first meeting![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skygiants-style:
( Read more... )
Yeah. SHE GOES ON TO MARRY THIS GUY! You might think that this is a rapey romance novel or something, but no, it's not written in that style at all. Also, she dumps her previous fiancé, so we know she's capable of dumping people. I just didn't understand her and so found it hard to connect with her. : / Anyway, that combined with the fact that she's completely uninterested in politics in the middle of the biggest social revolution in Western Europe in the 20th century made me a bit frustrated. Which, okay, not everyone cares about that, and the book did grip me more towards the end, but then I got annoyed with her daughter's marriage, which was all "she says no! but really she means yes!". But hey, apparently this book is a celebrated classic.
Liten handbok i konsten att bli lesbisk, by Mian Lodalen and Matilda Tudor [A Small Handbook in the Art of Becoming A Lesbian]
Ha. This is a Swedish book which is basically shameless propaganda for why it's better for women to be lesbians, complete with statistics about housework/economics/etc among straight/gay couples and odes to the joys of lesbian sex. They are probably not 100% serious when they introduce a 12-step program for becoming a lesbian, though. Actually, I find it hard to tell how serious they are--I mean, the idea that you are free to choose your sexuality is not unproblematic. [If you are curious about my sexual orientation: I am most often attracted to men but occasionally attracted to people who aren't men, but despite being 35 I don't feel that I know my sexuality fully. The thing is, there are so few people I am really sexually attracted to. Possibly I am demi-sexual.]
A fantasy book about a people where knowledge is divided up between people, so that you have to ask someone else about things we take for granted. The main character knows about pain, for example, so that nobody else can even feel pain. This is an intriguing set-up, but I'm not sure it worked for me. For example, in the book pain includes feeling sad and hurt. And also nobody can imagine things, because the person who knew about that is dead. But...if you can't feel sad/hurt, and can't imagine things, are you still recognizably human? I feel like the narrative cheats a bit--like, when the main character uses a metaphor, isn't she using her imagination? Anyway. I didn't actually finish this, because the characters and plot didn't grip me enough. But it's an interesting and original book, even if (for me) it didn't completely succeed in what it's trying to do.
The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda [read in Swedish; originally in Catalan]
For my book club at work. Set in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, though it's mostly about the protagonist's private life. Whoever wrote the back blurb for this must not have read the same book I read? The back says "they were very much in love". What I read was a book about a woman who marries an asshole. I will attempt to describe their first meeting
skygiants-style:( Read more... )
Yeah. SHE GOES ON TO MARRY THIS GUY! You might think that this is a rapey romance novel or something, but no, it's not written in that style at all. Also, she dumps her previous fiancé, so we know she's capable of dumping people. I just didn't understand her and so found it hard to connect with her. : / Anyway, that combined with the fact that she's completely uninterested in politics in the middle of the biggest social revolution in Western Europe in the 20th century made me a bit frustrated. Which, okay, not everyone cares about that, and the book did grip me more towards the end, but then I got annoyed with her daughter's marriage, which was all "she says no! but really she means yes!". But hey, apparently this book is a celebrated classic.
Liten handbok i konsten att bli lesbisk, by Mian Lodalen and Matilda Tudor [A Small Handbook in the Art of Becoming A Lesbian]
Ha. This is a Swedish book which is basically shameless propaganda for why it's better for women to be lesbians, complete with statistics about housework/economics/etc among straight/gay couples and odes to the joys of lesbian sex. They are probably not 100% serious when they introduce a 12-step program for becoming a lesbian, though. Actually, I find it hard to tell how serious they are--I mean, the idea that you are free to choose your sexuality is not unproblematic. [If you are curious about my sexual orientation: I am most often attracted to men but occasionally attracted to people who aren't men, but despite being 35 I don't feel that I know my sexuality fully. The thing is, there are so few people I am really sexually attracted to. Possibly I am demi-sexual.]
