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Recent reading
Jun. 2nd, 2017 09:36 pmCannery Row by John Steinbeck
For book-club-at-work. I liked this fine, but it wasn't Grapes of Wrath. Which is probably not fair, because it's not trying to be Grapes of Wrath--it's a meandering story about a place and the people living there.
The Bull Calves by Naomi Mitchison
Note to self: Jacobites =/= Jacobins. Anyway, I really enjoyed this--will probably be going up on my top-ten list of the year. It's set in 18th century Scotland and is about a family (the author's relatives, actually) and the faultlines running through it from politics, history, class, regional differences and religion. It's also a convincing love story between two middle-aged people who both have complicated pasts. There are a lot of flashbacks, or rather, people telling each other stories about things that happened to them, so that although it's set only during two days, we get a lot of backstory. Definite Bechdel test pass, and I liked all the complicated relationships between family members. Also there are TONS of notes--I read the ones that I thought were interesting and skimmed the rest.
I loooove Mitchison's language, and here she's writing in her native Scottish. Funny how being Scandinavian helps me understand it: for example, well-kennt = välkänt, greet = gråta, thole = tåla. Etc. The book reminds me a bit of the Sara Lidman books I've been reading, actually--they are both historical novels set in the economic periphery of a country, with great use of dialect and deeply rooted in a specific place and time. It also tangentially reminded me of MZB's Darkover books, which seems a bit weird, until I read on Wikipedia that those books were partly based on the Scottish Highlands. When you think about it, sometimes reading historical novels isn't that different from reading SF/F--you're dropped into an unfamiliar setting and you've got to figure out how it works. Anyway, this book much recommended!
For book-club-at-work. I liked this fine, but it wasn't Grapes of Wrath. Which is probably not fair, because it's not trying to be Grapes of Wrath--it's a meandering story about a place and the people living there.
The Bull Calves by Naomi Mitchison
Note to self: Jacobites =/= Jacobins. Anyway, I really enjoyed this--will probably be going up on my top-ten list of the year. It's set in 18th century Scotland and is about a family (the author's relatives, actually) and the faultlines running through it from politics, history, class, regional differences and religion. It's also a convincing love story between two middle-aged people who both have complicated pasts. There are a lot of flashbacks, or rather, people telling each other stories about things that happened to them, so that although it's set only during two days, we get a lot of backstory. Definite Bechdel test pass, and I liked all the complicated relationships between family members. Also there are TONS of notes--I read the ones that I thought were interesting and skimmed the rest.
I loooove Mitchison's language, and here she's writing in her native Scottish. Funny how being Scandinavian helps me understand it: for example, well-kennt = välkänt, greet = gråta, thole = tåla. Etc. The book reminds me a bit of the Sara Lidman books I've been reading, actually--they are both historical novels set in the economic periphery of a country, with great use of dialect and deeply rooted in a specific place and time. It also tangentially reminded me of MZB's Darkover books, which seems a bit weird, until I read on Wikipedia that those books were partly based on the Scottish Highlands. When you think about it, sometimes reading historical novels isn't that different from reading SF/F--you're dropped into an unfamiliar setting and you've got to figure out how it works. Anyway, this book much recommended!
