Our annual spring trip this year took us, among other places, to Trieste and Venice (the latter will appear in a separate blog post). It is many years since we had visited these two cities. Trieste has been home to quite a few worthwhile writers. Several worthwhile writers were born in Trieste. These include Claudio … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jun’ichiro Tanizaki‘s 白昼鬼語 (Devils in Daylight), the second of two Tanizaki novels to appear from New Directions later this month (April 2017). This is a fairly short and early novel. It has one of Tanizaki’s favourite themes – the femme fatale. The Tanizaki alter ego, Takasashi, the narrator, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Shinobu Orikuchi‘s 死者の書 (The Book of the Dead), a wonderful Japanese ghost story, set in the eight century. The story starts with a dead man in his tomb, who is just waking up. All he can remember is the sight of the beautiful Mimimo no Toni, whom he … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Jun’ichiro Tanizaki‘s 台所太平記 (The Maids). This was the last novel he wrote and is something of a counterpoint to 細雪 (The Makioka Sisters). The latter tells the story of the owners, while this novel tells the stories of the maids. Though the maids are not the maids of … Read more
I have now read twenty Mexican novels in a row. So what have I learned? Well, Mexican literature is as varied as any other well developed literature. I found post-modern novels, feminist novels, historical novels, psychological novels, love and romance and death and dying. However, a few things stand out, even if the twenty novels … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Yuri Herrera‘s Señales que precederán al fin del mundo (Signs Preceding the End of the World). This is a superb short novel which can be read as Dantesque journey through the underworld or as the story of a woman illegally entering the United States from Mexico, not to … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Elena Poniatowska‘s Leonora (Leonora). This is a feminist biographical novel about Leonora Carrington. Carrington was a Surrealist painter, something quite rare for an English woman. She was the daughter of a textile magnate and, though brought up in wealth, she was very free-spirited, which did not go down … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Antonio Ortuño‘s El buscador de cabezas [The Head Hunter]. This novel tells the story of Alex Faber who gets involved in the extreme right in an unnamed Latin American country. As a teen he joined a group, the Republicans, which seemed to enjoy attacking prostitutes, gays and so … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Hernán Lara Zavala‘s Península, Península [Peninsula, Peninsula]. This novel, set in the mid 1800s, concerns a native uprising in Yucatán, a result of the mistreatment of the native population by the whites. Lara Zavala tells his story using himself (we learn about his writing process and thoughts) but … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Daniel Sada‘s Casi nunca (Almost Never), one of two novels by this Mexican writer translated into English. Sada was highly praised by Roberto Bolaño but, on the basis of this book, I am not sure I share his view. The book is quite simply a sex comedy. Demetrio … Read more