Read it because it was in the air, although it's Ukraine in 2014. Interesting read but not earth shattering.
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airdog finished reading Les abeilles grises by Andrei Kurkov
49-year-old safety inspector-turned-beekeeper Sergey Sergeich, wants little more than to help his bees collect their …
airdog reviewed El buen padre / The Good Father by Santiago Diaz
Maybe young teenagers might find it interesting
2 stars
airdog finished reading Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1) by Marcel Proust
Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1) by Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences in any language and arguably …
airdog started reading Swann's Way (In Search of Lost Time, #1) by Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences …
The title should not be Swann's Way but A la recherche du temps perdu. This is the title that Proust gave to a series of books that would be like chapters in one long book called A la recherche. The total is more than 4000 pages and although many claim to have read it in its totality it's assumed few have. I had read separate books during my life but not the whole. A la recherche du temps perdu is comprised of the following books each well over 600 pages: Du côté de chez Swann A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur Le côté de Germantes Sodomie et Gomorrhe La prisonnière Albertine disparue Le temps retrouvé
It took me a while, not an easy work so can't read casually. Something important that was on my bucket list that I'm glad I can check as "done".
Incredible work with incredibly enlightening …
The title should not be Swann's Way but A la recherche du temps perdu. This is the title that Proust gave to a series of books that would be like chapters in one long book called A la recherche. The total is more than 4000 pages and although many claim to have read it in its totality it's assumed few have. I had read separate books during my life but not the whole. A la recherche du temps perdu is comprised of the following books each well over 600 pages: Du côté de chez Swann A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur Le côté de Germantes Sodomie et Gomorrhe La prisonnière Albertine disparue Le temps retrouvé
It took me a while, not an easy work so can't read casually. Something important that was on my bucket list that I'm glad I can check as "done".
Incredible work with incredibly enlightening pages on the nature of art.
airdog reviewed The philosophy of Schopenhauer by Bryan Magee
Uniquely accurate explanation of a philosophy
4 stars
I have read many introductions to philosophers but this is in my opinion the best I've read. If you want to not only understand the remarkable philosophy of Schopenhauer but also avoid the obvious pitfalls of any even modestly complex system of thought, then read this book. But be warned, it's not easy reading and it's definitively not condensed (465 pages).
Adorno said (Sorry if I'm too lazy to fetch the exact quote) that all good music had to be listened to through gritted teeth.
What he meant by that is that all good music is the result of very exacting work and the result is that it challenges our understanding of the world as we had conceived of it to that moment.
I think this book proves this true. It was written through gritted teeth and needs to be read the same way.
airdog reviewed Milkman by Anna Burns
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy …
Strange artefact
4 stars
Not sure where to begin... First, after reading some ten pages of this novel you discover the importance of the paragraph, for here they are few and far in between. So reading the whole thing (352 pages) is reading a wall of text. It's like a marathon and you never know if you'll be able to hold on until the next paragraph. Second the language is surprising. Like English at the time of Cavern man: Me husband, you wife, she older daughter, she middle daughter, them wee daughters. But allow me to quote her: "After a pause brother-in-law said he was going to beat him up all the same. ‘Not necessary,’ I said. ‘Still,’ he said. ‘Ach,’ I said. ‘Ach nothing,’ he said. ‘Ach sure,’ I said. ‘Ach sure what?’ he said. ‘Ach sure, if that’s how you feel.’ ‘Ach sure, of course that’s how I feel.’ ‘Ach, all right …
Not sure where to begin... First, after reading some ten pages of this novel you discover the importance of the paragraph, for here they are few and far in between. So reading the whole thing (352 pages) is reading a wall of text. It's like a marathon and you never know if you'll be able to hold on until the next paragraph. Second the language is surprising. Like English at the time of Cavern man: Me husband, you wife, she older daughter, she middle daughter, them wee daughters. But allow me to quote her: "After a pause brother-in-law said he was going to beat him up all the same. ‘Not necessary,’ I said. ‘Still,’ he said. ‘Ach,’ I said. ‘Ach nothing,’ he said. ‘Ach sure,’ I said. ‘Ach sure what?’ he said. ‘Ach sure, if that’s how you feel.’ ‘Ach sure, of course that’s how I feel.’ ‘Ach, all right then.’ ‘Ach,’ he said. ‘Ach,’ I said. ‘Ach,’ he said. ‘Ach,’ I said. ‘Ach.’ " Third, reading this book is heavy not only because of the said " wall of text" and length but also because nothing very rejoicing is happening in there. Deaths, violence, more deaths. This is not to say it's never funny, as showed by the above quote. But for all that I kept on reading till the end because she does an incredible job at making you feel what it must have felt like to live during The Troubles. Very soon you realize that this language has a function, it makes every event, every thought, every word something dangerous. And you realize that as she explains you had to think in layers, top of your head ( thoughts that could and should be seen and felt by others), middle head (not so safe) and bottom ( not to be disclosed under any circumstance). One of the most original works I've read in quite a while.
airdog reviewed Silverview by John le Carré
An agent of the British secret service gets jarred loose from his setting, and his …
Vintage stuff
3 stars
No doubt the style is le Carré in his best days. English like no-one else can write it and it's rare pleasure to read.
Maybe I'm wrong but I think I can see why he didn't publish it during his lifetime. As said style is all there but substance is almost absent.
Like an exercise in style just for the fun of it.
airdog reviewed The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre
The Great Swindle (original title: Au revoir là-haut) is a 2013 novel by Pierre Lemaitre …
War as business
3 stars
Very good novel, well written in the style of a thriller. Makes you realize that war is not only the death of millions but good business before, during and after.
The work is based on a true story, the incredible corruption in the business of reburying the dead soldiers, and a fictional one, the selling of never to be delivered memorials monuments.
airdog replied to Dɪɢɪᴛᴀʟɪs Pᴜʀᴘᴜʀᴇᴀ's status
@snowcrash@bookwyrm.social Yes the trilogy is definitively on my short term reading list. May I ask: have you read in in English? Curious as to what the result might look like. Probably should read a translation one of these days.
airdog reviewed Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
Qui connaît vraiment Alex? Elle est belle. Excitante. Est-ce pour cela qu'on l'a enlevée, séquestrée, …
Interesting twist in a kidnapping novel.
2 stars
Well written, short, staccato sentences that keep the pace constantly moving towards another twist. Not a great work of art by satisfying read nevertheless.
airdog reviewed L' oeuvre au noir. by Marguerite Yourcenar
En créant le personnage de Zénon, alchimiste et médecin du XVIe siècle, Marguerite Yourcenar, l'auteure …
Masterpiece
5 stars
So much to say about this book. First I have not read the English translation but personally I think this work is impossible to translate in any other language. The mastery of French as writing material the way a composer masters music, combined with the beauty of it's use in this novel and finally the many levels of meaning make translation an impossible task. This one of the very few works that have been matured during the whole of an author's life and the sheer mastery of the result is humbling. And for those men who still think that women are not equal to man I dare you to read and understand any book by Yourcenar and keep thinking and saying this. I've read Memoirs of Hadrian when I was relatively young and that book has had a very deep influence over my whole life.
airdog reviewed Even the Darkest Night by Javier Cercas
"A first, prize-winning work of suspense from the internationally acclaimed author of Soldiers of Salamis. …
Bad mix of "literary" novel and thriller
2 stars
Very long work (read the ebook but would guess around 500 pages) where the action is always interrupted by long literary digressions and the literary flow is cut in by sudden action.
Maybe just me because the book has lots of very good reviews on other sites.
airdog reviewed La Rage by Zygmunt Miłoszewski
All eyes are on famous prosecutor Teodor Szacki when he investigates a skeleton discovered at …
Very good thriller by Polish author
3 stars
Not often I have the opportunity to read Eastern Europe writers and was very gratified reading this original thriller.