Bookwormish, 2nd quarter of 2018
Jul. 7th, 2018 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarVERY TOP BOOK:
Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
It is so rare that I’m able to pick just one favorite out of the 30 or more books I read in a quarter (!), but this time there’s no question: It’s Tess of the Road, by the ever-increasingly brilliant Rachel Hartman.
Tess is a very traumatized, very angry person, forcing down every single one of her desires for the sake of her family. This is the story of how she finally breaks away and starts walking, coming to know herself as she just keeps walking down the road. It’s an amazing portrait of grief and healing, of friendship and family ties and how to balance them with the needs of the self. And because it’s Rachel Hartman, it’s often funny too, and the world-building is as flawless as ever. (This book falls under fantasy, probably YA fantasy, but I’ve been recommending it even to people who normally never touch fantasy, because it’s just that good.) What also blew me away was the compassion that keeps unfolding throughout the book – every minor character gets a chance to be seen as more than just what the protagonist first thought of them. Truly astounding. Such a beautiful and necessary book, I could write about it for pages and still feel speechless.
MORE TOP BOOKS:
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado – Machado combines vivid, visceral realism with a twist of fantasy and a touch of horror to tell powerful stories. And she’s very, very good.
Chime by Franny Billingsley – Another beautiful Franny Billingsley story of learning to outgrow past beliefs that are hurting you, in a beautifully realized folklore-based setting. Also, Billingsley practically creates her own language for her character’s inner voice. (Warning, though: this otherwise beautiful book includes a very negative portrayal of an autistic secondary character, so proceed with caution if that’s upsetting!)
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson – A book that is impossible to describe. A nonfiction portrait of love (both as partner and parent) and of making a nontraditional, queer family. Nelson’s writing draws deeply on poetry, philosophy, sex and everyday domesticity and – as one reviewer said – turns every one of those things on its head.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid – Hamid’s Exit West was another rare case of a book that won my clear favorite of a whole quarter, quite possibly a whole year. So I wanted to read more by him, and this didn’t disappoint. A seemingly simplistic set-up (a friendly local tells his life story to a visiting tourist, as they drink tea at a local market) twists more and more complexly, as you increasingly wonder who is telling the truth and who, if anyone, is what they seem.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston – Another classic I’m so glad I finally read: Hurston’s portrait of a woman coming into herself and her own narrative voice.
The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson – Recommended to me, of course, because of the Iceland connection and the folklore connection (thanks to gilpin25 for being the first to mention it!) but why it captured me was Magnusson’s gentle, compassionate portrait of long-ago people bearing unbearable horrors, bringing vivid life to people who are otherwise just names in a historical record.
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward – Ward weaves together the small incidents of daily life and the heady themes of mythology to tell the story of Esch, her brothers and their dog, surviving extreme poverty and neglect in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli – Wait, wasn’t this already one of my top books in a previous quarter? Why yes, it was, but I recently reread it and it’s still a favorite. :-) I reread this after seeing the movie; because I’m very, VERY glad the movie exists – it was good in many ways and so important in many more – but I found it only middling as an adaptation of the book. A lot of the things that are cringe-worthy in the movie (or just underdeveloped) are beautifully handled in the book. One to read and reread!
EVEN MORE GOOD BOOKS:
A Time to Keep by George Mackay Brown – Quietly moving stories of the struggle to survive in the harsh conditions of Orkney in the past.
Toning the Sweep by Angela Johnson – Slim but powerful tale about a daughter, mother and grandmother coping with love and grief, as they pack up the grandmother’s house that she’s moving out of due to illness.
Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo – A weird but quite wonderful story that is yes, a love story, and yes, involves a troll, but probably not in any of the ways you’re thinking.
Orkney Folk Tales by Tom Muir – An excellent collection of traditional tales, told with humor and the eye of an avid historian. I was very interested in reading up on the folklore of Orkney while I was there, and found this book an excellent route in.
Venus as a Boy by Luke Sutherland – Another Orkney author, telling a magical realist tale of racism and ostracism in a small town.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – A classic I wanted to reread now that I actually know some things. :-) It fascinates me how Brontë is this combination of so traditional to our eyes yet so radical for her time.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – Working in a library in the UK seemed like a very good opportunity for access to the Harry Potter audiobooks, specifically the Stephen Fry audiobooks. I noted down so many thoughts during my reread that I’m going to add them as an addendum at the bottom of this post, rather than filling up space here!
The Likeness by Tana French – Another intricate and deeply character-driven mystery from Tana French, whose In the Woods I raved about last quarter.
Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson – The more time I spend in Scandinavia, the clearer it is what an important piece of the culture I’m missing by not having grown up with the Moomins. Working to rectify that!
A Separate Peace by John Knowles – A thoughtful exploration of war, childhood, innocence and the sometimes devastating effects arising from small moments of anger and jealousy.
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – I’ve read every other single thing by Adichie, so I needed to complete the canon! I don’t love these short stories as much as I love her novels (and nonfiction!) but they still bear her trademark insightful explorations of the places where people – and cultures – overlap.
Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde – Aww. It’s that story about three best friends falling in love at their first fan con, and it’s just as charming as expected. Yes, the characters’ dialogue sometimes reads like a how-to manual on How to Be the Best and Most Supportive, Perfect Friend at Every Possible Moment, but the overall story was so charming that I didn’t even mind the sometimes unrealistic dialogue (and unrealistic dialogue is usually my biggest hard no).
The Great Shelby Holmes Meets Her Match by Elizabeth Eulberg – Nine-year-old Shelby Holmes and 11-year-old John Watson continue to be an utterly charming addition to the wide world of Holmeses and Watsons, in this sweet retelling of the events of A Scandal in Belgravia through the lens of middle school friendships and dramas.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde – Wanted to reread this now that I know more about British history, culture and literature (as compared to when I first read it and knew nothing!) and it’s still delightful.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
I feel like damning these books with faint praise by putting them into this section, but even making it onto my quarterly books post at all means I thought they were worth recommending! I just had way, way too many books this quarter, and had to subdivide them somehow…
Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies: 500 AD to the present ed. Ceri Houlbrook and Simon Young – A comprehensive survey of folktale traditions from all parts of Britain and Ireland; another piece of my folklore research while in Orkney.
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas – The plot is a little overly convoluted, but Charlotte Holmes is an intriguing contribution to the Holmeses of the world. And I love seeing a Holmes and Watson so different from the original (here, both are women, and they’re divided by a significant gap in both age and class) nonetheless form that immediate bond we love so much between these two.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon – A fairly straightforward YA romance, but with the very welcome addition that both protagonists are first-generation Indian-Americans, the children of immigrants, and both are navigating family expectations, though in very different ways.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – Stiefvater’s writing is as good as ever, and Blue and her houseful of clairvoyant aunts are great characters, so I’m not sure why I wasn’t able to get fully into this. I think I’m just at a point where I cannot bring myself to care about the travails of a group of rich white boys (no matter how much they remind me of the Marauders!) But the book is good, so I’m sure I’ll circle back to the rest of the series at some point.
Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley – A fun graphic novel about going too far in using magic to correct your mistakes.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer – Another fun and well-written series starter that I just don’t seem to be in the headspace for at the moment, but I would definitely recommend it to any teen. A futuristic retelling of Cinderella!
The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro – Um. Wasn’t even sure whether to include this (the third book in Cavallaro’s Charlotte Holmes series) on this list – it was neither good nor bad, but apparently the plot was forgettable…because I’ve already forgotten it. But it at least rounded out the series in an okay way; the first book in the series was one of my favorites and then the second was so bad, so I guess “okay” is all I could hope for in the third one!
AN ADDENDUM: REREADING OOTP!
For all that I think about the Harry Potter world constantly, I don’t actually reread the books themselves all that often. I picked Order of the Phoenix because it was the first Stephen Fry audiobook I hadn’t yet listened to, but there’s also great pleasure in revisiting a section of the canon timeline I’ve written about deeply and extensively for years. (Which is a weird and pretentious way of thinking about someone else’s novel, through the lens of my fanfic about it – but fanfic and writing has been my main mode of engagement with Harry Potter fandom for, what, 7 or 8 years now? I’ve written Harry Potter more than I’ve read it, weird as that is. Even though I have also read it a lot.)
So it was super fun to revisit these characters with an eye to how my own take on them has changed over time. There are characters who didn’t register much on my radar when I first read the books, but I now care about deeply after having explored them in writing for so long. Sirius is the obvious one: I didn’t like him much in the books, because as much as he loves Harry, he’s often not actually a good parent figure to him, encouraging him to do risky things and failing to untangle his own excellent principles from his petty jealousies. But, as I’m sure you all know, I’ve fallen completely for Sirius the more I’ve written him, and I now read even his bad moments with more sympathy. Also, the Crookshanks and Sirius friendship makes me so glad! And Harry losing Sirius breaks my heart anew every time.
Also, Ginny! I didn't pay as much attention to her the first time around, but the more I've written about her the more I’ve come to love and admire her feisty strength and determination, and now I cheer her every appearance.
And of course Neville. Always, always Neville.
As for JKR's writing, as always she's brilliant at how she subtly sets up hints that will later turn out to be important: like Grubbly-Plank’s throw-away mention of “thestrals” by name (before Harry’s made the connection about what they are), or Draco’s mention of the “Closed Ward” at St Mungo's, before we then end up seeing Neville’s parents there. Or a very clever way of slipping in how long Trelawny has been at Hogwarts (i.e. this will prove relevant to the Prophecy, which was made shortly before Harry was born) during Umbridge’s inspection.
JKR’s little bits of stage business are always excellent, too, like the random charms they’re practicing in class while also having important plot-developing conversations.
“Have a biscuit, Potter”!!! Truly one of the most iconic lines in all the books.
And I will never, never tire of the British pronunciation of Dark Arts as “dahhk ahhts” ;-)
“Fools who wear their hearts on their sleeves…” – a beautifully succinct summation of Snape’s life philosophy (and so opposite to Dumbledore!) Nope, though, I still don’t like Snape. He’s an interesting character, he’s an important character, but I don’t like the person. People have been surprised in the past that I’m not drawn to writing about Snape, when I like similarly complex characters such as Remus. But the difference to me is that Remus has suffered and been broken down by life, over and over, he’s been left with so little, yet he still strives to be kind to the people around him. Snape, for all that he ultimately does the right things in the larger picture, spends the rest of his time deliberately being nasty to people less powerful than him, cutting down and insulting his students. Nope, nope, nope. That will never be okay.
Harry and Cho: an object lesson in How Not to Date.
Fred and George’s departure is epic and perfect, always. And Neville as the other one the Prophecy could have been about intrigues my brain so much. I love Neville more every time I think about him.
“He would never forgive Snape” (a line of Harry’s thoughts near the end of the book) – ouch. But also, what an amazing arc Harry is going to embark on, from this point until the end of the series when he names his son after Snape! (As much as I personally dislike Snape, I’m certainly not saying Harry has to dislike him.)
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Date: 2018-07-12 09:28 am (UTC)oh i'm sorry, i forgot to mention, his name IS mikael in the original and enkeli is his nickname, but very few people called him mikael at all. there's some analysis to be done there (esp if going further with the enkeli/päivänsäde mirror) but i didn't look into it at the time. i just go with enkeli every time because it's the most consistent name in the book. but his name is very much mikael in the original and everything you said re: name applies there too!
i don't know who made the decision to swap out the poems, if it was the translator or editor or if there were copyright issues on top of all that? but it's definitely interesting. the eino leino poem that was there originally is a weird one too, that i'm not even sure how to interpret? i've read it a few times and every time it's like, ok is this about a murderous troll or is it about a soldier consumed by darkness or is it about a devilish darkness in humans, or what is it??? so in a way i completely understand the decision to put reino helismaa's lyrics there instead as it would also have provided some cultural context. and on the other hand, eino leino is one of the finnish national romantic poets, very famous, so *his* work is also in the cultural consciousness - but not this particular one. it's one of his darker poems, less read, less known, not as politically "good" as his national romantic poetry. so having that poem in has a certain effect on a finnish reader, that the helismaa lyrics wouldn't have had, because that one is well known. so it's the difference between subversion and painting with large letters, i think? for finns, anyway. for foreigners, i think it wouldn't have made a difference to have the eino leino poem there because its specific function *would* have gone over their heads. (and also, it's a pain to translate. i don't know if it's been translated, but just reading it is confusing enough, and it seems like one of those where as soon as you start translating it, you have to choose one, maybe two, interpretations to translate and won't be able to have it all, so you risk actually making it worse? so...if it were me in that situation, i'm not sure what i would do, but i do know i'm not against the solution the translator/editor came up with for the english translation. (i don't know what the swedish translation did, and i don't think there are other translations but those two).
Yes, though, it’s clear to me that there’s a ton of meaning I’m missing out on as a non-Finnish reader who hasn’t grown up with the source material, and all the wider folklore about trolls: like, I wouldn’t have known that in the source poem, it’s presented as “leave the darkness so you don’t die” and that this is clearly being presented in contrast with Enkeli’s choice to JOIN the darkness. I wonder if that’s even possible to convey in the translation?
THAT is precisely why I wanted to hear your thoughts! because everyone i know who's read the book is either finnish or a fellow student of finnish, so we have that perspective. i wanted to find out how someone who didn't have that perspective/knowledge at all would've read the book!
for example, it never occurred to me that the trolls could've been representative of oppressed and marginalised peoples so that's not a reading i would've come up with on my own - i don't have that background. (upbringing in a homogenous society and all.) but thinking about it now, given that the trolls in the book are also linked with northern finland, it would be easy to draw parallels between them and the indigenous people of sápmi, as they are a marginalised and oppressed people in finland. i'm not entirely comfortable with that reading though, as allegories of that kind where the people are represented by animalistic beings....lots of unfortunate racist and colonialist ties implications there, as they have been historically treated like animals and denied basic rights, not to mention studied like animals (there's a movie about that called sameblod that came out last year i believe). i'd really hope that was not sinisalo's intention, because yikes. :''D
i definitely think (well, i'm more comfortable with that reading anyhow) that she's laying her sympathies with the trolls and thus nature, and it's part of her larger anti-environmental destruction political beliefs. but even without that angle (which i didn't pick up on at first) one of the reasons why i liked the book so much is that as a fanfiction writer/reader/fandomperson, this book resonated with me in that way - taking a known trope, subverting it, using 'canon' along with 'new' inventions, and also it's gay. XD and to be completely honest, i regularly consider applying for a phd program with a thesis proposal that is just about THIS book. this one book. (i'd probably have better luck if i included the rest of her books, though. i have yet to read them, but it'd probably work...)
and as for your question about conveying all that in translation - who knows, really. we can't control the readers, and even if all the information is there, we can't count on them to pick it up. we can only hope? and even if they don't, who's to say the readers who missed it didn't still have a reading experience and interpretation that's completely valid? that's the beauty of literature after all. but it's definitely something i've given a lot of thought because sinisalo hasn't been translated into danish (aside from one children's book) and i kind of want to (kind of don't) translate this book (and maybe her other books. so i've thought about how to go about it, how to phrase certain things so the meaning comes across, and all, and it's...god, such a task. :''D
the ending though! i read it as very threatening and violent, not at all a happy one. enkeli is met with a *hunting rifle* and my brain instantly went 'oh god, they're going to kill him and eat him.' what else would they be doing with a hunting rifle? he was also clearly (to me, anyway) a prisoner rather than there voluntarily, or at least even if he went there voluntarily, he's now not able to leave. and it's so interesting, esp held up against the song lyrics, because in the song both the troll and the girl are taken with each other, but it's the troll that's willing to burn (go blind) for the girl, and it's the girl who leaves in order to not die (burn/go blind). and here it's exactly the opposite. and because it's the opposite, the ending has to be opposite too, so it's the "wrong" ending. so to me it scans as a...destructive love story rather than a romance. i mean, the original song didn't have a happy ending either if we assume that two lovers choosing to part is an unhappy ending, but they both stayed alive, the girl especially, and we're left only with the troll wondering if it's such a dark creature to begin with when the girl was presented as a destructive force to him, also, you know?
i have a lot of incoherent thoughts about it all. :'''D
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Date: 2018-07-19 01:25 pm (UTC)And yes, that's what drew me to the book too – that fanfic-type interest (or even just: culturally curious interest?) in stories that draw on known stories and folklore but do something new, different and interesting with them, put them in conversation with contemporary questions and issues.
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Date: 2018-07-23 06:20 pm (UTC)