The May, 2024 Reading List

 

The list of books read in May isn't long. Six isn't spectacular, but it is more than one a week - so there's that.

Three books on the list were reviewed in earlier blog posts : The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami - and The Steppenwolf  by Hermann Hesse, so there's no need to write more on those three here.

In the Courts of Three Popes by Mary Ann Glendon tells of the writer's experiences in Rome during the pontificates of Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. Unfortunately, the book deals more with her than with the three Popes. It's not exactly what I thought I was getting into when I started reading the book.

Edith Tiempo was a Filipino poet, fiction writer, teacher and literary critic in the English language. She graduated from Silliman University in Dumaguete (the city I call home now) and would go on to attend Universities in the U.S.. She would eventually return to Dumaguete to teach at her alma mater. Although she wrote six novels in English, I was only able to locate one as an ebook - Blade of Fern. The story tells of a mining operation is the fictional village of Nibucal, Mindanao.

One of Tiempo's short stories was required reading in my son's final year of high school. I suppose I might be able to find more of her books at the local public library.

The Provincials - A Personal History of Jews in the South by Eli N. Evans was originally published in 1971. Although I'm not Jewish, I can relate to much of the book, having grown up in the American south during the time period of which the book was written. Again, although Evans wrote a number of books, this one is the only one I could find in ebook format.

This list for May, 2024:
The Son of Tarzan    by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle  by Haruki Murakami
In the Courts of Three Popes   by Mary Ann Glendon
The Steppenwolf      by Hermann Hesse
Blade of Fern   by Edith Tiempo
The Provincials   by Eli N. Evans

The Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

 

I was a teen during the late 1960s, and like many of my generation my first awareness of the name Steppenwolf came by way of the Canadian-American rock band that burst upon the scene in 1968. After awhile, we learned that the band had taken their name from a novel written by "some German guy". Some of us would eventually get around to reading the novel.

As best as I can recall, I was 19 or 20 when I first read Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf and then only after I had been introduced to his earlier novel, Siddhartha. Being 19 or 20, I couldn't really understand the story of a fifty year old man going thru a spiritual crisis. Of course, I recognized Hesse's talent, but frankly, the novel was not written with 20 year olds in mind.

I would go on to reread Steppenwolf in 2014. Although I had made note of having reread the book at that time, I failed to write a review. I've just finished reading the novel for the third time and I won't let a review slip by this time.

This time around, I read a relatively recent translation of the book by Kurt Beals. Beals notes that he preferred to follow the original German title Der Steppenwolf. Beals goes with The Steppenwolf. I agree with Beals.

Now I'm 72 and I can better appreciate Harry Haller's struggle. The character was 50 at the time of the story and I suppose 70 is the new 50. A fifty year old man in 1927 was much older than a fifty year old man today. Of course, my life doesn't exactly parallel the life of the main character in the novel, but there are similarities. I can relate to having difficulties sleeping at night as my mind replays my earlier life choices. While The Steppenwolf may not be for mad men only, it is not for the young either.

Hesse once said that Der Steppenwolf was widely misunderstood. I'd like to think that I am at a point where I can better understand and appreciate this brilliant novel.

The March, 2024 Reading List

 

Anyone who is even slightly familiar with this blog knows that I am an avid reader; I am constantly looking for recommendations for books to download. When a book recommendation does pique my interest, I'll go to a particular website that is basically an online library where almost every book imaginable is available. I'll come upon the name of an author and download everything the author has published in English. As a consequence, I have more e-books than I can read in my lifetime. The e-books will be filed away, to be retrieved later.

Just before finishing 1Q84by Haruki Murakami I went to my digital library for an e-book to put into the queue for March. I don't recall exactly when I downloaded Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck - the file properties says Feb.14- and I couldn't remember where the recommendation for the novel came from. I did a web search for Erpenbeck and the reviews I found for her work were very impressive. Visitation was the first book I read this month. Sadly, I was disappointed.

From a review on themodernnovel.org:
"Erpenbeck really does an excellent job of showing German history of the twentieth century in such a short book. The valuables hidden in the lake when the Soviets arrive and buried when the architect leaves the area are equated with the burial of the bodies of local Jews found in the forest. Erpenbeck has written not a Holocaust novel nor an East German novel but a German novel, warts and all, showing us that Germany has buried its past but, like the bodies of the Jews or the valuables hidden in the lake, everything come back to the surface sooner or later. Everything except the gardener, who disappears."

If you're looking for a fictionalized account of German history of the twentieth century you be better off reading Günter Grass.

Next on the list for March is The Girl of his Dreams by Donna Leon. This is #17 in Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series. It's no secret that I'm a fan of the series.

From time to time, I'll get book recommendations from the books I'm reading. That was the case when I reread,last year, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when I discovered the book was a favorite of Japanese writer Kenzaburō Ōe. It was also the case when I came upon a character in a book by Haruki Murakami who had a copy of Oliver Twist in their library. At one time, both books would have been considered classics in literature, but have fallen out of favor due to the racist views of Twain and Charles Dickens.

Oliver Twist became book # 3 for March. Dickens' antisemitism may have been typical for people of his social class in the 19th Century, but it makes reading his books today difficult. In Oliver Twist, Fagin is particularly despicable - so is Bill Sikes for that matter; but in the case of Fagin, Dickens is forever reminding us that he is a Jew. Dickens could have just as easily portrayed Fagin as a villain without the antisemitism.

Ring by Koji Suzuki is the first in a series of Japanese mystery horror novels by the writer. His second book in the series will be the first in April's reading list.

#5 on the March book list is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. Wikipedia describes the novel as..... "a Bildungsroman that tells the story of Japanese railroad engineer Tsukuru Tazaki". Haruki Murakami continues to live up to my expectations.

Next on the list is The Three-Body Problem by Chinese Sci Fi writer Liu Cixin. The book is the first in a trilogy, Remembrance of Earth's Past. The book has recently been released as a Netflix movie and was highly recommended by the folks at the Commentary Magazine podcast. I have to say that I can't add my recommendation. Most of the book went right over my head and I had difficulty following along. It's unlikely that I'll finish the trilogy.

Reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki as a bildungsroman brought to mind another novel which falls into that category - Demian by Hermann Hesse. I read Demian fifty years ago, so needless to say, I remembered very little of it. It was so long ago that I'm not 100% certain I actually finished it. I have two translations of the book in my digital library; the 1965 English translation by Michael Roloff & Michael Lebeck and the 2013 translation by Damion Searls. I couldn't decide which version I should read so I read the two simultaneously. I have to say I prefer Searls translation. According to Wikipedia, there are three additional English translations, although I was unable to locate a free ebook version of those. There is, however, an English translation from 1923 by N. H. Priday available as an audiobook at Internet Archive.

The next book on the list was also a recommendation from the Commentary Magazine podcast. A Brutal Design by Zachary Solomon is a nightmarish, dystopian novel. It starts off Kaffaesque and then quickly branches off into a world that is a cross between Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov.

Now, for the list:

Visitation    by Jenny Erpenbeck
The Girl of his Dreams    by Donna Leon
Oliver Twist   by Charles Dickens
Ring    by Koji Suzuki
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage  by Haruki Murakami
The Three-Body Problem  by Liu Cixin
Demian   by Hermann Hesse (Tr. Michael Roloff & Michael Lebeck)
Demian   by Hermann Hesse (Tr.Damion Searls)
A Brutal Design   by Zachary Solomon