Donna Leon vs Andrea Camilleri

Being an avid reader, I'm always on the lookout for new books and although I'll choose books from a wide selection of genre, I've been particularly partial to crime/mystery/detective novels lately. I've read every Agatha Christie who-done -it, as well as Dorothy L. Sayers, a few by Elizabeth George , Denzil Meyrick, Erle Stanley Gardner and Ed McBain, to name just a handful.

In May, 2023, I came upon and article online entitled The 9 Books you Must Read in 2023. One of the books in that list of nine was Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon. I was so impressed by Death at La Fenice that I began reading all of the books in Leon's "Commissario Guido Brunetti" series.......33 books in total. I finished the final book, A Refiner's Fire in February of this year.

The entire "Commissario Guido Brunetti" series takes place in Venice, Italy where Leon lived for many year. Leon will be 84 next month; I don't suspect she'll have another novel coming out any time soon - if at all.

Having finished Leon's books, I went looking for other crime/mystery/detective novels taking place in Italy. That's when I discovered Andrea Camilleri. Camilleri wrote 28 novels in his "Inspector Salvo Montalbano" series, which take place in Sicily. As I write this, I'm reading #12 in the series, The Track of Sand.

The two writers are similar in several ways. Naturally, there are quite a few differences as well. As I said, Leon's Commissario Brunetti lives and works in Venice, while Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano works in Sicily in the fictional city of Vigàta.

Leon's novels were written in English, sprinkled with the occasional phrase in Italian or the Veneto dialect. Leon's novels have been translated into several languages, although Italian isn't one of them. She has specifically forbidden her books to be translated into Italian.

Camilleri's novels were written in Italian with a substantial amount of Sicilian phrases and grammar thrown in.

Commissario Brunetti is married, with two children. His wife, Paola is quite the cook, and her meals are described in detail in every story.

Unlike Brunetti, Montalbano isn't married but is involved in a long distance relationship with a woman (Livia Burlando) living in Genoa. Like Brunetti, Montalbano spends a lot of time eating, and the dishes are also described in detail.

Neither detective gets along with his immediate supervisor. That seems to be Standard Operating Procedure in this genre. Both writers appear to prefer their novels not have happy endings. 

The two series are entertaining and I hesitate to say which I like more.

My Return to the Blogosphere.

I spend a good deal of my time reading; the books I read are now exclusively e-books, which , for the most part I read on my phone using an app for just that very thing. I've found,over the years that I much prefer reading the e-books on my phone over the Kindle, although I've taken to using my Kindle as a back up when my phone needs charging.
While charging the phone recently, I re-read James Joyces' Dubliners on the Kindle and yesterday, I began to re-read Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf which I had re-read in 2024. I remembered writing a review of the 2024 re-read and came to this blog to read my review.
Searching for that earlier post, I began to miss the days when I was blogging on a regular basis. Sadly, I've only written five posts this year. I've chosen to remedy that by jumping back in......or at the very least, putting a toe back in.
As one can see by my meager posts of 2026, my two primary pastimes are riding my bicycle and reading.First, I'll try to bring everyone up to speed - as it were - on my cycling routine.
I purchased this bicycle in March 2021, but wasn't able to keep a reliable record of my mileage until I installed an app onto my phone in August 2023. I have no actual record of my mileage prior to installing the app. As of today, I've managed to ride,since August '23, over 11,500 miles (more than 18,500 kilometers). I try to ride six days a week when it's not raining. Not bad, I'd say, for a man in his early 70's.

I've been keeping track of the books I've read and I've posted lists and reviews of those books to this blog for a good many years. Sadly, I haven't read nearly as many books this year as in years past. There was a time when I'd post a monthly list. That's something I should return to.
I want to get into some of the books I've read this year, but that remains for another day.

One change I've made upon my return. I've removed Google Ad-sense from the blog. I'm not getting money for the ads and they were really clogging up the page.
Oh yeah.......don't ask for an explanation of the photo used for this post.

Monkey King: Journey to the West translated by Julia Lovell

Like everyone else using Facebook, I will come across a variety of video Reels that show up on my feed. One in particular has captured my interest. The Reel is produced by someone going by the name of Wenjiang Caihuaxiaoyuan. The videos are Chinese language comedies with English subtitles. The premise of these videos is of a place of business run by a middle aged woman, employing three or four younger women.

In one, the punchline was one of the younger women saying she was the daughter of Sun Wukong. Of course, I had to do a web search of Sun Wukong.

According to Wikipedia:
"Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, is a literary and religious figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.In the novel, Sun Wukong is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices. After rebelling against heaven, he is imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha. Five hundred years later, he accompanies the monk Tang Sanzang riding on the White Dragon Horse and two other disciples, Zhu Bajie and Sha Heshang, on a journey to obtain Buddhist sutras, known as the West or Western Paradise, where Buddha and his followers dwell".

Journey to the West seemed like something I'd be interested in reading, so I searched online for English translations. I located a four volume unabridged version translated by Anthony C. Yu as well as an abridged, one volume work translated by Julia Lovell (Monkey King: Journey to the West). I decided that I'd read the shorter, abridged translation first.

Journey to the West has strong roots in Chinese folk religion, Chinese mythology, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoist and Buddhist folklore. Sun Wukong is a monkey born on Flower Fruit Mountain from a stone egg that forms from an ancient rock created by the coupling of Heaven and Earth. The Monkey King possesses supernatural strength and magical powers and is the inspiration of many modern manhwa, manhua, manga and anime series.

One of the downsides to the adventures in the novel is Sun Wukong always finds his way out of any predicament by the use of his supernatural powers. Like a Superman comic, it can become wearisome reading at times. Overall, I enjoyed the novel, although I'm certainly glad I choose to read the much smaller abridged version. Four volumes of the same thing would have been too much.

Two Books by Denzil Meyrick

I had never heard of the Scottish crime fiction novelist Denzil Meyrick until I read of his death online last February. Murder/crime fiction is a genre of novels of which I'm particularly interested in so I downloaded his entire ebook collection - his DCI Jim Daley series contains 12 books.

In March, I read the first two books in that series - Whisky From Small Glasses and The Last Witness. I put Meyrick on my list of writers to read, but things being the way they are, I didn't manage to continue the DCI Jim Daley series until January of this year. Two more books - Dark Suits and Sad Songs and The Rat Stone Serenade.

Having read four in the series, I think I can form a better opinion of the books. The stories are interesting enough and I like the characters, for the most part, but I've mixed feelings on the stories taking place in Scotland. I enjoy reading of the country and Meyrick's description of the scenery and customs of the people. I'm not, however a big fan of Meyrick's putting such a strong Scottish accent into the mouths of so many of his characters. It makes it a bit difficult for me to follow along at times.

Meyrick wrote the scenes as if he were writing a television program rather than a novel. The scenes jump back and forth at a quick pace......too quick for my tastes. And although the stories are interesting, they do tend to drag on in spots.

As I said, I enjoy his novels over all, although I wouldn't rank him as high as some of my other favorites (Donna Leon comes to mind).

Rereading Bram Stoker's Dracula

After having rewatched Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat's 2020 TV series Dracula on Netflix recently, I wanted to reread Bram Stoker's original novel. According to blog posts and book lists on my PC, I last read the book in January of 2016. Ten years ago this month.

I've seen countless film adaptations of the novel but it wasn't until the mid- 1970's that I first picked up the book. An older cousin of mine had given an annotated edition of the book to my younger brother and I picked it up then. Naturally, I don't recall much of the reading from over fifty years ago, other than I was turned off by the epistolary nature of the work. It's being a series of letters and diary entries kept me from rereading the book for many years.

As I said, it had been ten years since I last read Dracula and I suspected there would be much I'd forgotten. The book is very different than 99% of the film adaptations. Although some films follow the book better than others, I've never seen any Dracula film that is anywhere close to being 100% faithful to Stoker's novel.

The epistolary nature of the novel didn't bother me so much this time. What surprised me most was the fact that Count Dracula really isn't the main character as portrayed in film. We see him, of course when Harker comes to Transylvania at the beginning of the novel, but through out most of the book, the other characters take center stage.

There are long winded portions in the book and I wasn't happy about having to figure out Van Helsing's rather bizarre form of English. Still, it was a worthwhile read.

The Bloody Chamber & other stories

The first book I've managed to read this year is The Bloody Chamber & other stories by Angela Carter. The stories within the book are explicitly based on fairy tales, although Carter's version are in no way written for children; some of the stories may be too explicit for some adults.

Her stories are based on such tales as Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, Puss and Boots and Little Red Riding Hood. Her versions will not be reproduced by Disney, I'm sure.

That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book.....I did, but it's not at all like I expected. It's not often that one comes upon the word "cunt" in a collection of fairy tales.

A Few More Books.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I've fallen behind on my reading during the past few months. With Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, I hope to get back up to speed.

Upon finishing Hangover Square I began reading a book recommended by Christine Rosen on the Commentary Magazine podcast, Out by Japanese writer, Natsuo Kirino. Being a Japanese mystery/detective novel makes Out exactly what I'm looking for.

As I write this post, I am 50% in. I should be finished before long. There are more twists and turns in the story than I expected and I have absolutely no clue as to how the book will end.

I also mentioned in my last post that my PC had been acting up. While trying to get it back up to normal, I transferred quite a few ebooks to my phone. I'd have plenty to read if my PC continued to give me problems. Now that I'm back to reading, I'm going to read the ebooks in the order in which they come up on my phone app.. These means the next two books following Out will be The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter and Dracula by Bram Stoker. I last read Dracula in 2016. I'd been watching newer film versions and decided I'd reread the book. I don't recall how I came upon Angela Carter's book. Looks to be a bit spooky.

My Return

It's been ages since I've last published a blog post......not since April 2, 2025 as a matter of fact.

There are a number of reasons why I've neglected the blog. First of all, there was a problem with my PC. It took quite some time to get it running and I still don't know if it's completely up to where it should be.

Also, I've not been reading as much as I had been doing in the past. Since that last blog post, I've only read nine books; fewer in nine months than had been my usual number for just one month.

In April, I read three books by Ed McBain: Lady Killer - Killer's Wedge and 'Til Death.

I managed two by Donna Leon in April and May:Transient Desires and Give Unto Others. In June, I read Pope Leo XIII's Encyclicals and reread The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Only one book in July: Starry Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson .

From July 04 until December 21 I only managed to read one: Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton.

I don't recall exactly how I came upon Hangover Square but I'm glad I did. The novel is dark and intense. It is considered by critics to be Hamilton' best work. According to wikipedia, the novel is

Set against the backdrop of the days preceding Britain declaring war on Germany, the main character is George Harvey Bone, a lonely borderline alcoholic who has a form of dissociative identity disorder, referred to in the text as a "dead mood".

When the novel was written,"dissociative identity disorder" would have been called "multiple personalities".

I'm hoping with this post, I'll return to blogging and after Hangover Square, I'll return to reading as often as I did in the past.

Reading List For February, 2025

 

Although there's still several hours left in February, it's unlikely that I'll finish another book today so I'll go ahead and post the list of books I read in February, 2025.

Fevor by Toby Lloyd was recommended by someone on the Commentary Magazine podcast - I think it might have been Seth, I can't remember exactly. I enjoyed the book, although I only rate it three stars out of five. I felt the story fell apart at the end.

Very Good, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse was mildly amusing. Eleven short stories featuring Jeeves and Bertie Wooster; not all the stories are up to par but a good read. Three stars.

I have two books this month by Donna Leon. I enjoy everything I read written by her.

Quest For Fire by J.H. Rosny was published in 1911. It's very different than the 1981 film. I was expecting the book to be better than the film (which I really enjoyed, by the way) but the book seems to be more Tarzanesque. Is there such a word? I can only give the book 2 stars - which translates to "it was OK".

Originally published in 1995, many of the cultural references in the late Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted:World Science as a Candle in the Dark ( such as the "crop circles" hoaxes from the 1980s ) are a bit dated. However, the main theme - that people need to be encouraged to learn critical and skeptical thinking - is relevant today. Still, I only gave it two stars on Goodreads.

I remember that as a child of the late 1950s, we were told that America was named for Amerigo Vespucci, but little else was mentioned of him. I recently saw an American TV personality go on a rant about how America was named for "some Italian white guy". I wanted to get a reasonably unbiased history of Vespucci, so I read his biography - written in 1907 by Frederick Ober. I was sure that being written when it was, it wouldn't contain "woke" propaganda. For anyone interested in history, this book is a must read.

I first learned of Ed McBain from reading Haruki Murakami. A character in one of Murakami's novels mentions reading something by McBain. I did a search of McBain and learned he wrote 55 books in the "87th precinct" series. I've read three in the series and find them entertaining. The books are like the "film noir" movie genre of the 40s and 50s.

Now, for the list:

Fervor                    by Toby Lloyd
Very Good, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
Earthly Remains   by Donna Leon
Cop Hater             by Ed McBain
The Mugger          by Ed McBain
Quest for Fire       by J. H. Rosny
Amerigo Vespucci   by Frederick A Ober
The Demon-Haunted World:Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
The Temptation of Forgiveness   by Donna Leon
The Pusher   by Ed McBain

Reading List For January, 2025

It's now the end of the month, so it's time again for the list of books read during the month. With twelve books read in January, this is most read in any one month since April of 2021 when the monthly count was 15.

This month, I'll be listing the books differently; normally I'd list the books in the order read. This time they'll be grouped by writer.

There were five written by Donna Leon, three by P.G. Wodenhouse, two by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and one each by Haruki Murakami and Larry Denninger.

I'm giving each book by Leon, Wodenhouse and Murakami five stars. Larry Denninger's book receives three stars. Sadly, Toshikazu Kawaguchi's two books are only getting two stars each. These two are part of a five book series - much of what's written doesn't hold up after five books.

The list:

Beastly Things
The Golden Egg
By Its Cover
Falling in Love
The Waters of Eternal Youth   by Donna Leon 

A Damsel in Distress
Right Ho, Jeeves
The Code of the Woosters   by P.G. Wodehouse 

 
Before We Say Goodbye
Before We Forget Kindness   by Toshikazu Kawaguchi 

 
End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland   by Haruki Murakami

 
Songs for Clara   by Larry Denninger

Haruki Murakami's "End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland" A New Translation by Jay Rubin

A few days ago, I wrote a blog post on Haruki Murakami's novel End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland. As I mentioned in the post, I had read Alfred Birnbaum's 1991 translation, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World in October and after reading Murakami's latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami the first week of December, I wanted to read Jay Rubin's new translation of End of the World........

At the time of that blog post, I had only read about 65% of Rubin's translation. I write:
It's odd. I seem to have a good recollection of the "End of the World" section, although in many ways, the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" section seems almost completely new to me. It's still difficult for me to connect the two sections. With luck, I'll be able to do that when I finish this re-read.

I went to readings list to compare the length of time it had taken me to read the two different translations. The new translation was taking a bit longer. I read exclusively e-books now, so I did not immediately notice the difference in the actual length of the books. I opened both files and saw right away that in my PC's e-reader, the difference was obvious - Birnbaum's translation contains 273 pages - Rubin's translation comes to 404 pages! It's little wonder that much of the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" section seemed completely new. Had these two books been in print form, I would have seen the difference. In his afterword to his translation, Rubin explains why Murakami wanted him to restore the pages omitted in Birnbaum's translation.

Having read the Rubin translation, I can connect the two sections. Anyone wanting to read Sekai no Owari to Hādo-Boirudo Wandārando should choose the newly released Rubin translation - End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland..

Books Read in 2024

In 2011, I began a tradition of keeping a list on my PC of the books I'd read. I had originally posted these lists once a year on another blog. When I started this blog, it became apparent to me that posting the list annually was no longer practical and in January, 2021 I began posting the book lists monthly. In January 2022 I started providing links to the monthly book lists. I'm continuing that tradition with this post.

In 2024,I read 80 e-books. There's a tie between Donna Leon and Haruki Murakami for the most books read by one writer, at six books each. Since discovering those two, I've read twenty books by Leon, but that number is spread out over two years. There are currently thirteen books by Donna Leon that I haven't read - I'll try to finish her collection in 2025.

In 2022, I discovered the work of Toshikazu Kawaguchi. He had three books in a series available at that time. I've since learned that he has released two more books in the series which I hope to get to this year. There's so much I need to read!

Here are the links to the monthly reading lists of 2024

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Reading list for December, 2024

 

Today is the final day of December and the time has come for the list of books I've read this month. Unlike in most months, I was able to post onto the blog a little bit about each book read. Clicking on the titles listed will, of course take you to the individual blog post.

There are only six books listed; I was certain that I'd have more, but that was not to be. A few days ago, I had created different images with the book covers - one image showing eight books, another showing seven just in case. Sadly, I was unable to finish End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland in time to make this month's list.That book will be the first in 2025. That's just as well. I'll be doing an additional blog post on the book.

Here is the list of books I read in December, 2024.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls  by Haruki Murakami
Crime and Punishment   by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Kafka on the Shore   by Haruki Murakami
Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End   by Bart Ehrman
The Stranger   by Albert Camus
The Plague   by Albert Camus

End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland by Haruki Murakami

As I write this post, I am approximately 65% finished with a re-read of Haruki Murakami's novel from 1985, Sekai no Owari to Hādo-Boirudo Wandārando. This past October, I read Alfred Birnbaum's 1991 translation, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. The novel was recently released with a new translation by Jay Rubin as End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland, reversing the order in the title.

I wanted to re-read the novel, mainly because I had just read Murakami's latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls, which is a rewriting of the "End of the World" portion of the earlier book.

I'm hoping to have this re-read finished in time to make my December,2014 reading list. I'm writing this post now while the book is fresh in my mind.

Not being able to read the original Japanese, it's difficult for me to be totally objective as to which is the superior translation. I'm leaning toward the later Jay Rubin translation - after all, why would a newer translation be needed if Birnbaum's translation had been up to the job? Still, I do feel that Rubin's version flows better.

It's odd. I seem to have a good recollection of the "End of the World" section, although in many ways, the "Hard-Boiled Wonderland" section seems almost completely new to me. It's still difficult for me to connect the two sections. With luck, I'll be able to do that when I finish this re-read.

I follow a Haruki Murakami fan page on Facebook. Another follower asked if The City and Its Uncertain Walls was a stand alone novel, or if it was necessary to read End of the World and Hard-boiled Wonderland first? Of course, The City........ is certainly a stand alone novel, I answered that I thought it best to read Hard-Boiled..... (or the later translation) first, if for no other reason than because it was written first.

Reading Murakami is a good way for me to learn about musical recordings and writers that I'm not familiar with. In this book, the narrator of the Hard-Boiled Wonderland section reads Stendhal's The Red and the Black. I had a difficult time reading that particular book in 2021. I believe the problem may have been the translation. Murakami and Jordan Peterson both give the novel high marks. Perhaps I should consider reading a newer translation.

Another writer mentioned by the narrator of the Hard-Boiled Wonderland section is the author of 87th Precinct novels, published under the pen name Ed McBain. I've downloaded the entire series. I'll try to read a few of those next year.

Albert Camus' The Plague.

 

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, most of the books I'll read in December will be books that I've read before. I also mentioned in that post that one of the books I'll re-read this month will be Albert Camus' The Plague.

I last read The Plague in April, 2020, during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. According to wikipedia, I wasn't the only one reading the novel at that time - the novel's British publisher Penguin Classics reported struggling to keep up with demand for copies of the book:
"Sales in Italy tripled and it became a top-ten bestseller during its nationwide lockdown.Penguin Classics' editorial director said 'it couldn’t be more relevant to the current moment' and Camus's daughter Catherine said that the message of the novel had newfound relevance in that 'we are not responsible for coronavirus but we can be responsible in the way we respond to it'."

While the reading of the novel during a global pandemic was certainly relevant, it's not exactly what I'd call Christmas reading. Yes, the novel is a masterpiece, but reading the novel doesn't give one an abundance of hope and joy that might be associated with yuletide reading choices.

Camus published the novel in 1947 - the story takes place in the French Algerian city of Oran sometime in the 1940s. No exact date is given. The photo at the beginning of this post is a view of Oran in 1943 , taken from the above mentioned wikipedia article.

Rereading Albert Camus' The Stranger

After reading The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, I wanted to spend some time this month rereading some of my favorite novels. I managed to stay on track with Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore . I took a little detour with Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End by Bart D. Ehrman. I'm now back on schedule with my rereading  of Albert Camus' The Stranger.

I can't recall when I read The Stranger the first time - probably back in the 1980s. I began making note in my PC in 2011 of the books I read and I have it on record that I read the book in 2014 and 2020. Now, I've read the book once again. (December - 2024) Assuming that I'd managed to read it twice between 1980 and 2011, it's fair to say I've read The Stranger about five times - each time the Stuart Gilbert translation. There are other English translations, although I haven't been able to download copies.

Needless to say the book is one of my favorites.

In his 1956 analysis of the novel, Carl Viggiani wrote:

On the surface, L'Étranger gives the appearance of being an extremely simple though carefully planned and written book. In reality, it is a dense and rich creation, full of undiscovered meanings and formal qualities. It would take a book at least the length of the novel to make a complete analysis of meaning and form and the correspondences of meaning and form, in L'Étranger.

I'll be staying with Camus. I'm now reading The Plague which I last read in 2020 during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End by Bart D. Ehrman

In his book, Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End , professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Bart D. Ehrman puts foward the notion that the New Testament book of Revelation (aka The Book of the Apocalypse) has been misunderstood and misinterpreted in modern times. This misinterpretation has been going on, basically since the early 19th Century. Ehrman describes the book's writer, known as John of Patmos, as a misguided Christian who did not understand the teachings of Jesus Christ as proclaimed in the Gospels.

Not only is the book of Revelation not a prophesy of future events as maintained by many Evangelicals, (and certainly no "rapture") but the vengeful nature of the events - not to mention the glorification of materialism and violent retribution - is in no way Christ-like. Ehrman examines how the Christ of Revelation differs from the Christ of the Gospels. A God of love and mercy versus a God who is cruel and unmerciful.

Ehrman's arguments are compelling. After reading this book, I cannot believe that the Book of Revelation belongs in the Biblical canon.

Rereading Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore.

I began December by reading Haruki Murakami's latest novel, The City and Its Uncertain Walls. This novel is a retelling of a short story of the same name (which is no longer in print) and a novel from 1985, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World which I read in October of this year. The two novels share several similarities and in some ways I thought of  my reading "The City" as almost like reading the earlier novel a second time.

This idea led me to consider rereading novels I had actually read before. With that in mind, I reread Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Riding that same train of thought led me to once again read Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore.

With Murakami being Murakami, in each these three novels, a library plays a significant part, as does Ludwig van Beethoven. Add the Oedipal aspects, the old, disabled man with the uncanny ability to talk to cats, and the feeling of moving in and out of alternate realities and we're in for quite a ride.

In a blog post from November, 2021, I said of Kafka on the Shore:
The story takes several bizarre twists and turns. In an interview posted on his English-language website, Murakami says that the secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it several times. That may well be the case.

I can say that upon my second reading of the novel, I do have a somewhat better understanding of the work. Reading the wikipedia article on the novel was also a help in my (partial?) understanding.

I'm certain that I will follow Murakami's advice and read the novel again, although I suspect that will not be in the near future.

Rereading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

I first read Fyodor Dostoevsky's highly acclaimed novel, Crime and Punishment in 1979. I found the story of the protagonist Rodion Raskolnikov's murder of an elderly pawnbroker and her handicapped sister, Lizaveta Ivanovna, absolutely shocking. Over the years, I've reread the novel several times - first, in the middle 1980s, and again in 2012 and then in 2021. All of these readings and re readings were of the Constance Garnett 1914 translation.

I recently wanted read it once again - this time, a translation by Michael R. Katz.

I mentioned in my blog post after the 2021 rereading that I had forgotten a number of sections which seemed almost new to me. This time, I would not be surprised, although sections were not exactly fresh in my mind.

The novel was originally published in installments in 1866 and first translated into English by Frederick Whishaw in 1885. From a review of the 1885 translation:

"Dostoieffsky [sic] is one of the most remarkable of modern writers, and his book, ‘Crime and Punishment’ is one of the most moving of modern novels. It is the story of a murder and of the punishment which dogs the murderer; and its effect is unique in fiction. It is realism, but such realism as M. Zola and his followers do not dream of. The reader knows the personages—strange grotesque, terrible personages they are—more intimately than if he had been years with them in the flesh. He is constrained to live their lives, to suffer their tortures, to scheme and resist with them, exult with them, weep and laugh and despair with them; he breathes the very breath of their nostrils, and with the madness that comes upon them he is afflicted even as they. This sounds extravagant praise, no doubt; but only to those who have not read the volume. To those who have, we are sure that it will appear rather under the mark than otherwise."

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

I first became aware of the Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami in early 2021 when I had come upon reviews of two of his novels, Kafka on the Shore, and Norwegian Wood. I was later able to download mobi files for the two and read the books in November and December of that year.

This year, I managed to read six more of his novels - or eight if you count 1Q84 as three books as was originally done when released in Japanese in 2009 and 2010.

The remaining five include - Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and now The City and Its Uncertain Walls.

The City and Its Uncertain Walls was published in Japanese in 2023 with the English translation released on November 19, 2024.The novel shares its title with an earlier short story of the same name, which was published in the September 1980 issue of a Japanese monthly literary magazine, Bungakukai. Unfortunately, Murakami has not permitted this short story to be reprinted but Murakami expanded that short story into his 1985 novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

Like most of Murakami's novels, this latest one has a surreal quality. I'm not inclined to give spoilers, but like in the earlier novel, the character in The City..... spends a good deal of time in a library. This recurring library reminded me of Kafka on the Shore where a library also plays a prominent role. In my earlier blog post on Kafka on the Shore, I wrote that in an interview posted on his English-language website, Murakami says that the secret to understanding that novel lies in reading it several times. I've decided to do just that. First, I plan on rereading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (in a more modern translation than the one I've read so many times before).

I've also learned that a new translation of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World will be released sometime this month. That will probably wind up in the queue.