#international booker

[busterkeatonsociety]

This Day in Buster…April 30, 1892

Carol Holloway, who played Rose Turner in Buster Keaton’s first feature, “The Saphead”, is born.

[goldheartedsky]

When Booker is properly fed for the first time in his life, Andy starts to notice…

[honeybeelullaby]

Tobias Menzies reads from 'Mater 2-10' | The Booker Prize

[elysiumaze]

Geetanjali Shree in, Tomb of Sand.

[thegirlwholovessynchronicity]

Oh, tell me, what makes a character important? In the tale of a poor home, wealth is an important character, whereas it’s beauty in the lives of the ugly, for India, it is Pakistan and America that play the characters of villain and hero, respectively; the most important character in the tale of a blind man is an eye, it’s a leg for the lame, a home for the homeless, employment for the unemployed, sleep for the sleepless, and if you’ve had enough of this, look: the most important character in every person’s life is the thing that they lack.

- ‘Tomb of Sand’ by Geetanjali Shree translated from the original Hindi by Daisy Rockwell

[evilhorse]

Justice League International #23

[intellectures]

Leuchtende Prosa: Jenny Erpenbeck gewinnt International Booker Prize

Erstmals in der Geschichte des International Booker Prize gewinnt mit Jenny Erpenbeck eine deutschsprachige Autorin den renommierten Booker Prize für internationale Literatur.

Erstmals in der Geschichte des International Booker Prize gewinnt eine deutschsprachige Autorin den renommierten Booker Prize für internationale Literatur. Die Jury unter dem Vorsitz der kanadischen Schriftstellerin Eleanor Wachtel zeichnet die englische Übersetzung von Erpenbecks letztem Roman »Kairos« aus. Die Hälfte des mit 50.000 Euro dotierten Preises geht an den Übersetzer Michael…

[readingtostaysane]

What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma - review

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.25)

What I’d rather not think about follows the story of an unnamed female narrator whose twin brother has committed suicide. It spans over their childhood until two years after the death of the brother. It sets to deal with themes such as self discovery and complex relationships, both as siblings but also as individuals.

I’ll start with the critics:

The dynamics between the twins are odd at best, but I’ve also never had a twin, I only have a sibling and maybe they’re a kind of a different bond. Still I wished the novel had more bantering between siblings, to show an accurate depiction of family bonds. We do get the sense they love each other, but the brother is unlikable, which usually doesn’t bother me, and it didn’t bother me here, but I wish I had something more.

However, The novel deals with codependency and detachment in a very balanced way which I enjoyed.

The book includes facts about a lot of horrible historic people that harmed innocents. I found those references irrelevant and didn’t add much to the overall plot, nor for the development of characters. They served one purpose: to show that our narrator lived in the early 2000 and could google things, still I think it could’ve been shown without tragic holocaust facts.

Your gift isn’t a gift, it’s a defect, said my brother. You can’t keep your distance.

Eventually people grow out of their childhood and need to learn how to land on both of their feet alone, but what happens when you’ve never spent a second alone? Not even in the uterus? That’s why this book exists.

Our main character is very dependent on her older brother, and it becomes toxic and self-destructive very fast. This behavior causes the twins to have fights and disagreements and adding to the depression both of them have, they grow apart.

The novel explores self identity, forgiveness and personal boundaries within sibling relationships, however it never forgets to address the love that exists in that special bond.

Both of the siblings travel solo, have love relationships and different goals in life, we as readers follow their growth into their own selves, for better or for worse.

I can never get it right with you, said my brother. Why are you always so pushy? I’m trying to reach out to you, I said. Hello! Hello, said my brother. Here I am. He closed his eyes to concentrate on tasting the meat.

As the mental health of the brother deteriorates we see the author address a complex and sour topic: how do you help someone with depression. It’s the best part of the book and why it earned its rating for me.

Seeing someone you love succumb to depression is not easy, and you don’t always have to patience to deal with it. It most definitely not always end with a happy ending, in the end the brother still killed himself. I loved how the sister tried to reach out to him and he wouldn’t let her, because sometimes that’s what happens, people feel alone and they don’t want to be helped. This book does an excellent job at showing that without blaming the person who commits suicide. It also shows the flaws os someone trying to reach out, the sister could’ve done more, she could’ve paid more attention, and yet she didn’t but no one can say it’s her fault her brother is dead.

The author deals with this topic with such delicacy but at the same time such ease it really pulls you inside the story.

I’m trying to understand him. When someone says they love you but still ends up leaving, I can’t understand it. I don’t believe in that kind of love

This leaves us with the aftermath of mourning the death of a person who took their own life. It truly amazed me to see how the narrator went through different stages of grief in such curt pages. The anger and sadness both contrast each other in this part of the novel and yet none wins.

She’s still alive, he’s still alive, I thought every time someone walked by. She didn’t throw herself in front of a train. Everyone who’s still alive clearly thinks life is worth living. Clearly, I think life is worth living.

In the end of the novel the narrator still feels sad, as grief never truly goes away, but she also reaches peace with what happened. I really enjoyed reading both their journey into adulthood and dealing with the anguish and the happiness of life.

Many people might think this book doesn’t go deep enough into the grief, but I found it the perfect book at the right time for me. The small references of mundane things added to the story in my opinion, they felt vital to bring the characters to life and shaping them into real people.

I’ll end my review with my favourite quote:

I thought about all the love we have inside us and how only a shred of that reaches the people we care about

[theaskew]

Satantango, a novel by László Krasznahorkai, 1985.

[busterkeatonsociety]

This Day in Buster…May 23, 1921

The Capital Times prints this ad for Buster Keaton’s first feature role, “The Saphead.”

[naberiie]

finished boulder by eva baltasar today and am a bit conflicted. i really related to the disgust the pov character, a queer woman, felt towards all things pregnancy and childbirth related. it was so genuinely refreshing to read the way the author wrote never couched that disgust or ever shamed her for it. the despair i felt while reading as the noose of her situation gradually closed in with no way out was an incredibly unique experience. and then it flipped on its head to ‘i didn’t love my child until i held it and now i want nothing more’. i recognize that it’s a subversion of a heteronormative trope, where it’s the father who feels increasingly alienated from and confused by his changing partner throughout a pregnancy but then he holds the baby and finally Gets It. i didn’t want her to get it. i wanted her to get out, with that same utterly refreshing lack of condemnation

[knowledge-lost]

Book 12 of 2023: Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel (translated by Rosalind Harvey) turns out I just love reading books about the ambivalence of motherhood and this covered such an amazing range of emotions. I think this makes a perfect companion to the Involuntary Trilogy by Ariana Harwicz

[elysiumaze]

Farewell, now you will no longer be you, nor I, I. As if to say, This ebbing night will rise now in such a day that will be new.

Geetanjali Shree in, Tomb of Sand.

[pointliteral]

"Time Shelter" escrito pelo autor búlgaro Georgi Gospodinov e traduzido por Angela Rodel foi o vencedor da edição 2023 do International Booker Prize, que tem como objetivo incentivar a publicação e a leitura de mais ficção internacional, além de promover e reconhecer o trabalho vital dos tradutores.

[rashmeerl]

[evilhorse]

If the corset fits, sweetie!

(Justice League International #23)