Bulgarian writer now living in the U.S.
A lovely novel exploring Bulgarian 20th c. history, the confused and complex ethnic and religious relations, as well as some of the old folk traditions that are on the edge of final disappearance. With a sprinkling of the corruption of Communist and current pirate capitalism. All tied together around two love stories and storks.
A book with a lot of echoes - curiously, Penkov was mentored by Michael Ondaajte while writing this book...
Also wrote "East of the West".
Wednesday 31 August 2016
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
A classic about WW 1. The best book I have read as far as concerns the actual experience of trench warfare, from visual description of the banal horrors to be seen around you, to the psychological effect on the soldier's thoughts and reactions.
None of the the heroic histrionics nor the joys of camaraderie myths.
An introduction to the realities of any war...
Remarque went on to write some other successful books which are no longer remembered much. Must track some down.
None of the the heroic histrionics nor the joys of camaraderie myths.
An introduction to the realities of any war...
Remarque went on to write some other successful books which are no longer remembered much. Must track some down.
Saturday 27 August 2016
Midnight at the Pera Palace - Charles King
Subtitled "The Birth of Modern Istanbul"
Clever use of the Pera Palace as a focus to look at the emergence of modern Turkey and explore some of the rich 20th c history of Istanbul.
He looks at the Young Turk and Ataturk periods as well as the occupation at the end of WW I. There is also quite a bit about the post-Revolution Russian community and what became of it. There is a whole chapter on Trotsky's time on Büyükada. You also get a glimpse of the intrigues during WW 2 when Turkey was neutral and every side had spies and agents operating in the city. There is a chapter on the discoveries that led to the Haghia Sophia becoming a museum. There are also several chapters on the role that Istanbul played as a transit point for Jews escaping Europe en route to Palestine during the later half of WW II.
One thing I found interesting is some of the detail on how Ataturk and the Republic used taxation and government seizure to push Jews and other ethnic groups out of their businesses (and by extension out of the city) and then sold their property and goods to the up-and-coming Turkish middle-class/party hacks. In one instance a war tax of 150 to 200% of total value was placed on Jewish, Greek and Armenian businesses. So after the Young Turks were chases from power, ethnic cleansing continued, just in a neater, tidier form...
Clever use of the Pera Palace as a focus to look at the emergence of modern Turkey and explore some of the rich 20th c history of Istanbul.
He looks at the Young Turk and Ataturk periods as well as the occupation at the end of WW I. There is also quite a bit about the post-Revolution Russian community and what became of it. There is a whole chapter on Trotsky's time on Büyükada. You also get a glimpse of the intrigues during WW 2 when Turkey was neutral and every side had spies and agents operating in the city. There is a chapter on the discoveries that led to the Haghia Sophia becoming a museum. There are also several chapters on the role that Istanbul played as a transit point for Jews escaping Europe en route to Palestine during the later half of WW II.
One thing I found interesting is some of the detail on how Ataturk and the Republic used taxation and government seizure to push Jews and other ethnic groups out of their businesses (and by extension out of the city) and then sold their property and goods to the up-and-coming Turkish middle-class/party hacks. In one instance a war tax of 150 to 200% of total value was placed on Jewish, Greek and Armenian businesses. So after the Young Turks were chases from power, ethnic cleansing continued, just in a neater, tidier form...
Silence of the Grave - Arnaldur Indridason
An Icelandic murder mystery writer.
Well-written. Not a lot of action, but well-parcelled out with jumps in time and from character to character. Explores the psychology of domestic violence especially from the victim's side.
Find more
Well-written. Not a lot of action, but well-parcelled out with jumps in time and from character to character. Explores the psychology of domestic violence especially from the victim's side.
Find more
Wednesday 24 August 2016
Iran in World History - Richard Foltz
A well-written overview of the basic events and movements in the history of Iran. Just enough detail. Excellent for general interest. From 3500 BC to the present.
It also provides some insight into the long-lasting underlying forces in Iranian politics and history - the rise of clerical power, the link between the landowner class and the clerical establishment, and their resistance to political and social change.
There is also an interesting mention of Mithraism and its influence on Jews living within the Sassanian empire leading to some central concepts in the emergence of Christianity.
To find:
Hushang Golshiri - modern novelist
It also provides some insight into the long-lasting underlying forces in Iranian politics and history - the rise of clerical power, the link between the landowner class and the clerical establishment, and their resistance to political and social change.
There is also an interesting mention of Mithraism and its influence on Jews living within the Sassanian empire leading to some central concepts in the emergence of Christianity.
To find:
Hushang Golshiri - modern novelist
Saturday 20 August 2016
The Free World - David Bezmozgis
A novel about a Latvian Jewish families life as emigrants in Italy as they wait for their permanent emigration papers. Very well-written. Characters are well-outlined.
Several threads:
- the feeling of uprootedness that comes with emigration, especially when chased out
- the main character's attempt to break away from the suffocating atmosphere of the family
- the grand-father's cultural conflict as a former believer and apparatchik from the Latvian communist party, now an emigrant to the evil capitalist West
- intergenerational differences in values around money, role of women, etc.
Not an overtly idea-oriented book. Very human.
Several threads:
- the feeling of uprootedness that comes with emigration, especially when chased out
- the main character's attempt to break away from the suffocating atmosphere of the family
- the grand-father's cultural conflict as a former believer and apparatchik from the Latvian communist party, now an emigrant to the evil capitalist West
- intergenerational differences in values around money, role of women, etc.
Not an overtly idea-oriented book. Very human.
Rites of Spring - Modris Eksteins
An interesting exploration of the early part of the 20th century from two perspectives - the avant-garde art movements in Paris and Berlin, and also the rhetoric and unfolding of WW1 (with an additional look at the rhetoric of Nazism in the 30s).
While providing details about ideas, perspectives and goals of major art figures as well as political and military figures, Modris is mainly teasing out an idea that both the avant-garde movements and german militarism (and later Nazism) share certain central ideas or goals - the search for authentic experience, the need to break down old social and artistic barriers and structures, the need to build some kind of new man, new order, new aesthetic while at the same time not having a clear idea of what is to follow. The main impetus is the idea of breaking free and an extreme individualism.
Kind of interesting to think about these origins of what is the dominant western individualistic ethos of our time...
Another point that struck me was the importance of Berlin as an avant-garde centre in that time period. Paris seems to have dominated the plastic arts, but Berlin is the source of much of the modern in the living arts - architecture, technological design, furniture, etc. Kind of knew this but not as clearly.
You could say that militarism and Nazism led to a kind of void - modern plastic arts seem to have suffered the same fate. You cannot live in perpetual rebellion. The 20th C as the age of adolescence....
While providing details about ideas, perspectives and goals of major art figures as well as political and military figures, Modris is mainly teasing out an idea that both the avant-garde movements and german militarism (and later Nazism) share certain central ideas or goals - the search for authentic experience, the need to break down old social and artistic barriers and structures, the need to build some kind of new man, new order, new aesthetic while at the same time not having a clear idea of what is to follow. The main impetus is the idea of breaking free and an extreme individualism.
Kind of interesting to think about these origins of what is the dominant western individualistic ethos of our time...
Another point that struck me was the importance of Berlin as an avant-garde centre in that time period. Paris seems to have dominated the plastic arts, but Berlin is the source of much of the modern in the living arts - architecture, technological design, furniture, etc. Kind of knew this but not as clearly.
You could say that militarism and Nazism led to a kind of void - modern plastic arts seem to have suffered the same fate. You cannot live in perpetual rebellion. The 20th C as the age of adolescence....
Tuesday 2 August 2016
Wages of Rebellion - Chris Hedges
Subtitled "The Moral Imperative of Revolt".
Essentially a look at the current political and social situation in the United States and how it resembles other historical situations where revolt or revolutions took place. Symptoms - growing use of force against any different opinions or points of view; ruling elites growing inability to listen or hear the public at large; restriction of freedom of speech and even thought to a point; fracturing of society and retreat into various mythic historical dreams of past greatness; xenophobia; minority phobia.
Hedges examines these things through looking at the lives of people who have paid a price for trying to make a difference: Occupy leaders, Abu Jamal, Julian Assange, people who have spoken out on certain causes and found themselves in jail.
When you read these life stories, you realize how far from its idealized press image the current U.S. situation is. The situation is more and more similar to other repressive regimes - Putin, Nazis, Fascist Italy, Erdogan's Turkey, Sisi's Egypt, Isreal's Palestine.
It would seem many Americans have more or less lost touch with the reality of their country and have become lost in bizarre mythical dreams and stories of their world.
Another idea he brings up through an interview with Abu Jamal is how the prison system actually manages to monetize and extract value from the lives of poor, unemployed people through the system of privatized prisons and per prisoner funding from the government. A form of modern slavery. Convenient, especially now that you can end up in jail simply for disagreeing and acting on it in non-violent ways, as it also serves to remove and control potential leaders of critical movements.
Essentially a look at the current political and social situation in the United States and how it resembles other historical situations where revolt or revolutions took place. Symptoms - growing use of force against any different opinions or points of view; ruling elites growing inability to listen or hear the public at large; restriction of freedom of speech and even thought to a point; fracturing of society and retreat into various mythic historical dreams of past greatness; xenophobia; minority phobia.
Hedges examines these things through looking at the lives of people who have paid a price for trying to make a difference: Occupy leaders, Abu Jamal, Julian Assange, people who have spoken out on certain causes and found themselves in jail.
When you read these life stories, you realize how far from its idealized press image the current U.S. situation is. The situation is more and more similar to other repressive regimes - Putin, Nazis, Fascist Italy, Erdogan's Turkey, Sisi's Egypt, Isreal's Palestine.
It would seem many Americans have more or less lost touch with the reality of their country and have become lost in bizarre mythical dreams and stories of their world.
Another idea he brings up through an interview with Abu Jamal is how the prison system actually manages to monetize and extract value from the lives of poor, unemployed people through the system of privatized prisons and per prisoner funding from the government. A form of modern slavery. Convenient, especially now that you can end up in jail simply for disagreeing and acting on it in non-violent ways, as it also serves to remove and control potential leaders of critical movements.
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