The Briefcase - Hiromi Kawakami

 Second contemporary Japanese female writer.  Story of the development of a hesitant relationship between a woman and her former teacher, who meet by accident in a bar.  Sensei is 25 to 30 years older than her.  Like Yashimoto's book, there is a dominant theme of female character's alienation and sense of not belonging within the general society.  The story can also be interpreted as a look at people within society who do not fit the accepted molds or roles.  Given the amount of time characters spend getting drunk in the book, there is also a sense that the society as a whole is quite repressed and strained, and alcohol is used to loosen the strictures imposed by social norms. 

I also see traces of Murakami's influence in this book, with strange surrealistic sequences as part of the narrative.  In this book however, the surrealistic elements are presented as dreams of the characters. 

The Lake - Banana Yoshimoto

 Contemporary Japanese woman author.

Strange little book about an alienated young woman drifting through her life, having recently moved to Tokyo.  Also includes a male character who was traumatized by his childhood in a strange religious cult. 

Currently, Japanese women authors are getting a lot of attention/publication.  I am interested in looking at why:  what themes, commonalities?

So far, I am guessing they are writing as a group that has been marginalized in Japanese male-oriented society.  Not so much looking for their place, but expressing their feeling of alienation living within the strictures of the dominant social structure.

Samarkand - Amin Malouf

 A novel built around an imagined life of Omar Khayyam.  

This is the second time I have read this novel, and I found it much less compelling than the first time I read it.  No doubt, partly because of a waning of my interest in the history of Iran and Central Asia, and also the understanding that very few, if any, traces of this world remain.

Basically, though, it is the style of the novel that I can't relate to.  It seems very much a 19th century novel  The style is somewhat formal, the vocabulary a bit recherche.  The characters are also somewhat exaggerated caricatures of types:  the mysterious persian princess, the american man of reason, the conniving eastern potentate, the clear-eyed bon vivant, etc.  The emotional tone of the characters is also to monochromatic and high - love, regret, righteous indignation, all with capital letters.  In sum, it reads too much like a 19th century moral tale.  Also, like a 19th century romantic tale with love pursued and lost, with nostalgic regret.  

Unfortunate, because what Malouf is trying to do is important.  Through his novels, he is trying to portray a Middle East and Islamic world that the West is ignorant of.  He wants to show that there is more to the Middle East than religious fundamentalism, ignorant sectarianism and self-righteous moralizing.  As he shows, there has always been a conflict between narrow-minded religious dogmatism and more enlightened, reasoned, humanistic visions, but the currently dominant fundamentalism was not always the most powerful view.  

La vita di Dante - Alessandro Barbero

Opera piuttosto accademico con troppo di dettagli, ma nonostante interessante.  Ci sono certi aspetti interessanti:

Dante ha iniziato la sua  vita politica come sostenitore dei governi di forma repubblicana come quello di  Firenze, governi fatti di rappresentanti della classe mercantile che formarono consigli.  Ma dopo il suo esilio, sembra che tornasse verso il partito soprattutto aristocratico che preferì i sistemi autocratici con un capo di stato e il potere ereditato. 

 Veramente è straordinario quanto si può sapere sulla vita di Dante, o almeno la parte trascorso a Firenze.  Mi pare inimmaginabile quanti documenti rimangono di quell'epoca ora 700 anni fa.  Credo che sia una caratteristica di quei governi mercantili di, tutto come negli affari, di voler documentare tutto.  E di più. tutti quei documenti sembrano aver stato esaminato, codificato e referenziato dagli storici moderne.  A parte di quei documenti che notano contratti, presti, acquisti e ogni tipo di attività ufficiale, è possibile costruire il cerchio sociale e la  posizione politica di Dante, i suoi amici e nemici.

L'altra cosa che mi sorprende, e anche che mi fa ridere un po', è che, quando consideri gli eventi nella vita di Dante, tanto negativo quanto positivo, diviene evidente che da un lato, la grande opera di Dante è un'opera di vendicazione dove il poeta si vendica de quelli che gli hanno fatto danni, mettendoli nell'Inferno.  E certo, quelli che gli hanno aiutato soprattutto durante il suo esilio, s'incontrano nel Paradiso, o almeno nel Purgatorio.

Era veramente un  uomo a cavallo tra due epoche.  Iniziò la letteratura moderno con il suo uso letterario del volgare, ma nello stesso tempo, rimasse fissato su aspetti del mondo medioevo, ad esempio il concetto della vera nobiltà.  E certo, ebbe un concetto del mondo strettamente circoscritto dalla religione e dalla chiesa cattolica.

Orange - Orhan Pamuk

 A collection of night photos taken on his walks through Istanbul.  Interesting idea and some of the photos are good, but this is a book that would never have been published if it were someone less well-known.  The idea is interesting, the light and the street scenes have potential, but there is not enough variety in the material to justify such a large collection of images.  

Worth a look, but not a book to cherish.

The Archipelago: Italy Since 1945 - John Foot

 An excellent, well-written account of Italian politics and society post-war.  Covers the social conflicts between workers/Communist party and Industrialists/Christian Democrats/ex-Fascists through the 40s, 50s and 60s.  Also includes a specific discussion of how the Americans worked to influence the first post-war elections to ensure the Communist party did not win the national elections.  (Both of these preceding points seem to be mostly forgotten by most Italians I speak with, even the educated ones.)  Chronicles the continual ties between governments and the mafia.  Excellent account of the emergence of the Lega, which has been around as a separatists, racist party for decades.  The biggest surprise was the account of Berlusconi and the Berlusconi years.  Berlusconi was basically a Trump without Twitter.  Same use of media to bypass the party system and speak directly to an alienated popular base.  Same subversion of the party system to make it a one man show.  Same view of government as a tool for furthering his business interests and those of his close allies.  Same attempts to change the laws to avoid persecution for his corrupt business dealings.  

In the end, it is a pretty hopeless picture, with a cross-party group of elites at all levels of business and government, including the judicial system, that work to protect each other and maintain their positions of power.    

All the Devils are Here - Louise Penny

 A great mystery- detective novel by Penny.  Set in Paris for a change.  Incredibly twisted plot that is full of surprises.  The focus is on the misdeeds and cover ups of large corporate powers, and also on the corrupts relationships between government, media and these large corporate powers.  

A Knife to the Heart - Barbara Nadel

 Another Inspector Ikmen novel.  Like John Rebus, he is aging.  His wife has passed away.  He is retired and feeling lost.  As usual the characterizations are good and it is nice to revisit some parts of Istanbul.

A Song for Dark Times - Ian Rankin

 Latest Rankin novel.  John Rebus has now been retired for a while and is aging noticeably - he actually moves out of his apartment because of difficulties with the stairs.  He is looking like an old man.  The focus this time is on the shady world of financing big development projects and also on the shocking land ownership situation in Scotland where a few people, more and more of them rich foreigners, own vast amounts of the country - I think the statistic is around 90%, but I could be a bit high there.  A leftover from the closing in of the commons and the expulsion of tenant farmers by noble land owners and clan chieftains in the late 18th and early 19th century.

A good read, but maybe not quite as good as many of the previous.  I wonder how much life is left in Rebus as a character...

Allah n'est pas obligé - Ahmadou Kourouma

 Un livre par un auteur du Côte d'Ivoire.  Il raconte l'histoire d'un jeune enfant qui se joigne aux armées privées en tant qu'enfant soldat.  C'est un récit des événements de sa vie, mais il y a très peu de batailles.  C'est surtout une présentation des croyances, du zeitgeist, des gens qui habitent dans la région, et de ce point de vue, c'est très intéressant.  Ils vivent dans un monde ou la raison compte pour rien.  Tout est expliqué par la magie, par les croyances traditionnelles, par une sorte de folie collective.  Et ce n'est point un portrait romantique ou nostalgique de cette mentalité - cela ne mène qu'au désastre.  

J'aimerais explorer un peu plus cette littérature africaine en français.