Circe - Madeline Miller

 An excellent story based on Greek mythology.  Most of the characters come from Greek mythology or Homer.  She brings real human insight to both the ancient stories and the characters she works with.  It is a novel about vanity, about finding one's own identity, about mortality and death.  It also has things to say about some modern issues - our worship of fame, power and celebrity culture; the self-centred, self-indulgent life, our desire for everything to come easily.  

This is the first book where I actually feel Greek mythology has come alive.  She uses the characters from mythology but she bends them around the meaningful story and themes she wants to write about.  

Pig Earth - John Berger

    A novel loosely strung together around a group of characters, the last generation of small farm peasants in the mountains of France.  The book's introduction is an essay on what it means to be a peasant, the world view of that way of life.  He does a good job of highlighting how their world and the modern industrial world are so alien to each other.  I find he has done a good job of getting into their shoes.  Especially interesting is the perspective on the place and role of tradition in this peasant society.  The role of continuity of place and also of habitation and family history.

Reread the rest of the series.

Stars of the New Curfew - Ben Okri

A collection of short stories by the writer of "The Famished Road".

Critics talk about how his work is in the tradition of magic realism.  I can see this, in that he brings in a whole world of spirits and demons, visions and magic.  But to me his work seems more a portrait of place where the borders between superstition and a more objective reality are highly blurred, where demons and potions and magic actually form an important part of the fabric of life.  There is also a recurring theme of crowd hysteria leading to injury and death with no regard for the reality of accusations and supposed crimes.  (In current newspapers you can read about this kind of mass hysteria leading to murder and rioting in places like India and Pakistan.)
He paints a picture of Lagos and Nigeria as a place of absolute chaos and corruption, a chaos created deliberately by the political class to enable the corruption.  His portrait of the rest of the society is one of ignorance, anger, frustration, desperation.
An ugly world.

I should reread "Famished Road".

Le tranquille affligé - Gilles Jobidon

    Un écrivain québécois mais aux thèmes très larges.   Un petit livre, très lisible.  Il se déroule en Chine au cours du 19e siècle peu avant la deuxième guerre d'opium en 1850 et la chute de la dynastie Qing.  Il suit qui pourtant ne fait que partie de l'histoire.  L'auteur a aussi fait ses recherches sur la cour impériale et présente de façon vraisemblable des réflections sur la façon de voir et de comprendre le monde courante en Chine à l'époque.
     Un autre côté intéressant du livre est les aperçus qu'offre l'auteur des rapports entre la Chine et l'Occident, c'est à dire l'Angleterre dans le contexte du livre.  Il offre un aperçu des effets de ce commerce forcé d'opium sur la société chinoise.  Il raconte aussi la sac et la destruction du Palais d'été et du jardin impérial par les troupes britanniques.  Il fait mention aussi de la rapacité des forces coloniales en Chine après la chute des Qing.
     Ces aperçus offrent peut-être une explication de la méfiance contemporaine de la Chine envers l'Occident, et aussi de son désir de se rétablir comme un pouvoir important et capable.  Les perdants ont la mémoire longue, chose qu'oublient toujours les gagnants....

    Un sujet à explorer en plus de profondeur.

Requiem - Antonio Tabucchi

Romanzo di fantasia.  Raconta un giorno e una notte di qualcuno chi viene a Lisboa per incontrare un amico.  Fa diversi incontri con la gente - tassista, zingara, due amici morti, il suo padre giovanotto, la sua moglie morta.  La storia si svolge in ristoranti, in un bordello, in un cimitero, nelle strade.  Ha una qualità onirica molto riuscita.  Fa pensare a Borges, anche al Inferno nel fatto che il protagonista incontra e interroga i suoi morti.
Come Sostiene Pereira, a raccomandare...

Alain Tanner ne ha fatto un film ma sembra introvabile...

Is There Anybody to Love You? Kalin Terziyski

Collection of short stories by a Bulgarian author, mostly set in Sophia.  The stories are all a little odd - funny situations, unexpected endings, quirky twists.  It would be interesting to read more by him but there is not much translated.

The African Shore - Rodrigo Rey Rosa

Guatemalan writer influenced by Paul Bowles.
A strange story set in Morocco. A strange narrative that intertwines many unusual local characters with a stranded Columbian tourist (stranded, but kind of willingly).  There is also an injured owl.  Not quite sure what it all adds up to, but it is a good read.  An undercurrent of violence, perversions, desperation and walking on the wild side.  Gives a feel for the life of the community and the streets.

Il Viaggio a Roma - Alberto Moravia

Storia di quattro persone che cercano in modo strano di farsi una famiglia.  Un ragazzo alla ricerca delle tracce di sua madre, il suo padre alla ricerca del suo figlio di cui è separato da molto anni, e di farsi una nuova famiglia felice.  C'è anche un'altra famiglia che incontra il ragazzo durante il suo viaggio a Roma:  una madre alla ricerca di marito, e sua figlia alla ricerca e di un marito per sua madre, e anche di un padre/amante.  Situazione complicata, pieno di sottintesi sessuali tra i vari personaggi.  Il mondo che mostra Moravia fa schifoso.  Pare che è il suo tema abituale; ha un senso cinico dell'uomo.  Preferivo la collezione di storie, Racconti Romani, che ho letto prima - i personaggi sono schifosi ma le storie sono più interessanti.

Madonna in a Fur Coat - Sabahattin Ali

Turkish writer born in southern Bulgaria, not too far from Smolyan during the last years of the Ottoman Empire.  This book was published shortly before his death/murder in '48.  Interesting in the same way that Tanpınar is interesting.  It is interesting to the see the early writers of the new Turkish literature confronting and working with the genres and styles of Western literature.  This novel reminds me of some of the romantic work published in France and Germany in the late 18th and early 19th century - tortured souls who feel alone and alienated, doomed romantic love.  In this particular novel, with what is almost a reversal of traditional male and female roles, also represents some kind of a social revolution or challenge to traditional Turkish society of the time.  Ali had some seminal experiences in Berlin apparently, some time before the war, that shaped his politics and social views.  Seems he was a socialist and must have had very liberated social views around men's  and women's roles in society.
Not a particularly enjoyable read for me, as I don't really like that "tortured soul" Western tradition or genre, but a very interesting read when place in its historical and social context.

Also found an article about him in the Guardian - seems this book is one of the most popular in Turkey right now.  Interesting discussion of why.

The Time of Mute Swans - Ece Temelkuran

A novel set in Ankara during the late 70's, early 80's, when there was almost open warfare between left and right.  Told from the perspective of a young boy whose family lives in a gecekondu, and a girl living in a middle-class left-leaning family.   It looks at several things:  1) the general tenor and feeling of the time  2) the awkward relationship between the poor working class and the leftist intellectuals  3) generational differences in perspective on life, politics (and other things)  4)  some of the violence perpetrated by rightist groups   5) The lack of understanding between various groups within the society, and the resulting backstabbing 6) corruption amongst both the military and the political class
Overall, the adults in the book do not show well, being obsessed with their own agendas and concerns, as seen by the little people looking on.

In spite of these themes, it presents a very touching and human perspective on the various main characters in the book.

As an aside, Temelkuran is a persona non grata currently in Erdoğan's Turkey. 

Il mare colore del vino - Leonardo Sciascia

Scrittore italiano della Sicilia.  Questo libro è una collezione di storie brevi che raccontano diversi aspetti della vita nella Sicilia - società, mafia, incontri sociali, rapporti tra donne e uomini, religione e superstizioni.
Bello scrittore.  Voglio leggerne più.

Tales of Belkin - Alexander Pushkin

A collection of short novellas - early writing.  Wonderfully crafted.  Even though the world he portrays (rural Russian estates, military officers) is very foreign, the stories hold your attention.  An interesting look into the values and social conventions of another time and another place.

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

An alternate view of life and the inhabitants of Edinburgh.  The language is quite amusing, as it is written in the local vernacular - quite colourful.  You can see the influence of Scottish on Ontario language, particularly the curse words.
A funny book - not much actually happens in the sense of going anywhere with the story.  It is more a rambling portrayal of the lives of a bunch of junkies and the crazy (and disgusting) situations they put themselves in.
More a political statement and an anti-Scottish romanticism statement.

La Première enquête de Maigret - George Simenon

Premier livre de Simenon et de Maigret.  Belle évocation des divers milieux de Paris du début du 20e siècle.  Un auteur qui élabore non seulement un mystère, mais qui aussi met en vue le monde social et le système de classes en opération à cette époque.
À en lire plus.

Deep River Night - Patrick Lane

Another author from B.C. writing about life in the backwoods years ago.  Very dense, heavy storyline.  He is basically contrasting two different ways of being in the world - good people whose present is shaped by, twisted by, traumatic experiences from the past (in this case, mostly war, though there is also a young native girl who has experienced the religious residential school system, and basically kidnapping by nuns.  Then there is the family, homesteaders, who live wholly in the present - and who are seen as a bit simple by many of the townspeople.
A dense read - some of the description, some of the dialogue, some of the events.  But very good.

Black Dogs - Ian McEwan

A reread of the first book I read that turned me on to McEwan.  Still a great read.

McEwan does a brilliant job of taking an idea or conflict of ideas and giving it flesh in terms of real characters with real lives.  This book is actually a political allegory, though I see it more clearly this time than I did years ago.  The essential conflict of ideas at the heart of the book is between rationality or reason, and spiritual or religious ways of being in the world.  Interestingly enough, at the end of the book, when June confronts the black dogs of the title, it is this spiritual/religious way of being that chases them away.  At the time of the attack, rationalism is busy studying caterpillars... The author makes it very clear at the end, that the black dogs (left behind by nazis after the war) are a symbol of fascism and all it entails.  Bernard's career, first as a member of the Communist party, and then as a Liberal MP, gets short shrift in terms of significance or value. 
An author you can reread for sure.

The Lonely City - Olivia Laing

A book that explores loneliness as an experience in NYC, one of the most densely populated places in the world.  She explores her theme through personal recollections, but also (more interesting) through an examination of the life and works of several NYC artists, from both the 60s and the 90s - Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, Henry Joseph Darger, Klaus Nomi.  Laing spends most of her time on Warhol and Wojnarowicz, who represent two distinct periods in the NYC art scene. 
An interesting read, though perhaps not for the reasons intended.
Some threads:
1)  All of these artists had difficult, traumatic early lives.  There work seems to be an attempt both to express their experience and overcome, or at least cope with, the effects these traumatic experiences had on their lives.  20th century art as coming out of deep trauma, social alienation.  Why now?  Is it because in the 20th C society (at least in the U.S.) has become so narrow, so limited in what it demands to belong?  Is it because, tradition having been devalued, we are left only with our own lives to work with, and the most traumatized is simply the most interesting?

2)  Warhol as an early discoverer of how technology serves both to engage you and yet at the same time create a distancing, a separateness, as part of the medium itself.  Think of how much technology now buffers our engagement with what passes for real.  It both connects and alienates at the same time.

3)  Through Wojnarowicz, Laing explores the sexual scene in NYC in the 90s, pre-AIDS, the fetish scene but mostly the gay scene.  She spends some time discussing the whole derelict docklands cruising scene.  Interesting that so many of the artists that came out of NYC at that time were gay, or explored the whole fetish idea in their art and concerts staging.  The 60s counterculture brought a kind of revolution to american society - blew up the suburban, nuclear family, work oriented, church on Sunday, Father Knows Best mythology (where did this myth come from?).  The 90s NYC gay art scene also seems to have had some kind of revolutionary effect on american society, but I am not sure how I would characterize that.  Pushing of boundaries?  Perhaps, the marginalized and "different" demanding to be seen, heard and accepted in society?  Through this, a further broadening of the idea of social norms?  If this is so, this revolution has definitely not completed its cycle yet.  In fact, we are in a major push-back stage right now, especially in the US.   Interesting ideas to explore more...

Incidents in the Life of Marcus Paul - David Adams Richards

The novel centres around a native reserve near the mouth of the Miramichi.  There is an unexplained death and conflict around a piece of property beside the reserve.   Markus Paul, a native from the reserve who later becomes an RCMP officer, solves the death/murder many years later, but not until an innocent man is killed and several other people's lives are ruined.
Richards explores many hard questions and issues around this storyline.  Some of the more obvious are native issues around poverty, disenfranchisement, reserve governance, relations between police and natives.  Through the story he is also harshly critical of both sides of the media and how they play to prejudice and public expectations.  As the conflict unfolds, he also exposes the uglier side of reserve politics with lying, corruption and theft hiding beside a facade of aggrieved indignity.  Politician, both at the provincial level and on the reserve, are portrayed as self-serving actors with little regard for anything except personal advantage.
In a nutshell, Richard explores how everyone's actions - politicians, journalists, individuals, business people, community leaders - is motivated by naive ideology, prejudice, personal advantage and a desire for power and action.  They all use this death of an upstanding, innocent native boy to further their own agenda. 
Richards is especially harsh on socially left media - it is the journalist's preconceived ideas of race relations and reserve politics that leads to the ugliest events of the story.  An examination of how you can be trapped in your own ideological narrative to the point where you are unable to see what is happening, and if you do, you are unable to write it, to express it.  Liberal "bleeding heart" ideology opens the journalist to being manipulated by the worst elements on the reserve.

The only sympathetic character in the book is the old chief, who is sidelined by all the other scrabblers.  He is the only fully human character in the book.  He sees, not symbols and ideas, but the real people and their real actions and tries to find a way through all these complex threads.

Worth a reread.

L'altro capo del filo - Andrea Camilleri

Ancora un romanzo nel dialetto siciliano con Ispettore Montalbano.  Un'altro occasione per godersi della cultura e del cibo della Sicilia.  Storie sempre con fine imprevisto, e investigatore che non mena affatto la sua investigazione alla sua fine finale....

Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien

Brilliant, delicately written book set chronicling a group of intertwined Chinese families during and following the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.   The book takes place both in locations in China and in Vancouver. 
In part, the book offers a look at the Cultural Revolution from a human, personal point of view.  I had no idea it was a violent and destructive as it is portrayed in the book.  Thien offers a clear look at the culturally destructive power of this revolution on the arts, educational institutions and cultural traditions of China.  (Mao was unusual in that he managed to enact two horrendously destructive movements in his country - the famine that accompanied the Great Leap Forward, and then this Cultural Revolution.)  You also get a sense of how these type of movements or catastrophes are actually the shadows of struggles for power and dominance in the political elites of dictatorial or oligarchic societies.  Their seeming logic or justification is all afterthought or window dressing for power politics.
Another theme that runs through the book is the power, role and nature of art as a form of resistance and as a support for maintaining personal identity and meaning in mass societies.
Worth checking out more...