Ham on Rye

Charles Bukowski: Ham on Rye. Ecco. ISBN:0-87685-557-5.

A semi autobiographical version of Bukowski's childhood, and a counterpart and effectively a prequel to Post Office.

En diálogo / I

Jorge Luis Borges and Osvaldo Ferrari: En diálogo / I. Siglo Veintiuno Editores. ISBN:968-23-2606-0.

Transcriptions of short dialogues, about a variety of themes — literature, languages, Argentina, politics, etc — held between Borges and Ferrari.

This is the first volume in a set of two.

Interpreter of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies. Mariner Books. ISBN-13:978-0-395-92720-5.

A collection of short stories mostly about Indian-Americans; one takes place in India. A really good book; I definitely intend to pick up other books by Lahiri in the future.

A Natural History of Latin

Tore Janson (translated and adapted into English by Merethe Damsgaard Sørensen and Nigel Vincent): A Natural History of Latin. Oxford University Press. ISBN-13:978-0-19-921405-1.


A discussion of the history of the Latin language, beginning with the early years of Rome, ending with the present.

Shortcomings

In spite of the context being different, everything about this graphic novel seems familiar to me: the characters, the places, etc. Maybe it's because I've known people like Peter: rational and negative at the same time. And I've just been to New York city, where part of the story happened.

I like very much this kind of comic, maybe more than manga, althought may be too soon to say that. Really I prefer longer graphic novels, and ones and based on real situations, with funny dialogues and beautiful drawings, like this one. If I were to make a comic without any doubt it would be one like this: funny and pensive. Although I don't like sad endings, and almost I cried this time.

Deogratias, a tale of Rwanda

We can think that a graphic novel is just a form of entertainment, works of science fiction or fantasy, but that is not always the case. Sometimes the stories are based in reality and we must remember that the reality can be better (or worse) than real life. This is the case of Deogratias, a tale of human horror. I don't remember being in such a state of anxiety and horror after reading a book, not even when reading horror stories.

It's strange to say, but I have to say that I really didn't like the story because it made me feel as though I was suffering the violence and the irrational injustices, but at the same time I have to recognize the ability of the author, Stassen, to show one of humanity's more difficult episodes in a simple way. After just a few minutes of reading, I got sucked in. While it was easy to come to a conclusion about the one of history's worst genocides, which had claimed about 800,000 lives, I don't know what to think about that poor "dog" and eponymous character Deogratias. I really don't know.

Borges on Writing

Borges on Writing edited by Norman Thomas Di Giovanni, et al. Ecco.

Transcriptions of seminars Jorge Luis Borges gave at Columbia University in the early 1970s.

Los 1001 años de la lengua española

Los 1001 años de la lengua española by Antonio Alatorre. FCE.

An interesting book about the history of the Spanish language. 1001 years is overspecific, which Alatorre acknowledges, but it's reasonable. Alatorre provides information about how the languages of the Celts, the Romans, the Visigoths, the Arabs, and others shaped what would eventually become Castillian, and how the language of the Castille region of Spain would influence and be influenced by other languages or dialects spoken in Iberia, ultimately resulting in the Spanish language as we know it today.

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong

Sixty Million Frenchman Can't Be Wrong, by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow.

All about French history, culture, and government, contrasting them to their North American equivalents.

Freakonomics

Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner.

Freakonomics is a short, extremely quick-to-read book which explains why many things are the way they are using sometimes counterintuitive reasoning.

By way of example, many people attributed the drop in crime in the US in the 1990s to factors such as improved policing and economic growth. Freakonomics posits that the drop in crime was really due to Roe v. Wade, some twenty years earlier.

Freakonomics covers many other topics besides, of course. There is room for "sequels"; for any phenomenon, there are many possible explanations. Levitt's explanations tend to be more interesting, and quite possibly more accurate, than conventional wisdom.

This book has spawned imitators. There are many blogs devoted to questioning conventional wisdom. Some are good; others are written by abject pseudointellectuals.

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, by James Shapiro. Harper Collins.

In this book, Shapiro puts forth the idea that 1599 was the year that Shakespeare went from being merely a talented dramaturgue and poet to being the greatest writer the English language has known.

Instead of defending this idea throughout, Shapiro gives an overview of the history of England in 1599, dominated by Essex' failed expedition in Ireland and the threat of attack by Spain, and how it may have affected the Bard in his quotidian life.

When he sticks to recounting history and making reasonable speculations (after all, for someone so important, relatively little is known about Shakespeare's life), Shapiro does an admirable job.

Less so, though, when gets sucked into writing literary criticism, which he does for each play of Shakespeare's first produced that year. It is in literary critic mode when Shapiro discusses Shakespeare's transformation, and that is when he impresses me least.

But maybe I just dislike literary criticism.

mis reseñas

Como usted puede ver, hace poco empecé a escribir mis reseñas de libros aquí, generalmente en inglés. Eventualmente voy a terminar un sitio que servirá como indice de los libros que leo, y otros artículos que son «peligrosos» para los lectores que no quieren saber cómo terminan los libros; el primer ejemplo: la reseña del último libro de Harry Potter.

Y creo que Alma escribirá más aquí también. Veremos.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Finalmente ingresé al mundo de Harry por la lectura del libro Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, el primero de la serie. Ya había explorado este mundo a través de las películas, pero definitivamente no es lo mismo. Esta historia es más completa y divertida en las páginas. Esa frase que dice "una imagen dice más que mil palabras", aquí es de dudarse. La verdad es que la imaginación es multimillonaria y aún cuando ya sabía la trama principal, la lectura de los detalles ma atrapó por ahí del tercer capítulo, porque el primero, si no mal recuerdo me aburrió, pero una vez superado éste, el siguente fue mejor y después ya no pude parar. Me sentí tan gratificada y con tan buen sabor de boca cuando terminé este primer libro que casi me sigo con el segundo, jejeje, pero bueno mejor poco a poco, porque mi inglés aún no es tan bueno como para entender palabritas "chiristirijillas" como las que usan estos niños. En fin, en compensación a esto ahora estoy leyendo un verdadero drama, con sangre y pelos, ya les contaré después.
Por cierto, lo peor que se puede hacer después de leer el libro es ver la película, como odié que cambiaran detalles de la historia y además, que no se explicaran bien algunas situaciones, ¡oggrr! Mi marido dice que ya soy una auténtica e insoportable harrypotteriana jejeje.

The Story of French

The Story of French, by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow. St. Martin's Press.

A history of the evolution of the French language. It's light on linguistic detail, and focuses more on the reasons — historical ones, of course — that explain why French speakers are how they collectively are.

Did you know that L'Académie française has had very few linguists as members (immortels)? Or how Anglo Canada reneged on its word various times until the Québécois decided that enough was enough?

Despite, or maybe because of, the rise of English, French remains a relevant international language today. Or so many learners from around the world have decided. And it probably isn't a bad decision; almost wherever you go, you'll find someone who speaks at least a little English. I've never tried speaking French to strangers (except when in francophone countries), but it may well be the case that its diffusion is similar in scope to English's, and as such a good choice for a second (or third, or ...) language if you don't know where your travels may lead you.

Dead Air

Dead Air, by Iain Banks. Abacus.

This book is called a thriller, and I guess it is. Hard to believe, because it starts off slowly. Not that it is ever boring — Banks has a good lead character whose monologues and rants are fun to read, but certainly he takes his time before getting to the "thriller" part of the book.

It's certainly worth the wait, though. My heart was pounding during most of the last 50 or so pages. How could the lead be so stupid, and would he manage to get out of the jam he got himself into?

Qua thriller, the book could probably be rewritten as a novella and lose little. Maybe. Maybe the long buildup makes the end more exciting; it certainly gives Banks a chance to express (what I assume are) some of his political beliefs, which are reasonable, at least.

Thanks to Paul for leaving this book behind when he visited about two years ago.

Kitchen

Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto. Grove Press.

A short, enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable book. Seriously. I finished it some weeks or months (22 September, according to my records) ago, and I've forgotten pretty much all of it — the summary serves as a reminder, but you can look that up easily enough yourself.

Borges: A Life

Borges: A Life, by Edwin Williamson. Viking.

Unsurprisingly, Borges: A Life is a biography of one of my favorite authors, Jorge Luis Borges.

Williamson starts with a background of Argentine history starting with its independence from Spain and the role of Borges’ ancestors in that struggle. Borges continues covering Argentina’s history with respect to Borges himself.

Williamson is at his best when sticking to documented facts. When he takes some liberties and presents his own speculations — unlikely ones, in my opinion — about Borges’ most personal thoughts and attitudes and how they shaped his written works and his public persona he is at his weakest. Also, he repeats himself at times: the same nouns (that is, the same persons, places, and things) are often introduced and reintroduced. Better editing might have helped.

Still, at $verycheap on remainder at the Harvard Book Store, and as a chronicle of an interesting life, it was well worth my time and money.

I have no few books by Borges, and several other favorite authors, sitting on my bookshelves waiting to be read. I like to think of them as reserves — when in doubt, I know I have something good and new (to me) to read.

N.P.

N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto. Tusquets.

N.P. is the story of a book, aptly named N.P., written by a Japanese expat in English. Its translation into Japanese is stalled because its translators, and, in fact, all of the people who get too involved in the book, find, with tragic results, their life imitating that of its author and some of the stories contained therein.

The Children of Húrin

The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. Houghton Mifflin.

As often happens with really good books, this book seemed more like a gift from its author and editor and less like something I paid my own money to get. This book was so good that I was able to finish it while on a plane, something I’m rarely able to do.

The Lord of the Rings was told from the point of view of the smallest character in a given chapter: usually one of the hobbits. Children, by contrast, is told from the perspective of great men, and in a more impersonal, more summarizing style.

The only disappointment is that this story is only a small part of a much longer history, which is summarized in The Silmarillion. I hope there are more books in this vein to come; certainly Tolkien left enough unfinished material to provide for several such books in the future.

Defensa apasionada del idioma español

Defensa apasionada del idioma español, by Álex Grijelmo. Punto de Lectura.

The book’s title translates to “[A] Passionate Defense of the Spanish Language”. It started on a high note. People write badly, use words unnecessarily borrowed from other languages, and generally disrespect their linguistic heritage. “Right on!”, I said, and kept on saying during a non-contiguous third of the book.

The rest was not so good.

Those non-contiguous two thirds of the book cover the many things Grijelmo knows little about: English (from which modern Spanish borrows many words), computers, international trade, history, and more and how they relate to modern Spanish usage.

Taking English, Grijelmo rails against Anglicisms in large part because he thinks that they fragment the language, with the ultimate effect of causing unintelligibility among speakers: a debatable conclusion.

It’s true that many Spanish speakers today use words borrowed from the English that are strictly unnecessary.

Some do it thinking it makes them sound sophisticated, which I find rather obnoxious, not least because those words are all too often misused (and mispronounced!). “Esto es para tax purposes” is as good bad an example as any.

It’s also true that a number of false cognates have been made true cognates through misuse. The word “evento”, for example, didn’t always mean something planned such as a show, but rather something unplanned. English retains this meaning: “in the event of an emergency…”

And then there are Latinos who live in the US and other English-speaking countries who have adapted English words into Spanish: “parquear el carro a la marqueta”, for example. Here, the unintelligibility argument holds no water, and in fact is rather insulting to Spanish speakers. Does he think that they’re all so stupid that after a short period of exposure they couldn’t understand a dialect where less than 1% (my estimate; I’d be interested in seeing real figures) of the words are different?

I happen to find the first two cases of Anglicisms unnecessary and, indeed, rather tasteless. I try to avoid them. Sometimes my incomplete vocabulary makes this difficult, although I do my best: “Vamos a un … ¿cómo se dice? En inglés la palabra es «show».” I don’t use the Anglicisms used by Latinos in English-speaking countries, but nor do I denigrate them — in fact, I think they enrich the language as a whole.

For the most part, I wrote off Grilejmo as a grumpy old fart. There’s nothing wrong with that, really. But his downright absurd statements about English (and other things, of course, but this book is really too insignificant for it to be worth it to criticize everything) are what really got to me. He calls it a frigid language, less expressive, blah blah.

It ends on a positive, and almost inspiring note. But by then it was too late, and the damage was done. A waste of time and paper. Too bad, considering its potential.

(Oh, occasionally he put in a little parting shot at the ends of chapters in an attempt to be funny, much like The Economist often does, except The Economist’s quips are generally humorous. Grijelmo’s are not.)