How true is this opening line? When we don’t speak, we become unbearable, and when we do, we make fools of ourselves. Ms. Muller opens and closes her novel, The Land of Green Plums, with this line so she must thinks it’s important. It must be the key her novel’s theme. What meaning can we find in it? How different is the thought behind it … Continue reading The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller
This is a troublesome book. Ultimately, I enjoyed it, I was moved by it, I came to see its excellence. But it was a bumpy road getting there. I’ve been reading the Booker Long List blind for the most part. I got as many of the books as my local library allows without reading anything about them, or much about them. (There are a few … Continue reading Autumn by Ali Smith
Honestly, I think Nobel Prize Winner stickers should include the word ‘warning. Warning: Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Put it in bold face red type as well. Buyer beware. Difficult literature ahead. “Sit bolt upright in that straight back chair and get set,” as Laurie Anderson said in her song “Difficult Listening Hour.” Herta Muller, born in Romania, lived under the repressive regime … Continue reading The Appointment by Herta Muller
I came to Knut Hamsun by way of George Egerton. Two writers few modern readers have heard of outside of academia and Norway. George Egerton (Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright) wrote two volumes of wonderful short stories, Keynotes and Discords, in the late 1890’s and became one of the prominent figures in the feminist literary movement known as the “New Women.” She had a romantic attachment … Continue reading Hunger by Knut Hamsun
May Contain Spoilers 