CLASSIC READS: Mayombe by Pepetela translated into German by Maitta Tkalec

 

My new installment of my newest bookish project CLASSIC READS took me to a country rarely portrayed in the daily literary realm: Angola. As in the case of the previous CLASSIC READS, Macunaima, it was originally written in Portuguese - standard Portugal version - but I had access to it in a German translation. 

The author of Mayombe, my book of choice signed with his nom de guerre, Pepetela. Born Artur Carlos Mauricio Pestana dos Santos, he is considered one of the greatest Angolan writers, wearer of many public hats, among which guerillero on behalf of the MPLA, Angolan guerillas fighting for the Portuguese independence. Due to his political engagement, he delayed the publication of many of the works written between 1970-1971, including Mayombe.

And when he finally decided to publish it, ´brethren countries´ from the communist block, like former GDR/DDR, published it. The translation I had access to was authored by Maitta Tkalec. 

Mayombe is a forest region - some may talk even about a ´magic forest´ - in the Western part of Africa, covering among others parts of Congo region and Angola. There, a group of guerilleros took refuge and the book follows their interactions, through their dialogues to which were added background voices of some of the participants, offering context and personal insights.

I am enthralled by socio-political stories, but I despise ideology mixing with literature, and didn´t know what to expect from this book. I wanted to add a non-Western/European thread to my project and this book was recommended by more than one sources as a ´classic´ - although the author is still alive. 

But this novel confirmed in the end that a great writer with a biased political take still can write quality books if he is following his literary mission. The characters of Mayombe are not heroes, are humans with doubts, feelings and personal inimities that may took over Marxism-Leninism, not the other way round. 

I wanted to see how life under such circumstances enfolds, what disunite - rather than unite - humans under various political pressure. Women do play a disturbing role, as they distract the guerilleros from their mission, they lead to inimities but this does not exclude them from the revolutionary network as they belong to life. And so are the tribe-based distinctions and the contradictions between the appeal of the theories about revolution and the colonial realities - they may fight against the Portuguese domination, but the language their are all using to communicate is Portuguese after all.

There is no capital ´R´ revolution, as there are no heroic myths.

Rachel´s Random Resources: New Chapters on the French Riviera by Jennifer Bohnet

 

Women writers are not only in books nice to deal with. But imagine them spending some nice writing time at a retreat on the French Riviera. In the house of a famous experienced chef, nevertheless. But he is grieving the death of his beloved wife, feeling guilty for the circumstances of her death. Allowing the writers into his life may bring a new chance though, opening new chapters unforeseen before.

New Chapters on the French Riviera by Jennifer Bohnet, an author I´ve featured before, is a sweet and heartwarming tale, with memorable characters and a compassionate story. I liked how it dives into grief offering a realistic yet relatable take on second chances and the power of renewal.

The descriptions of the French Riviera feel authentic and do create that special ambiance allowing the new love to burgeon. It is definitely a good inspiration for your summer plans as well, no matter which relationship status are you in.

It is a good summer recommended read for lovers of good romance infused by hope and celebration of love, no matter when it how often may come into our lives. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Comme in un Film by Anna Nicoletto

My Italian learning spree is going just fine, but I am struggling sometimes to finding good books to read, as opposed to books I read for the sake of vocabulary or grammar exercises. My best read of the last four weeks was a funny romcom with a well built plot: Come in un Film - Like in a movie, in my own translation - by the self-publishing phenomenon Anna Nicoletto. 

Told alternatively from the perspective of the two main protagonists - Cloe and Sebastiano, former schoolmates, enemies that are about to become lovers - it is built around a movie theatre. Aurora, a movie theatre in a small Italian town belonged to Cloe´s family for generations, but as her beloved aunt wants to retire, there is no interest on Cloe´s side to get involved in the business. As she meets Sebastiano, now a successful businessman, owning more than half of the town and interested to purchase Aurora as well, old inimities seem to melt. 

The story is sugary, but it keeps you interested as there are always new elements diverting the story, although the ending may be predictable. From the point of view of the language, I´ve learned a lot, especially everyday language and conversations. 

It was an enjoyable as well as useful read, and I am just getting started with my Italian reads. More - and more serious - to come in the next days.

CLASSIC READS: Macunaíma by Mário de Andrade translated into German by Curt Meyer-Clason

 

There are classic books and authors brought into oblivion after decades of literary amnesia, and suddenly everyone is talking about them. My CLASSIC READ project launched at the end of the last year was never meant to be focused on European authors, but as I was rather trying to focus on some titles from the French and English-speaking realm, everyone started talking about Macunaíma by Mário de Andrade and couldn´t resist adding it to my urgent list.

The reason of the fame is the new translation into English from Brazilian Portuguese by Katrina Dodson published this month three years ago by New Directions Publishing. Personally, I had access to a German edition, translated by the late Curt Meyer-Clason. 

Few words about my reading in translation...I could have read it in Portuguese but from reasons of intellectual laziness I rather looked for a mediated version. De Andrade´s original published in 1928 has a special musicality and inner rhythm - besides being a writer and photographer, he was also a musicologist - which personally I haven´t found it at all in the German version. Rather the opposite, and this affected my perception and intimate connection with the book or thereof lack of.

What I also desperately missed was an extensive glossary - there is one, but relatively limited, mostly covering words used in original - that could have help to understand the meta references as well as the general cultural context.

Macunaíma is a multi-layered experimental modernist novel of Brasil, where elements of epic meet farse and cultural irony - especially against the French and Portugal literary and linguistic dominance at the time. The eponymous hero - ´a hero with no character´/o herói sem nenhum caráter, in the original version nevertheless a lazy hero - is born in the jungle and killed his mother desguised as a deer by an evil spirit. Together with his brothers he is crossing Brazil searching, among others, for a lost amulet, changing from an Amazonian black man into a white man and meeting many mythological creatures.

The text - anti-novel rather, an epic national journey - is short with absurd, dadaist even, takes that require accepting the text in itself, relying to the meaning provided by the author maybe, but sometimes hardly to trace objectively. A symbol may be re-contextualized or maintained within the original interpretations, thus the importance of following a complex critical overview to be sure the text is properly understood. I may confess that I will need to return to the text in the English version sooner or later or maybe also confront with the original. 

There is also a film inspired by the book, that I haven´t watched yet, that hopefully will be watching for a special post dedicated to movies based on some of the reads included in this project, such as Death in Venice. 

The True Happiness Company by Veena Dinavahi

There are a lot of circumstances leading people to embrace cults and their leaders. Lack of intelligence is definitely not the real reason individuals are getting so wronged that they are keen to give up money, independence and even their body for the promise of a mental and spiritual healing.

After several failed suicide attempts as a teenager, Veena Dinavahi was brought by her highly professional Indian parents to a failed eye surgeon that for a bit less than a decade will guide and direct her life. As in a staged apparition, the guy, belonging to the Mormon church, will help her to find The True Happiness, intrusively controlling her personal decisions - among others, encouraging her to abandon school, get married and turn into a tradwife. Her disillusionment with the movement took a dramatic turn after being sexually molested by the same cult leader.

Her memoir includes notes from her diary and dedicates a considerable amout of space to the personal interactions between her and the ´leader´ who requested to be called ´Daddy´, fully displaying his art of manipulation and extent of his fraud. Her husband is his biggest fan and blindly follows his orders - also addressing him as ´Daddy´. 

There is nothing to be ashamed of when being the victim of a cult. Similarly with scams, we are faced with sophisticated methods designed to raise any suspicions while taking advantage of vulnerable individuals. Her book, as many other testimonies by people who left cults, do help to recognize the fraud and get the right support and understanding elsewhere.

From the point of view of the style, I´ve found some parts of the book a bit too detailed, but it has to do with my love for concision. On the other hand, someone looking for a bigger picture, may find those information vital for the overall understanding of the case.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Rachel´s Random Resources: Operation Berlin by Michael Ridpath

Deeply anchored in the 1930s, post WWI-Berlin, the well documented and atmospheric Operation Berlin by bestselling author Michael Ridpath has complex characters and a smart crime plot. As I am both interested in books set in my home city and in historical fiction during the 20th century, this book suited perfectly my rainy April weekend. 

Historian Archie Laverick is searching in Berlin for information about a famed Prussian general, crossing pathways with Esme Carmichael, an ambitious young lady who wants to be a foreign correspondent. As usual, Berlin is the best place in the world for meetings of opposites. Archie´s quest for historical truth and Esme´s ambitions will be both needed when they team together to finding the real murderer of a crime attributed to a young Jewish lady.

The pace is relatively moderate, allowing a generous space for reflection about the complex Berlin ambiance in the 1930s. We may know what followed but as for now, the signals are still there to be seen and noticed without any further historical premonition skills.

The book is the first stand alone from The Foreign Correspondent Series and I am very much interesting to follow up with the next installments. 

The black-and-white cover is convening very well the ambiance of the book, therefore it needs a special mention of itself.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Them Girls by Eva Verde

Now in their 40s, Goldie and Vee are two sisters at the peek of their personal and professional success. The years of hard work seems to show its results, until, as usual in life and books, something happens that may upside down the comfort of happiness. With two marriages at the brink of disaster, watching their beautiful dream turn into pieces, Goldie and Vee decide to take a well deserved reserved break, an opportunity for bonding. However, plans are again made to fail, as their time together will bring back unresolved past episodes challenging the even perception of their identity.

Them Girls by Eva Verde is a deeply emotional and realistic portrayal of sisterhood. The two main characters are very relatable and strong including through their own ways of facing and confronting their own past. Their story also reveals deep cleavages of class and identity clashes in ways shaping the identity of the characters.

I loved Verde´s prose and I am definitely interested in reading more of her books as well. But as for now, this powerful story of sisterhood stays with me for my own reflection on how usual family topics can reflect so differently based on the angle it is looked at. Literature always can teach us a lot about life.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own