German Book Review: Drei Kameradinnen (Sisters in Arms) by Shida Bazyar

 

I am happy to report that German literature is recording in the last five years or so an outstanding catch-up with the reality. Young women authors like Sharon Dodua Otoo, Hengameh Yagoobifarah or Mithu Sanyal to mention only few of them do write about real people, with real German society problems. Like far right, racism, unwelcoming attitude towards different skin colours or accents although born in Germany and owning a much praised German passport etc. I am delighted to be a reader contemporary with those authors, challenging the edulcorated literary version focused on men on midlife crisis or rebelious teenagers from priviledged families.

Shida Bazyar´s Drei Kameradinnen - Sisters in Arms - is my latest discovery. The second by Bazyar, longlisted for the Deutscher Buchpreis in 2021 it gives reality of people one may encounter every day in Germany. On one side, the reality of Nazi supporters and operatives. On the other, people with a migrant history co-existing with all of them, but not necessarily keen to maintain either this victim- or an observer status. 

I loved the writing and the consistency of the characters, built not necessarily to be forced to complete each other - which does not happen and I am intellectually delighted it doesn´t. They are three friends, living in an unnamwd big German city, whose families come from outside German, from places no mentioned. They are somewhere in the middle: not migrants not refugees, but not part of the social history either. 

The three main characters are three girlfriends with their own - realistically depicted - experiences of growing up in a society that is more or less elegantly not keen to ´integrate´ them. 

The story unfolds during the NSU trials and Bazyar is, as far as I know, the first who introduces this detail into a book. Not that the NSU activities were not known in the last post-war decades. Simply - no offense - midlife crisis men were more relevant for the everyday public agenda maybe. One of the girls in the book is even trying to inflitrate one Nazi cell, through a fake social media account. 

Although I got very excited by the topic, as well as by the writing, I am still lucid enough to realize that I was not fully happy with some details: the story is lost sometimes in favor of a narrative about a topic of actuality or another, the other characters in the book are relatively low profile and almost non-important. 

But again, the fact that this book, and many others not only were written, but were included as part of  prestigious literary competitions and got noteworthy accolades in the local media, are an obvious sign that mentalities started to switchl. Better now than ever.

UPDATE: The book was - finally - translated into English by Ruth Martin as Sisters in Arms (excellent choice!) and would be published by Scribe UK mid-October 2023.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Random Things Tours: Reputation by Sarah Vaughan

 ´I´ll be watching you´.

Emma, the main character from Reputation by Sarah Vaughan is a successful London-based Labour MP, who built her professional and political career carefully. As the story goes in such cases, her personal life was dramatically affected by her success. She not only had to divorce and had a complicated relationship with her teenage daughter but lately she is also the target of online bullying and abuse. Who else but a woman could experience this? You hardly heard and read about men of success being over exposed in the media for their private life...with women, sooner or later it ends up in gender-oriented abuse.

Through the carefully built story, Vaughan is using the realities of the everyday life of women on the forefront of the public life to invite the reader into what it really means to be overexposed. The vulnerability that a woman has inherited from generations of women automatically assigned the title of second-class citizens is increased by the voyeurism of social media and the unleashed freedom of the online environment. 

The story is realistic in all its smallest and biggst details. The literary talent of Sarah Vaughan added the ingredients to make it into a successful story - soon on works for TV: suspense, game of circumstances, a couple of interesting twists and last minute changes. The short stories, reduced to the essential wording do contribute to create both the tensed environment and the clarity in expressing so many complex feelings and circumstances.

Reputation is a book about our everyday - the book is set between 2021-2022, thus of stringent actuality. Through a well-written literary form, it is a wake up call requesting acknowledgment of the more or less brutal counter-reaction of society to a woman´s success. At a certain extent, it is a testimony of the weaknesses of reputation - any reputation - when facing the naked scrutinity of the online brutality.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Book Review: Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

 

I bet I am not the only one who never read a book inspired by Puerto Rico´s social and political recent history. The brilliantly written debut novel by Xochitl Gonzalez - herself from a family with its own story of militantism - Olga Dies Dreaming is my first introduction to a topic which remains of actuality.

Olga and her brother, Prieto, are case story of successful American dream: an unnamed Ivy League graduate, she is a successful wedding planner, the ´Puerto Rican Martha Stewart´. Her brother is a local politician. But there are cracks into the picture perfect dream: Olga struggles with relationships and somehow got involved in a money laundering scheme of the Russian mafia. Prieto is divorced, gay in the closet and about to come out and recently HIV positive, blackmail by greedy real estate developers (hopefully not all real estate developers are sharks and there is a character in the book who may prove otherwise). Their mother, Blanca, left them when they were children to fight for the independence of Puerto Rico and keeps sending them self-righteous letters written in a revolutionary vein. Their father was a Vietnam war veteran who died of AIDS. 

An outstanding feature of the book is the relatively balanced representation of the characters. They are multi-dimensional, complex, changing their mind during the story, making choices. They think and reflect. 

The book may be considered as a literary application of the intersectionalist theory. Although in non-fiction such an approach may be very useful in understanding better the multiplicity of layers of a topic, in literature it raises significant challenges. The nastiest risk is to end up turning a narrative into an ideologically centered piece of work, to turn the story automatically biased and therefore, beyond the good and evil of creativity.

For instance, at the very beginning of the story, Olga has an inner monologue about beautiful wedding napkins as a status and class and money symbol. The idea is not bad, but it sounds very propagandistic and although capitalism is not (always) great, there are ways to show it without such an intermezzo. Also, the mother´s letters although they make sense as discourses, they are like copy pasted from some boring manifesto and sounds like a robot. 

Such story switches from fiction to nonfictional messages do damage the story in my opinion and belittle the literary potential. Featuring gently ideological struggles in literature is not an easy task though and forcing up either a direction (literary) or another (ideologically) is easier than trying to keep a right balance between the two. The Patriots does it admirably and as for now, remains my favorite books featuring revolutionary mothers. 

Olga Dies Dreaming is an interesting literary experiment and the prose as the strory construction promise - hopefully - future better books by Xochitl Gonzalez. The characters particularly are very dense and the dynamic between them is well pondered. Particularly the relationship between Olga and her brother are very special and one of the things I loved the most about this book.

Rating: 3 stars

Disclaimer: E-book offered from the publisher, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: The Go-Between by Osman Yousefzada

 

Not all memoirs are made equal. While some may be easily compared to an extensive curriculum vitae, following a very ´evolutionary´ timeline from the early childhood to the coming of age, eventually with some unique drama in between, there are some good ones sharing stories: stories of life, discovery and exploring the world. The intention on both sides is of sharing of what the author considers as a story - his or her story - worth telling. The outstanding difference is the strenth of the storytelling.

The Go-Betwen by visual artist and designer Osman Yousefzada belongs to the second category. Telling a story about one´s life should not be a narcissistic outburst. By sharing one´s story, the author might try offering more than a personal story, but a personal view into unique circumstances. Yousefzada is inviting us to a journey of identity and - at least - dual belonging, to different worlds, languages and traditions. 

Belonging to a Pashtun-Afghan family he grew up in Birmingham in the 1980s-1990s. His migrant experience is unique in terms of the global narrative he is part thereof. He witnesses not only the changing taking place within his own community, but the social changes taking place in Britain as well, particularly the raise of anti-migrant feelings and the widening of the generational and economic gap between different categories.

My favorite part of reading this memoir though is less the informative part (although I appreciated it at its just value) but the storytelling power. Yousefzada writing is so powerful that one can clearly imagine the characters and their adventures, from the outskirts of Birmingham to Kabul river. It makes the reader comfortable within the story nest where one is invited to wander through the memory lanes together with the author, his family and neighbours too.

Indeed, not all immigrant stories are the same, but reading every single one of them makes us aware of the universal human diversity. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: The Matchmaker by Paul Vidich

 

As protests are spreading all over East Germany, Anne Simpson´s piano tuner of a husband suddenly disappears. Apparently without a trace, unless the CIA is able to figure out his mission. Stefan may not be whom he pretented to be, and Anne is just a victim of a spy scam. Her relatively modest yet resourceful position, as a translator for the Joint Operations Refugee Committee in West Berlin turned her into a target. A target skilfully matchmaked by the faithful employees of the secretive plan created in this respect by the Stasi´s  spymaster Man without a Face, the mysterious Markus Wolf. 

Paul Vidich was actually inspired by the personality of Wolf when he wrote The Matchmaker. A Spy in Berlin taking place on the foreground of in the last days of the GDR. A similar structure aimed at sending Romeos to vulnerable women operated in the West part of Germany, with victims among secretaries and translators working for high officials, some of them used blindly, some of them acknowledging their allegiance to the communist Germany.

Anne of The Matchmaker discovers, with a little professional help, that his beloved husband was already married in the East, with a son. Stefan reappears only to disappear again, while Anne is trying to figure out the tentacles of the lies, way too many lies.

Based on historical facts and ambiance details, the book recreates those trouble times shortly before the fall of the Wall. Tracing a story of relatively unimportant people, it shows at what extent simple lives were affected by the Cold War occurrences. There are a couple of details that I´ve found a bit unlikely, especially the intelligence details and Anne´s relative carelessness but for a spy story coming from the East, there are many more details that actually make sense.

What impressed me beyond the setting details and the relatively unmatched operational information is the writing, which is clean, clear, with a particular strength to describe and suggest. It has a classical charm that you only find in classical spy stories. 

While played in a very special moment of the modern German history, The Matchmaker uses the context to create realistic literary fictions which both attracts and incite. This book is also a testimony that good writing is always timeless. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Les Billes du Pachinko by Elisa Shua Dusapin

 

Stories of Korean families in Japan are not too often mentioned or made it into the big literary mainstream, meaning by it translated or written into English or French, Spanish etc. The success of Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, dued for storytelling reasons as well, had also a component of novelty as it featured an aspect not too often talken about. Unless you live in this part of Asia and do have access to main media and society narratives.

Les Billes du Pachinko, the second novel by French-Korean writer Elisa Shua Dusapin is short, but a gem of a narrative, told at a slow human pace on an evocative voice. Claire, about to celebrate her 30th anniversary, arrives in Tokyo during the summer trying to spend some time with her ailing grandparents and eventually prepare their trip back to Korea. They are refugees from Korea after 1953 when the Korean war started, but they never actually integrated into the Japanese society. It is a refuse to give up their identity, probably hoping in an illusory return. With Claire, knowledgeable of Japanese culture, they will rather speak in English than in Japanese. The grandfather has a Pachinko parlour, like many other Koreans who were no left with any other economic or social option. She is spending the time until the trip is decided tutoring a Japanese girl, Meiko, whose father disappeared, as many other sudden disappearances happening in big number in Japan.

The book does not delve into political and social problems, but either makes you curious to find out more about the case or gives you enough hints to understand the underpriviledge condition the Koreans in Japan were assigned, even nowadays, after so many years. Instead, it creates a fine net of symbols and meanings that the readers is invited to connect and discover.

But Les Billes du Pachinko is not aimed to stir revolt and anti-discrimination feelings. Instead, it chisels feelings of belonging and longing, of connecting and searching for roots in a world on the move. I loved both the empathic tone and the storytelling. It gives me hope of a world made up of good stories with complex humans and their complex feelings.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Random Things Tours: The Interview by CM Ewan

´Joel´s main purpose right now was to watch her, study her, see how she behaved´.

Hopeful, Kate is heading on a Friday evening to an interview she was sent to by her recruiter. A PR company, with a promise of professional challenges and a good salary in a fancy office. It was about time, Kate is ready for a change. However, her dream interview for her dream job ended up in a race against the clock in an improvised escape room. 

The Interview by C.M.Ewan is a gripping thriller with a steady psychological construction. It is shockingly violent but it does include as well shocking twists and revelations. In the end, it may be that there is a completely different reasoning for her being turned into a target for considerable reasons of the conspiracy. 

Several layers were brought together in order to make this story passionately thrilling for a reader of suspense books. First and foremost, it does have a highly knowledgeable psychological background and has at its forefront details of human behavior which are skilfully staged. The narrative is also built in the smallest complex details and it does twists when you expected less, particularly if you are busy trying to figure out what exactly is already taking place. This cumulative effect does blow your mind if you are trying to guess by yourself a possible way out. There is none and the author is in full control of his story and the characters. Another good point of the story which explores also in different instances the very different ways in which one can react to grief and loss. 

Although I was passionately caught in the net of the story for hours, unable to think or do anything else, I did not fully trust the timeline. It looks for me too short for so many events to take place. I love a fast paced book but in this case it did not sound and look always realistic.

In terms of characters, I may confess that both the good and the bad guys look really good. Kate, in her naive acceptance of the destiny, Joel in his psychotic dramatism, are both faces of the same human coin.

I see The Interview as a movie and although I rarely watch movies made after books, I would really love to see it on screens again, due to the out-of-control adrenaline fix. In literary worlds, that´s my perfect home.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: A Loyal Traitor by Tim Glister

 

All traitors pretend to be loyal to something or someone. Loyalty is just a matter of perspective or desillusion - or rather denial.

As a historian and political scientist that happened to get acquainted with the Cold War more than I wanted to, book set during those times may stir a bit of memories but also look like a familiar place. There are names and circumstances I´ve heard about since my early childhood, although my nostalgia has nothing to do with being happy to be brought again during those - largely unpleasant - times. I am just curious to read interpretations of familiar loci. 

A Loyal Traitor by Tim Glister was for me an interesting read from many points of view. The book is Glister´s second. Characters from Red Corona, his debut, may be present in both books, but personally did not feel any impediment in getting into the story without reading the debut novel. 

The action is set at the end of the 1960s, 13 years after the death of Stalin. The world is about to spin around and around, with Vietnam War just around the corner, and many other conflicts skillfully introduced into the story. Importantly, there are many more details added to the general context, compared to the usual spy novels based during those years. The characters - belonging the usual triad requested by the narrative: USA, Soviet Union and UK - do move a lot alongside the conflict lines of the period: in Rhodesia, during the conflict between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in the separatist movement in Canada. Finally, there is more geographical diversity on the Cold War literary map.

Another aspect of the book that I loved is the fact that the spies do behave like normal people do, all of them, including the KGB Major Rykov, which goes beyond the relative void of humanity of other spies from other, many of them, books on similar topics. Rykov has a sense of humour which does not make him a better person but just a human one. Russians not only have children too, but can be funny in the most genuine way, even if they coordinate a very secretive line of work within the KGB. I consider such an approach more genuine and realistic.

What I really found a bit anachronical was the part regarding the mind-control secret program of the West side of the Cold War - particularly UK and US. First, I´ve thought it makes a lot of sense and the story looked attractive at the first and second sight until I realized that, in fact, we are talking about a novel set at the end of the 1960s. The problems and approach though do resonate more with our video surveillance topics that those of the time. Historically, there were concerns and a program in this respect, the MK-ULTRA, but from the literary point of view, I´ve noticed more than once a familiarity that has to do more with some current era kind of comfort. 

As for the story in itself, there is a fast pace and mysterious - in the very politically-intelligent sense of it - encounters having to do with the mind control and other Cold War related experiments, and there is the super Russian spy The Wolf whose presence moves the story forward. 

A Loyal Traitor satisfies both the modern history buff and the political thriller lover and I can only be happy when there is so much to choose from in terms of likeability and literary skills.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: A Lethal Deception by Rachel Amphlett

 

The 11 in the series of the Detective Kay Hunter novels, A Lethal Deception by USA Today bestseller author Rachel Amphlett is a fast paced novel, packed with action and surprising twists. With more and more details delivered at the right moment, but while keeping the reader in permanent suspense, this book combines different topics: white collar crime, media pressure, drug wars...Sounds more than enough...but it is even more than that...

A distinctive feature of the book is not only that it is centered around the personality of a woman detective, Kay Hunter, but she is not bravely working on her own, but part of a team work together with a team of equally smart detectives. With a common investigative effort underway, the search for identifying the main details of the plot is becoming not only more complex, but equally packed with details and hints that almost invite the reader to be part of the story. I´ve appreciated both the challenge as the overall conception of the plot.

Another feature which is unique for a crime novel, is the fine and elegant humour of the characters, a precious asset both in real life and literature, as makes even the most terrible things less threatening.

Although the main character is featured in other Kent-based 10 stories, the book is standing alone and can be independently read without the need to look for previous references. However, this first book made me curious about other adventures of this brave detective. Also, I felt like there were some smart hints spread all over the book announcing even more exciting adventures in the future, possibly in the nr. 12 book.

A Lethal Deception was not a literary deception as well. Discovering a new author and new series is full of expectations that in this specific case, was definitely worth my case. There are so many creative ways to write a crime novel and the story Rachel Amphlett created was a rewarding read, I am glad I had the chance to experience.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Music for the Night edited by Martin Edwards

 

I cannot imagine crime short stories. The crime story should be first and foremost elaborated, complex, with suspense that cannot be created within just a couple of paragraphs. This was before I´ve read Music of the Night, a collection of stories by writers members of The Crime Writers´ Association edited by crime writer Martin Edwards.

The main element that connects all the stories, besides the touch of crime, is music. Either directly, or as the framework of the story. I may not disclose too much about the book in itself, as there are so many smart stories, but I was excited to discover a new exploration of the limits of writing, particularly for the case of this very special and intense genre. 

This anthology recommends for a couple of reasons. First, it reunites talented writers with an outstanding record of publishing. Although all of them belong to the English-speaking realm, not all are British, which may create a relative diversity of the points of views. Second, it has a highly diverse collection of points of view, stories and literary experiences, which may satisfy a reader not only looking for something new and unique, but also for something well written. It is not only a matter of limited attention span, but of curiosity and reading love.

If you are looking for some special Music for the Night and not afraid that you will have nightmares, this book is a perfect companion. Crime writing has so many faces and I am glad to be part of this discovery.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Alexandre Najjar: Memories of a Lebanese Childhood

 

Are you wondering what a Lebanese childhood may look like? How does it feel to grow up in Lebanon?

The memories one grew up in, the political and social shockwaves, first shaking the adult relatives, and the everyday environment, do outline the further development of the adult in the making. Writer and lawyer Alexandre Najjar short memoir is inspired by his father, the tenor: Le silence du ténor. 

Le ténor is his father, a Catholic lawyer in love with classical music and singing, an admirer of de Gaulle, the patriarch of a family caught in the ups and downs of a a country at the mercy of fate. There is no pathetic discourse, patriotic outrage or hateful revolt. Some people do not have any other choice but to adapt their life and get the best of it, despite all odds. 

I like books between good memories of children about their parents. Being the daughter or the son of your mother or father is not always easy, and we don´t have a choice, but there is not always, or rarely, the trauma of a Freudian/Oedipian conflict. Some young boys may be fond of their fathers in the same way a young girl growing up may admire her mother.

A testimony and a trace against time, the everyday life stories of Najjar surrounding his father, but sharing at the same time signs of life of the Lebanese life as it was, and not as some would imagine it was: in this case, too, the author is completely at peace with his home country. But at a certain point, there may be some fine comparison lines between the two destinies: his father´s - left without a voice following a heart attack -, his country - left in shreds by...by so many wrong reasons anyway.

Should I also mention that the reader can expect to encounter highly educated, ´Westernized´ middle class people which were as normal there as they were in Paris or Vienna? The Memories of a Lebanese Childhood are the memories of civilization against any kind of barbary. An emotional story of parental love and life.

Rating: 4 stars

More Annie Ernaux

There is something that always happens when I discover an author I largely resonate with: I plan to read all his/her books. Although after a while, especially if the writer was prolific, there are many common topics that one will reckon with, creating a kind of familiar/predictable space, you still feel at home, in the home of the mind of that writer.

My latest literary pleasure was reading Annie Ernaux. Is started with The Years, followed by other short books: L´occupation and L´événement. All in the beautiful original French language.

L´occupation - I dare to translate it by Habit - is a short-time obsession about an ex life. It happens more than once: you part ways with someone, he has his life, separate of yours, but the emotional attachment cannot be cut overnight. One may be still longing for the other, some longer than the others. We may want to see what happened to them - subconsciously to compare, to wonder how can someone can survive without us, how does she look like, what is she doing...search online, trace; all those may happen of boredom, but also because a broken heart has its own grammar of suffering. There is different way in which one may react, but this story has so much suffering in its shortness and brevity. Things happen, this is how they happen, read the story...

L´événement - The event/occurrence, in my free translation - is about a topic I haven´t read about before: an abortion. An abortion in France, in the 1960s, at a time when abortion was illegal. One may wonder how a country so reluctant to mix state and religion allowed it, but politics do have their own subrepticious ways - and a mostly Catholic elite de souche to nurture. What is unique in this book is not only the focus on the desperate search against the clock for a doctor to perform the abortion, but what really happens with the woman body during an abortion, her suffering, the sensations, the loss. The trauma a body will care, even will further receive pleasure. The loneliness of the woman who is doing it alone, on her own, unable for social reasons to share her suffering with her parents. The trauma, the suffering, not the shame. Shameful is to bring to life a human being you never wanted.

Random Things Tours: The Staycation by Cressida McLaughlin

 

Hester Monday, a successful middle-class woman working for a travel company called inspiringly ´Paradise Awaits´, is requested to take care of Jake Oakenfield, who went through an unpleasant accident and instead of returning to New York is stuck into a hotel room until feeling better. It is a luxury hotel room and he can order gourmet room service any way, but what about something else. Like, virtual travel...

To be honest, if someone would have explain the concept two years ago I would dismiss this person for ever out of my life. Travel from the comfort of your couch? The world may be end soon...But then, the pandemic came and instead of planning trips and counting new countries, I´ve started to get interested in home design and fancy furniture and complex recipes. Like us, all...But to be fully honest, there is something fascinating about virtual travel. Recently, I´ve been on an Oculus ride to Dubai and Tokyo and Petra and the experience was, at a great extent beyond my expectations as I was brought close to details and corners impossible to be reached with human strength. It will never replace a real time travel experience but it extends and diversify the experience in itself. Hester though, is delighted by such encounters because, although active in the field of travel she is not necessarily a travel addict. Not by plain, anyway. There is a trauma she is dealing with for years, therefore, the virtual side of travel is for her largely fulfilling. 

The Staycation by Cressida McLaughlin is a pleasant read, in the same way a virtual travel experience can supply the longing for wanderlust. It is a curious meeting between two middle class professional people who happens to share some common interest and to meet at the right place although not necessarily during a the good time. 

Although  Jake and Hester, predictably, are expected to feel for each other, sooner or later, there is no romance - but neither hate - between the two and one need a lot of hard work of persuasion to seriously consider that actually may happen between the two. I was not too convinced that there is a match between the two, but love and relationships are always a matter of taste - therefore beyond good and evil evaluations.

What I really appreciated in terms of interaction between the characters is their (positive) empathic, emotional connection and receptivity. It is one of the most precious details of the book and it takes definitely a lot of creative and writing skills to make it happen.

The Staycation is a recommended read for anyone looking for travel off the beaten path of imagination, a path leading in the end to romance and some real time and space travel.

The cover adds to the joyous feeling of new that defines largely this book - new love, new life, new travel adventures - both in terms of the choice of colours and visual conceptualization of the story.

Rating: 3.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Language of Food by Annabel Abbs

 

Food is love, but writing about food is poetry. How other but through poetic tropes can one relate to the magical transmutation of quantities and ingredients of all kinds into delicious recipes feeding the soul and the body? Only a poet can deeply understand this process, I am sure about it.

I don´t feel like delving too much into my relationship with food, and food writing, but from many respects I felt a deep soulsisterhood with Eliza Acton, the character of The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs. Acton is a historical character, labelled as Britain´s first domestic goddess, but she started very humbly, unable to properly cook an egg. Yeah, I know, I wanted to mention it to nurture my wishful thinking that, who knows, but I am not a poet, this I am more than sure about. In the book, she is befriending Ann, a maid, who will inspire her searches for new tastes and researches for a writing form which may appeal to women, to the Victorian women that were supposed to be her readers.

The historical moment the book is taking place is important for understanding the uniqueness of both the friendship between the two women, belonging to social classes that usually to not meet in a non-working context. I personally liked the interactions between the two and how they complete each other, although most probably in a real-time context such a friendship would have been unlikely. But this is a book of historical fiction which allows itself a certain space of creative freedom.

As in a Dickensian novel, there are many social references from the 19th century England, outlining the story, without necessarily intruding into the story itself, which is Acton´s successful endeavour of writing about food and recipes. Each chapter is named after a recipe which is the focus of the story. Thus, each recipe comes alive as part of a ritual and a human story, creating the vocabulary of food, a very special dictionary with its own tasty grammar rules.

I loved reading The Language of Food for its fine writing and the well-paced insightful story. Besides introducing Eliza Acton with whom I was not familiar with, it created a food-related story which always talks to the hearts. And to the belly, too.

A special note to the book cover which is at least as elegant as the writing.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offere as part of the blog tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Random Things Tours: Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy by Rachel Krantz

´Writing a memoir is by necessity an act of approximation´. 

So far, 2022 was for me a year of unforgettable memoirs, written by women on a journey of self-discovery. Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy, the debut by the investigative journalist Rachel Krantz is a different kind of testimony though, if compared with the books I´ve had the chance to read. 

By putting herself ´ín the naked examination´, she is exploring her various identities, sexual identities but also what does it mean for her being a woman, a Jewish woman, not looking to settle down, exploring the non-monogamous realm. Some people may be content with a monogamous setting, some not and this was always like this. What I am happy to observe during our contemporary times that we are offered the chance to openly discuss and write about it.

Rachel Krantz is carefully taking notes about her life, and the memoir is mostly built around diary entries. It is like a life account of her curiosities about exploring the limits of relationships or window shopping for relationships, particularly beyond the usual monogamous expectations. And we are taken with on this journey that has all the ups and downs of such an existential challenge. Rachel Krantz has the courage to fully expose herself, her failures, dramas and sexual curiosities, in such a throughout way. Only for that, and there is a lot to discover by reading this memoir. But there is also the self-reflexive, feedback approach that pushes you to reconsider, ponder and reanalyse some of your relationships and love stories. There is no pressure to change anything and personally I am happy the way my life and relationship feels right now, but as usual, being part of another human´s experience enriches you automatically, in terms of mental experience but also because it offers you insights into a different life choice and lifestyle, otherwise completely sealed to the outside world. 

But there is also something else that one may be curious to read about in this memoir: the Brooklyn/NYC relationships - of any kind - places of exposure, mostly under the curious public eyes. Therefore, I´ve read this book also as a testimony about the life beyond the life of and in a restless city. 

There is a new way to talk about relationships and sex in the last years, and Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy by Rachel Krantz is an example in this respect. Unashamed, curious, open. There is such a normality in this new way of exposing natural things, timelessly hidden under the carpet for prudery evolutionist reasons. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

My January Movie Selection

Although in terms of books January was a very successful month, with many book tours and new authors and books discovered and reviewed, the movies chapter was relatively slower. Much slower as I preferred to use the times in-between books and family obligations less for screen time, for real time interactions with real people. However, there were some good discoveries in this respect that I am happy to share on my blog.

Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer - The State against Fritz Bauer directed by Lars Kraume

A continuation, with a different focus, of a topic addressed in a film I´ve watched in September, The Labyrinth of Silence, Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer directed by the Canadian film director Lars Kraume features the brave judge Fritz Bauer who took upon himself the moral obligation to bring famous Nazi criminals to justice. Bauer, who committed suicide, is played by Burghart Klaußner who reproduced the dramatism of being a Jew in the post-war Germany whose appointed state representatives often were in a connivent relationship with the Nazi establishment. His betrayal and moral dilemma are grandiosly represented, hence the dramatism of his fate.

The Cyclist directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

In order to pay his sick wife hospital bills, Nasim, an Afghan refugee in Iran accepts to perform the task of running in circle without pause for seven days and nights in the ´´best circus in the Middle East´. The agony of poverty, Nasim´s and other´s refugees, is heartbreaking and so is the realism of the everyday life of those refugees. The sadness read into the eyes of the characters is stronger than any words and Mohsen Makhmalbaf - currently resident in London after fleeing Iran in 2005 - created a story that say more than any foreign policy report about what does it mean being a refugee, an Afghan refugee in Iran.

The Happiest Girl in the World directed by Radu Jude

Radu Jude is, as for now, my favorite Romanian film director and this month I had the chance to watch another film of him: The Happiest Girl in the World. A girl living in the Romanian countryside won a car at a TV competition launched by an obscure local beverage company. Accompanied by her parents - because a minor - she should spend a day shooting an advertising while happily smiling in her car. But it seems that her parents got another plan and in one movie day lasting less than two hours we are exposed to patriarchal parenting patterns. Although the movie can be placed in a certain Romanian post-communist mentality mindset, it actually suits very well any traditional parenting style, in Eastern Europe or anywhere else in the world.

Aya de Yopougon directed by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie

Aya de Yopougon is based on a comic with the same name by the same authors, published originally in French. The animated movie is based in the Ivory Coast and features the relationships failures and everyday adventures in friendship of three young girls. In addition of offering insights into the everyday life of young people living in this African country, it also has a catchy story and some dynamic animations.

Suzanne directed by Mona Achache

In less than seven minutes, Mona Achache told a story hidden by silence of decades. The story of Suzanne Achache-Wiznitzer, who appears at the end of the story, whose father saved her from being killed by the Nazis by denying any connection with her. A story brought to life one generation after, but worth saying it, no matter how late.

Sheherazad by Nacer Khemir

The stories from the 1001 Nights played a great role in my childhood reading and as I am right now about to finish - and hopefully review soon - the new translated and annotated version by Yasmine Seale, watching the movie about Sheherazade by the Tunisian film director Nacer Khemir only prepared me for the literary interpretation of the Nights. It is the word against death, of women who shaped and re-told the Nights. The film has an interesting mixture between fragments of the Night explained, intercalated with elements of literary theory and cultural and civilizational information. A visual elegiac intermezzo of one of the most beautiful stories in the world. 

Female Pleasure a documentary by Barbara Miller

Five women representing five different cultures are sharing their experiences with the normative obsession with woman sexuality and bodies. From Brooklyn to India, Japan, Italy and Germany and London, the film features women literally fighting for their right to be considered human beings entitled to love and pleasure. Particularly the representatives of India and Japan bring novel information about particular stories of individual women saying ´no´ to any infringement of their individuality.

The Cakemaker by Ofir Raul Graizer

The Cakemaker is an unusual love triangle. A caked-shared love on a journey from Berlin to Tel Aviv. Luckily, there is not one of those kitsch stories focused on the passports of the protagonists and the ´wow´ and ´don´t you see it is possible, there is a normalization despite all odds?´...It gently leaves all the extra ingredients to focus on the love story, turning into one of the best Berlin-Tel Aviv stories I´ve watched in a long time, as it explores love and loss and betrayal and heartbrokenness.

 

Random Things Tours: The Lost Chapter by Caroline Bishop

 

Not all women friendships are the some, and not all the lost friendships stay broken. Lilli and Florence went on separate pathways many decades ago. Something happened between them in a way that their friendship was for ever lost. It may be that coming-of-age kind of story that many of us went through at least once. Once you grow up, your interests and tastes in other human may change. However, in this case, there is more than that...

The Lost Chapter by Switzerland-based British writer and journalist Caroline Bishop is a question about friendship and its limits and fragility. Separated for decades, Florence is reconnected to her long lost girlfriend through a book. A book called The Way We Were, inspired by their life as it once was. The separation took place in 1957, long before the times when it is so easy to check online the whereabouts of a former acquaintance. In a way, it is better this way, mourning the friendship, never actually to go back in time. What happens between Florence and Lilli though is a story staying alive in the timeless life of a book. By putting it down on paper, Lilli saved their story from oblivion.  

There is a lot of tenderness and human kindness in this book. The memories, no matter how painful they were once, soothened the wounds. Then, it was a heartbreaking ´goodbye´, but it was the only one. Meanwhile, the heart learned to stay stronger, much stronger. 

From the very beginning of the book, we know that there is a mystery to be revealed, but that kind of human mystery that needs to be discovered slowly, as it has to do with feelings and emotions and humans are such fragile creatures. I love the fine empathic approach the authors had on her characters. It is such a beautifully human way of treating each other, even if only as the complex creatures of our imagination.

Personally, I didn´t feel always the precise historical context of the timeline, moving back and forth from the end of the 1950s to current times, but the characters themselves are out of time and one can relate with no matter the age and the historical period of time one lives in.

The Lost Chapter is a kind of book that makes you longing for the lost friendships. Not all of them can be brought back to life in the pages of a beautiful book.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Random Things Tours: Unhinged by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger transl. by Megan Turney

 

Police investigator Sofia Kovic has been executed in a spectacular killing, the investigative duo Alexander Blix and Emma Ramm are decided to trace the criminal. Before is too late. Before Blix´s daughter, Iselin, who was dangerously close to the encounter that lead to Kovic´s killing. 

Unhinged by the Norwegian crime writing duo Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger is the third in the series featuring Blix and Ramm. Translated from Norwegian by Megan Turney it was published recently by my favorite crime publishing, Orenda Books whose choices can never be wrong. Although it is the third installment of the series, Unhinged can be read as a stand-alone, although it may be hard not to get to the other previous two books. 

Unhinged is synonymous with highly disturbed, distraught, unstable. What is really enticing to this book, is its extremely dark circumstances of the story. Kovic was executed as she was investigating some net of crimes taking place in Oslo. The sword of another crime and another crime, and another victim to be killes is hanging in the air. We don´t know if something bad is about to happen again, while Blix and Ramm do talk about how to catch the criminal and analyse the various possibilities. They don´t seem to hurry, but the ambiance around there is dark; it is like they sit in the middle of a storm who is destroying everything around them. Still, they take their time and struggle to find the solution(s).

What I really loved more than the crime thread and the amplified suspense, was the structure of the sentences: short, reducing the message to essential. The brevity of the dialogues we may understand the high level of emergency surrounding the circumstances of the story. 

Blix and Ramm may be an odd human mix, but their personalities are complementary and do promise an interesting investigation. Ramm was by far my favorite, with her sharp mind and investigative skills.

Any serious crime lover will be delighterd by Unhinged. It is an intelligent dark book, written on point and perfectly translated. A Nordic Noir at its best.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

Rachel´s Random Resources: Monster Max and the Marmalade Ghost by Robin Bennett

What can you do when even your marmalade seems to be haunted? You may be joking...Actually not, and if you don´t believe me, ask Max and his friends. Max Who? Monster Max, this boy who turns into a monster when he burbs...

Created as a kind of detective story, Monster Max and the Marmalade Ghost, written by Robin Bennett and illustrated by Tom Tinn-Disburg is the kind of book that a 2nd grade and even a bit older will take it very seriously. It resonates fully with the age - of the boys, but some curious girls can get into the game as well - when mystery is all around. But not the magic kind of mystery, but the one who happens now and then and where your strength and intelligence is required to be solved. After all, little people at this age are full of responsibility anyway. 

My son is a couple of months away from this age, but after reading him some fragments - after all, I could not have been so selfish and keep this delicious, marmalade-tasting book only for myself - he sounded very serious about how and where the monster(s) can be found. I can see him in a couple of years time devouring my crime novels as well, I am very serious about it.

In addition to the story in itself, the pace and the vocabulary are perfectly matching. The characters are exactly how do you expect some naughty boy to be like. Even the monsters seem to have something from them, the kind of boys you don´t want to meet when they had a really really bad day.

The alternation between text and illustration is perfect for a limited attention span. The little reader can figure out what the Max and the boys are dealing with and the illustrations are too funny to not like them. Even if they are not so friendly monsters, anyway.

The book has a story, animated characters of all kinds and a mystery on the go. It is a perfect weekend companion, including when the boys do have a sleep over. Who knows, they can solve the mystery faster...

Rating: 4 stars

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

Rachel´s Random Resources: Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen

 

Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen surprised me from many points of view. It is like a story wrote by someone who loves storytelling to people who wants to read stories well told.

Set in the 1920 in Iceland, it is built around the encouter between Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith, who is spontaneously visited by Sigurd, recently returned from the US. Two perfect strangers? Are there actually things that may connect the two? Is anything they have in common?

Although placed one century ago, this is not a historical novel and the social and historical context of the time is largely irrelevant. What is important is the knitting thread of the story, which builds up mostly through the dialogue between the characters. This is the main way in which we are brought closer to their story. 

Gunnar, with his clumsy way to react and especially his lack of emotional reaction. For the reader, it is interesting to follow him along the story and the author rewards our patience. We are slowly introduced in the intimacy of secrets leading to an unclear ending. The story rewrites itself several times, listening to its own creative laws.

I personally liked the way the story ends, leaving us to guess beyond the story, involving our imagination as readers. The nature descriptions and their smart integration into the narrative are equally pleasant without any trace of stereotypes about Northern lights and touristic-like images usually associated with Iceland. They are alive, as alive as the characters of the story are made for us.

I am glad I was curious enough to give a chance to the Storytellers. Discovering new authors is such a refreshing brain exercise. It helps us to refuse stereotypes and being caught into the paradigm of success. A good author is someone who simply writes good stories and it is our luck when we discover them.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Book Review: Consent by Vanessa Springora translated by Natasha Lehrer

There is a fragment in Consent where Vanessa, at the time 14, is admonished by the Romanian-born French philosopher Emil Cioran being adviced to be more submissive and accompany G. (short for Gabriel Matzneff) - the man who abused her - on his way to creation. The artists need to be understood by a woman who self-sacrifice herself for the sake of the ´genius´ she accompanies. Cioran was supported for his whole adult life by a woman - whom he never married - and who gave up her artistic career. 

Cioran was Matzneff´s mentor. For years, Matzneff wrote openly about pedophilia, both in fiction and while sharing his personal experiences - often sharing photos and personal details (particularly names) of underage persons. The relationship with Vanessa started when she was 14 and he 49. Her divorced mother was moving in his intellectual circles and acknowledged the relationship. She made a pact with him to do not hurt her. Others may have mention a sexual precocity on her side and consider that the connection between the two as ´normal´. 

The episode with Cioran I mentioned before was not a name dropping, it was in fact a testimony of the ilusory cult status of intellectuals within the French culture and society. Matzneff resisted the accusations against him, which were obvious, with arguments pertaining on his prestige, his cultural capital being transferred into a superior status. Underage sex without consent seemed an artificious information which did not make sense for the culturally superior French intellectuals. Hence, the loneliness of the victims, of the many women who were abused by G. as little girls. Indeed, ´it´s forbidden to forbide´ was a concept more important than protecting a child and the blindness of left French intellectuals only adds more deception to a landscape of denial. 

Matzneff, now in his 80s, promised to write his own version of things. As it is anything else to be said.

Consent is an important book for understanding not only the concept as such, but for the insights into the French intellectual landscape. Translated into English by Natasha Lehrer, it shakes the nonmoral fundament of the St.Germain Republic of Letters. There are moral values that do apply to anyone, no matter how gifted as an artist.

Rating: 4 stars

Random Things Tours: Wish You Were Here - Holiday Memories. An Anthology curated by Alyson Sheldrake

Travel writing is and will always be my silent companion of travel. For many years, until in 2020, my journeys were made of words and photos, as I kept and shared, mostly online, a very cautious track of all my adventures around the world. I love to write about my travels, about the personal discoveries and cultural encounters, about meeting people and their stories. About creating memories. Therefore, I can´t refuse reading a book about travel, especially after being so hungry for new worlds.

Wish You Were Here. Holiday Memories is an exquisite antology of travel writing curated by Alyson Sheldrake. There are so many diverse styles and countries and travel destinations to travel in just 20 installments of English-speaking talented authors. My wanderlust was really getting a boost, and it was exactly what I subconsciously looking for in order to start planning seriously to restarting my travel (writing) career. 

´There must be more to life than this´, says the husband of one of the writers featured in the anthology - Lally Brown, Southampton to Trinidad by Banana Boat. This is the incentive any wanderslut seeker wants to hear, actually. For someone searching for life meaning outside the comfort zone, any comfort zone, the destination is not necessarily relevant. It can be the village around the corner or A Galapagos Fantasy, a ´sensory overload´ as described by Jacqueline Lambert. Or the hippie caves from Matala, as discovered by Shirley Read-Jahn. Sometimes, there is just an Evening in Paris (Lindy Viandier). What does it matter is where this journey takes you to, personally and existentially, the new life adventures brought in.

Each of the 20 stories brings on a particular taste of travel, a special flavour, but also a different writing style. They are sharing the style of mature writers, with a style of their own. Some easily travel back in time, decades ago, to revisit old holiday memories. Some do just keep the travel conversation alive, discovering the uniqueness of the everyday encounters. Although places like Paris or NYC do have their well-deserved featured role in the collection, the destinations off-the-beaten path do matter the most. They must be not necessarily your everyday comprehension of ´holiday´ but nevertheless rest and relaxation are very relative concepts anyway.

Wish You Were Here is the kind of book one wants to read near the fireplace, covered in a comfy blanket, protected from the outdoors cruel cold, in preparation for a meaningful travel adventure. As for me, I may rather be at the beach right now, surrounded by blue waters. That´s how travel memories are built and for 24 months I lost any control over my future holiday memories. The couch should be just a short station of my imaginary travels, and I am thankful that this anthology by Alyson Sheldrake reminded me where my place in this world this. On the road...

Rating: 4 stars

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