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Recent Reading
Feb. 11th, 2008 09:00 amBela Zsolt - Nine Suitcases
This is a Holocaust memoir by a Hungarian Jewish Communist. It deals with his time both in a Hungarian ghetto awaiting deportation to Auschwitz and his time as a forced labourer with the Hungarians of Army Group South. It's very good if, of course, somewhat disturbing. What's particularly good is the way it deals with how the imprisoned and persecuted internalize and, ultimately, collaborate in their own imprisonment and persecution. It also stands as witness to the fact that the Holocaust was far from being a solely German enterprise. The active and willing collaboration of the Hungarian state and large sections of the Hungarian population is quite clear to see.
Hanne Blank - Virgin: The Untouched History
I'm not exactly unbiased here and I'm writing knowing that mmany people reading this are friends and admirers of HB. Let's cut to the chase, I loved the book. If I hadn't I probably wouldn't be writing about it. The book is scholarly and deals with both the medical aspects of "virginity" (such as they are) and, of more interest to me, how virginity has been socially constructed over the centuries (n.b. HB deals only with "the West". One imagines an encyclopedia could be written on virginity in other cultures) from the ancient world through Christianity (Catholic and Protestant) to modern "virgin pornography" and "abstinence education". It really is a tour de force. The style is a bit idiosybcratic but nonetheless appealing for that. Generally scholarly in tone, the author is more than capable of suddenly interspersing a comment in demotic, even coarse, language to great effect. There were places where I laughed out loud, which doesn't often happen with scholarly works though James Davidson also has the knack.
Anthony Powell - A Dance to the Music of Time
Ok so this is my umpteenth time through and my 1980s vintage paperbacks are starting to disintegrate. I remain convinced that Dance is the greatest 20th century comic novel in English, and one of the best novels in any genre. The construction and style are deceptive. Beautifully detailed scenes (Powell above all is a great prose stylist), three or four to a volume, are linked by a rather sparse and understated narrative but the overall effect is dynamic. Each of the twelve novels is complete in itself but also clearly part of the larger story. Some would argue that the early volumes get the series off to a slow start though I find them satisfying enough. I certainly always get a sense of the first nine books leading to a triumphant climax in The Military Philosophers which I still think is the pinnacle of achievement. This time through though I was also struck by the excellence of The Kindly Ones which uses a fugue like structure to draw out, in sinister tones, the parallels and differences between the approach of the two world wars. If you haven't read Dance you should.
This is a Holocaust memoir by a Hungarian Jewish Communist. It deals with his time both in a Hungarian ghetto awaiting deportation to Auschwitz and his time as a forced labourer with the Hungarians of Army Group South. It's very good if, of course, somewhat disturbing. What's particularly good is the way it deals with how the imprisoned and persecuted internalize and, ultimately, collaborate in their own imprisonment and persecution. It also stands as witness to the fact that the Holocaust was far from being a solely German enterprise. The active and willing collaboration of the Hungarian state and large sections of the Hungarian population is quite clear to see.
Hanne Blank - Virgin: The Untouched History
I'm not exactly unbiased here and I'm writing knowing that mmany people reading this are friends and admirers of HB. Let's cut to the chase, I loved the book. If I hadn't I probably wouldn't be writing about it. The book is scholarly and deals with both the medical aspects of "virginity" (such as they are) and, of more interest to me, how virginity has been socially constructed over the centuries (n.b. HB deals only with "the West". One imagines an encyclopedia could be written on virginity in other cultures) from the ancient world through Christianity (Catholic and Protestant) to modern "virgin pornography" and "abstinence education". It really is a tour de force. The style is a bit idiosybcratic but nonetheless appealing for that. Generally scholarly in tone, the author is more than capable of suddenly interspersing a comment in demotic, even coarse, language to great effect. There were places where I laughed out loud, which doesn't often happen with scholarly works though James Davidson also has the knack.
Anthony Powell - A Dance to the Music of Time
Ok so this is my umpteenth time through and my 1980s vintage paperbacks are starting to disintegrate. I remain convinced that Dance is the greatest 20th century comic novel in English, and one of the best novels in any genre. The construction and style are deceptive. Beautifully detailed scenes (Powell above all is a great prose stylist), three or four to a volume, are linked by a rather sparse and understated narrative but the overall effect is dynamic. Each of the twelve novels is complete in itself but also clearly part of the larger story. Some would argue that the early volumes get the series off to a slow start though I find them satisfying enough. I certainly always get a sense of the first nine books leading to a triumphant climax in The Military Philosophers which I still think is the pinnacle of achievement. This time through though I was also struck by the excellence of The Kindly Ones which uses a fugue like structure to draw out, in sinister tones, the parallels and differences between the approach of the two world wars. If you haven't read Dance you should.
