My part of Switzerland is waiting with baited breath for a spectacular thunderstorm today, the kind that will take the weight from the air and refresh the atmosphere. I am looking forward to this storm, I just hope it hits much later tonight because I’ve got tickets for an open-air performance of Cymbeline this evening and it will be awful if we have to huddle under our rain jackets for the duration.
Every year a theatre company from England comes over to a chateau on Lake Geneva and puts on a Shakespeare play in the courtyard. This is the first year I’ve been able to go and I can hardly wait. It is supposed to be wonderful. I’m doubly excited because I’ve neither read nor seen Cymbeline and I love that first experience with any of Shakespeare’s plays.
Aside from crossing my fingers and toes that the rain will keep its distance until the play ends, I’m frantically trying to finish both Philippe Claudel’s Le Rapport de Brodeck and Muriel Barbery’s L’élégance du Hérisson for my book clubs next week. The Claudel book is a tough one, much harder to read than I was expecting. Claudel’s style is always a pleasure, but this is a grim war-time story about violence and the darkness of the human soul. Quite chilling, actually.
I’m only a few chapters in to the Barbery book and don’t have much of an opinion yet. This is going to be a difficult book to read objectively because I’ve heard so many contrasting criticisms. I think the premise is interesting and Barbery certainly establishes some very strong narrative voices right away…but I can’t help finding both the concierge and the little girl a bit too clever. Maybe it’s their absence of humility that’s bugging me. I like a complicated narrator, both burdened and boastful if he/she is hiding behind bravado. Anyway, it is way too early for me to make these kinds of criticisms so I should just keep quiet until I’ve finished the book.
To my endless delight, I received a lovely stack of books again this week:
- The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason (2002, American)
- Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo by Zlata Filipovic (1991-93, Croatian)
- The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthel (1842, Swiss)
- Young Adam by Alexander Trocchi (1954, Scottish)
- The Spire by William Golding (1964, British)
- The Paper Men by William Golding (1984, British)
Here is where I admit that I knew of William Golding only because of Lord of the Flies. I had no idea this man won the Nobel Prize for Literature and that he has an impressive list of other novels. Thank you to bookmooch for giving me the chance to sample some of his other work.
Have a nice weekend!
9 responses so far ↓
nicole // June 19, 2009 at 4:05 pm |
I’m really excited you are reading L’élégance du Hérisson, because I too have heard so many conflicting opinions, to the point where I was just ignoring it, especially because of the extra effort it would require to get in French and the fact that all these opinions are based on a translation. I am predisposed to think I probably won’t like it, because of overhype.
I’ve had The Piano Tuner sitting on my shelf for a very long time now. I’ve been thinking I might pick it up…sometime.
And we just had one of those wonderful thunderstorms here last night. Woke me up it was so loud–probably one of the loudest I have ever experienced, actually, with really impressive lightning. But good luck on that holding off until after your play!
Stefanie // June 19, 2009 at 4:06 pm |
We’re hoping for a spectacular thunderstorm here too. It was supposed to come last night but never did so today continues hot and humid. It makes me feel so heavy and tired. I hope you get your rain after the play. Sounds like a great evening!
Eric // June 20, 2009 at 3:40 am |
Hey, I noticed in your sidebar that you stopped reading Herodotus’ histories. At least I remember it being there. Did you finish it? If so, what did you think? I’m reading it right now.
litlove // June 20, 2009 at 6:17 pm |
Oh I wonder whether you got your Shakespeare in before the rains fell! It would be tremendously atmospheric to watch Shakespeare in a storm, but also rather soggy and uncomfortable. Do hope it all held off. And I’m interested too to know how you feel about the Barbery. I have it to read and am also suffering from excess review syndrome!
adevotedreader // June 21, 2009 at 6:58 am |
Hope the rain stays away until you’ve seen Cymbeline, I haven’t read or seen this play so will be interested to hear if you enjoyed it.
Good to see The Black Spider in your book pile, I love that book!
びっくり // June 21, 2009 at 2:55 pm |
Ah, Shakespeare! Now that has been a long time. There isn’t a strong fascination with him here, probably because 99% of the population would not get his humor and the English level is too high.
Dorothy W. // June 22, 2009 at 12:52 am |
I hope it stayed dry for the performance! I loved the Barbery book, but it did take a while to win me over. I agree with you about the cleverness, as I felt that way at first, and then I WAS won over and that was that. I’m glad I read the book before reading too, too many reviews, because that’s a difficult way to read a book, unfortunately.
Biblibio // June 22, 2009 at 8:25 am |
I knew Golding won a Nobel Prize but I’ll admit with some shame that I haven’t tried any of his other books. “Lord of the Flies” was disturbing enough, I think. I’ll obviously get around to it one day (I think I have another Golding book set aside somewhere in the stacks) but for now I’m looking at other noble Nobel winners…
verbivore // June 22, 2009 at 3:54 pm |
Nicole – My book group is discussing L’Elégance du Herisson on Wednesday night so I’ll have plenty to say about it later this week. And if you finally read it, I’d love to know what you think. So tricky reading this way, when you’ve heard so many conflicting opinions.
Stefanie – We got plenty of rain but no real thunder. Which, for the play, was a relief. And the weather has finally cleared up, but now it’s cold!
Eric – I feel caught red-handed. I realized that it was a bit of a falsehood to say that I was still reading Herodotus so I took it off the sidebar until I get back into the book. I’ve had so many other reading projects, my poor Herodotus is on pause. But I do plan to finish him before the end of the summer!
Litlove – I will be so curious to see what you think of the Hedgehog book. I’m still of two minds about it, but haven’t finished yet…so we’ll see…
Devoted Reader – I can’t wait to read The Black Spider, especially if it is one of your favorites!
Bikkuri – It’s hard to do Shakespeare for non-English speakers. Most of the crowd on Friday night were expats, but we were sitting with a few non-Anglophones and it was interesting to discuss with them at the intermission. My Swiss fellow is almost perfectly fluent but there were still some jokes needing explanation.
Dorothy – I so wish I hadn’t waited so long to read the Hedgehog book, I can see it will be so difficult for me to read this book objectively. But I do get the benefit of a great book group discussion, so that will be very interesting.
Biblibio – I’m so curious about Golding now that I know he wrote so much other fiction. Especially because I’ve always considered Lord of the Flies a child’s novel, and nothing else on his list looks like young adult fiction…