Reading in Reykjavík

The challenge (easy level) is done, and it has been fun. The books I read were all quite different from one another. The European book was a historical novel by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle , about two men from different cultures who switch identities. It garnered 3 stars. The North-American book was a surrealist novel by Guatemalan author Miguel Ángel Asturias, the outrageous Mulata de tal (The Mulatta and Mister Fly), which I gave 3 stars. The African book was a slightly magical but mostly realistic novel, Ways of Dying by South-African author Zakes Mda, which I gave 5 stars. The South-American book was The Tunnel , a psychological thriller by Argentinian Ernesto Sabato, which I gave 5 stars. The Asian book was Red Sorghum , a historical novel by Mo Yan, which I gave 5 stars. And the Australasian book was another historical novel, Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, which I gave 4,5 stars. I am happy with my choices and would, given the opportunity, r...

Here is my first Chunkster Challenge read. Genre: Historical novel Year of publication: 1988 Setting & time: England and Australia, 1850s and 60s Page count: 520 In 1865 an English Anglican minister and an Australian heiress, both of them gambling addicts, meet aboard a passenger ship to Australia and this meeting leads to a strange and fateful wager. But before coming to that point, we get to see how they became who they are and how each became addicted to gambling and all the little things that brought them together. This is one of those long, juicy novels that a reader can immerse themselves in without feeling compelled to read it in a single sitting. There is nothing inherently thrilling in it (until towards the end when the wager is made), but the slowly unfolding story and wonderfully realistic characters Carey has created and stocked the book with provide an entertaining and juicy read. 4+ stars. Awards: The Booker Prize, 1988.

Genre: Literary novel Year of publication: 1987 (English translation: 1993) Setting & time: Rural China, mostly in the 1920s and 30s This novel takes place in Shandong Province in eastern China, mostly before and during the second Sino-Japanese war. The narrative jumps back and forth between times and characters, but at the heart of it is a dramatic family story that begins in the 1920s when a greedy father sells his daughter into marriage with a leprous wine distiller and one of the men who escorted her to the wedding falls in love with her. The story is told by a narrator, the grandson of the central couple, who recounts their histories before and after they met, and the consequences of their meeting as they echo down the years. The story is about tough, resilient and passionate peasants who are repeatedly driven to extremes by internal and external situations, during a tumultuous time in Chinese history. The descriptions of the war are often grotesquely and viscerally ...

This ended up being my South-American book in the Global Reading Challenge – I seem to have gone off Captain Pantoja for the time being. Certain parts of the review may contain SPOILERS, so consider yourself warned. Genre: Literary novel Year of publication: 1948 Setting & time: Buenos Aires, Argentina; contemporary This book is set up as the first-person confession of a criminal, or perhaps rather a description of the events that led up to the narrator’s murder of his lover. Celebrated painter Juan Pablo Castel spots a woman at an exhibition of his paintings, and it seems to him that by focusing on a minor detail in one of the paintings she has shown herself to understand him in a way that no-one else does. He becomes obsessed with finding her and getting to know her, and when he finally does, they enter into a stormy, obsessive and abusive relationship that ends in murder. The narrator, Castel, gives an account of his development from being a rather lonely misanthro...

Here is my African entry in the Global Reading Challenge , which marks the halfway point in the challenge for me. The author is South-African and the book takes place during the period of transition in the 1990s when Apartheid ended. I am not knowledgeable enough about the recent history of South Africa to be able to tell if it happens after or shortly before the racial segregation ended, but I am inclined to think it’s before. Although this is a first novel, it was not written by a novice writer – the author had already published poetry and several award-winning plays when he wrote it. Year published: 1995 Genre: Novel Setting & time: South Africa, an unnamed city and a village, 1990s with flashbacks to the 1970s and 80s. Toloki, a homeless man living on the street, has carved out a niche for himself as a professional mourner. Paid by relatives of the deceased, he goes to funerals and grieves for the dead. One day at a funeral he meets Noria, a woman from his home village, w...

Here, the narrators introduce themselves: It's not different, really, here in the city. Just like back in the village, we live our lives together as one. We know everything about everybody. We even know things that happen when we are not there; things that happen behind people's closed doors deep in the middle of the night. We are the all-seeing eye of the village gossip. When in our orature the storyteller begins the story, 'They say it once happened ...,' we are the 'they'. No individual owns any story. The community is the owner of the story, and it can tell it the way it deems fit. We would not be needing to justify the communal voice that tells this story if you had not wondered how we became so omniscient in the affairs of Toloki and Noria. Toloki and Noria are the protagonists of the story.

This is the second book I finish in the Global Reading Challenge, the North-American one. Guatemala, the author’s home land and setting of the book, is part of Latin America which makes people with a not-too firm grasp of geography sometimes assume it’s in South America. This novel is the first I read that takes place in Guatemala, although I had read about the country in travelogues before. Year originally published: 1963; English translation: 1967 Transleted by: Gregory Rabassa Genre: Literary novel (fantasy, magic realism, surrealism) Setting & time: Guatemala, timeless The story begins with a humorous description of one Celestino Yumí’s disgraceful behaviour at a realistically described village fair, then moves into magic realism territory and from there on to fantasy, finally culminating in a vortex of surrealistic descriptions. The story tells the tale of Yumí, his wife Catalina Zabala, and the Mulatta, a magical, sexual being connected to the moon, who charms Yumí and en...

Cheat ! Tramp ! Pig ! Having fun among the simple people down from the hills and villages to have a good time at the fair, which was less of a fair than a lair of wild delights, now that they had done their duty at church and bought or sold their animals, there was time to gab with friends, and anybody picking a fight would get himself chopped up with a machete or stuck with a knife, and all around there were clusters of eyes glistening at the sight of such pretty, teaty, well-haunched women who were the product of an over-abundant rather than an aberrant nature. Thus begins the tale of Celestino Yumí and his wife, Catalina Zabala, and their picaresque process from peasants to... whatever it is they will become, since I am only on page 207 out of 333. Currently they are in the process of trying to become great sorcerers. I have been reading this book very slowly, because although it is a fun read in some ways, I simply can not connect with the protagonists.

Part of Dorte’s Global Reading Challenge that I am participating in was to discover a new author or read a book from a country or state on your own continent that you have not read before. With this book I have done both. I have also managed to kill two birds with one stone by combining both outside challenges I am participating in, the Global challenge and the Bibliophilic Book challenge ). Year published: 1979 (English translation: 1990, by Victoria Holbrook) Genre: Historical novel Setting & time: (mostly) Turkey, 17 century. The former imperial astrologer to the Sultan of Turkey tells the story of two men, one an enslaved Venetian and the other his Turkish master, who, over their long acquaintance, come to know each other almost better than they know themselves. This is an interesting novel, a historical tale of an unhealthy relationship of love and loathing between two men who cannot part from each other, one because he is the other’s slave and fears punishment for trying ...

I have joined the 2010 Global Reading Challenge . Dorte of DJs Krimiblog had an idea to expand her reading horizons and has invited other bloggers to join in. For starters I will be going for the easy challenge, but who knows: I may upgrade to the medium or even the expert challenge. First thing I will do is look through my TBR books to see if I have books that fulfil the stipulations of the challenge. I know I have books from Europe, North-America, Australasia and Asia, but I may have to look further afield for books from South-America and Africa. However, I would like to read authors that are new to me, so I will probably have to visit the library for a book from Australasia.