Weekly Reading Wrap-Up- Slow Burners, Weirdness and Longing

Hello, I'm Bob, and here are the books I read this week!

Books Mentioned:

00:00 Introduction
01:14 Barbara Kingsolver- Demon Copperhead
05:05 Jennifer Croft- Homesick
09:18 Camilla Grudova- The Children of Paradise
11:37 Missouri Williams- Doloriad
13:33 Thuận- Chinatown (tr. Nguyễn An Lý)
15:33 Katherine May- Enchantment
17:14 Guadalupe Nettel- Still Born (tr. Rosalind Harvey)
20:35 Perumal Murugan- Pyre (tr. Aniruddhan Vasudevan)
23:07 Zou Jingzhi- Ninth Building (tr. Jeremy Tiang)
25:54 End Discussion

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[benreadingbooks]

I'm sure you know that Homesick was published (as a 'memoir') in the US in 2020 and has now been reimagined as a novel. I think the version you listened to is the earlier version rather than the version now longlisted for the Women's Prize. I say that because I read it recently and don't think hiraeth came up.

My experience of the book was different: I found the earlier parts of the novel, about the narrator's young life, more successful. But then we have literally read different books.

[Phil-pp]

I read Chinatown last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also attended an event in Bath with Thuan that was hosted, and somewhat comically mismanaged, by Toppings. There were two translators (who sometimes intervened to correct each other) to help translate the questions in English to Vietnamese and the answers in Vietnamese back to English. Occasionally French was also used. The difficulty was that the host, who had clearly prepared very well, asked extremely long, convoluted, multi-part questions never pausing to allow the translators to translate in manageable chunks. This of course resulted in the translators having to stop and ask the host to repeat his question so they could continue. On occasion he himself was unable to remember his own question. The delay between question being asked in English and the answer then being translated back to English was quite staggering (luckily there was plenty of wine). It was Thuan herself who saved the day with her ready smile and mischievous sense of humour ... sometimes answering the most pretentious literary questions, asking her why she adopted a particular approach, with answers like, "I did it for a laugh". 🤣

[curioushmm]

as always..thank-you Bob for helping me understand the particular flavors of these contenders for the major prizes. still born is now certainly one i want to read not just because of how much you liked it but for clarifying so well why you liked it.

[pdxleo]

fabulous wrap-up. I love hearing your thoughts on books I don't have a chance to get to!

[soniajohnson]

Looking forward to your in-depth IB reviews. Apart from the three that I had read/bought before the announcement - Still Born, Boulder and Is Mother Dead nothing else is wowing me. So after the initial grumpy teenager disappointment that the books I was hoping to read were not on the list I realised that I was a grown-up and could read them anyway.

[charlottemolloy]

You've read more books in a week than I have this month! 😂🙌

[drawyourbook]

Homesick was really interesting. I must say, the women’s prize this year is almost better than the international booker. With that said, still born is one of the ones I want to read

[michaeldornan]

Les Enfants du Paradis by Marcel Carné is the title reference and is one of the best films ever. Shall definitely read the book..

[laurab]

I finished Pyre yesterday, I hadn't read any book of Perumal Murugan and I really enjoyed every single page of the book.

[annegibson]

A recommendation. If you loved The Colony by Audrey McGee then I highly recommend This Other Eden by Paul Harding. The writing is beautiful.

[Heatherskl]

Hmm I was going to skip Homesick from the Women’s Prize but you’ve changed my mind.

[isabelleangouleme]

I read a very different version of Homesick (Charco Press) which did not cover translation work at all. Your version sounds better!

[jacquelinemcmenamin]

Morning Brother Bob 🍀👋☘️The only one I’ve read is Demon Copperhead.
I’ve recently read a wonderful book I’d recommend to everyone
Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark
📕📖📚☕️

[spexi]

Time Shelter and Still born were the ones I had my 👁️ on. Already obtained the latter after reading only the first page and being like ohhh yeahhh I’m getting thissss 📕📕🪱💚