Books I Read March 7th, 2021

I'm getting a little tired of this whole COVID thing, I dunno about you. This week I read the following...

Master of the Day of Judgement by Leo Perutz – A locked room mystery which also doubles as an abstract commentary on the creative process which also also presages Lovecraft. Perutz was a master.

Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac – A second rate private detective becomes obsessed with a death-obsessed beauty in this novel which was the basis for the movie you have probably seen. I actually haven't seen it, though (I know, I know, don't yell at me) so this was fresh and weird and strange and kinda awesome. Good stuff.

Odysseuss Abroad by Amit Chaudhuri – A day in the life of a would-be Bengali poet matriculating at a London university faintly mimics Joyce's work faintly mimicking Homer's. Biases on the table I tend tI find critiques of of the west from non-western writers entertaining but even still I thought this was quite strong. Apart from a fascinating depiction of Thatcher's London (and the Indian sub-community in particular) it truly does resemble Joyce in its earthy humanism and the essential sympathy it has for its characters.

The Proof of the Honey by Salwa Al Neimi – A woman explores her own sexuality/sexuality in the Arabic world. Basically this was an episode of Sex in the City, which, you know, take that however you want. I found the erotica tedious and kind of self-indulgent but I enjoyed the gossip and some of the lines of Arabic poetry.

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada – Maybe writing books has kind of demystified this for me but I generally just fucking can't stand locked door mysteries (Perutz's above being one of the few exceptions, and the impetus for my reading two more this week). There's this absurd pretense that it's some sort of logic puzzle but obviously the circumstances are the ludicrously improbable creations of a narrator, and apart from bearing no resemblance to the reality of crime only function so long as you adhere strictly to the confines of the mystery as implied. They're like Rube Goldberg devices missing an egg-laying chicken or what have you – I guess you can figure out what component would fit the machine, but the machine is imaginary and non-functional so who gives a shit. Anyway I didn't love this.