Books I Read October 9th 2022

The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono – A charming ecological paean.

The Girl from the Metropol Hotel: Growing Up in Communist Russia by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya– Turns out Petrushevskaya came by her nightmares honestly, after a childhood spent as in postwar Russia as the outcast granddaughter of despised class enemies. A series of vignettes marginally less horrifying than her normal shorts.

The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa – Dreamland visitations connects a disparate cast of characters in post-war Angola.

A Short History of Modern Angola by David Birmingham– A well-written overview of the grimly fascinating history of modern Angola. Among the other takeaways, as so often is the case, is that Henry Kissinger is awful.

Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg – A portrait of an Italian family torn apart by the rise of fascism, WWII. Deft, sympathetic, excellent; up to Ginzburg’s usual standards.

Kingdom's End and Selected Short Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto – Blunt stories of pre and post partition India as told by Pakistani letters’ first infant terrible. Manto was a hard-drinking atheist with an earthy, humanistic affection for the messy, multifaceted realities of his country(ies), one sadly out of step with the currents of his age. A fascinating voice, evidence of the universality of short fiction as a medium for conveying human experience.

A Postcard for Annie by Ida Jensen –Nordic housewives survive unruly children, sexless husbands, and lost loves in this spare but sympathetic set of shorts. I dug it.

Ennemonde by Jean Giono – Part satire, part epopee to the eponymous, a rural matron of enormous energy, drive and amoral courage. Every work by Jean Giono is distinct from every other work, his ouvre a patchwork whose thematic throughlines is a love of the uncouth and authentically wild, with all its blemishes, over the polished banality of the modern bourgeoisie. Among these works of genuine genius Ennemonde still stands out, as much for the brilliant lyricism of the language as for its unexpected and compelling narrative framework. Loved loved loved this.