Books I Read February 6th, 2022

Good stuff happened to me this week but I'm not going to tell you about it. You're just some internet stranger, you're lucky I even tell you about all the books I read. To whit...

A Cup of Coffee with my Interrogator by Ludvik Vaculik – Samizdat feuilletons from the a Charter 77 signatory during the late stage of the Czechoslovakian Socialist Republic. Witty and human, like meeting your thoughtful, funny friend for an Urquell on a sunny day, except that he’s being tailed by the secret police.

Fools and Other Stories by Njabulo S. Ndebele – Short stories from the waning days of apartheid. The eponymous didn't do much for me but most of the rest of them, dealing with the youthful customs of township adolescents, were excellent.

A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising by Miron Bialoszewski – A chronicle of the demolition of the Polish capital by the Nazis in a deliberately rambling, conversational fashion, intended to express the chaotic nature of the time and the impossibility of offering a coherent explanation for the events. I remember going to Warsaw many years ago and having a friend take me to the old city and explain that it was a Disney facade built over rubble, and I can still remember the Praga district which had remained standing, apartment blocks like fortresses shielding Catholic shrines, still extant despite the bombings and 50 odd years of Communist rule. Anyway, this was a difficult, interesting, tragic read.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich – Gonzo journalism meets poverty porn. Actually for a book about the writer's personal experiences it wasn't that self-indulgent, I'm just being nasty because I've read 3 more or less identical works in the last week or so (did you know Reagan ruined everything? He did! He really, really did. Rot in hell, Ronnie!)

Animal Triste by Monika Maron – An old woman recalls a doomed love affair over which she has long obsessed herself into madness. It's a loose plot but the execution is perfect, the language thoughtful and lyrical and funny and sad. Maron is a treasure.

The Periphereal by William Gibson – Corporate dictocrats from the far future interfere with the life of roughnecks from the near future, chaos ensuing. Gibson is a clever cultural critic and this is fun and moves fast, although it does that thing he does where since the protagonists are all pawns in a much larger scheme the narrative unfolds as a series of Deus Ex Machinas. Still, lots of fun.

Days of Longing by Nirmal Verma – An Indian student living in the Czech Republic has a doomed love affair with an Austrian single mother. Nostalgic and lovely. I spent a lot of time thinking longingly of Eastern Europe this week, actually.