Wolfgang Wopperer replied to gregorgross's status
@gregorgross Amongst other options, yes. :-D But it's also been sitting on my shelf now for a while, so I thought I might give it a go. (But see my "stopped reading" status.)
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Philosopher by training, facilitator by trade. Late-coming social activist and experienced stacker of books.
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Wolfgang Wopperer stopped reading London Fields by Martin Amis
Trying to re-read the book after over 20 years was quite a disappointment – a middle-class narrator looking down on and into the lives of marginalised protagonists felt kind of sleazy, and Amis's overall storytelling is, in the words of a friend, surface all the way down. Another book whose time is clearly over. (Stopped after about ¼.)
Wolfgang Wopperer started reading London Fields by Martin Amis
Wolfgang Wopperer reviewed Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled …
"Man merkt die Absicht und ist verstimmt"
3 stars
Content warning Slight spoiler towards the end of the paragraph
… which is Goethe and translates as "one notices the intention and is disappointed". Which is the feeling I got from reading the book: While the sections set in the early 20th century work very well, the sci-fi settings have a forced and constructed feel; while the overall story arc makes sense, the details of the construction are visible too often (how everything is about what is real and what is virtual, about connection and loneliness, and in the end really only about the experience of Covid-19); and while the idea of using time travel as a plot device, not as the main topic, is great, there are just too many inconsistencies in how it is used (sometimes things happen the way they have always done because of some cross-time intervention, sometimes such an intervention causes things to change). Overall a nice read, but not much more.
Wolfgang Wopperer finished reading Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an …
Wolfgang Wopperer reviewed Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto
"First published in 1956, Zama is now universally recognized as one of the masterpieces of …
Another deeply disagreeable man
5 stars
Next protagonist in my apparent "deeply disagreeable men" run: Zama, a slaughterer of Indians turned petty bureaucrat, waiting to be promoted from a post in the late-18th-century Argentinian outback. We watch his life slowly disintegrating, one paranoid episode at a time.
Zama is a routine misogynist, racist, colonialist and generally amoral person. His thinking and scheming is fully devoid of any shame or decency, every thought revolves around his advantage – but it just doesn't add up: He has a knack for contradicting himself constantly without noticing, and with every further delusion about his future, standing or willpower, the story becomes a long downward slide, ending in physical horror and a twisted vision of hope.
Di Benedetto delivers all this in precise, often dense prose, timeless in its style but firmly grounded in the protagonist's historical and geographical context.
And he puts us into this weirdest of positions: We want …
Next protagonist in my apparent "deeply disagreeable men" run: Zama, a slaughterer of Indians turned petty bureaucrat, waiting to be promoted from a post in the late-18th-century Argentinian outback. We watch his life slowly disintegrating, one paranoid episode at a time.
Zama is a routine misogynist, racist, colonialist and generally amoral person. His thinking and scheming is fully devoid of any shame or decency, every thought revolves around his advantage – but it just doesn't add up: He has a knack for contradicting himself constantly without noticing, and with every further delusion about his future, standing or willpower, the story becomes a long downward slide, ending in physical horror and a twisted vision of hope.
Di Benedetto delivers all this in precise, often dense prose, timeless in its style but firmly grounded in the protagonist's historical and geographical context.
And he puts us into this weirdest of positions: We want to see Zama fail and falter – and still we root for him.
Wolfgang Wopperer finished reading Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto
Antonio Di Benedetto: Zama (2016)
Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto
"First published in 1956, Zama is now universally recognized as one of the masterpieces of modern Argentinean and Spanish-language literature. …
Wolfgang Wopperer reviewed Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi's house is no ordinary building; its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls …
A strange story in a strange house
4 stars
Quick to read, vividly written, more mystery than parable.
Wolfgang Wopperer replied to gregorgross's status
@gregorgross Habe im Vorwort davon gelesen. Danke für den Artikel-Link (und natürlich den Buchtipp!)
Wolfgang Wopperer finished reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi's house is no ordinary building; its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon …
Wolfgang Wopperer started reading Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto
Antonio Di Benedetto: Zama (2016)
Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto
"First published in 1956, Zama is now universally recognized as one of the masterpieces of modern Argentinean and Spanish-language literature. …
Wolfgang Wopperer reviewed Giovanni's room by James Baldwin
Considered an 'audacious' second novel, GIOVANNI'S ROOM is set in the 1950s Paris of American …
Heart-rending and unsparing
5 stars
A portrait of 1950s Paris, American culture and the margins of bourgeois society, of internalised homophobia and gay desire, of power and cruelty. And the psychogram of a privileged, pathologically passive and deeply disagreeable man, including two grotesquely dehumanising transphobic passages. All rendered in dense, vivid language and impeccable structure and style.
Wolfgang Wopperer finished reading Giovanni's room by James Baldwin
Giovanni's room by James Baldwin
Considered an 'audacious' second novel, GIOVANNI'S ROOM is set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence. This …
Wolfgang Wopperer wants to read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set …