An end of week recap

“As the questions grow harder and more complicated, people yearn for simpler answers, one-sentence answers, answers that point unhesitatingly to a culprit who can be blamed for all our suffering, answers that promise that if we only eradicate the villains, all our troubles will vanish.”
– Amos Oz

This is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the nightstand and keep readers abreast of various book-related happenings.

CHATTERBOOKS >> 

If you are planning a reading event, challenge, competition, or anything else likely to be of interest to the book blogging community, please let me know. I will happily share your news here with the fabulous array of bibliowonks who read this weekly wind up.

* Lit Crit Blogflash *

I am going to share with you one of my favourite literary posts from around the blogosphere. There are so many talented writers posting high-quality book features and reviews, it was difficult to pick only this one – which was published late last year:

Having spotted Zoe’s cephalopodan review at The Boundless Bookworm last December, I was immediately intrigued and highlighted it for inclusion in a forthcoming wind up. Predictably, I became preoccupied with matters festal and neglected to feature it at the time. Nevertheless, I couldn’t let it pass without a mention.

Book review: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt – Shelby Van Pelt’s 2022 magical realism novel about a woman’s touching bond with highly intelligent marine creature living in captivity is, says Zoe, “a beautiful tale” in which “an invisible force […] brings people together for unknown reasons” – in this instance, a seventy-year-old widow who works as a cleaner at the fictional Sowell Bay Aquarium and a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus who possesses remarkable detective skills. The plot, involving the mysterious disappearance of the elderly woman’s eighteen-year-old son some thirty years earlier is, we are told, “captivating,” and the writing “straightforward and descriptive, incorporating humor without unnecessary complexity.” Although Zoe felt a few loose ends may have benefitted from a knot or two, she found Remarkably Bright Creatures “thought-provoking,” subtle and positive. Moreover, she declared it “an inspiring read.”

* Irresistible Items *

Umpteen fascinating articles appeared on my bookdar last week. I generally make a point of tweeting/x-ing (soon, perhaps tooting or bsky-ing) a few favourite finds (or adding them to my Facebook group page), but in case you missed anything, there follow a selection of interesting snippets:

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CrimeReads: Decolonizing the Gothic – Shubnum Khan, the South African author of fantasy novel The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, argues that “Gothic literature—with its haunted homes, lonely landscapes, broken characters and longing borne of deep despair—has always been a universal story, not a western one.” 

Dirt: Against Art Monster – “Daisy Alioto in conversation with Kate Zambreno,” author of the soon to be republished Heroines – a work she started on her blog before turning it into an impressive literary work of scholarship.

NPR: ‘Forgottenness’ wrestles with the meaning of Ukrainian identity — and time – “In writer Tanja Maljartschuk’s novel [Forgottenness], the narrator’s malaise and weakening attachment to time serve as a metaphor for today’s Ukraine, as well as for other struggling democracies, including our own,” says Martha Anne Toll.

Air Mail: The Mahabharata of Literary Festivals – “Forget glitchy microphones and cheap white wine,” urges Pico Iyer. “The Jaipur Literature Festival is the biggest and best of its kind in the world.”

Cultured: The Author of One of Last Year’s Buzziest Memoirs Opens Up About the Decisive Moment That Led Her to Write It – “With How to Say Babylon, Jamaican poet Safiya Sinclair charts her Rastafari childhood and offers her readers insight on the country behind the postcard,” writes Franklin Sirmans.

El País: ‘I should not have written ‘A Clockwork Orange’’: How Anthony Burgess came to disown his own novel – “A recent documentary explores the conflictive relationship between the British author and his most popular work, which became a scandalous phenomenon due to Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation.”

The Armenian Mirror Spectator: Waterman and Kurkjian Discuss [Who] She Left Behind at Watertown Public Library – Armenian American storyteller and speaker Victoria Atamian Waterman talked to Stephen Kurkjian about her new multigenerational historical novel, Who She Left Behind.

The New Quarterly: Dispatches: Writing In/During Crisis – “What does it mean to be a writer in times of political and moral crisis?” ask Pamela Mulloy and Vinh Nguyen. Here they share a selection of essays by writers they admire with readers of the Canadian literary journal TNQ.

Melville House: A Letter To Librarians, from C.D. Rose – The English writer C.D. Rose, author of the newly published short story collection Walter Benjamin Stares at the Sea, has written a letter to librarians.

Qantara.de: Hakan Bicakci’s disintegrating self – Gerrit Wustmann writes: “At the heart of Hakan Bicakci’s novel Schlaftrunken – literally ‘half-asleep’ – lies an Istanbul torn apart by the gentrifying diggers and a protagonist plagued by sleeplessness and nightmares, watching his life slip through his fingers.”

Engelsberg Ideas: Crusading women – “Whether as companions, patrons, regents, warriors or writers, women played vital roles in the crusades of the medieval period,” reveals Nicholas Morton in his review of Helen J. Nicholson’s Women and the Crusades. 

Villa Albertine: ‘Les formes du visible’ by Philippe Descola and ‘L’intranquille’ by Joseph Kai win Albertine Translation Prize – A ceremony has taken place to honour the winners of Villa Albertine’s annual fiction and nonfiction prizes for Francophone literature translated into English.

Grist: Slow down, do less: A Q&A with the author who introduced ‘degrowth’ to a mass audience – Kohei Saito, the author of Slow Down:The Degrowth Manifesto, “talks four-day workweeks, private jet bans, and what we gain from reducing consumption.”

Hyperallergic: How African-American Museums Are Navigating Book Bans – “Black history and culture institutions are stepping in to fill the gaps with uncensored and community-oriented programming,” finds Rhea Nayyar.

The Yale Review: In Search of Albertine – Victoria Baena on “the feminist afterlives of Proust’s iconic character.”

ABC: From Alexis Wright to Tony Birch and Evelyn Araluen: Powerful books by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers – Culture, family, colonisation and resistance are some of the themes uniting these acclaimed literary works by First Nations writers from Australia.

McSweeney’s: As I Say in My Book – Author Evan Waite on the ignobility of book promotion.

The Critic: Where has all the money gone? – “Even Booker Prize-winning novelists struggle to make a living from writing.”

Bustle: “Lives Of The Wives” Books Won’t Save Us – “The subgenre promises to do good by training the spotlight on long-overshadowed women. Is it really that simple?” wonders Erin Somers.

Eurozine: Belarus and the ghosts of the wild hunt – “The ongoing repression of Belarusian society now extends to the banning of literary works by Belarusian writers seen as seditious. The reason can only be that they offer the regime its true reflection, writes [Andrej Chadanovič,] one of the country’s leading poets.”

Esquire: The End of the Multiverse – In his review of Paul Halpern’s The Allure of the Multiverse, Jonathan Russell Clark argues that “audiences are falling out of love with dizzying multiverse sagas.” He asks the question: “Can the concept still be a useful lens on the psychology of regret, or is it dead on arrival?”

The Moscow Time: Ludmila Ulitskaya Is the Latest Russian Writer Under Fire – Ludmila Ulitskaya, an internationally acclaimed modern Russian novelist and short-story writer, is the latest author to be banned in Russia, reports Ludmila Ulitskaya.

Los Angeles Times: Not every adoption story is a tragedy. That’s why Laurie Frankel’s new novel is a blast – Laurie Frankel’s latest novel “draws on her experience adopting a child,” says Bethanne Patrick in her review of Family Family.

UnHerd: ChatGPT will kill off the Romantic genius – “You have to salute the brass balls of the Japanese literary novelist Rie Kudan” – but in Sam Leith’s opinion, “art has always relished the chaos of technology.”

AP News: N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize winner and giant of Native American literature, dead at 89 – Hillel Italie reports: “N. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer Prize-winning storyteller, poet, educator and folklorist whose debut novel House Made of Dawn is widely credited as the starting point for contemporary Native American literature, has died.”

BBC Wales: The Hobbit first edition bought for £1.50 could fetch thousands – “A first edition of The Hobbit bought at a car boot sale for £1.50 could be worth thousands of pounds if sold at auction.”

Independent: Comedian Fern Brady among winners at Caffe Nero’s inaugural book awards – “One of four category winners will be awarded the book of the year award and receive £30,000,” reports Hannah Roberts.

The Chronicle of Higher Education: Does Literary Criticism Tell Truths About the World? – “A scholarly roundtable on Jonathan Kramnick’s new book,” Criticism and Truth: On Method in Literary Studies.

GCN: 36 writers join forces to fight book bans with unique collaborative novel Fourteen Days – “Among the book’s contributors are Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston and Irish lesbian author Emma Donoghue,” says Alice Linehan of Fourteen Days.

Dhaka Tribune: Winners of Bangla Academy Literary Award announced – “Recipients of the Bangla Academy Literary Award-2023 have been announced, honouring 16 individuals for their notable contributions to various aspects of Bangla literature.”

Literary Hub: Literary cats! An Ai Weiwei graphic novel! 22 new books out today. – Gabrielle Bellot with a selection of newly published books “to start the month off right.”

Virago News: Where to start with Sigrid Nunez – “Are you looking for an author whose novels are profound, witty, poignant and eminently readable? Look no further. Sigrid Nunez’s work toes the line between fiction and essay, frequently exploring themes of friendship, humanity, grief and identity. She is a writer whose novels are unique but feel entirely familiar – they are like a hug from an old friend.”

The Point: Who Needs Fiction After the Internet? James Duesterberg on “Natasha Stagg’s millennial realism.”

The Inverness Courier: 2023 Highland Book Prize winner hopefuls revealed as longlist announced – “The Highland Book Prize has announced its 2023 longlist,” reports Philip Murray.

Arts Hub: Book review: The Lucky Ones, Melinda Ham – David Burton shares his thoughts on “six Australian immigration stories across time and place.”

Haaretz: The Hunters of Lost Books: New Project Finds and Digitizes Books Looted in WWII – “A new project aims to locate books looted from the library of Berlin’s Higher Institute of Jewish Studies during the Nazi regime. The initiators are documenting them in an online catalogue.”

Daily Maverick: In case you missed it — Peace Adzo Medie’s ‘His Only Wife’ is a gripping read – Joy Watson suggests: “If you’re looking for a tale that will keep you up until late at night, then get your hands on a copy of the 2020 novel, His Only Wife by Ghanaian author Peace Adzo Medie.

Reactor: Why Are We Talking About Books Like This? – Molly Templeton on “what the language we use says about our perception of reading.”

The Conversation: The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists exhibition review: a look at the art that made the kid’s books iconic – Lecturer in Publishing, Samantha Stewart, takes an affectionate look at the artists who made the children’s publisher so popular.

Vulture: The Mortal Queen of Faerie Smut – Kathryn VanArendonk finds “Sarah J. Maas writes massively popular books that mix fantasy lore with soft-core romance […] and a whole lot of trauma.”

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FINALLY >>

If there is something you would particularly like to see on Winding Up the Week or if you have any suggestions, questions, or comments for Book Jotter in general, please drop me a line or comment below. I would be delighted to hear from you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I wish you a week bountiful in books and rich in reading.

NB In this feature, ‘winding up’ refers to the act of concluding something and should not be confused with the British expression: ‘wind-up’ – an age-old pastime of ‘winding-up’ friends and family by teasing or playing pranks on them. If you would like to know more about this expression, there is an excellent description on Urban Dictionary.

Categories: Winding Up the Week

Tags: Amos Oz, Books, Magical Realism, Reading, Shelby Van Pelt, Translated Fiction