A Man of the People. Chinua Achebe. Johannesburg, South Africa: Heinemann, 1988.
All of them Witches:
Taking into consideration that Chinua Achebe (Ogidi, Anambra, Nigeria, 1930 - Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 2013) was forced to leave his country with his family soon after the publication of this novel, accused by his people of being informed about the military coup which took place a year after, everybody should feel at least curious about it. It is indeed a curious story, told by a curious man who introduces himself as a sample of upstanding man. A whole man against that man of the people from the title.
The reader should not trust nobody in this story.
It is a tale of two enemies: the teacher turned into Culture Minister and his grown up student, visiting him.
Everything seems so fake in their behavior, that the reader is forced to take distance and watch them as a sort of parody, a dark and bitter comedy of some post-colonial African Politics issues.
We cannot laugh of what is supposed to be funny, because a selfish uninspiring man is laughing about it. We cannot share feelings with the narrator, because he treats women as if they were cattle... but we manage to understand what really worries the main character, the moment he uncovers his veil and shows his real goals in life: not only knocking his rival, but also conquer a society.
All of them Witches:
Taking into consideration that Chinua Achebe (Ogidi, Anambra, Nigeria, 1930 - Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 2013) was forced to leave his country with his family soon after the publication of this novel, accused by his people of being informed about the military coup which took place a year after, everybody should feel at least curious about it. It is indeed a curious story, told by a curious man who introduces himself as a sample of upstanding man. A whole man against that man of the people from the title.
The reader should not trust nobody in this story.
It is a tale of two enemies: the teacher turned into Culture Minister and his grown up student, visiting him.
Everything seems so fake in their behavior, that the reader is forced to take distance and watch them as a sort of parody, a dark and bitter comedy of some post-colonial African Politics issues.
We cannot laugh of what is supposed to be funny, because a selfish uninspiring man is laughing about it. We cannot share feelings with the narrator, because he treats women as if they were cattle... but we manage to understand what really worries the main character, the moment he uncovers his veil and shows his real goals in life: not only knocking his rival, but also conquer a society.
Tenth of December. Stories. George Saunders. USA: Random House. 2013
The real diving:
Please take a breath: let us plunge into facts that everybody knows. Take them as if they were new, strange, uncommon...
I suggest you have a look on this successful book and at the same time, you bring some Black Mirror episodes back to your mind. The experiment will surprise you. They have so much in common you could not tell.
That future life told by means of contemporary trouble. That extreme situations depicted with the colours of our daily routine. That terrible stuff, so near from us.
I have not finished the whole collection yet, but in order to feed this post, I will tell you something about one story called "Puppy":
Broken in two different points of view, George Saunders "Puppy" reaches the mood of the reader, by showing how two different mothers behave and love their two problem children.
A third person narrator describes each character's thought, both linked by a misunderstood meaning of motherhood and breeding. On one hand, there is Marie; she travels with her two kids to adopt a dog after reading Callie's announcement. On the other hand is Callie, the mother of a troubled mind boy who constantly escapes and who is kept chained at a tree in the backyard; she desperately tries to find a home for her little dog which otherwise, will be killed by her husband. Both women give glimpses of their childhood and old memories to the reader: the former idealises her current situation and the last just seeks for a escape.
The text goes straight to reader's mind like a sort of cinematic cross-cut. It is an easy, clear and passionate story that leaves a sense of discomfort by the end.
And something aims me to conclude that this is going to be the dominant until the end of the book.
The real diving:
Please take a breath: let us plunge into facts that everybody knows. Take them as if they were new, strange, uncommon...
I suggest you have a look on this successful book and at the same time, you bring some Black Mirror episodes back to your mind. The experiment will surprise you. They have so much in common you could not tell.
That future life told by means of contemporary trouble. That extreme situations depicted with the colours of our daily routine. That terrible stuff, so near from us.
I have not finished the whole collection yet, but in order to feed this post, I will tell you something about one story called "Puppy":
Broken in two different points of view, George Saunders "Puppy" reaches the mood of the reader, by showing how two different mothers behave and love their two problem children.
A third person narrator describes each character's thought, both linked by a misunderstood meaning of motherhood and breeding. On one hand, there is Marie; she travels with her two kids to adopt a dog after reading Callie's announcement. On the other hand is Callie, the mother of a troubled mind boy who constantly escapes and who is kept chained at a tree in the backyard; she desperately tries to find a home for her little dog which otherwise, will be killed by her husband. Both women give glimpses of their childhood and old memories to the reader: the former idealises her current situation and the last just seeks for a escape.
The text goes straight to reader's mind like a sort of cinematic cross-cut. It is an easy, clear and passionate story that leaves a sense of discomfort by the end.
And something aims me to conclude that this is going to be the dominant until the end of the book.
The Time in Between (El tiempo entre costuras) María Dueñas. Translated from the original Spanish by Daniel Hahn.
In between lines:
The time I spent working on a bookstore was a full of intrigues period. Although I was just there for almost two years, I could notice that the clients came and went most of the time asking for a single book. They did not always buy it but they wanted to know or whatever...
Human beings could be so lazy and curious at the same time.
María Dueñas' El tiempo entre costuras reached the top of all the possible selling lists that anyone could find anywhere. I guess it still does, but I do not longer work as sales associate, therefore I am probably not reliable enough.
Nevertheless, curious for knowing which kind of phenomena they were so noisy talking about, I have taken the book getting to know it first hand.
Maybe the fact of not being part of the bookstore was necessary for me and this is why I have waited for so long: now that I am living abroad, I realise is the proper time.
And you may think "What have you found inside that novel?" "Was it exciting?" "Has it trapped you?", well I can tell it has not exactly that "extraordinary" taste I consider a good novel should have, but it links properly with particular emotions of particular people which my country is full of right now:the bored ones and the mature women.
Do not get me wrong: I am not saying a young girl could not possibly enjoy this book, of course she could! They actually do most of the time, because (I think I have spoken about this before) this is how publishing world goes on.
Women read more than men. Women go to the cinema more than men. But belive me: women are not always dumber than men, I have got to know big amounts of silly ladies and piles of intelligent men as well as exactly the opposite. Please, senior editors worldwide: make an effort and try not to be so discriminator, because it not always work.
El tiempo entre costuras was first published on 2009. As I have also worked for three years as editor assistant, I dare say this type of story was being written many times by different anonymous writers before, but never so clearly targeted. Dealing with plots, while haunting portraits are always fascinating and love stories will never die, historic recognizable events are definitive. Tell readers their truth by means of written words, and you will win a follower for the rest of your life.
On the one hand, what means exactly the truth in Spain nowadays? The truth is not having work to earn a life, be forced to move or travel far from your family, fight against all odds to consider yourself a positive person and not give up. Being like Sira Quiroga, maybe.
On the other hand, relate a woman in her sixties what happened in Spain during the Civil War, explain her by detail how seamstresses worked that sad period of time, include in the story real characters being in contact with fictional ones and finally: do not conclude it, leave it open.
In case you are an active working man that has read the book and you have kept on reading this until the end, I beg your pardon: the ways of literature are unpredictable and you never know when one may be wrong.
In between lines:
The time I spent working on a bookstore was a full of intrigues period. Although I was just there for almost two years, I could notice that the clients came and went most of the time asking for a single book. They did not always buy it but they wanted to know or whatever...
Human beings could be so lazy and curious at the same time.
María Dueñas' El tiempo entre costuras reached the top of all the possible selling lists that anyone could find anywhere. I guess it still does, but I do not longer work as sales associate, therefore I am probably not reliable enough.
Nevertheless, curious for knowing which kind of phenomena they were so noisy talking about, I have taken the book getting to know it first hand.
Maybe the fact of not being part of the bookstore was necessary for me and this is why I have waited for so long: now that I am living abroad, I realise is the proper time.
And you may think "What have you found inside that novel?" "Was it exciting?" "Has it trapped you?", well I can tell it has not exactly that "extraordinary" taste I consider a good novel should have, but it links properly with particular emotions of particular people which my country is full of right now:the bored ones and the mature women.
Do not get me wrong: I am not saying a young girl could not possibly enjoy this book, of course she could! They actually do most of the time, because (I think I have spoken about this before) this is how publishing world goes on.
Women read more than men. Women go to the cinema more than men. But belive me: women are not always dumber than men, I have got to know big amounts of silly ladies and piles of intelligent men as well as exactly the opposite. Please, senior editors worldwide: make an effort and try not to be so discriminator, because it not always work.
El tiempo entre costuras was first published on 2009. As I have also worked for three years as editor assistant, I dare say this type of story was being written many times by different anonymous writers before, but never so clearly targeted. Dealing with plots, while haunting portraits are always fascinating and love stories will never die, historic recognizable events are definitive. Tell readers their truth by means of written words, and you will win a follower for the rest of your life.
On the one hand, what means exactly the truth in Spain nowadays? The truth is not having work to earn a life, be forced to move or travel far from your family, fight against all odds to consider yourself a positive person and not give up. Being like Sira Quiroga, maybe.
On the other hand, relate a woman in her sixties what happened in Spain during the Civil War, explain her by detail how seamstresses worked that sad period of time, include in the story real characters being in contact with fictional ones and finally: do not conclude it, leave it open.
In case you are an active working man that has read the book and you have kept on reading this until the end, I beg your pardon: the ways of literature are unpredictable and you never know when one may be wrong.