L'Assommoir by
Emil Zola (1877). A friend and I who
have similar reading tastes are doing an online book club sort of thing. We
both love late 19th, early 20th century fiction, especially by German
authors. My friend introduced me to the
French author Zola, and I have been hooked. His novels, written in the
"naturalism" style, are bleak, but the characters are fascinating.
Zola's characters don't learn anything in the course of the story (which is why
the stories are bleak). Instead, they act true to themselves to the bitter end.
This story is about the problem of drinking in the lower
classes of Paris and the destruction it wrought. Interestingly, the title of
this novel is usually not translated. "L'Assommoir" is the name of a
typical, cheap drinking establishment of the time.
Across Islands and
Oceans: A Journey Alone around the World by Sail and by Foot by James
Baldwin (2012). In the 1980s Baldwin, only in his 20s, sailed alone around the
world in a very simple boat, using no navigation technology. He didn't even
have a radio on board. He stopped at various islands along the way and hiked
across them. The story is told well, and this is an absorbing, enjoyable book.
Yoram by Ulrike
Kolb (2012). A story about a
relationship between a German Jewish man and a German woman who meet in the
eighties, when Germany is trying to move away from its past and its guilt. The
difficulties of this situation are played out in the relationship of the two
characters. It is done so skillfully and in such a gripping way that the reading
is never trite or clichéd. I love this book!
Nana by Emil Zola
(1880). Yes, another Zola! Nana is the name of the daughter of the main
character in L'Assommoir. Nana
represents all the excesses of Paris in the late nineteenth century. She comes
to ruin, of course.
Weep Not, Child by
Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1964). Ngugi is a prolific Kenyan author who has written a
lot about the oppression of his people by British colonists. This is a work of
fiction, but it draws heavily on the author's experiences as a child, when he
and his family witnessed and participated in the struggle for independence. It
is told simply and eloquently and is very moving. Ngugi is often a candidate
for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but he has not yet won the award.
Autobiography of a
Face by Lucy Grealy (1994). Grealy, a poet who died at a relatively young
age not too long ago, had cancer in her jaw as a child. The operation to remove
it greatly disfigured her, and numerous surgeries to try to reconstruct her
face failed. Here she tells her story,
and it is a difficult one to read. But the writing doesn't get bogged down in
sadness, and the author does ultimately come to terms with her fate.
