Some books I recommend
Here are four books I've enjoyed a lot.
Also, and I can't stress this enough: if you find mistakes in my posts (grammar, spelling, anything) then please point them out to me!
Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart
Sumire, an unusual young woman in many ways, has never been in love. She is a loner who dedicated herself to literature and dreams of becoming a writer. The only person she trusts is her best friend K., a school teacher who loves her. His feelings are unrequited, however. Sumire is in no way sexually or romantically attracted to him. She values him as her best friend and the two are very close, often indulging in philosophical debates and long conversations about literature.
But when Sumire meets Miu, an older woman very different from herself, her life changes completely.
She falls madly in love with Miu.
Miu is a fascinating person, strangely reserved and unapproachable, shrouded in mystery. But even though she keeps her distance, it's clear that she likes Sumire and one day, Miu invites her to join her on a trip to Greece.
K. stays behind, feeling lonelier than ever.
When his phone rings in the middle of the night, he expects it to be Sumire calling from Greece, but he's wrong.
It's Miu, telling him that Sumire has disappeared without a trace.
K. travels to Greece to help Miu find her.
The novel is narrated by K. whose full name we never learn.
It was the first Murakami novel I read and even though my expectations were pretty high given Murakami's reputation, I didn't expect to love it as much as I do.
After about the first half of the novel, mysterious things start to happen and the line between dream and reality is slowly blurred until you can't distinguish one from the other anymore. These mysterious elements are never really explained and they don't need to be either. It would take the power and the wonder out of them and leave you unsatisfied. Parts of the story read like fragments of dreams. Some of them are, in fact, dreams, some of them aren't and some of them might only be, you're never completely sure.
In the hands of a less skilled author, this might seem like a cheap way to avoid proper explanations.
But Murakami handles this amazingly well. There are some suggestions as to what might have happened to Sumire (and to Miu whose past is connected to Sumire's disappearance in a strange way), but ultimately, it is left open to the reader's imagination, further enhancing the dream-like atmosphere.
The novel also deals with the nature of human relationships, specifically loneliness and people's inability to connect with each other, to open up to others and to stay close to their loved ones. The Sputnik sattelites, orbiting the earth in loneliness and only crossing paths for the briefest moment, if at all, serve as a metaphor for this. It's especially these poetic musings with the strange imagery of the lonely sattelites that make my eyes water.
It's a beautiful novel. Sad without being depressing, occassionally erotic, poetic and simply beautiful.
Notes:
I read the German translation and I have no idea how the English translation is done. Japanese is so different from any European language that there might be a lot left open to the translatators interpretation, so there could be some vast differences between the translations. I still encourage you to give it a try.
Richard Adams - Watership Down
In short terms: Heroic fantasy with rabbits.
In slightly longer terms:
Alarmed by terrifying visions of the destruction of their warren, Fiver convinces a bunch of other rabbits to leave in search of a new home. As they travel across the country trying to find the place Fiver has seen in his dreams, they encounter many dangers such as foxes, cats, dogs, humans and other very hostile rabbits.
The novel is amazingly famous and yet I've encountered few people who have actually read it. I have a truly hard time convincing people to give it a try and I guess it's because the protagonists are all rabbits.
This serves as yet another proof that I'm surrounded by idiots. Following a bunch of rabbits on their adventures is far more exciting and makes for a far more rewarding read than most people would like to believe.
An epic quest in the spirit of "The Lord of the Rings"...with rabbits? Richard Adams managed to pull that trick off while anthropomorphizing his protagonists as little as possible. They tell stories, have a lapine language and an own mythology but otherwise, they still behave like you would expect rabbits to behave. For example, they find it difficult to move as a group because rabbits aren't used to travelling greater distances and only the smartest of the group can think of digging out the peg when one of them is caught in a snare. You can tell the author knows a lot about rabbits and has tried to make as few mistakes as possible.
It's been a long time since I last read it, but I remember being drawn into the story not only by the interesting depiction of rabbit life but also by the vivid descriptions of nature.
Reading the novel you really notice how mankind has been estranged from nature over time to the point where it feels slightly strange to have no part of the story set in a truly man-made environment. It's like reading a story set in a fantasy world without cities and with hardly any signs of civilization, where trains are unstoppable forces of evil and the thought of having to cross open space at night is terrifying.
All of this simply through the change of perspective fom human to rabbit. The mythology Adams has created for them is also a treat to read. The rabbits tell stories of gods like Frith, the Sun God, or the Black Rabbit of
Inlé, their version of the grim reaper, but every story features the adventures of rabbit folk hero El-ahrairah, an archetypical trickster.
I can promise you that you will see rabbits with different eyes after this novel. Sure, they will always remain cute and cuddly, but reading about their struggles made me feel an odd sort of respect for them.
Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men
While hunting Antelope near the Rio Grande at the border between Mexico and the USA, Vietnam-veteran Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon the remains of a drug deal gone wrong. He finds bullet-ridden vehicles with heroin in their trunks, several bodies and a satchel filled with more than two million dollars. He simply can't resist. He decides to take the money and run, setting in motion a spiral of horrible violence.
Ed Tom Bell, an aging sheriff, is determined to find Llewelyn and protect him from the owners of the money, but he finds himself to be always several steps behind the action.
Meanwhile, it becomes clear that Llewelyn has bitten off more than he can chew. It's not only the Mexican drug dealers who are after him, trying to get their money back.
On his trail is also Anton Chigurh who starts off as a hired hitman but betrays his employers and prefers to work on his own as a kind of freelance assassin. There is no hiding from Chigurh. He can track people down with frightening speed and skill and once he has decided to kill someone, death is pretty much guaranteed.
The result is a game of cat and mouse between Anton Chigurh and Llewelyn Moss that leaves a bloody trail throughout southwest Texas.
Despite the story centering around Llewelyn, he is not the main character. That position is filled by Ed Tom Bell who is unable to put an end to all the violence and can only observe the aftermath. He feels overmatched by the crime and injustice that surrounds him and remains mostly passive, commenting on the things he sees in a resigned tone and musing about where all the violence comes from.
The writing style is astonishingly curt, unadorned and to the point with few figures of style. Except for Bell's internal monologues at the beginning of each chapter, the characters' thoughts aren't shown, rather they are characterized by what they do and what they say. As a reader, you can't get into their heads, you can only observe them and form your opinion about them based on how they act.
It took me a while to get used to McCarthy's style of writing because I normally tend to prefer rich and poetic styles. But now I think it fits the novel perfectly, it sets the mood for the gritty story and mirrors the scant Texan landscape. The whole thing has the atmosphere of a Western, even though it's set in the 80s. Also, with a writing style as terse as this one, the few stylistic figures McCarthy employs seem to make the respective sentences practically ring with significance. In the end, this makes for a hauntingly powerful style instead of a plain and boring one as I had initially feared.
Also, I am in love with the characters. Every character is a little masterpiece. Poor old sheriff Bell who you can't help but pity even if you don't agree with his views, Llewelyn who you can't help but root for because he is so smart, skilled and courageous, Llewelyns strong-willed young wife Carla Jean who is absolutely loyal to him, and many others. All of them are in some way fascinating. And what's more, all of them are believable.
All except one.
The one character who is not as believable as the others is simultaneously the most fascinating one. He is not really believable because he doesn't need to be.
That character is Anton Chigurh who is more like a force of nature than a human being. I've heard it said that some fans speculate he might be an anthropomorphic personification of death. That theory doesn't seem to far-fetched. It's not that he's invincible. He isn't. In fact, he gets hit pretty badly by no other than Llewelyn Moss. What makes him so chilling is his character. He is always calm and patient, never hurrying, but he can't be stopped either. When he's decided to kill someone, that person will die in the near future and there's no way around it. He can't be reasoned with at all. This finality might be the cause of the aforementioned theory.
Whatever way you interpret him, I can't deny he's one of the most chilling antagonists I've ever had the pleasure of encountering in a book or film.
For me as a villain-junkie, this is a definite plus but it's by no means the only reason I enjoyed the novel. The story is incredibly thrilling and fast-paced, the writing style intriguingly different from anything I've read before, the themes will make you think and can occupy your mind for a long while and all the characters are great. Yes, all of them.
Be sure to check out the 2007 movie adaption by the Coen brothers as well. It won 4 Oscars and deserved every one of them.
Walter Moers - The City of Dreaming Books
Optimus Yarnspinner is a Lindworm and, like all of his species, destined to become a writer. When his mentor Dancelot dies, Optimus inherits his most valuable possession: a perfect manuscript, the best piece of literature ever written, sent to Dancelot by an unknown author.
Determined to find this gifted writer and make him his new mentor, Optimus travels to Bookholm, the City of Dreaming Books.
Bookholm, as the name suggests, is no ordinary city. It is dedicated to literature in every way imaginable. The streets are full of libraries, bookstores, publishing houses, scary freelance critics, editors and aspiring writers.
Optimus is instantly smitten with this book-loving city and tries to navigate through all the chaos in search of the unknown writer. But since he's never really travelled before, he is also painfully unworldly and in his naivety, he turns to the wrong people for help.
As a result, he suddenly finds himself banished to the Catacombs, Bookholm's twisted mirror image, a vast labyrinth under the city.
The Catacombs seem like a huge treasure cave at first, stuffed to the brim with rare old books, but they're more dangerous than Optimus ever imagined.
Apart from being home to all kinds of unspeakably weird monsters, the Catacombs are also the domain of the bookhunters, ruthless bandits who hunt the rarest and most valuable books. They turned huge parts of the labyrinth into elaborate booby traps and fight bloody battles down there.
And if that wasn't enough already, there are also rumors of the terrible booklings and the mysterious Shadow King who is said to reside deep down in the heart of the Catacombs...
One of my all-time favourites!
Where to start?
The novel, like previous novels by German author Walter Moers, is set on the fictional continent of Zamonia. And believe me when I tell you it's one of the most unusual fantasy books you'll ever read. You could compare Zamonia to Terry Pratchett's Discworld and wouldn't be too far off the mark, but the weirdness-factor might be slightly higher in Zamonia.
The City of Dreaming Books combines elements of satire, fantasy, adventure, fairy tale and many other genres, mixes them and creates something new and unique.
It's both a satire of as well as a tribute to books, reading, literature and the whole colorful insanity of the book market, chock full with allusions to famous works and authors, wordplay, puns and anything else you can think of. Lots of widely known authors' names appaer in the form of weird anagrams, making them "Zamonian" authors. Ever heard of Selwi Rollcar or Asdrel Chickens?
The whole world described in the novel reads like a carnival of weirdness, it's a sheer explosion of fantastic ideas and its richness makes your head spin.
The story pauses sometimes to make room for some loving descriptions of Bookholm and its quirky inhabitants or a whacky little side story, but in the end, most of it either helps enhance the atmosphere or benefits the development of the plot in some way.
Either way, it's always extremely entertaining.
Despite all its amusing quirkyness and playful satire, there are also serious and very touching moments, some of which move me to tears every single time I read them.
This novel has a remarkable magic to it, reading it feels like opening a treasure chest full of amazing things and better yet, you discover something new every time you read it. Let me throw around some adjectives, I learned in my English class that this is always a good thing.
It's beautiful, intelligent, touching, hilarious, whimsical, fantastical, quirky, thoughtful...and illustrated. By the author himself. Despite not being a children's book. I lovelovelove illustrated books.
Notes:
Of course I read the German original first, but I own the English translation as well and I'm impressed. Inevitably, some things get lost in translation, but all in all, the translator did an amazing job at saving a great deal of Walter Moers' wordplay into English. Where something simply couldn't be translated, he successfully came up with his own jokes and puns and also made up a large amount of new anagrams.
It's an extremely good translation and I urge you to give it a try even if you aren't normally into fantasy. Because this is more than fantasy.
I always wanted to write about other books, but I don't think I'll find the time. :/
Also, and I can't stress this enough: if you find mistakes in my posts (grammar, spelling, anything) then please point them out to me!
Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart
Sumire, an unusual young woman in many ways, has never been in love. She is a loner who dedicated herself to literature and dreams of becoming a writer. The only person she trusts is her best friend K., a school teacher who loves her. His feelings are unrequited, however. Sumire is in no way sexually or romantically attracted to him. She values him as her best friend and the two are very close, often indulging in philosophical debates and long conversations about literature.
But when Sumire meets Miu, an older woman very different from herself, her life changes completely.
She falls madly in love with Miu.
Miu is a fascinating person, strangely reserved and unapproachable, shrouded in mystery. But even though she keeps her distance, it's clear that she likes Sumire and one day, Miu invites her to join her on a trip to Greece.
K. stays behind, feeling lonelier than ever.
When his phone rings in the middle of the night, he expects it to be Sumire calling from Greece, but he's wrong.
It's Miu, telling him that Sumire has disappeared without a trace.
K. travels to Greece to help Miu find her.
The novel is narrated by K. whose full name we never learn.
It was the first Murakami novel I read and even though my expectations were pretty high given Murakami's reputation, I didn't expect to love it as much as I do.
After about the first half of the novel, mysterious things start to happen and the line between dream and reality is slowly blurred until you can't distinguish one from the other anymore. These mysterious elements are never really explained and they don't need to be either. It would take the power and the wonder out of them and leave you unsatisfied. Parts of the story read like fragments of dreams. Some of them are, in fact, dreams, some of them aren't and some of them might only be, you're never completely sure.
In the hands of a less skilled author, this might seem like a cheap way to avoid proper explanations.
But Murakami handles this amazingly well. There are some suggestions as to what might have happened to Sumire (and to Miu whose past is connected to Sumire's disappearance in a strange way), but ultimately, it is left open to the reader's imagination, further enhancing the dream-like atmosphere.
The novel also deals with the nature of human relationships, specifically loneliness and people's inability to connect with each other, to open up to others and to stay close to their loved ones. The Sputnik sattelites, orbiting the earth in loneliness and only crossing paths for the briefest moment, if at all, serve as a metaphor for this. It's especially these poetic musings with the strange imagery of the lonely sattelites that make my eyes water.
It's a beautiful novel. Sad without being depressing, occassionally erotic, poetic and simply beautiful.
Notes:
I read the German translation and I have no idea how the English translation is done. Japanese is so different from any European language that there might be a lot left open to the translatators interpretation, so there could be some vast differences between the translations. I still encourage you to give it a try.
Richard Adams - Watership Down
In short terms: Heroic fantasy with rabbits.
In slightly longer terms:
Alarmed by terrifying visions of the destruction of their warren, Fiver convinces a bunch of other rabbits to leave in search of a new home. As they travel across the country trying to find the place Fiver has seen in his dreams, they encounter many dangers such as foxes, cats, dogs, humans and other very hostile rabbits.
The novel is amazingly famous and yet I've encountered few people who have actually read it. I have a truly hard time convincing people to give it a try and I guess it's because the protagonists are all rabbits.
This serves as yet another proof that I'm surrounded by idiots. Following a bunch of rabbits on their adventures is far more exciting and makes for a far more rewarding read than most people would like to believe.
An epic quest in the spirit of "The Lord of the Rings"...with rabbits? Richard Adams managed to pull that trick off while anthropomorphizing his protagonists as little as possible. They tell stories, have a lapine language and an own mythology but otherwise, they still behave like you would expect rabbits to behave. For example, they find it difficult to move as a group because rabbits aren't used to travelling greater distances and only the smartest of the group can think of digging out the peg when one of them is caught in a snare. You can tell the author knows a lot about rabbits and has tried to make as few mistakes as possible.
It's been a long time since I last read it, but I remember being drawn into the story not only by the interesting depiction of rabbit life but also by the vivid descriptions of nature.
Reading the novel you really notice how mankind has been estranged from nature over time to the point where it feels slightly strange to have no part of the story set in a truly man-made environment. It's like reading a story set in a fantasy world without cities and with hardly any signs of civilization, where trains are unstoppable forces of evil and the thought of having to cross open space at night is terrifying.
All of this simply through the change of perspective fom human to rabbit. The mythology Adams has created for them is also a treat to read. The rabbits tell stories of gods like Frith, the Sun God, or the Black Rabbit of
Inlé, their version of the grim reaper, but every story features the adventures of rabbit folk hero El-ahrairah, an archetypical trickster.
I can promise you that you will see rabbits with different eyes after this novel. Sure, they will always remain cute and cuddly, but reading about their struggles made me feel an odd sort of respect for them.
Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men
While hunting Antelope near the Rio Grande at the border between Mexico and the USA, Vietnam-veteran Llewelyn Moss stumbles upon the remains of a drug deal gone wrong. He finds bullet-ridden vehicles with heroin in their trunks, several bodies and a satchel filled with more than two million dollars. He simply can't resist. He decides to take the money and run, setting in motion a spiral of horrible violence.
Ed Tom Bell, an aging sheriff, is determined to find Llewelyn and protect him from the owners of the money, but he finds himself to be always several steps behind the action.
Meanwhile, it becomes clear that Llewelyn has bitten off more than he can chew. It's not only the Mexican drug dealers who are after him, trying to get their money back.
On his trail is also Anton Chigurh who starts off as a hired hitman but betrays his employers and prefers to work on his own as a kind of freelance assassin. There is no hiding from Chigurh. He can track people down with frightening speed and skill and once he has decided to kill someone, death is pretty much guaranteed.
The result is a game of cat and mouse between Anton Chigurh and Llewelyn Moss that leaves a bloody trail throughout southwest Texas.
Despite the story centering around Llewelyn, he is not the main character. That position is filled by Ed Tom Bell who is unable to put an end to all the violence and can only observe the aftermath. He feels overmatched by the crime and injustice that surrounds him and remains mostly passive, commenting on the things he sees in a resigned tone and musing about where all the violence comes from.
The writing style is astonishingly curt, unadorned and to the point with few figures of style. Except for Bell's internal monologues at the beginning of each chapter, the characters' thoughts aren't shown, rather they are characterized by what they do and what they say. As a reader, you can't get into their heads, you can only observe them and form your opinion about them based on how they act.
It took me a while to get used to McCarthy's style of writing because I normally tend to prefer rich and poetic styles. But now I think it fits the novel perfectly, it sets the mood for the gritty story and mirrors the scant Texan landscape. The whole thing has the atmosphere of a Western, even though it's set in the 80s. Also, with a writing style as terse as this one, the few stylistic figures McCarthy employs seem to make the respective sentences practically ring with significance. In the end, this makes for a hauntingly powerful style instead of a plain and boring one as I had initially feared.
Also, I am in love with the characters. Every character is a little masterpiece. Poor old sheriff Bell who you can't help but pity even if you don't agree with his views, Llewelyn who you can't help but root for because he is so smart, skilled and courageous, Llewelyns strong-willed young wife Carla Jean who is absolutely loyal to him, and many others. All of them are in some way fascinating. And what's more, all of them are believable.
All except one.
The one character who is not as believable as the others is simultaneously the most fascinating one. He is not really believable because he doesn't need to be.
That character is Anton Chigurh who is more like a force of nature than a human being. I've heard it said that some fans speculate he might be an anthropomorphic personification of death. That theory doesn't seem to far-fetched. It's not that he's invincible. He isn't. In fact, he gets hit pretty badly by no other than Llewelyn Moss. What makes him so chilling is his character. He is always calm and patient, never hurrying, but he can't be stopped either. When he's decided to kill someone, that person will die in the near future and there's no way around it. He can't be reasoned with at all. This finality might be the cause of the aforementioned theory.
Whatever way you interpret him, I can't deny he's one of the most chilling antagonists I've ever had the pleasure of encountering in a book or film.
For me as a villain-junkie, this is a definite plus but it's by no means the only reason I enjoyed the novel. The story is incredibly thrilling and fast-paced, the writing style intriguingly different from anything I've read before, the themes will make you think and can occupy your mind for a long while and all the characters are great. Yes, all of them.
Be sure to check out the 2007 movie adaption by the Coen brothers as well. It won 4 Oscars and deserved every one of them.
Walter Moers - The City of Dreaming Books
Optimus Yarnspinner is a Lindworm and, like all of his species, destined to become a writer. When his mentor Dancelot dies, Optimus inherits his most valuable possession: a perfect manuscript, the best piece of literature ever written, sent to Dancelot by an unknown author.
Determined to find this gifted writer and make him his new mentor, Optimus travels to Bookholm, the City of Dreaming Books.
Bookholm, as the name suggests, is no ordinary city. It is dedicated to literature in every way imaginable. The streets are full of libraries, bookstores, publishing houses, scary freelance critics, editors and aspiring writers.
Optimus is instantly smitten with this book-loving city and tries to navigate through all the chaos in search of the unknown writer. But since he's never really travelled before, he is also painfully unworldly and in his naivety, he turns to the wrong people for help.
As a result, he suddenly finds himself banished to the Catacombs, Bookholm's twisted mirror image, a vast labyrinth under the city.
The Catacombs seem like a huge treasure cave at first, stuffed to the brim with rare old books, but they're more dangerous than Optimus ever imagined.
Apart from being home to all kinds of unspeakably weird monsters, the Catacombs are also the domain of the bookhunters, ruthless bandits who hunt the rarest and most valuable books. They turned huge parts of the labyrinth into elaborate booby traps and fight bloody battles down there.
And if that wasn't enough already, there are also rumors of the terrible booklings and the mysterious Shadow King who is said to reside deep down in the heart of the Catacombs...
One of my all-time favourites!
Where to start?
The novel, like previous novels by German author Walter Moers, is set on the fictional continent of Zamonia. And believe me when I tell you it's one of the most unusual fantasy books you'll ever read. You could compare Zamonia to Terry Pratchett's Discworld and wouldn't be too far off the mark, but the weirdness-factor might be slightly higher in Zamonia.
The City of Dreaming Books combines elements of satire, fantasy, adventure, fairy tale and many other genres, mixes them and creates something new and unique.
It's both a satire of as well as a tribute to books, reading, literature and the whole colorful insanity of the book market, chock full with allusions to famous works and authors, wordplay, puns and anything else you can think of. Lots of widely known authors' names appaer in the form of weird anagrams, making them "Zamonian" authors. Ever heard of Selwi Rollcar or Asdrel Chickens?
The whole world described in the novel reads like a carnival of weirdness, it's a sheer explosion of fantastic ideas and its richness makes your head spin.
The story pauses sometimes to make room for some loving descriptions of Bookholm and its quirky inhabitants or a whacky little side story, but in the end, most of it either helps enhance the atmosphere or benefits the development of the plot in some way.
Either way, it's always extremely entertaining.
Despite all its amusing quirkyness and playful satire, there are also serious and very touching moments, some of which move me to tears every single time I read them.
This novel has a remarkable magic to it, reading it feels like opening a treasure chest full of amazing things and better yet, you discover something new every time you read it. Let me throw around some adjectives, I learned in my English class that this is always a good thing.
It's beautiful, intelligent, touching, hilarious, whimsical, fantastical, quirky, thoughtful...and illustrated. By the author himself. Despite not being a children's book. I lovelovelove illustrated books.
Notes:
Of course I read the German original first, but I own the English translation as well and I'm impressed. Inevitably, some things get lost in translation, but all in all, the translator did an amazing job at saving a great deal of Walter Moers' wordplay into English. Where something simply couldn't be translated, he successfully came up with his own jokes and puns and also made up a large amount of new anagrams.
It's an extremely good translation and I urge you to give it a try even if you aren't normally into fantasy. Because this is more than fantasy.
I always wanted to write about other books, but I don't think I'll find the time. :/