Brief life update, plus review catch-up part 1
It's a good while since I've posted, and it's recently struck me that it might make sense to do it in bits rather than have one absolutely huge post with everything I've been up to in the last few weeks...
Things are generally going OK. I've made a decent start on the book translation I referred to in my post of 16 Feb and, although it's not particularly well-paid for the level of skill involved, I'm enjoying the work and very much liking having complete freedom to choose my hours of work, plus a commute of only a couple of metres(!). The aforementioned freedom has meant much better sleep and much more time and energy to do things social and cultural, hence the glut of reviews which will eventually follow. I've not done much of anything yet to look for better-paying or more long term work (although that's on the list), but I'm in the process of applying for a voluntary thing which looks set to be interesting and potentially good for my CV: mentoring kids young people at risk of school failure. A has in the past threatened to lock me in the house if I look like considering going back to teaching, but I think this will be OK. ;)
Anyway, here comes the first bundle of reviews:
Death Comes to Pemberley - P.D. James
For those who aren't aware, this is PD James' attempt at a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. There's a 'previously on...' prologue, to remind those who don't know P&P inside out who's who and what the relationships are between them, but the story proper begins on the day before the annual ball held by Mr and Mrs Darcy, when Lydia arrives unexpectedly (as she's not been invited), screaming that her husband has been murdered.
I put this on my wishlist just before Christmas because I was curious to see for myself why it had received such mixed reviews on Amazon: an average of 2.8 hiding an near-even split from 5 stars to 1.
The author clearly knows her Austen, and there are some nice touches in the throwaway authorial comments about human nature, which do the originals justice, but I couldn't quite bring myself to disagree with those who say that she got Austen's characters wrong. Although people change, they don't change all that much, and neither Elizabeth nor Darcy show quite the wit or spirit of the original. Worst of all is the epilogue, where the two have a completely implausible conversation about the detailed events of P&P, a mere six years and two children into their marriage. I thought the book's takes on Colonel Fitzwilliam and the feckless Wickham were interesting, and some points are definitely due for the well-thought out return of one minor nefarious character from P&P, whose involvement is crucial to the plot. I wasn't so sure that the references to characters from various other of Austen's works was particularly helpful, though.
So, as a sequel, it's some way from being a real success. And as a murder mystery? I'll admit that it's not a genre I've read much since I gave up on Agatha Christie somewhere around age 12 , but I wasn't entirely convinced or satisfied by this example. It has a couple of nice misdirections, and I suppose that, strictly speaking, all the clues are there. In the end, though, the whole thing felt a bit too flat and contrived for my liking, too much like an essay or an intellectual puzzle, with the characters never really coming to life on the page.
London's Overthrow - China Mieville
This is an odd little book: too short to be a normal book, a bit too long for a chapbook. It's a long way from the sci-fi stuff I'm used to from China Mieville, being more of an academic essay with accompanying photos. It's partly about London itself, and partly a left-wing polemic about London's dispossessed and how things are being made even worse for them. It's quite uneven, with bits which could have come from the Guardian's Society section on any given Wednesday, bits which approach poetry, and some bits which are genuinely reminiscent of what I'm used to from this writer (laundrettes proposed as entrances to something like Terry Pratchett's L-space, for example). 'Interesting' is probably the most useful all-purpose adjective which applies.
Translating Sex - London Review Bookshop World Literature Series
Going to this talk last week was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing, when I decided I'd done enough translation work for the day, but I'm glad I did, as it was really interesting. At the start of the session, we were given a booklet which included an extract from a short story written in French and two translations into English written independently by professional translators - who did not see the alternate translation until they arrived at the bookshop for the talk. The author and the translators read (even shorter) extracts from the translation, then discussed the differences between the translations and the reasons they chose the words they chose. After the discussion, the Chair opened the floor to questions.
Possibly the biggest surprise of the evening, for me, was the point when one of the speakers asked those of the audience who spoke French to raise their hand, and only about half of us did so. I'd previously assumed this was going to be a thing full of language geeks and more than a few actual translators, but I guess that's why they chose the 'sex' angle. It wasn't what most people would call erotica, mind you, being a scene where the narrator is having sex with his girlfriend but is pretty sure she's only agreed to it because she has PMT and it's easier to do so than to answer questions about why she's in such a foul mood(!)
Highlights included:
Things are generally going OK. I've made a decent start on the book translation I referred to in my post of 16 Feb and, although it's not particularly well-paid for the level of skill involved, I'm enjoying the work and very much liking having complete freedom to choose my hours of work, plus a commute of only a couple of metres(!). The aforementioned freedom has meant much better sleep and much more time and energy to do things social and cultural, hence the glut of reviews which will eventually follow. I've not done much of anything yet to look for better-paying or more long term work (although that's on the list), but I'm in the process of applying for a voluntary thing which looks set to be interesting and potentially good for my CV: mentoring kids young people at risk of school failure. A has in the past threatened to lock me in the house if I look like considering going back to teaching, but I think this will be OK. ;)
Anyway, here comes the first bundle of reviews:
Death Comes to Pemberley - P.D. James
For those who aren't aware, this is PD James' attempt at a sequel to Pride and Prejudice. There's a 'previously on...' prologue, to remind those who don't know P&P inside out who's who and what the relationships are between them, but the story proper begins on the day before the annual ball held by Mr and Mrs Darcy, when Lydia arrives unexpectedly (as she's not been invited), screaming that her husband has been murdered.
I put this on my wishlist just before Christmas because I was curious to see for myself why it had received such mixed reviews on Amazon: an average of 2.8 hiding an near-even split from 5 stars to 1.
The author clearly knows her Austen, and there are some nice touches in the throwaway authorial comments about human nature, which do the originals justice, but I couldn't quite bring myself to disagree with those who say that she got Austen's characters wrong. Although people change, they don't change all that much, and neither Elizabeth nor Darcy show quite the wit or spirit of the original. Worst of all is the epilogue, where the two have a completely implausible conversation about the detailed events of P&P, a mere six years and two children into their marriage. I thought the book's takes on Colonel Fitzwilliam and the feckless Wickham were interesting, and some points are definitely due for the well-thought out return of one minor nefarious character from P&P, whose involvement is crucial to the plot. I wasn't so sure that the references to characters from various other of Austen's works was particularly helpful, though.
So, as a sequel, it's some way from being a real success. And as a murder mystery? I'll admit that it's not a genre I've read much since I gave up on Agatha Christie somewhere around age 12 , but I wasn't entirely convinced or satisfied by this example. It has a couple of nice misdirections, and I suppose that, strictly speaking, all the clues are there. In the end, though, the whole thing felt a bit too flat and contrived for my liking, too much like an essay or an intellectual puzzle, with the characters never really coming to life on the page.
London's Overthrow - China Mieville
This is an odd little book: too short to be a normal book, a bit too long for a chapbook. It's a long way from the sci-fi stuff I'm used to from China Mieville, being more of an academic essay with accompanying photos. It's partly about London itself, and partly a left-wing polemic about London's dispossessed and how things are being made even worse for them. It's quite uneven, with bits which could have come from the Guardian's Society section on any given Wednesday, bits which approach poetry, and some bits which are genuinely reminiscent of what I'm used to from this writer (laundrettes proposed as entrances to something like Terry Pratchett's L-space, for example). 'Interesting' is probably the most useful all-purpose adjective which applies.
Translating Sex - London Review Bookshop World Literature Series
Going to this talk last week was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing, when I decided I'd done enough translation work for the day, but I'm glad I did, as it was really interesting. At the start of the session, we were given a booklet which included an extract from a short story written in French and two translations into English written independently by professional translators - who did not see the alternate translation until they arrived at the bookshop for the talk. The author and the translators read (even shorter) extracts from the translation, then discussed the differences between the translations and the reasons they chose the words they chose. After the discussion, the Chair opened the floor to questions.
Possibly the biggest surprise of the evening, for me, was the point when one of the speakers asked those of the audience who spoke French to raise their hand, and only about half of us did so. I'd previously assumed this was going to be a thing full of language geeks and more than a few actual translators, but I guess that's why they chose the 'sex' angle. It wasn't what most people would call erotica, mind you, being a scene where the narrator is having sex with his girlfriend but is pretty sure she's only agreed to it because she has PMT and it's easier to do so than to answer questions about why she's in such a foul mood(!)
Highlights included:
- the discussion of the best translation of 'la chatte' ('pussy' is maybe too American; 'fanny' a bit odd, and could really confuse an American reader; should one just take a leap and use the most taboo word in the English language?)
- the glorious translation of 'faire l'amour alors qu'elle fait la gueule' as either 'having a hump when she's got the hump' or 'making love when she means to make war'
- the discussion on how, for English readers of French, the fact that the male member is gramatically feminine in French can lead to some cognitive dissonance
- a long digression on the etymological history of the most taboo word in the English language (described in one dictionary of slang as 'a nasty word for a nasty thing'!)
- the bit where the Chair read out all the parts where the two translations actually corresponded precisely, word for word...and the result took about twenty seconds, in a Reduced Shakespeare Company style.