Alpine Ballad by Vasil Bykau

Alpine Ballad by Vasil Bykau is a WWII novel like none I've ever read, before, a story of escape and survival. Near the end of WWII, an Italian girl and a Belarusian soldier escape from a Nazi concentration camp in Austria and run into the surrounding mountains with Germans in pursuit. Both a survival story and a romance, the short novel takes place over a 3-day period.

Ivan has lost his shoes and Giulia is wearing clogs. While his feet become unsurprisingly battered, Giulia's clogs slow her down. Ivan considers abandoning her. His new companion is bizarrely, even dangerously cheerful and he doesn't want her to hold him back or give them away. But, he slowly becomes attached to her as they try to find their way to safety and learn to communicate in a hodge-podge of languages cobbled together. Eventually, they fall in love. But, the Nazis are closing in.

Through flashbacks, we get to know how Ivan has been imprisoned by the Nazis several times and came to be captured, each time. Through dialogue, we learn Giulia's story. And, in a letter entitled "In lieu of an Epilogue," the reader finds out what happened after the war, a finale that will warm you down to your toes.

Highly recommended - Heartbreaking and achingly beautiful, Alpine Ballad is so gripping that I occasionally realized I was holding my breath. It's also an excellent translation. I didn't have any trouble following the story, as I sometimes do with translations, and there are footnotes defining the occasional mixture of non-translated words that are used to show how Ivan and Giulia communicate using a blend of languages. I absolutely loved this book and am going to seek out more of Bykau's writing.


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Mini reviews - A Brown Man in Russia by Vijay Menon and The Birds of Opulence by Crystal Wilkinson

I don't feel like I have a great deal to say about these two books and I need to do some catch-up, so I'm going to go ahead and give them the mini review treatment.

A Brown Man in Russia: Lessons Learned on the Trans-Siberian is the memoir of a young American of Indian descent who traveled to Russia with two of his friends.

Vijay Menon works in the tech industry and decided early on that he wanted to travel widely. Because he grew up in an affluent family and has had jobs that pay well, he's already traveled quite extensively. The book mostly focuses on the trip to Russia and how he and his friends occasionally got pleasantly lost or had trouble finding their way to their destinations, the people they encountered along the way, and the occasional mistakes they made.

A Brown Man in Russia is very entertaining. In between chapters on their adventures, Menon occasionally will wax philosophical, giving advice or simply describing his world views. You could call it a tiny bit preachy, but I thought it was a little preachy in a good way (probably because we are in agreement, most of the time). There was only one thing I really disliked about this book and that was the vocabulary. It sounds like Menon wrote with a thesaurus on his lap. If he talks the way he writes (which is hard to imagine), his vocabulary is lofty. It just comes off as if he's trying to sound impressive. I opted to overlook that and just enjoy the book, but it occasionally bothered me enough that I marked a passage, for example: the use of "postprandial" and other long words to describe feeling full and satisfied after lunch. Just unnecessary.

I think it's also worth mentioning that this is the second book I've read recently by Glagoslav Publications (a publisher that mostly publishes works in translation) in which pages fell out as I was reading the book. I wrote to ask if anything is being done about the binding issue, since it's happened more than once, and did not hear back from the publicist. I've read books by Glagoslav in the past and not had that problem, so hopefully it was a temporary fluke.

UPDATE: I received a reply about the binding problem and apparently an earlier reply went into my spam box. The publicist has asked for photos of the binding issue to forward to the printer as she considers it a very serious problem. I will do that, ASAP, and presume that the problem will be attended to. Apologies to Glagoslav for not seeing that response before I wrote my review.

Recommended but not a favorite - It's a shame that the writing in A Brown Man in Russia is so pompous because otherwise it's a great little book. I enjoyed reading about the author's adventures and even enjoyed it when he pontificated about his personal beliefs about travel and other topics. The writing style makes for slow reading, but that didn't bother me and I'm glad I read it.

The Birds of Opulence by Crystal Wilkinson was the first selection of the Open Canon Book Club (which has a Facebook site as well as a website, easy to find by googling the name) and I enjoyed it so much that I'll probably end up recommending it to my book group. Opulence is the name of a town but I can't remember whether it's in North Carolina or some other Southern state, since I read it over a month ago. The Birds of Opulence tells the story of several generations of women who live in Opulence, most of them family, the others friends of that family.

There's not much plot to The Birds of Opulence. I would call it a quiet novel, a short but intense family saga. It starts with a woman giving birth in a vegetable patch and then a widowed neighbor giving birth shortly after. The mother who gives birth in the family's garden is disinterested in her child and has trouble even getting out of bed. These glimpses of depression prove to be merely the start of a long life of mental illness that is kept under control by the support of her family.

Gradually, each of the women's stories unfold and the two babies grow and have children of their own. Eventually, the women begin passing away and the book closes with the thoughts of the one man who was always surrounded by the women and there for them, a loving and faithful presence from the time he entered the family.

Highly recommended - The Birds of Opulence is a beautiful, heart-rending, poetic novel of family and mental illness. I was not quite finished with the book when Crystal Wilkinson did a Q/A session with the group, but I saved the entire question/answer session (which was done on Facebook) and returned to it when I finished. I really enjoyed reading what she had to say about the writing process and the characters. I would definitely recommend The Birds of Opulence for discussion.

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Death of the Snakecatcher by Ak Welsapar

Death of the Snake Catcher by Ak Welsapar is a collection of short stories with several different translators. Author Ak Welsapar is originally from Turkmenistan, a country I knew nothing about until I read the introduction of Death of the Snake Catcher and followed that up with a little online reading. It is one of the "most restricted places on the planet", with media that's entirely government controlled and "absymal" human rights (I'm quoting the intro).

You get a sense of what it's like to live in such a closed, somewhat terrifying regime from some of the stories, although they're not all set in Turkmenistan. The author, after being declared an "enemy of the people", eventually had no choice but to escape and has lived in Sweden for decades. Some stories felt to me like they could happen on my home turf, with perhaps a few minor alterations, and some were a little too foreign for me. At least one made very little sense to me because the traditions and expressions were a little too far from my own understanding. But, the book was worth reading for the few that really made an impact and the introduction left an indelible impression on me, as did my favorite story.

A few of the stories:

"On the Emerald Shore" - A mist envelops the sea and the locals believe it to be the work of the drowned. Several people have recently drowned in the area. One is missing and presumed dead, another has washed ashore. In the nearby bar, people play billiards and discuss the drownings, wondering about how they may have occurred, especially to the most recent victim, who was muscular and fit.

"Love in Lilac" - My personal favorite, the story of a young man named Arslan who spots a "beautiful, fair-skinned girl" sitting amongst the lilacs in a Moscow park. He approaches her awkwardly and eventually they fall in love. But, it's forbidden to interact with foreigners and she's a student from Sweden. After falling for her hard, he is one day removed from class.

He was picked up by the KGB with a sickening lack of ceremony. 

What follows is one of the most intense sections of a short story that I recall reading since the days when I used to read a lot of Richard Matheson's short stories. I don't want to give it away, but it is an understated sort of menacing experience in which the tension ramps up because of what doesn't happen but could -- and Arslan knows it. I've recently seen comments that some Americans are unconcerned about the possibility that we could become an authoritarian regime. This story should make anyone who made such casual remarks have second thoughts.

"One of the Seven is a Scoundrel" - Another menacing story (the tense stories were my absolute favorites). Seven men are returning home in a horse cart from a hard day's work harvesting and talking about how some nearby villagers have been sent to Siberia when their path intersects with that of some soldiers. The soldiers have a quota of men to take to prison but one has escaped, so they need one more. Who will end up being taken away, not for doing anything wrong but to fill a quota? Who will be the scoundrel who turns him in?

Recommended - The title story, "Death of the Snakecatcher" is another favorite. I recommend Death of the Snakecatcher particularly to short story lovers and people who enjoy reading translations. While there were times I felt like I needed some sort of explanation -- a glossary, an introduction to a particular story, etc., to make sense of specific traditions -- the stories that I liked best were so thought-provoking that I had to put the book down to let a story roll around in my head for a day or two. That has always been the sign of a phenomenal short story to me, not being able to get it out of my head until I've given it some thought or wanting to talk to everyone about it.

Two vocabulary words I learned from this book:

Albescent - (adj.) white or tending toward white. From this passage:

On the third day, a mist enveloped the sea. Albescent, rising up off the water, it languidly wrapped around the shore, then the town, little by little covering the entire surroundings. 

~from "The Emerald Shore"

Takyr - (n.) meaning "smooth, even, or bare", is a type of relief occurring in the deserts of Central Asia, similar to a salt flat in the southwestern United States. From this passage:

The sweltering summer heat seemed intolerable to the men lying on the horse cart moving along the dried mud takyr path, some holding their coats and some their sheepskin hats under their elbows.

~from "One of the Seven is a Scoundrel"

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Lost Button by Irene Rozdobudko

Book Description:

When young screenwriter Denys has a chance encounter with the gorgeous but older Liza at a vacation resort in the Carpathian mountains in the Seventies, he is immediately captured to the point of obsession. Moved to do everything in his power to be with her, he pays his way into a tour group during which Liza and Denys become "lost" together. But, their time alone is limited. Liza has a daughter and a life of her own. She has no real interest in Denys and is angered when he later shows up in her classroom.

Liza goes on with her life after they part. But, Denys is unable to let go of their single night together in the woods, even after decades have passed; and, his entire life revolves around his obsession. When he makes an impulsive decision that could change everything for the better, Denys is blinded to what is good and real in his life . . . until it's gone. Suddenly aware of what he had, Denys goes in search of the true love of his life. But, is it too late?

The Lost Button by Irene Rozdobudko is yet another book that I read around 2 weeks ago but have no problem remembering. Translated from the Ukranian, there are some turns of phrase that I found a little odd and I thought the book began rather slowly. In fact, I wasn't sure I'd complete it at all because Denys's obsession made for pretty dull and annoying reading (my opinion). And, then suddenly it became unbearable to put down. What happened?

The turning point in The Lost Button takes place when the reader becomes aware that Denys has lost the best thing in his life and after two years of searching has come up empty-handed. There are some complications that I think are best left as a surprise, although I will tell you that the missing person is his wife and her name is Lika.

After we learn about his search, the book switches from Denys's point of view to Lika's. We learn about how Lika reacted to betrayal, psychologically, where she went and what became of her. In the end, everything is thoroughly wrapped up in a very satisfying way.

Highly Recommended - The Lost Button is quite a fascinating book because it goes from a tale of obsession to a story about a man who simply can't see the good in his life, then it becomes a mystery about a missing person and finally ends with a psychological analysis of how a woman reacted to betrayal and went missing. It is utterly fascinating and I loved it, even if the obsession part nearly made me pull my hair out. I guess obsession by its very nature tends to be repetitive. That part was hard to get through but I would read The Lost Button again, now that I know how it ends. I absolutely loved Lika and found her story the most engrossing part of the book.

The Lost Button is the first of three translations I've gotten from Glagoslav Publications. I'm really excited to see how the other two turn out.

Speaking of which . . .

I've only managed to finish a whopping 4 books, so far, this month. This may possibly be the worst reading month I've had in 6 1/2 years of blogging! But, I'm actually just trying to roll with it. If I'm too tired to read (unpacking is dreary and exhausting), I sometimes nap, go to bed early or find something other than reading that occupies my mind. I've been having a lot of fun with Fat Mum Slim's September photo-a-day challenge. While I haven't managed to grab the camera every day, I love the fact that it's making me think about photography subjects that wouldn't occur to me, otherwise.

And, another side benefit of the challenge is that I have found a wonderful online photo editor that has effects very similar to those of Instagram. Since I don't have a smart phone, I've been a little envious of those Instagram effects, but the Pixlr-o-matic is easy as pie and has loads of great effects. Here's one of my favorite non-challenge photos, gussied up with Pixlr effects:

I've been asked to share my challenge photos at the end of the month. Some of them are pretty dull, but I'll share. I love looking at everyone else's photos; that's what got me started.

Tomorrow is F2F meeting day. Wahoo! I can't wait! We read two books, this month: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. I've continued to feed my new Hemingway obsession by indulging in Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck. I hope to finish it by 2013 [<----comment on my pathetic current reading speed]. I may be reading slowly, but I'm having fun when I do pick up a book.

Have you read anything fabulous, lately?

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.