Another 20 Books of Summer book finished, and another from April 2019. I’m really pleased with how my TBR is looking (which you will see on Saturday, of course) – very different from its appearance at the start of 20 Books! I really liked finding these birthday books from Sian in my pile – we did the same this year and it’s fun to have some books that come in as gifts part-way through the year (this year, I notably had a book and then a charity shop “voucher” so I could browse for some more lovelies, something I was glad to be able to come back to last week at Oxfam Books (and I haven’t come down with anything after that, a week later, so fingers crossed it is all safe!).
I have also read in the interim Nadiya Hussain’s novel “The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters”, however, as this is part of a trilogy and I seem to be reading a bit more recently with lots of review posts flying out, I thought I’d save that until I’ve read the other two, to do a joint review.
Tim Parks – “Where I’m Reading From”
(21 April 2019 – from Sian)
The subtitle, “The Changing World of Books” should perhaps have given away to me that there was going to be quite a lot about the death of the modern novel in this collection of essays – which turn out to all be articles from the New York Review of Books, therefore a lot more serious and, well, ‘hard’, than the popular pieces I was expecting when I put this on my wishlist. I was also irritated early on by a note explaining that the writer was going to use “he” instead of “he and she” (with a very few exceptions, apparently), as in “the old impersonal he”, not to be chauvinistic, but for clarity. Then I would say about half the pieces used “he or she” and the note only served to emphasise the clumsiness of this construction! The book was published in 2014, however: maybe he’s keener on singular they now. However there was a lot to enjoy amidst the discussion of modern novels I don’t know well and slight irritation.
I liked very much the pieces on translation (and the one on editing, which also had something decent to say about too-careful adherence to in-house style guides at the expense of readability), and the insights into his own writing and translating life. The pieces on translating an author’s style, especially when they say things in ways contrary to expectations, is fascinating, as is the piece on the untranslateable quality of cultural items of which US fiction can be particularly full (reclining chairs, foosball tables, etc.) while European writing seems to be moving towards a simplified, translateable norm; and even towards English as opposed to its own syntax, creating almost a lingua franca for easy translation. His piece on writing a book for the US market and the localisation he had to endure made me smile, as I work on this kind of thing from US to UK English and it does feel quite fussy sometimes.
In the essay entitled “Where I’m Reading From” he posits the theory that people’s family background and the particular aspects of life and personality that a family is concerned with (whether that’s good and evil, cautiousness and profligacy, bravery or timidity) affects what books the person growing up in that family will be drawn to. Thus, his hatred of his father’s Bible concordances feeds into his dislike of over-complicated literary theory which he criticises in a later piece. I’m not sure I completely subscribe to this myself, but it is an interesting idea.
Finally, the pieces on his personal experience as a writer, from being a different writer in England, Italy and the US to the stupid questions people ask at book events, were engaging and easier to read. So on balance a good read with some tougher pieces, as you’d expect from a book of essays.
This was Book 12 in my 20 Books Of Summer project.
I’m currently reading Jon Bloomfield’s “Our City” which is about immigrants in my adopted home city of Birmingham and a fascinating, warm and very readable book, although making some hard-hitting points about exploitation and economics. That’s my last non-Virago etc Book of Summer so I feel I’m doing quite well there. It’s hard to put down so should be finished soon!
Jul 29, 2020 @ 09:24:53
Very interesting, Liz! I’ve read his more recent collection “Pen in Hand” and like you there were points where I was a little irked.He’s a writer with strong opinions, I think, and I did find it a bit uncomfortable when he laid into fellow translators. But there was enough to counter this to make it an enjoyable, if occasionally bracing, read!
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 11:17:34
Oh, that’s interesting. He was mainly talking about students with a few examples of where it’s difficult to translate, but I found the talk of the death of the novel a bit boring!
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 09:53:32
I agree with Karen – very interesting. I’ve just finished a translation of a Stefan Zweig novel which has some rather intrusive American-English phrases. I know it’s a bit insular to resent these things…
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 11:18:42
I’m not so bothered about those if it was an American edition or about America, but not necessary otherwise. I have to be super-fussy when localising into British English, e.g. always use s spellings even though we know z ones are Oxford style, and it sometimes comes out a bit old-fashioned sounding, but the clients like to see the changes!
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 11:54:16
I reviewed this one for Shiny when it first came out. (Not reposted yet!) I remember finding the bits about translation as the most interesting too.
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 12:09:15
Those were certainly the best bits, along with those on editing and localisation for me!
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 16:46:24
I’m intrigued by the stupid questions people ask!
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 16:49:45
Mainly to do with writers’ lives rather than their works and he concedes he can understand why that happens!
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 17:01:46
I’m American and had no idea reclining chairs were an American thing! You learn something new every day. 🙂
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 17:05:39
They’re not entirely – I mean, we have them in the UK, but he makes a fuss about getting Italians to understand them, and they have a different term for table football which has a deep Italian cultural resonance that would creep in to a translation of a very American novel so what to do, etc?
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Jul 29, 2020 @ 17:16:48
Sounds like you are doing really well with your challenges Liz. This sounds great!
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Jul 30, 2020 @ 09:55:43
I’m pleased with how I’ve got on this year – about to finish Book 13 and move onto the Viragoes and Persephones (though I do have four review books to read, too!).
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Jul 30, 2020 @ 00:19:31
Drat! Another book to add to my wishlist!
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Jul 30, 2020 @ 09:55:54
I’m sorry!
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Jul 31, 2020 @ 17:36:43
I am not good with non fiction as you know, so as you say this is quite hard I would steer clear. I am better with hard fiction. Though the stuff about translation sounds interesting.
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Aug 01, 2020 @ 05:49:41
Yeah, it’s pretty dry and as two people who don’t really burrow into the modern male American novel, neither of us would be that fascinated by those chapters!
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Aug 01, 2020 @ 06:47:18
I enjoyed this discussion through your comments. Not a book I would find that interesting or so I think but I do surprise myself at times. Interesting conversation.
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Aug 02, 2020 @ 07:13:03
Thank you! It wasn’t the most approachable book ever and I’m glad it’s read and done. I always find it useful to find out books I DON’T need to read, too!
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