Hello Gentle Reader
Iceland is one of the most diverse countries, environmentally wise. It is a country of ice and of fire. Glaciers, ice fields, volcanoes, and geysers, as well as lava fields – and of course the famous hot springs; speckle this amazing country. Geothermal power is the main resource, of power and electricity. Yet this country is known as a brutal place. It is a place known for its barren and bleak winter – where Norse Viking settlers called home. Iceland has a rich and deep history; as well as some of the greatest works of ancient literature in the world. The Icelandic Saga’s are famous, for their continual relevance in contemporary Iceland; and how well preserved they have become over the years. Iceland has one Nobel Laureate in Literature to its name Halldór Laxness. Yet one of the most interesting facts of Iceland is that it has retained its ancient and archaic language throughout the years. It is said to be one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world. Still hearing an Icelandic person speak in English their accent sounds truly, beautiful. Rough like a stone covered in frost; and it has a certain musical beauty in the quality. That and it seems when Icelandic people speak English they choose their words with utmost care, to provide the greatest weight to what it is they are saying. This may come from the fact that ninety-three percent of country of Iceland, read at least one book a year; while forty percent read more than five a year. Even though less than half a million people reportedly live on the island country, an approximate annual 2.5 million books are sold within a year. Even with the financial struggles, book sales did not plummet. One of the most culturally interesting events is that, since the nineteen-fifties, it has become a tradition to exchange books at Christmas. Today an Icelandic person will find at least one book under their tree. This event is called “The Book Flood before Christmas.” Another interesting fact about Iceland is that their love of reading and writing has exploded in the dawn of the internet. Almost every Icelander has a blog. I have also read that the average Icelander will publish at least one book in their life time. Iceland also publishes five books for every thousand Icelander. Literacy and literature is something that Iceland celebrates.
Sigurjón Birgir Sigurdsson also known as: Sjon; is an Icelandic poet, lyricist and novelist. Sjon himself considers himself to be a novelist who occasionally dabbles in poetry. Yet with his fiction, it can be seen that Sjon, takes elements of poetry and places them in prose concepts. Often creating intensely lyrical and poetic imagery:
“In the halls of heaven it was not dark enough for the Aura Borealis sisters to begin their lively dance of veils. With enchanting play of colours they flitted light and quick about the great stage of the heavens, in fluttering golden dresses, their tumbling pearl necklaces scattering here and there in their wild caperings. This spectacle is at its brightest shortly after sunset.”
[ . . . ]
“Then the curtain falls; night takes over.”
One maybe more acquainted with Sjon more than they realize. Sjon has co-written Icelandic singer Björk’s lyrics. These include songs like “Virus,” “Bachelorette,” “Jóga,” and “Wanderlust,” among others. Sjon was nominated for an Academy Award with Lars Von Trier, for the song “I’ve Seen It All,” – from the film “Dancer in The Dark.” Yet coming to Sjon’s fiction is a better acquaintance to the author and writer, and his own talents. Sjon’s poetry is known for being surrealistic or fantastic (as in fantasy) that often places a high demand on the reader. His poems have been compared to dark, twisted fantastical forests. The words appear unrelated, and not truly sure of their own place within in the poem – often appearing to act in a random order. Yet the persistent reader and patient reader will come to see the pulsating nature of each line, as well as the humours possibilities of these unrelated images. One of the most interesting aspects of Sjon is that his first book of poetry was published when he was sixteen years old.
The prose of this small but epic novel is something quite interesting. The first section is, best compared to flashes of brilliant poetic fiction. They’re quick vignettes. At times only a sentence long. This first section depicts in a few days’ time, a hunters quest to kill a blue fox:
“There was a daughter of Reynard on the move.”
This line struck me, because of its allusion to the trickster figure Reynard the red fox. It’s a great summarization and comparison of the blue vixen on the run from the hunter.
The first part of this novel was rather difficult. I am not a hunter. I don’t like the idea of killing an animal for sport – as is why someone fox hunts in my opinion. Trophy hunting is not a sport. To kill or be more correct; to hunt for survival and or food it is different; but to kill for a pelt, or a head – a trophy; it is not something that on a personal basis that I agree with. Yet Sjon takes this hunter on a transformative quest. Yet getting over the hunting aspect of the first part of this novel, one begins to see some of the most surrealist imagery that is often compared to the fantastical; and has earned this slim novel, comparisons to a fable:
“He praised the Snow Queen and Jack Frost for the shelter they had given him on this fair path of ground; from this vantage point he sees far and wide over the white frozen waste.”
The second part of this novel is about the herbalist Fridrick, and his charge Abba. Which one begins to sense a bit of modernity and contemporary, reality within this novel – from the twisted time frame; to the sense that there is something that appears to transcend the time frame in which Sjon presents to the reader. Yet Fridrik and Abba’s story is a lot different than, the first part. The second part of this novel opens with the following description:
“The streams trickle under their glazing of ice, dreaming of spring, when they’ll swell to a life threatening force. Smoke curls up from the mounds of snow here and there on the mountainside—these are their homes [. . .]
“Everything here is a uniform blue, apart from the glitter of the tops. It is winter in the Dale.”
This subdued cinematic imagery of this place – “the Dale,” – what came to mind, was Tolkien’s Hobbits. Of course the exception is, the people have burrowed in snow, stone and mountain, surrounded by ice and a bleakly cruel landscape. Whereas Tolkien’s little Hobbits, live in hills and meadows, within soft earthen wombs, surrounded by green pastures and flowers. Yet still the image of smoke bellowing out of the mountains, from chimney’s invaded by snow, brought to mind a village of frost bitten trolls.
Yet Fridrik and Abba’s story is moving. This is when one comes to understand exactly what time period we are stuck in; and only have since began to come to terms with specialised care for the people who suffer from the affliction that Abba herself suffers from. Abba suffers from Down Syndrome. She survived the midwifery obligation to kill the child, before it can wail. Yet one begins to wonder, if letting the child to survive was the worst possible thing that the parents could have done. For Abba’s life has been less than kind. She was found shackled on an abandoned ship. There she was held captive in an outhouse; where Fridrik finds her. There his own humanity is awakened. Fridrik himself had been living Denmark, studying at the University of Copenhagen; the plan to be a pharmacist; and eating lotuses. He only returned to Iceland to tend to his parents estate after their deaths. After the discovery of Abba; Fridrik, takes her on as his charge.
The last quarter of the novel is than a beautiful tying in of these aspects of the novel. It doesn’t feel neatly finished though. It comes down to a realization. Each one is bound to each other. From an act of inhumanity; to an act of kindness – all three of them share a bond that ties them together – that creates something of a legend but also a fairy tale. There is no doubt or wonder in my mind why Sjon won The Nordic Council Prize for this novel, back in two-thousand and five. It’s slim, but powerful. With opaque imagery, that flows like melted water, and then crystalizes in a sudden flash freeze; creates opaque imagery that combines poetry and prose, to create an epic novel in just over a hundred pages long. This novel is strong, and it’s pulled along by its language, but also by it is sense of mystery and fairy tale like qualities. It is one of those books that one would have to read and re-read over and over again, to understand and gain a better comprehension of the novel. One cannot review the highly atmospheric, feel of this title. Of the glacier land in which all the characters inhabit. Yet it is something of a truly amazing piece of work. With sparse, plot and an understanding of words, Sjon has created a masterpiece. Where some writers would take six hundred to eight hundred to a thousand pages, to make the point clear, Sjon allows the point to hover throughout the text, adding mystery and delight throughout. Re-reading this book, I think the reader, will see the tracks in the snow they left the first time; and will come back and take continual different routes, in an ever expansive odyssey to understand the novel, and how it is able to succeed.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
P.S. Gentle Reader, Happy Halloween!
Thursday, 31 October 2013
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Purge
Hello Gentle Reader
For a while now I have been pushing Sofi Okansen to the side. The marketing of the English translation for her novel “Purge,” has been compared to that of Stieg Larsson, in that it is a Nordic crime novel. If one looks at the author Sofi Okansen, they would think she would be an author who would fit right into the crime genre. With her dark lipstick, black hair, mixed with dreads, and at times fetishistic dress – Sofi Okansen’s comparison to a rock star is not made lightly – at the same time one can understand how English language publishers may see her as crime writer. Though as Okansen has pointed out in an interview:
“I'm not a genre writer. The explosion of crime writing in Scandinavia is an interesting phenomenon, but I have to say that most of the popular Scandinavian crime authors are not Finnish. They are mostly Swedish.”
This is very true. Sofi Okansen’s writing is very socially aware, and politically intrigued; but it also (in the case of “Purge,”) historically set. Can genre writers – in this case, crime writers – do all that? Yes; yes they can – but what is separating, Sofi Okansen from crime writers, and crime writing; is that a crime writers main focus is on solving the crime or around the action around the crime. The focus is the crime. Crime fiction can be set historically. It can deal with social issues and political problems; but it is always set around the context of the crime. In Ms. Okansen’s case, the crimes that are committed within this novel are not the base of the book. The crimes committed, are merely reactionary. Reactionary to the fall of the Soviet Union – and other socialists satellite states; as well as reactionary the small and personal circumstances that impede on one’s life. In these regards Sofi Okansen is not a crime writer. In these regards, I was struck by how a lot of the action can come across as mundane, and normal, but how quick everything changes. There’s a real sense that one does not truly comprehend the historical action that is surrounding the novel. There are no large invasions. German and Soviet troops march in, and make themselves comfortable. Yet daily life goes on as usual. Canning needs to be done. Jams and preserves are made. Bread is baking in the oven.
These scenes and mundane actions, which happened within the kitchen of the home of: Aliide and Ingel; reminded me of some of my most, fondest moments of childhood. Autumn is my favourite season. The cool nights and crisp mornings. The clearness of the air. The sky seems higher, the far flung distances, become more acute, as the haze of summer dissipates. I find autumn and winter to be the most celebratory seasons in western culture. There is the celebration of the harvest. Bonfires alight. Beer is shared. Pumpkins are carved. Stories and memories are relived. Tricks and treats go hand in hand. One of my favourite memories though was the picking of the garden. All spring and summer long my/our mother (if we weren’t quick – my siblings and I) had us help her pick weeds and tending to her garden. If one was unfortunate enough, they would be out there helping pick and pull. Yet in those moments and time spent out there – as much as we hated it; we began to understand the difference between a weed and a ‘plant.’ As gardeners say: “not all flowers are friendly.” We learned what sow thistle was; and how much it hurt. How it scraped our little ankles and our calves. Yet there were ambiguous weeds as well. Baldr’s Brow (also known as scentless chamomile) we thought they were daisies, and tenderly loved them. There were toadflaxes; which resembled snapdragons. Those herbal dragons, of foliage and petals. We used to imagine that their leaves and petals unfolded. Revealing themselves as a small reptilian dragon; who had grown accustom to drinking nectar and pollen in nocturnal surroundings. Then there were creeping bellflowers. Those beautiful drooping bells of purple. Such a beauty to behold. Yet apparently we learned these purple beauties were aggressive, invaders. Yet how could something so beautiful be a weed? It did have a crown of rotten lion’s teeth like the dandelion. Yet still it was something to be picked and pulled. Some weeds though, had use. Like dill weed. Clover as well; though it was never used when I was younger, it was mulched up and cut up on the lawn. Yet it was autumn that was the best time of the year. Every night we would have to go out and cover the tomatoes with old blankets. The blankets protected the tomatoes from the early frost. By early October or mid to late September, long after the other vegetables had been dug out and harvested, the tomatoes needed to be picked. We would do our best to put off harvesting them to soon, to make sure they got a good size. But as the threat of a premature snow, became more apparent, we would have to deal with what we had on the vines. Large and small; green and yellow and red as well as orange; were all picked and put in the cardboard boxes. The acid scent of the tomatoes mixed with the aged and dusty smell of the box, with the sweet scent of fading summer earth. The other vegetables had already been salvaged. They too were ripening in the basement. Some had already been canned. So began the canning season. It was my favourite part of autumn. I remember the cooling days and the overcast sky. My mother began canning. The smell of vinegar and salt becomes a lingering scent in the house. The kitchen window fogs up. Carrots are pickled. Cucumbers are pickled. Yet with cucumbers the strangest metamorphosis happens. A cucumber is like a vegetable butterfly. Where it was a crisp cucumber, it becomes a soft salty pickle. A pickled carrot remains a carrot. A cucumber does not remain the same. Mother also canned more than just vegetables. People would drop by with fruit from other places. We ate what we could. The rest were canned. There were cans of cherries and peaches, preserved. One year my mother dried apricots. Yet it is the canning of the vegetables that I remember more closely then everything else. The green beans, the homemade salsa, the pickled beets. They lined the cupboards and the shelves. It’s a fond memory. This is why reading the canning that Aliide and Ingel do, is something that I fondly remember of this book.
There are a few reasons why I had wanted to Sofi Okansen. I wanted to a read a Finnish author’s book. The country and their literature is grotesquely overlooked. The Finnish authors that I could find: Rosa Liksom “Dark Paradise,” a series of short stories; Anita Konkka “A Fool’s Paradise,” a novel – Anita Konkka has also written a short story for the anthology “The Best European Fiction,” in two thousand and eleven. Both Rosa and Anita Konkka’s sole fiction, was out of stock, everywhere I could think of looking. Yet other than these two authors, Finland was seriously lacking any representation from the English language. Then there was Sofi Okansen. A Finnish author, who has written about Communist Estonia. With that in mind, I could now also read about Estonia. Yet still reading a book by an Estonian author is also on my list of books, from countries I want to read from. In these regards though Sofi Okansen would, allow me in a sense to kill two birds with one stone; if only on the most superficial levels.
Sofi Okansen is a well revered novelist and playwright. “Purge,” initially started out as a play. Okansen has been the first woman to win both of the prestigious literary prizes of Finland: the “Finlandia,” and the “Runeberg.” Yet Sofi Okansen’s success did not stop there with her novel “Purge,” it also went on to win the Nordic Council Prize for Literature in two-thousand and ten, being the first Finnish woman to do so; as well, I believe; as being the youngest author to win the prize. Most recently Sofi Okansen has won the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize in two-thousand and thirteen. She is the first Finnish woman to achieve that accolade again.
Upon beginning “Purge,” I wasn’t sure what I would be greeted with. The title itself comes from the Stalinist eras, purge of residents from the socialists satellite states; being forced into labour camps. The most famous testimonials of this have been published as “The Gulag Archipelago,” by Nobel Laureate in Literature Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. More contemporary novels and works that deal with this is fellow Laureate Herta Müller’s most recent novel “The Hunger Angel.” “Purge,” can now be considered an equal testament – though the Gulags and the forced labour camps of Stalin’s regime are not dealt with directly, like the other two novels. “Purge,” deals more with betrayal, family secrets, the moral and ethical collapse that has swept through Eastern Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the hushed secrets that are still no quite spoken yet within the former Iron Curtain and Soviet Union.
The Novel, concerns the lives of two women. Aliide Truu, and Zara. That being said the novels main focus is on Aliide Truu – as the novel runs its course through sixty years. Sofi Okansen had begun writing the play, with an older woman as a main character in mind. Simply because older woman, and older characters in general; do not always get large parts. Aliide in the present time: is a woman who lives in a small village. Surviving by growing vegetables, and canning. She has practical knowledge of herbs. This archaic knowledge is how she has survived through the years. For as Aliide points out:
“[. . . ] they might as well all come – Mafia thugs, soldiers – Reds and Whites – Russians, Germans, Estonians . . . Aliide would survive. She always had.”
The price of this survival though is a deep subject of the novel. Secrets are a tool of the trade in survival; especially under a tyrannical regime. Yet this survival has a deep price. Betrayal between family members happened with heavy hearted consent. The sibling rivalry between, Ingel and Aliide have always been hinted at. Ingel was the dutiful prodigious house wife and daughter. She knew how to make jams, she knew how to make marigold salve, preserve the year’s harvest, she knew how to milk the cow, make and hem clothes, and repair. She knew how to do it all – and do it better than Aliide. Aliide would forever be in the shadow of her sister. It is when Ingel marries; Aliide’s secret desire and love; Hans Pekk – that there is a feeling that the last nail has been nailed into the coffin. It is Hans Pekk that puts both Ingel and Aliide into danger. Both women are constantly harassed by the secret police, because of Hans’s affiliation and assistance with the German ‘liberators.’ Both women suffer greatly, at the shame and the humiliation:
“The only thing left alive was the shame.”
Yet the greatest betrayal is when Aliide converts to the communist cause of Estonia, and marries a party member. This act of survival becomes the greatest act of betrayal between the two. Yet in the present day Aliide suffers for this past ‘betrayal,’ of her home country. As another former communist laments:
“We were all just following orders. We were good people. And now all of a sudden we're bad.”
This is why Aliide is harassed by the neighbourhood boys; who cowardly throw rocks at her house; and vandalise it. Yet for Aliide – she would always survive. She had survived through communism; interrogations, espionage, betrayal and the deceptions she herself handed out. Then in the present enters the catalyst Zara. The young woman, who in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the socialist satellite states; began to understand the possibilities of a better life and of more money,. Yet with the opening up of Eastern Europe, and democracy welcomed in with shaky and open arms – the fall in its place, opened up a cascade of corruption to flow into newer areas. Zara is a victim of this new and corrupted world. With Zara Sofi Okansen turns her eye towards social issues, and problems that are affecting the world today, especially former Soviet States, where those in power, quickly grabbed money and possessions, and others went in questionable dealings.
The novel brings to mind if people can be judged and even found guilty upon their actions they do, based upon the fact that, they themselves are just: following orders. Yet for Aliide who had been tormented by the communists in the beginning, had found escape with a party official.
With a subdued and laconic tone, that hums and vibrates with tension Sofi Okansen has created a novel that is taut with tension. Shame and secrets, prevail in this novel. We lock up our pasts. Burry them in the garden. We are tormented for them. We can our aggression and our hatred into the fruits and vegetables. We hide our shame in secrets rooms, and within attics. All of this is presented in this novel. The only flaw really is the ending. It felt too quick – too rushed. Yet every author seems to make that mistake in some way or another; at some time or another. Yet Okansen has created a very desperate and grey world. A world that is beyond repair; new dictatorships have risen. Lucrative and illegal businesses are abound. The former Soviet Union is still young. It has picked itself up in some cases. Others continue to struggle. Some are just coming to terms with the horrors of the past. Understanding that no one could be trusted. Realizing that parents watched each other; spied on their children; children spied on their parents, their friends. Teachers constantly monitored their students. Students reported the activities of their teachers. It was a world lead by fear and paranoia. In this novel Sofi Okansen makes it apparent. There is also a clear cycle of retribution that continually, circles around and around. Those who were exiled come back and take back their homes. Those who were the communists find themselves truly a lone; meek and powerless. While a generation finds itself lost in a shifting and changing world, answering for their parents crimes.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
For a while now I have been pushing Sofi Okansen to the side. The marketing of the English translation for her novel “Purge,” has been compared to that of Stieg Larsson, in that it is a Nordic crime novel. If one looks at the author Sofi Okansen, they would think she would be an author who would fit right into the crime genre. With her dark lipstick, black hair, mixed with dreads, and at times fetishistic dress – Sofi Okansen’s comparison to a rock star is not made lightly – at the same time one can understand how English language publishers may see her as crime writer. Though as Okansen has pointed out in an interview:
“I'm not a genre writer. The explosion of crime writing in Scandinavia is an interesting phenomenon, but I have to say that most of the popular Scandinavian crime authors are not Finnish. They are mostly Swedish.”
This is very true. Sofi Okansen’s writing is very socially aware, and politically intrigued; but it also (in the case of “Purge,”) historically set. Can genre writers – in this case, crime writers – do all that? Yes; yes they can – but what is separating, Sofi Okansen from crime writers, and crime writing; is that a crime writers main focus is on solving the crime or around the action around the crime. The focus is the crime. Crime fiction can be set historically. It can deal with social issues and political problems; but it is always set around the context of the crime. In Ms. Okansen’s case, the crimes that are committed within this novel are not the base of the book. The crimes committed, are merely reactionary. Reactionary to the fall of the Soviet Union – and other socialists satellite states; as well as reactionary the small and personal circumstances that impede on one’s life. In these regards Sofi Okansen is not a crime writer. In these regards, I was struck by how a lot of the action can come across as mundane, and normal, but how quick everything changes. There’s a real sense that one does not truly comprehend the historical action that is surrounding the novel. There are no large invasions. German and Soviet troops march in, and make themselves comfortable. Yet daily life goes on as usual. Canning needs to be done. Jams and preserves are made. Bread is baking in the oven.
These scenes and mundane actions, which happened within the kitchen of the home of: Aliide and Ingel; reminded me of some of my most, fondest moments of childhood. Autumn is my favourite season. The cool nights and crisp mornings. The clearness of the air. The sky seems higher, the far flung distances, become more acute, as the haze of summer dissipates. I find autumn and winter to be the most celebratory seasons in western culture. There is the celebration of the harvest. Bonfires alight. Beer is shared. Pumpkins are carved. Stories and memories are relived. Tricks and treats go hand in hand. One of my favourite memories though was the picking of the garden. All spring and summer long my/our mother (if we weren’t quick – my siblings and I) had us help her pick weeds and tending to her garden. If one was unfortunate enough, they would be out there helping pick and pull. Yet in those moments and time spent out there – as much as we hated it; we began to understand the difference between a weed and a ‘plant.’ As gardeners say: “not all flowers are friendly.” We learned what sow thistle was; and how much it hurt. How it scraped our little ankles and our calves. Yet there were ambiguous weeds as well. Baldr’s Brow (also known as scentless chamomile) we thought they were daisies, and tenderly loved them. There were toadflaxes; which resembled snapdragons. Those herbal dragons, of foliage and petals. We used to imagine that their leaves and petals unfolded. Revealing themselves as a small reptilian dragon; who had grown accustom to drinking nectar and pollen in nocturnal surroundings. Then there were creeping bellflowers. Those beautiful drooping bells of purple. Such a beauty to behold. Yet apparently we learned these purple beauties were aggressive, invaders. Yet how could something so beautiful be a weed? It did have a crown of rotten lion’s teeth like the dandelion. Yet still it was something to be picked and pulled. Some weeds though, had use. Like dill weed. Clover as well; though it was never used when I was younger, it was mulched up and cut up on the lawn. Yet it was autumn that was the best time of the year. Every night we would have to go out and cover the tomatoes with old blankets. The blankets protected the tomatoes from the early frost. By early October or mid to late September, long after the other vegetables had been dug out and harvested, the tomatoes needed to be picked. We would do our best to put off harvesting them to soon, to make sure they got a good size. But as the threat of a premature snow, became more apparent, we would have to deal with what we had on the vines. Large and small; green and yellow and red as well as orange; were all picked and put in the cardboard boxes. The acid scent of the tomatoes mixed with the aged and dusty smell of the box, with the sweet scent of fading summer earth. The other vegetables had already been salvaged. They too were ripening in the basement. Some had already been canned. So began the canning season. It was my favourite part of autumn. I remember the cooling days and the overcast sky. My mother began canning. The smell of vinegar and salt becomes a lingering scent in the house. The kitchen window fogs up. Carrots are pickled. Cucumbers are pickled. Yet with cucumbers the strangest metamorphosis happens. A cucumber is like a vegetable butterfly. Where it was a crisp cucumber, it becomes a soft salty pickle. A pickled carrot remains a carrot. A cucumber does not remain the same. Mother also canned more than just vegetables. People would drop by with fruit from other places. We ate what we could. The rest were canned. There were cans of cherries and peaches, preserved. One year my mother dried apricots. Yet it is the canning of the vegetables that I remember more closely then everything else. The green beans, the homemade salsa, the pickled beets. They lined the cupboards and the shelves. It’s a fond memory. This is why reading the canning that Aliide and Ingel do, is something that I fondly remember of this book.
There are a few reasons why I had wanted to Sofi Okansen. I wanted to a read a Finnish author’s book. The country and their literature is grotesquely overlooked. The Finnish authors that I could find: Rosa Liksom “Dark Paradise,” a series of short stories; Anita Konkka “A Fool’s Paradise,” a novel – Anita Konkka has also written a short story for the anthology “The Best European Fiction,” in two thousand and eleven. Both Rosa and Anita Konkka’s sole fiction, was out of stock, everywhere I could think of looking. Yet other than these two authors, Finland was seriously lacking any representation from the English language. Then there was Sofi Okansen. A Finnish author, who has written about Communist Estonia. With that in mind, I could now also read about Estonia. Yet still reading a book by an Estonian author is also on my list of books, from countries I want to read from. In these regards though Sofi Okansen would, allow me in a sense to kill two birds with one stone; if only on the most superficial levels.
Sofi Okansen is a well revered novelist and playwright. “Purge,” initially started out as a play. Okansen has been the first woman to win both of the prestigious literary prizes of Finland: the “Finlandia,” and the “Runeberg.” Yet Sofi Okansen’s success did not stop there with her novel “Purge,” it also went on to win the Nordic Council Prize for Literature in two-thousand and ten, being the first Finnish woman to do so; as well, I believe; as being the youngest author to win the prize. Most recently Sofi Okansen has won the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize in two-thousand and thirteen. She is the first Finnish woman to achieve that accolade again.
Upon beginning “Purge,” I wasn’t sure what I would be greeted with. The title itself comes from the Stalinist eras, purge of residents from the socialists satellite states; being forced into labour camps. The most famous testimonials of this have been published as “The Gulag Archipelago,” by Nobel Laureate in Literature Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. More contemporary novels and works that deal with this is fellow Laureate Herta Müller’s most recent novel “The Hunger Angel.” “Purge,” can now be considered an equal testament – though the Gulags and the forced labour camps of Stalin’s regime are not dealt with directly, like the other two novels. “Purge,” deals more with betrayal, family secrets, the moral and ethical collapse that has swept through Eastern Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the hushed secrets that are still no quite spoken yet within the former Iron Curtain and Soviet Union.
The Novel, concerns the lives of two women. Aliide Truu, and Zara. That being said the novels main focus is on Aliide Truu – as the novel runs its course through sixty years. Sofi Okansen had begun writing the play, with an older woman as a main character in mind. Simply because older woman, and older characters in general; do not always get large parts. Aliide in the present time: is a woman who lives in a small village. Surviving by growing vegetables, and canning. She has practical knowledge of herbs. This archaic knowledge is how she has survived through the years. For as Aliide points out:
“[. . . ] they might as well all come – Mafia thugs, soldiers – Reds and Whites – Russians, Germans, Estonians . . . Aliide would survive. She always had.”
The price of this survival though is a deep subject of the novel. Secrets are a tool of the trade in survival; especially under a tyrannical regime. Yet this survival has a deep price. Betrayal between family members happened with heavy hearted consent. The sibling rivalry between, Ingel and Aliide have always been hinted at. Ingel was the dutiful prodigious house wife and daughter. She knew how to make jams, she knew how to make marigold salve, preserve the year’s harvest, she knew how to milk the cow, make and hem clothes, and repair. She knew how to do it all – and do it better than Aliide. Aliide would forever be in the shadow of her sister. It is when Ingel marries; Aliide’s secret desire and love; Hans Pekk – that there is a feeling that the last nail has been nailed into the coffin. It is Hans Pekk that puts both Ingel and Aliide into danger. Both women are constantly harassed by the secret police, because of Hans’s affiliation and assistance with the German ‘liberators.’ Both women suffer greatly, at the shame and the humiliation:
“The only thing left alive was the shame.”
Yet the greatest betrayal is when Aliide converts to the communist cause of Estonia, and marries a party member. This act of survival becomes the greatest act of betrayal between the two. Yet in the present day Aliide suffers for this past ‘betrayal,’ of her home country. As another former communist laments:
“We were all just following orders. We were good people. And now all of a sudden we're bad.”
This is why Aliide is harassed by the neighbourhood boys; who cowardly throw rocks at her house; and vandalise it. Yet for Aliide – she would always survive. She had survived through communism; interrogations, espionage, betrayal and the deceptions she herself handed out. Then in the present enters the catalyst Zara. The young woman, who in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the socialist satellite states; began to understand the possibilities of a better life and of more money,. Yet with the opening up of Eastern Europe, and democracy welcomed in with shaky and open arms – the fall in its place, opened up a cascade of corruption to flow into newer areas. Zara is a victim of this new and corrupted world. With Zara Sofi Okansen turns her eye towards social issues, and problems that are affecting the world today, especially former Soviet States, where those in power, quickly grabbed money and possessions, and others went in questionable dealings.
The novel brings to mind if people can be judged and even found guilty upon their actions they do, based upon the fact that, they themselves are just: following orders. Yet for Aliide who had been tormented by the communists in the beginning, had found escape with a party official.
With a subdued and laconic tone, that hums and vibrates with tension Sofi Okansen has created a novel that is taut with tension. Shame and secrets, prevail in this novel. We lock up our pasts. Burry them in the garden. We are tormented for them. We can our aggression and our hatred into the fruits and vegetables. We hide our shame in secrets rooms, and within attics. All of this is presented in this novel. The only flaw really is the ending. It felt too quick – too rushed. Yet every author seems to make that mistake in some way or another; at some time or another. Yet Okansen has created a very desperate and grey world. A world that is beyond repair; new dictatorships have risen. Lucrative and illegal businesses are abound. The former Soviet Union is still young. It has picked itself up in some cases. Others continue to struggle. Some are just coming to terms with the horrors of the past. Understanding that no one could be trusted. Realizing that parents watched each other; spied on their children; children spied on their parents, their friends. Teachers constantly monitored their students. Students reported the activities of their teachers. It was a world lead by fear and paranoia. In this novel Sofi Okansen makes it apparent. There is also a clear cycle of retribution that continually, circles around and around. Those who were exiled come back and take back their homes. Those who were the communists find themselves truly a lone; meek and powerless. While a generation finds itself lost in a shifting and changing world, answering for their parents crimes.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
The Booker Prize Winner of 2013
Hello Gentle Reader
The winner of this, years Booker Prize, is the New Zealand author Eleanor Catton. She is the youngest author to win this prize, at the age of twenty-eight; and her winning novel “The Luminaries,” is the longest book to be awarded. Her Victorian murder mystery, set around the astrological calendar, in the era of the New Zealand gold rush, had left a deep enough impression on the judges to be awarded over veteran authors. This, years Booker Prize, has been acknowledged as one of the most diverse in recent memory, and praised for it.
Congratulations are in order to Eleanor Catton, for making Booker Prize history with one book.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
The winner of this, years Booker Prize, is the New Zealand author Eleanor Catton. She is the youngest author to win this prize, at the age of twenty-eight; and her winning novel “The Luminaries,” is the longest book to be awarded. Her Victorian murder mystery, set around the astrological calendar, in the era of the New Zealand gold rush, had left a deep enough impression on the judges to be awarded over veteran authors. This, years Booker Prize, has been acknowledged as one of the most diverse in recent memory, and praised for it.
Congratulations are in order to Eleanor Catton, for making Booker Prize history with one book.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
Thursday, 10 October 2013
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2013
Hello Gentle Reader
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the Canadian author Alice Munro.
Congratulations to Alice Munro, for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature!
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
M. Mary
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the Canadian author Alice Munro.
"Master of the contemporary short story,"
Congratulations to Alice Munro, for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature!
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
M. Mary
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
The Last Hurrah
Hello Gentle Reader
It is the last day, the last day of theories. The Nobel Prize for Literature, will be announced tomorrow; October 10 2013, at 1:00pm Central European Time.
At the beginning of the year, there was a lack of speculation. In fact, Ladbrokes went back to the usual suspects, of who should win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Once again the perennial favourite, Haruki Murakami was at the forefront. Behind, Murakami, came the industriously prolific American author Joyce Carol Oats. After which came the usual suspects. The Syrian poet Adunis; the Hungarian door stop writer, Peter Nadas, South Korean zen poet Ko Un. However, early on this year, it was though probable that a women writer would win this year. Women writers have been, overlooked at times; and are grossly, unrepresented in the Nobel Prize for Literature, canon.
Who could be possible women candidates? I thought of course of the Greek short story writer, poet, and novelist Ersi Sotiropoulos. Then, another thought of another Greek writer, who is only a poet: Kiki Dimoula. Both authoress would offer, an interesting perspective as Nobel Laureates in Literature, with the crisis in Greece; and seeing that both previous Greek writers were poets, a prose writer would shake up that tradition; but also a Greek writer had not been awarded since nineteen-seventy nine. Neither one of these authors appeared on the Ladbrokes list. Much to my disappointment. Still I have hopes for both in the coming futures.
Many speculated in the beginning North African writer, feminist, and film maker Assia Djebar, to be a heated contender, along with Italian novelist, short story writer, and playwright Dacia Maraini. Both authors were hot contenders, in their speculation, earlier this season.
However in the past few days, speculation has increased, and intensified. Belarusian, non-fiction writer, and journalist Svetlana Alexievich, whose most famous book “Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster,” has skipped, ran, and jumped down the betting list. Belarus does not have a Nobel Laureate in Literature; and Alexievich represents, a literary model, that is generally an outsider in the Nobel. Many of the authors write memories, and essays, along with their novels or poems; very few have exclusively written in the journalist/non-fiction format – with the exception of the most recent Laureate Elias Canetti. Horace Engdahl the former Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, had once stated that the authors W.G. Sebald, Jacques Derrida, and Ryszard Kapuściński were all good and noteworthy potential laureates, if it wasn’t for their untimely deaths. Kapuściński was a famous and noteworthy non-fiction writer, and journalist. Speculation holds Svetlana Alexievich in those same regards.
The next talked about author, this year is Jon Fosse. The Norwegian playwright’s, catapult from farther speculation or just mentions, to a serious contender, briefly shut down Ladbrokes, to recalculate and reconfigure. Fosse’s is primarily known as a playwright; a northern Beckett or Brecht. His plays focus on the inability of individuals to communicate, as well as isolation, and alienation. His works is existential and suspenseful. The works are absurd, chilling, and revered and performed throughout the world. Fosse however has also written poetry and prose.
The final author, who has been the buzz, is Alice Munro. Alice Munro is a unique author has she writes primarily short stories. She has not written a novel. Though “The Beggar Maid,” also known as “Who Do You Think You Are?” was considered a novel in stories, and was even nominated for the Booker Prize in Nineteen-eighty. Throughout the Nobel Prize for Literature’s history, there has not been an author awarded the prize for short fiction alone. The closest to this definition would be the first Russian author to receive the prize Ivan Bunin, in nineteen-thirty three. Bunin however also wrote novels, and they were often some of his most renowned works. Alice Munro herself would be the first Nobel Laureate, to be recognized for her achievements, primarily in the short story form. She would also be the first Canadian author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
There you have it Gentle Reader. The last round up. The last bit of speculation. In a few hours, the Nobel Prize for Literature will be awarded. For now only the Swedish Academy knows, who will win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Personally, I am looking for redemption, from last year’s mistake. I am also looking for a bit of a surprise. But who is not looking for a surprise when it comes to the Nobel.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
It is the last day, the last day of theories. The Nobel Prize for Literature, will be announced tomorrow; October 10 2013, at 1:00pm Central European Time.
At the beginning of the year, there was a lack of speculation. In fact, Ladbrokes went back to the usual suspects, of who should win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Once again the perennial favourite, Haruki Murakami was at the forefront. Behind, Murakami, came the industriously prolific American author Joyce Carol Oats. After which came the usual suspects. The Syrian poet Adunis; the Hungarian door stop writer, Peter Nadas, South Korean zen poet Ko Un. However, early on this year, it was though probable that a women writer would win this year. Women writers have been, overlooked at times; and are grossly, unrepresented in the Nobel Prize for Literature, canon.
Who could be possible women candidates? I thought of course of the Greek short story writer, poet, and novelist Ersi Sotiropoulos. Then, another thought of another Greek writer, who is only a poet: Kiki Dimoula. Both authoress would offer, an interesting perspective as Nobel Laureates in Literature, with the crisis in Greece; and seeing that both previous Greek writers were poets, a prose writer would shake up that tradition; but also a Greek writer had not been awarded since nineteen-seventy nine. Neither one of these authors appeared on the Ladbrokes list. Much to my disappointment. Still I have hopes for both in the coming futures.
Many speculated in the beginning North African writer, feminist, and film maker Assia Djebar, to be a heated contender, along with Italian novelist, short story writer, and playwright Dacia Maraini. Both authors were hot contenders, in their speculation, earlier this season.
However in the past few days, speculation has increased, and intensified. Belarusian, non-fiction writer, and journalist Svetlana Alexievich, whose most famous book “Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster,” has skipped, ran, and jumped down the betting list. Belarus does not have a Nobel Laureate in Literature; and Alexievich represents, a literary model, that is generally an outsider in the Nobel. Many of the authors write memories, and essays, along with their novels or poems; very few have exclusively written in the journalist/non-fiction format – with the exception of the most recent Laureate Elias Canetti. Horace Engdahl the former Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, had once stated that the authors W.G. Sebald, Jacques Derrida, and Ryszard Kapuściński were all good and noteworthy potential laureates, if it wasn’t for their untimely deaths. Kapuściński was a famous and noteworthy non-fiction writer, and journalist. Speculation holds Svetlana Alexievich in those same regards.
The next talked about author, this year is Jon Fosse. The Norwegian playwright’s, catapult from farther speculation or just mentions, to a serious contender, briefly shut down Ladbrokes, to recalculate and reconfigure. Fosse’s is primarily known as a playwright; a northern Beckett or Brecht. His plays focus on the inability of individuals to communicate, as well as isolation, and alienation. His works is existential and suspenseful. The works are absurd, chilling, and revered and performed throughout the world. Fosse however has also written poetry and prose.
The final author, who has been the buzz, is Alice Munro. Alice Munro is a unique author has she writes primarily short stories. She has not written a novel. Though “The Beggar Maid,” also known as “Who Do You Think You Are?” was considered a novel in stories, and was even nominated for the Booker Prize in Nineteen-eighty. Throughout the Nobel Prize for Literature’s history, there has not been an author awarded the prize for short fiction alone. The closest to this definition would be the first Russian author to receive the prize Ivan Bunin, in nineteen-thirty three. Bunin however also wrote novels, and they were often some of his most renowned works. Alice Munro herself would be the first Nobel Laureate, to be recognized for her achievements, primarily in the short story form. She would also be the first Canadian author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
There you have it Gentle Reader. The last round up. The last bit of speculation. In a few hours, the Nobel Prize for Literature will be awarded. For now only the Swedish Academy knows, who will win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Personally, I am looking for redemption, from last year’s mistake. I am also looking for a bit of a surprise. But who is not looking for a surprise when it comes to the Nobel.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
The German Book Prize Winner
Hello Gentle Reader
Terézia Mora’s novel “Das Ungeheuer,” translated as “The Monster,” or “Monster,” has won this year’s German Book Prize. The novel tells the story of a husband distraught over his wife’s recent suicide. After her death, he discovers from her journals, her abject loneliness, despair, and battles with illness and depression. What follows is a spiritual road novel, of Darius Kopp, to find a home for his wife’s ashes, and a place where his despair belongs.
Congratulations to Terézia Mora on wining the German Book Prize! May we look forward to her translation into English.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
Terézia Mora’s novel “Das Ungeheuer,” translated as “The Monster,” or “Monster,” has won this year’s German Book Prize. The novel tells the story of a husband distraught over his wife’s recent suicide. After her death, he discovers from her journals, her abject loneliness, despair, and battles with illness and depression. What follows is a spiritual road novel, of Darius Kopp, to find a home for his wife’s ashes, and a place where his despair belongs.
Congratulations to Terézia Mora on wining the German Book Prize! May we look forward to her translation into English.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
A Look at the German Book Prize Shortlist – A Video
Hello Gentle Reader
Here is: deutschewelleenglish: arts.21; video looking at the shortlist of this year’s German Book Prize.
“The stories this year gloomy; from melancholy, to insanity; death and rumination. The dark depths of the soul are illuminated.”
The following link will take you to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7_wqjYKEpo
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
Here is: deutschewelleenglish: arts.21; video looking at the shortlist of this year’s German Book Prize.
“The stories this year gloomy; from melancholy, to insanity; death and rumination. The dark depths of the soul are illuminated.”
The following link will take you to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7_wqjYKEpo
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
European Union Prize for Literature 2013
Hello Gentle Reader
I had been so busy at work, that I failed, to notice the European Prize for Literature, had been awarded, a week ago. Twelve authors, hailing from Belgium; to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to Finland and to Slovenia. The following list is the winners, and a brief blurb, about the author and the winning novel.
Isabelle Wéry – Belgium – Wéry is a playwright, theatrical actress and director for the theatre. She is also an accomplished prose writer. Her debut in the novel format was, “Monsieur René,” a fictional and imaginary biography of the Belgian actor René Hainaux. This year’s winner is “Marilyn Deboned.” This is a novel of romantic encounters. It’s a novel, written in the three acts. About the main character Marilyn. The first act, takes place between ages six and eight – coming to terms with the fact that she is an independent creature. The second act as a young adult. The third act comes in the form of the here and now. It’s a novel of duos and ‘romantic undertakings,’ and the desire to know why we go through them – and why everything from human, to animals and plants – follows this same romantic law.
Faruk Šehić – Bosnia Herzegovina/Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – Faruk Šehić comes from the interesting part of South-Eastern Europe. Before the outbreak of the Bosnian War, the author had studied veterinarian medicine. However, after the start of the Bosnian war, Šehić, volunteered with the Bosnian army and became a lieutenant. After the war, the author studied literature – and has gone to become a writer. Šehić’s novel “The Book of Una,” is about the experience of the Bosnian war, and its effect on one man, trying to overcome the personal tragedy of the incident. Yet it is also a book about childhood along the river, and about the city Una.
Emilios Solomou – Cyprus – is not a new prose writer, in Cyprus. His novel “An Axe In Your Hands,” had won the Cyprus State Prize for Literature. His second novel “Like a Sparrow, Quickly You Passed,” has been translated into Bulgarian. His stories have been published in many literary magazines and published in Bulgarian and English. His winning novel “The Diary of Infidelity,” is a novel of excavation of personal memories. The novel chronicles Yiorgos Doukarelis, remembrance of his past and three women in it. He remembers the archaeological find that changed his life; the affair and the divorce of his first wife, and marriage of his second one, and the sudden disappearance of his second wife. This novel connects Yiorgos Doukarelis to the far flung past, by his excavation and find; but also his own personal past, and his strained present.
Kristian Bang Foss – Denmark – Foss at first studied mathematics and physics; however he later graduated from the Danish Writers Academy. Foss’s debut “The Window of the Fish,” was praised for its everyday pursuits and mundane actions; that by linguistic ingenuity transcends the banal. His next novel “The Storm of 99,” is full of black humour, depicts the vipers pit of an everyday work environment; the slanderous games the absurd events that take place within. “Death Drives an Audi,” is his wining book. It’s a road novel. A tour of Europe. But it’s about the situations that are beyond our control. A look into hopelessness and still finding an optimistic glimmer. It is also a race against time and death.
Meelis Friedenthal – Estonia – Friedenthal is known as a speculative fiction writer. His first novel “Golden Age,” won third place in a national, novel competition. It discussed how, history shapes our identities. “The Bees,” is his winning novel. It tells the story Laurentius Hylas, a student in the seventeenth century. As Hylas enters the city of Tartu is known as the city of muses, but all Hylas see’s, is starving people. What follows is the melancholic prone Laurentius Hylas, falls further into a black pit, into a dreamlike disease, where reality and hallucination coexist. It’s a novel, which offers a difficult view of reality. One, about a melancholic
Philosophy student and his questions about reality, and his disease, and the philosophical treatises that permit him to wonder if the real is the unreal.
Katri Lipson – Finland – Lipson studied as medicine, in Sweden, and has practiced as a doctor both in Sweden and Finland, as well as Africa. However, Lipson has always been a writer. She has written everything from poetry, to short stories, even fairy tales. She debuted as a novelist with “Cosmonaut,” and was nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Prize; and it went onto win the Helsingin Sanomat Debut Book. Her winning novel “The Ice-Cream Man,” is a playful novel about inventive reality and its place within reality – and the possibility of that fictional reality taking over. The novel is about a film crew, and director, who decide to make a film with a lack of script. The actors themselves therefore must create and invent characters and stories. What is presented is a fictional reality that borders, and threatens to take compete with the real reality. Lipson shows that life and reality are made up of historical events, which mix with the present. That history is made up of stories, and details of all the lives around it.
Marica Bodrožić – Germany – Bodrožić, moved from the former Yugoslavia, at the age of ten. She learned German, and has used her ‘second mother tongue,’ as her literary language. Her debut novel “A Cherrywood Table,” has won this year’s prize. In Germany it has been praised of its poetic evocations of memory and remembrance. Bodrožić deals with the civil war of the former Yugoslavia. The novel traces the main characters memory, of childhood, the escape to Paris to study philosophy; but it also discusses the loss of her homeland. Around the cherry wood table, inherited from her grandmother, the personal and the political of the twentieth century, intertwine, as the past and the present share a dialogue, around the cherry wood table; where memories are spread out.
Tullio Forgiarini – Luxembourg – Forgiarini’s father was Italian, while his mother was Luxembourgian; this explains his odd last name. He writes in French, and is inspired by the dark crime and noir novels; which have tinted his novels and stories with a black gloss. “Amok. A Luxembourg love story,” is written in seventeen short chapters. It tells the story of an adolescent youth on the search for love, recognition, and a place within the contemporary and forever changing society. It’s a novel that is crude with poetic economy of words. It depicts the lives one rarely sees in the media. The reader is thrust into an unmanageable reality, and the escape attempts the protagonist, creates in order to escape. It’s a harsh book that is socially conscious, of a divided and marginalized society.
Lidija Dimkovska – Republic of Macedonia – Dimkovska is known to English readers of poetry, by her poetry collection “\pH Neutral History,” a poetry collection, of spitfire linguistic showmanship, that pins readers down, like insects on a pin. Her first novel “Hidden Camera,” won the Writers’ Union of Macedonia award, it was also shortlisted for the Utrinski Vesnik award for the year. Her next foray into prose is “Backup Life,” and it has won this year’s European Union Prize for Literature. Dimkovska recounts the life of Srebra and Zlata (a play on the words silver and gold), and their quest for individuality – but they are Siamese twins; conjoined at the head. From nineteen-eighty four until two-thousand and twelve, the story is narrated. The girls play fortune telling. They talk of who they’ll marry, how many children they’ll have, and which city they will live in. Then the former Yugoslavia split, and the joint regions and republics. What comes’ after is darkness, guilt, death, and funerals marriage, and separation. A historical and political allegory in some regards, but also personal and poetic.
Ioana Pârvulescu – Romania – Pârvulescu has won the award for her novel “Life Begins on Friday.” It’s a story set a hundred years ago. Yet in its core, it reverberates with our own hearts, and our times, as the human conditions, most basic principles are forever untouched by time. The story follows the various characters through the last thirteen days, of eighteen-ninety-seven. The discovery of an unconscious boy, in the outskirts of Bucharest, leads to speculation of how he got there, and is the centre of the web. Yet the most important character of this novel is Bucharest itself. It’s a novel of an almost forgotten time, and often romanticised time as well. Yet, with this novel it solidifies the fact that the past lives on into the present.
Gabriela Babnik – Slovenia – Babnik has published two novels prior to “Dry Season.” Her debut was “Cotton Skin,” and received the Best Debut Novel by the Union of Slovenian Publishers. Her next novel “In The Tall Grass,” was shortlisted for the Kresnik Award. “Dry Season,” has won Babnik this year’s award. “Dry Season,” is set in Africa, a place that holds a special interest with Babnik. The story itself is the unusual love affair of Anna, a sixty two year old designer from Central Europe; and Ismael, a street twenty seven year old African, who has been raised on the streets, in which he was routinely abused. What connects these two is a loneliness of the flesh; a tragic childhood and the dry season – the time in which neither nature, nor love can hope to flourish. Anna comes to realize the difference between herself and Ismael is not, by the colour of their skin; but by her belonging to a western culture. The very one in which she had abandoned. It’s a novel fused with magical realism, and true political realities of Africa.
Cristian Crusat – Spain – The final author comes from Spain. Crusat teaches Spanish language and literature abroad. His essays on translation and comparative literature have been published in periodicals all over Spain and in Latin America. “Brief theory of travel and the desert,” is a collection of six stories. Set around the world. The stories showcase, characters searching, and exploring the plausibility and possibility of an epiphany or a revelation. It may never come or comes and is never noticed. Yet the characters isolated in a concrete modern desert – of hotels, parkades, roads. Then accidents and incidents of the most mundane, or ordinary happen, that reveal the characters true isolation and slow death of immobility.
There you have it Gentle Reader. The European Prize for Literature twenty-thirteen’s winners. Novels that trace the divides both culturally, geographically, and historically. The personal is at the backdrop of the historical. The political mingles with the personal tragedies. Playful novels, about fictional realities and dreams, that compete with the physical reality in dominance of perspective.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
I had been so busy at work, that I failed, to notice the European Prize for Literature, had been awarded, a week ago. Twelve authors, hailing from Belgium; to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to Finland and to Slovenia. The following list is the winners, and a brief blurb, about the author and the winning novel.
Isabelle Wéry – Belgium – Wéry is a playwright, theatrical actress and director for the theatre. She is also an accomplished prose writer. Her debut in the novel format was, “Monsieur René,” a fictional and imaginary biography of the Belgian actor René Hainaux. This year’s winner is “Marilyn Deboned.” This is a novel of romantic encounters. It’s a novel, written in the three acts. About the main character Marilyn. The first act, takes place between ages six and eight – coming to terms with the fact that she is an independent creature. The second act as a young adult. The third act comes in the form of the here and now. It’s a novel of duos and ‘romantic undertakings,’ and the desire to know why we go through them – and why everything from human, to animals and plants – follows this same romantic law.
Faruk Šehić – Bosnia Herzegovina/Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – Faruk Šehić comes from the interesting part of South-Eastern Europe. Before the outbreak of the Bosnian War, the author had studied veterinarian medicine. However, after the start of the Bosnian war, Šehić, volunteered with the Bosnian army and became a lieutenant. After the war, the author studied literature – and has gone to become a writer. Šehić’s novel “The Book of Una,” is about the experience of the Bosnian war, and its effect on one man, trying to overcome the personal tragedy of the incident. Yet it is also a book about childhood along the river, and about the city Una.
Emilios Solomou – Cyprus – is not a new prose writer, in Cyprus. His novel “An Axe In Your Hands,” had won the Cyprus State Prize for Literature. His second novel “Like a Sparrow, Quickly You Passed,” has been translated into Bulgarian. His stories have been published in many literary magazines and published in Bulgarian and English. His winning novel “The Diary of Infidelity,” is a novel of excavation of personal memories. The novel chronicles Yiorgos Doukarelis, remembrance of his past and three women in it. He remembers the archaeological find that changed his life; the affair and the divorce of his first wife, and marriage of his second one, and the sudden disappearance of his second wife. This novel connects Yiorgos Doukarelis to the far flung past, by his excavation and find; but also his own personal past, and his strained present.
Kristian Bang Foss – Denmark – Foss at first studied mathematics and physics; however he later graduated from the Danish Writers Academy. Foss’s debut “The Window of the Fish,” was praised for its everyday pursuits and mundane actions; that by linguistic ingenuity transcends the banal. His next novel “The Storm of 99,” is full of black humour, depicts the vipers pit of an everyday work environment; the slanderous games the absurd events that take place within. “Death Drives an Audi,” is his wining book. It’s a road novel. A tour of Europe. But it’s about the situations that are beyond our control. A look into hopelessness and still finding an optimistic glimmer. It is also a race against time and death.
Meelis Friedenthal – Estonia – Friedenthal is known as a speculative fiction writer. His first novel “Golden Age,” won third place in a national, novel competition. It discussed how, history shapes our identities. “The Bees,” is his winning novel. It tells the story Laurentius Hylas, a student in the seventeenth century. As Hylas enters the city of Tartu is known as the city of muses, but all Hylas see’s, is starving people. What follows is the melancholic prone Laurentius Hylas, falls further into a black pit, into a dreamlike disease, where reality and hallucination coexist. It’s a novel, which offers a difficult view of reality. One, about a melancholic
Philosophy student and his questions about reality, and his disease, and the philosophical treatises that permit him to wonder if the real is the unreal.
Katri Lipson – Finland – Lipson studied as medicine, in Sweden, and has practiced as a doctor both in Sweden and Finland, as well as Africa. However, Lipson has always been a writer. She has written everything from poetry, to short stories, even fairy tales. She debuted as a novelist with “Cosmonaut,” and was nominated for the prestigious Finlandia Prize; and it went onto win the Helsingin Sanomat Debut Book. Her winning novel “The Ice-Cream Man,” is a playful novel about inventive reality and its place within reality – and the possibility of that fictional reality taking over. The novel is about a film crew, and director, who decide to make a film with a lack of script. The actors themselves therefore must create and invent characters and stories. What is presented is a fictional reality that borders, and threatens to take compete with the real reality. Lipson shows that life and reality are made up of historical events, which mix with the present. That history is made up of stories, and details of all the lives around it.
Marica Bodrožić – Germany – Bodrožić, moved from the former Yugoslavia, at the age of ten. She learned German, and has used her ‘second mother tongue,’ as her literary language. Her debut novel “A Cherrywood Table,” has won this year’s prize. In Germany it has been praised of its poetic evocations of memory and remembrance. Bodrožić deals with the civil war of the former Yugoslavia. The novel traces the main characters memory, of childhood, the escape to Paris to study philosophy; but it also discusses the loss of her homeland. Around the cherry wood table, inherited from her grandmother, the personal and the political of the twentieth century, intertwine, as the past and the present share a dialogue, around the cherry wood table; where memories are spread out.
Tullio Forgiarini – Luxembourg – Forgiarini’s father was Italian, while his mother was Luxembourgian; this explains his odd last name. He writes in French, and is inspired by the dark crime and noir novels; which have tinted his novels and stories with a black gloss. “Amok. A Luxembourg love story,” is written in seventeen short chapters. It tells the story of an adolescent youth on the search for love, recognition, and a place within the contemporary and forever changing society. It’s a novel that is crude with poetic economy of words. It depicts the lives one rarely sees in the media. The reader is thrust into an unmanageable reality, and the escape attempts the protagonist, creates in order to escape. It’s a harsh book that is socially conscious, of a divided and marginalized society.
Lidija Dimkovska – Republic of Macedonia – Dimkovska is known to English readers of poetry, by her poetry collection “\pH Neutral History,” a poetry collection, of spitfire linguistic showmanship, that pins readers down, like insects on a pin. Her first novel “Hidden Camera,” won the Writers’ Union of Macedonia award, it was also shortlisted for the Utrinski Vesnik award for the year. Her next foray into prose is “Backup Life,” and it has won this year’s European Union Prize for Literature. Dimkovska recounts the life of Srebra and Zlata (a play on the words silver and gold), and their quest for individuality – but they are Siamese twins; conjoined at the head. From nineteen-eighty four until two-thousand and twelve, the story is narrated. The girls play fortune telling. They talk of who they’ll marry, how many children they’ll have, and which city they will live in. Then the former Yugoslavia split, and the joint regions and republics. What comes’ after is darkness, guilt, death, and funerals marriage, and separation. A historical and political allegory in some regards, but also personal and poetic.
Ioana Pârvulescu – Romania – Pârvulescu has won the award for her novel “Life Begins on Friday.” It’s a story set a hundred years ago. Yet in its core, it reverberates with our own hearts, and our times, as the human conditions, most basic principles are forever untouched by time. The story follows the various characters through the last thirteen days, of eighteen-ninety-seven. The discovery of an unconscious boy, in the outskirts of Bucharest, leads to speculation of how he got there, and is the centre of the web. Yet the most important character of this novel is Bucharest itself. It’s a novel of an almost forgotten time, and often romanticised time as well. Yet, with this novel it solidifies the fact that the past lives on into the present.
Gabriela Babnik – Slovenia – Babnik has published two novels prior to “Dry Season.” Her debut was “Cotton Skin,” and received the Best Debut Novel by the Union of Slovenian Publishers. Her next novel “In The Tall Grass,” was shortlisted for the Kresnik Award. “Dry Season,” has won Babnik this year’s award. “Dry Season,” is set in Africa, a place that holds a special interest with Babnik. The story itself is the unusual love affair of Anna, a sixty two year old designer from Central Europe; and Ismael, a street twenty seven year old African, who has been raised on the streets, in which he was routinely abused. What connects these two is a loneliness of the flesh; a tragic childhood and the dry season – the time in which neither nature, nor love can hope to flourish. Anna comes to realize the difference between herself and Ismael is not, by the colour of their skin; but by her belonging to a western culture. The very one in which she had abandoned. It’s a novel fused with magical realism, and true political realities of Africa.
Cristian Crusat – Spain – The final author comes from Spain. Crusat teaches Spanish language and literature abroad. His essays on translation and comparative literature have been published in periodicals all over Spain and in Latin America. “Brief theory of travel and the desert,” is a collection of six stories. Set around the world. The stories showcase, characters searching, and exploring the plausibility and possibility of an epiphany or a revelation. It may never come or comes and is never noticed. Yet the characters isolated in a concrete modern desert – of hotels, parkades, roads. Then accidents and incidents of the most mundane, or ordinary happen, that reveal the characters true isolation and slow death of immobility.
There you have it Gentle Reader. The European Prize for Literature twenty-thirteen’s winners. Novels that trace the divides both culturally, geographically, and historically. The personal is at the backdrop of the historical. The political mingles with the personal tragedies. Playful novels, about fictional realities and dreams, that compete with the physical reality in dominance of perspective.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
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M. Mary
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