A Year in Reading (and Blogging)

2019: A Year in Reading (and Blogging)

Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories

Dracula’s Guest: A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories

Edited by Michael Sims

A Review

Winter of Discontent: "Independence Square" by A.D. Miller

"Independence Square" by A.D. Miller

A Review

Christmas Spooktacular? "The Haunted House" by Charles Dickens

"The Haunted House" by Charles Dickens (and friends)A review

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo: a review

Girl, Woman, Other 

Bernardine Evaristo's Booker-Prize-Winning Novel

Ghostland: In Search of A Haunted Country by Edward Parnell

Ghostland : In Search of A Haunted Country

by Edward Parnell

A book review

Sins of the Father: "The Marquise of O—" by Heinrich von Kleist

"The Marquise of O—" by Heinrich von Kleist

A review of the Pushkin Classics edition

(translated from the German and introduced by Nicholas Jacobs)

Fireside Gothic: three ghostly tales by Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor's "Fireside Gothic"

A review

American Trolls: "The Changeling" by Victor LaValle

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

A Review

"Braised Pork": a review of An Yu's debut novel

"Braised Pork" by An Yu

A review

Fear of Isis: "The Beetle" by Richard Marsh

"The Beetle" by Richard Marsh

With an introduction by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

A review of The Haunted Library of Horror Classics Edition

Slade House by David Mitchell - a review

"Slade House" by David Mitchell

A (Halloween) review

Country Music: A review of "The Lark Ascending" by Richard King

The Lark Ascending: The Music of the British Landscape  

by Richard King

A review

Highland Spirits: "Pine" by Francine Toon

"Pine" by Francine Toon

A review of a haunting debut novel

The Horror Inside: A review of "The Upstairs Room" by Kate Murray-Browne

"The Upstairs Room" 

by Kate Murray-Browne

A book review

Ghosts of Christmases Past: A review of "Mistletoe" by Alison Littlewood

Ghosts of Christmases Past  

Alison Littlewood's "Mistletoe"

A review

Bohemian rhapsodies: "The Last Bell" by Johannes Urzidil

"The Last Bell"  

Short stories by Johannes Urzidil 

(translated by David Burnett)

Nordic chill. “A Fist or a Heart” by Kristín Eiríksdóttir

“A Fist or a Heart” 

by Kristín Eiríksdóttir

Translated by Larissa Kyzer

A review

Et in arcadia... "The Country Will Bring Us No Peace" by Matthieu Simard

The Country Will Bring Us No Peace 

by Matthieu Simard (translated by Pablo Strauss)

A review

Elizabeth Mac Donald: A Matter of Interpretation

 A Matter of Interpretation 

by Elizabeth Mac Donald

A Musical Review

"From Chernobyl with Love" by Katya Cengel : a review

"From Chernobyl with Love: 

Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union" 

by Katya Cengel

A review

"Somewhere This Way" - the latest "The Fiction Desk" anthology

The Fiction Desk Anthology Series - Volume 13

Somewhere This Way

A review

Divine Comedy: "Milton in Purgatory" by Edward Vass

Divine Comedy

A review of "Milton in Purgatory" by Edward Vass

A Fairlight Modern novella

The Third Tower by Antal Szerb: A review of the Pushkin Collection edition

The Third Tower - Journeys in Italy 

by Antal Szerb (translated by Len Rix)

A review of the Pushkin Collection edition

Adventures in Grinlandia. A review of "Fandango and Other Stories" by Alexander Grin

Adventures in Grinlandia

"Fandango and Other Stories" 

by Alexander Grin 

(translated by Bryan Karetnyk)

A review

Murder most wet... A review of "Deep Waters - Murder on the Waves" edited by Martin Edwards

Murder most wet...

"Deep Waters - Murder on the Waves" (edited by Martin Edwards - British Library Crime Classics)

Happy blog birthday!

Happy First Blog Birthday! 

Study for "The Birthday Party" by Thomas Cooper Gotch
(Falmouth Art Gallery, via Art UK)

Dead can Dance: "Nobber" by Oisín Fagan

Dead can Dance

"Nobber" by Oisín Fagan

A review

Hare-raiser: Andrew Michael Hurley returns with "Starve Acre"

Hare-Raiser 

"Starve Acre" by Andrew Michael Hurley 

A review

Velvet Underground: "The Warlow Experiment" by Alix Nathan

Velvet Underground

"The Warlow Experiment" by Alix Nathan

A book review

A reward of £50 a year for life is offered to any man who will undertake to live for 7 years underground without seeing a human face: to let his toe and fingernails grow during the whole of his confinement, together with his beard. Commodious apartments are provided with cold bath, chamber organ, as many books as the occupier shall desire.  Provisions will be served from Mr Powyss’s table. Every convenience desired will be provided

Herbert Powyss, Moreham House, Herefordshire, January 1793.

Midsummer Murder: "A Shadow on the Lens" by Sam Hurcom

Midsummer Murder

“A Shadow on the Lens” by Sam Hurcom

Book review

Reading: A Poem

Reading

A poem

Love in the GDR: "The New Sorrows of Young W." by Ulrich Plenzdorf

Love in the GDR...

The New Sorrows of Young W. by Ulrich Plenzdorf

(translated by Romy Fursland, Pushkin Press)

Land of the Disappeared: A review of The Therapist by Nial Giacomelli

The Therapist by Nial Giacomelli

A book review

Despite its virulence, little is known about the disease.  They say that it attacks the brain and spinal column. That victims suffer encephalitis-like reactions. Lethargy, confusion and changes in personality are all common.  The media report cases of grandiose delusions and memory loss.  Some hear voices, other see impossible realities.  All eventually disappear.

Nazi Apocalypse: Joseph Roth's essays "On the End of the World"

Joseph Roth: On the End of the World

A book review

What use are my words against the guns, the loudspeakers, the murderers, the deranged ministers, the clueless diplomats, the stupid interviewers and journalists who interpret the voice of this world of Babel, muddied anyhow, via the drums of Nuremberg?

In sad resignation

Your Joseph Roth

Go West : Sophie Hardach's Confession with Blue Horses

Go West  

Confession with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach 

A book review

A Whole New World: J.B. Priestley's "The Other Place and Other Stories of the Same Sort"

A Whole New World

The Other Place and Other Stories of the Same Sort 

by J.B. Priestley

A Review of the Valancourt Books edition

First Love: Atlantic Winds by William Prendiville

First Love

A review of William Prendiville's Atlantic Winds

Judging by the quality of this debut novella and Omar Sabbagh’s Minutes from the Miracle City (which I reviewed earlier on this blog), the second wave of “Fairlight Moderns” from Fairlight Books promises to be something to really look forward to.     

Eid in Dubai: "Minutes from the Miracle City" by Omar Sabbagh

Eid in Dubai 

Minutes from the Miracle City by Omar Sabbagh

A book review

Theseus

Henry Fuseli: Ariadne Watching the Struggle of Theseus with the Minotaur (1815-1820)

Theseus

A dusk filled nether-land I roam,

torch brandished high against the gloom,

a length of cord to lead me back

outside the Earth's infernal womb.

I dread the moment when I'll meet

the creature that I've come to seek.

Half-man, half-beast

A hideous sight -

ruler of this realm of night.

I lift lead-heavy limbs.

When will it end, this constant downward trudge?

Have I been here for hours or days?

Time itself loses its way

in the shadows of this maze.

My guiding flame is smothered by the fetid air,

puts up a valiant fight

then flickers weakly,

starts to die

in fits of

choking

smoke.

In the feeble light

of embers still aglow,

a dark mysterious lake no man has seen before

appears. 
Throat scorched, lips parched, 

I drag myself towards its edge

to slake my thirst.

I face the water's surface, 

still as glass.

There,

staring back at me,

smiling heinously 

the Minotaur I see.

Master of the Campana: Theseus in the Labyrinth (1515-1520)

Of History and Histories... Turning for Home by Barney Norris

Of History and Histories…

Turning for Home by Barney Norris

A book review

“The Vanishing Hours”, the latest novel by novelist and playwright Barney Norris, is out on the Doubleday in July.  In anticipation of publication date, I am posting my review of Norris’s “Turning for Home” which I had read and greatly enjoyed back in 2017.  

Chills and Thrills: "The Lingering" by SJI Holliday

Chills and Thrills

"The Lingering" by SJI Holliday

Swamp Thing... A review of Cherie Priest's "The Toll"

Swamp Thing

"The Toll" by Cherie Priest 

A book review

My Heart Burns: E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Sandman

 My Heart Burns...

E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Sandman (translated by Christopher Moncrieff): Tale of an Obsession

Another Gothic novel of Prague... Miloš Urban's Lord Mord

Another Gothic novel of Prague...

Miloš Urban's Lord Mord

A book review

Whale of a Tale: "The North Water" by Ian McGuire

Whale of a Tale...

"The North Water" by Ian McGuire

A book review

Unlikely cult classic: "Madonna in a Fur Coat" by Sabahattin Ali

"Madonna in a Fur Coat" by Sabahattin Ali

(translated by Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe)

Review of an unlikely cult classic

Last Woman Standing: "I Who Have Never Known Men" by Jacqueline Harpman

I Who Have Never Known Men 

by Jacqueline Harpman 

(translated by Ros Schwartz)

A book review

I was forced to acknowledge too late, much too late, that I too had loved, that I was capable of suffering, and that I was human after all…

Holy Week, Unholy Murders: Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo

Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo

A book review 

How best to express the horrors of a bloody civil war whose memory is still painful?  How can one probe into wounds which are still open and smarting? An answer might be provided by literature in general, and genre literature in particular.  One could cite as an example Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s “Cemetery of Forgotten Books” series, haunted by the memories of the Spanish Civil War.  Zafon’s bestselling novels have shown that how the Gothic, so often dismissed as ‘mere’ entertainment, can successfully engage with and comment on troublesome recent history.

Peruvian writer and journalist Santiago Roncagliolo did something similar with his crime thriller Red April (Abril Rojo), originally published in Spanish in 2006 and subsequently in an English rendition by veteran translator Edith Grossman (it won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for 2011).    

The civil war which acts as a backdrop to the events in this book is the armed conflict in Roncagliolo’s native country between the Government, the Communist Party (also known as Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.  The conflict started in 1980 and has been largely dormant since 2000, albeit with occasional resurgences of violence.

The plot unfolds around the period of the presidential elections before Holy Week in the year 2000.  In the context of this campaign, the Government is keen to make a statement that communist insurgents have been defeated. However, during Carnival in the town of Ayacucho, a gruesome murder raises suspicions that Sendero Luminoso might once again be rearing its head. Associate District Prosecutor Félix Chacaltana Saldívar investigates the matter and prepares a convoluted report which conveniently makes no mention of terrorism.  And, possibly for this very reason, when this murder is followed by others, all bearing the stamp of a deranged serial killer or ritual murderer, the authorities assign the case to none other than Chacaltana.  He is hardly the ideal detective but, in the eyes of his seniors, appears to be an official who can be easily manipulated.

As evidenced by the style of the legal reports spread throughout the text, Chacaltana is well-versed in the letter of the law which he tries to follow with pedantic conscientiousness, but this hardly equips him for the complexities of life and for the intricacies of the tense political climate of his country.  Abandoned by his wife and obsessed with the memory of his long-dead mother, the Prosecutor is often naïve and ingenuous, reminding me of Umberto Eco’s claim that “real literature is about losers”.  Perhaps for this very reason, the novel’s protagonist brought to my mind failed journalist Colonna in Eco’s own Numero Zero or, to cite another Italian novel, Paolo Laurana in Sciascia’s A Ciascuno il Suo, hapless figures who end up embroiled in matters beyond their ken. Over the course of the novel, Chacaltana starts to wise up, and this change is not all to the good.  Indeed, some unsavoury aspects of his character come to the fore and contributed to some of my dissatisfaction with what is an otherwise engrossing book.

As a crime novel, Red April is thrilling and intriguing.  Much of its dark feel is given by the elements it borrows from the horror – and particularly the folk horror – genre.  Indeed, we start to realise that the serial killer is borrowing imagery both from Christian traditions linked to Holy Week and from pagan Andean myths and rituals.  An underlying theme of the novel, is the friction between Andean/pre-Colombian culture (as represented by the Quechua-speaking “natives”) and the subsequent Christian traditions imported by the Spanish-speaking settlers.   It is suggested that underneath the veneer of Christian ritual, the old rites have never died out.  The language/culture barrier becomes a symbol of this perennial conflict, which seems to fuel present-day violence.  As one of the characters puts it:

Ayacucho is a strange place.  The seat of the Wari culture was here, and then the Chanka people, who never allowed themselves to be subjugated by the Incas.  And later were the indigenous uprisings because Ayacucho was the half-way point between Cuzco, the Inca capital, and Lima, the Spaniards’ capital.  And independence in Quinia. And Sendero.  This place is condemned to be bathed in blood and fire forever.   

Some readers have been put off by the very graphic murders. To be honest, however, an act of senseless sexual violence towards the end disturbed me much more than the admittedly gruesome crime scene descriptions.   Plot-wise, the solution to the “whodunit” is rather too convenient – I believe that this is a novel which is best enjoyed by soaking up its dark atmosphere tempered by a streak of black humour.

Paperback, Atlantic Cult Classics, 273 pages

Published 2018 by Atlantic Books (first published 2002)

Being a fan of Jan Garbarek, the references to the Quechua culture could not but remind me of the great saxophonist’s collaboration with the Hilliard Ensemble and their recording of Quechua Song.  It seems ironic however to represent this native culture through a piece European jazz, particularly in the light of the themes of Roncagliolo’s novel.  So here’s what is hopefully a more “authentic” rendition of the Quechua song “Munasqetay”.

One of the traditional instruments of Peru is the charango, a guitar-like instrument which is a descendant of the vihuela a mano imported by the Spanish conquistadores.  Its use in Peruvian folk music epitomises the sometimes uncomfortable but always intriguing mix between native and “European” elements.  Here’s Jamie Guardia, one of the Peru's foremost singers and players of the charango in a song named, appropriately, Adios Pueblo de Ayacucho.

Gabriela Lena Frank is an American classical pianist and composer whose mother is a Peruvian of Chinese descent.  Some of her works celebrate her Peruvian family heritage.  Apu – Tone Poem for Orchestra, commissioned by the Carnegie Hall, is inspired by Andean mythology.  The apu is one of the spirits which keep a watchful eye on travellers passing through highland roads.

As it happened, I read this book in March/April, the months in which the novel is set, and this helped me to get into the atmosphere of the book.  Indeed, although I live on the opposite side of the world, I could feel an affinity to the descriptions of the Holy Week pageantry and, particularly, the crowded processions with the statues showing Passion scenes.  And so I’d like to end with a funeral march such as are typically heard in Mediterranean countries – and more specifically, Malta – during this time of year.  The march is accompanied by shots of local processions, not far removed from what is portrayed in Roncagliolo’s novel.