Michelle Woods

I love a plus-size heroine, and appreciated her dash of insecurity. The chemistry between Craig and Laney is so hot, I had a bit of trouble believing she could be so oblivious to it! My only complaints:

1. No need to be horrified if someone asks if you're a lesbian. Following that up with a trite "not that she had anything against lesbians" is uneccessary, because clearly you do. No one reacts that way if they aren't at least a little homophobic.

2. Waaay too many points of view. I would forgive if it only jumped once or twice to the two main characters in the next book in order to help set them up, but this book takes on a bunch of side characters' perspectives (Carol?? Why??), and with no transition. It's confusing.

3. While there are many clever turns of phrase and I liked the overall tone well enough, this needs a little more editing IMO. Descriptive words being used twice in a row; too many paragraphs of redundant statements. Show, don't just tell, etc.

4. How many cartoon-evil women does this book need? I know a few stereotypically attractive women and none of them are the overly-hostile, spiteful, entitled bitches like Melissa and the ladies who hit on Craig. I know that they exist, and I love having a Regina George character to hate on and act as a foil for the heroine, but when it is too pronounced a phenomenon, it can feel a little misogynistic. It makes me sad about the state of sisterhood. Just a pet peeve of mine, really.… (mehr)

I am reading Kafka now in German, and it is wonderful, but I can't agree that it is intrinsic characteristics of the German language as such that makes it so. I think it's just that German is Kafka's mother tongue and he is an artist in it. The translator is not Kafka, and there is no way to render all the original magic in translation. Unfortunately, there is no alternative to trying, and of course lots of the magic does come across.

I just suspect that that feeling you get when an author really hits the spot and you find yourself smiling happens more often in the original than in translation. C'est la vie, as the English say.

I’ve been mulling over a relatively simple sentence in "The Trial" that I think touches on Kafka’s playfulness with language that makes it difficult to translate. It comes at the end of “Die Kanzleien” (“At the Court Offices”), after Josef K. becomes weak and suffers from vertigo while in the attic offices, and then gets assisted out of the building and into the fresh air. The descent and resumption of health are described in a series of breathtaking, twisting, turning and complicated sentences. Then, comes this:

“Solche Überraschungen hatte ihm sein sonst ganz gefestigter Gesundheitzustand noch nie bereitet.” (Der Prozeβ, p. 57, Fischer Bücherei Taschenbuch)

Google translate version:

“Such surprises had never caused him to be otherwise quite well-established health condition.”

My literal translation:

“Such surprises had, for him, his otherwise entirely sound health condition not ever prepared.”

My translation closer in meaning:

“His otherwise entirely sound health had not ever prepared him for such surprises.”

I’m not sure what the standard translation is, because I don’t have an English version of the book (as I had no luck stopping at two libraries over the weekend trying to find one). But, one advantage with German that Kafka manipulates so well is the way the grammar allows the word order to be switched around easily without muddling up the meaning, but still creating emphasis & contrast that brings a simple change in tone. Kafka’s choice to start this sentence with “Solche Überraschungen … (Such surprises…)” is a subtle emphasis that, for me, has become something of a capsule description of all his work that is full of surprises – arrests in the bedroom, floggings in the broom closet, awakening as a bug with legs in the air, and an ape’s report to the academy, etc. – for which no one has been prepared, sound health or not.… (mehr)

I love a plus-size heroine, and appreciated her dash of insecurity. The chemistry between Craig and Laney is so hot, I had a bit of trouble believing she could be so oblivious to it! My only complaints:

1. No need to be horrified if someone asks if you're a lesbian. Following that up with a trite "not that she had anything against lesbians" is uneccessary, because clearly you do. No one reacts that way if they aren't at least a little homophobic.

2. Waaay too many points of view. I would forgive if it only jumped once or twice to the two main characters in the next book in order to help set them up, but this book takes on a bunch of side characters' perspectives (Carol?? Why??), and with no transition. It's confusing.

3. While there are many clever turns of phrase and I liked the overall tone well enough, this needs a little more editing IMO. Descriptive words being used twice in a row; too many paragraphs of redundant statements. Show, don't just tell, etc.

4. How many cartoon-evil women does this book need? I know a few stereotypically attractive women and none of them are the overly-hostile, spiteful, entitled bitches like Melissa and the ladies who hit on Craig. I know that they exist, and I love having a Regina George character to hate on and act as a foil for the heroine, but when it is too pronounced a phenomenon, it can feel a little misogynistic. It makes me sad about the state of sisterhood. Just a pet peeve of mine, really.… (mehr)