DieFledermaus attempts to read in 2017

Hi, I’m Stephanie. I’m in Seattle and am a native of the Pacific Northwest. I joined Club Read in 2012 but have been on and off some years. 2016 was a pretty bad one for reading. I didn’t actually count how many books I read but it may have been under 10 (and one was a work book). Since I started keeping track of my reading in LT, my yearly count has usually been more like 50-100. Hoping to get back into a normal reading schedule this year. I have a PhD in molecular biology and used to work in a research lab. I had weird hours but time to read while waiting for things to grow or finish. For the last year, I have been working as an academic editor, which mostly involves reading scientific papers and staring at a laptop all day. Unfortunately, the work has caused my reading to plummet. Additionally, I’ve been dealing with depression for the past couple years, which has also reduced my reading motivation.

Normally, I like to read literary fiction, classics, and translated literature. I also get obsessed with various publishers (like NYRB, right now I’ve been trying to acquire old-timey Gothics from Valancourt Books and books from the Feminist Press’ Femme Fatales series). In past years, Club Read has expanded the TBR and the to-buy pile, and I very much enjoyed following various threads in the group. I’m hoping to do that again this year. I’ll probably be looking for fairly fast/addictive reads for novels. Right now, none of my books look appealing – usually this can be solved by reading library ebooks but am already doing too much laptop-staring. I’m thinking about a Gothic project as that worked well to kickstart my reading in the past.

Currently reading – When Madeline Was Young - Jane Hamilton
The Girls in 3-B - Valerie Taylor

Considering –
Horrid Mysteries - Carl Grosse
The Italian - Ann Radcliffe
Hell! Said the Duchess - Michael Arlen
Skyscraper - Faith Baldwin
The Girls in 3-B - Valerie Taylor

In nonfiction, I am very interested in the Soviet/Stalinist era and have several books on that topic

Currently reading – The Harvest of Sorrow – Robert Conquest
Stalin and his Hangmen – Donald Rayfield

Considering –
The Gulag Archipelago – haven’t read this classic
Man is Wolf to Man – Janusz Bardach
Stalin: Paradoxes of Power - Stephen Kotkin

My other obsession is opera, and I would previously post reviews of live shows or streaming/filmed operas on my thread. This year I have subscriptions to the opera and ballet so will probably be reviewing those. I enjoyed reading reviews of museums by other members of Club Read so I will try to add some to my thread this year. Usually, I do a chunk of museumgoing on vacation.

2017 Books -

Jan -

1.) Tulipomania - Mike Dash
2.) Possessed: The Secret of Myslotch - Witold Gombrowicz
3.) The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown

Feb -

4.) The Harvest of Sorrow - Robert Conquest
5.) When Madeline was Young - Jane Hamilton
6.) Calling on Dragons - Patricia Wrede
7.) Searching for Dragons - Patricia Wrede

List 2

Operas, ballet, concerts etc.

1.) La Traviata - Verdi (Seattle)
2.) Debussy/Bruch/Prokofiev - Seattle Symphony/Hilary Hahn

Wishlist

Deerbrook - Harriet Martineau
March - John Lewis

Succinct, but interesting!

Nice to see you posting again, maus.

Welcome back! I look forward to your book discussions and opera reviews!

Glad to see you back Stephanie. Looking forward to book talk and opera talk.

Yay, I found you! My favorite local book-loving microbiologist. I look forward to following along this year.

>6 avaland: - Now with more rambling!

>7 dchaikin: - Good to be back! Glad to see you also. I would occasionally lurk last year, and your Greek project and Pynchon project looked interesting.

>8 ELiz_M:, 9, 10 - Thanks for stopping by! Good to see everyone again, and I'll be interested in following your threads!

I abandoned several books over the past couple years but not because I didn't like them; mostly, this involved moving, changes, books having to go back to the library. Adding a reminder to possibly consider these books -

The Pumpkin Eater - Penelope Mortimer
Fortunata and Jacinta - Benito Perez-Galdos
My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante
Napoleon - Andrew Roberts
The Queen of the Night - Alexander Chee
Stalin: Paradoxes of Power - Stephen Kotkin

*Laxness

The Possessed: The Secret of Myslotch - Witold Gombrowicz
Finished 1/15

This book didn’t completely work for me. It started out as big house/social class mix/romance/comedy and switched to a Gothic novel. Initially, both separate sections worked but they didn’t mesh well together. The characters were generally unlikeable, but this fit with the antagonist class-crossing romance and the schemers and plotters in the Gothic section. However, as the plots of both parts proceeded, the novel started to feel more disjointed. For example, there’s a long section in Warsaw that has Maya and Walchak facing career disappointments, living difficulties and more twists to their romance, but it has little to do with the Gothic plot. The in-depth past story and twisted family history making up the Gothic backstory are involving but don’t work with the more modern elements. The end is an extended melodrama filled with murder, madness, supernatural events, (more) doppelgangers and characters conveniently added for plot purposes.

The novel follows Walchak, a poor tennis instructor who has traveled from Warsaw to the countryside to train Maya, the spirited and somewhat amoral daughter of impoverished aristocrats. There is an immediate similarity and antagonism between Walchak and Maya – everyone comments on it. At first, the plot has a satiric feel, as the social climbing Walchak and moneygrabbing Maya spar and Maya’s guests display their own pretensions and blindspots. Maya’s mysterious attraction to Walchak threatens her relationship with her fiancé, Kholawitski – a relationship based on mutual selfish desires. Kholawitski is the personal secretary of the half-mad prince, who stays shut up in his crumbling castle. From there, the Gothic story spins out – the prince has an appropriately violent, secret family history, a professor visiting the family engages in a battle with Kholawitski over control of the prince and there is a frantic hunt for secrets to the past, which affect Maya and Walchak.

The writing is sharp, and although Maya and Walchak are unpleasant characters, their clashes – such as an extended tennis fight – are interesting. The Gothic tale has enough classic elements and twists to be fairly involving at first. However, the book falls apart as it goes on, with various aimless events in both sections. The melodramatic end is probably consistent with actual Gothic novels, but it felt rushed and contrived.

Excellent review of The Possessed. I am ashamed to say that I have yet to read Witold Gombrowicz, although Ferdydurke has been on my radar for a long time. Have you read any of the author's other works? How would you compare him to Bruno Schulz?

>11 DieFledermaus: hey, thanks! 2016 was fun.
>12 DieFledermaus: I encourage more possible considerations for Ferrante. : )
>13 DieFledermaus: Interesting and great review.
>14 labfs39: ashamed? Lisa, I'm not sure I have ever heard of Gombrowicz.

>14 labfs39: What Dan said up in >15 dchaikin: - I had not even heard of him either...

>13 DieFledermaus: I like your review. Not sure that I want to read the book but I am glad I read your review.

>12 DieFledermaus: "Fortunata and Jacinta" brings so many memories - it is one of the first longer books I ever read (my Mom took it on a vacation for a backup book and I finished my own books so ended up reading that one). I had not thought about this book in years. I do need to reread it (I probably missed a lot because of lack of understanding of the world) but from what I remember, I actually enjoyed it a lot.

>15 dchaikin: and >16 AnnieMod: Ah, but did you take a course on Polish literature in grad school? I've been feeling remiss for 30 years!

Hi Stephanie! Very glad to see you back.

>14 labfs39: - Thanks! This is actually my first Gombrowicz, but Ferdyduke is on the pile. I think this book is somewhat atypical in that the author was clearly going for a Gothic pastiche and originally published it under a different name.

Bruno Schulz is very....singular. I'm not sure how his work compares to more typical Gombrowicz - I've heard Ferdyduke et al. are somewhat absurd and surreal with playful prose. But I don't think there's too much that compares to Schulz. The closest I could think of would be Danilo Kis, especially Garden, Ashes.

>15 dchaikin: - Thanks! It does seem like everyone is reading Ferrante!

>16 AnnieMod: - Fortunata and Jacinta was a pretty involving read. I took it for jury duty and somehow it got misplaced. Usually my lost books will turn up after awhile, but I'm not sure where it went.

>18 FlorenceArt: - Good to see you also! Thanks for stopping by.

>19 DieFledermaus: I haven't read Garden, Ashes, but did read A Tomb for Boris Davidovich. It was mostly about the Stalinist purges, pogroms, the Inquisition against Jews, etc. No magical realism in sight. I own Encyclopedia of the Dead, but haven't read it yet. Have you seen Bruno Schulz's sketches? They lend a whole other aspect to his works.

>20 labfs39: - I have A Tomb for Boris Davidovich, but I'm not sure where it is. It definitely sounds more concrete than The Encyclopedia of the Dead - there was a lot of magic realism, surrealism and weirdness in that one. (I also have Hourglass somewhere - that one is supposed to be oddly structured also.)

I agree, the surreal sketches fit with his writing very well. I'm not sure which article it was, but I read one about the controversy over Schulz's WWII-era mural - both because his town moved from Poland to Ukraine and because it was essentially coerced. Will have to see if I can find it - an interesting read.

Recent acquisitions -

Men We Reaped - Jesmyn Ward
Voices From Chernobyl - Svetlana Alexievich

Also found one to add to the list - Bolshoi Confidential - Simon Morrison

>21 DieFledermaus: I would be interested in the Schulz article if you come across it again.

>22 DieFledermaus: I look forward to hearing what you think of Svetlana Alexievich. She was on my radar before winning the Nobel, and now I have no excuse to pick up her books. Have you read any others?