The prisoner of paradise by Romesh Gunesekera
06 Feb 2012 11 Comments
in asian fiction, Sri Lanka Tags: 2012, historic fiction
Romesh Gunesekera is a Sri Lankan born writer ,he has written five books previously including the booker shortlisted Reef ,he is currently writer in residence for the charity first story .I ‘ve had Romesh’s books on my mind since last summer I borrow his book the match and never got round too reading it before it needed being back at the library but knew I wanted to read him as I had enjoy Reef and his debut the short story collection monkfish moon a short story collection in fact one of my favourite short story collections .So at christmas when he did one of the BBC Radio three essays in honour of Dickens and he talked about this book and how in a little ways it was influenced by dickens.Then next day it dropped on my doorstep from Bloomsbury if ever I was told to read a book it was this one .It seemed right to do it the day before dickens birthday ,also it was a change of subject from the early books of his I d read as it is a historic novel where the other I d read had been set in the present or recent past .
THE book is set in 1825 in Mauritius ,we meet Lucy Gladwell a typical Romesh character a young person who is in the middle of changes in her life like Triton in Reef Lucy has had a change this one sees her going to her aunt and uncle as she is an Orphan and has come to escape looming poverty ,another dickens connection how many orphans do we meet in dickens that go live with family good or bad .She is 19 years old but in our modern eyes she is a lot younger than that in her world view ,anyway as the story unfolds she is dazzled by this wonderful island. This island is a melting pot of africa and india with people from all over the place there ,as with most islands like this tend to be a little different to the life she is used to in the uk .and also slow to change to the modern world .
“Ananas,ananas” ,and tipped forward a basin of jagged sweet smelling yellow fruit .George Huyton wielded his cane with both hands.Get away with you .Out .Out two young brown boys dodged him.
Lucy sees her uncle and minutes later he does this that sets tone for the book .
As we she her Aunt Betty and Uncle George live in a island full of people from round the world but her uncle has the bigotry of a ruling class .later we see Lucy as she falls for a young man from Ceylon (Sri Lanka now ).This is man Don Lambodar isn’t her openly bigoted uncle first choice to say the least .Else where away from the Island slave are rebelling and things are happening in the uk people are rioting ,in this time it took weeks for this news to slowly seep through drop by drop as we see tension on the island grow between the plantation owners and workers and slaves ,all this comes to the head as disaster hits the island .Romesh is the master of description the island comes to life through his carefully written descriptions of flowers and food .But the main theme of this book is freedom what is it who has it are the all prisoners as they are held on the island and also to a set of rules to who they are and how they act ,as the world outside the island is seeing this change due to Peterloo riots that had happened six-years earlier but is just soaking through to the island and People like william Wilberforce .Lucy see this all through her innocent eyes and lets you draw your own conclusion which is the same as her becomes as the story develops .
Have you read his books ?
Stick out your tongue by Ma Jian
25 Sep 2011 20 Comments
in asian fiction, China Tags: 2011, Asian fiction, Chinese fiction, Ma Jian, NEW VOICES, TRANSLATIONS
Stick out your tongue by Ma Jian
Chinese fiction
Translator – Flora drew
I m so pleased I picked this up at the library long have I struggled to get a foot in on chinese fiction ,I ve a few books on my shelf but have read first few pages of them and not be gripped so have been on the look out for something short to get my juices following for Chinese books , but I saw this Ma Jian’s debut collection published in 1987 and in English in 2006 which is only 89 pages long and thought I ll read this in an evening . I didread it in a evening , but also found a chinese writer I love, as well ,and was pleased to be told on twitter when I said I d read it , he has other books out already .well stick your tongue out is a collection of five short stories ,as normal I ll mention only one of these thus leaving the others for you to find for your self .I ve chosen The smile of lake Drolmula we meet Sonam ,he is a Tibetan nomad that has left his nomadic family to live in the city ,but is returning to find his family , we meet him as he stops by the beautiful lake Dromula ,as he does he images how the people in his family have grown in his time away from them ,also little bits on what he remembers his family being like a certain apron ,this piece is full of the natural beauty but also the hard life of a nomad at the same time ,also how familes can easily drift apart ,as he progresses he finds his family hard to track down .
The black horse must have delivered my sack to the tent by now ,he thought to himself .In a daze ,he found himself walking back to his family’s tent .The sheepdog Pemu ran up to him and rubbed its head against the zip of his trousers .
Does he make it or is it just imagined ?
This collection was longlisted for the independent foreign fiction long list in 2007 .The stories all set in Tibet portray a place of wide open spaces and beauty, but also people struggling to survived under communism and the harshness of the landscape ,but also the characters in the stories seem to be loners and outsiders almost looking for answers at times son and a writer among them . Ma Jian lives in exile in London with his partner Flora Drew the translator of the book ,his books are banned in China due to their content .Ma Jian is also banned from china since this year .If like me you want a door into Chinese fiction I remember someone on the book show from ABc saying that Chinese fiction would be one the rising star of the 21st century literature . This may be the book for you ,the translation is wonderful from the Han original as you would expect as she is his partner .
Source library
Have you a favourite chinese book ?
Have you read Ma Jian ?
who wants to help ?
20 Sep 2010 23 Comments
in #translationthurs, african fiction, around the world, asian fiction, TRANSLATIONS Tags: 2010, african fiction, ARAB FICTION, around the world 52, belgium around the world, FINNISH, french lit, italy, ROMANIA, senegal, spain, TRANSLATIONS
I would love some people to help me out with the around the world challenge have a basic format but ideas and offers of help most welcome .THE IDEA SO FAR IS 11 CATEGORISE no order but a year-long challenge ,thinks I need help with are using mister linky ,making a button for blogs to show any help or offers of support be most welcome . here is what the categories would be -
- EUROPE (NORTHERN) -ie Germany ,Holland ,Sweden ,Denmark , Finland,Russia ,Poland ,uk ,Iceland ,Ireland ..
- EUROPE(SOUTHERN)-ie spain ,Portugal,Italy ,Greece,Turkey Balkans …
- AFRICA (FRENCH AFRICA) The west of africa mainly Senegal ,Cotes de Ivorie including books in other language from these areas in english.
- AFRICA (ENGLISH SPEAKING ) southern and eastern africa IE Kenya ,Ghana ,South Africa also books in other languages translated in to english
- ARABIC books from the arabic world Algeria ,Egypt etc
- ASIA (Korea ,Japan and China )
- ASIA rest of asia
- AMERICAS (NORTH) US AND CANADA BOOKS
- AMERICAS (CENTRAL) plus Caribbean
- AMERICAS (SOUTH )
- AUSTRALIA ,NEW ZEALAND AND OCEANIA
There are categories I ve in mind and let people read in what ever order they want but one a month for challenge leaving spare month as we all have things crop up and may need time in hand .
WHAT DO YOU THINK ?
I want this to be fun my personnel goal was to read books from 52 countries this year I ve nearly done that in twelve months ,its given me such a scope of books ,I just in a little way want to pass that on to other people in a fun way ,all the best stu and winston .
the sailor who fell from gace with the sea by Yukio Mishima
19 Apr 2010 8 Comments
in asian fiction, Japan Tags: japan
the sailor who fell from grace with the sea
notes-
In his time Yukio Mishima was one of Japans most successful writers been considered three times for the nobel prize ,this is one of the best known of over forty novels he wrote in his lifetime ,he also wrote plays and short stories in his time .he did after a failed coup to restore the emperors powers in japan that had been lost at the end of the second world war ,he committed ritual suicide .
the book-
Starts in post war japan it follows Noboruo a wayward young lad who is in a gang and has been held in his room at night by his mother to prevent him joining the gang ,this lad is voyeuristic watching his mother dress and her liaisons with Ryjuli a sailor ,when he hangs out with a gang and the chief the head of the gang . the gang does a particular brutal attack in the middle of the book ,Noburuo resents his mothers affair with Ryjuli and purses him with the gang .he initially likes her mothers lover but then sees flaws in him .Noburo is a typical teenager in a lot of ways this is about him wanting to break free and his sexual awakening but in a extreme way
my view -
this is a short review because i didn’t really enjoy this book ,the synopsis read a bit like a japanese lord of the flies or clockwork orange it did have a bit of that but also felt a bit forced by the writer am not sure if this was the translation or the style of writing ,it did give a view in to the more traditional side of japan that we don,t always get chance to see in a lot of modern japanese novels .the attack describe in the middle of the book is quite shocking and nearly made me put the book down !
