Purpose
This thread is intended to review works of World literature in English translation, with a brief review of each. Hopefully we can build a list of great, but not well known, books for voracious readers to explore.
Review Style
Start your reviews with bold heading: Author, Book Title. Look down this post for examples. Give a short summary of the books plot, themes, and style, and note complexity of prose or any socio-cultural connections other readers might need to know to fully appreciate the book. Introduce the author and note anything significant about his background, his place of origin, and the original language of the text.
Reviews
Amos Oz, Unto Death
Amoz Oz is an Israeli novelist and professor of literature. He is a quite popular literary writer (mostly in Hebrew). Unto Death is an early work of his and consists of two short novellas: Crusade and Late Love. Crusade is the story of a grotesque army on its way to Jerusalem, lead by a Nobleman who slowly turns against his fellow soldiers, suspecting them of being Jewish spies and descending into madness as they get closer to Jerusalem. Late Love is the story of a Soviet Jewish emigree living in Israel, trying to convince his fellow Countryman of a great conspiracy against the Jews, and finding himself excluded from modern Israel at every turn. Overall, Unto Death is a good but not particularly satisfying experience, not quite matching the typical quality of Oz's literary works. It is a tough read, and stylistically seems to have lost its prosodic charms in translation. Three monkeys.
More examples to come in the coming days as I sort through my collected reflections on works of world literature.
This thread is intended to review works of World literature in English translation, with a brief review of each. Hopefully we can build a list of great, but not well known, books for voracious readers to explore.
Review Style
Start your reviews with bold heading: Author, Book Title. Look down this post for examples. Give a short summary of the books plot, themes, and style, and note complexity of prose or any socio-cultural connections other readers might need to know to fully appreciate the book. Introduce the author and note anything significant about his background, his place of origin, and the original language of the text.
Reviews
Amos Oz, Unto Death
Amoz Oz is an Israeli novelist and professor of literature. He is a quite popular literary writer (mostly in Hebrew). Unto Death is an early work of his and consists of two short novellas: Crusade and Late Love. Crusade is the story of a grotesque army on its way to Jerusalem, lead by a Nobleman who slowly turns against his fellow soldiers, suspecting them of being Jewish spies and descending into madness as they get closer to Jerusalem. Late Love is the story of a Soviet Jewish emigree living in Israel, trying to convince his fellow Countryman of a great conspiracy against the Jews, and finding himself excluded from modern Israel at every turn. Overall, Unto Death is a good but not particularly satisfying experience, not quite matching the typical quality of Oz's literary works. It is a tough read, and stylistically seems to have lost its prosodic charms in translation. Three monkeys.
More examples to come in the coming days as I sort through my collected reflections on works of world literature.