Reading and Watching the World: Books, Film and Art
There's a whole world out there! I'm an experienced, UK-based editor and a bit of an aesthetic dilettante. I'm making it my off-duty duty to bring to your attention books, films, artists, music and TV from all over the world. Reviews are SPOILER FREE. New posts every week. See Reviews by country for my reviews from each nation.
#20booksofsummer, book 4 Priestdaddy is an acclaimed memoir by US writer Patricia Lockwood, who is currently on the Women’s Prize shortlist for her first novel, No-one Is Talking About This, and whose tweets come imbued with the aura of legend. This, her first book, was published in 2017, and has a particularly random cover in …
Continue reading “Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood (USA): Review no 161”
Deborah Levy’s wonderful work of almost-memoir, ‘Real Estate’
Uncomfortable read on climate change in Iceland and the likelihood of impending environmental disaster
Exceptional, highly influential writing from New Zealand
Translated by Jenny McPhee EUROPE “Even though the story is real, I think one should read it as if it were a novel, and therefore not demand of it any more or less than a novel can offer … memory is ephemeral, and … books based on reality are often only faint glimpses and fragments …
Continue reading “Review no 101: Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg (Italy)”
Engaging and informative diaries record world events interspersed with episodes from family life
A brilliant memoir of a woman’s research into her father’s incredible story of bravery and survival
“Unbelievable!” he exclaimed. “How can a man fall off a sled? It’s not possible, yet you, you managed to do it. I saw you rolling down like a seal’s bladder, and I couldn’t believe my eyes!”
Gripping and informative memoir of growing up during and after Iran’s Islamic Revolution. It’s accessible graphic novel format, and engaging and often very funny narrator make this required reading. Five star brilliance.
EUROPE Translated from the Danish by Tiina Nunally (vols 1&2) and Michael Favala Goldman (vol 3) Penguin Books recently published Tove Divletsen’s autobiographical Copenhagen Trilogy as a beautiful three-volume set, entitled Childhood, Youth and Dependency (in Danish Barndom, Ungdom and Gift). They are gorgeous editions, and a pleasure to own, but it is a little …
Continue reading “Review no 17: Tove Ditlevsen (1917-78), The Copenhagen Trilogy (Denmark)”
