bibliomani

David Small: Stitches (2009)

Kirsten Marie — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 05:57:59 +0000

I seem to be on a roll with these memoirs in the shape of graphic novels as this is my third in less weeks. Or maybe I’ve discovered a trend? Anyway, this one is equally well-written/-drawn, but visually very unlike both Fun Home and Jimmy Corrigan due to the watercolour-technique Small applies. And it’s beautiful and striking and grim.

Barbara Kingsolver: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007)

Kirsten Marie — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:16:50 +0000

It seems that I need to read some of Kingsolver’s novels, which I must admit I hadn’t even heard of before someone (thanks, Wanda!) recommended I read this book. Because Kingsolver is an excellent storyteller. This is the unpretentious, un-preaching, real life story about her and her family who for a year only eats food grown locally. That means surviving without pineapples, but also putting up incredible amounts of tomatoes and gorging on all kinds of fresh, fresh vegetables from their own small farm. That part of the book read like porn to a vegetarian like me.

Kingsolver makes an intelligent case for thinking about (or learning) which fruits and vegetables are in season, and then cutting down on those that aren’t, and for eating food locally grown. Her reasons counts the environment, health, taste and the ability to connect with what we eat. However, her definition of locally grown (within a 120 miles / 200 km radius) makes a lot more sense in America than in a small country like Denmark. I think I could do it on an even smaller radius – if I had a farm and was a gardening queen like Kingsolver.

Umberto Eco: Mouse or Rat? (2003)

Kirsten Marie — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:38:47 +0000

This is a collection of lectures Eco gave on translation. It covers some good points, but parts of it requires that you read Italian and French, which I don’t. However, Eco is both a translator himself and an author renowned for his vast notes to the translators of his works, so it’s of course interesting to read his thoughts on the art.

Chris Ware: Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth (2000)

Kirsten Marie — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:14:43 +0000

How did I only discover this now when it’s from 2000??! This is one of the most mindblowing pieces of graphic art I have ever laid my eyes on (not that it comes to that many, but I’m sure you get my point). This graphic novel is a graphic novel in the exact opposite way of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (see below). Like Fun House it is a story about the relationship between fathers and their offspring, but told in a way only possible because it is drawn. It mixes reality, imagination, dreams and flashbacks into a whirl that demands the readers’ complete attention. Contrasting this is the flat, two-dimensional style and the sparse use of words. Very evoking. I’m looking forward to re-reading this.

Alison Bechdel: Fun Home (2005)

Kirsten Marie — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:21:08 +0000

Some may know Alison Bechdel for her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For or maybe for the Bechdel Test, which one should always apply to movies. But Fun House is an autobiographical narration about Bechdels relationship to her father who (maybe) killed himself, (presumably) was a homosexual (like her) and was obsessed with redecorating their Victorian house. The story is gripping and ruthlessly honest and makes a very good novel indeed. It is also drawn.

I know many people don’t like the term ”graphic novel”. They see it as a unnessecary attempt at distancing the medium from ”comics” with its connotations of children, fast punchlines and lack of substance. However, in this case I think it can be used to signify that this is, in fact, an illustrated novel, not a comic. The drawings support the text and illustate the story, but the story itself is central, not the fact that it is conveyed by means of drawings. And it works really, really well. Highly recommendable.

Kitty Fitzgerald: Pigtopia (2005)

Kirsten Marie — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:33:10 +0000

As so many other novels this one is based on a good idea, but it doesn’t ever seem to figure out what to do with it. The plot becomes more and more absurd and the last 100 pages I spent wondering how Fitzgerald was going to get herself out of it – and then it ended in one of the most easy and irritating ways of all (the protagonist didn’t wake up, but close).

But yes, the idea is good. A man, raised to believe that he’s an unintelligent freak, but who is an expert on pigs, and whose narration is written almost like that of Faulkner’s Benji. Throw in a couple of abusive parents and a young girl who’s trying to figure out how to grow up. Not bad, but it lacked coherence or maybe firmer sense of purpose.

Donna Tartt: The Secret History (1992)

Kirsten Marie — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 06:37:37 +0000

This was a good read indeed! Though the plot is somewhat trivial it is brilliantly played out and the character descriptions are … brilliant as well. Highly recommendable novel. Thanks, Kirsten, for giving it to me (not myself, another Kirsten, that is).

Thomas Harder: Mellem to sprog (2010)

Kirsten Marie — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:08:32 +0000

Et fint lille kampskrift for oversættelse som respektabelt, “hårdt” fag samt for vigtigheden af sprog og sprogundervisning. Bogen er noget ujævn, da den er delvist sammensat af foredrag og kronikker, men den er underholdende og klog og bestemt anbefalelsesværdig for alle, der interesserer sig for sprog og oversættelse.

Charles Burns: Black Hole (2005)

Kirsten Marie — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 20:21:21 +0000

When I bought this graphic novel, the woman behind the counter recommended it fiercely, but I must say I was never really impressed. It’s well done and all that, but just not very spectacular.

Bjarne Reuter: Den iranske gartner (2008)

Kirsten Marie — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 15:23:28 +0000

Som barn trippede jeg over den syrede “En dag i Hector Hansens liv”, og som teenager læste jeg “Når snerlen blomstrer” adskillige gange. Men jeg havde aldrig forsøgt mig med Bjarne Reuters romaner for voksne. Og nu er jeg næsten ked af, at jeg har. Reuter kan sit håndværk, og han er en dygtig humorist. Men han prøver også at være sarkastisk og samfundskritisk, og der rammer han helt forbi mig.

Historien foregår i en slags Danmark, hvor statsministeren hedder Aksel Krogh Asmussen, der drømmer om at blive generalsekretær for FN. Arveprins Bernhard har slået sin iranske gartner ihjel, iklædt latex og nytårshat, og den madglade og jævnt usympatiske kriminalkommisær Stelman iværksætter en storstilet og dårligt koordineret afledningsmanøvre, som bl.a. involverer rockeren Ansjosen. Det er som udgangspunkt godt tænkt og sprogligt finurligt skrevet, men satiren er så absurd, at den aldrig bliver andet end det. Der er masser af ting at grine over, fx. den her passus: “Larsen mærkede blodet bruse i årerne ved tanken om Holger Danske. Kæmpen i kasematterne. Hvilke arme og hvilke ben. Hvilken urkraft. En ægte danske foreviget i en middagslur.” Og fine formuleringer som “ferskrøget kruspersille” og “min mund er lukket med hammer og segl.” Det er morsomt, men jeg savnede desværre noget bid.