Reading Wednesday – and… No, Not Playing Games

[paulamcg]

What did you recently finish reading?

Well, not very recently, but…

At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
As I’ve said before, the sense of place and of era in this book is wonderful. From the beginning I felt I could trust the writer had done her research well (once again. I’ve enjoyed other novels by Chevalier before: Girl with a Pearl Earring, Remarkable Creatures, and The Last Runaway). The descriptions are vivid, the characters real with their flaws – both real and tragic.

After that I read a few short stories in The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt but couldn’t really concentrate. Besides writing, I spent my free time on packing and unpacking my books (and some other possessions of mine) because I moved house.

Oh, a couple of weeks ago I read
The Red Sea Sharks by Hergé, which was a pleasure, a bit nostalgic and also highly interesting, to a great extent thanks to a_belladonna, who writes fic and meta and makes fanart – all excellent, as much as I’ve seen of it – in the Tintin fandom.


What are you currently reading?

Finally happy with my books when they were arranged better than ever before in my six bookshelves, I got the idea it was high time to reread

The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
which I’d failed to ever hear of but soon after buying for perhaps one euro at a second-hand shop in spring 2014 deemed the best novel I’d ever read. The language is gorgeous, the narrative is enchanting in a special way… I still can’t help adoring the way the third-person narration gives way to first person suddenly when the protagonist enters unexpectedly surfacing memories. And no matter what wrong choices he had made and what an unpleasant person he’d become, I was thoroughly touched by his story and felt it made me understand better what (making art as well as) being human means.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
I finally got this from the library yesterday and started immediately. I’m excited to see whether this is as compelling and excellently-written as The Handmaid’s Tale. I do like the opening with a child’s perspective. The doll house is a nice way of introducing the roles citizens are allowed to have.


What do you think you’ll read next?

No idea really. Someone’s just reminded me that a few years ago I started reading A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. I can’t even remember whether I’ve read two of three of those novels, and I’m more confused because I also watched a season or two (or three?) of the show. The whole of Martin’s series seems a bit too much for a slow reader like me. Yesterday I saw the opening of the show again, and perhaps – even though I hardly ever watch any shows – I’ll prefer just watching when that someone wants me to share some time together in that way.

Instead, I could consider rereading Andrzej Sapkowski. Someone on my DW feed has found the Witcher novels boring, but I loved them, as well as the game Witcher the Wild Hunt – the only video game I’ve ever played. I’ve felt tempted to play it again, losing myself in that world, but so far I’ve restricted myself to listening to the gorgeous music from it. I know that, sadly, I’ll never be able to relive the moment of arriving in Skellige with the witcher and hearing the theme of that place for the very first time, just as (back to the topic of reading books) I’ll never feel just the same as the first time when I, together with Sukhanov, became the child in his very earliest memory.

Comments

[gracerene]

Ooo, a lot of books and authors I've not heard of!

[paulamcg]

And I hadn’t heard of most of the books in your latest reading post! Well, besides Tyler and JKR, I know Alan Paton, but I’ve got only a later novel by him and not read even that one.

It is lovely that there are so many new and older good books to find out about. I’d managed not to hear of Grushin, even though – as I read on Wikipedia now – that debut novel of hers was New York Times Notable Book of 2006, and won the 2007 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and a Top Ten Books of 2006 choice by the Washington Post. (In those years I must have focused too much on fanfic!)

Thank you for commenting!

[topaz_eyes]

Would love to know what you think of "The Testaments"! (I read it last year.)

[paulamcg]

Oh, so lovely to see you on my journal!

I feel impatient now and would like to hear immediately whether you think Atwood still writes as well as before.

[topaz_eyes]

I enjoyed "The Testaments". There's more world building in it, and we learn more about Aunt Lydia. Though I didn't think it was as lyrical as some of her past work.

Atwood insisted for decades that she wouldn't write a sequel, but I think the success of the TV series changed her mind. It does read like a commentary on the show. I don't know if you've watched the show, or have plans to.

[paulamcg]

Thank you so much! That’s just what I’m happy to hear so as to know what to expect.

I’ve seen part of the show, only the first season, I think(, because more wasn’t available where and when I was watching it, and even though I liked it, I didn’t end up seeing more later, because I hardly ever watch any shows). I’d read The Handmaid’s Tale perhaps eight years earlier, and when watching I felt that the tone was different and as if there hadn’t been so much action at all in the book. Part of this must be just that what had stayed with me were the more internal – perhaps also lyrical – aspects of the book.

I’ve found it interesting that Atwood changed her mind and wondered whether she really had internal motivation. (Why not? I really shouldn’t compare, but I changed my mind after eight years and continued to write my fan work, which I’d decided was already completed, and started doing it with no hope for readers.)

[topaz_eyes]

Yeah, the tone of the show is different, in part because they had to make Offred/June more proactive. In the book she's more a passive observer. Season 1 was a relatively faithful book adaptation otherwise. A couple of book ideas carried over into season 2, e.g. June's relationship with her mother and the Econopeople. Otherwise they ran out of book material to adapt.

I do wonder whether the sequel was Atwood's attempt to regain control over the story's direction. Seasons 2 and 3 felt somewhat aimless to me while watching, as if the showrunners weren't sure where to take the story. The sequel is set far enough in the future that the showrunners have some latitude with the plot. But certain things do need to happen in its present, and certain characters must survive, if the sequel will also be adapted. (Which apparently will have its own adaptation, as I've just read.) Except Season 3 ended with a cliffhanger, and season 4 won't be out any time soon. (They were like two weeks into filming before COVID-19 shut it down.)

[paulamcg]

Thank you so much for all this information on and all these thoughts about the series. I’m really not good at all at following shows or even news about them, even when I’m interested in the books they’re based on. All this is very interesting to know, and who knows if I still end up watching those aimless seasons, too. And good for Atwood, working in this way to regain control, particularly in case she’s developed something important to add to what she’s wanted to say and said with the first novel.