Library of Babel (original) (raw)

Julian Barnes: Talking it over

is a typical multi-angled story. a love triangle, two best friends and wife of one of them. i used to rank this style very high - juxtaposing different perspectives of one same story - until i tried to write it myself (it's really simple and deserves no special recognition). one of the characters has a very nice way of talking, very complicated and inventive, but apart from that, style-wise it's not anything special.

the story itself is pretty ordinary. in the beginning all the three characters were boring, those normal British people that you can't believe anyone can fall in love with - there was absolutely nothing special about them. later the complicated&inventive guy grew on me, but as he was an artsy soul, it was obvious Barnes' sympathies were with him all the time. nothing unexpected. even the end was... simply there. it didn't really belong there, but didn't stand out particularly either.

actually, it was a very pleasant read. it was witty and fluid, easy to read and, i repeat, the artsy guy knew how to use words. the story was interesting as three people saying - at moments - completely different things about one same situation can be interesting. i'd say, mediocre british new wave lit, or whatever they're called now. as soon as i finished it, i started forgetting it.

hardly a revolutionary book. no need to read it.

Mark Twain:

Journalism in Tennessee and other stories

this was on a wave of nostalgia (the library had only an old copy of Tom Sawyer in Serbian). i was in love with these stories when i was 12 or so - i was on that sense of humour level then. even now, although some of the stories were boring, the majority was still way above his time.

or, as i'm studying literature at the moment, it's incomparable with stuff written in Croatia at that time (things written in these lands are nowadays illegible; let alone funny). but then again, this nation was never able to write.

my favourites are the stories with the McWilliams family. i think they directly influenced Ephraim Kishon.

Zoran Lazić:

Miss Krampus

This is a cute collection of little (mentally little) stories that were described as "when Harms was a kid" on the back cover. very short, very cute, with a consistent thread of logic that results absurd. it's divided into 3 parts, the first describing childhood, the second and third a guy in his twenties, trying to understand his place in the world. they are divided with short bits of writing; absurd bits of fairy tales, or children stories, or Dickens-like storielles.

the first part is my favourite. Lazić doesn't amputate logic form his logic - he keeps the logic of a 4-year-old child. it made me remember how, in kindergarten, i used to make plans of going to the market when i get a big bigger, to buy a magic wand. i was really hopeful, making plans of everything i was going to do once i get it - i even thought about the model i would buy.

that kind of logic.

the book was left in Zagreb, so i can't translate you any of the stories, and i doubt you'll ever get the book in any accessible language. but if you do, read the story that starts with "one morning my granny got up from the grave."