Bye Bye Benny - Francesco Filippi

 

I read this (e)book because I liked its exhuberant cover and the fact that it called the petty (and terrifingly reckless) dictator that defined the Italian 20th century "Benny". 

This book is obviously little more than a cute story for children (or at most young adults), still, in a continent that is experiencing some rather significant democratic backsliding and with a drought of readable books around, it still serves a purpose. 

It won't (and it really shouldn't) shake the world, but it might help a few people who read this think that perhaps we ought to defend democratic values and that strongmen (and women!) might not always be the best answer to socio-political stagnation. Actually, they are never the best answer to socio-political stagnation. 

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain

 

Another one of those books left on the doorstep of a Rotherhithe apartment block. 

Of the three Mark Twain novels I read, this was by far the least interesting. Not as funny as Tom Sawyer, not as thoguht-provoking at Huckleberry Finn. 

And while Mark Twain also has problematic elements (race, colonialism, politics - you name it!) this one almost had me scream "stop patronizing the rest of the world and other eras, you self-indulgent, self-absorbed and self-centred American bore". 

Paradise Sky - Joe R. Lansdale

 

The first Lansdale book I read, and it was actually one of those great 30p buys from the Barbican Library overstock titles. 

Partly Cormac McCarthy, partly Little Big Man, partly self-aggrandising tall tale, this was a truly compelling read. 

It does, however, also raise a significant question: is it better for a great white writer to tell the story of a black cowboy, or should we wait for a black writer to do that, however long it might take (considering that there isn't a queue of black authors waiting to write about Nat Love, as far as I know)? I tend to prefer the first option, but I'd be very happy to be proven wrong. 

Sátántangó - László Krasznahorkai

 

Maybe my desire to read some Hungarian books became excessive. And maybe the Nobel committee goes out of its way to award prizes to authors that are simply too highbrow for even reasonably seasoned readers. 

But seriously, what was this?!? I understand that experimenting with literary forms can be a sign of genius, but I ultimately begin my writing advice sessions by jokingly telling my students that "sentence, paragraph and essay" should not be treated as synonyms (seriously, some of them love 800-word paragraphs on the Schlieffen Plan), and this is exactly what Krasznahorkai does. 

I honestly didn't understand anything of this book (and as a result, didn't understand its supposed greatness). It all blurred into one, interminable, sentence and I felt that I had to finish this only because the Nobel committee said so. 

Destinazione Errata - Domenico Starnone

 

A book by a reasonably popular Italian contemporary author that I was completely unfamiliar with. 

It's very well-written, and the self-destructive web of deceipts and half-truths that the main character weaves around himself as he tries to tell a colleague that he doesn't love her before trying to persuade himself that he does actually love her is, at the very least, fascinating. 

Still, all the characters in the novel are supposed to be highly educated and emotionally intelligent. How is it even remotely possible that a love declaration coming via text from a married man is not questioned at least a little bit more by the recipient?!?

The Time of the Hero - Mario Vargas Llosa

 

Another book that I got from Olio. Oh, how nice it would have been to get more than my "allocated" 10 books from that guy...

The Time of the Hero started off poorly for me. Very poorly. Life in army barracks and "boys will be boys" acts of violence and bullying are really not my idea of an interesting (let alone a pleasant) read. 

Still, after a few chapters, and when the drama truly unfolds (despite the fact that the book's cover already announced from the start what the drama would be...) the characters actually become well-rounded and one and I started to become invested in their lives. While not fully expecting complete justice, I would have still liked at least something more than "the army will take care of itself". 

Still, it remains a book about something that I find at best uninteresting, and at worst borderline repulsive.