These are books I've read in 2008 or notable books that I've remembered from the past. I've probably read others set in different countries that haven't stuck in my mind.
Africa
Uganda - Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden
Botswana -
No 1 Ladies Detective Agency books by Alexander McCall Smith
Morocco -
Hideous Kinky by Ester Freud
Asia
Tokyo -
Norwegian Wood by Hanuki Murakami
Singapore -
The Third Brother by Nick McDonell
Thailand -
The Third Brother by Nick McDonell and
The Beach by Alex Garland
India -
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri,
Life of Pi by Yann Martel and
God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Europe
Austria -
The Third Man by Graham Greene
Germany -
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Norway -
Naive Super by Erlend Loe
Sweden -
Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
Prague -
The Unbearable Lightness of Being and other books by Milan Kundera
Sicilly -
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
France -
The Outsider by Albert Camus and
Whatever by Michel Houellebecq
Russia -
Dynamo by Tariq Goddard,
The Russian Debutante's HandbookUkraine - Death and the Pengiun &
Penguin Lost by Andrey Kurkov and
A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine by Marina Lewycka
Spain -
Homage to a Firing Squad by Tariq Goddard
Hungary -
Under a Frog by Tibor Fischer
Poland -
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
Ireland -
The Gathering by Anne Enwright and
The Sea by John Banville
South America
Cuba -
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
Argentina, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama - all visited in
The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara
Message edited by its author, Nov 19, 2008, 6:50am.
I read a lot of things set in the UK but most of them tend to be set in London so this map doesn't look that impressive!
I've visited the counties in yellow.
Which counties have you visited?made by
marnanelmap reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data
by permission of the Ordnance Survey.
© Crown copyright 2001.
Message edited by its author, Nov 25, 2008, 12:21pm.
Glad to see others branching out in their reading! There are some awesome recommendations in the various threads of this group if you are needing any. We'll look forward to seeing where else you travel!
avaland - thank you for the welcome. I'm looking forward to the journey.
My first new country was
Haiti in
The Comedians by Graham Greene. Set during the dictatorship of Papa Doc, the book is about a group of foreigners on the island compared with the islanders. Obviously Greene isn't from Haiti and the book is very much from a detached outsider's point of view, but nonetheless it was fascinating to read about the turbulent era in the country. It has left me interested in reading more and I will try to get hold of a book from a native writer (I've read the group reads thread) to see how this compares.
Message edited by its author, Nov 29, 2008, 4:32am.
Next on my travels was
Iran in
The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani.
This book was a huge departure from my usual reading, not just because of the country (which I'd not been to before on my reading travels), but becuase it was set in the 16th century. I very rarely read anything that is set further back than the last century. I really enjoyed this - the descriptions of places, food and the rugs were brilliant. It was also frightening to think about how women were treated, how precarious their position in society was.
Message edited by its author, Nov 29, 2008, 4:32am.
Then on
Pakistan with
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.
A young Pakistani man talks to an American stranger in Lahore, telling him about how he became disillisioned with the American way of life. A very simple style but very powerful and tense. A lot of the book was about American culture from the viewpoint of an outsider, but still some great detail about Pakistani culture, in particular the descriptions of food and nature. I was struck by how important food is, both in this book aand in
The Blood of Flowers, perhaps in the West, we take it too much for granted, but
Message edited by its author, Nov 29, 2008, 9:18am.
Back to the USA with
Timbuktu, but at least it allowed me to visit a couple of states I'd not been to before in my reading; Maryland (Baltimore) and somewhere unspecified in Virginia, as well as Brooklyn.
Message edited by its author, Dec 11, 2008, 10:29am.
Returned to
Sicily for another installment of the Inspector Montalbano mysteries, with
The Terracotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri. The local cuisine seems even more prominent in this one than the first book in the series and there were a few comments from outsiders about the region.
Message edited by its author, Dec 20, 2008, 12:15pm.
Visited
Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s in
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. More representative of British and Japanese ex-pat experience in China than that of the locals, but again an interesting depiction of a certain period in time.
sanddancer -- I too enjoyed
When We Were Orphans -- such quirky characters as well as the interesting time capsule. I hadn't known much about the Japanese invasion of China before then.
I've been on a brief literary journey to
Australia.
I started with
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton which follows the fortunes of two families from the 1940s to the 1960s in Perth, Western Australia. I really enjoyed this book and it seemed a good choice for something from Australia as the place was very important. Australia's relationship with England was mentioned several times, in particular with England being associated with the "bosses" class and conservative values whilst Australia was a young country. There was the theme of the shameful hidden history of the blacks in Australia. The book wasn't just about Australia though, but specifically about Perth and its growth from a town into a city and a real life serial killer that is seen as symbolic of that, makes an appearance in the novel. The characters in the book use a lot of Australian slang but I was pretty familiar with much of this from watching Australian soap operas!
Next I read Peter Carey's story story collection
The Fat Man in History. I realised that I had previously read some work by Peter Carey many years ago,
Oscar and Lucinda (which I didn't enjoy) and
The Tax Inspector (which I liked more but obviously not enough for it to make a strong impression!). However, I loved
The Fat Man in History. I'm not usually a huge fan of short stories but these were consistently excellent and showed great imagination. They could be termed speculative fiction so real life Australia doesn't feature much, but there are still some themes that can be seen as related to the author being Australian. The most noticeable is the mistrust of America and its high capitalism. Whilst in
Cloudstreet set in the past it was the British who were considered with suspicion, in several places here it is Americans who are the threat to Australian identity and life. In the title story, fat people are outcasts being being over-weight has become associated with American excesses. The story "American Dreams" is a warning against courting American ideals and in
The Chance Australia has given itself up to an alien race as preferable to its previous master, the USA.
Reading
Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg allowed me to take in
Copenhagen, Denmark and a bit of
Greenland.
Before reading this, I knew nothing about Greenland and this book was particularly informative about Inuit culture and the uneasy relationship with Denmark. I really enjoyed the book from this point of view and would be interested in reading more fiction set in Greenland. Unfortunately, the thriller aspect of the novel was less successful in my opinion.
Another new state in the USA,
Georgia in
East is East by T C Boyle,which is about the culture clash between a young Japanese man and the locals here.
Then off to
Afghanistan in
A Thousand Splendid Suns. I realise I've come to this book years after most other people, but I was glad that I finally read it. I don't think it is a great work of literature by any means, but he is a good story teller and it gives a good potted history of Afghanistan in the last forty years.
Next a trip of India, in particular
Delhi and
Bangalorein
White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. The book was about the new economy in India, the traditional caste system and the differences between the rural and urban lifestyles. Some of this was interesting, but I didn't like the tone of the book - it felt like it was mocking the cultures it wrote about and that the characters were all stereotypes. Whilst I appreciate things being satirised, I thought this was written very much for a Western audience and was condescending in its portrayal. Although the author was born in India and lives there now, I notice he grew up in Australia.
Message edited by its author, Jan 24, 2009, 4:42am.
Back to
Japan again with
Real World by Natsuo Kirino. This is a crime novel but the Japanese setting is very important. The story is about a group of four teenage girls and how they get involved with a teenage boy who has murdered his mother. The alienation from not only their parents and society, but from each other, struck me as being a typical Japanese theme. There is also a lot of detail about the Japanese school and university system, travelling on the Tokyo underground and teh different cliches within high school.
Nice thread, sanddancer! I look forward to seeing where you go next!
You've got an admirer in me too, sanddancer! I've been watching your travels since the beginning. :-)
I've got you starred too sanddancer.
I read
Real World last year, and wasn't that impressed. The style was quite good, and I liked the fact that the story was told from the perspective of different characters, which caused me to constantly revise my opinions of them. Unfortunately I had no sympathy for any of them, they were pretty unpleasant and it was difficult to excuse their behaviour. I liked
Out a lot better.
Hello to Bonniebooks and Akeela!
Jbeast - I hope to read Out soon. I know what you mean about
Real World. It wasn't a bad read, but I didn't ever feel emotionally involved in the plot, and felt very detached from what was happening to all of the characters, but I think that may have been intentional as they all felt isolated, so perhaps we weren't supposed to emphasise with them.
Next a trip to
Chile following Pinochet's takeover in
Distant Star by Roberto Bolano. I seem to be drawn to books about people living under dictatorships and harsh regimes as it usually makes for interesting, if disturbing reading. The book is about a poet who becomes a murderer under the new regime, with his career observed by another poet. It starts very strongly and is unsettling in its description of the strange poet and a society where it becomes commonplace for people to disappear. However, the second part of the book is more more about literature and poetry, particularly from Latin America, which I know nothing about, so much of this went over my head and I suspect there may have been a deeper meaning that I was missing out on.
I would recommend
Out. Although a bit gruesome in places it gives a really interesting insight into Japanese culture (not that I've ever been there), and is really strong on character development.
You could well be right about not being supposed to like the characters in
Real World, and considering the mastery of the writing in
Out it's quite possible that Kirino was manipulating her readers in that direction. I still didn't think it was a great book though.
#21: Sanddancer, have you read
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa? It's a fictionalized account of the last days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. My heart was pounding throughout the novel, especially at the end.
Kidzdoc - No, I haven't read that, but it sounds very interesting and Mario Vargas Llosa is an author I feel I should read something by. Thanks for the recommendations - I'll see if I can get a copy of that.
I've only been mentioning my USA visits if they have taken me to previously unvisited states, but I'm going to make an exception for
Los Angeles without a Map by Richard Rayner that I've just read, since the location was central to the book. It is a memoir about an Englishman who can't drive moving to LA. I'm English, don't drive and will be visiting LA myself shortly. Unlike the author though, I'm not moving there because I've fallen in love with a Bunny Girl!
It wasn't by any means a great work of literature, but it was an entertaining light read. The LA here conforms exactly to the stereotype of being full of beautiful crazy people who all want to work in the movie business. At points I doubted whether some of it was true, but it didn't really stop my enjoyment of it.
The
Dominican Republic is another entry in the (long) list of countries I knew little about. The only thing I knew about it was that my sister once went there on holiday, but I doubt that will feature in their history books. I now know a little bit more thanks to
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Although partly set in New Jersey, the Dominican Republic is at the centre of this book. I learned about the reign of the dictator Trujillo, his son and cohorts, about the traits of Dominican men and women, and something of their prejudices and relationship with Haiti and the USA. But perhaps more importantly I really enjoyed the book itself.
I will return to the Dominican Republic soon as I am now in possession of
The Feast of the Goat.
That's a good book when you can combine a great story, great writing with learning something about another country/culture, isn't it? This book is on my list too and your comments make me want to get to it sooner! :-)
Bonnie - yes that is great. I like to feel like I've learnt something even from my fiction reading.
I've just visited
Finland with
Ice Moon by Jan Costin Wagner. This is another crime novel, but it was as much about grief as it was about murder. It was set in Finland, which is where the author lives, but he is German. The setting didn't a huge part, although it did feel Scandinivian, but interestingly there was a German character in it who visits Finland for the first time.
I planned to visit Africa much sooner this month for the group read, but only made it to Nigeria last week in Purple Hibiscus. A very uncomfortable read, dealing with domestic violence, it was a very powerful book. The conflict between Roman Catholic faith and old religions was something I knew very little about, but found very interesting. Equally, the use of English and Igbo in relation to social status was fascinating. It was also refreshing to read a book that wasn't about poverty, but a different kind of hardship. Also despite the "exotic" location, I found it interesting that the abusive father was very much like similar figures portrayed in UK/USA, with the hypocrisy of his actions in church and society against how he treats his own family.
I have read so little fiction from Africa, which contains so many different countries, so I hope to return here again soon to see how other nations compare.
Some travels to update:
A return trip to
Uganda, but this time in the company of a local writer in
Tropical Fish Tales from Entebbe by Doreen Baingana. Structured as eight stories that can be read alone. it tells of Christine and her sisters growing up in Uganda in the aftermath of Idi Amin's reign. The stories take in AIDS and traditional African religion but the feelings of growing up are universal. I absolutely loved this book.
The next book
Giraffe started in Africa, but moved to
Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. This is a fictionalised version of a true story and another brilliant book that I think deserves a wider readership. The narrative is split between a scientist, a sleep-walker and a giraffe, until the story builds up to its awful conclusion. Be warned - this book made me cry.
Hi sanddancer. I really like the sound of Giraffe, so will look out for it and thank you.
I'll make a more concerted effort to get Tropical Fish Tales from Entebbe. It has been on my mental TBR -but based on your review I think I'll probably enjoy it too! Thanks.
Returning to Africa, this time
ZImbabwe in another short story collection An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah. Although never directly about the Mugabe regime, he casts a shadow over most of the stories, along with the soaring inflation and AIDS epidemic. The writing was wonderful so although the subject matter was usually pretty bleak, it was still compelling reading. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as
Tropical Fish Tales from Entebbe mainly because I'm not normally a huge fan of short stories so preferred that in Tropical Fish there were common characters running through the story, whereas these were all very much separate tales. A good introduction to a troubled country in fiction form though.
Some more travels.
I visited
Angola in
The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa. Not sure I really learnt much about the country from this book as it was such a strange story. Parts of it touch upon colonialism and an obsession with ancestry places a large part in the book.
Next was a visit to
Greece, to a small island in
The Messenger of Athens by Anne Zouroudi. This is a crime novel but rather different from the usual as the identity of the investigator is as mysterious as the death he is investigating. It is a story of police corruption, village gossip and harsh traditions, but somehow it still made me want to go to a Greek island! Very evocative of the place, particularly through the food and drink.
My travels have been limited in recent months with most of my reading being in the USA or UK.
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
I returned to the
Dominican Republic in a story that moved between the present and the past of Trijullio's dictatorship. I enjoyed parts of this, but it was probably a bit too long and didn't hold my full attention, but did give me more information about Trijullio following on from my early read of
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
A mixture of heartwarming storytelling and philosophical musings, I preferred the parts relating to the former. The book is set in
Paris and seems very typically French in its style and it gave an interesting insight into class in France.
The Successor by Ismail Kadare
Yet another book about an oppressive regime, this time in a fictionalised version of
Albania. Rather disappointed with this one and as it was a fictionalised version of the country, I didn't learn much about Albania.
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
My global reading has so far been fiction, but this is non-fiction memoir of the Spanish Civil War. This is a subject that I'm interested in but knew very little about. Not sure this was the best introduction - it was well-written but would perhaps have been better appreciated if I already knew more on the subject.
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
A bit of a cheat including this one as it is written by a British author but set in the
former USSR. It is essentially a crime story, but it was the parts about the society, rife with suspicion and betrayal that I found most interesting.
Message edited by its author, Sep 27, 2009, 2:01pm.
Back on my travels
A visit to
Amsterdam, including ventures into its seedy red light district in
DeKok and the Somber Nude by A C Baantjer, the Netherland's leading crime writer. Despite murder and drugs, it was a pretty easy read, but one that painted an intriguing picture of the darker side of life in the Netherlands.
Staying with crime novels, I moved onto Sweden with the 1970 classic The Laughing Polceman by husband and wife writing team Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. This was very dark, showing society crumbling - very different from how we outside tend to think of Sweden, but similar to Henning Mankell's portrayal of it.
Then something completely different with
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Safak. This was a family saga, manly about two young women, one in Istanbul, the other an Armenian-American who wants to visit Turkey to find out more about the genocide of Armenians. Like so many novels set outside of the USA/Western Europe, there was a lot of descriptions of food, with each chapter being named after a typical ingredient in a Turkish dish, the significance of which is revealed towards the end. Istanbul really comes to life in the book too. I enjoyed this book enormously, even though it had its dark moments.
Imagine This by Sade Adeniran
Another story of the difficulties of growing up in Nigeria, with some similarities with
Purple Hibiscus. This book is about a young girl of Nigerian parentage, who was born in England, but returns to Nigeria aged 9. She struggles with village life and a whole host of uncaring relatives. The early part of the book is full of hunger, violence and neglect and at times it feels like too much misery is being piled on, and I found it hard to imagine that nearly every adult can be so uncaring to an innocent child. Some things that happened in the book were very obvious, but other parts did still have the power to shock, althouh it never made me cry (perhaps I've read too many similar things already?). There are some interesting details in here about religion, in particular how the beliefs in multiple gods and witch-doctors exists side by side with Christianity.
A visit to
Israel to look at the Middle East conflict from a perspective I'd not considered before in
Let It Be Morning by Sayed Kashua. It is set in an Arab village in Israel, where the residents are Muslims, but glad to be part of Israel rather than independent, despite being treated as second class citizens. A book is narrated (mainly in the present tense, which does grate on me somewhat) by a journalist who has returned home to the village after years of living in Tel Aviv. Not long after his return, the village is under siege, with the roads blocked by tanks and all lines of communications cut. This was a really interesting read, portraying the complexities of the situation and the horror of a family finding itself in circumstances completely beyond their control. The main character wasn't particularly likeable and the present tense narration added to my frustration with him, but overall I would still recommend it.
Switching to non-fiction and revisiting the theme of the Spanish Civil War, I accompanied Jason Webster on a journey around Spain in
Guerra!. The book provides a potted and easy to understand summary of the war and its notable figures, interspersed with Webster's present day experiences in Spain, where he witnesses the legacy of the war on present population. He is shocked at current support for the old fascist party, some people's unwillingness to face up to what happened and the deep-rooted mistrust between groups still today. Webster could at times be annoying, but he was a great guide to this topic and has whet my appetite to read more about it.
I have the work of fiction
Guernica on my pile so I may bump that up the queue shortly.
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