Lilisin's literary airline miles.

One of my greatest passions has always been languages which means that I have always read the literature from my countries of interest. Understanding a culture helps you understand the language and vice versa so I've always been able to assimilate myself well in those countries.

I'm fluent in English, French and Spanish so the books I read will be in those languages but mostly in French since that is my native language. I also speak Japanese hence the heavy influence of Japanese books in my library.

I don't consider this a challenge as I have no interest trying to complete a particular list. I just like seeing where it is I travel. :)

I mostly categorize books in terms of where the author is from versus where his story takes place simply since most of the writers I read write about their country. From here on out I might make note if they end up writing about another country.

Countries read in EUROPE
Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
England
France
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Spain

Countries read in SOUTH AMERICA
Argentina
Chile
Peru

Countries read in NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
Canada
Colombia
Mexico
USA

Countries read in ASIA
China
India
Japan
Korea
Russia

Countries read in AFRICA
Egypt
Tchad (Les racines du ciel by Romain Gary - non Tchad native)

Books I've read in...
France

Common within the States:
Albert Camus : L'etranger
JMG Le Clezio : L'africain
Alexandre Dumas : Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, Les trois mousquetaires
Emile Zola : Au bonheur des dames
Romain Gary : Les racines du ciel, Les cerfs-volants
Victor Hugo : Les miserables, Notre-Dame de Paris, Le dernier jour d'un condamne
Jules Verne : Mysterous Island

Perhaps less known outside of France:
Tonino Benacquista : Quelqu'un d'autre
Jeanne Benameur : Les Demeurées
Emmanuel Carrere : L'adversaire, La classe de neige
Rene Fregni : Elle danse dans le noir, On ne s'endort jamais seul, Ou se perdent les hommes
Sebastien Japrisot : Un long dimanche de fiançailles
Jean Merckert : Les coups
Patrick Modiano : Rue des boutiques obscures

Books I've read in...
Japan

Fiction:
Kobo Abe : The woman in the Dunes
Ryunosuke Akutagawa : Rashomon
Fumiko Enchi : The Waiting Years
Masuji Ibuse : Black Rain
Yasushi Inoue : La Favorite (about China), Shirobamba, Le paroi de glace, Le fusil de chasse
Yasunari Kawabata : Thousand Cranes, Kyoto
Yukio Mishima : La mort en ete
Haruki Murakami : After the Quake
Natsume Soseki : And Then: Natsume Soseki's Novel Sorekara
Akiyuki Nosaka : La tombe des lucioles
Kenzaburo Oe : Nip the buds, Shoot the kids
Shohei Ooka : Fires on the Plain
Murasaki Shikibu : The Tale of Genji
Junichiro Tanizaki : In Praise of Shadows, The Makioka Sisters
Hitonari Tsuji : La lumiere du detroit
Eiji Yoshikawa : Taiko
Banana Yoshimoto : Kitchen
Nobuko Takagi : Translucent Tree

Nonfiction
Mineko Iwasaki : Geisha, a life
Komomo : A Geisha's Journey: My life as a Kyoto Apprentice
Haruki Murakami : Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

About Japan from foreign author, nonfiction:
Alan Booth : The Roads to Sata
Didier du Castel : Les derniers samourais, Le crepuscule des geishas
Ian Reader : Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo

I've already read books from England but I just finished another book by a British author: A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro. Ishiguro is Japanese born but moved to England at 5 years old so he identifies himself as being British. This book however takes place in Nagasaki and London.

This is the second of Ishiguro's novels I've read and once again I feel a little shorthanded. I gave the book 3 stars but only because I enjoy his style even if I didn't really care that much for this book at the end.

You can read more about my thoughts at my 50 book challenge thread.

Here are the titles from the countries I've already read from. Some are really known and some are more obscure/local to the country. Hopefully you'll find something of interest. Looking at this list has made me realize that I really need to read more outside of "my countries". But I guess we all have our own tastes. :)

Although some titles are written in French or Spanish (the language I read it in), I know these are all available in English so feel free to click on the touchstones. From here on out I'll make sure to write all my titles in English since this is an English forum.

* = good book, subject not related to country
** = recommended, subject related to country
*** = highyly recommended, subject related to country

Austria: Stefan Zweig Amok***, La pitie dangereuse***, Vingt-quatre heures de la vie d'une femme***
Belgium: Amelie Nothomb (all 17 books are fun but not all recommended)
Czech Republic: Milan Kundera La valse aux adieux***, Slowness**, L'ignorance***
Germany: Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front***
Italy: Alessandro Baricco Silk*
Norway: Herbjorg Wassmo Dina's Book**
Poland: Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness*
Portugal: Jose Saramago Blindness*
Spain:
Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote***
Arturo Perez-Reverte Queen of the South**, Territorio Comanche*
Rosa Montero Amado Amo
Frederico Garcia Lorca La casa de Bernarda Alba**
Ana Maria Matute Celebration in the Northwest**
Miguel de Unamuno San Manuel Bueno, Martir**

Argentina: Jorge Luis Borges Labyrinths***
Chile:
Luis Sepulveda The Name of a Bullfighter***, Un viejo que leia novelas de amor***, Diario de un killer sentimental***
Isabel Allende Portrait Sepia***, D'amour et d'ombre***, Ines del alma mia
Peru: Mario Vargas Llosa Pantaleon y las visitadoras***

Canada: Joy Kogawa Obasan
Colombia: Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude***
Mexico: Guillermo Arriaga Un dulce olor a muerte**
USA

China: Dai Sijie Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise**
India: Anita Desai Le jeune et le festin
Korea: Kyung-Ran Jo Tongue*
Russia:
Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment**
Nina Berberova L'accompagnatrice**

Egypt:
Alifa Rifaat Distant View of a Minaret and Other Short Stories***
Nawal El Saadawi Woman at Point Zero***

Adding another book (Rashomon et autres contes) for Japan.
This is by author Ryunosuke Akutagawa, a famed short story author.

My copy contains the four following stories:
Rashomon
Figures infernales (Hell Screen)
Dans le fourre (In the Grove)
Gruau d'ignames (Yam Gruel)

Although I am not usually a short story reader, these were perfect reading for when I had nothing to do at work. Anyone familiar with Akutagawa or Japanese cinema should be familiar with Rashomon and In the Grove. I had already read these during my undergrad studies but I went ahead and reread them.

No matter how many times you read Rashomon, Akutagawa's imagery is just remarkable, and quite harrowing. You are immediately transported and afterward, you can't get the thoughts out of your head while images and feelings from Kubrick's "The Birds" and "Psycho" tend to also stick out.

In the Grove is a classic story deliberating over point of views. How we can all experience the same thing and yet come out with different memories. Who is right? Who is wrong? In terms of memory, can we really be wrong. What we remember is what we believe we experienced thus how can that be wrong. I've always prided myself at being very good at remembering events and details at those events. And it always bothers me when someone remembers it incorrectly. But this story tries to convince me that I might be indeed the person who is incorrect.

Out of the two stories that I wasn't familiar with Hell's Screen was the most impacting. It was remarkable. A painter getting caught up in his art and to what extent he'll go to complete his masterpiece. Remarkable story with quite the horrendous ending.

With Yam's Gruel I kept waiting for a twist, an impacting moment but it was a simple tale basically stating that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Simple. Short. The moral we all know and remember, but this story I probably won't.

Create your own visited map of The World

Adding two more books for Japan.

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Junichiro Tanizaki : Le meurtre d'Otsuya
Japan
3.5 stars

To try and get back into good hard reading I've been reading a lot of short novels including this one at just 125 pages. It starts off simply and surely builds up in dramatic tension. Shinsuke works as an apprentice in O'Tsuya's father's store but has developed feelings for O'Tsuya. She persuades him to run off together when one man, Seiji, offers to help negotiate terms between their parents. However, things change when one night during their fugue, O'Tsuya is taken away and Shinsuke is attacked. Shinsuke is forced to make dire choices to find her again.

It's certainly an interesting premise and we recognize Tanizaki's style immediately. The title "The Murder of O'tsuya" takes on so many meanings as the story progresses while we also recognize the huge changes in Shinsuke's character. It's a page turner as well as we keep wanting to know what O'Tsuya is really up to and where her allegiance truly lies.

If I give it 3.5 stars it's only because this could have been a tremendous character study but I feel that this was cut short. While the plot is allowed to develop slowly at the beginning the end is almost a bit too fast-paced. Yes the pace of the book reflects the character's changes (and very well done so) but I think this is one of those cases where I just wanted more.

But overall this is a great reflection on Tanizaki's style.

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Nobuko Takagi : Translucent Tree

I had to write a professional review for it so since that review is not out yet I won't paste that but I can reflect on a few of my feelings on the book. What made it hard for me to review this was that my thoughts on the book just kept going back and forth between enjoying it and not. I think this was mainly a translation issue but also a question of personal taste. It's a book about romance and love, no doubt about that. But I don't need to be told that. I don't need the characters to discuss this for me to understand what the book is about. As I mentioned though, that's just a matter of taste on my part.

I did like how much could be interpreted from the book, how she always made us question what was really being shown. Which made for a well apt title for a novel.

I'm interested in getting this in the Japanese since it's a straightforward read which would help me get back into reading. Plus, I really do feel like a better translation would have helped.

The review will be at Belletrista.com. First professional review! I hope it isn't just terrible.

Adding another book for France.

Victor Hugo : Le dernier jour d'un condamne
France
5 stars

Oh this is very excellent!
I can only translate the blurb on the back of this book because it's perfect.

"Victor Hugo was 26 years old when he wrote, in two and a half months, The Last Day of a Condemned Man.
We willl not know who the condemned man is, nor will we know what crime he committed. Because the purpose of the author is not to enter a debate but to exhibit the horror and the absurdity of the situation in which any man finds himself whose neck we are about to slice in a few hours.
This book - with strangely modern accents - has a great power of suggestion that the reader ends by identifying with the narrator with whom he shares anxiety and vain hopes. Till the last lines of the book, Victor Hugo's genius has us participating in a grueiling wait: that of the screeching noise that the blade will make following the rails of the guillotine."

Part of the genius of the book is how the book begins: two explications. The first, that this book was discovered as a pile of crumpled yellow sheets of paper. The second, that a philospher imagined it all. Victor Hugo lets the reader decide for himself.

We are then presented with "A comedy about a tragedy", a short one act play with characters discussing this new book about a condemned man that has just come out. The characters reactions?
"It's a terrible book."
"At each chapter there is an ogre that eats a child."
"It takes place in Iceland."
"They have no right to make a reader suffer physically."
"It is certain that books are often a subversive poison to social order."

Then comes the actual narrative of the condemned man. Oh how he makes us feel pity and emotionally involved with his situation. We seek his innocence! (Never mind the fact that he briefly states that he has spilled blood.) When he cleverly gets a guard to almost switch clothes with him how we want to laugh in the guard's face.

And then, while the crowd parades around the guillotine waiting for the final chop, a man cries "who needs a spot?" to which our condemned man reflects "who wants mine?".

We ride with the condemned man to the guillotine, we have our hands tied behind our back, our hair chopped, our collar removed and then, reprising our role as the reader we stop to think: if the condemned man is the narrator how can he be relating this to us all? And that is Victor Hugo's final genius.

FOUR O'CLOCK.