A Man of the People -
Chinua Achebe - 8/10 - Can you make a difference in a corrupt society, and do the people even care if you try? Achebe dissects post-colonial Nigeria with his usual skill
Rough Crossing -
Simon Schama - 8/10 - History of the Black Loyalists during and after the American war of Independence. No one comes out of this looking too clever.
No Longer At Ease -
Chinua Achebe - 7/10 - A sequel of sorts to "Things Fall Apart" as the grandson of that books main character returns from university life in Britain to a Nigeria edging closer to Independence.
South of No North -
Charles Bukowski - 7/10 - A collection of short stories that reminds you of all the other short story collections he wrote. Still good, still readable, still wouldn't let him in the house.
The File on H -
Ismail Kadare - 7/10 - As close as Kadare will get to comedy. Researchers from an American university visit Albania to record the dieing tradition of lyrical story telling, and end up playing a stange game of "Chinese Whispers". Yeah, that old story-line again.
The Sickness unto Death -
Soren Kierkegaard - 3/10 - Kierkegarrd manages to take a 200 page philosophical debate on the nature of Christian belief and suck all the joy out of it.
Envy -
Yuri Olesha - 7/10 - Hidden soviet gem uses satire to make its point in part one, before losing it's way somewhat in the second part. A bit like Dead Souls, but not as good.
War with the Newts -
Karel Capek - (re-read) 9/10 - Human attempts to exploit a newly discovered race of giant lizards rebounds on them. It was intended as a satire on events at the time it was written - 1938 - but still hits the mark today. One of the best satires of the last century, and a plot driven story with little charactisation to boot. What will the neighbours say!
The Hunting Gun -
Yasushi Inoue - 6/10 – Short story on the fallout from a married man’s affair, written in the form of three letters, one from each of the people involved. Understated and very Japanese.
The Red Laugh -
Leonid Andreyev - 5/10 – Andreyev was a famous writer in his day, but out of favour now. Hard to see from this why he was popular in the first place.
Toward the Radical Centre -
Karel Capek - 4/10 – A collection of plays, short stories and essays by Capek, brought together as an introduction to his work. The plays in particular suffer from very stiff dialogue, which may be due to the translations. The introduction even mentions that some of the translation work is poor! A shame, as Capek’s short stories can be wonderful.
The Party & other Stories -
Aton Chekhov - 9/10 – Sublime.
The Doorman -
Reinaldo Arenas - 6/10 – A book of literally two parts. The first, cute and funny stories of a Cuban immigrants job as a doorman in an expensive New York apartment block. In the second part, the author tries to be magical and clever, but ends up ruining the book. Ho hum.
Henry V -
William Shakespere - 9/10 – You’ve probably heard of this one. The ending is totally spoilt for me now after seeing Kenneth Branners film version. How Emma Thompson convinced him she could play a nineteen year old French beauty is beyond me. I know he was married to her at the time, but come on, use your eyes man.
The Compromise -
Sergei Dovlatov - 8/10 – Comic stories of working as a journalist in 1970’s Estonian. You think your countries newspapermen drink too much? Pah! Amateurs!
