Reading Wednesday
Jan. 20th, 2016 05:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoFinished reading: The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Estonian author Anders Kivirähk. I was really excited about this book, and it sounded really neat, but I was kind of disappointed. It started off strong, but after a while my attention started wavering.
There were a lot of moments of "debate", mainly on the subject of religion, and primarily (though not always) Pagan vs Christian stuff. And I expected a bit of that going in, since I had the impression that the central conflict revolved around the christianization of Estonia. But if I wanted to read tedious arguments between Christians and Pagans, there are tons of places on the internet that I can do that. And it did indeed get pretty tedious after a while.
This novel is... very discourse-centric, and a tad didactic I think, and I feel like there's a lot that I'm missing - that it's speaking specifically to something that I don't have a lot of personal experience with. Wouldn't be surprised in the least to find out that this is so, but I'm not about to go digging to find answers.
I didn't dislike all of it - I liked the way it started out, and there were some magic-centric parts that were pretty cool. I loved Leemet's friendship with the adders. And his grandfather was really really awesome. But... I feel lukewarm enough about it that I'm not sure I could recommend it.
Also finished reading: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. This book is actually composed of two works, "Kitchen", a short novel, and "Moonlight Shadow", a novella. "Kitchen" is a very touching story of life, death, and dealing with grief. It... might have hit me a bit harder than I expected it to; I think I still have some unresolved issues relating to that. But anyway, I enjoyed it very much; it's a very... warm, cozy, comforting, and romantic story.
It also has something that I didn't expect, as the reviews on the back gave no mention of it: a sensitive and kind and affectionate portrayal of a trans character. Eriko isn't the point-of-view character in the novel, but she's extremely present - the novel largely deals with three characters and their relations to one another, and Eriko is one of those three. And she's just so... she's such a lovely and kind and generous character (and amazingly badass in some ways), and I liked her very much.
That isn't to say that her portrayal isn't without issues, because there are some, but the difficulties that did come up were easy for me to swallow, I think, mainly because her portrayal was so... loving? There was no malice in it. And overall it's a much better illustration than I would have expected of a trans character in a novel written in 1988.
I see that there have been film adaptions of Kitchen... Maybe I will seek them out. It's possible that I would enjoy them very much.
As for "Moonlight Shadow", well, it didn't leave as much of an impression on me, but it's definitely worth reading, for reasons that I can't discuss without spoiling the whole thing.
Currently reading: The Dark Tower Part 1: The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I've been meaning to read this for a while, because people keep quoting the opening line in certain places, and... it's a really good opening line. Anyway, I'm only about 50 pages in, but so far I love it. I hear that the series gets a little weird as it goes on, so I'm going to keep that in mind, but if I enjoy this one, I might check the rest out as well.
Reading next: I have no idea. I might pick up another Banana Yoshimoto novel when I head to the library on the weekend; they have a few of her other books, and I did like the one that I read.
There were a lot of moments of "debate", mainly on the subject of religion, and primarily (though not always) Pagan vs Christian stuff. And I expected a bit of that going in, since I had the impression that the central conflict revolved around the christianization of Estonia. But if I wanted to read tedious arguments between Christians and Pagans, there are tons of places on the internet that I can do that. And it did indeed get pretty tedious after a while.
This novel is... very discourse-centric, and a tad didactic I think, and I feel like there's a lot that I'm missing - that it's speaking specifically to something that I don't have a lot of personal experience with. Wouldn't be surprised in the least to find out that this is so, but I'm not about to go digging to find answers.
I didn't dislike all of it - I liked the way it started out, and there were some magic-centric parts that were pretty cool. I loved Leemet's friendship with the adders. And his grandfather was really really awesome. But... I feel lukewarm enough about it that I'm not sure I could recommend it.
Also finished reading: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. This book is actually composed of two works, "Kitchen", a short novel, and "Moonlight Shadow", a novella. "Kitchen" is a very touching story of life, death, and dealing with grief. It... might have hit me a bit harder than I expected it to; I think I still have some unresolved issues relating to that. But anyway, I enjoyed it very much; it's a very... warm, cozy, comforting, and romantic story.
It also has something that I didn't expect, as the reviews on the back gave no mention of it: a sensitive and kind and affectionate portrayal of a trans character. Eriko isn't the point-of-view character in the novel, but she's extremely present - the novel largely deals with three characters and their relations to one another, and Eriko is one of those three. And she's just so... she's such a lovely and kind and generous character (and amazingly badass in some ways), and I liked her very much.
That isn't to say that her portrayal isn't without issues, because there are some, but the difficulties that did come up were easy for me to swallow, I think, mainly because her portrayal was so... loving? There was no malice in it. And overall it's a much better illustration than I would have expected of a trans character in a novel written in 1988.
I see that there have been film adaptions of Kitchen... Maybe I will seek them out. It's possible that I would enjoy them very much.
As for "Moonlight Shadow", well, it didn't leave as much of an impression on me, but it's definitely worth reading, for reasons that I can't discuss without spoiling the whole thing.
Currently reading: The Dark Tower Part 1: The Gunslinger by Stephen King. I've been meaning to read this for a while, because people keep quoting the opening line in certain places, and... it's a really good opening line. Anyway, I'm only about 50 pages in, but so far I love it. I hear that the series gets a little weird as it goes on, so I'm going to keep that in mind, but if I enjoy this one, I might check the rest out as well.
Reading next: I have no idea. I might pick up another Banana Yoshimoto novel when I head to the library on the weekend; they have a few of her other books, and I did like the one that I read.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.
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Date: 2016-01-20 05:49 pm (UTC)Hmmm actually.. I hadn't reread it much over the years, but now I think I will :)
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Date: 2016-01-20 06:51 pm (UTC)<3
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Date: 2016-01-20 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-21 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-21 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-22 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-25 12:49 am (UTC)The tone reminds me of a lot of magic realism stories despite the fact it's not at all, but maybe it's the way Migake describes Eriko...or just Mikage in general :'>
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Date: 2016-01-22 10:50 pm (UTC)