Nieputtcitron! - in english

Operation Clear Backlog: Episode 4

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:45:18 +0200

Nota Bene: BiLLet MULtilinGUE / mulTILINgual PoST / MEHRsprachIGER EinTRag / FlerSPRÅkigt inlÄgG

And finally, the last part of this splendiferous excavating operation which already saved so many books – or rather what I had to say about them – from the jaws of oblivion... Without further ado, today's extraordinary selection:

Johan Kling: Människor helt utan betydelse

Människor helt utan betydelse
Johan Kling
Norstedts 2009
165 s.

Johan Klings debutroman har ofta presenterats som ett slags samtidsflanörlitteratur och de är Människor helt utan betydelse faktiskt. Sommaren 1998 i Stockholm: Magnus, som frilansar i mediabranschen, promenerar genom staden. Han tänker hela tiden på en kvinna som inte verkligen passar till honom och träffar människor han känner men inte vill vara med. Magnus söker jobb. De som kunde ha uppdrag åt honom vet värför han kommer. Till de andra, vänner, kollegor osv., säger Magnus att allt är bra. Och de säger precis samma sak. Världen är helt utan betydelse, människorna helt toma, bara skal. Till och med – eller framför allt – denna, vars namn upprepats och åter upprepats (till ex. Andreas Beckholt). De står som begrepp för meningsförlust. Stämningen är viktigast i boken. Det händer nästan ingenting, men då, vad skulle hända när alla ljuger om sig själva? Alla figurers favorituttryck är ju „det är bra“, „inte så farligt“ och „ingen fara“.
Det som ger charm till romanen är distansen som finns mellan det som Magnus tänker på och det som han och hans kompisar och kollegor pratar om. Kontrasten är ibland väldigt rolig. Magnus kanske är en loser, men han är också den enda som ifrågasätter världen, den enda som kämpar om sin individualitet. En elegant debut.

Bokhoras recension.
Människor helt utan betydelse publiceras av Norstedts.

Renée Vivien: La Dame à la louve

La Dame à la louve
Renée Vivien
Gallimard 2007 (1904)
141 p.

Changement radical de style et de sujet avec La Dame à la louve de Renée Vivien, un recueil de nouvelles „fin de siècle“ de 1904. Aventurières, prostituées, déesses, voyageuses solitaires, êtres androgynes, voilà les héroïnes que privilégie Renée Vivien dans ces textes au féminisme d'avant-garde. L'ambiance y est tour à tour fantastique, exotique ou mystique, le style toujours plein de panache et de lyrisme – parfois à la limite du kitsch.
Si bien sûr la découverte d'une auteure ayant exploré de bonne heure (pour le 20e siècle, j'entends) les questions de genre et l'homosexualité féminine m'enchante, je regrette cependant que ses personnages constituent plus des variations de certains archétypes/stéréotypes que des individus à la psychologie plus élaborée. En gros c'est femme forte voire insensible et cruelle contre homme primitif et lâche. Seuls les décors et les noms changent. Les textes du recueil étant très courts, je veux bien lui accorder le bénéfice du doute et croire que le format est en partie responsable de cette impression. Il faudrait que je tente de lire le roman autobiographique, Une femme m'apparut, de cette Anglaise d'expression française, grande voyageuse et traductrice de Sappho, pour voir si celle-ci se confirme ou non.

„Au fond de notre amitié, pourtant réelle, croupissait une vase corrompue de soupçon, de haine même. Elle se défiait de moi, et je n'oubliais pas mon ressentiment féroce de mâle dédaigné. Les hommes sont des cochons, voyez-vous, de simples cochons : c'est d'ailleurs leur unique supériorité sur les femmes, qui ont parfois la faiblesse et le tort d'être bonnes... Je ne pardonnerai jamais à Nell de ne point avoir voulu être ma maîtresse... Je ne le lui pardonnerai jamais, non, pas même à mon lit d'agonie...“ (p. 97, Brune comme une noisette)

La Dame à la louve est publié chez Gallimard en collection folio 2 €.

Jeanette Winterson: The Stone Gods

The Stone Gods
Jeanette Winterson
Hamish Hamilton 2007
207 p.

I'll say just enough about this book to tease you. The rest you'll have to discover by yourselves, for I believe it is how it should be read: without too much preparation. The Stone Gods is science fiction at its best – whatever Jeanette Winterson herself might say about her work, yes, this is science fiction. The kind that understands that it's not so much the depiction of potential technological progress that's important, than the exploration of a society's response to this progress. What kind of new social phenomenon will arise from it? What unforseen or unwanted tendencies will grow out of it? Such are the questions found at the core of truly thought-provoking SF.
The Stone Gods is a tale of the birth and death of worlds, an exploration of both the past and the future, and, as always with Winterson, of gender, sexuality, consciousness, and storytelling as such. Beautifully served by Winterson's imaginative prose and featuring a heroine, Billie Crusoe, who is quite the sort of standoffish female character with a rough sense of humour and a keen mind that I like so much – think Thursday Next, Smilla Jaspersen or Daria Morgendorffer –, The Stone Gods is an absolute must read.

„This new world weighs a yatto-gram.
But everything is trial-size; tread-on-me tiny or blurred-out-of-focus huge. There are leaves that have grown as big as cities, and there are birds that nest in cockleshells. On the white sand there are long-toed clawprints deep as nightmares, and there are rock pools in hand-hollows finned by invisible fish.
Trees like skycrapers, and housing as many. Grass the height of hedges, nuts the swell of pumpkins. Sardines that would take two men to land them. Eggs, pale-blue-shelled, each the weight of a breaking universe.
And, underneath, mushrooms soft and small as a mouse ear. A crack like a cut, and inside a million million microbes wondering what to do next. Spores that wait for the wind and never look back.
Moss that is concentrating on being green.“ (p. 3)

Lazy loved it, too (in Swedish).
The Stone Gods is published by Hamish Hamilton (Penguin).

English Romance Goes Japanese: Tentacle Monsters Invade Devonshire!

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:01:58 +0200

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
Jane Austen/Ben H. Winters
Quirk Classics 2009
344 p.

Opinions differ about the pertinence of classics' reinterpretation or sampling: some are horrified at the mere idea of THE CLASSIC being altered, others find it amusing and many simply don't care. Being neither a Jane Austen enthusiast nor even a reader of her works, I wasn't going to rave about the unholiness of this sea monsters invasion. And given my love of postmodern literary weirdness, I certainly wasn't going to stand by and pretend not to be interested. So being amused it was, and indeed I had to laugh directly at the first page:

„The late owner of this estate was a single man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his life had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister. Her death came as a surprise, ten years before his own; she was beating laundry upon a rock that revealed itself to be the camouflaged exoskeleton of an overgrown crustacean, a striated hermit crab the size of a German sheperd. The enraged creature affixed itself to her face with a predictably unfortunate effect. As she rolled helplessly in the mud and sand, the crab mauled her most thoroughly, suffocating her mouth and nasal passages with its mucocutaneous undercarriage. Her death caused a great change in the elderly Mr. Dashwood's home.“ (p. 7)

A very promising start, I should say, for this augmented steampunk/horror version of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood's youthful search for the ideal match. Or so I thought but I was soon to be proven wrong. The world in which the Dashwoods live is under constant threat of sea creature attacks and the Devonshire coast is known to be one of the most dangerous places in Great Britain. It's been like that since the Alteration took place, what- and whenever that may exactly be.* But at the same time, the whole of humanity and especially the wealthy part of it seem to be unable to restrain from exploring the seas and engages in risky behaviour all the time, be it walking along the beach, or living on small, unshielded islands or even building a submarine station. So it comes that Barton Cottage, the new home to the Dashwood sisters after the cohabitation with their half-brother Sir John Dashwood and his wife in the family house proved impossible (daddy got half eaten by a shark, leaving the sisters not much money and John the house) is situated on a tiny island off the Devonshire coast; while the place to be seen at isn't London but Sub-Marine Station Beta, a city built on the bottom of the sea, under a giant glass dome, off the Welsh coast. And this kind of alterations goes for the characters as well as the places. Being a good swimmer for example is a bonus for women willing to marry a good party. Colonel Brandon isn't only old but also afflicted by tentacles on his face, while Willoughby the libertine is a treasure hunter, never to be seen without his diving helmet and flippers. And the favourite topic of conversation, besides who is going to marry whom and to what conditions, is pirates and shipwrecks.

Well, some of you will probably hate me for saying this but the Sense and Sensibility-part of the novel is utterly dull! The Dashwood sisters (and the rest of their family, and Mrs Jennings, and Willoughby, and Edward etc. etc.) are unsufferable. I mean, how self-absorbed can one get?! And don't try to blame that on the sea monsters because they actually made the story better for me (I checked many scenes in the original version and it was even worse). All that marriage/how-much-money-will-(s)he-get-blahblah is the most boring topic there is. The only character I did care about (a bit) was Colonel Brandon, which means the one who was the most tormented by the whole sea monster addition! The tentacle-thing was indeed delightful in its sexual character:

„Colonel Brandon, who had a general inivitation to the docking station, was with them almost every day. He came to look at Marianne and talk to Elinor, who often derived more satisfaction from conversing with him than from any other daily occurence. At the same time she saw with much concern his continued regard for her sister. She noted that his appendages at times seemed to stiffen a bit when he chanced to glance upon Marianne, as if excess blood were flowing into them. It grieved her to see the earnestness with which he often watched Marianne, and discomfited her to see the aforementioned tentacle-stiffness; his spirits were certainly worse than when at Deadwind.“ (p. 157-158)

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters had some truly hilarious moments – whenever the characters' response to sea monster threats was completely inappropriate – but the rather fun b-movie horror was blunted by the dreadfully uninteresting romance that bored me to death.

*There is no real explanation of how it actually came to the Alteration or when. The book refers to legends, theories and studies about its origin but nothing conclusive. One possibility though is to interpret it as a sign of metaficition: it's not just meant as an alteration of animal behaviour and so on but as the very alteration by Ben H. Winters of Jane Austen's work, which of course would be quite clever!

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is published by Quirk Classics.

Operation Clear Backlog: Episode 3

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:18:11 +0200

Nota Bene: BiLLet MULtilinGUE / mulTILINgual PoST / MEHRsprachIGER EinTRag / FlerSPRÅkigt inlÄgG

The operation Clear Backlog continues, yes, yes, and this third episode shall reveal, like the first, works of mixed quality, origin and topic.

Hermann Hesse: Demian

Demian
Hermann Hesse
Suhrkamp 2007 (1919)
155 S.

Achtung: Kitsch sondergleichen! Soviel Dusseligkeit dürfte nicht erlaubt sein. Hesse schrieb Demian in drei Wochen während des ersten Weltkrieges, und das merkt man. Der Text enthält zu viel Unnötiges samt einer gehörigen Portion Pathos, und stützt sich zu sehr auf den Gedanken, dass die mehrfache Wiederholung eines Statements allein von seiner Wichtigkeit überzeugen kann.

Demian erzählt vom Werdegang des jungen Emil Sinclair, Sohn einer bürgerlichen Familie, der in einer so klar schwarzweiß definierten Welt lebt, dass man ihm schnell ein einfaches Gemüt unterstellt. Seine Welt gerät allerdings ins Wanken, als er sich durch (jugendlichen) Leichtsinn den lokalen bösen Jungen zu sehr nähert und von der Titelfigur Demian aus seiner zunehmend heiklen Lage gerettet wird. Die Zeit vergeht und Emils Freundschaft zu Demian, dem sonderbaren Jungen, der so viel Geheimnisvolles weiß, wächst, wozu sich auch leidenschaftliche Gefühle für Demians Mutter Eva gesellen. Viele Fehler, Exzesse, existentielle Fragen und esoterische Versuche später ziehen Emil und Demian in den Krieg, der zur endgültigen Trennung der beiden führt und das Ende von Emils Selbstfindung markiert.

So viel flache, klischeehafte Esoterik habe ich selten gelesen und schon gar nicht von Hesse erwartet, der mit dem freilich mehrere Jahre nach Demian erschienenen Roman Der Steppenwolf bewiesen hat, dass er es besser kann. Demian fehlt die Stringenz, die Kraft, die Subtilität und die Ironie des Steppenwolfs, wobei Letzteres vermutlich das Hauptproblem darstellt: Alles ist in Demian furchtbar ernst gemeint! Und wenn das Kitschigste und Lächerlichste so ernst gemeint ist, tut es nur noch weh – besonders der erste Teil, als Emils Welt noch unversehrt ist, hat mich Einiges an Überwindung gekostet. Und doch hätte ich mich von diesem Bericht einer Jugend angesprochen fühlen sollen, deren Bedürfnis nach Individualität mit dem Streben der Gesellschaft nach Gleichförmigkeit kollidiert. Ich habe ihn zwar im Rahmen einer Prüfung gelesen, habe ihn aber freiwillig ausgewählt und war ursprünglich sehr neugierig auf diese Erzählung, an den sich Mamiya Okis Manga Das Demian-Syndrom (Yaoi, Yaoi ) anlehnt. Und es sind tatsächlich der homoerotische Subtext der Freundschaft zwischen Emil und Demian sowie das Spiel mit den Grenzen zwischen männlich und weiblich, die beide in der finalen Kussszene kulminieren, die mich am Ehesten interessiert haben. Aber den ganzen Rest hätte ich mir wirklich sparen können. Und wer Lust auf geheime Glaubensgemeinschaften, wirre Träume und Abenteuer mit Stil hat sollte lieber Corto Maltese lesen.

Demian erscheint bei Suhrkamp.

On va faire court, j'ai la flemme de traduire ma critique allemande en français : Demian, c'est nul et complètement kitsch (non vraiment j'ai souffert en le lisant). Rarement lu autant d'ésotérisme à deux balles. Pas la peine de perdre votre temps avec ce récit d'une jeunesse contrariée pas convaincant, plein de pathos et dénué de recul ou d'ironie (écrit en trois semaines et ça se sent). Allez donc plutôt lire directement Le Loup des steppes, c'est autrement plus réussi et complexe. Ou alors, si vous voulez lire de chouettes histoires d'organisations secrètes ésotériques, pleines d'onirisme et d'aventure, allez donc voir du côté de chez Corto Maltese.

Demian est publié chez Stock et Le Livre de poche.

PC Jersild: En levande själ

En levande själ
PC Jersild
Bonniers 2007 (1980)
266 s.

Ypsilon heter en naken hjärn som simmer i ett akvarium i något laboratorium. Den vet inte vem den är, har glömt allt som hände innan den blev reducerat till en hjärn med bara ett öga (för input) och båda öron (som stabilisatorer) kvar. Den är fångad där och berättar om sin historia medan den experimentas på: om hur den blir kär i laboranten Emma, om sitt äventyrliga flyktförsök och om det som den får ta reda på om experimentet och dess ledare.

En levande själ är en underbar SF roman som kritiserar medecinens utveckling till en ren rationalistisk vetenskap helt utan etik som blir slav under marknadens princip av alltid mer, alltid snabbare. Den visar med mycket humor hur absurd denna absoluta rationalism är som försöker att förvandla människorna i automatiska maskiner utan själ eller känslor (på det sättet som Descartes betraktade djur). Romanen avsluter på hemskt vis men även om ämnet är allvarligt och tragiskt, så får jag säga att Ypsilons berättande är hur komiskt som helst med dess naiva-optimistiska synpunkt. En levande själ kan varmt rekommenderas!

En levande själ publiceras av Albert Bonniers.

Ypsilon, ainsi s'appelle un cerveau nageant dans un aquarium quelque part dans un laboratoire indéterminé. Il ne sait pas qui il est ni ne se souvient de ce qui s'est passé avant qu'il ne soit réduit à l'état de cerveau auquel ne restent attachés qu'un œil (input) et les deux oreilles faisant office de stabilisateurs. Prisonnier de cet état, il nous raconte son histoire pendant qu'on lui fait subir des expériences : comment il tombe amoureux d'Emma la laborantine, sa tentative d'évasion rocambolesque et ce qu'il a réussi à découvrir au sujet de l'expérience et de celui qui la conduit.

Mon âme dans un bocal est un formidable roman de science fiction critiquant l'évolution de la médecine vers une science purement rationnaliste, dépourvue d'éthique et devenant l'esclave des lois du marché exigeant toujours plus, toujours plus vite. Il montre avec beaucoup d'humour toute l'absurdité de ce rationalisme absolu cherchant à transformer les humains en des machines automatiques sans âme ni émotions (en gros selon le principe des animaux-machines de Descartes). Le roman s'achève sur une note particulièrement amère mais, même si le sujet est en soi sérieux et tragique, il faut bien reconnaître que le point de vue naïf et optimiste d'Ypsilon est délicieusement comique. Un roman que je vous recommande chaudement !

Mon âme dans un bocal est publié chez Actes Sud.

Jack Kerouac: The Subterraneans

The Subterraneans
Jack Kerouac
Penguin Books 2001 (1958)
163 p.

You don't read Kerouac for the story, in this case a lovestory: they're both a bit mad, want each other, but being that involved with another human being can be scary, so it has to stop. You read him for his style. And it's not one made for being read hours on end. Kerouac's spontaneous prose, a kind of stream of consciousness on drugs, is extremely powerful and overwhelming. So much so that after a while you'll begin to feel dizzy and nauseous because the ride is too wild for your brain. You'll feel atmospheres gush into you, see characters dance in and out of view, ideas will coil around your neck and tighten slowly. But eventually you'll have to breathe and put the book aside. It's too much. And, being more akin to poetry than standard prose, it should be read aloud rather than be left to spin silently in your mind. Judge for yourself:

„And so having had the essence of her love now I erect big word constructions and thereby betray it really – telling tales of every gossip sheet the washline of the world – and hers, ours, in all the two months of our love (I thought) only once-washed as she being a lonely subterranean spent mooningdays and would go to the laundry with them but suddenly it's dank late afternoon and too late and the sheets are grey, lovely to me – because soft. – But I cannot in this confession betray the innermosts, the thighs, what the thighs contain – and yet why write? – the thighs contain the essence – yet tho there I should stay and from there I came and'll eventually return, still I have to rush off and construct construct – for nothing – for Baudelaire poems –“ (p.16)

The Subterraneans is published by Penguin Books.

Me and a camera, alone on a blog

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:21:19 +0200

Shiny news for you, dear readers: I've opened a new blog! I'm not abandonning this one, though. As a photoblog, Look at it! Will you look at it! is meant to be a complement to Nieputtcitron!, not a replacement for it. I hope you'll enjoy it .

Operation Clear Backlog: Episode 1

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:52:01 +0200

Nota Bene: BiLLet MULtilinGUE / mulTILINgual PoST / MEHRsprachIGER EinTRag / FlerSPRÅkigt inlÄgG

And yet another month of virtual non-activity on this blog... I've been doing other things, been tired, been blocked... the mere thought of all those unwritten reviews is depressing me. In an attempt at overcoming these difficulties I've decided to try a new method: instead of writing long reviews as I usually do, I'm going to settle for a shorter form until I've cleared my backlog. Composing very analytical and detailed pieces isn't that much of a challenge for me (at least when I feel like it), it's what I'm trained to do, neither is saying in a sentence or two if a book was appalling, great or boring, but keeping it brief AND being satisfied with the result definitely is.
This new treatment doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the books I shall speak of, which form a mixed bag of „must read“, „well, if you must“ and „don't bother spending your money and time on that crap“. For more neutrality I shall procede alphabetically.

Bâ, Mariama Une si longue lettre :

Une si longue lettre
Mariama Bâ
Le Serpent à Plumes 2001
(Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines du Sénégal 1979)
165 p.

Dans le Sénégal des années 70 une femme qui vient de perdre son mari écrit, durant la réclusion marquant le début de son veuvage, une longue lettre à son amie expatriée aux Etats-Unis dans laquelle elle lui raconte sa vie et ses réflexions sur la société sénégalaise. Une si longue lettre a valeur de classique moderne des lettres africaines parce qu'il décrit sans détours la condition des femmes sénégalaises à cette époque. D'aucuns croient d'ailleurs pouvoir y déceler l'essence même de la condition féminine africaine, qui n'aurait pas évolué du tout depuis la parution de ce roman. A cela je réponds : „Et puis quoi encore ?! Comme si l'Afrique était un continent homogène et la femme africaine – rien que d'entendre parler de LA femme africaine m'horripile – un archétype voué éternellement à la soumission et la stagnation.“ Ce roman est donc à considérer pour ce qu'il est, le document fictionnel d'une époque et d'une société précises. Je dois en outre admettre ne pas y avoir trouvé la description d'une société patriarcale manichéenne dans laquelle les femmes seraient toutes soumises et les hommes auraient tous les pouvoirs. Car si les hommes ont, dans une certaine mesure, plus de libertés que les femmes, celles-ci sont les piliers du système. Bien sûr, les filles et les jeunes femmes n'ont pas forcément un rôle enviable. Cependant les femmes d'âge mûr, mères, belles-mères, tantes, belles-soeurs exercent elles un pouvoir considérable. Les agents actifs dans la destinée des jeunes femmes présentées dans ce roman sont, davantage que les hommes, ces femmes déjà établies qui contraignent jeunes femmes (et jeunes hommes) à des unions qui ne leur conviennent pas, vengeant peut-être ainsi leur propre vie gâchée ou du moins assurant avec ardeur la continuité de la tradition. Les hommes quant à eux, lâches, veules, inconscients sont moins des dictateurs que des trouillards qui n'osent s'opposer à la volonté de leur mère ou de celle de la future seconde épouse. Les torts me semblent – dans ce roman en tout cas – assez équitablement partagés entre les deux sexes et même la narratrice exprime plus un certain agacement qu'un réel sentiment de rébellion. Le véritable rapport de force se situe finalement moins entre hommes et femmes qu'entre l'individu, de quelque sexe qu'il soit, et sa famille qui ne lui laisse pas le choix de sa destinée ainsi qu'entre les familles qui forment la communauté. L'un des aspects de ces constructions sociales les plus importants et les plus critiqués par Mariama Bâ est sans doute le cadeau fait non par simple plaisir d'offrir mais par calcul et pour des raisons de prestige et se présentant souvent sous forme d'argent liquide, au point qu'il en devient un instrument économique et politique (donc la conception d'origine du cadeau) de taille et fausse complètement les relations familiales.
Bien qu'intéressant et pas mal écrit – disons surtout que cela se lit très facilement, le style en soi n'a rien de particulier –, Une si longue lettre n'en est malheureusement pas pour autant l'écrit révolutionnaire et fort auquel je m'attendais.

Une si longue lettre est paru au Serpent à plumes dans la collection Motifs.

Burman, Carina Vit som marmor:

Vit som marmor: ett romerskt mysterium
Carina Burman
Albert Bonniers 2006
340 s.

Jag tyckte att jag kunde ge Carina Burmans historiska deckare om amatördetektiven Euthanasia Bondeson en chans även om jag inte är en stor deckareläsare. Idéen av en skrivande, ogift medelålders kvinna som jagar en mördare i 1850-talets arkeologi-besatta Rom med dess internationella konstnärkoloni hade charm (den första boken i serien, Babylons gator, var tillfälligt slut när jag ville beställa den så blev det den andra, Vit som marmor, i stället). Men den fungerar tyvärr inte. Jag slöt läsa romanen efter en tredjedel, så ointressant den var: 100 sidor av de vanligsta och värsta klichéerna om Italien och konstnärerna (de bara målar/skriver/skulpterar, dricker rött vin och äter ost), ingen handling, ingen spänning, ingen stil, ingen humor och en jobbig och suffisant hjältinna. Ingen anledning för mig att läsa vidare.

Vit som marmor publiceras av Albert Bonniers.

Comme je l'avais déjà mentionné ici, Vit som marmor (Blanc comme marbre, à ma connaissance non traduit en français) de Carina Burman fut une fort mauvaise pioche : plat, sans humour ni style ni suspense, truffé des clichés les plus communs sur les artistes et l'Italie... non vraiment aucun intérêt, d'ailleurs je l'ai lâché au tiers. Et là, vous vous dites à raison, chers lecteurs, „t'es bien gentille ma poule, m'enfin de quoi ça parle ce bouquin ?“ Donc, au cas où il serait un jour traduit en français – vus l'engouement actuel pour les polars scandinaves et la notoriété dont jouit Carina Burman en Suède, je n'excluerais pas cette possibilité – et parce qu'il y a sûrement parmi vous de fervents amateurs d'enquêtes de détective, sachez que Vit som marmor est le deuxième volet (le premier étant épuisé j'ai dû me rabattre sur celui-là) des aventures de l'écrivaine à succès Euthanasia Bondeson, vieille fille imbue de sa personne, très madame-je-sais-tout (sans pour autant être franchement impressionnante intellectuellement) et détective amateure. L'action se passe en 1852 à Rome dans le milieu des colonies d'artistes et autres férus d'archéologie. Il y aura forcément un meurtre, enfin du moins si l'on en croit la quatrième de couverture, parce que pendant le premier tiers du livre nous n'avons droit qu'à une série de séances de contemplation de statues antiques, de repas invariablement composés de fromage et de vin et de réflexions d'une platitude consternante sur la mise et les manières de la jeune dame de compagnie d'Euthanasia, Agnes, et sur les amourettes de quelques artistes-touristes. Ce regard condescendant, cette héroïne se voulant libérale mais en fin de compte assez coincée sont d'autant plus désagréables que la narration est à la première personne, donc sans le moindre moment de répit !
Une grosse déception, le sujet, le personnage principal – ce nom ! –, en théorie ce roman avait de quoi me plaire, mais non.

Cărtărescu, Mircea Warum wir die Frauen lieben:

Warum wir die Frauen lieben
Mircea Cărtărescu
Aus dem Rumänischen von Ernest Wichner
Suhrkamp 2008
(rum. Orig. 2004/2006)
173 S.

And now for something completely different: Warum wir die Frauen lieben ist eine Sammlung von Kurzgeschichten, die größtenteils in der rumänischen Ausgabe von Elle erschienen. Wer jetzt denkt, es könne sich demzufolge nicht um anspruchsvolle, lesenswerte Literatur handeln, macht einen gewaltigen, wenn auch nachvollziehbaren, Fehler. Denn Cărtărescu ist ein großer Autor, der besonders für seine dreibändige Autobiographie und Porträt Rumäniens unter der Diktatur, Orbitór, bekannt ist, deren erster Teil auf deutsch unter dem Titel Die Wissenden erschienen ist. Und er versteht es wie kein Anderer, den Frauen, die er geliebt hat, in diesen kurzen Stücken mit beeindruckender Sprach- und Bildgewalt zu huldigen. Kleine Welten evoziert er mit seiner poetischen Sprache und große Visionen, mal bittersüß, mal zynisch, mal skurril und grotesk und oft von Träumen und traumähnlichen Zuständen durchdrungen. Bei ihm können Ohren „ultrastolz“ sein (S. 77) und die großen Namen der Weltliteratur werden so oft erwähnt wie die Namen seiner Verflossenen: „Als ich D. kennenlernte (in einer meiner Geschichten habe ich sie Gina genannt), hielt ich mich für eine Art Superchampion im Träumen. Ich richtete mir jede Nacht wie eine Box-Gala ein, bei der ich meinen diamantenbesetzten Gürtel gegen sämtliche Challenger verteidigte. Ich hatte, so meinte ich, Mandiarques, Jean Paul, Hoffmann, Tieck, Nerval und Novalis durch K.o. besiegt, Kafka nach Punkten, und Dimov hatte (in der sechzehnten Runde) aufgegeben.“ (S. 14)
Literarisches Boxen: großartige Idee!

Warum wir die Frauen lieben erscheint bei Suhrkamp.

And now for something completely different: Pourquoi nous aimons les femmes est un recueil de nouvelles parues pour la plupart à l'origine dans l'édition roumaine de Elle. Si vous en déduisez que cela ne doit pas voler bien haut, vous faites là une grossière erreur (mais tout à fait compréhensible). En effet, Cărtărescu est un grand auteur, connu principalement pour son autobiographie en trois volumes et portrait de la Roumanie sous la dictature, Orbitór, publiée en français chez Denoël (Orbitor, L'Œil en feu et L'Aile tatouée). Et il sait, mieux que tout autre, rendre hommage aux femmes qu'il a aimées grâce à l'impressionnante puissance évocatrice de sa langue. De petits mondes et de grandes visions naissent sous sa plume, tantôt doux-amers, tantôt cyniques ou étranges et grotesques, souvent emprunts d'onirisme. Loin d'être uniquement une déclaration d'amour aux femmes c'est aussi une déclaration d'amour (et parfois de guerre) à la littérature, Borges, Kafka, Nabokov, Dostoïevski et bien d'autres attendant le lecteur au détour de chaque page. J'aurais bien voulu partager un extrait avec vous, chers lecteurs, mais comme je ne possède pas la traduction française de ce volume, je ne puis malheureusement le faire (au fait, la traductrice française de Cărtărescu, Laure Hinckel, tient un blog). Quoiqu'il en soit, je vous le recommande vivement.

Pourquoi nous aimons les femmes est paru chez Denoël.

Chanting to the sun: a rant

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:47:17 +0100

Big bout of fatigue lately hence the lack of posts in February. Cette putain de grisaille cherche à avoir ma peau, la fourbe: Oktober, November: Regen, ständig; Dezember, Januar, Februar: Schnee, ständig und jetzt wieder Regen... Ich will Sonne! S-O-N-N-E! Sun! Soleil! Sol! Compris ?

Plus, I can't decide in which language to write or to read and what. What's best for me right now: Italian literature? Japanese? French-Canadian? Swedish? Peter Handke? Max Frisch? Realist fiction? Mythological fiction? Yesterday evening, in a state of complete desperation, I finally settled for Russian literature in French translation... so I am currently reading Anna Karenina, which is surprisingly good (and it'd better stay like that, that 800+ pages, small-printed monster of a novel) and quite a suicidal decision as I've got a pile of books about the history of homosexuality and gender in Japan to read for my presentation on yaoi at the Anime Marathon in April (already done it twice, with much less background reading, but this time I wanted to understand the context of this genre a bit better, so, yeah, this is self-inflicted research, and a lot of fun actually). And I'm still re-reading The Sandman, approximately at the speed of a tetraplegic turtle, taking copious notes and making a mental list of all the great works of literature of similar narrative and mythological scope (Odyssey, Iliad, Eneid, The Divine Comedy, Kojiki, Genji monogatari...) I ought to read.

In a word: a lot to do and to discover, a lot of variety, which would be great, if my battery weren't running so low... I need energy, spring, colours, SUN! Esteban, où tu te planques ? Vas dire à ton père qu'il ramène ses fesses par ici ! (comprenne qui pourra.)

I couldn't get used to the colour of the walls

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:06:47 +0100

SkyPoint
Phil Ford
BBC Books 2008
256 p.

Once again defying the laws of chronology, I find myself reviewing Phil Ford's SkyPoint, read this weekend, before Almost Perfect and Beautiful Chaos, the two other Torchwood/Doctor Who novels I got from Karine as part of the Doctor Swap and swallowed instantly, back in December. Oh well, what fun would life be without a bit of challenge and creative chaos?

SkyPoint is the name of a brand new and exclusive apartment block in Cardiff Bay, in which Rhys would very much like to live. Unfortunately, the place has two major drawbacks, apart from being quite expensive, as revealed right away during Gwen's and Rhys's visit: first, there lives Besnik Lucca, an archcriminal against whom the police, to Gwen's dismay, has never been able to prove anything; second, sudden disappearances out of closed, windowless rooms seem to be quite a trendy activity in this part of Cardiff... how strange! To investigate the matter more closely, Toshiko and Owen move in together, pretending to be happy newlyweds, and discover that walls not only have ears but also a huge appetite...

So, where shall I start the massacre... 'cause this one was, unlike The Twilight Streets and, to a lesser extent, Almost Perfect, quite a bad one. The plot became too obvious way too soon while the Torchwood team struck me as particularly slow on the uptake on this one and it can't exactly be praised for its originality as it drew heavily on those of some Torchwood episodes (Owen's death all over again). It also suffered from minor continuity errors – the alien lock-opening device – or at least inconsistancies – the pestilence of decomposing human organic matter in the ventilation ducting is bound to cause inconvenience to the whole building, right? Well, apparently, no – as well as from a lot of redundancies. Despite the fact that the action of SkyPoint has to be taking place between Something Borrowed (S2 E9) and Out of the Rain (S2 E10), the novel shows disturbing overlapses with Fragments (S2 E12): Either you haven't seen Fragments before reading the book and thus the episode will be somewhat spoiled for you or you read it afterwards and will find these passages quite superfluous. Even more so as some of them (mainly Owen's and Toshiko's pasts, as those are the characters most explored in this book) are mentioned several times. Sadly, redundant is also one of the terms that describe Phil Ford's style best – alongside naive and formulaic. For example the Torchwood team seems to have a lot of trouble „getting used to“ things, be it marriage, death or lack thereof, sometimes even twice or thrice a page. And it was as annoying as Bella's incessant bouts of „Oh my god, oh my god, Edward, I still can't believe that you're mine, and so beautiful, and so perfect, and so cold, and so made of marble!“ (on a partly related note: the beginning of Breaking Dawn was so dreadful that I couldn't got past p. 94), though without the excuse of Gwen, Jack, Owen, Toshiko and Ianto being still stuck in the throes of teenage angst. Actually, all the psychological descriptions had something Stephenie Meyeresque and immature to them, which did flaw the interaction between Owen and Toshiko that I was so looking forward to. Had Phil Ford shown the same talent for humour as in Something Borrowed, the hilarious Torchwood episode he wrote, it wouldn't have been that bad. Unfortunately, he didn't: The book almost completely lacks good dialogue and the few attempts at being funny don't really work, being neither subtle nor outrageous, but simply flat.

On the upside – yes, I do have a few positive aspects to point out – the story was, apart from the aforementioned repetitions, rather fast-paced (and you keep reading because it's Torchwood, after all). And although I had understood what was actually going on in SkyPoint long before the showdown, I found the let's-use-Torchwood-the-super-team-as-a-security-system-tester idea in the second half of the book quite entertaining, the best part of it being probably Owen's extensive tribute to MacGyver.

Thanks again, dear Karine, for sending me SkyPoint and please don't be upset about me not liking it as much as I would have wanted to (I would have bought it anyway, if I hadn't got it through the Doctor Swap ).

Phil Ford's SkyPoint is published by BBC Books.

Su Fei's World

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:36:43 +0200

To me, one of the most worthwile things in the world are unconventional ideas, especially if some brave and slightly weird – in a good way – people decide to put them to the test. Let's say for instance that a thirty-something Jewish American Girl living in China and remotely inspired by Sex and the City would go on a hunt after the perfect match in Beijing and would use this as pretext to ask complete strangers about love, marriage, their lives, Chinese traditions, pop culture and so on. Well, this is exactely what Anna Sophie Loewenberg a.k.a Su Fei and the crew of Sexy Beijing have been doing since 2006 and it is wonderfully entertaining. In less than 10 minutes per episode Su Fei wanders about the place, wearing her easily recognizable glasses, and conducts mini-interviews with people of all ages and social classes about a certain topic (Valentine, Matchmaking, English names...).

Though not actually into the whole „marriage business“ myself and absolutely no fan of Sex and the City (in a word: boring), I can think of many reasons to watch this show. First of all, Su Fei has been living in China for many years and speaks what seems to be perfect Mandarin and that is an accomplishment one should acknowledge. Of course, as I don't speak a word of Mandarin, I can't judge how good hers really is, but I think, that if you speak a foreign language and people understand you straight away, never laugh at you because of your prononciation and you are able to conduct such interviews, then you've certainly made it to a high level of mastery of said language.

Another strength of Sexy Beijing is that, while exploring seemingly private or minor subjects in a lighthearted fashion, which gets the interviewees talking, it actually conveys a lot of information about today's Chinese society. And as Su Fei, who is perfectly aware of her own cultural background, reflecting upon it many times during the show, doesn't fear getting into unexpected and sometimes rather ridiculous situations (the episode about Hip hop in China is hilarious), the overall impression is that of a refreshing and non-judgemental ethnological and sociological inquiry. And that too is a performance worth mentioning. And last but not least, Sexy Beijing is tremendously funny and quite addictive. I really wish more people would have such ideas (if you know about anything like it, please let me know) .

Neither Excalibur nor Blizzard: Torchwood

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:14:49 +0200

I presume every single one of you, dear readers, has heard of Torchwood by now. And rather than trying to write yet another detailed summary of the three series of this Doctor Who-spin-off featuring the oh-so-gorgeous Captain Jack Harkness I'll let the show's opening speak for itself (the less you know, the better) and tell you why you really, really should watch it:
(Series 1) „Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on earth and arming the human race against the future. The 21st century is when everything changes – and you've got to be ready“ (Series 2: „Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Fighting for the future on behalf of the human race. The 21st century is when everything changes – and Torchwood is ready.“)

So why should you watch it? Because:

- Torchwood is a smashing combination of science fiction thriller and crime, drama and a dash of fantasy and horror
- revolving around a whole team of very different characters, it's got great dynamics and explores every aspect of the human nature: love, lust, jalousy, deception, grief, despair, doubt, you name it
- the characterization is great, detailed and not static... it's hard to pick a favourite – apart from Captain Jack, of course
- it is sexy, dark, witty, mature and fast-paced
- they made the most of a small budget and hired excellent actors and writers

- the female characters are as smart and able as the male ones and everybody is more or less bisexual or at least quite sexually open: this is so liberating and empowering!
- the Jack/Ianto storyline is pure yaoi-stuff and it is so rare to see that in Western shows (OK, this one is kind of special interest, I'll give you that)
- it is set in Cardiff, which means lots of this lovely Welsh singsong English
- Captain Jack is an amazing, flawed tragic hero, who looks breathtaking in his WWII military coat
- each series has its own particuliar feel.

In a word, it is BRILLIANT! Watch it and you'll laugh and cry and fall in love and mourn. I've already re-watched all three series – some of my favourite episodes* up to six times – and still haven't had enough of it.

The Twilight Streets
Gary Russell
BBC Books 2008
256 p.

Actually, the craving for more was so strong that I went to listen to the four audioplays (Lost Souls, Golden Age, The Dead Line and Asylum) and even bought one the novels, The Twilight Streets by Gary Russell. I've never been much into crossmedia fan-fiction and spin-offs until now, be it on the internet or as published novels, and apprehended it a bit. But then again, my love of anime and manga – and especially yaoi – has severely weakened my defenses and my urge for more torchwoody material being so overwhelming, I gave in and read it on the spot. And I must say, that I have absolutely no regrets: this novel is a treat! Set sometime during the second half of the second series it focuses on the long-term consequences of what happened in Captain Jack Harkness and End of Days. Which means – if you've seen the show, you might have guessed already –, that Bilis Manger is back, more enigmatic than ever (for those of you who haven't seen the aforementioned episodes, you should know that Bilis Manger is the epitome of enigmatic). As I wouldn't like to spoil it for you, dear Torchwood lovers, I will only say, that a forlorn and spooky district of Cardiff and its renovation are at the center of the plot, a place connected to Jack, who finds himself suffering from a mysterious ailment. Things aren't what they seem to be and time is not exactly linear... And so is the narrative structure of the novel as well, constantly alternating between different times, worlds, narrators and sources. As a result of this quite clever choice, the reader is left wondering all the more what is going on and enthralled till the end.

Furthermore the style was rather good and enjoyable – I had feared much worse –, with maybe a few dispensable descriptions but also, and that is a huge plus, some absolutely fantastic dialogues. You'll have no trouble picturing the Torchwood team joking around with each other or discussing the most serious issues. And this is probably the second of three major arguments – the first being the narrative structure – in favour of this novel: it is completely in-character and respecting the Torchwood spirit of danger mixed with a hint of wicked humour, moral considerations, complicated feelings and lust. Thus you'll find some very nice Ianto/Owen/Toshiko/Gwen/Rhys character development here, and Jack's trademark habit of appearing and disappearing without explanation alongside his general secretiveness as well as him being such an impenitent flirt aren't just meaningless motives mentioned because „well, you have to, otherwise it wouldn't be Jack, right?“, but rather fully integrated elements of the storyline. Add to this a nice and nasty exploration of the idea, that the future is a tricky thing coupled with a thorough examination of the moral dilemmas posed by the protection of the Earth and you get a genuine bit of torchwoody awesomeness! I've got to get my hands on the other novels .

Of course, it isn't my place to make any judgement about the canonicity of this plot. Nonetheless, I do find it to fit neatly into the series as it is rather consistent with what happened in series 1 and 2 as well as in Doctor Who and doesn't contradict anything that happens in series 3. And it would have made a fantastic TV-episode...

Torchwood is a BBC Wales production created by Russel T Davies. Gary Russell's The Twilight Streets is published by BBC Books.

Other Torchwood-fans: Fashion, Karine, Chimère and many more.

All Torchwood novels:

Another Life by Peter Anghelides
Border Princes by Dan Abnett
Slow Decay by Andy Lane
Something in the Water by Trevor Baxendale
Trace Memory by David Llewellyn
The Twilight Streets by Gary Russell
Pack Animals by Peter Anghelides
SkyPoint by Phil Ford
Almost Perfect by James Goss
Into the Silence by Sarah Pinborough
Bay of the Dead by Mark Morris
The House that Jack Built by Guy Adams
Risk Assessment by James Goss
The Undertaker's Gift by Trevor Baxendale
Consequences by Joseph Lidster, James Moran, Andrew Cartmel, David Llewellyn and Sarah Pinborough (to be released on October the 15th)

* Series 1: Countrycide, Out of Time, Combat, Captain Jack Harkness, End of Days
Series 2: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Adam, Reset, Something Borrowed, Fragments, Exit Wounds
Series 3: Day One, Day Two, Day Five.

inn mesti kvenskǫrungr*

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:37:24 +0200

I've been away for a long time, my friends, lost on the strange planet Saga from the distant Old-Norse Icelandic Literature galaxy, surrounded by its impressive inhabitants. I spent six months there observing them, describing their heroines, fighting against the demons of self-doubt and sleep deprivation, comparing my findings with those of former timespace-travellers and finally producing a 94 pages-long thesis entitled Konzeptionen des weiblichen Heroismus in ausgewählten Isländersagas (Conceptions of Female Heroism in Selected Sagas of the Icelanders). I turned it in yesterday – alea jacta est – and am now reviving my dear literary playground – though I won't be able to post that often until July, as I will have to study and read a lot for my upcoming exams. I'll be back very soon with new book reviews.

Exclusive pics of one the beds I misused as a workplace – NB: These are but a few of the books I borrowed from the library...

*the greatest of women (of Guðrún Ósvífrsdóttir in Laxdœla saga)

"So if it's true that love will never die, then why do the lovers work so hard to stay alive?"*

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:21:00 +0200

Thirsty for Love
Satosumi Takaguchi/ Yukine Honami
trans. from the jap. by Melanie Schoen
Juné/DMP 2008
(orig. jap. 2001)

Back again with a new yaoi title! Actually, I should be writing in French about Duras and Claudel or in German about Weiß Side B or even reading something Swedish – and then write about it in Swedish, of course – but here I am in the mood for yaoi and an English review. Blogging has its own mysterious ways and it is apparently not for the blogger herself to understand them.

The manga I'm so obsessed with this time is Thirsty for Love, once again drawn by my beloved Yukine Honami and penned by Satosumi Takaguchi, and boy what a terrific combination this is! It tells the story of three high school boys, Orie, Tatsumi and Suguru, all of whom are in love with the same girl, Yuka, who, in turn, loves each of them equally and sincerily. While Orie isn't aware of his girlfriend's dating other guys, Tatsumi seems quite comfortable with the situation and Suguru has come to accept it, at least to some extent, for Yuka's sake. Although very different, the three boys share the same hardship when Yuka passes away. Sorrow somehow pulls them towards each other but there is a lot of anger, guilt and jealousy to overcome before they can try to find comfort in each other's arms.

Well, this might be superfluous, but just to make sure that you get the right picture: if you're looking for comedy or a cute, heartwarming love story, then try something else. Thirsty for Love is probably one of the saddest and most serious mangas I've ever read and as far as yaoi is concerned it definitely isn't yet another high school boys' love story. Yes, you have cute boys and lust on every page, but also a dying girl in the middle of the story, which, to say the least, is an unusual plot device for a BL manga. That said, Thirsty for Love is excellent. Satosumi Takaguchi has mixed the feelings cocktail on which the story relies – desire, sorrow, pain, jealousy, love, care, angst, admiration, guilt, loss, forgiveness, rage, injustice – with great skill and Yukine Honami's art conveys them as subtly as ever. Moreover, this manga raises several interesting and universal questions: What happens when one decides to live according to one's own principles, and thus maybe against society's rules, because one knows that death is near? How does one deal with one's lover's death when the relationship was still new? Or when the relationship had to be kept secret from others and one isn't free to express one's grief in front of everyone? And what is left of one's lover after his or her death? How long will the memory last? How powerful is it? I already knew, from reading Can't win with you (also a collaboration with Yukine Honami; review to be released, one day, on this blog) and bits of Yononaka wa Bokura ni Amai, that Satosumi Takaguchi prefers challenging characters and plots to more conventional ones and therefore wasn't surprised to see her exploring such issues here. But I'm still amazed at how unjudging and sincere the narrative is. Yuka simply says about her lifestyle: „I want to love every boy that moves me, no matter how many they are“. Yet she isn't what one might call a slut and none of the guys seem to think that she is one. I was also really pleased by the fact that there wasn't a unique answer to the questions I've mentioned. Orie, Tatsumi and Suguru are very different and complex characters – I always have a favourite character in Honami-sensei's mangas and Tatsumi would be the one this time – and each of them has his own way of loving Yuka and then dealing with death, grief and absence.

I've already said it – here and in previous reviews –, Honami-sensei's artwork is awesome. It's pure, subtil, of ethereal beauty. Her character design is simply gorgeous and hugely evocative. Most panels are very clear and I admire her sense of composition. Furthermore, some of the most important and intense panels are entirely textless, which shows how crucial the narrative function of a manga's pictures can be. The combination of Takaguchi's powerful and atypical plot and Honami's sweet and superb art works wonderfully well and I really do hope that they will collaborate on other projects. Thirsty for Love is sad, beautiful, intense and a unique treat for BL fans. But it probably won't be everybody's cup of tea (stay away from it if you can't cope with non-consent scenes and the like).

Thirsty for Love is a one-shot published in English by Juné (DMP), who offers books of great quality (nice dust jacket, thick paper, clean printing, oversize paperbacks...).

* I'm quoting the song "Please Sister" by The Cardigans (on Long Gone Before Daylight).

A monk, a fox and the King of Dreams

nospam@example.com (Niessu) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:31:08 +0200

The Sandman: The Dream Hunters
Neil Gaiman/ Yoshitaka Amano
Vertigo 1999
128 p.

I have a confession to make. Before reading The Sandman: The Dream Hunters I had never read anything by Neil Gaiman. As Fashion so accurately remarked a while ago, it is a shame. I am aware of it and I ought to feel dreadful about it, even more so as my favourite geek owns a copy of many of his books and I would perfectly be able to name most of them. But you know the saying „So many books, so little time“ and so it came that The Dream Hunters, which I purchased in Sweden at my beloved SF Bokhandeln, was my first Gaiman. „But why?“, you probably wonder, dear readers, „didn't you pick the first volume of the Sandman series instead? It would have been more logical, if you really wanted to discover the Sandman-world.“ So true, so true, dear readers, it is a excellent question to which I can provide a simple answer. I'm extremely sensitive to artwork and colours and, as much as I like many mangaka and French or Belgian bande dessinée illustrators, I've always disliked the combination of realistic lines and primary or flashy colours so often encountered by artists of the American comic tradition. Of course, there are exceptions – such as Bill Watterson for instance, whose work I truly love – but the illustrators who worked on The Sandman unfortunately don't belong to them. „And what is so different about The Dream Hunters?“, you probably want to ask next. Well, first it is an illustrated novella rather than a graphic novel, and it is illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano, who is Japanese and whose artwork I enjoy very much. And it is a spin-off, which can be read on its own without any further knowledge of the series, and it is inspired by Japanese folktales, which particularly appealed to me.

The Dream Hunters tells the story of a young Buddhist monk living a quiet life on a mountainside until a fox and a badger make a wager and try to make him leave his temple so that either the fox or the badger can take it over. But tricking the monk isn't an easy task and so it sometimes happens that the trickster somehow gets tricked as well. The monk and the fox, who has the ability to metamorphose into a beautiful young woman, thus fall in love with each other and the badger eventually has to give up. But when the fox finds out that a powerful onmyōji, a master of divination and magic, and a prophecy threaten the life of the young monk, she decides to go ask for the King of All Night's Dreaming's help and to sacrifice herself for him. I won't give you any further details about the plot as I wouldn't like to spoil it for you.

Neil Gaiman has written an exquisite and enchanting Kunstmärchen („a literary fairy tale“ as opposed to Volksmärchen „folktale“, which isn't the work of one person in particular but the product of oral tradition) about fear, love, fate, revenge and dreams. In his afterword to The Dream Hunters he claimed that he had retold a Japanese legend but later stated that it actually was a story of his own invention. Be as it may, this novella does blend traditional elements of the folktale such a linear narrative and the three attempts of the fox and and the badger to trick the monk into abandoning his temple with more modern ones like the ambiguous character of the King of All Night's Dreaming and the motivation for the onmyōji's actions. The fox and the badger themselves are two of the most important legendary creatures of Japanese folklore – kitsune and tanuki, actually a raccoon dog rather than a badger –, who often play the role of tricksters, and fox spirits are indeed known to transform into beautiful young women.

But Neil Gaiman isn't the only one who combines traditional and personal elements here, so does Yoshitaka Amano as well. While most of his pictures clearly are influenced by Japanese woodcut prints and brush painting, others reminded me of Gustave Moreau, Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac or Gustav Klimt – who themselves have drawn part of their inspiration from Japanese art –, some are quite abstract and gothic fashion seem to have played a important role in the King's design (just like other depictions of Morpheus in the regular Sandman series). His chromatic range varies widely from bright orange and red tones over light blue, green and pink shades to deep browns. He also uses a lot of gold, black and white. As far as the technique is concerned, most illustrations are either watercolour paintings or charcoal drawings, which probably explain why even the most detailed ones remain so fluid. Yoshitaka Amano's artwork is sophisticated, suggestive and gorgeous and he was definitely the ideal artist for such an illustration job.

The tone of the story is a tragic yet strangely calm one and Neil Gaiman's elegant and evocative prose manages to convey all the otherworldliness of the setting without becoming confusing or unsteady. Add to this the enigmatic beauty of Yoshitaka Amano's sumptuous illustrations and you get a timeless and entrancing but sad love story.

I'm well aware of the fact that it probably wasn't a „classical“ introduction to Neil Gaiman's work, but I nonetheless took great pleasure in reading The Dream Hunters and do intend to read further books by this author (Fragile Things, his short-stories collection, could be a good second step).

N.B.: This book is definitely an evening companion and it probably would have been wiser to wait until autumn to enjoy it fully, but oh well, one can't always have everything (I can already schedule a re-reading for september or october though). And I would suggest Tōru Takemitsu's In An Autumn Garden as an appropriate musical accompaniment.

The Sandman: The Dream Hunters is published by Vertigo (DC Comics).
Neil Gaiman also has a blog and Yoshitaka Amano a website with lots of pictures of his wonderful art.