Source: Library Book

Who Gets to Be Smart by Bri Lee

Posted December 9, 2021 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Non-Fiction / 0 Comments

Title: Who Gets to Be Smart (Goodreads)
Author: Bri Lee
Published: Allen & Unwin, 2021
Pages: 296
Genres: Non-Fiction
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I love the idea that Bri Lee decided to write this book even though she had an agreement with her publisher to write some fiction. There’s something about this that really sticks with me, just the idea that Bri Lee was so passionate about this topic that she neglected her other projects and focused on this topic. Who Get to be Smart is such a work of passion, anger and needing to understand the world and I really enjoyed that experience. I have seen reviews that talk about this book as being unfocused or “all over the place”, for me I think that was what made this such enjoyable read. I felt like this book reads in a way that makes it feel like Bri Lee was having a conversation with me.

The book starts talking about her friend Damian, who was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. Looking at the Rhodes Scholarship she came to the realisation that she was no longer eligible to apply for this scholarship due to her age . The requirements for this scholarship is tough, not only do you require some scholastic merit, you also have to have sporting achievements and “qualities of manhood, truth, courage and devotion to duty”. It wasn’t until a 2018 revision of the selection criteria that the wording was more gender neutral. Also, you must be 25 years and under if you were considering this international scholarship. The Rhodes Scholarship accepts about 0.7% of the global applicants.

Australia has recently attempted to do something similar to the Rhodes Scholarship, which has been a disaster. The Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation was launched by the former prime minister John Howard and has received plenty of backlash. Originally planned for the Australian National University, I believe it is now at the Wollongong University. Trying to set up a scholarship fund like this in 1902 would have been easier than trying to create it now. Many of the criticism revolves around the idea of awarding a very small group of people verses using the funding to lower education costs for everyone.

Who Get to be Smart focuses on the privileges provided to the wealthy, not just with these scholarship programs, but also private schooling and science grants. The majority of this book looks at the way location, wealth and race all play a part in the education of people. Bri Lee also looking into the effects of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests might have on the future of education.

There is so much in this book and I really enjoyed the way Bri Lee approached the topic. The writing style was the highlight for me, she takes this conversationalist approach that made this so easy to read. I really like the way this is written and would probably make for a great audiobook or podcast. Not only is she providing her thoughts and giving us the information, but she is doing it in a accessible way, with a touch of anger, humour and self-deprecation. This is my first Bri Lee book and the topic really appealed to me, because I do like her writing style, I do wonder if I should try Beauty or Eggshell Skull. I want to read more non-fiction like this, not just about education but also the same ‘laid-back’ conversationalist style, so if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Dead Man Switch by Tara Moss

Posted July 21, 2021 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Crime / 0 Comments

Title: Dead Man Switch (Goodreads)
Author: Tara Moss
Series: Billie Walker Mystery #1
Published: HarperCollins, 2019
Pages: 368
Genres: Crime
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

After 19 books, mainly from her Mak Vanderwall crime series and a YA paranormal series, Tara Moss is trying her hand at hard-boiled fiction. Dead Man Switch is the first book in the new Billie Walker series set in Sydney in the late 1940s. I knew I had to try this book out for two main reasons, one I love hard-boiled literature and was interested in checking out a novel set in Australia and secondly, I wanted to see how Moss would handle the female detective approach.

Without going into details about the plot, it’s a missing persons case that leads to Billie Walker uncovering a much bigger secret; I think reviewing this novel needs to focus away from the storyline. Moss really shines in the research and exploring the sexism Billie faces in her work. Dead Man Switch never refers to Billie Walker as a detective, it does make references to her as a private investigator and this stood out to me because Australian laws does not permit the use of the term detective outside the police department. Little facts like this really reminded me of the importance of research and they helped keep the novel hard-boiled without Americanising the plot.

Obviously, gender would play a big role in this book, and Tara Moss seemed to play with this in a fun way; Billie’s assistant Sam was happy to help a woman with any task necessary for the case but then others criticised her for taking a man’s job. Billie took over the business when her father had died, which is the reasoning behind her profession but now that the war was over, people thought she should leave this kind of work to men that needed work. This was a great way to explore the sexism and gender divide of the era and helped enhance Billie as a strong, take no nonsense character.

I had fun reading this book, and I am interested to see where Tara Moss takes the Billie Walker series. I am very particular in my crime novel picks and I wish this was a little darker and grittier, but I have to respect that Moss has plans for this character. There are not enough strong women detectives in crime novels, particularly in hard-boiled novels, so in a genre normally dominated by boring white men, this is a great change. I have no idea when book two will be released but I will be sure to read it. It is hard to review a crime novel, because the plot and characters play such a significant part of the reading experience, but I hope I have convinced someone to give Dead Man Switch a chance. For all the American readers of this review, this book is called The War Widow on your continent, which gives you a little insight on Billie Walker’s social situation.

At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong

Posted April 12, 2019 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 0 Comments

Title: At Dusk (Goodreads)
Author: Hwang Sok-yong
Translator: Sora Kim-Russell
Published: Scribe, 2018
Pages: 192
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019

On the outside, Park Minwoo was the poster boy for success. Born into poverty, his parents owned a small fishcake store. He worked hard and now he is the director of one of Korea’s biggest architectural firms. However, Park thinks maybe he have missed the point of life. He has followed the ideal path to become wealthy but at the cost of his childhood love Cha Soona.

At Dusk is a quiet exploration into the life of a modern Korean businessman and his success, but it also reflects on the modernisation of Seoul. It is an obvious allegory; while Park doubts his success is the true meaning of a well lived life, the author begins to question the modernisation of Korea. The cost of progress really is the driving force behind the novella. As a Westerner, I feel like we are led to believe that all progress is good. The US goes to war with many countries because their values are different. We are forcing westernisation onto the rest of the world, and we are led to believe this is for the good of the country. However, it is books like At Dusk that often help me explore a different argument.

Park Minwoo’s family lived a simple life running a small business, while Cha Soona’s parents were noodle makers. Modernisation means the end of these small businesses. Mass production and making money is the only thing of value. Noodle houses quickly become franchised coffee houses. The Korean culture is dying, leaving only Taekwondo and K-Pop behind.

This was a simple little novel, just a quiet yet urgent meditation on the effects progress has on its people and their culture. I feel the author could have done more but I have heard that Park Minwoo appears in other Hwang Sok-yong books. While it is longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, I cannot see it making the shortlist. This feels more like a quick read the judges put into the list to get people to think more about the topic of westernisation and progress, what it means to the people, the country and also their culture.

How To Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard

Posted December 28, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Non-Fiction / 2 Comments

Title: How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read (Goodreads)
Author: Pierre Bayard
Translator: Jeffrey Mehlman
Published: Granta, 2009
Pages: 176
Genres: Non-Fiction
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Recommended for lovers of Translated Non-Fiction, or Books about Books

There are many books out there about how to be a better reader. The whole books-about-books sub genre is filled with both reading journeys and strategies to improve the way we read. There is only one book I know of that focuses on how to talk about books without having read them. Pierre Bayard’s How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read teaches us the art form of not reading.

“Because I teach literature at the university level, there is, in fact, no way to avoid commenting on books that most of the time I haven’t even opened. It’s true that this is also the case for the majority of my students, but if even one of them has read the text I’m discussing, there is a risk that at any moment my class will be disrupted and I will find myself humiliated.”

Pierre Bayard adopts the persona of a literature professor who is not interested in reading. While I do believe it as a persona, you must wonder how close the truth it might be; he is in fact a professor. He breaks up the books we have not read into four categories. Books You Don’t Know, Books You Have Skimmed, Books You Have Heard of and Books You Have Forgotten, taking the time to give the reader tips on how to talk about books, whether you have read them or not.

“When we talk about books…we are talking about our approximate recollections of books… What we preserve of the books we read—whether we take notes or not, and even if we sincerely believe we remember them faithfully—is in truth no more than a few fragments afloat, like so many islands, on an ocean of oblivion…We do not retain in memory complete books identical to the books remembered by everyone else, but rather fragments surviving from partial readings, frequently fused together and further recast by our private fantasies. … What we take to be the books we have read is in fact an anomalous accumulation of fragments of texts, reworked by our imagination and unrelated to the books of others, even if these books are materially identical to ones we have held in our hands.”

While Bayard has adopted a tongue in cheek approach to this book, there is a lot of useful information to be found within the pages. The key here is to develop the confidence to talk about books in general. Look at the BookTube community, one of the staples of that is the book haul. Here people discuss the books they have brought recently, most of which have not read been read yet. The idea is to develop the skills and the confidence to talk about these books. For example, if we talk about a book we have not heard of, we can make assumptions about the text based on the author, cover and many other aspects; we do this all the time when in a bookstore. We see a book and determine if it is something we want to read without knowing anything about the content. Books we have skimmed or forgotten about still mean we have valuable things to say, why did we skim? Why was it so forgettable?

While this was a lot of fun to read, the true message of the book really spoke to me. This idea that we need to develop the confidence to talk about books even when we have not read them or forget major points. I read a novel recently and I somehow skipped a very important event, while talking to my wife it became clear I missed it. Embarrassing? Yes, but it proves just how easy it is to forget or skim over an important part of the book. I know I need to develop more confidence to talk about books, and How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read served as a reminder of this fact. I joined a book club, started a BookTube channel, and even a podcast because I want to talk about books, but I know I still have a long way to go in building my confidence in talking about books in general, not just the ones I have read.

Trick by Domenico Starnone

Posted October 17, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Contemporary / 2 Comments

Title: Trick (Goodreads)
Author: Domenico Starnone
Translator: Jhumpa Lahiri
Published: Europa Edition, 2018
Pages: 192
Genres: Contemporary
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature 2018

Have you ever read a novel that you felt was completely pointless? That is how I feel about Trick by Domenico Starnone. The novel follows the story of Daniele Mallarico a successful illustrator coming to the end of his career who was asked by his daughter to look after his grandson Mario. Set over 72 hours we follow Daniele struggling with his own thoughts towards his illustrations and dealing with his four-year-old know-it-all grandson.

I admit I identified with the solitude and grumpiness of Daniele and was constantly feeling frustrated with Mario. I have no idea how someone deals with a young child that thinks they know everything. Especially when that child wants to do everything because they know how to do it, but, when something goes wrong, breaks down. Daniele’s daughter and son-in-law think that Mario is independent and will look after himself but this is far from the reality.

This is a very plot driven novel and I felt like the characters were too flat. I liked Daniele but in reality I do not know him. An aging illustrator who likes to live alone is the extent of the character. It is hard to write children, so Mario read like a bratty teenager who is in reality a four-year-old. The relationship of Mario’s parents seems like a more interesting narrative but that all happens off the page.

I am disappointed with Trick and am glad that it was a quick read. Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri, this seems to be the main reason Domenico Starnone is getting attention. I plan to give Starnone one more chance with Ties but if that reads similar to Trick, I probably will never return to his writing. I just expect more from my literature.

Your Face Tomorrow 1: Fever and Spear by Javier Marías

Posted September 28, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literary Fiction, Thriller / 3 Comments

Title: Fever and Spear (Goodreads)
Author: Javier Marías
Translator: Margaret Jull Costa
Series: Your Face Tomorrow #1
Published: Chatto & Windus, May 5, 2005
Pages: 384
Genres: Literary Fiction, Thriller
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

There is something almost genre bending about Javier Marías’ Fever and Spear. To call it a spy novel would do it a huge disservice. The best way I could describe this novel is to call it a character study. Our narrator, Jacques Deza has recently separated with his wife and, to put some distance between the two, has moved from Madrid to London where he meets an old friend, Sir Peter Wheeler. Deza is recruited into Her Majesty’s secret service where he starts investigating the shady underbelly of international business.

“How can I not know today your face tomorrow, the face that is there already or is being forged beneath the face you show me or beneath the mask you are wearing, and which you will only show me when I am least expecting it?”

Look, the plot to this is not really important, and this makes it rather difficult to write about this novel. Fever and Spear is the first book in the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy, and it appears to be some kind of metaphysical thriller, meaning it explores the philosophical notions of metaphysics in the form of a thriller. I talked about literary thrillers in my review of Purge and how difficult it is to find good examples of the genre. I mentioned The 7th Function of Language and In the First Circle as great examples and I seem to have stumbled across another one with Fever and Spear.

“One should never tell anyone anything or give information or pass on stories or make people remember beings who have never existed or trodden the earth or traversed the world or who, having done so, are now almost safe in uncertain, one-eyed oblivion. Telling is almost always done as a gift, even when the story contains and injects some poison, it is also a bond, a granting of trust, and rare is the trust or confidence that is not sooner or later betrayed, rare is the close bond that does not grow twisted or knotted and, in the end become so tangled that a razor or knife is needed to cut it.”

I struggle to find the words to describe how much I enjoyed this novel. There is something about the way Javier Marías explored the past, present and the future that makes it difficult to write about. I had such an amazing experience here and I want to tout this book out but I lack the words. Needless to say, I would have picked up Dance and Dream (book two) right away if I had access to it, and I did not have a huge reading pile.

I might attempt to review Fever and Spear again in the future, I know I will reread it many times. I need to read the entire trilogy to see if I can get my thoughts straight. I know this is no way to review something you connected with, but my thoughts about this novel do not seem to fall into place. I write this mainly to try and make sense of my opinion. I do not think it helped. I hope I have said enough to at least convince someone to give Javier Marías a go, if not Fever and Spear.

The Shape of the Ruins by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Posted September 27, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Historical Fiction / 2 Comments

Title: The Shape of the Ruins (Goodreads)
Author: Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Translator: Anne McLean
Published: MacLehose Press, 2015
Pages: 505
Genres: Historical Fiction
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2019

Juan Gabriel Vásquez is quickly becoming a new favourite of mine. Having read The Sound of Things Falling and now The Shape of the Ruins, I cannot help but appreciate his style. I compared him to Roberto Bolaño in my previous review, mainly because they both like to insert themselves into the narrative. Bolaño has his alter ego Arturo Belano show up in a few of his novels. Whereas Juan Gabriel Vásquez just used the same name for his characters. I am positive this are not just a character that shares the same name. His approach to literature is to explore Columbian history in a fictionalised account, but I think that these characters are just a device to tell the reader how the past has affected him.

The Sound of Things Falling looks on the impact the Pablo Escoba had on Colombia. While The Shape of the Ruins is focused on the murders of both Rafael Uribe Uribe in 1914 and Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948. Rafael Uribe Uribe’s political ideas lead to the establishment of Guild socialism and trade unions in Colombia, while Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was leader of a populist movement in Colombia. Their political ideology were very different but Vásquez uses the investigations into their deaths as a way to look at Colombia. Particularly how it lead to a ten year civil war known as La Violencia.

Within the novel these two political figures are often referenced in relation to two different facts. Rafael Uribe Uribe was the inspiration for the character General Buendia in Gabriel García Márquez’s in One Hundred Years of Solitude and Jorge Eliécer Gaitán is referred two as the Colombian J.F.K. Which to my mind made me automatically look at this novel as a way to explore the cultural significance of these two murders as well as Colombia on the world stage. Particularly the cycle of violence that is constantly putting the country in the news.

I find it difficult to review a novel like The Shape of the Ruins, not because there is not much to say, quite the opposite. In fact, it is because I do not know the history of Colombia well enough to voice any interesting opinions. Books like this are often referred to as autofiction, which is a literary term that refers to a fictionalised autobiography. Most works of fiction have elements of truth within the characters but these books are using the experience and history to build a story around it. I read translations because I want to understand the world a little better, and I appreciate the chance to learn their history in the process. This is why I love authors like Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

To be fair, I have been obsessed with Latin American history for a few months and I have so much to read and learn. I turn to Juan Gabriel Vásquez as a new default recommendation. He will sit next to Roberto Bolaño as some of my favourite authors from South America. There are plenty more authors to explore on this continent but I have to recommend Ariana Harwicz, Mariana Enríquez, Pola Oloixarac and Samanta Schweblin as well. These four have all been recently translated and make up some of the exciting emerging female authors coming out of the continent, although these four are all from Argentina.

Having read Juan Gabriel Vásquez in the past, I would recommend starting with The Sound of Things Falling. There is something about exploring the effects the drug cartels had on the country that appealed to me. The Shape of the Ruins is also a great novel and if you care more about the political landscape then jump straight to this novel. I have a few more novels to read from Juan Gabriel Vásquez, which I probably will not read this year, but they will be coming up soon. Please recommend me a Vásquez to try next, or just recommend me an author that has a similar style.

The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Posted July 24, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Historical Fiction / 2 Comments

Title: The Sound of Things Falling (Goodreads)
Author: Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Translator: Anne McLean
Published: Bloomsbury, 2011
Pages: 298
Genres: Historical Fiction
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

I have been meaning to try some Juan Gabriel Vásquez for some times now, he seemed like the type of author I like. The Sound of Things Falling has been the one that was repeatedly recommended to me so it seemed like the perfect place to start. The novel is narrated by law professor Antonio Yammara, who explores the past and present state of Colombia and the effects Pablo Escobar and the drug trade has had on the country. However this is more of a personal journey as well, looking at how it has affected his life, from the loss of friends, the injuries received from being shot, and a broken marriage.

What really stuck out to me is the way Vásquez uses memory as a method of developing the character as well as examining the state of Colombia. The memories play a key role in this novel, as it is closely tied to Antonio Yammara’s own post-traumatic stress disorder. This was so well executed that auditory memory is worked into the narrative so effortlessly. It is hard to find examples where auditory memory is written so well, I find it often comes off as clunky and really breaks up the narrative. In The Sound of Things Falling the relationship between memory and trauma is masterfully done.

I cannot say I knew much about the history of Colombia. Pablo Escobar is such a notorious figure, but the impact on the country was all new to me. I have not seen Narcos, but after reading this novel I feel like I should. I appreciate the way Juan Gabriel Vásquez took elements of Colombian history that outsiders are aware of and then used the personal approach to examine the lasting effects. I have to wonder how much of this novel was auto-biographical. I know Vásquez studied law, but do not know much else about him.

Interesting enough while Juan Gabriel Vásquez does consider Gabriel García Márquez an influence on his writing, The Sound of Things Falling has no magical realism in it at all. I like to compare it more to the style of Roberto Bolaño as it is more hyperrealism, although with a disproportionate focus on the violence of Colombian history. I know this comparison does not quite work as Bolaño has used elements of magical realism more than this novel but I am thinking more in the style and feel of The Savage Detectives.

I have spent a lot of time reading Latin American literature this year and I must say, this may be a new obsession for me. I like the gritty nature, mixed with the historical turmoil. It reminds me of Russian literature but with more of a darker style. Reading fiction that looks at the effects of political mismanagement is something that I am interested in and I like the style of Latin American writing, it reminds me more of the pulp writing of 1920s North America. Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s latest book to be translated into English, The Shape of the Ruins is waiting for me at the library so I shall see if I have discovered a new favourite author.

Like a Fading Shadow by Antonio Muñoz Molina

Posted May 16, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Historical Fiction / 4 Comments

Title: Like a Fading Shadow (Goodreads)
Author: Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translator: Camilo A. Ramirez
Published: Tuskar Rock, 2017
Pages: 320
Genres: Historical Fiction
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2018

In 1968, James Earl Ray evaded the authorities after shooting Martin Luther King Jr. by using a fake passport and making his way to Portugal. During his last days of freedom, he wanders around Lisbon rehearsing his fake identities. In Like a Fading Shadow, Antonio Muñoz Molina reconstructs Ray’s final days, but it is also a meditation on the city that also inspired his first novel A Winter in Lisbon. Turning this into a blend of historical fiction and memoir, Muñoz Molina’s tries to weave his own experiences in with that of a man on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

Everything about this novel sounded so appealing from the premise but reading it was so difficult. First of all, I thought the idea of having the James Earl Ray narrative interwoven with that of Antonio Muñoz Molina’s did not work as well as the author might have hoped. In hindsight, it would have been better to just read A Winter in Lisbon and then search the internet about Earl Ray’s final days. Secondly, I felt like this book kept going in circles and never really progressing in any satisfactory way. Which is disappointing because I think this was one of the books on the Man Booker International Prize longlist that I was excited to read.

This is so disappointing, the idea to make a fictionalised account of what might have happened when James Earl Ray was in Portugal sounds amazing. I was fascinated that he was able to sneak across the border to Canada and use a fake passport to get to London and eventually make it all the way to Lisbon. He spent his time trying to get to Angola, which alone would have made for an interesting narrative; why is a pro-white supremacist trying to get to Africa? Then you have this memoir-like narrative of Antonio Muñoz Molina trying to write his first novel, A Winter in Lisbon. Separately this could be stimulating to explore the writer’s process and the emotions behind creating a novel. However, as a combination it ended up to be too little of each and together it never came together.

The Man Booker International Prize longlist has been focusing on narratives the blend fiction and non-fiction and I can see why this book was picked but I do not see the appeal for it to make the shortlist. I wanted to love this book; I went in with high expectations but I ended up struggling through this. Between this and The Imposters (which is very similar in many ways) I almost found myself in a reading slump. Thankfully Flights by Olga Tokarczuk was there to save me.

The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai

Posted April 12, 2018 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Short Stories / 0 Comments

Title: The World Goes On (Goodreads)
Author: László Krasznahorkai
Translator: Ottilie Mulzet, George Szirtes, John Batki
Published: Tuskar Rock, 2017
Pages: 320
Genres: Short Stories
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle, Wordery (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2018

I normally struggle to review short story collections, do I go through every story and share my opinions? Reading The World Goes On, all I could think is ‘I have no clue how to analyse and review this’. Rather than a review, I am going to just share my thoughts on this book, and hopefully it will eventually resemble a review.

The World Goes On is actually my second László Krasznahorkai, having read The Last Wolf / Herman earlier this year. I was struck with the thought that this might be the first Krasznahorkai that people might read. László Krasznahorkai won the Man Booker International Prize in 2015, before it was repackaged and combined with the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (IFFP). However the publicsity around that award is nothing like it is today. This could be a combination of the older prize awarding an author for their contribution to fiction rather than a specific book and the rise of social media. Which brings me back to my original point, The World Goes On has been longlisted for the prize but it is not a good place to start for this Hungarian author. This feels like fragments of stories and ideas rather than an actual piece of fiction.

I think the judges for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize has gone out of their way to pick a longlist that showcases interesting narrative structures. While I appreciate the surprising entries on the list, it does make it less accessible. Having said that, I would be so mad if the Man Booker International Prize followed the trend of the Man Booker Prize and Women’s Prize for Fiction and just picked the most popular books. I want to see a balance between discovery and introducing new people to books in translation. I would hate to think how many people will not read more László Krasznahorkai because of The World Goes On.

László Krasznahorkai is a very talented writer; he has a post-modernist style, and it feels like he gets so bored, he has to set limitations on his own writing. In The World Goes On, you will find plenty of examples of him writing a one sentence story. I have to admit after reading this book and The Last Wolf, I wonder what Krasznahorkai has against the full stop. Like I said before, this feels more like a collection of ideas rather than short stories.

While I enjoy László Krasznahorkai as a writer, even I think I was not ready for The World Goes On. I am not giving up on this author, this is a book for the fans. Read The Last Wolf / Herman first, discover some of his novels and if you like his style and his view on the world, then read The World Goes On. I do not think this should have been on the longlist, and I hope it does not stop many people from enjoying László Krasznahorkai in the future.