do u have any book recs that made u feel full of love?
I don’t know if this is the answer you’re looking for, but any book I read is LOVE! Even the bad ones! Yes, even the bad ones. The conversations I have after reading a bad book are among my favorite memories. Reading is solitary, but it isn’t, really. I read with myself, with past me, with friends, with strangers. I read with the transformation occurring, I am no longer the person I used to be before this experience. The five books I’m about to suggest are all very different. I don’t know if you’ll like them, but if you read any of them, please think of me.
The World of Yesterday by Stefan ZWEIG (1941) - A strange object, between the autobiography and the historical monography, this book offers a daunting account of life in Europe in the 19th and 20th century as a Jewish bourgeois from Vienna, an artist, a writer. Zweig committed suicide right after finishing this work. Knowing this fact, it reads like a goodbye letter. This was a difficult book to read, from subject matter to style. The descriptions of people are among the kindest I’ve ever encountered. Anecdote is a powerful tool here. Zweig may have lead an extraordinary life, there is something universal within this work that almost allowed me to touch the fabric of something I can’t quite place.
Public Readings of Hostages by Yoko OGAWA (2011) - This book hasn’t been translated into English. It’s a collection of interconnected short stories. Eight Japanese tourists are held hostage in an unnamed country. They all die in an explosion, and the only thing remaining is a recording of all eight of them successively reading out loud a text of their own writing. In this time of hopelessness, they decided to recall one memory to write and share to keep each other alive. It’s a book that is very luminous and round. Ogawa reminds me of my grandfather, because I once borrowed a book by her from his bookshelf and forgot to return it until his passing. Its cover had green and blue birds. Most of her writing concerns the trivial, the small things, the details! How they give us dignity. And the cherished memories as they threaten to go away. That’s why reading her is so precious to me.
The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue TOWNSEND (2012) - I read this novel during a period of intense exams. I picked it out of the municipal library I would stay at until 11 pm because I found the title hilarious and because I felt so alienated from my own life that I wanted to read something silly and inconsequential. It was the first book I ever borrowed from there (the first of many...)! It's very well written because it's incredibly sharp and quick. It's not a difficult read on the surface. It's the story of a woman who, upon finding out that her husband is cheating on her, decides to go to bed for a year and stop being a good housewife. The story and the tone are meant for us to laugh, but in reality, it's not that funny. When you think about it, it really isn't that funny.
The Suns of Independence by Amadou KOUROUMA (1968; 1981) - This was on the syllabus in my first years of university. If you can read it in French, please do. There is something about Kourouma's prose that is indescribable, and I don't know how the translation can do him justice. This novel is the story of Fama and Salimata who live in a fictional African country. It's an account of life after independence and the direction that a postcolonial country can take. It's about violence, dignity, freedom, women's rights. I don't think I can describe it well without robbing it of its substance. It's one of these books that is so incredibly well-woven that it left me wondering what could have happened had it taken another turn. Had the character turned right instead of left. It's been almost ten years and it has changed me to a point of no return, even though the narrative isn't fresh in my mind. The shift is still there, though. And if you can, read another of his novels, Allah Is Not Obliged.
The Government Inspector by Nikolai GOGOL (1842) - It's a play! I usually find plays very hard to read, but this one's difficulty didn't deter me from enjoying it. Gogol is one of my favorite writers and hasn't disappointed me so far. It's the story of a man who comes to a provincial town expecting the Government Inspector. You'll read about administrative nonsense, bribery, the violence that is government. It's intensely funny and witty, but so so sharp! The ending is especially amazing. If available, watch a representation of it.
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