I should really have mentioned that my book choices were made based on the recommendations of David N. over on his excellent We Can Rebuild Him blog! So far its two for two, though my next read is the third book in Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy.
Fuller update coming soon!
My Photos
www.flickr.com
|
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I wasn't suggesting in my comment that you should credit me (Bolano has been all over the media since the start of the year and there are misleading ads for the Diaz book all over the tube because of its paperback release), since I didn't think you had been influenced by my post, but thanks for the acknowledgement anyway. Nice to know somebody read it. Nice to hear also that you liked two of them. Which two?
ReplyDeleteNo problem, I didn't feel pressured at all, just thought I should give you a plug.
ReplyDeleteI had noticed Bolano before for all the attention he's been getting, but I hadn't seen anything about Diaz at the time, let alone Pinol.
I've read Oscar Wao and Cold Skin (hence picking up Drown and Pandora in the Congo). The former was a curious read: a moving, convincing family saga coupled with my entire childhoods worth of geek references. The latter felt like a book slightly out of time, like the allegorical sci-fi of the fifties and sixties. Powerful stuff and gripping to boot. When I went to buy Pandora, the guy behind the till was bemoaning the fact that he couldn't convince anyone else in the store to read Cold Skin because of the schlocky premise.
Savage Detectives for my upcoming trip to Oz, I think.
Yeah, I've bought Cold Skin for a couple of people because I just know they'll like it when its given a chance. The Observer runs a yearly survey of publishers where they ask which book should have been more successful, and two years ago, the Canongate interviewee named Cold Skin, blaming its lack of success on bad promotion. Which didn't stop them mis-promoting Pandora, either.
ReplyDeleteinterestingly, the Spanish (or Catalan, maybe) edition of Cold Skin features a prologue explaining the protagonist's back story as an Irish Republican Guerilla on the run after an accident/botched operation. But Canongate removed it, perhaps to strengthen the books allegorical, mythic elements, I imagine.