literary Posts

Chapte31 Book Reviews “Map and the Territory” and “Little Red Chairs”

Houellenbeq"s Map and the Terriory and O'Brien's Little Red Chairs

Houellenbeq”s Map and the Terriory and O’Brien’s Little Red Chairs

The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq

If you, like myself, are intrigued by the genius, politics and drama in the world of art you won’t want to miss this novel. Set in contemporary French society the novel first appears as a coming of age story of the young artist Jed Martin until Houllebecq arrives on the scene to write the notes for Jed’s upcoming exhibition wherein it becomes a brilliant conversation on art, death, and society.

It is said novelists who place themselves in their work rarely come out alive, but when Houllebecq, who is at times both comic, depressed, acerbic and/or inebriated, agrees to let Jed to paint his portrait, the ensuing dialogue made up of controversial observations and reflections about art and life educate and engage the reader while giving credence as to why Houellenbecq is looked upon as a “tour de force” novelist.

 

red-chairs“The Little Red Chairs” by Edna O’Brien

“The Little Red Chairs” refers to the six hundred and forty three small red chairs set out on streets of Sarajevo, for the  commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 1,425 day sige of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serbs. These chairs were meant to represent children killed by snipers and artillery fire.

In this her first novel  in ten years, author Edna O’Brien challenges us to explore the capacity human beings have for evil and asks if love, however innocent, can be tolerated.

O’Brien’s novel, however,  is not set it Sarajevo but in Ireland, a place O’Brien says is “a land of shame, of murder, of sacrificed women.”  O’Brien’s heroine, Fidelma McBride, is a women unfulfilled. When she falls under the spell of a mysterious charismatic stranger, giving in to his charms and her own desire. When the truth about the stranger is revealed she is left disgraced and isolated. Her life is shattered. Thus begins her odyssey in search of redemption.

In a NYT Review Joyce Carol Oates explores how O’Brien idealization of a life of service has enriched her fiction, from “Country Girl” to “Little Red Chairs”. They may differ in time and place but they remain true to O’Briens’s central theme.  Thus the odyssey ends when Fidelma gives herself up to the service of others finding her redemption in choosing “not to look at the prison wall of life, but to look up at the sky.”

 

 

Chapter 25 Literary Passions

Favorite Reads

Favorite Reads

 

 January’s literary passions range from reimagining a Camus’ classic to stories of almost famous women, plus two thought provoking tales on the havoc politics wreaks on the lives of a Russian, and finally, that of  a Parisian.  I didn’t want any of these books to be over when I hit the last page. I promise you won’t be bored!

Almost Famous Women by Megan Mayhew Bergman,  elegant stories about women, whom history often has cast aside, but remain “almost famous” because of their creative impulses, fierce independence, and often reckless decisions,  Among them are Beryl Markham, Standard Oil heiress Joe Cartairs, Lord Byron’s daughter Allegra, James Joyce’s troubled daughter Lucia. These stories, and the women that inhabit them will linger long after the last page is turned.

 The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra, writer of prizewinning A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, these interlinked stories told in poetic language, begin in the tunnels beneath Leningrad and end at the edge of the solar system. Covering several generations of a family who are tied together by one man’s defiant act to keep his brother’s image alive, it is, to quote the Washington Post “A flash in the heavens that makes you look up and believe in miracles..”

Submission by Michel Houellebecq, set in Paris, 2022, its narrator a professor at the Sorbonne who finds himself disenchanted with himself and his life, and finds unexpected salvation when the Muslim brotherhood party is elected to run France, altering the world as it is then known. This novel is a quite possible brilliant conceit written by one of France’s most “celebrated controversialists” and writers. Adam Shatz of The London Review of Books calls  this “a melancholy tribute to the pleasure of surrender”.

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud – Reimagines Camus’ novel, The Stranger, from the point of view of the unheard Arab victims of Camus’ tale. Daod’s writing is spellbinding as are the experiences of his characters. I suggest if you have not read The Stranger, or cannot remember it, you read a Sparknote summary so to be familiar with the story Daoud has so finely resurrected giving this reader much to think about.

Comments or discussions about these books very welcome!

 

 

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