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Dear Charlotte, A Struggle for Fame (1883) explores the way social judgements based on nationality, class, and gender give shape to one’s identity and one’s opportunities in…… Read more “No human being ever believed she was the right person in the right place”
Tag: Immigration
The alphabet of my childhood
Dear Hella, Running just beneath the nostalgic waters of The Black Lake (tr. Ina Rilke, 2012. Original: Oeroeg, 1948), there is a disturbing current of tainted innocence: at…… Read more “The alphabet of my childhood”
It was a family of women buccaneers
Dear Gladys, The Matriarch (1924) is a family saga told in a fragmented way, weaving together vignettes, sketches and anecdotes that read like a series of family…… Read more “It was a family of women buccaneers”
My spirit rose to meet this challenge
Dear Jamaica, The Autobiography of My Mother (1996) is an exploration of the self as other – and back. The book is centred on Xuela Claudette Richardson,…… Read more “My spirit rose to meet this challenge”
The sky was red and all my life was in it.
Dear Jean, In your novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), you seem to be holding up a distorting mirror to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847): if we look…… Read more “The sky was red and all my life was in it.”
Look at the colour of it
Dear Ali, It takes us only a few paragraphs of Autumn (2016) to recognize your characteristic marks: experimental writing; a collage of literary references; a narrative propelled…… Read more “Look at the colour of it”
The girl is a peasant warrior
Dear Xiaolu, Your book Nine Continents (2017, also published in the UK with the title Once Upon A Time in the East: A Story of Growing up) is…… Read more “The girl is a peasant warrior”
From now on I shall only wear white,
Dear Nuala, Sometimes I feel that your novel Miss Emily (2015) is haunted by the ghost of something – a bird? – it distractedly let slip out of…… Read more “From now on I shall only wear white,”
Everyone was fleeing and everything was temporary
Dear Anna, Do you know this feeling we have when something terrible happens in a dream and we must scream or run, but we find ourselves suddenly…… Read more “Everyone was fleeing and everything was temporary”
They didn’t dare before; now they do, that’s all
Dear Anna, I was halfway through Manja (tr. Kate Phillips, 2003. Manja: Ein Roman um 5 Kinder, 1938) this past week, when your book acquired a new…… Read more “They didn’t dare before; now they do, that’s all”
There you go again, narrating through a prism of pain
Dear Tatiana, Your novel The House in Smyrna (tr. Alison Entrekin, 2015; originally published in Portuguese in 2007) was a puzzling read for me. And not a confortable…… Read more “There you go again, narrating through a prism of pain”
wade/ through black jade/of the crow-blue mussel-shells
Dear Adriana, As in your previous books, Crow Blue (2013, tr. Alison Entrekin, originally published in Portuguese in 2010) also depicts a journey, through which the protagonists -…… Read more “wade/ through black jade/of the crow-blue mussel-shells”
Beware against the sweet person, for sugar has no nutrition
Dear Anne, I was unsure whether I should read Vinegar Girl (2016), the latest book in the Hogarth Shakespeare series. “The Taming of the Shrew” is a…… Read more “Beware against the sweet person, for sugar has no nutrition”
The line of light marking the bottom of the locked door
Dear Lori, Your short-story collection The Bigness of the World (2009, 2016) followed me throughout a very pleasant trip by bike I made last May. I confess it…… Read more “The line of light marking the bottom of the locked door”
Questions of displacement
Dear Elizabeth, This is just a quick note to let you know that I read a posthumous collection of your poems (The Complete Poems, 1927-1979) earlier this…… Read more “Questions of displacement”
summer rains / trace of a poem card/ torn off the wall
Dear Adriana, Your novel Hut of Fallen Persimmons (2011, tr. Sarah Green. Original title Rakushisha, 2007) caught my attention from its title and its starting point. Mukai Kioray (1651…… Read more “summer rains / trace of a poem card/ torn off the wall”
I don’t scream. I’ve thrown my mouth away.
Dear Aglaja, It breaks my heart to know that your debut novel, Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta (Warum das Kind in der Polenta kocht), is a semi-autobiographical…… Read more “I don’t scream. I’ve thrown my mouth away.”
The words we speak leave small bruises on the skin,
Dear Hiromi, Your book draws a lot on inter-generational conflict and cultural assimilation. Chorus of Mushrooms centers around the lives of three generations of women in a Japanese…… Read more “The words we speak leave small bruises on the skin,”
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