UNESCO

Since my last post, I have read an issue of Eclectic Reading, and five books: Graciliano Ramos' Childhood, Shaikat Siddiqi's God's Own Land, The Palace of Ice by Tarjei Vesaas, Trash by Jose de Almeida, and Wild Bapu of Garambi by Shripad Narayan Pendse.

Trash is an important novel for Brazil, since it marks the entry of the Brazilian vernacular into literature. Otherwise, it is pretty ordinary. I thought God's Own Land was a soap opera, complete with passion, murder, and wrongdoing, but evidently it was immensely popular in Pakistan, where it is set. Both Childhood and Palace of Ice purport to charm the reader with memoirs of the author's youth -- Childhood succeeds a little more, and it is interesting to read what it was like to be a child in those countries, but that's about all I can say about either of them. Wild Bapu of Garambi is a translation from the Maranthi, and it is remarkable for the amount of dialogue for a novel. I wasn't surprised to read that the author translated this for the stage at some point in his career.

So this leaves me about fifteen books away from reading the entire UNESCO list in English and French. I should be able to read five or six more this week-end, but I have to wait on interlibrary loan to complete this list. What will I do with my time now?