“Conspiracy, Shamout,” the writer and editor William Maxwell once said to John Abidik. Sigrid Nunez could not agree more. She used to tell her students, “You don’t need a plot, but you need a story.” But what makes the story? “If you have an interesting personality with a kind experience, you have a story.” People sometimes reject non -conspiracy novels as “quiet” books that do not happen much, but, as Nunez notes, “Thinking does.” To clarify her point of view, Nunez shared some ideas with us about four modern, modern books she had not only enjoyed, but was a fan. Her comments were edited and intensified.
Brian
Written by Jeremy Cooper
Brian is a thirtieth council worker in London, and he has always lived a solitary life, characterized by obsessive commitment to routine. One day, after he decided that he should do something to feel lonely, he becomes a member of the British Film Institute (BFI). Over the years, and even its retirement, it is perpetuated as possible as possible to watch everything from the type films to the classic Hollywood. In fact, BFI becomes the center of the presence of Brian, which provides fixed pleasure and intellectual motivation. “In the cinema only he became a person,” and he is in BFI, Brian finds acceptance between a small group of other alienists.
Cooper does a great job in establishing the point of view of this individual character, brilliantly weaving to narrative ideas and Brian’s feelings about the films he sees. I was pleased with the pleasant humor of the book and a clear prose style, and I cannot think of any more accurate exploration of what can happen when a person is completely open and interested in art, and how a passion for art can link people to each other.
Ping Stone Square
By Charlotte Wood
The narrator, whose name is not revealed and the main character of this novel is a middle -aged woman from Sydney who fell into an ethical crisis. She has lost confidence in the effectiveness of her work as a preservation of wildlife and in the ability of humanity to stop the destruction caused by climate change. She leaves her job and her husband, and although athemel, she retracts a monastery in New South Wales. Perhaps there can make some meaning of the world.
One of the biggest questions you find is that if a person can live without causing harm. The nuns you notice come closest to this ideal, but the biblical plague does not leave them any option but killing – and it is not always painful. Although the narrator cannot find answers, Wood reminds us of the need to think seriously about such questions. Her wonderful reflections on awe and disappointment about the future, familiar to many of us, for me, were encouraging and comfortable force.
Rabbit
By Chloe Dalton
During the epidemic, Chloe Dalton, a London -based writer and foreign political specialist, retreated to her home in the English countryside. There, you find a newborn rabbit and take over the difficult function of caring for this while trying to maintain its wild nature. She does not call her, touching her as minimal as possible, arranging her home and outdoor air. It is the rabbit that defines the conditions of their relationship, and many of the harassment that it offers does not bring Dalton any remorse, but, instead, extreme satisfaction and joy.
Monitoring the rabbit – intelligence, flexibility, and dignity – Dalton has developed a deeper appreciation of nature, and begins to question her attitude towards other parts of her life, such as her profession. The notes include beautiful illustrations by Denise Nestor and many great details about the rabbits that Dalton extracts from natural history, folklore, art and literature. At a turbulent time, it may be the greatest gift you receive from the rabbit is a sense of peace: “The calm atmosphere that hides it all over the house still exists even when it disappears.” Reading the book had the same effect on me.
Morning without mii
Written by Mayumi Inaba, translated from the Japanese by Jenny Tabli Takimore
One day in 1977, the poet Mayumi Inaba Huraira finds a “small ball of fluff”, stuck in a hole in the fence. She takes her home, calls her Mii, and becomes her dear companion for the next twenty years. During that time, Enaba’s life passes through many changes, including divorce-from a man, although he is not a bad husband, who has never given her a kind of gratification that she derives from Mii-and her development as a prize winner.
Basically, MII’s biography, the book is also a great love story, gathering strength where the beloved begins to decline and INABA is forced to prepare itself for the inevitable destructive loss. The most influential parts of the notes are the Inaba descriptions of their intimate fight for MII through a series of increasingly placenta diseases. Such as “raising rabbit”, these notes reveal deep respect and mercy, which can be inspired by friendship with an animal in a human being.
