Jacques Tournier: La Maison déserte

   I chose this book absolutely randomly in the municipal library, just because I wanted to read something in French and this wasn’t too long. The problem with most of the French books in that library is that they are from Gallimard and they don’t  bother with any description of books they publish or information on the author. Besides, the library obviously doesn’t bother with getting many new books in foreign languages and if you want a foreign book in other language than English, the offer is nothing much. Now, that I have expressed my discomfort with the municipal library, let’s get back to the book.

    Although Tournier has several books published, this one probably isn’t the best he has ever written. At least I guess so, as Wikipedia doesn’t even mention this book in his entry (and it is the right Jacques Tournier). For those interested, he also wrote a biography of Carson McCullers, translated Tender is the Night or The Great Gatsby into French and wrote some novels like Des Persiennes vert perroquet (I can’t help it but that’s a cool name), A l’intérieur du chien or Zelda (which is about Zelda Fitzgerald and, unfortunately, no Fairy Fountain nor princesses in distress are involved).

   Well, the story. The main character is a woman...and I can’t remember her name. It’s written in the third person and I’d have to look it up. Anyway, she moves from France to the Netherlands where she rents a little house. She lives there with almost no furniture, she doesn’t use the upstairs at all and she is totally depressed all the time. Little by little, we learn that she lost her husband, than fell in love with another man and he died too. Now, she is trying to keep hold on her dead lover and more or less pretends he’s still alive. The book treats the way she comes to terms with her lover’s death and carries on her life.

    It’s not a particularly enjoyable book. I’d say it’s mostly boring. And very...very over-exaggerated. For example, there is a part when the heroine takes a walk to a lighthouse. The weather gets really bad and there is a strong wind and heavy rain but she sits by the lighthouse and watches the storm. Seriously? Storm, lighthouse, dead lover, raging waters? All at once? No, I don’t think so. And there are other, less extreme but still weird scenes.

   I don’t want to say it’s not a good book. Maybe someone with a similar experience would say that’s exactly what he or she felt (although I doubt many people write and actually send letters to their dead lovers...or pretend having dinner with them). But I really didn’t enjoy the book very much and I dare doubt many other people would. 

Warren Miller: The Cool World (Prezydent Krokadýlů)

   Protože písmeno „c“ v A to Z Challenge už zabrala The Children of Dynmouth, konečně taky jednou můžu kašlat na angličtinu (mezi náma, ne, že by v tom byl tak zásadní rozdíl, protože oni sem žádný cizinci stejně nelezou, ale whateva). O tomhle jsem poprvé slyšel paradoxně na přednáškách z francouzský literatury, protože to je první příklad v českým překladu, kde se objevila autostylizace…a tím se tady zřejmě míní deformace jazyka postavou (což sice úplně není to, co bych si pod pojmem autostylizace představil, ale hlavně že víme, jak to vypadá).

   Nevím, jestli jsem to tady už poznamenával, ale vážně špatně snáším, když musím luštit, co to ty lidi vlastně říkaj. A tady to nebylo jen když mluvili, ale pořád a furt. Po půl straně jsem si říkal, že tohle prostě nedám. Po sto stranách jsem vzal za povděk sudými stránkami bilingvního vydání. Takže ještě úvodem bych řekl, že překladatel (Josef Škvorecký, tohle je nové vydání překladu) na tom udělal skvělou práci, snad až na jednu výjimku, a to že postavy říkají mergle několika různým věcem, konkrétně penězům i heroinu. Nevím jak s penězi, ale pochybuju, že heroinu kdy kdo řekl mergle. Jinak respect, yo.

   Jen abyste dostali představu, dám sem několik prvních odstavců originálu a překladu:

They call him Priest because he always wear black. Black suits with thin tight pants. One day some body see him in an they say. “Man you always in black. Like a priest. You the hep priest Man.” So that how come he is call priest.

   Priest say to me. “Man I tellin you. You aint gonna find anything good as this for the kind of bread I askin for. You can go up and down this street a thousan times an you aint gonna find it.”

   I say to Priest. “Man I dont have time to go up and down this street a thousan times. I in a big hurry. But shitman that aint worth no 15 dollas.”

   Priest he laugh. He taken the piece out of the draw again. It a short-barl 45 with that crisscross lines on the butt. Priest dont flip around like a cowboy. He cool. He hold it in his big hand like somethin sweet and he smile at it.

Říkaj mu Flanďák poněvač dycky chodí v černym. V černym saku a tenkejch trubkách. Jednou ho někdo vidí a povidá. „Vole co seš furt v černym. Jako flanďák. Ty seš teda flanďák za všecky drobný vole.“ Vod tý doby mu teda řikaj Flanďák.

   Flanďák mi povidá. Vole nech si říct. Za ty prachy nenajdeš nikde nic lepšího. To tu můžeš na věky věků vobcházet po vokolí a nenajdeš. Fakt.“

   Povidám Flanďákovi. „Vole já nemám čas někde vobcházet na věky věků. Hoří mi koudel. Ale doprdele tohle je přece za 15 dolarů drahý.“

   Flanďák se zašklebí. Zase už vytáh tu stříkačku ze šuplete. Pětačtyříctku s useknutou hlavní a takovym tim příčnym rejhováním na pažbě. Flanďák s ní netočí jako ňákej kovboj. Je úplně klidnej. Drží jí v tý svý vobrovský jako dyby to byla žencká a směje se na ní.

   Takže příběh je o tom, že Duke chodí po Harlemu a snaží se sehnat prachy na pistoli, aby mohl vzít gang a rozstřílet na kusy pár Portorikánců. Během toho se mu podaří dostat se do čela gangu, vydělat pár dolarů prostitucí, utratit dost peněz na prostituci zakoukat se do prostitutky…a tak. Jo, je mu 14.

   Duke sice vypráví příběh v přítomném čase (no, částečně asi kvůli tomu, že v Harlemu se zjevně nikdo moc nezabývá gramatickýma koncovkama), nicméně z pár kusů vyplyne, že příběh vypráví retrospektivně někomu, komu říká „pane doktore“. Čímž se více méně potvrdí závěr, který se nějak očekává už  začátku (protože v takový knížce se prostě musí stát několik věcí – musí umřít kamarád, hlavní nepřítel a hrdina nakonec musí dokázat nějak reflektovat, jak to bylo všechno úplně špatně). Takže nějaký extrémní originality se tu člověk nedočká. No, mám dojem, že tohle už nějak mluví za všechno – jde o vážně drsnej popis vážně drsnýho života ve vážně drsným Harlemu, kde jste buď vážně drsný dítě ve vážně drsně nízkým věku, nebo s váma někdo vážně drsně vymete, popřípadě vážně drsně sejme. Nechci to tím nějak snižovat, jen tím chci říct, abyste popřípadě nečekali nějaký velký překvapení.

Kit Whitfield: Bareback

   I came across this book some time ago while browsing on some blogs about literature. It caught my eye (obviously) but I completely forgot about it. And than, I was going through some cheap books in those wooden boxes in front of Palác Luxor and I found myself keeping this book in my hands. As this book is quite well known and (more importantly) well received in the GB and the US, the fact that it cost half money than Eat, Pray, Love is really sad.

   Well, why did it catch my eye? It’s called Bareback (Benighted in the US version). For those unfamiliar with this word…look it up on Urban Dictionary. And the second reason - it’s about werewolves. (Un)fortunately, it’s not about werewolves barebacking each other…although I might enjoy reading something like that too. (My BF was like What the f******ck are you reading???).

   Anyway, it has nothing to do with anything naughty. The story takes place in an alternative world where almost everyone is werewolf (but the word is not used in the book, which is actually quite logical). When I say almost, I mean more than 99 % of population. The rest are called nons or, in slang, barebacks (oooooh). The main heroin Lola works in DORLA (Department of Ongoing Lycanthropic Activity) – as every other non has to. At the beginning, one of her colleagues and friends gets his hand bit of by a lyco and than he gets shot in head. She is to investigate the case, which leads her to many, many, many and (yeah, I am about to repeat it once more) many discoveries she would prefer not to have done.

   So we have a detective story. But the book was also compared with 1984, which is quite a good comparison. The whole point of the story is a classic anti-utopia. But Whitfield is also great in describing psychology of Lola. Barebacks are a very small minority, which has a huge impact on them. They also feel they are crippled or that they have some kind of defect – and in the world they live in, they actually do have a defect. But the main aim of DORLA is to keep guard during full moon nights. For centuries, there has been a law that when people “fur up” on the full moon night, they have to be locked up indoors. Of course, there are accidents, people don’t get into shelters, they get out of their houses and so on. And then, there are prowlers – those who break the curfew intentionally. DORLA agents have to catch these lunes (metamorphosed lycos) and get them into shelters. So there is a paradox – people (often) hate nons but they also need them. Mainstream society can’t actually afford not to have DORLA. Imagine that once a month, everyone would get crazy, run through city, fought with each other and destroyed everything that gets into his or her way. That would hardly work.

   Nons have to start working for DORLA when they are 18 and they leave at the age of 60 (or…something like that). The only problem is a quarter of them are heavily injured or dead by that time. On the other hand, DORLA is not a bunch of nice, smiley guys either. They tend to arrest people and not give them any human rights (like lawyer or a phone call). And than they beat them. Brutally. Which is OK because only heavy wounds don’t heal when they fur up.

   Lola has to deal with much. She doesn’t speak to her mother at all and her relationship with her sister isn’t the best one either (but it gets much better during the book). She is under pressure of everyday life in society which hates her, her friend is dead, her sister is obviously worried that her coming baby might be a bareback and DORLA is more understaffed than ever so she has loads of work.

   But she copes. She has a whole system to protect herself. She wears gloves (palms of non are much softer compared to lycos). She fills her life with work so she doesn’t have to think about other things. And she is very perceptive when speaking to someone. She listens to little words people use and immediately deducts things others would easily overlook. She controls herself and her emotions extremely well but as she is confronted with some tough situations, she sometimes loses it.

   Oh, and there is a new word into “weird vocabulary”. Loten. It’s supposed to be “moonlight so bright you can see in it” in Old English. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t know this word so either Whitfield made the word up or Google is a really bad source for Old English vocabulary. In this case, I guess it’s the former.

  Anyway, the title doesn’t sound like it, but this is actually a good book. Sure, it’s mostly the story but not just that – Whitfield has a nice English and some of her descriptions and similes were absolutely amazing (like when Lola describes her feelings after beating a man as if her bones were cold and empty…I think it’s a rather impressive image). And obviously, there are piles of stuff about xenophobia, hatred between classes, manipulation of society, etc. Read it…but it’s still a good idea to cover the book (the looks guys in public transport were giving me…).

   And there will be a movie under the title Benighted.