Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

I finished Zola’s Nana. I rather think Zola intended me to dislike everyone in this book, but in fact I just ended up feeling terribly sorry for them all: they all seem so human and stupid and tragic, wasting their lives and their treasures buying pleasures that give them no happiness. Not that they would be likely to get happiness from anything else, either. Does happiness even exist in Zola’s world? No one got to be happy in Germinal either.

In any case, I really liked the book. It gives such a clear and evocative picture of such an alien world, the nineteenth-century French theater and demimonde, and I think Nana in particular is a wonderfully complex character. (I also think you could probably make a strongly-supported textual argument that she has borderline personality disorder or possibly C-PTSD, which is impressive given that neither diagnosis was even a glimmer in anyone's eye at that point.) But it's definitely not for the faint of heart.

What I’m Reading Now

Nearly done with Eva Ibbotson’s The Star of Kazan. Annika has been rescued from the evil boarding school where her mother sent her! (Her mother’s portrayal is totally chilling, by the way, because she’s so good at acting like she has Annika’s best interests at heart: she presents the Evil Boarding School as a lovely surprise that will surely fill Annika with joy.) But will she be able to stay with her adoptive family in Vienna????

I mean, of course she will, because it’s an Ibbotson book, but I’m worried how they’re going to keep Annika’s mother from coming and taking her away again. Unless I’m right and it turns out that her mother is not actually her mother after all? WE SHALL SEE.

What I Plan to Read Next

Still Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. I meant to start it last week, but then I got sidetracked by Nana.

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

All Quiet On The western Front is an excellent read.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It's good so far! Although I can tell it's going to break my heart.

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

Nana's no good, but I'd fall for her. I haven't read enough Zola to know whether happiness is ever going to exist in his world, but I wouldn't mind investigating.

"human and stupid and tragic" is a pretty good summary.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I clearly need to read more Zola! But I need a breather before I plunge back into the pit of despair.

Germinal had miserable poor people, and Nana had miserable rich people, so maybe one of his novels about middle-class people might have a happy person in their somewhere? Somehow this seems unlikely, but clearly I should investigate.

And poor Nana. She destroys everything she touches and she has no idea how or why. (Except when she actually destroys it on purpose, like that time she destroys all her super-expensive birthday presents. Nana!)

[thisbluespirit]

I'm amused at your Ibbotson rhetorical questions. I do like The Star of Kazan. (My two favourites that aren't WW and TGGR are Star of Kazan and A Secret Countess.)

I haven't read any Zola, but I tend to need some happiness in my world. Still, reading Eva Ibbotson at the same time was a very good plan on that front, really. :-)

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Ibbotson is a good balance for Zola, it's true. Even when things aren't going well for the characters in Ibbotson, there's usually a little bit of hope tucked away in the corners somewhere. Zola, on the other hand... the characters could be on top of the world and it would be naught but foreshadowing for their eventual tragic downfall.

Probably. I've only read two books by Zola, so who knows? Maybe the rest of them are shimmering pools of happiness. (I doubt it, though.)

I loved A Secret Countess! Anna is full of vim and can-do attitude.