#French Thérèse Raquin
- Author: Emile Zola
- Title: Thérèse Raquin
- Published: 1867
- Language: French
- List of French Books Read
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly plan
Conclusion:
- A cross between a crime fiction and fantasy novel
- Characters: Zola portrays an icy ménage à trois:
- Thérèse…her husband Camille and lover Laurent.
- Mme Raquin is Camille’s mother.
- Timeline: 6 years
- Plot: “Crime passionnel” that changes the lovers
- ..and drives them into madness!
- Characters change:
- Laurent: heavy, hot-headed –> gets nervous, fearful, violent and criminal
- Thérèse: nervous, unsatisfied, passive –> strong and sensual woman
- Madam Raquin: apathetic, quiet –> desperate and vengeful woman
- Camille: alive –> dead….killed in the water.
Last thoughts:
- The book is very easy read.
- So easy that I could skim parts when
- Zola uses long-winded descriptions (signature style of his writing)
- …. and not miss a beat.
- It is a tale of fiery passion, obsession, and
- the psychological aftermath of an unforgivable deed.
- Several steamy chapters about the secret affair
- between Thérèse and Laurent leading up to the wedding night.
- Then the guilt sunk in and they both felt
- ….repelled by each other!
- Zola knows what kind of books sell!
- …but it is #GoodNotGreat
- The narrative reminded me of movies
- “The Post Man Always Rings Twice”
- and “Body Heat”.
- Thérèse Raquin felt less ‘polished’ compared
- to Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart series.
- If you read any french books…start with
- this series of 20 books.
- You won’t be disappointed!
#French L’Été
- Author: A. Camus
- Title: L’Été (essay)
- Published 1939
Conclusion:
- I must channel my thoughts into a French book.
- It is the only way I can stay focused during Corona lockdown.
- Reading a third language (…Dutch is my second)
- will make reading interactive
- …the words on the page vs the words I have to look up!
- The book wasn’t difficult but I should have read an
- ..ol’ fashioned crime fiction to kick-start my French reading.
- Oran Algeria is nice….but I wouldn’t want to live there.
- My last French book was in July 2019
- …so my vocabulary was a little rusty.
- #NeverGiveUp
L’Été by Albert Camus
- Albert Camus compares Oran Algeria to a labyrinth in this essay.
- It is a closed space in which people go around in circles.
- Their lives are filled with boredom and futility.
- All beauty (man-made or natural) has been eliminated.
- Oran is a a place “sans âme et sans recours”. (no soul, no refuge…just stone)
- The Minotaur in this labyrinth is boredom,
- “Le Miontaur dévoure les Oranais: c’est l’ennui.”
Notes:
- Oran: the streets – descriptions of the men/women of Oran
- …having shoes shined, flirting and their nicknames Clarques (men) -Marlènes (women)
- Clark Gable-Marilyn Monroe….les voluptés (sensual pleasures)
- Oran: the desert of Oran..…compares Oran to Florence, Athene and other cities.
- Oran: the games – description favorite sport in Oran….boxing.
- BEST CHAPTER: This boxing section was wonderful
- …no deep philosophical thoughts…just a great sportscast!
- Oran: the monuments….about Maison de Colon municipal building opened in Oran 1930
- Oran: the monuments….about Hôtel de Ville with 2 bronze lions by Auguste Cain in 1889
- Oran: Ariane’s stone (mythology)
- …Oran is made of stone and Camus uses a stone in his essay
- … instead of the string. Ariane used a string to help her
- …lover retrace his way out of the labyrinth of the Minotaur.
- Camus will use a stone …to show the people that
- …they too can escape boredom (Minotaur) in Oran.
- If the Oranais find a balance between
- …their suffering and what nature can give them
- …they will be spared a life of futility.
- “Il faut dire “ oui” au Minotaur.”
#Corona update 29.04.2020
April 14:
5 km walk – done
(….it was cold!! Temp 5 C but is felt like 1 C in the wind)
Order online groceries – done
Don’t forget to get extra ‘anti viral’ Lindt chocolate – done
Watch Trump’s presser on Monday evening (…who saw it?)
Trump: “When somebody is the president of the US, the authority is total”. Has this man even READ the US Constitution? You should watch Trump lash out at a CBS reporter….it was incredible. The man is unhinged. – done
Now…time to relax and read the digital newspapers and #NeedCoffee!
April 15:
Groceries (online delivery) have arrived on my doorstep….I never thought I would end up washing not only fruit/veggies…but also cans and containers!
Good vegetable wash: 2 cup (500 ml) cold water, 1/4 c (60 ml) vinegar and juice 1/2 lemon (optional) Tijd voor 2nd bakje koffie!
April 16:
US politics never ceases to amaze me….we are all worried about Trump being re-elected. Don’t be distracted…we should worry about the MOST powerful man in Washington returning as head of the Senate, Mitch McConnell. Jane Mayer of The New Yorker has written a BLOCKBUSTER article I urge you all to read. Stay healthy and stay informed!! #MoscowMitch
How Mitch McConnell became Trump’s enabler-in-chief
April 17:
5 km – done
Read news: ….Trump declares US open for business in phases…Boeing factory opens next week….Hmmm. Be very careful. This is a virus you cannot see! #COVID19 testing of the entire crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier may have revealed an important clue: 60% of the sailors who tested positive showed no symptoms.
April 18:
Needed my Friday (17 April) night glass of cognac just to face the news. Senators fuming at VP on conference call…same ol’blah blah from Pence. Trump instigating revolt in tweets “Liberate…Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia.” Opening up the USA without testing + track/trace follow up is an accident waiting to happen. It feels like Andrew Cuomo is the ONLY adult in the room. So….not going anywhere soon….we are in this for months to come. #Caturday foto tonight….plan to sleep in tomorrow morning! (see foto)
April 19:
Sun is shining…took my 5 km walk which is my ‘escape’. Still I cannot stop thinking of NYC and what it is going through. I saw this photo this morning and it just touched a nerve. There is no escape in NYC.
April 20:
If there is one thing positive out of this corona lockdown…I’m walking daily 5 km (per minute burn 4 caloires) before breakfast.
Last year in April….I could only walk 8 minutes and that was with pain. Thank God for my new hip! Just think, I can lose 1 kilo if I do this for 30 days and not go overboard on cookies and chocolate. It is a glorious morning and only met 2 walkers, 1 dog and 7 people on racing bikes. Now #NeedCoffee
April 21:
Georgia Governor Kemp declares his state ‘open for business’. This is so reckless….and will cost lives! You cannot pretend coronavirus does not exist! Thank goodness Angela Merkel is the ADULT in the room and cancelled the October Beer Fest! #SeriousWiseDecision. Women leaders seem to handle more responsibly then the men! They don’t command, they empathize: NZ Jacinda Ardem, Denmark Mette Frederiksen, Finland Sanna Marin, Iceland Katrin Jakobsdottir, Norway Erna Solberg and Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen. #BravoLadies
April 22:
This is the stupidest thing I’ve read….“Jesus is my vaccine”. Good luck with that #TrumpBase
April 23:
If it is Thursday….time to clean the floors, collect the groceries, flip bed matras, put on clean sheets and then in the evening enjoy my anti-viral glass of French cognac. #ViveLaFrance
April 24:
5 km – done….I was up at 0555 hrs. Sleep is a ‘hit and miss’ event these days. Dreams are even crazier…this week I dreamt about Iceland, Jennifer Lopez and Dr. Fauci! Morning walk was serene…1 dog, 2 bikers, 1 walker. Today I left the house 1 x in 5 weeks…Mork needed food and flea pill from the vets. #NeedCoffee. This is a beautiful foto…the longer I look at it. Perspective (long road/path), diaphanous clouds and wisps of mist hanging low above the pastures. Every day is a gift!
April 25:
5 km – done
Roving reporter….0630 hr
All Quiet on the Western Front!
#StayFitInLockdown
April 26:
This is one of the nicest and creative things I seen during this Corona crisis. A tattoo artist cannot open his store so he paints personal messages for nurses at Erasmus Medical Center hospital in Rotterdam. He gives them their very special nurses shoes (modern Dutch wooden shoes).
April 27:
Today we celebrate our king’s birthday, Willem-Alexander. But this year we are staying home…no trips to Amsterdam for parties along the canals….no flea markets in villages….no nothing. I don’t even have a ‘oranjepouce’ (typical cake to celebrate this day…). So I’ll just have to sing the national anthem at 10 am as we all will do ….and have my Heineken tonight and raise a glass to staying save and healthy!
April 28:
5 km – done
While you were sleeping….a new day begins! I had to run to get to this place on time to take the photo. The sun does not wait for anyone! #NeedCoffee
April 29:
I still cannot concentrate reading a book…so I’ve turned back the clock! I was never a whizz in math (..languages and literature were my forte) ….but now I am determined to buckle down….as I should have in school. Today learning the area and circumference of a circle. #LookingForPositivesInLockdown
5 km – done
Now watching the news with my isolation partner.
Remember he sleeps 18 hrs a day!
Mork: “Wake me up when lockdown is over.”
#Corona update 13.04.2020
- Ed Hopper has illustrated what life is like
- …during Corona crisis.
- This is the new normal
- …coffee and social distancing.
- Completed 4 weeks in lockdown
- I stared a week before NL placed us ALL in lockdown.
- I try to do 4 x walks of 5 km per week….just keep the body moving.
- Easter morning was surely an indication….there is light at the end of this tunnel.
MUST see exhibitions on Tate Modern London
- ….free curator-led tour Andy Warhol (see below)
- ….free curator-led tour Aubrey Beardsley exhibitions, starting 13 April
- on museum website and You Tube channel.
- The films were created after the galleries were forced to close
- due to the coronavirus pandemic,
- but before current restrictions around social distancing were implemented.
- ENJOY!
#MuseumMomentOfZen
Dog Lovers….I watch this video and listen to the commentary EVERY DAY!!
Major LOL (click 2x…video does start)
https://twitter.com/MrAndrewCotter/status/1248313303270596610
- Van Gogh puzzel (foto) 250 pieces
- …I’ve completed 7….243 pieces to go!
- These puzzles used to be a lot easier when I was a child!
- Everybody is is lockdown….except essential workers.
- If you order take-a-way….remember the delivery boy/girl
- …and give a extra generous tip $$
- Sleeping during lockdown is like Russian Roulette
- …when my head hits the pillow I wonder….to sleep or not to sleep?
- No medication needed….only the soft purr in my ear from Mork!
Notes from the ….underground:
on there isn’t enough mental bandwidth and I feel
PS: So sorry, The Netherlands can not send the Pope his Easter flowers for the first time in 30 years. #SeeYouNextYear
You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade…”
#Corona lockdown list
16 May 2020, Leeuwarden, NL
- Last night (March 30) BBC News told us that this
- …coronavirus crisis could last 6 months!
- After every 3 weeks the stats will be
- …evaluated to see if we have ‘crushed the curve’.
- I am sure NL will apply similar rules.
- 6 months!! OMG.
- Now that I’ve got time on my freshly cleaned hands,
- …it is time to stock up on books not toilet paper…
- TURN OFF the news
- …and make my reading list for a long lockdown.
- There must be one or two books on this list that
- …can deflect and divert
- …the corona news….for a few hours.
- #NotGoingAnywhereSoon
- PS: no SF on the list
- …just look outside if you want that experience!
- Essayism – Brian Dillon – 2017 – Review
- Can You Tolerate This – A. Young (2016) – Review
- Critics, Monsters and Fanatics – Cynthia Ozick – Review
- The China Model – Daniel Bell – 2016 – Review
- A Warning – Anonymous (2019) – Review
- The Unmaking of the Presidency – S. Hennessey, B. Wittes (2020) – Review
- A Very Stable Genius – Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker (2020) – Review
- Front Row at the Trump Show – J. Karl – Review
- I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us – Ed Yong (2016) – Review
- Shosha – I.B. Singer (fiction) – Review
- The Orphan Master’s Son – A. Johnson (fiction) – Review
- L’Été – Albert Camus – Review
- Collected Short Stories – Elizabeth Bowen – READING (14/79 read)
- The Moviegoer – Percy Walker – Review
- Tu seras un homme, mon fils – P. Assouline (2020) – Review
- D’un cheval l’autre – Bartabas (2020) – READING
- Thérèse Raquin – Emile. Zola – Review
- Saul Steinberg: A Portrait – D. Bair – Review
- Thomas Aquinas – Denys Turner – Review
- Brown is The New White – Steve Phillips – Review
- My Vanishing Country – B. Sellers (2020) – Review
#Corona update 26.03.2020
What have Mork (isolation partner) and
..I done during first 10 days of ‘silence and solitude?
- 3 x 5 km walks
- Spring cleaning downstairs
- celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with Irish Coffee
- prayed with the Pope yesterday at noon Pater Noster’
- 3 loads of laundry
- foam rolled…ouch!
- learned difference between recession and depression on CNN
- 2 x received online groceries.
- ..delivery guy just puts things on my doorstep, takes a big step back and I pay online
- 1 x trip to vet’s to get cat’s kidney diet food (forgot to stock up)
- read NOT one book…b/c I was glued to the TV + Andrew Cuomo’s pressers
- turned OFF Trump’s Coronavirus ‘rallies’
- ….I refuse to watch b/c 25% of update is about him!
- Treats?
- ice-cream, popped corn and drizzled melted butter on it for movie night
- finished 250 gr choc Easter eggs.
- Stay save
- #StayTheF**kHome
Update: 27.03.2020
Please …read this article in English by British science journalist Ed Young (1981). He explains in very clear words how this pandemic will end. #CoronaNotOver @ Easter, Mr Trump!
How the Pandemic Will End by Ed Young
UPDATE: 21.03.2020
#Corona Break
- Time to do what must be done to stay safe.
- I am in ‘self-solitude’ for the next 3-4 weeks.
- I have enough books, Netflix,
- …Irish Whisky/wine and chocolate Easter Eggs.
- …and get my groceries online and delivered to my door.
- Mork (cat) has has volunteered to be my isolation partner
- but has warned me that he sleeps 18 hours a day
- ….puuuurfect….nice and quiet!
- Stay safe and
- #StayTheF**kHome
#ReadIreland 2020 Station Island (67 poems)
- Author: Seamus Heaney
- Title: Station Island
- Published: 1984
- Dedicated to: Irish playwright Brian Friel
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly plan
- #ReadingIrelandMonth20
- #Begorrathon20
Conclusion:
- Station Island is an intensebook of 67 poems
- …each one worth you reading time.
- The poems left me breathless.
- It took me 2 days to read 123 pages!!
- Reading Seamus Heaney’s poetry is only
- known by experience…rather than reason.
- Favorite poem: Station Island nr XII
- Seamus meets his last guide on the pilgrimage
- …James. Joyce.
- Joyce’s advice is timeless
- …not only meant for Heaney…but for us all:
- “Let go, let fly. forget.
You’ve listened long enough.
Now strike your note.” - Joyce urges the complete opposite of the
- collective Catholic pilgrimage (Station Island)
- …but favors individualism!
- In other words
- ….shed your Catholic orthodoxy and reveal a new self.
- #ChapeauAuBas
- ….Seamus Heaney!
- #MustRead
#ReadIreland 2020 Tom Murphy
- Author: Tom Murphy (1935-2018)
- Title:The Wake
- Genre: play
- Published: 1998
- T. Murphy died on 15 May 2018 (obituary)
- Reading time: 2 hours
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly plan
- #ReadingIrelandMonth20
- #Begorrathon20
Quickscan:
- The Wake is set in the 1990s.
- Vera is a lonely, exiled prostitute
- returning from New York to her native
- …town to mourn her grandmother.
- But she has also inherited a family hotel
- …which her siblings covet.
- When Vera learns the true
- …circumstances of grandmother’s death.
- she decides on an unusual course of action.
Conclusion:
- Now, after reading this introduction I wanted to
- find out what did Vera really do with her hotel?
- That was my only smart move.
- The play was a slapdash of arguments,
- singing, swearing and a grande mélange à trois
- …to shock her family and the reader.
- The play was a mess on paper.
- I can’t imagine having to sit it out in a theatre.
- At least I could read it with a toothless comb.
- No, Tom Murphy can do better.
- Here are two of his plays worth reading!
- Alice Trilogy and Famine.
Last thoughts:
- The kindest thing I can say about this play is
- enjoy the journey, but realize
- you’re going to roll your eyes
- in disbelief a lot on the way.
- #WasteOfTime
#ReadIreland 2020 Jennifer Johnston
- Author: Jennifer Johnston
- Title: The Christmas Tree
- Published: 1981
- Genre: novella (168 pg)
- Reading time: 4 hours
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly plan
- Trivia: Jennifer Johnston (Dublin 1930) was awarded a
- Lifetime Achievement Award 2012 from the Irish Book Awards.
- #ReadingIrelandMonth20
- #Begorrathon20
- Rating: A+++++++
Conclusion:
- Jennifer Johnston is not a trendy read.
- She is 90…so she is not on the best sellers lists
- But my goodness…don’t let her writing pass you by!
- I won’t even give you a clue what it is about
- …I want you to discover it from page 1 by yourself.
- Her books are about relationships.
- This book was IMO about the sister-sister connection.
- I got goosebumps when I read the following lines….about
- a sister you really cannot get close to
- …try as hard as I have done:
- “We have a lot of genes an some memories in common.”
- Her stories are low key and personal but far from sentimental.
- Jennifer Johnston is underappreciated.
- But she is very good at what she does.
- Roddy Doyle considers Jennifer Johnston Ireland’s greatest writer.
- I had a ‘Trevor-shiver’ after reading the last page.
- The same feeling I have when I read a William Trevor short story….
- #Unforgettable
- PS: Two Moons is another one of her books…not to be missed!
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