Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Books read in September 2014

New:

1. Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb
2. North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea by Andrei Lankov
3. The Orenda by Joseph Boyden

Reread:

1. Promises in Death
2. Kindred in Death
3. Missing in Death

5 comments:

laura k said...

What did you think of The Orenda? It's always in our aboriginal fiction displays and I've been curious about it.

impudent strumpet said...

The story is quite compelling and, if you're a geek like me, it's interesting linguistically. One of the characters is an early Jesuit priest living among the Wendat (Hurons) and trying to learn their language. In the sections that he narrates, they show him attempting to communicate with them and how his attempts at speaking Wendat don't come out as articulately as he'd like. And then, in sections narrated by a Wendat, they show what they hear when he's trying to speak Wendat, which is in places very different from what he thinks he's saying. And the author manages to do all this just in English, which I always find impressive!

And that miscommunication/misinterpretation plays out on a cultural level too, in a way that not only makes the plot happen but is also representative of Canadian history in general.

But the giant caveat is that the book also contains extremely graphic scenes of torture - far, far worse than anything I've ever read, to the extent that a content warning doesn't do it justice. I'm genuinely surprised that it got chosen for Canada Reads just because of those scenes. They aren't something you just want to spring upon people. I'd strongly recommend that unless the reader has actual historical interest in the specific torture methods used in that time and place, if they see a torture scene coming they should just skip to the end of the chapter and assume the person dies.

laura k said...

OMG Imp Strump, thank you so much for that warning. I'm still having nightmares from the torture scenes in an old sci-fi TV series. Reading is so much more vivid for me, and the memory lasts forever.

Thank you again.

impudent strumpet said...

Oh, yikes, definitely don't read it then! There are other things to read!

It's interesting to me that reading is more vivid for you, because visual is more vivid for me in terms of flashbacks. Possibly because I can skim reading, possibly because images come to me in dreams.

laura k said...

I've wondered about that, too. I think it's because with movies or TV, I involuntarily close my eyes or turn away for miliseconds. When I read, despite my fear, I'll read slowly and carefully, and even re-read passages that disturb me, hoping it isn't as bad as I thought.

This is usually around torture or cruelty to animals. Things I wish I never read.