The Green Crow by Kristīne Ulberga (Latvia)
I immediately loved the main character and her possibly hallucinated crow. It also highlighted one of my many issues with mental health professionals—it’s hard to get help when you need it but after you’ve been diagnosed, everything can be associated with a symptom, even normal activities and feelings. I know that it’s hard to separate normal unpleasant feelings from the more harmful ones (having some experience in this area) but not everything needs to be pathologised. And in the case of this woman, she may have a psychological problem that predates her abusive husband, but he seems to be her main problem. If the psychiatric hospital is doing anything helpful for her, it seems to be mostly in giving her a reprieve from him. This story has also brought forward the ways in which men have used psychiatric problems, real or imagined, to manipulate and control women. It’s quite surrealist in places and a bit too plausible in others.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
I needed to read something more lighthearted after a couple other recent reads and, today, that was an irreverent murder mystery. It turned out to be delightful with more than a hint of Miss Marple, which I’ll never complain about. I loved this cast of characters and I’ll have to read the next one!
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson (Sicangu Oyate (Lakota))
Rosalie’s story is so moving. We really do need to find a way to live with the land in a healthier way but it’s hard to imagine ways to do that when you’re up against governments and multinational corporations. I suppose everyone just has to do what they can to live in a better way. Seeds really are tiny miracles and the soil and water give us life. There’s so much suffering in the world but we really don’t need to do this to each other. This was an extraordinary book and the blurb just can’t do it justice.
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño (Chile)
My first thought on reading this book was that it was most definitely written by a man. The first and third sections felt completely different from the largest second section which went on too long and took itself too seriously. I would have enjoyed it more if there were fewer characters to keep track of. The little glimpses into people’s lives were interesting and I liked parts of it but I didn’t love this book the way other people do.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (Italy)
I tried reading this about a year or so ago and couldn’t get into it but I really enjoyed it this time. I think, with the slow pace and avalanche of theological debates, I had to be in the right mood for it. It was a fun, twisty mystery that seems like it might have inspired Dan Brown’s Inferno, but it’s much more intellectual and much less pop culture.
The Wind That Lays Waste By Selva Almada (Argentina)
This was a sharp little novella. It’s always frustrating to me to listen to preaching, even in fiction, but that’s religious trauma for you. I wanted that character to be more respectful to the others but he couldn’t see past his worldview, which often happens. It was a sparse and beautifully translated short book.
The Secret Place by Tana French (Ireland)
This was a fun mystery, although the way the teenage girls spoke and treated each other, while not inaccurate, was annoying. But I guess that can just be an annoying stage of life. It certainly didn’t make me nostalgic for junior high or high school, but nothing can do that! Overall, it was a fun mystery and a pretty good exploration of the precariousness of important friendships when big transitions happen.
I haven’t read The Last Mandarin yet, but that’s a sneak peek of what I’m reading next!
