During one of my first days in Italy I went to a bookstore to pick up something what I could read during looong trips to the city center and what would help to improve my Italian.
By the way - Italian do not read on the way to or back from work, not in subway, not in buses, not in trains. There is really few of them and mostly - older generation. Unfortunately. There is no comparison to Germans, I have to admit. But I hope that Italians read at home...
Bookstore was full though-of people and books :) I really could not decide. I was cruising around every second finding a book that I wanted to read since long time. But could I manage to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini in Italian??? Then I decided that my first book bought in Italy must be from Italian writer. I have to confess that I did not know many of them, so after half an hour trying to discover who is who I have chosen Oriana Fallaci, Letter to a Child Never Born.
As a big fan of Imre Kertész, I have red his 'Kaddish for a Child Not Born' three times, I wanted to see if there is any analogy between two books, as Fallaci's title sounds a bit similar.
As I started to read it I could not get red of the filling that I'm just reading a copy of Kertész's 'Kaddish'. I was simply sure that Fallaci was 'strooongly influenced' by his book...
Both written as a dialogue between professional writer and the unborn child, both autobiographic, both detail their struggle, both mention about failed relationships.
As I started the research I discovered that Fallaci actually wrote her novel in 1975, while Kertész's 'Kaddish" was first published in 1990. Both were born in 1929... Fallaci is writing as a young woman choosing between her career and maternity, Kertész instead is writing as a mature man in conclusion of his career. Each one has a different reason for not having a bairn, but the words they both use 'talking to the unborn child' are really really alike.
I was trying to find some professional comparison of both books but I was left with nothing. It looks like nobody have ever seen analogy between those two monologues except me.
I admire, acclaim and respect Imre Kertész as a writer and as a person. After all he had been though during the war, he had decided to live in Berlin. I would like to remind that Kertesz won the Nobel Prize "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". Nevertheless I still have that feeling that someone was a little bit to much 'influenced' by another...
By the way - Italian do not read on the way to or back from work, not in subway, not in buses, not in trains. There is really few of them and mostly - older generation. Unfortunately. There is no comparison to Germans, I have to admit. But I hope that Italians read at home...
Bookstore was full though-of people and books :) I really could not decide. I was cruising around every second finding a book that I wanted to read since long time. But could I manage to read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini in Italian??? Then I decided that my first book bought in Italy must be from Italian writer. I have to confess that I did not know many of them, so after half an hour trying to discover who is who I have chosen Oriana Fallaci, Letter to a Child Never Born.
As a big fan of Imre Kertész, I have red his 'Kaddish for a Child Not Born' three times, I wanted to see if there is any analogy between two books, as Fallaci's title sounds a bit similar.
As I started to read it I could not get red of the filling that I'm just reading a copy of Kertész's 'Kaddish'. I was simply sure that Fallaci was 'strooongly influenced' by his book...
Both written as a dialogue between professional writer and the unborn child, both autobiographic, both detail their struggle, both mention about failed relationships.
As I started the research I discovered that Fallaci actually wrote her novel in 1975, while Kertész's 'Kaddish" was first published in 1990. Both were born in 1929... Fallaci is writing as a young woman choosing between her career and maternity, Kertész instead is writing as a mature man in conclusion of his career. Each one has a different reason for not having a bairn, but the words they both use 'talking to the unborn child' are really really alike.
I was trying to find some professional comparison of both books but I was left with nothing. It looks like nobody have ever seen analogy between those two monologues except me.
I admire, acclaim and respect Imre Kertész as a writer and as a person. After all he had been though during the war, he had decided to live in Berlin. I would like to remind that Kertesz won the Nobel Prize "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". Nevertheless I still have that feeling that someone was a little bit to much 'influenced' by another...
Posts
If anybody had read both novels please shear your observation, I will appreciate that.
ReplyDelete