Because I have to wait on some things — always irksome — I will quickly (very quickly) mention a few things I’ve been reading so you will not think I am simply lazing around (although some of the books are meant to be exactly that). Also doubtless I will leave out all the research-oriented things that are not likely to be of interest but to a few. And you’ve already seen the new Leonora books I am delving through more slowly. But let me share the covers here just to remind you:
Let me add one more: Leonoras Reise is currently only available in Norwegian but as I am a glutton for punishment, I am reading it in Norwegian and really enjoying Susanne Christensen’s style and sense of humour. But this is a long-term project: I’m on chapter 3 of Part I.
I also have the new Ithell Colquhoun book, but that will have to wait: I’m trying to get the bare bones of the Claverack Giant online and it is proving frustrating as inevitably all online projects are at first. And as I’m writing this I begin to panic as I have been trying to weed books so I can reconcile getting new ones and my mind is going blank. Eek, what am I forgetting?
THE BLEEDING
Johann Gustawsson
Jacky Collins interviewed the author at EUPop and I was enticed by the Gothic and occult threads in it (the latter very much inspired by Per Faxneld’s Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Women in 19th Century Culture.
I’m really not much into procedurals but it quickly ducks back to not one but two generations and some interesting approaches to the idea of women using the occult as a potentially empowering force.
I learned of Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo from the Romancing the Gothic talk by Paulina Odeth Flores Bañuelos. I had to read this Mexican classic and now I think I will have to read in Spanish as well because there is so much nuance. The intro by García Márquez is so enthusiastic! I knew nothing about the book going into this informative talk and of course my thought is that Leonora might have read it. Paz was a big fan and she seemed to be interested in his recommendations (yes, still harping on Sor Juana). Ghostly and surreal, great atmosphere and a huge influence on Mexican writers.
As mentioned by Catriona McAra in her Leonora book, I thought this novel by Heidi Sopinka sounded appealing and decided to get it and I am soooo glad. It’s amazing. It borrows from Leonora’s life but plays with the details and sends the artist on another path which is sound art (yes, exactly why it appealed to me!). I am not rushing through it like a lot of the other novels because it is so rich and I am loving every resonance of it.
I have the Chloë Aridjis novels to read as well; I wrote up her film Female Human Animal elsewhere and while I have read short things by her I have not got around to the novels. I am getting near to a space where I will not be over-busy just normal busy (sob!) and will enjoy much novel reading, I hope. And I will list all the other things read and not coming to mind at the moment because I took the books to Oxfam!