L'Ingratitude by Ying Chen

The spirit of a young Chinese woman tells the story of her life and death in relation to her strict mother. 

Ying Chen's third novel was the first translated into Swedish, only followed by Immobile.

I have a feeling it could have been translated differently. After all, I am a great fan of the "simple" writing style - and having read a rather good portion of Duras' late work in Swedish I know it can translate quite successfully from the French. In this case it lacks flow and precision.  

However, there is something beautiful going on between the lines, in the non-specific way Ying describes the characters and their surroundings. I'll go for Immobile next. 

Kent - Texter om Sveriges största rockband - Edited by Håkan Steen

A collection of interviews, album/concert reviews and other articles from 1991-2006, all on the subject of Swedish band Kent. 


There was a time when I used to say I was all about hip hop - and Kent. Some thirteen years later, I'm sad to admit I've grown out of keeping up with the rap game. Kent, however, strangely remain as close as before. 


Perhaps it has to do with the fact that one has to fight so hard to love this country during these snowless winters. Especially in November, which happens to be a typical release month for new Kent albums. 


Or maybe it's just that even I have a lonesome middle-aged white male inside of me, a man who sits in a dark room with a bottle, longing for some understanding (and 80's pop)?


It's a good collection.

Hundra procent fett by Liv Strömquist

Liv Strömquist is a genius. 


In fact, I'd say she's the funniest Swedish comic book artist of all time. Or, let me rephrase that, even: Strömquist's the funniest comic book artist of all time period. 


And Hundra procent fett is just the beginning. 

Letters to the Known

The other day I gave Jeanette Winterson a letter. 

Zelda by Lina Neidestam

I looooove Zelda. 


And am really looking forward to Lina Neidestam's next project, feminist sex comic Maran. 

One Big Happy Family, edited by Rebecca Walker

 

After sharing my love for Rebecca Walker's work with a few internet friends - and the desperate need to get a hold of the One Big Happy Family anthology, the great Jen Disgrasian quickly came to my rescue. Within a week, this beautiful book (plus a note written on enviable personalized stationery) had reached my mailbox. For that, I am eternally grateful to this fabulous woman. 

The anthology contains 18 well-written essays about different family constellations, among them mixed marriages, polyamory, single parenthood, open adoption, househusbandry, sperm donation... Marc and Amy Vachon's story Half the Work, All the Fun on equally shared parenting and Sasha Hom's beautiful account of a home birth in Unassisted especially got to me. As did Neal Pollack's Home Alone Together: 

"Why don't you do the fucking dishes?"

"Why don't you do the fucking dishes?"

"Because I don't fucking want to, that's why. So can you tell me why the kitchen floor is such a mess?"

"I don't know. Why don't you fucking clean it?"

It's sometimes hilarious, too. 

 ***

Read Rebecca Walker's foreword here and Unassisted by Sasha Hom here. 

Based on a Choreopoem?

The poetic work of my youth, ntozake shange's for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, will be made into a movie. That's about the craziest thing I've ever heard. I mean, it's a choreopoem. Or, no: it's the choreopoem. And talks of casting Halle Berry, Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey? Please.

The play was filmed in 1982 (released on dvd in 2002), with shange in it. I for one will never need any other adaptation.

Shooting is said to start in November. 

Erykah Badu used the characters from for colored girls in her Bag Lady video (which shange didn't approve of).

News via The Root.

Allt är allrajt by Emma Rendel

I was amazed by Emma Rendel's Motherkiller work in Swedish comics mag Hjälp, wanted to take every page and frame it. Most stories in Allt är allrajt are also genius, the only thing I have a slight problem with is the font used inside and the cover design that seems a little cheap and out of place (for such great content).

Fulheten by Nanna Johansson

Oh, Nanna Johansson.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Not quite as refined as the stories in Unaccustomed Earth, but still a good portion of before-sleep reading.

Shallow Stuff: Choosing Covers

Passed by the great (yeah well, the best) Stockholm book/mag/music/dvd store Papercut the other day and found that Penguin has published Susan Sontag's On Photography recently. A small paperback, minimalist design, a nice matte cover. However: rather tightly bound/excessively glued (would most probably result in a cracked back shorly after opening it).

My bookshelf already carries some Sontags in Picador's larger paperback format, and it seems like most of her writings can be found in that series. The print is not great, in fact sometimes quite wobbly and uneven from one line to the other; the paper quality gives the books a feel of being at least 30 years old - they seem floppy and cheap, like a soft pack of cigarettes that's been in your back pocket for a few days (nights). And yes, the paper is yellowed, as if by a persistent nicotine intake in and around these thingies.

So what's more important? Looking cool while reading in the Subway (i.e. challenging one's fellow passengers with that piercing look) vs. sporting an unshapely but neat, NE-like collection of Sontags in the shelves of the near future?

The thought of something like this will, I suppose, always win in the end. In my dreams, all my shelves look like something from a librairie consisting of solely Èditions de Minuit.

Till mina vänner och ovänner by Loka Kanarp

As Café Edenborg was closing, they had all books on sale (except the Vertigo ones). And between Nanna Johansson's Fulheten that I've been wanting to get for a long while, a Tafdrup that seemed nice, the newly translated version of Kafka's The Trial and some novel about masculinity (!), Loka Kanarp's comic book album from 2006 caught my eye. Why haven't I read it before?

I've been reading her great blog for at least a year, her contribution to the Samtidigt anthology and the comics in Hjälp.

Some of the stories in Till mina vänner och ovänner (To My Friends and Enemies) remind me a lot moodwise of my favourite Adrian Tomine - however told from a feminist standpoint, which of course, is a plus. Broken hearts and friendships, working at Mc Donald's, turning hetero and the stuffed animals at The Swedish Museum of Natural History (that I recently visited, seeing the same things) - it all makes for a great read.

In September Loka's new album Pärlor och patroner (Pearls and Bullets) will be out, a collection of single page comics on the subject of historical women. I'm looking forward to that one a lot.

Oh, and I forgot to mention: Loka is a wonder of style. Look here.