Literature beat exercise today when, rising
earlyish this morning, I made an executive decision and set myself down with a
cup of tea and made a determined assault on my Kindle novel.
So “The Islands” is now fully read.
A true phantasmagoria of a novel (an adjective
which is emblazoned on the front cover of my copy of Catch-22) a mixture of
fantasy, stream of consciousness, literary reference, detective story,
political comment and a whole list of other approaches which instead of being a
confusing mess actually produces a compelling narrative – even if the narrative
is not strictly linear, sequential or indeed sensical! But enjoyable.
It was interesting to read the author’s
thoughts on the publication of the English translation of his original. Carlos Gamerro noted that the original was
one hundred pages shorter than the English translation. He put down some of the explanation that he
put in the Spanish which were entirely unnecessary for the later English
version. He also has been involved in a
stage play version of “The Islands” and felt that some of the dramatic
innovations were worthy of being incorporated into the English version.
I like the idea of a constantly evolving
novel. Perhaps I will be able to read
the novel again in another ten years on the fortieth anniversary of the loss of
Las Malvinas. Any writer who reminds me
of Borges has my vote!
Toni has had a significant day and after an
interview it seems that there is a chance of employment – but final decisions
are delayed until much later this month.
So fingers crossed for the next three weeks!
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